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What are we reading? 7 November 2022
With reference to academic prose, I bow to Bertrand Russell, who I believe said somewhere that the hardest philosophical task was to write difficult ideas simply. There are some simple maxims—not perhaps quite so simple as those which my brother-in-law Logan Pearsall Smith offered me—which I think might be commanded to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. Second: if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end. Take, say, such a sentence as the following, which might occur in a work on sociology: “Human beings are completely exempt from undesirable behaviour-patterns only when certain prerequisites, not satisfied except in a small percentage of actual cases, have, through some fortuitous concourse of favourable circumstances, whether congenital or environmental, chanced to combine in producing an individual in whom many factors deviate from the norm in a socially advantageous manner.” Let us see if we can translate this sentence into English. I suggest the following: “All men are scoundrels, or at any rate almost all. The men who are not must have had unusual luck, both in their birth and in their upbringing.” This is shorter and more intelligible, and says just the same thing. But I am afraid any professor who used the second sentence instead of the first would get the sack.
This suggests a word of advice to such of my hearers as may happen to be professors. I am allowed to use plain English because everybody knows that I could use mathematical logic if I chose. Take the statement: “Some people marry their deceased wives’ sisters.” I can express this in language which only becomes intelligible after years of study, and this gives me freedom. I suggest to young professors that their first work should be written in a jargon only to be understood by the erudite few. With that behind them, they can ever after say what they have to say in a language “understanded of the people.” In these days, when our very lives are at the mercy of the professors, I cannot but think that they would deserve our gratitude if they adopted my advice.
AB76 wrote: McIlvanney captures a scotland before the brave new world of the SNP,What do you mean by that?
Apart from the independence question (where I am not qualified to comment on): they are the only party in GB aspiring to have socialdemocratic policies. And Ian Blackford stands head and shoulders above almost everybody in that shitshow of the mother of parliaments that has been played out over the last six years.
In 2004 The Spectator (editor: Boris Johnson) published
"Friendly Fire" by James Michie
The Scotch – what a verminous race!
Canny, pushy, chippy, they’re all over the place,
Battening off us with false bonhomie,
Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.
Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!
Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!
Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran
As provocatively, offensively foreign!
It’s time Hadrian’s Wall was refortified
To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.
I would go further. The nation
Deserves not merely isolation
But comprehensive extermination.
We must not flinch from a solution.
(I await legal prosecution.)
When I read that, about two years ago, I, the German, was literally lost for words.
I still am, when I re-read it.
Storm wrote: "With reference to academic prose, I bow to Bertrand Russell, who I believe said somewhere that the hardest philosophical task was to write difficult ideas simply. There are some simple maxims—not..."
I do find poems which are unintelligible for some of your maxims and the reason for many people’s dislike of poetry.
Yet we can all quote the odd line or two, sometimes without realising that we are quoting. Those lines which we remember tend to be quite simple;
I wandered lonely as a cloud….
The boy stood on the burning deck…..
Not waving but drowning
April is the cruellest month…
Storm wrote: "Also re William McIlvanney. I was always interested in how (and why) he wrote relatively little. He could have ridden the coattails of the Laidlaw success but he didn’t. He was an amazing talent bu..."he really didnt write many books, considering he lived till 79, i am intrigued about that question too, why he didnt write more
Storm wrote: "I was struck hard by AB’s comment emerging from McIlvanney’s Laidlaw trilogy which I read when it came out when I was living in Bangkok. The phrase a Scotland of “decline and despair” brought back ..."English nationalism has been the nightmare of the last six years, where Brexit and Little England politics dovetailed to create the disaster of 2016. I'm ashamed of England and what it has done to itself and the Celtic lands
Scotland is on a high right now, especially since Brexit, as its government has become the official opposition to the foul Tory miasma. I have loved watching Sturgeon say solid as various Torys PMs chuntered past her doors and then vanished into history
I'm a unionist but the way the SNP are treated by the press down south is scandalous, there is almost no patience or consideration, every interview gets bogged down in carefully crafted hostile questions
I had a WOWSER! moment when I read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter this morning. As you may know the Senate hung in the balance until the Nevada vote was called for the Democratic incumbent. As usual she hit the nail on the head with - As of late October, NPR reported that outside groups had spent almost a billion dollars on the campaigns of Republican Senate candidates, hoping to take control of that body. Key to that desire for control was control of the judiciary, where the right wing has entrenched itself as it has become increasingly extreme and unpopular. Even without control of the House—which is still unclear as election officials continue to count votes—Democratic control of the Senate means that President Joe Biden will be able to continue confirming judges.
