What are we reading? 19th January 2022

[SydneyH]

Hey @AB, I've probably asked you this before, but have you ever read J.M. Coetzee? His South African novels, not his Australian ones.

[Veufveuve]

I found a Mahfouz I'd not read - "Fountain and Tomb" - on the bookshelf.

It's a very slight book, barely a novel at all. But even the slightest Mahfouz is still worth reading. An unnamed narrator relates a series of tales from his poor Cairo neighbourhood; some legendary, some from his own lifetime, from childhood to adulthood. Most are very short vignettes: picaresque, grotesque, macabre, farcical, low comedy and high drama. There is death (plenty), love, lust, foolishness, and occassional wisdom.

Last night I started Olga Ravn's "The Employees."

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "@ scarlet: The Master Butchers Singing Club is suitable for veggies. Sausages are mentioned occasionally, but that's about it."

I can bear to read about them so long as I don't have to eat them! (No extended slaughterhouse scenes, then...)

[scarletnoir]

Reen wrote: "There's a Martello tower in Sandymount but the Ulysses one is in Sandycove. Just in case it comes up in a table quiz.

Don't expect to be following the Bloomsday trail anytime soon for reasons I won't repeat ;-) but Sandymount apparently has several excellent gastropubs - the one I know and love is Mulligan's, just off the green...

As for Dublin architecture, what we most remember are the lovely doors - we took loads of photos...

[scarletnoir]

MK wrote: "Anyone here into film noir? If so, Eddie Muller has just updated his classic -Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (Revised and Expanded Edition)."

Thanks for that - I may well buy this one, as I like to read about the cinema from time to time... I have several editions of A Biographical Dictionary Of The Cinema by David Thompson, as well as several other books on or by famous directors. But I was rather chilled by this comment from the publisher: This narrative history is packed with stories about the stars and makers of both long-recognized classics like The Maltese Falcon.... As I have commented many times, 'Falcon' is a good story with exceptional actors, but a poor film - it's a 'filmed play' in most scenes... far too theatrical, not 'opened out' at all... contrast Hawks' work on 'The Big Sleep', which is brilliant... there is a BFI monograph by Thompson on that movie.

As for Huston (who directed 'Falcon'), Thompson has this to say:

In the early 1950s... John Huston was often acclaimed as an outstanding American director. The evidence to support that view was entirely circumstantial: Huston was... a meandering, flamboyant, theatrical man... despite The Maltese Falcon's reputation, it is a confused, plodding film without the humour of The Big Sleep, the violence of The Glass Key and certainly without the precise fatalism of Hammett's novel. It marked a crucial fault in Huston: presented with workable riches, he neglects them.

Thompson goes on to say a lot more about his movies, and concludes that ...the same material could have been made into masterpieces by Hawks and vastly more competent adventures by Raoul Walsh.

So - unless the quote is misleading, and unless Muller's sensibilities align rather more with Thompson's (and my own) - then I may give it a miss after all! Any info. on how Muller views Huston and Hawks could help in the decision making process.

(Maybe I should have posted this in the film thread?)

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here into film noir? If so, Eddie Muller has just updated his classic -Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (Revised and Expanded Edition)."

Thanks for that - I..."

Eddie Muller's book was a well-chosen Christmas gift. Much to look forward to.

[Robert]

Oggie wrote: "I did not post much previously for several reasons. Firstly, I do not read so much. Last year I only managed around 20 books which did include the fantastic Boundless Sea, a history of seafaring fr..."

A friend told me that when she was in Turkey, she visited a synagogue. To her surprise, she understood the prayer book at once-- it was in Spanish.

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i love the japanese section of the V+A, all those lacquer chests..."
Yep. Lots of nice Japanese lacquerware in Paris too - at the Guimet and Cernuschi."

