Ersatz TLS discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Weekly TLS
>
What are we reading? 8th June 2022
Mod
That's good to hear, Tam.
Sadly my modern reading continues in a minor slump, Korean novel Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah has been dumped, it seemed after an interesting start to just become very samey and lacking claritySo next i am going to read a modern Ukrainian novel, or collection of stories called
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belarousets. Translated from the Russian in 2022, originally written in 2018, before the country was changed forever by the pointless Russian invasion, i feel its time i read some fiction from that troubled place. Ukraine and the war are in my mind everyday, i check the news and listen to stories, while also trying to consider where it all might end. I would never hide away or avoid such an event, though i am starting to see less news on tv about Ukraine and there is always the danger of some western leaders starting to pressure the brave Ukrainians into a peace deal with the Russian bear.
FrustratedArtist wrote: "I used to be quite active on the Guardian's TLS a few years ago, but ... I have never really got the hang of Ersatz TLS here on Goodreads"You know there is a new TLS, What We Are Reading?:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "My main musical memory there is from my 1st year: Sonny Rollins & Max Roach, on the London Road site. Opera there, too Gounod's Faust ...The Who played at the union later, Pink Floyd...."
Family were a local band(Leicester) I saw them at The Princess Charlotte, a popular music pub back in the day. The best place was for music was the Uni- saw Rory Gallagher there, bless him.
Robert wrote: "Tam wrote: "I would just like to add, a bit belatedly, that I am recovering well from my cataract operation, and to thank all those who sent good wishes along to me. They were much appreciated... t..."It amazed me how much brightet all the colours were after my cataract op, are you finding the same?
I'm just finished The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence.
Not only was it thoroughly enjoyable, but also I have picked up much about global warming I did not know before. My personal book of the year last year was Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl, and I expect this book to be a contender for that prestigious award this year. In Owls Slaght included far more than the conservation of rare bird, a study into the environment and its population, and the affect the process may have on all.
Here, Rawlence again does far more than discuss the place of the treeline, delving into the lives of those who depend upon it, and how those lives have changed, and will change, as the line shifts.
Rawlence chooses six trees in particular to write about, or six areas in the Arctic, one of them, in Scandinavia I will visit myself in a few weeks. This is of course, in relation to climate change, he greatest threat to all life on our planet. They are, the Scots pine in Scotland (and in his native Wales), the birch in Norway, the Dahurian larch on the Russian taiga; the spruce in Alaska, the poplar in Canada, and the mountain ash in Greenland.
It is a timely message of urgency that needs as wide a readership as possible. But it stands out in the ever-increasing genre of such books because Rawlence manages to stay within that small section of the continuum line that lies between scientific experts and novices. It isn't over-complicated, yet it is challenging and will provide much new information to most of its readers.
The author was a co-founder of Black Mountains College in the Brecon Beacons National Park, whose mission statement includes 'to create a future where nature and humans thrive'. He is also a former researcher for Human Rights Watch. The book is longlisted for the Wainwright Conservation Prize, and deserves, in my opinion at least, to gain much further recognition.
I came across a reference to a sugarloaf hat in
but didn’t know what it looked like so had to consult.
It looks like a tall cowboy hat with no dent in the crown. I will post a photo on photos.
FrustratedArtist wrote: "The non fiction one is a big brick of a book that has been on my bookshelf for 20 years and I never really got my teeth into it. Citizens - Simon Schama's history of the French Revolution. Well, I read Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety early this year and enjoyed it, but felt I lacked the necessary historical background. Well, Schama certainly provides the background. 400 pages of the crisis of the old regime and the roots of the revolution, before we get to the fall of the Bastille, about half way through the book. I am taking it slowly, listening to each chapter in the audiobook, then reading the chapter, and taking notes. A chapter a day, an 80 day project. That feels like the right kind of pace. It's quite an immersive experience."