It had not occurred to me that having the GOP (Mitch McConnell) in power in the Senate meant more right-wing judges. We just have to look at the Supreme Court to see more of them would NOT be the will of the majority of the country.
If you are interested in non-nonsense and what I call 'what really happened' news, you can Google Heather Cox Richardson and find out how to get her newsletter.
Note that I used to be much more of a news junkie than I am now. I've even turned off NPR. The 24-hour news cycle is hard to fill so it ends up with lots of 'what if this happens' or 'what if that happens'. If you are old enough to remember Sgt Joe Friday, I adhere to his philosophy - Just the facts, Maam.
Mod
MK wrote: "I had a WOWSER! moment when I read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter this morning. As you may know the Senate hung in the balance until the Nevada vote was called for the Democratic incumbent. As..."its so vital the Dems kept the senate for that judge confirmation reason, i am still furious that nine chinned McConnell refused Garland in one of the pettiest and worst acts of political vandalism in US history
Gpfr wrote: "@AB76, you'll be glad to know MachenBach has returned in The Guardian."thats good, shame he vacated GR, like a few others did, suprised me as at least here you can avoid the censorship of the G
A very pleasant day here in the Lakes which started with a pair of Cumbrians finishing the job at the MCG, and then by finishing what I am sure will be one of my books of the year, sitting on the top of our nearby Outlying Wainwright hill, Knipe Scar, in 20 degrees C. The book.. The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure by Katherine Rundell
This is a highlight of my reading year.
Its all about balance when writing a book about climate change and endangered species; most of the readership are not beginners, but neither are they experts, we don't want to be bombarded with scientific fact so much that their potential impact is lost. But most importantly, is getting the amount of celebration of these species juxtaposed with the possible soon demise.
This is Rundell's strength, previously a prize-winning children's author, she may have found her true home here. She awakens that sense of caring and wonder in us that lies as dormant as the ornate horned frog which gets a name check. As well as being a history of the bonds between animals and humans, there is a reminder too of how little we know about them.
Rundell chooses 21 species, all from Sub-Saharan Africa, more than half are currently threatened with extinction due to pollution and loss of habitat. Every reader will have a favourite, and for me it is the spider, with the crow and the bat close in second place.
Talya Baldwin's illustrations make the hardback into a prized possession on the bookcase. I read the ebook, but will purchase the hardback also. It makes a great present.
Here's a few snippets that I hope indicate that this is a book not to be missed..
94% of all observed sexual behaviour involving giraffes is homo-sexual.
As a giraffe bends down to drink its jugular vein closes off blood to the head stopping it from fainting when it stands up again.
Swifts can only eat what is in the air. A swift with chicks needs as many as a thousand insects a day, storing them in a bulge in the throat.
There were once lemurs the size of small men, but when humans arrived the larger ones were hunted to extinction.
The crow is an Einstein among birds, their brain to body mass ratio is only a little lower than our own. Many can fashion tools. At a theme Park in France, Puy du Fou, they have been trained to pick up litter.
Of the 45000 species of spider, the jumping spider is perhaps the most fiercely brave: where black widows prefer to hide from humans, jumping spiders will advance and investigate. A jumping spider the size of a fingernail can jump upon and kill a large grasshopper. As they leap, they tether a dragline of silk to their jumping-off point; if the jump fails, and the prey escapes, they can winch themselves back up to safety, unhurt, unembarrassed. Their blood, as befits their status, is blue.
Recently, scientists at Manchester University trained a jumping spider called Kim to leap on their command. With their eight eyes, the world looks different to them, more riotously technicoloured. It was found that some become fixated on nature programmes. They are much cleverer than we knew.
Bats are virtuosic mathematicians: in order to work out how far away a target is, they assess the time delay between sending out the call and receiving the echo, based on an innate understanding of the speed of sound. A blind entrepreneur in California taught himself to echolocate as a child, with clicks of the tongue; walking through suburban California he is able to detect trees and walls, and ride a bicycle, navigating from a picture of the world built in pulses.
and, on aphrodisiacs…
Oysters, for instance, are made up of water, protein, salt, zinc, iron and tiny amounts of calcium and potassium: they’re no more an aphrodisiac than a vitamin pill drowned in salt water, but they look suggestive. We have in the past given sexual potency, haphazardly, to chocolate, asparagus, carrots, honey, nettles, mustard and sparrows.