Japanese lacquerware is beautiful, though I know nothing about it... thanks for those tips - could be useful if I ever get back to Paris! It's what impressed me most in Lisbon's Gulbenkian... I think the Chester Beatty in Dublin also has some - it certainly has Japanese prints - you and Reen would know more about this than I do.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "To think about 20 years ago it was just modern aussie novels that i hated in the stores (Winton, Malouf,Carey) but now i have all this choice..."

yes, so much more to hate! ;-)

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "To think about 20 years ago it was just modern aussie novels that i hated in the stores (Winton, Malouf,Carey) but now i have all this choice..."

yes, so much more to hate! ;-)"

lol.....nice one....i love all the aussie classic novels i have read, a good dozen, its just a shame i had to read awful novels by Winton, Malouf and Carey

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "My late uncle was in the merchant navy and was attacked by Somali pirates about 15 years ago

The ship he was on saw some small long boats racing towards them and he realised that they..."

when we heard about it was just basics "attacked by pirates" which was like (!!!), then he rang my mother to describe events and while just as (!!!), but we knew he was safe

[AB76]

SydneyH wrote: "Hey @AB, I've probably asked you this before, but have you ever read J.M. Coetzee? His South African novels, not his Australian ones."

yes i have, they were hit and miss as i like many other south african novelists better, Coetzee novels were everywhere when i started to read a lot in the late 1990s but i i wouldnt say i liked his style. The late Andre Brink is far better from the modern south african canon

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "I found a Mahfouz I'd not read - "Fountain and Tomb" - on the bookshelf.

It's a very slight book, barely a novel at all. But even the slightest Mahfouz is still worth reading. An unnamed narrator ..."

i agree....90 page novellas or 400 page novels from the Egyptian master are like manna from heaven!

[Bill]

Haven't listened yet, but I learned through Twitter that the Burgess Foundation has started a podcast series based on Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (a book I understand that AB threw together over a few days by repurposing previously written reviews and introductions).

Novel 1: Finnegans Wake
https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-p...

[Lljones]

Bill wrote: "Haven't listened yet, but I learned through Twitter that the Burgess Foundation has started a podcast series based on Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (a book I understand that AB threw together over a few day..."

AB76? 😉

I think I have that book. Somewhere. In some box. Thanks for the podcast tip.

(Edit after checking podcast: Burgess composed music?)

[Andy]

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

I continue to struggle with contemporary American fiction.
Despite a good start and finish (10 pages each) this came over as incredibly bland. I am finding contemporary American fiction in dire need of some stronger flavouring.
In retrospect also, the idea of a meeting a relative stranger in an aiport lounge, and sitting and listening to his story for several hours, is preposterous.

[Andy]

Also American, but far more interesting was The Mothering Coven by Joanna Ruocco

A group of 9 women who share a house, prepare for the very special birthday of one of their housemates, she is to be 100. Meanwhile, one of their number has disappeared, and it is causing some concern. The women are academics, painters, writers and scientists, but have one thing in common, they are witches.
This is a delightfully strange novella that is different in almost every way than anything I have read before. It is, if I read it correctly, written most of all for laughs, but of course, not the usual sort one might expect. Could be Ruocco has something deeper going on, but I didn't read it like that. Rather, it is experimental with its language, and pleasantly inventive.
It doesn't all work. I didn't actually find the humour very funny, but that's hardly the point. It is short enough to appreciate purely due to its innovation.

[CCCubbon]

My easy read, which I started yesterday, is called One False Move By Goddard and it concerns someone who is capable of beating the computer at Go.
I knew that it was an ancient game with black and white stones on a grid and I read up on it this morning to learn that it is a game of strategy. Now MrC is far better at competitive games than I am - I can beat him at scrabble sometimes and at present we are having a Wordle competition but Go does look intriguing.
Does anyone here play? Is it worth me buying a set?

[Reen]

scarletnoir wrote: "Reen wrote: "There's a Martello tower in Sandymount but the Ulysses one is in Sandycove. Just in case it comes up in a table quiz.

Don't expect to be following the Bloomsday trail anytime soon for..."

Ha. Too much Guinness and tripe?

Sandymount is a nice spot right enough. There are several good Mulligan hostelries throughout the city.. a lovely old pub in the middle of town and another excellent gastropub/brewery in Stoneybatter called L. Mulligan, Grocers. If anyone needs any info on the eateries of Dublin, you need only ask... I've dined high and low and most places in between! Maybe I'll change career and become the Irish Grace Dent.