I'm still undecided as to which of the many histories of the French Revolution I want to read. One problem is that it's still such a controversial subject today and everyone who's written about it has seen it through a certain political viewpoint. I'm leaning towards one of the French writers, but their histories tend to be in-depth, multi-volume affairs, and I'd prefer to read a briefer overview before tackling Michelet or Lefebvre. A not-too-shallow popular history might be what I'm looking for, if there is such a thing.
Berkley wrote: "FrustratedArtist wrote: "The non fiction one is a big brick of a book that has been on my bookshelf for 20 years and I never really got my teeth into it. Citizens - Simon Schama's history of the F..."
Years ago, I enjoyed Lefebvre's The Great Fear of 1789.
Greenfairy wrote: "Robert wrote: "Tam wrote: "I would just like to add, a bit belatedly, that I am recovering well from my cataract operation, and to thank all those who sent good wishes along to me. They were much a..."I have noticed that the right eye sees everything now in a whiter hue. I'm not sure i prefer it as I quite like the yellowish tinge. Monet had cataracts I think, when he painted his water lilies. I wonder what they would have been like if his eyesight had been normal? Ive finished with the Gekko eye patch, but I don't think I can expect normal for another 3 weeks or so. I'm aware that the cataract
eye doesn't like bright sunlight, so I am wearing sunglasses. Its not exactly pain, just uncomfortableness... Ho hum... a way to go...
Robert wrote: "Years ago, I enjoyed Lefebvre's The Great Fear of 1789."Thanks, Robert. Without ever having read a word of his writings, I've found myself over the last year or two repeatedly adding yet another of Lefebvre's books to my to-read list. And now here's another one.
Berkley wrote: "FrustratedArtist wrote: "The non fiction one is a big brick of a book that has been on my bookshelf for 20 years and I never really got my teeth into it. Citizens - Simon Schama's history of the F..."
some of the classic british accounts are worth reading, sometimes i find its good to read one angle say one year, make notes and then revisit the topic/era with another angle and compare notes. this works for most historical events and can make the experience quite fascinating.
the other decision of popular vs intellectual accounts. (ie. a nice defined 400 page chronological explanation or a more nuanced and trickier intellectual account)
there is a book out now that focuses on almost every hour of the period where Robespierre met his death....
Spent a good section of this morning enjoying The Day of the Jackal, a remarkable debut novel by Frederick Forsyth.Elements are formulaic and there is a boys own reverence, as befits a right wing writer for the state, for money and for the old boys clubs and establishments.
Where his skill as a writer impresses me is small observations of european cities in the August heat, the sounds of life and descriptions of city squares and trees, just the right balance to bring you into 1960s Paris, Rome or Milan..
Hello all, I guess I've been a little AWOL again, and have barely been able to check-in, let alone post. I have been reading, however.
When I last posted I had just begun Kamel Daoud's "The Meursault Investigation," which takes Camus' "The Stranger" and well and truly turns it on its head, giving a name and a life to the nameless "Arab" murdered by Meursault, the antihero of Camus' novel. I know AB had real words of praise for it, and others were interested. I recommend it. Daoud ruthlessly disects the psychic damage, the hole, left by Musa's death, the wreckage it strews behind it. It is, of course, a book about colonialism. Angry, powerful, often beautiful.
Next I realised we had still one Mahfouz I'd not yet read: "The Harafish." The last Mahfouz I read, "Fountain and Tomb," has the first time I've been even a little disappointed. Though no doubt a pleasure to read, it felt slight and inconsequential. "The Harafish" is anything but as it follows the wildly fluctuating fortunes of a single family and their alley across many generations: epic, comic, heartbreaking. The writing is top notch. This really is the last unread Mahfouz we have. I've now read thirteen - probably more than I've read by any other author.