I just had to pop in with a bit of linguistic history after seeing the comments about La Dame et la Licorne. Stop me if you know this, but in English the mythical animal is of course a unicorn. So it was in French until someone assumed that ‘unicorne’ actually meant one icorne, une icorne. So ‘the unicorn’ in French then became l’icorne’. But they went a step further and started assuming l’icorne just meant unicorn, so after that ‘the unicorn’ had to be ‘la licorne’.We have a few words like that in English. The most common is apron, which used to be naperon (think nappies, something that covers something) then a naperon became an apron. Other words where this has happened (a couple of them in reverse) are ingot, nickname, umpire, aught, newt, adder and orange (from French via Spanish that one).
Andy wrote: "A very pleasant day here in the Lakes which started with a pair of Cumbrians finishing the job at the MCG, and then by finishing what I am sure will be one of my books of the year, sitting on the t..."20c in the lake district?? watch out for the sun lizards heading north!
Andy wrote: "A very pleasant day here in the Lakes which started with a pair of Cumbrians finishing the job at the MCG, and then by finishing what I am sure will be one of my books of the year, sitting on the t..."It’s a wonderful book, beautifully produced, gold edging to the pages, a joy to hold and read.
I enjoyed her book Super infinite; the transformation of John Donne . She brings him back to life in print.
I ordered the Golden Mole immediately when I learned it was her next book.
My son has been mildly grumbling because his partner to whom I sent a copy has been regaling him with snippets……’ listen to this……did you know……’
Glad to hear of another fan - it’s worth every penny and worth buying in hardback. Christmas presents?
Some memorable and Pynchonesque character names in The Pvritaine, or The Widdow (1607): Lady Plus, the Widow
George Pye-Board, a Schollar
Peter Skirmish, an old Soldier
Captain Idle, a Highway man
Corporal Oath, a vain-glorious Fellow
Nicholas St. Antlings,
Simon St. Mary Overies,
Frailty} Serving-men to Lady Plus
Sir Oliver Muck-hill
Sir Iohn Penny-Dub
Sir Andrew Tipstaffe
Les Silences de Colonel Bramble
in Selections from André Maurois
Short stories about British officers at a Brigade HQ in WWI, through the observant eyes of a junior French officer assigned to them as an interpreter. The intro in this school book from 1928 says the endeavour has been to give the passages which will appeal most strongly to boys “of fifteen years of age and upwards.” Well, this boy of seventy years and upwards found them perfectly excellent, a sympathetic and witty take on national character. They have a singular charm, even, it has to be said, when he is dealing with the death of brave men.
Emile Herzog, or André Maurois as he became, was just such an interpreter, and he fought with the British at Loos, winning a medal. I once read that he took his pen name from a village near the front line where he was stationed. The full version of Les Silences was a best seller when it first came out, and was in the running for the Prix Goncourt.
The G’s book page is carrying a review of a new Penguin Book of French Short Stories, Vol 1. It looks intriguing, and if it was from any other language I would get it, but I do prefer reading French in the original. I love rolling the words round in my head.
in Selections from André Maurois
Short stories about British officers at a Brigade HQ in WWI, through the observant eyes of a junior French officer assigned to them as an interpreter. The intro in this school book from 1928 says the endeavour has been to give the passages which will appeal most strongly to boys “of fifteen years of age and upwards.” Well, this boy of seventy years and upwards found them perfectly excellent, a sympathetic and witty take on national character. They have a singular charm, even, it has to be said, when he is dealing with the death of brave men.
Emile Herzog, or André Maurois as he became, was just such an interpreter, and he fought with the British at Loos, winning a medal. I once read that he took his pen name from a village near the front line where he was stationed. The full version of Les Silences was a best seller when it first came out, and was in the running for the Prix Goncourt.
The G’s book page is carrying a review of a new Penguin Book of French Short Stories, Vol 1. It looks intriguing, and if it was from any other language I would get it, but I do prefer reading French in the original. I love rolling the words round in my head.
Confession, I haven’t read any Ian Rankin, but the comments on William McIlvanney are tempting me strongly to try the Laidlaw series. Thanks also, Storm, for those interesting thoughts of Logan Pearsall Smith.
Toto Among the Murderers by Sally J. Morgan
I eventually got round to reading the winner of the Portico Prize. My delay was in waiting for a sensibly priced used copy..
It was worth the wait. Its a character study of Jude, nicknamed Toto, during a significant year in her life, 1973, when she is living in Leeds. Leeds of the day is a far more dangerous place than Jude realises. She is on the dole, a broke art graduate determined to have fun as she moves into a shared house in a rundown and crime-ridden part of the city, travelling to student parties around the country by hitch-hiking, heavily involved in drink and drugs.
