books, books, books

[Jack of All Parades]

Otis-have not given up just needed the right chemical stimulation-about a third of the way through- like 'Doc" as a character but find a good bit of the dialogue so far very stilted-I soldier on-hope it was a great holiday- The "encyclopedia" looks like a definitive resource on all things Moz- the 'Poker" book is real fun- I do urge it on anyone interested in a well told tale-very well researched and presented with verve= just like the supposed confrontation between the two men.

[Jack of All Parades]

Was very pleased to read in this morning's Times book review section a review by Helen Vendler of a new Selected Poems by Wallace Stevens-ironically I have been revisiting my own on going relationship with Stevens-I keep his Collected Poems on my nite stand for regular refreshment-and have been much engaged with his poem "The Auroras of Autumn" as I have been working through "Inherent Vice"{nicely reviewed today by Walter Kirn in the same book review}its mournful tone for wanning life mirrors the feeling Pynchon has been putting in me-Stevens is my favorite 20th century American poet hands down-when I was employed briefly in the 90s for The Hartford- I made a pilgrimedge to see his office in the main Hartford head office and walked the same walk he did every day going back and forth from home to work-even paid homage at his elegant headstone in the main cemetary in Hartford-his verbal exuberance is exhilirating-his work needs to recited aloud for full effect-he was such a private man who yet managed to write such personal poems in a grand style-an unhappy marriage to a beautiful mentally disturbed woman[the model for the liberty head dime][sounds like Eliot] he consistently speaks to me of the main concerns that have troubled me as a twentieth century man[and as Ms Vendler rightly points out " Steven's conscience made him confront the chief issues of his era: the waning of religion, the indifferent nature of the physical universe, the theories of Marxism and socialist realism, the effects of the Depression, the uncertainties of philosophical knowledge, and the possibility of a profound American culture"-Stevens is "sublime" the closest I can find to what Keats talked about when he wrote about "negative capability"-in his strong poems there is no flailing about for meaning, just a diginified acceptance for "what is"-the photo in the review is wonderful- Stevens flanked by Robert Frost down in Key West circa 1940- they look like two bankers[and I really think it is a better representation of Frost than the country bumpkin he always tried to play]-when I feel the 'dread' of life come upon me, I always find solace in Steven's "The Snow Man" I equally strive to to see the "nothing that is not there and the nothing that is"[a feeling Dylan is struggling with in the recent "Together Through Life" in songs like "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"--when I am playful I think of "Bantams in Pine Woods"-and become that small feisty rooster standing up to whatever might be intimidating me at that time-two great things came out of Reading, PA[besides a railroad] Wallace Stevens and John Updike-they are both masters.

[Jack of All Parades]

A brief Pynchon update- he has broken onto the best seller list in the 8/23/09 Sunday book review for the Times-# 5- more importantly it appears he has posted his own soundtrack for songs mentioned or heard in the book on Amazon.com.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice one! Here it is. Shame it ain't on spotify, then we could just play it. Maybe I'll try and assemble as much as I can on spotify. My copy came v promptly along with Mozipedia - what a droolsome package to have! AS Moz has ben dominating my life ever since, I ain't swooned much over it yet, but it does look ravishing. Will almost certainly read it now, even though much of ATD remains unread.

[Jack of All Parades]

The cover is wonderful-I love the vivid neon effect with dayglow-one of my recent favorites-I have begun to feel that ATD is meant to be unreadable- like Finneagan's Wake-not for the faint of heart like me and only for the gluttons.

[mood swung]

That book by Nabokov, which, after reading an extremely dreary introduction in the wee hours, I had been dreading profoundly. Erroneously, it turns out. And the new Rolling Stone with the article on just exactly why the Beatles broke up, driving pre-orders of Rock Band through the roof!

[Jack of All Parades]

Had to read it two times["Inherent Vice"] and that is a positive as I could never complete ATD-but the downside is the overall underwhelming impression it has left with me- I have never been a big fan of pot humor-Cheech and Chong or any for that manner- it held me but did not thrill me- it is filled with the usual Pynchon touches, quirky names, colorful and playful lyrics and mood-in this case the end of the Sixties and the long sleep that came to fruition with Reagan and from which we have still not awaken from-voiced best by the villan Crocker Fenway when he states that "it's about being in place. We we're in place. We've been in place forever. Look around. Real estate, water rights, oil, cheap labor- all of that's ours, it's always been ours." Reminiscent of Jake Gites having the essence of Chinatown explained to him.