Thursday we were in our favourite neighbourhood bookstore when I noticed something that looked interesting but that I'd never heard of before: Thorkild Hansen's "Arabia Felix: The Danish Expedition of 1761-1767.” First published in 1962, the book recounts an ill-fated Danish scientific expedition to Yemen. Hansen was better known as a novelist, apparently, and it shows: he gets away with things that a historian would never try. Nevertheless, it is based on archival sources that are meant to have never been consulted before. I'm interested to know more about its relationship to the sources and how it is viewed as a piece of history. Aside from all that, it is an absolutely rip-roaring read so far. Also so far, a third of the way in, they've only managed to reach Cairo, so I find myself back in North Africa for the third book in a row (completely by accident). My copy is a very nice edition from NYRB.
Veufveuve wrote: "Hello all, I guess I've been a little AWOL again, and have barely been able to check-in, let alone post. I have been reading, however.
When I last posted I had just begun Kamel Daoud's "The Meu..."
good to hear from you veuf...glad you enjoyed the Daoud novel, Mach has been very quiet recently too
AB76 wrote: "Spent a good section of this morning enjoying The Day of the Jackal, a remarkable debut novel by Frederick Forsyth.Elements are formulaic and there is a boys own reverence, as befits a right win..."
Loved the film at the time. I wonder if it would seem dated now?
Some of his novels have been very good.
Re the French Rev. Loved Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety. Have mentioned previously that I told Hilary M at Bookfest of my admiration for the book, and Camille Desmoulins. She said she was writing another novel “ In an historical setting” and hoped it would be a success. It kind of was! Simon Schama’s Citizens is well worth persevering with. As are Andrew Hussey’s Paris. the Secret History, and Graham Robb’s Parisians.
Catching up a bit after an unpleasant bout of Lyme disease.
Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer
This has the longest, wittiest and most argumentative meet-cute of any book I can think of. If the rest of the story does not quite reach the same heights, the spikey relations between the two principals keep things lively. Overall, an amiable read in fine GH style. Set in Regency Bath, with much authentic-sounding detail.
Daisy Miller – Henry James
“Only a pretty American flirt.” And perhaps “horribly common.” In this short story HJ examines the workings of class among Americans abroad, and the evidences of vulgarity that money cannot disguise. Poor Frederick Winterbourne. Stiff and conventional, he hardly knows what to make of the socially reckless behaviour of Miss Daisy Miller. Yet he admires her so. Daisy, being frank, is vocal about her freedom to do as she pleases. Will she condemn herself out of her own mouth? I think HJ sometimes loads his sentences with more meaning than the circumstances warrant. Still, an entertaining read, and quite funny too, even as a small cloud appears on the far horizon.
The Letter - Somerset Maugham
Re-read this small masterpiece. Precise movements, exact descriptions, nothing wasted, the look on a face at the moment when the truth registers.
Bedelia – Vera Caspary (1945)
A short, crisp, all-incident murder mystery from the novelist who wrote Laura. I enjoyed it. Thanks to Bill for the recommendation.
Also moving slowly through some non-fiction:
The Burgundians – Bart Van Loo
The World of Yesterday> – Stefan Zweig
Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer
This has the longest, wittiest and most argumentative meet-cute of any book I can think of. If the rest of the story does not quite reach the same heights, the spikey relations between the two principals keep things lively. Overall, an amiable read in fine GH style. Set in Regency Bath, with much authentic-sounding detail.
Daisy Miller – Henry James
“Only a pretty American flirt.” And perhaps “horribly common.” In this short story HJ examines the workings of class among Americans abroad, and the evidences of vulgarity that money cannot disguise. Poor Frederick Winterbourne. Stiff and conventional, he hardly knows what to make of the socially reckless behaviour of Miss Daisy Miller. Yet he admires her so. Daisy, being frank, is vocal about her freedom to do as she pleases. Will she condemn herself out of her own mouth? I think HJ sometimes loads his sentences with more meaning than the circumstances warrant. Still, an entertaining read, and quite funny too, even as a small cloud appears on the far horizon.
The Letter - Somerset Maugham
Re-read this small masterpiece. Precise movements, exact descriptions, nothing wasted, the look on a face at the moment when the truth registers.
Bedelia – Vera Caspary (1945)
A short, crisp, all-incident murder mystery from the novelist who wrote Laura. I enjoyed it. Thanks to Bill for the recommendation.