Around her the country is going through transition also, not unlike the present, with a sharp downturn in the economy, inflation at more than 10%, the immergence of political extremists, a class war in industry, and an uncertainty in the direction it was headed.
All this, and there is a serial killer, or killers, on the loose. Someone, we know now the Wests, are murdering young hitch-hiking girls. Jude is blissfully ignorant of problems of the country, and feels untouchable when picking up lifts from strangers.
Morgan's skill is in portraying so much brutality and threat with a lightness of touch in describing the lives of young women on the margins of society.
As Toto does, she herself had a close call with the couple stalking the roads in the early 1970s.
Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Megan McDowell
Its difficult to accurately grade a book of short stories, especially when it contains two of three out of seven that would score 5 stars, and one, which makes up a third of the book, at just 2 stars.
These stories are a series of peepholes into people's houses, where they may feel they are at their safest and in privacy. There is a tinge of terror to them all, though that is there because of the reader's own interpretation rather than set out on the page; Schweblin is never explicit. What materialises is a real sense of dread, its horror how it should be done.
The eerie often lies within the mundane, and a great example is in Two Square Feet in which the narrator wanders around a noirish Buenos Aires by night in search of aspirin for her mother-in-law, through abandoned subway tunnels and knocking on the doors of shuttered pharmacies.
In the terrifying An Unlucky Man an 8 year old girl has to summon her own powers of mental strength to overcome a threatening predator.
The third of the best of the stories, Out involves a woman, straight out of the shower and wearing only a robe, break off a strained conversation with her husband to undertake a sinister adventure, again by night in an almost gothic Buenos Aires.
What many reviewers see as the strongest piece in the collection, Breath From The Depths, I actually enjoyed far less. But by the very nature of the anthology, different aspects will appeal to a greater or lesser extent to different people..
We Spread by Iain Reid
There are times when assigning a book to a genre does it a disservice, and such is the case here.
Notably in the Guardian, where I regularly read and usually respect the reviews, this is categorised as 'science fiction', and quoted as being 'weird fiction'. It may fall into the latter category, but I really don't think it is science fiction.
Set out in captivating prose, Penny, who narrates, is an elderly artist living alone in a city apartment surrounded by memories of her life and long term (and deceased) partner. Within just a short time we are transported into Penny's solitary world, and see things completely through her eyes.
After a fall, she is taken into long term reisdential care outside of the city in a rural setting, an arrangement apparently made by her former partner. Despite her initial doubts she yields to the vigilant care of the manager Shelley and assistant Jack and befriends the few other residents. Her narration comes increasingly under doubt as she herself struggles to understand her new life and the crumbling experience of passing time.
There is a paranoia within her, but whether she is afraid of death is up for question. It may actually be the reverse.
Skilled authors can do brilliant things within the horror genre, and Reid's thought-provoking novel is a great example of this.
I've read more than ten media reviews, and find them really interesting, as I see the book and its themes differently to them all.
Its Carrington-esque at times, intentionally so, as it seems she was a great influence, though it’s more of a cognisant nod to her than any attempt at replication.
Highly recommeded.
The Snatch by Harold R. Daniels
Three desperate men plot and carry out a botched kidnap the 8 year old son of a mafia boss.
Masquerading as just another piece of 1950s pulp fiction, this is actually far more than that.
There is far more characterisation than the usual pulp novel, the two kidnappers are brilliantly described, one, a career criminal and a sociopath, and the other an apparently boring bank clerk. As the novel unfurls the difference between them increasingly manifests itself.
The backdrop plays a key role also, of sleazy bars, seedy apartments and squalid areas of the city a night, so much so, that as with the best noir, moments of implausibility are brushed over as they don’t in any way deter from the enjoyment of the piece.
Tono the Infallible by Evelio Rosero translated from the Spanish (Colombia) by Anne McLeanSet in Bogotá, a writer named Eri recounts his strained friendship with a cunning and sadistic man called Toño Ciruelo, over the years he has known him, from schooldays as 14 year olds, to the turbulent years of their mid-thirties, to the present day, when he turns up unexpectedly having not seen each other for twenty years.
Toño has a strange power over Eri. Though he dreads him turning up into his life again, he has a certain admiration for him. As he examines their past it disgusts him that he has had acquaintance with such a man. As he recounts the various incidents they have been involved in together, the reader also gets the picture of a scandalous and terrifying individual.