[Reen]

CCCubbon wrote: "@Mach

As you know something about Japanese lacquer please May I pick your brains. I have put two photos on Photos of one of the frames and a close up of the flowers plus any info that I have.
Mayb..."

Lovely photos CCC, I have what purports to be a Japanese lacquered box from the 1960s ... more garish than your lovely frames. I might try to upload a few pics.

[MK]

scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "Anyone here into film noir? If so, Eddie Muller has just updated his classic -Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (Revised and Expanded Edition)."

Thanks for that - I..."

Eddie Muller has videos on You Tube.

[Reen]

scarletnoir wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i love the japanese section of the V+A, all those lacquer chests..."
Yep. Lots of nice Japanese lacquerware in Paris too - at the Guimet and Cernuschi."

Japanese la..."

I posted this previously I think; the exhibition is closed but it's still available online here...

https://chesterbeatty.ie/exhibitions/...

[AB76]

Interesting to see this thread has more posts than the 3 week previous one in about 8 days, we are all "on it" right now, waxing lyrical!

Southern Steel(1953) by Dymphna Cusack is a very absorbing novel about wartime Australia.

Cusack is writing from both sides of the divide in wartime, the young men heading out to sea or into the air force and the women facing months alone, without their men, the chance to plan for families and with the Japanese threat so real.

The novel is full of sun and light,set in the coastal Australian city of Newcastle, where coal and steel industry thrives. The world of peacetime Australia is gone and two families and their offspring weave through the story. A young fiancee hides all the china and glass in her small fat as the guns at Fort Scratchley do practice firing sessions, two grandfathers discuss their past out at sea, in the days when it was all sail and a young merchant sailor laments his monotonous life, when so many young men are in the Navy, travelling far from coastal New South Wales

The style is light but with knowing touches and observations, illuminating the female lot during the World Wars and also the chance for more employment amid the turmoil, to break free of the shackles of domesticity

[Hushpuppy]

CCCubbon wrote: "Go does look intriguing.
Does anyone here play? Is it worth me buying a set?"

I used to play it a bit and have my own set. Brilliant game, endless complexity, so easy-ish to start with, but very quickly you can start seeing the many levels of strategy required (or not, depending on your opponent!)... A good quality set is also not that expensive, and there is something soothing about rummaging your fingers amongst the pebbles...

[CCCubbon]

@reen

I could not resist finding you a couple of kimono clad ladies reading painting and have put them on photos.

[Bill]

Lljones wrote: "(Edit after checking podcast: Burgess composed music?)"

I’ve seen Burgess quoted as saying that he wanted to be considered as a composer who also wrote novels rather than a novelist who also composed. I’ve picked up a few CDs of his music as I’ve seen them; I most recently enjoyed The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard, 24 preludes and fugues, recorded (on a standard piano) by Stephane Ginsburgh. Like Bach, but unlike Shostakovich, the key signatures of the pieces progress in half-steps rather than following the circle of fifths, but the major and minor keys are grouped together as the first and last dozen pieces, respectively. (Edited for correction).

In addition to Anthony Burgess, my CD collection also contains music composed by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor W. Adorno, and Paul Bowles. I haven't read anything by the last named.

[AB76]

Read a fascinating article in the NYRB about russian terrorist and author Boris Savinkov, who died at 46 after a life of danger, death and maiming in the name of terror.

his novella The Pale Horse(1912) has just been re-translated

[Georg]

Bill wrote: "Haven't listened yet, but I learned through Twitter that the Burgess Foundation has started a podcast series based on Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (a book I unde..."

Thanks Bill, really looking forward to that.

[Lljones]

Machenbach wrote: "Nevertheless, the book is never dull and, as a visual artist, Dover certainly has a gift for the careful description of objects. And if Florilegia has an overall theme, then it is perhaps the significance of objects..."