There are wonderful descriptions of places and scenes throughout the book[a talent that Pynchon does not get enough credit for- he often made me see or hear things from a character as if I were looking through the character' eyes or listening through ears fresh without an author intervening] but very little plot[something Pynchon rarely provides] it is a book of riffs with very few memorable characters and many charactures-one that does stick in the memory is the detective Doc Spoleto- he goes in the pantheon with Tyrone Slothrop and Benny Profane-I enjoyed the ontological discussion regarding Charlie the Tuna or the merits of the Wizard of Oz but overall I am underimpressed.

I parallel read this book with "Catch a Wave" a biograpy of Brian Wilson and the Southern California culture of that time by Peter Carlin-in hopes it would enliven the end of the Sixties motif-both have left me depressed though I did come away with one piece of Pynchon trivia- apparantly as Brian was entering his drug and paranoid isolation that enveloped him in the late sixties his home was often used as a salon for would be asthetes and intellectuals in the Southern California area, Pynchon was brought to the home as a visitor and was aghast as Brian dragged him into the Arabian Tent he had recently installed in the sand box in his living room to smoke weed-but all Brian could do was repeatedly knock over an oil lamp as he tried to light it-apparantly Pynchon was inarticulate throughout the evening and Brian was catatonic.

"Inherent Vice" has simply made me revisit an earlier, and better, homage to pulp noir- Thomas Berger's "Who is Teddy Villanova" with its cast of memorable characters led by the locquacious gumshoe Russel Wren.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Wow, impressed you read it twice! Shame it underwhelmed. I read the first page, but put it down as I'm reading 'The Bookseller of Kabul', which is a good way to gain insight into the horrendous mess of modern Afghan history and the lives its citizens lead among it, and also frequently engrossed in 'Mozipedia'. Then I have the dilemma - proceed with ATD, or read IV and then back to ATD? I just don't have the spare month finishing ATD will need. And for that's a solid month of reading! Know exactly what you mean Pynchonic powers of description of places. I remember when I was an undergrad and obsessing on him, I found my thought patterns altering to see the world Pynchonically. Shame I couldn't keep that up.

Great story re WIlson and Pynch in the dope tent!

[Jack of All Parades]

Otis-please do not let my words about "Inherent VIce" deaden your potential appreciation of the book-do go past that first page-there are many memorable descriptions of the California coast or the LA area that do leave you in awe and I am serious about Pynchon often not getting the credit I think he deserves for his powers of observation[he is not the master Updike] but he comes close-in the opus's like GR and V I have always spent too much time trying to keep up with the Science and philosophical discussions to truly appreciate his authorial eye-that is the real joy I take from IV-Like your motto re the limits of time I suggest scutteling ATD and placing it on the shelf with "Finnegan's Wake"=let it be another bloated Great White Male opus.

Saving my pennies for the American Mozpedia when it is available-to the dismay of the Mrs. I intend tomorrow to purchase the Remastered Beatles set-have my 30% coupon ready with Borders-that will deplete the discretionary fund for some time.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Wow, all of them in one shot? Nice one. And the there's the Rock Band game to look forward to. Mozipedia US seems to be down for Sept 2010 publication - insane. I'd order from Amazon.uk. You should get a decent price even with p & p.

Don't worry, my love of Pynchon is way too unconditional for anyone to put me off, and I love the idea of a missing link between Lot 49 and Vineland. The latter really divided opinion with many against. I enjoyed it, but really must revisit it as I wasn't really receptive to it at the time. It's interesting how the East Coast Pynchon seems to have been indelibly marked by his time in California. His most contemporary novels have all been set there.

I wonder how many more we'll get from him. I wonder if much will be revealed about him posthumously, or if the vow of secrecy will be closely guarded by all with any knowledge at all.

[mood swung]

you just can't wait for him to die, can you?


Took me forever to get thru the last 50 pages of Lolita. This is much more readable.