The novel begins really well, and for its first fifty pages is completely compelling. However, too often it gets bogged down in the politics of the day loses its impetus. The sections of dialogue are when the novel is at is strongest, but as a whole I would have preferred the chubby mid-section trimmed by 30 pages or so.
Mod
I thought her Fever Dream was excellent (if a bit out my wheelhouse) - look forward to more.
Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin ..."I thought her Fever Dream was excellent (if a bit out my wheelhouse) - look forward to more."
Have you or anyone else here read Little Eyes?
I found the concept fascinating, but after a few initial reviews, the book seems to have sunk without much further notice.
MK wrote: "And I just downloaded Dolphin Junction Stories by Mick Herron and am in the queue for Bad Actors (Slough House, #8) by Mick Herron ."I'll get Bad Actors as soon as the price drops... as for the other one, is it a stand-alone novel, or Slough House related?
Berkley wrote: " I sometimes think every novel should come with a street map of the city in which the story is set, but for now I'll have to make do with the internet..."I know what you mean... sometimes, I look up streets mentioned on Google Maps (street view) if it seems relevant and worth the trouble - as, for example, the settings in Vilnius relating to Romain Gary in Désérable's hunt for the elusive truths surrounding his life.
I also much enjoyed visiting 'Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles', thanks to this website:
https://la.curbed.com/maps/raymond-ch...
MK wrote: "if you ever get to Norwich..."Well, maybe - my oldest friend who I have known for 70+ years (yes, indeed) lives there - I had suggested a visit to see him (I have never truly visited Norwich, just passed through once), and then came COVID! So, it's on the back burner for now. Maybe before one of us croaks...
Bill wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin ..."I thought her Fever Dream was excellent (if a bit out my wheelhouse) - lo..."
I haven’t, though I do have it on my list.
MK wrote: "Here's what I was going to post when I came here this a.m. https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/ne...How times have changed."
Thanks - very interesting.
Storm wrote: "Fascinated by the Natural History discussion of narwhals, birds and unicorns. Speaking of which, has anyone seen the famous Brexit unicorn?"Only the true believers such as Rees-Mogg have seen that! ;-)
Georg wrote: "...had two goes at "The Sea, the Sea" (?) and one at "Athena". Never got past page 20/30.Then I gave him another go in his Benjamin Black hat. Gave up after about 40%. I have read hundreds of more or less crap crime novels, only gave up on a handful. When it became clear that watching paint dry would be more exciting."
I have never read a Banville, writing as 'Banville' - but reading the first Benjamin Black novel was enough to convince me that he had no idea - he may think it's easy money writing a genre crime novel, but it was dreadful. It was enough to convince me to never read an actual 'Banville'!
As for The Sea, the Sea - that's by Iris Murdoch - I enjoyed her debut novel Under the Net and finished without any great pleasure the later The Sandcastle. When 'The Sea, the Sea' won the Booker in 1978, I thought it was maybe time to give her another shot - but, no. It was boring and overlong (the audiobook length is given as 23h 3m, and the top Amazon review is entitled "Endless Sea of Self-indulgence".) Not surprisingly, I couldn't finish it!
The Banville you are thinking of is The Sea, which at least has a shorter title.
(I still have to read/finish a couple of books bought on your recommendation... we seem to have some overlap in taste, here and there. I'll comment as and when they are completed.)
Storm wrote: "I have a pet peeve. It s that many genre writers do not get fair recognition for excellent writing simply because it is genre but when a more popular writer tries it, despite it very often being greatly inferior, the well known writer gets the undeserved plaudits."I could not agree more - see my comment (above) re. John Banville/Benjamin Black.
scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "And I just downloaded Dolphin Junction Stories by Mick Herron and am in the queue for Bad Actors (Slough House, #8) by Mick Herron ."I'll get Bad Actors as soon as the ..."
Stand alone. It's okay, but I wouldn't spend ££ on it. It works well as a distraction when I am out in the yard raking up white pine needles which are too abundant this year.
PS - not Slough House but short stories. Found an early Herron -
during yet another shelf shift. It's now on the top of the TBR pile and hope it doesn't disappoint.
scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: " I sometimes think every novel should come with a street map of the city in which the story is set, but for now I'll have to make do with the internet..."I know what you mean... s..."