What a very interesting review of what sounds like a very interesting book. And a timely theme, "the significance of objects", since I spend most of every day unpacking items I haven't seen in 10+ years. Most of the time I say to myself, "Oh there's a story behind this..." Other times, as illustrated below, I pull out things and say "Where did these come from? And what are they? Champagne glasses? Big (8" tall, 5" across) martini glasses?


I have eight of them! It took several days and help from a friend to pull up the story. Some thirty years ago, I spent several months planning and shopping for a huge Christmas banquet. I scoured antique stores for fancy plates and gilded candlesticks and such. One of the guests was a homesick Brit, so the menu included stuff like Yorkshire pudding. When my friend said "Maybe you were planning to serve dessert in them? " the story swooshed back in. Trifle was on the menu too (and the trifle bowl showed up in one of the boxes as well).*

You scoffed, Mach, when I described my New Year's resolution - a year of no shopping, no books, no yarn, etc. I was planning on telling you next week that I made it 1/12th of the way. Fitting, isn't it, that it would be you that makes me break my resolution. I'm oh-so-close to ordering Florilegia.




*For reasons I can't remember now, the banquet never happened. Maybe the memory will show up in another box.

[Lljones]

Bookshelves arrive on Monday, folks! (May take a few more days to get them assembled.)

[Georg]

Reen wrote (#515): Maybe I'll change career and become the Irish Grace Dent.

Dear "Kimono'ed Dublin Foodie",

courtesy of Bill's link I have been sent down a rabbit hole calling itself "The International Anthony Burgess Foundation" where I came across a blogpost about a book "The Joyce of Cooking":

Armstrong’s book offers 240 pages of instructions for preparing a variety of tasty dishes, including...mouldy tripes en casserole, and cold sheeps’ trotters sprinkled with pepper.

My question to you: have you ever eaten either? I am particularly interested in the tripes...

https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-p...

[SydneyH]

AB76 wrote: "SydneyH wrote: "Hey @AB, I've probably asked you this before, but have you ever read J.M. Coetzee?"

Just curious. I wondered if Life & Times of Michael K would appeal to you.

[Slawkenbergius]

Bill wrote: "Haven't listened yet, but I learned through Twitter that the Burgess Foundation has started a podcast series based on Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (a book I unde..."

Great news! Many thanks, Swelter!

[Reen]

CCCubbon wrote: "@reen

I could not resist finding you a couple of kimono clad ladies reading painting and have put them on photos."

I love them CCC, thank you

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "My easy read, which I started yesterday, is called One False Move By Goddard and it concerns someone who is capable of beating the computer at Go.
I knew that it was an ancient game with black and ..."

That looks interesting, I have read quite a few of Robert Goddard's books, the last one being The Fine Art of Invisible Detection which I enjoyed very much.

[Reen]

Georg wrote: "Reen wrote (#515): Maybe I'll change career and become the Irish Grace Dent.

Dear "Kimono'ed Dublin Foodie",

courtesy of Bill's link I have been sent down a rabbit hole calling itself "The Intern..."


I haven't eaten either of those Georg. Tripe is a traditional dish in Cork, where my inlaws live. I've enjoyed looking at it on the counters in the English Market in Cork city but I'd prefer to eat my shoe. They cook the tripe in milk and serve it with a type of blood pudding (drisheen). (Excuse me while I gag). I have eaten crubeens (pig's trotters), grand if you close your eyes ... as the actress said to the bishop.

[AB76]

Modern novel enjoyment shock:

18 by Paul Bankovskis, is really going down well, its a novel of events but nothing really plot based so far. A soldier deserts during the Latvian War of Independence and wanders a region of Latvia thinking and musing on life, with occasional encounters with various people. Every time i pick i up i am rewarded and left with a sense of thoughtful calm.

Btw...i wonder if i'm one of the few here who reviews books as i go, rather than when finished? I think the great Justine influenced me on this, with her updates on books, cant go wrong being influenced by such a lovely and much missed person

[Hushpuppy]

AB76 wrote: "I think the great Justine influenced me on this, with her updates on books, cant go wrong being influenced by such a lovely and much missed person"

😊👏

[Hushpuppy]

Reen wrote: "I have eaten crubeens (pig's trotters), grand if you close your eyes ... as the actress said to the bishop."