Also moving slowly through some non-fiction:
The Burgundians – Bart Van Loo
The World of Yesterday> – Stefan Zweig
Les Faux-Monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters) – André Gide (1923)
This starts off in cracking style. A chasm opens suddenly beneath the feet of a respectable family of the Parisian haute-bourgeoisie.
This reader then nearly lost patience when the main plot, such as it is, was set in motion by three events in succession of absolute coincidence, on top of which the characters all at once become timid and unable to speak their mind. You feel overtaken by inference, allusion, and a general blur. Fortunately, that turned out to be the low point and the story slowly regained its hold.
Les Faux-monnayeurs, we discover, is the title of a novel being written by one of the characters, writer #1, or at least talked about by him, as he hasn’t yet written a word. It will be a novel about a man, writer #2, who is writing a novel, and it will necessarily be a novel about ideas, because writer #2 lacks any sense of reality. Other characters tell writer #1 that novels about ideas always fail, and that, when he writes this thing, he will bore his readers to death. You do rather see their point, but it is all better than it sounds.
Meanwhile, relationships have become even more tangled. At one stage a false coin is produced, and it neatly symbolizes the counterfeit feelings expressed by many of the characters for each other.
The ultra-literary text is made up of narrative, letters, epigraphs, and entries from a writer’s journal. There is the double book-within-a-book, there is a critical review that two of the characters are going to launch, and there are the spirited conversations which may at any point turn to discussing Balzac, Flaubert, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, La Fontaine, Baudelaire, Pascal.
Behind all these surface features there is the running sense that Gide is relishing the act of writing. There is even a chapter of notes from Gide to himself, critiquing the conduct of the characters so far and debating what they should do next.
The motor, we find, lies not in the plot but in the very discursiveness of the book’s flowing passages. While the main narrator is a middle-aged uncle, the energy comes from a band of highly articulate young men. It is as if the excitement for Gide at 50+ was to re-live in his imagination his time as a precocious student - and at the same time show how to write an intriguing and stimulating novel of ideas.
As for the point of it all, we are led to expect no great culmination. There is no determining moment to anchor the story, and almost no contemporary reference to place it in time. Perhaps some loose threads will get tied off. One of the adults says there is no resolution in life, it just continues.
But Gide has in store a brutal surprise.
This starts off in cracking style. A chasm opens suddenly beneath the feet of a respectable family of the Parisian haute-bourgeoisie.
This reader then nearly lost patience when the main plot, such as it is, was set in motion by three events in succession of absolute coincidence, on top of which the characters all at once become timid and unable to speak their mind. You feel overtaken by inference, allusion, and a general blur. Fortunately, that turned out to be the low point and the story slowly regained its hold.
Les Faux-monnayeurs, we discover, is the title of a novel being written by one of the characters, writer #1, or at least talked about by him, as he hasn’t yet written a word. It will be a novel about a man, writer #2, who is writing a novel, and it will necessarily be a novel about ideas, because writer #2 lacks any sense of reality. Other characters tell writer #1 that novels about ideas always fail, and that, when he writes this thing, he will bore his readers to death. You do rather see their point, but it is all better than it sounds.
Meanwhile, relationships have become even more tangled. At one stage a false coin is produced, and it neatly symbolizes the counterfeit feelings expressed by many of the characters for each other.
The ultra-literary text is made up of narrative, letters, epigraphs, and entries from a writer’s journal. There is the double book-within-a-book, there is a critical review that two of the characters are going to launch, and there are the spirited conversations which may at any point turn to discussing Balzac, Flaubert, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, La Fontaine, Baudelaire, Pascal.
Behind all these surface features there is the running sense that Gide is relishing the act of writing. There is even a chapter of notes from Gide to himself, critiquing the conduct of the characters so far and debating what they should do next.