I have
checked out from the library. It has a nice map of Shrewsbury which I will scan before I return it. Note that during lockdown I accumulated the paperback Cadfael series and rationed them to one a month starting on the 15th - so I had something to look forward to. I'm even thinking of doing a re-read of the early ones, especially
AB76 wrote: "For any fans of British crime fiction, the Laidlaw triology by the late William McIlvanney is well worth a read. Written over 15 years, i ma currently reading the final book Strange Loyalties (199..."Thanks for that - this isn't the first time I've seen praise for McIlvanney, and I'm inclined to give him a go. (For a moment, I confused him with his well-known brother who was a famed sports journalist - Hugh McIlvanney.)
As for Ian Rankin and Rebus - can't agree there - for the most part, the books stand up very well, with Edinburgh as a key location/'character' in the books... many crime authors benefit from a thorough familiarity with a particular location in which they set their plotlines and characters. The Rebus series is inconsistent - the London based stories are less successful, and I don't much care for the 'Rebus as codger' books - too near home! But, most of them are a pretty entertaining read - IMO, of course.
Mod
"is it a stand-alone novel"
scarlet, it's short stories: 1 Slough House if I remember and several with the characters from his previous Zoe Boehm series.
Storm wrote: "Voting for a government we could never have because the English were numerically superior. (The superior attitude exemplified by Johnson, Rees-Mogg et al was always a particular irritant). Having policies we had voted against imposed upon us. ..."I could not agree more. In Wales, it was particularly distasteful to observe party animal and lockdown denier Johnson criticise Mark Drakeford for following a more cautious policy in Wales. It also sticks in the craw when the so-called 'Welsh Conservatives' criticise the government for not spending more on this and that, knowing full well that the purse strings are still held in Westminster and that Wales is disadvantaged by the unfair Barnett formula - disavowed by its creator before his death.
scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "if you ever get to Norwich..."Well, maybe - my oldest friend who I have known for 70+ years (yes, indeed) lives there - I had suggested a visit to see him (I have never truly visited N..."
If you like watching city peregrines in action, I suggest you opt for late May to June. You then can watch that year's crop of young cavorting around the Cathedral and the Close (largest in England and maybe even Europe).
If I were 20 years younger (and richer so the Government would look kindly on me) and of course - no one had even thought of Brexit, I would love to live somewhere in Norfolk nearish to Norwich.
I was surprised (to say the least) that I had forgotten how important it is to keep Mitch McConnell and his cohorts in the Senate minority. Thankfully, Heather Cox Richardson reminded me - As of late October, NPR reported that outside groups had spent almost a billion dollars on the campaigns of Republican Senate candidates, hoping to take control of that body. Key to that desire for control was control of the judiciary, where the right wing has entrenched itself as it has become increasingly extreme and unpopular. Even without control of the House—which is still unclear as election officials continue to count votes—Democratic control of the Senate means that President Joe Biden will be able to continue confirming judges.
Fingers crossed that Warnock will be a shoe-in in the Georgia run-off. That would mean Manchin and Sinema would have less clout.
Storm wrote: "...Bertrand Russell, who I believe said somewhere that the hardest philosophical task was to write difficult ideas simply.... never use a long word if a short word will do."Interesting... fits in with my thoughts on Dostoyevsky/Nabokov. Whereas Dostoyevsky expresses profound ideas in simple language... Nabokov expresses banalities using recondite and abstruse terminology. And has the cheek to criticise FD de haute en bas on the basis of 'poor style' (or words to that effect)!
Envy appears to be a problem for many authors, unfortunately.
(I'm not getting into this again with anyone who disagrees: I have expressed my opinion at much greater length before. So don't waste your time, as I won't respond.)
MK wrote: "It had not occurred to me that having the GOP (Mitch McConnell) in power in the Senate meant more right-wing judges. We just have to look at the Supreme Court to see more of them would NOT be the will of the majority of the country."First of all - congratulations to you and all non-MAGA Americans (including some Republicans, I'm sure) on the bloody nose given to Trump in these elections.
As for the point about the judiciary - clearly Trump, or his advisers, understood the importance of getting the 'right' (right-wing) judges in position, especially on the Supreme Court. I hope some of the damage can be undone, but don't know how.
I don't know if you read my comment linking to a talk by BBC journalist Alistair Cooke, in which he mentioned that Russian supremo Nikita Khrushchev gave a lesson in US jurisprudence to US grandee Henry Cabot Lodge:
Mr Khrushchev: "Nine old men to begin with but then they vote and sometimes wind up with five to four to maintain a law or overthrow it. So in the end your country is ruled by one judge, one American, not even elected. With us the general secretary puts everything up to the central committee."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...