These are delicious, in France I've eaten them either in breadcrumbs in the oven, or with a vinaigrette and salad! Weirdly enough, it's the (equally) delicious pig's tails for which I need to close my eyes. (Pigs' ears are a staple in Asian cooking, and I love them too!) Sorry to @scarlet and all the non meat-eaters of eTLS.

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

Just dropping in to say that I am enjoying reading up on this week immensely, though the Byzantine icons have been shamefully neglected. (Sorry for profusion of adverbs, Bill!)

Robert wrote (#375):

Delighted to hear about a shared pleasure-- I suppose that I've read The Master and Margarita about seven times. For three years running I read it at Lent. Once I looked for the operatic undertones in the novel-- Bulgakov loved opera-- and imagined a chorus singing of Jerusalem, and Pilate's solo in response...
Years ago, I visited Patriarch's Pond, and found a mural of Bulgakov's characters on a wall by the pond. (It was near the beginning of the Russian Easter, with the sun reflecting from the windows of nearby buildings, warm muggy weather, and a park that looked just as I'd imagined it from the novel.

Oh, that's wonderful (and most unusual weather, I would think - though it is very hot in the couple of spring days described in the novel, too!). Interesting what you write about the operatic undertones - when I read it recently, I thought that his skill at drama (as a genre) showed in the novel, too: Sense of timing, entries, exits (on brooms, even), repartee,...
It was a lovely reread I can't do justice now. Also, I still have not read the Guardian reading group below the line comments - looking forward to these!

Anastasia wrote (#463): .

@Robert it's still disputed whether the Pilate chapters are supposed to be seen as something more than "a novel-within-a novel" and if they were intended as central to The Master and Margarita. I would say, that the Moscow chapters are just as powerful and ultimately leave the novel in an altogether different direction..

It is intriguing, still. I agree about both being equally powerful, and with Robert (#494):

I think that "the ancient chapters" (as Bulgakov's wife called them) have a resonance with the modern ones. The themes so important to Bulgakov-- honor, love, hope-- appear in both.

Veufveuve wrote (#332):

My book was not about my own marriage. However, it was written in the years following my first wife's death and is undoubtedly coloured by both my experience of marriage and my experience of widowhood.

I am glad it gave you, and some others, pleasure, and I admire, too, that you could write a book in the years after your loss.

AB (#536): "...i wonder if i'm one of the few here who reviews books as i go, rather than when finished?" I like doing this as well, though I have not been doing too well with either recently. Loved interwar's updates, too. I always looked forward to her write-ups/ wrapping-ups (?) as well.

Mach (#490): Love the notion of "the bookrunner's sixth sense"! Makes sense to me. And thanks for these brilliant reviews. I will have to reread them (as some others) when my brain is de-fogged.

FrancesBurgundy (#493): Books arranged by colour - aargh. I am almost tempted to volunteer in one of the charity shops, just to impose my different sense of order! I was in an Oxfam shop in Berlin recently (and acquired The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss), and they were still ordering it by genre and, if haphazardly, in some semblance of alphabetical order.
Thank you so much again for sharing your treasure. Hope you will be happy, whichever way.

scarletnoir (#503): I have been dreaming of revisiting Lisbon's Gulbenkian - might take a page out of PatLux' book and take the catalogue from the shelf! That was a great way of trying to cope with lockdown number one.

[FrancesBurgundy]

Hushpuppy wrote: "Reen wrote: "I have eaten crubeens (pig's trotters), grand if you close your eyes ... as the actress said to the bishop."."

As an older Midlander I can eat brains, tripe, chitterlings and their French equivalents. Plus I buy the odd pig's head when I can and make a nice brawn. When I'm not reading that is.

[Georg]

Reen wrote: "Georg wrote: "Reen wrote (#515): Maybe I'll change career and become the Irish Grace Dent.