The motor, we find, lies not in the plot but in the very discursiveness of the book’s flowing passages. While the main narrator is a middle-aged uncle, the energy comes from a band of highly articulate young men. It is as if the excitement for Gide at 50+ was to re-live in his imagination his time as a precocious student - and at the same time show how to write an intriguing and stimulating novel of ideas.
As for the point of it all, we are led to expect no great culmination. There is no determining moment to anchor the story, and almost no contemporary reference to place it in time. Perhaps some loose threads will get tied off. One of the adults says there is no resolution in life, it just continues.
But Gide has in store a brutal surprise.
AB - The Day of the Jackal – Glad you mentioned the period detail. I had a small acquaintance with Paris of the early 1960s, and when I read the book a few years ago it vividly recalled it for me.
giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spent a good section of this morning enjoying The Day of the Jackal, a remarkable debut novel by Frederick Forsyth.Elements are formulaic and there is a boys own reverence, as befits..."
i think the film still stands up well
Russell wrote: "AB - The Day of the Jackal – Glad you mentioned the period detail. I had a small acquaintance with Paris of the early 1960s, and when I read the book a few years ago it vividly recalled it for me."coming from a francophile family (though i rebelled and became a Germanophile), the film and lots of the locations are familiar to me. Back in 2004, on a camping holiday with the lads,in boiling heat, we drove from the Rhone Valley up to Gap and planned to go all the way down to Ventimigila and onwards in a reverse Jackal cruise(of sorts) but in the end, just beyond Gap we decided to turn back
Greenfairy wrote: "The best place was for music was the Uni- saw Rory Gallagher there, bless him."Brilliant guitarist - even better than Ten Years After's Alvin Lee, IMO. I saw him play a wonderful set at the (New) University of Ulster when his band was called 'Taste'... still have the LP somewhere!
As for Family, I was amused by this description of singer Roger Chapman's style (from Wikipedia):
The vocals of Roger Chapman, described as a "bleating vibrato"and an "electric goat", were considered unique, although Chapman was trying to emulate the voices of R&B and soul singers Little Richard and Ray Charles...
Must say the sound was closer to an electric goat than it was to Richard... as for Charles, well - a million miles away!
Tam wrote: "Monet had cataracts I think, when he painted his water lilies. I wonder what they would have been like if his eyesight had been normal?"From Wikipedia:
(Monet) eventually underwent cataract surgery in 1923. Persistent cyanopsia and aphakic spectacles proved to be a struggle. Now "able to see the real colours", he began to destroy canvases from his pre-operative period. Upon receiving tinted Zeiss lenses, Monet was laudatory, although his left eye soon had to be entirely covered by a black lens. By 1925, his visual impairment was improved and he began to retouch some of his pre-operative works, with bluer water lilies than before.
This is a nice link, which refers to the wonderful Musee Marmottan Monet:
https://www.zeiss.com/corporate/int/n...
As for cataract ops - my mother commented on how much brighter colours seem after hers; she has also been fitted with aphakic lenses since her eye lens was removed, as was the case for Monet.
Russell wrote: "Les Faux-Monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters) – André Gide (1923)...This reader then nearly lost patience when the main plot, such as it is, was set in motion by three events in succession of absolute coincidence, on top of which the characters all at once become timid and unable to speak their mind. You feel overtaken by inference, allusion, and a general blur. Fortunately, that turned out to be the low point and the story slowly regained its hold..."
H'm. I tried to read this a long time ago, but gave up on it - probably because of the section you describe here. I was disappointed, having enjoyed Gide's The Immoralist and finished without being totally convinced his Strait is the Gate. He also wrote a very interesting book about Dostoyevsky.
It rather looks as if I should have persevered... the novel sounds like an example of metafiction (if I have understood the term correctly), and I very much enjoyed another example recently - The Snares of Memory by Juan Marsé. I was taken in!
scarletnoir wrote: "Tam wrote: "Monet had cataracts I think, when he painted his water lilies. I wonder what they would have been like if his eyesight had been normal?"From Wikipedia:
(Monet) eventually underwent ..."