I, for one, have never forgotten it.
The perilous state of Lebanon for the last 50 odd years is brilliantly analysed inLebanon: The Rise and Fall of a Secular State Under Siege
Just as i finished the section on Rafik Hariri(assasinated in 2005) and his cavalier, saudi fuelled neo-liberal money washing of a battle scarred state in the early 1990s, i read that Christian warlord Michel Aoun, a cunning figure has resigned last month and there is no agreed Christian replacement. (The president of Lebanon must be Christian,the PM Sunni Muslim and the Speaker Shia Muslim)
Horse trading within confessional structures makes the Lebanese political world very complex, Farha notes that in some elections around 30% of Christian officials elected, were voted for by non-Christian Lebanese. I would imagine Hezbollah are fouling things up too right now, though Aoun famously has been quite pro-Hezbollah, amid the horse trading pragmatism that is essential to survive.
The massive failures of the neo-liberal private sector raid o a failed state remind me of all the other countries that have fallen victim to a belief in robbing the state and leaving the less well off to vague trickle down relief(anyone say Liz Truss...lol)
Andy wrote: "A very pleasant day here in the Lakes which started with a pair of Cumbrians finishing the job at the MCG, and then by finishing what I am sure will be one of my books of the year, sitting on the t..."Thanks for that tip - could well be a Christmas present for my vet daughter.
The 'Toto' book also sounds interesting, but probably too gloomy for me at present... I tend not to read much true crime or anything too close to it. (I must have briefly overlapped with the Yorkshire ripper when living in Leeds in 1975, but his existence as a serial killer only became apparent some years later).
scarletnoir wrote: "Storm wrote: "I have a pet peeve. It s that many genre writers do not get fair recognition for excellent writing simply because it is genre but when a more popular writer tries it, despite it very ..."Grateful you answered that, because I have somehow missed this post by storm.
Well said, storm, couldn't agree more with the two of you.
I have for a while thought it might be more difficult to write good crime fiction than literary fiction. Both need interesting and believable characters, but the plot is much more challenging in crime fiction. There must not be any inconsistencies, inplausibilities, holes, coincidences must be carefullly handled, tension kept...
AFAIK no crime novel has ever been shortlisted for a major prize.
Speaks clear and loud: it is still not considered to be "worthy" literature.
Ah, Benjamin Black: as far as I got he hadn't thought of a plot yet. But there were the most detailed descriptions, down to the five protruding nose hairs (two left, three right) adorning the used-car salesman's features.
I've just remembered that I also abandoned anonther crime novel written by JK Rowling alias (?)Galbraith about a year ago. Can't remember anything, just that it was a longwinded slog.
Yes! Maps please!
Just re-read some Inspector Morse novels. Oxford is a character, I want a map or two. In the books for convenience..
No maps either when I left Oxford to travel to Cape Town. Deon Meyer writes gritty political thrillers, set in a place where the past is not yet in the past, the wounds have scabbed over, but not healed. The hope for the future is embodied by a rainbow team of PO's, called "the Valke" (hawks). They might not always see eye to eye, but if the worst comes to the worst they'll risk their jobs for that future, their lives for their colleagues. Can only recommend.
scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "It had not occurred to me that having the GOP (Mitch McConnell) in power in the Senate meant more right-wing judges. We just have to look at the Supreme Court to see more of them would N..."Court packing is something i was briefly in favour of but i think it would be too divisive, the Reps have started, maybe, to see that what Trump stirred up is not going to help them as much as they expected.
however, it still makes me mad to think that if Trump is a forgotten one term bawling child, his SC may be remembered for decades. one of the least interesting, ill-educated and thought free Presidents has ended up with a stranglehold on SC decisions for maybe a generation. Am sure he was advised to appoint three fairly young, right wing, religious judges.....all should serve for at least another 20-25 years...
The hare and the wallabie are the only two animals who can get pregnant again while still pregnant.Yes, the swift is the other fast bird, faster than the peregrine in level flight, peregrine faster innthe dive.
Non fiction reading swings around the murky clientelism and capitalism of modern Lebanon to the Belgian Congo in 1960Chief of Station, Congo by Larry Devlin is a memoir by the CIA Chief in that country as it started to fall apart in 1960. The death of young newly elected leader Patrice Lumumba has been laid at the doors of the CIA and will be interesting to see what part Devlin played in his death. Its likely to be as complex as the Lebanon at times, i know a lot less about the Congo-Katanga situation, which always complicates it, than i already knew about Lebanon.