Dear "Kimono'ed Dublin Foodie",

courtesy of Bill's link I have been sent down a rabbit hole calling itse..."

Pig's trotters (Schweinshaxe) is a Bavarian specialty. Sour tripe is a regional specialty in Württemberg and Austria. In Italy they come alla veneta/triestina/fiorentina etc. Not sure whether there are still "tripperie" in Venice, tiny shops dedicated to selling tripe. And there are "Tripes a la mode de Caen".

A lot of classic cookery is based on cucina povera, poor people's food.

But why on earth would you add the adjective "mouldy" to something supposed to be tasty?

[giveusaclue]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Reen wrote: "I have eaten crubeens (pig's trotters), grand if you close your eyes ... as the actress said to the bishop."."

As an older Midlander I can eat brains, tripe, chitter..."

I once started reading a recipe for brawn. I got as far as "clean the pig's nostril............

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "My easy read, which I started yesterday, is called One False Move By Goddard and it concerns someone who is capable of beating the computer at Go.
I knew that it was an ancient game with black and ..."

Go is an incredibly complex game where you have to surround your opponent's tokens and take them all off the board - at the same time, the opponent is trying to do the same to you.

It's definitely interesting, but at my age (which I believe is lower than your own - he notes ungallantly) - I prefer to limit the time spent on games - see reference to no longer playing chess in the Wordle thread!

[scarletnoir]

Reen wrote: "Ha. Too much Guinness and tripe?"

Well, not tripe - I'm a veggie! Who knows, I may take you up on your offer of other tips, if I ever make it back to the fair city...

[scarletnoir]

MK wrote: "Eddie Muller has videos on You Tube."

Thanks - I'll take a look to see if his thoughts on 'The Maltese Falcon' appear. Then buy the book - or not! It would be a waste of money if he doesn't 'get' cinema...

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "The novel is full of sun and light,set in the coastal Australian city of Newcastle, where coal and steel industry thrives."

Someone (yourself?) mentioned in this thread that Newcastle (Australia) was the world's largest coal-exporting port, which in turn made me wonder if I had been wrong all these years about the phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" - I'd always assumed that was the English one.

So, turning to Wikipedia, I find that it was indeed referring to the port in NE England, with an interesting anecdote about the phrase's origin... and that it can still be used with validity by referring to the Aussie one!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coals_t....

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "Sorry to @scarlet and all the non meat-eaters of eTLS."

Don't worry - I have a strong stomach... I don't care what people eat, so long as it's not on my plate!

Back in the day, my wife and her family used to eat langue de boeuf - I'd ask her who was eating who? It has a strange texture, so I'm told...

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "But why on earth would you add the adjective "mouldy" to something supposed to be tasty?.."

No idea, unless the point is to allow mould to grow on the stuff before preparation as it may affect the taste. This idea - the use of 'noble rot' - is not unknown in several sweet wines, for example Sauternes and Coteaux du Layon (we drank a 40-year-old bottle we'd bought from the producer a few years back - it was still good).

https://www.thewinesociety.com/discov...

Meanwhile, the Icelanders eat rotting shark if I understand right, though I'll be giving that a miss!

Hákarl (an abbreviation of kæstur hákarl Icelandic pronunciation: ​[ˈcʰaistʏr ˈhauːˌkʰa(r)tl̥], referred to as fermented shark in English) is a national dish of Iceland consisting of a Greenland shark or other sleeper shark that has been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for four to five months.[1] It has a strong ammonia-rich smell and fishy taste, making hákarl an acquired taste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1...

'Acquired taste' sounds about right!

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "Haven't listened yet, but I learned through Twitter that the Burgess Foundation has started a podcast series based on Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (a book I unde..."

Hi Bill - this isn't a response to your comment, but I know you are possibly (probably?) the most musically literate poster here, and also interested in opera. I recently came across an article by the composer and music scholar Robert Robertson, in which he discusses the way Eisenstein and Prokofiev collaborated on the matching of music to film, and vice versa... it may be of interest to you:

https://offscreen.com/view/eisenstein...