Just found this:
Can aphakic patients see?
Even with the lens removed (a condition known as aphakia) the patient can still see, as the lens is only responsible for about 30% of the eyes' focusing power. However, aphakic patients report that the process has an unusual side effect: they can see ultraviolet light.29 May 2002
SydneyH wrote: "FrustratedArtist wrote: "I used to be quite active on the Guardian's TLS a few years ago, but ... I have never really got the hang of Ersatz TLS here on Goodreads"You know there is a new TLS, Wha..."
And the June TLS has started!
AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "FrustratedArtist wrote: "The non fiction one is a big brick of a book that has been on my bookshelf for 20 years and I never really got my teeth into it. Citizens - Simon Schama's ..."
I read Carlyle's French Revolution years ago. There are scenes that would make good theater, and interesting turns of phrase. There are also reminders of the passage of time. I looked for my (old) edition's reference to the slave rebellion on Haiti. Nothing under "Haiti," nothing under "San Domingue," nothing under "slaves." I finally found it under "sugar."
Robert wrote: "I read Carlyle's French Revolution years ago. There are scenes that would make good theater, and interesting turns of phrase. There are also reminders of the passage of time. I looked for my (old) edition's reference to the slave rebellion on Haiti. Nothing under "Haiti," nothing under "San Domingue," nothing under "slaves." I finally found it under "sugar." "I have read the Carlyle book and will possibly revisit it at some point but I'd like to read some other histories first. I remember that it seemed to me like a book one would enjoy and appreciate more if one were already pretty well-informed about the French Revolution, rather than book one would read in order to gain that knowledge. I still enjoyed it though - as you mention, the prose style was unusual, especially for a history book.
AB76 wrote: "Some of the classic british accounts are worth reading, sometimes i find its good to read one angle say one year, make notes and then revisit the topic/era with another angle and compare notes. this works for most historical events and can make the experience quite fascinating.the other decision of popular vs intellectual accounts. (ie. a nice defined 400 page chronological explanation or a more nuanced and trickier intellectual account)
there is a book out now that focuses on almost every hour of the period where Robespierre met his death."
Which of the classic British accounts do you have in mind? I've been looking at the Oxford History of ... by Wm. Doyle as one possibility. Are there any from a more left-wing perspective? EP Thompson doesn't seem to have written anything major on the subject, and eric Hobsbawm's book seems to be more a history of the changing perceptions of the Revolution than of the Revolution itself. What about Raymond Williams, or some of the other big names of the British left?
Perhaps it's one of those subjects that does not admit of any middle ground between lengthy, meticulous analysis and a superficial recounting of events. I'd settle for the latter, to start with, as ong as it was well-written, entertaining, and made the major personalities involved come to life. I
Veufveuve wrote: "Hello all, I guess I've been a little AWOL again, and have barely been able to check-in, let alone post. I have been reading, however.
When I last posted I had just begun Kamel Daoud's "The Meursault Investigation ...
It is, of course, a book about colonialism. Angry, powerful, often beautiful. "
I just finished reading some excerpts from Herder's Letters from the Advancement of Humanity and they contain possibly the most penetrating, unflinching condemnation of European colonialism I can remember reading - certainly from this early a period, the 1790s. I'll try to quote some of the best parts later on, if I find the time, because I think they are worth sharing. Herder is one of my favourite German philosophers based on this alone.
Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "I read Carlyle's French Revolution years ago. There are scenes that would make good theater, and interesting turns of phrase. There are also reminders of the passage of time. I looke..."I think that Carlyle wrote as he talked.
VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morningthought I should let you know that my wife Christine died at the end of March this year. I came across your emails while cleaning up her computer. I know how much Christine enjoyed engaging with her book community until it all got to be a bit too difficult for her, owing to her disability becoming worse. She wasn’t very happy towards the end, but at least now she is at peace.
RIP
That is very sad, CCCubon. Thank you for passing on the news.