I must order Aime Cesaire's play about the death of Lumumba as well.
CCCubbon wrote: "The hare and the wallabie are the only two animals who can get pregnant again while still pregnant.Yes, the swift is the other fast bird, faster than the peregrine in level flight, peregrine faste..."
when there was a peregine nesting in an office i worked in, one morning amid the duck and woodcock severed heads and corpses on the inlaid sill of my window, there was a dead swift. that suprised me but as you were just explaining CCC....in a kill dive, the peregine can outpace anything...
Well, I received an absolutely fascinating book today. Translating Style: a Literary Approach to Translation, by Tim Parks. Parks has written novels himself, won prizes for his literary translations from Italian, and he also lives and teaches in Italy so this new edition takes six well known writers (in English) and through linguistic and literary criticism, examines how translation can illuminate or obscure. He shows divergences between the original translation from English to Italian, shows how it works and where it doesn’t, and why, and then does a back translation from the Italian back into the English. It is fascinating how he sheds a light on the authors’ writing, the difficulties of expression from one language to another, the nuts and bolts of translation. I got the book to help out with the translation of a “saggio”. Apparently, Italians buy a lot of these short philosophical essay books. My Italian Feldenkrais teacher wants us to translate one which I have translated as The Art of Losing Oneself. More details another day. I will see how this goes but the topic is about walking without tools, no maps, phones, etc and losing oneself (as opposed to getting lost) in the landscape, using the lie of the land and the signs around you.
I like the discipline of translation. The puzzle. Sometimes very frustrating though that feeling of striving for words and expressions that seem just just just…out of reach….
Man of Straw – Heinrich Mann (1918)
A novel of late 19C Germany that threads together the decline of the Liberals of ’48 and the rise of two bitterly opposed groups, the Patriots enthralled by the prospect of imperial greatness, and the Social Democrats striving for the common man.
Despite the large cast, there is barely a sympathetic character in the whole book, certainly not the central Diederich Hessling, who evolves from student non-entity to decorated small-town manufacturer, by noisily embracing the imperial cause. He is impulsive and moody and full of resentment. He trembles at the thought that his deceits and chicaneries will be exposed. He does have a talent for grandiloquent speeches. He turns up the ends of his moustache, to identify more closely with the new Kaiser.
In his personal life, self-centred hardly captures it. He is abusive and tyrannical to his mother and sisters, and his behaviour towards other women he is close to is equally appalling… but one must not give away too much.
With all there is to dislike, the story is engrossing, because it feels entirely true to the period – a nation asserting itself and yet, internally, fractured, febrile, confrontational. The writing is dense and the plot development constant. Altogether, rather memorable.
No translation credit in this Penguin Modern Classic version.
Thanks to Georg and to AB, who I think both recommended it a while back.
A novel of late 19C Germany that threads together the decline of the Liberals of ’48 and the rise of two bitterly opposed groups, the Patriots enthralled by the prospect of imperial greatness, and the Social Democrats striving for the common man.
Despite the large cast, there is barely a sympathetic character in the whole book, certainly not the central Diederich Hessling, who evolves from student non-entity to decorated small-town manufacturer, by noisily embracing the imperial cause. He is impulsive and moody and full of resentment. He trembles at the thought that his deceits and chicaneries will be exposed. He does have a talent for grandiloquent speeches. He turns up the ends of his moustache, to identify more closely with the new Kaiser.
In his personal life, self-centred hardly captures it. He is abusive and tyrannical to his mother and sisters, and his behaviour towards other women he is close to is equally appalling… but one must not give away too much.
With all there is to dislike, the story is engrossing, because it feels entirely true to the period – a nation asserting itself and yet, internally, fractured, febrile, confrontational. The writing is dense and the plot development constant. Altogether, rather memorable.
No translation credit in this Penguin Modern Classic version.
Thanks to Georg and to AB, who I think both recommended it a while back.
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Crazy Salad Plus Nine (other topics)Conundrum (other topics)
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I attended an event at Edinburgh Book Festival where he appeared with two other writers of short stories and each read from their stories. It was all very “nice”. When McIlvanney read his, he was simply on another level altogether. His work was like a gut punch of the best kind. You know a writer has nailed it when you have a visceral response, when your insides are wrenched and turned over, and you are left breathless. There is good, competent, entertaining writing and then there is the kind that reaches the heart of you. He did that for me then and being a typical reserved Scot in that way, I regret that I was not able to find the opportunity or summon up the courage to go and tell him. Scots don’t gush but I wish I had.