CCCubbon wrote: "VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morning.."Very sorry to hear this - Magrat was one of my 'friends' in this community, on the basis of some shared interests and enthusiasms, including Australian crime writers. I'll miss reading her comments and insights.
CCCubbon wrote: "VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morningthought I should let you know that my wife Christine died at the end of March this year. I came across your emails while cleaning up her computer...."
RIP
Mod
That's so sad.
Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Some of the classic british accounts are worth reading, sometimes i find its good to read one angle say one year, make notes and then revisit the topic/era with another angle and compa..."Christopher Hibbert wrote a good history of 1789, as did Doyle, there is also Carlyle and Burke, though none of those are left wing of course.
Having finished Thomas Mann's polemic on WW1 and Germany, i have moved on to a slim volume of writings by Austro-Hungarian journalist Karl Kraus, In These Great Times(Selected Writings) of which a few essays cover similar ground from a far more objective and Austro-Hungarian position.Kraus was a prolific journalist and Jewish convert to Catholicism, the first essay which i read last night was looking at the emerging Zionist movement in 1899. Kraus pokes some fun at the Zionist group(led by fellow journalist Theodor Herzl) but also makes the point that "maybe the improvement of European culture would be finished in a shorter time than the founding of a jewish national culture".
The introduction to the essays makes the point that the Jewish population of Vienna was quite divided at this time between the more assimilated Bohemian and Moravian born Western Jews who were pro German language and culture and the more proletarian Galician Jews from the east of the empire. Kraus remarks that over a dozen languages were spoken at the Basel conference and seems sceptical of any unity.
Mod
thought I should let you know that my wife Christine died at the end of March this year. I came across your emails while cleaning up her computer...."
Oh, that is sad news, CCCubbon. Thank you for sharing that with us, and please pass on to Magrat's husband the condolences of all of us here. She has been and will be missed.
CCCubbon wrote: "VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morningthought I should let you know that my wife Christine died at the end of March this year. I came across your emails while cleaning up her computer...."
sad to hear this CCC......my thoughts are with her family
AB76 wrote: "Kraus was a prolific journalist and Jewish convert to Catholicism"I wonder how sincere that conversion was?
One of my favourite composers - Gustav Mahler - followed a similar path, though there is quite a debate about whether he 'meant it', or whether it was simply useful to him in advancing his career against a background of anti-semitism.
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Kraus was a prolific journalist and Jewish convert to Catholicism"I wonder how sincere that conversion was?
One of my favourite composers - Gustav Mahler - followed a similar path, ..."
Kraus did lose faith in Catholicism after conversion in his 30s and renounced it a decade later but remained non observant as a jew.
My occasional studying of conversion and observance among famous European Jews, shows me that mostly they were from assimilated, non-observant jewish backgrounds, hence if they converted it was usually for a career reason or their father or ancestors had converted.
For clarification a career reason would be conversion to a faith that would enable furtherment of careers in law or the judiciary where the established religion was a required part of holding that job.
Co-incidentally i managed to download the entire Nazi Jewish census of 1939, the odious census that recorded various levels of Jewishness by the vile Nazi regime. What it includes is the converted population and according to the census about 69-70% of the Jewish population in Germany (including Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and the Sudetenland) were observant Jews. Of the converted in Germany 65% were Protestant. When Austria is counted alone, just 6% of converts were Protestant, though this is not a suprise as Austria was a catholic majority state
An interesting section was Greater Hamburg where according to the Nazi data less than 50% of Jews in Greater Hamburg were observant
Naturally this data is all drenched in tainted, prejudiced evil and i will be trying to cross reference a lot it with reliable jewish association data and other stats over time
Oh, no….Magrat! So very sorry to hear this. Awful news.. Always enjoyed our interactions. Please pass on my sincere condolences to her family.
CCCubbon wrote: "VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morningOh no. Terrible news, I'm really sorry to hear it. May she find peace
Lljones wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "VERY SAD NEWS about Magrat received this morning..."
Very sad news, and very decent of her husband to let us know.
Very sad news, and very decent of her husband to let us know.
AB76 wrote: "...conversion and observance among famous European Jews, shows me that mostly they were from assimilated, non-observant jewish backgrounds, hence if they converted it was usually for a career reason or their father or ancestors had converted.For clarification a career reason would be conversion to a faith that would enable furtherment of careers in law or the judiciary where the established religion was a required part of holding that job."
I found this after my last post:
On 23-02-1897 (Year 1897) Gustav Mahler walked into the St. Michael’s church small (Hamburg) and was “received” or baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. The rite of conversion, Mahler believed would clear away a major stumbling block as a prerequisite for being named principal director of the Vienna Hofoper, the Court Opera, today’s Vienna State Opera, and a position for which he and his supporters had been discreetly campaigning for many months.
Certainly Alma Mahler... chalked up the conversion to worldly concerns. If so, it was not untypical. Mahler followed many converts in Austria, Hungary, and Germany.
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) had famously cited baptism as the ticket of admission (entreebillet) to gentile society....
In letters... (Mahler) acknowledged the obstacle of his Jewishness to his career but gave no intention of conversion, indeed seemed genuinely depressed by the opportunities foreclosed.
...his sister Justine, who decided to share his conversion, revealed... that the siblings were undergoing Catholic religious instruction in view of the Vienna opera position.
Mahler’s formal conversion was opportunistic and apparently not devoid of pricks of conscience. As he wrote... it “cost me a great deal.” Allow for exaggeration; still, what exactly did it cost? Just the sense of attachment to his family’s Jewish tradition? Perhaps a sense of deserting a beleaguered minority? On the other hand, he preferred to wear identities lightly even if the anti-Semitic press made this an effort.
https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/t...
scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "Les Faux-Monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters) – André Gide (1923)...
H'm. I tried to read this a long time ago, but gave up on it..."
I ended up thinking it was well worth it. Other aspects that might be metafiction (if I too have understood it correctly): tenses that slip around, characters who seem significant and then disappear from sight, passages that might be both extracts from this novel and extracts from the novels being written within it.
I liked Strait is the Gate, and would suggest it as the place to start. I didn’t like The Immoralist at all, either when I was young or recently. It has a monstrously self-absorbed main character.
I read his Dostoyevsky years ago but remember nothing, so perhaps it’s time to look into that again.
I ploughed through his Diaries, and got an occasional insight. Some parts of The Counterfeiters reminded me of his musings there.
My stand-out favourite is The Pastoral Symphony, a novella in which he tells a sad and simple tale, with no literary frills.
H'm. I tried to read this a long time ago, but gave up on it..."
I ended up thinking it was well worth it. Other aspects that might be metafiction (if I too have understood it correctly): tenses that slip around, characters who seem significant and then disappear from sight, passages that might be both extracts from this novel and extracts from the novels being written within it.
I liked Strait is the Gate, and would suggest it as the place to start. I didn’t like The Immoralist at all, either when I was young or recently. It has a monstrously self-absorbed main character.
I read his Dostoyevsky years ago but remember nothing, so perhaps it’s time to look into that again.
I ploughed through his Diaries, and got an occasional insight. Some parts of The Counterfeiters reminded me of his musings there.
My stand-out favourite is The Pastoral Symphony, a novella in which he tells a sad and simple tale, with no literary frills.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
Babette’s Feast (other topics)Babette’s Feast (other topics)
London Rules (other topics)
Babette’s Feast (other topics)
Babette’s Feast (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Isak Dinesen (other topics)Blixen Karen (other topics)
Isak Dinesen (other topics)
Blixen Karen (other topics)
Isak Dinesen (other topics)
More...
Since you read French, and are interested in the French revolution, the imagined final days and hours of some of the main players as described in Tu montreras ma tête au peuple by François-Henri Désérable might appeal to you. Beautifully written (IMO)... there is a review on here somewhere which I believe can be found using the search facility. (Much of the detail is a matter of record, but the author uses his imagination as well.)
Interesting post, BTW.