[Jack of All Parades]

Not a gamer-would rather be reading or listening-show my age with that as I grew up when television was still new and we did not have one in the household until I was nine-my girls tell me I deprived them because we never had atari, game boy or xbox-I think they have come out just fine-yes will go for the stereo production-not that much of an audiophile that I will miss the mono-just seems this is one re-issue like when EC put out the Rhino re-issues when you have to replace with no regret-hope Pynchon has a long and productive life-writing with vigor into his eighties and nineties like Bellow-IV does form a sort of tryptych with "Vineland" and "The Crying of Lot 49"-a cap on the sixties and seventies-it is bittersweet and has a last sentence that rivals the end to "The Great Gatsby"-I would love to see him do something with a more scientific bent to it-a physics novel-maybe along the lines of the famous 1932 conference in Copenhagen when physics entered the modern age and science lost its innocence[am reading a book I picked up in Boston last week titled "Faust in Copenhagen" about this famous convergence of scientists-would love to see him run with that- as to possible other productions I would welcome his own memoirs or at least a collection of his impressions of other writers and musicians-he must have some great stories to relate-one more possibility for me would be a work involving the Marx brothers as he has that antic-zany-word play sense of humor just let loose for a novel of pure fun and mayhem-just pipe dreams-he, like Salinger, will probably have a plethora of biographies once he has departed this mortal coil-do not think we will ever really know how he was formed in his early years-the pure control freak will continue to control the spin-the big joke would be if he had a Prof. Irwin Corey type do the biography reminiscent of his acceptance on Pynchon's behalf for the National Book Award earned with GR.

Mood Swung-your Tractor novel has inspired me to revisit Gary Shteyngart's "The Russian Debutante's Handbook".

[Otis Westinghouse]

Haven't been following this, but they're releasing the early Beatles in both stereo and mono? Guardian gave 'Beatles in Mono' a 5 star review. Article on Rock Band Beatles in Observer Music Monthly made me want to run out and buy it!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Talking of which, to tie in with the newfound Beatlemania, HMV are selling 'Revolution in the Head', which everyone raves about, for an irresistible £3, so I got it. I also got the equally praised Neil Young 'Shakey' biog recently. Where will I find the time to read them?

[Jack of All Parades]

Just completed "The Stuff of Thought" by Steven Pinker-rarely have I read a scientific book that is written in such a lively, engaging manner- he takes a complex subject, how the mind uses words, and makes it enlightening and fun, he tackles how we use innuendo, verbs and nouns, syntax -the "stuff of thought" everyday in complex and surprising ways- even the naming of a child has complex social implications-he makes you look at how language imbues our everyday life-"What is the implication of foul words?, Why do romantic comedies always hinge on ambiguities? Why have the last two Presidents been hung up on semantics?"-his discussion of metaphor is one of the best I have ever encountered-this book is just plain engaging, witty and perceptive.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Sounds good. I read The Language Instinct years ago, also good. He chose 'God's Comic' as a personal fave track on a BBC show a while back.

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for that tidbit about Pinker-on reflection it does not surprise me that he would choose that song[it also gives a nice symetry when it can be tied into an EC connection]- I am going to go on to "The Blank Slate" next as he takes on the subject of human nature and how our minds inform it.

[pophead2k]

Just finished Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by de Berniernes. Absolutely fantastic.

[Jack of All Parades]

Finished two-"Rouseau's Dog" by David Edmonds and John Eidinow- their followup to "Wittengstein's Poker"-same formula- two great minds at odds in an almost slapstick manner-this time Rousseau and David Hume- what transpired with Hume's ill-advised attempt to come to Rousseau's aid and offer shelter in England for him- great comedy, letter writing and an interesting window on two original minds- have to say Hume comes out the lessor and Rousseau is one handfull of psychosis-but like the previous book engagingly told and loved all the letters--also revisited Donald Barthelme's "The Dead Father"[nice to see him being resurrected with a good biography recently appearing-miss his wonderful stories in The New Yorker]-a wickedly funny and subversive anti-novel-the picture of the kids dragging the carcas of the dead father through the countryside is timeless-the comedy of dealing with lineage{Lear}also probably dealing with my own father issues-still love the inserted "A Manual for Sons' and the last image and sentence still reverberates for me 'Bulldozers'[I happened to run into Barthelme many years ago carpet shopping in the old Conrans in Citicorp Center-remember staring at this man in a strange Amish beard-he couldn't have been kinder indulging a stammering fan listening to the interminable 'greatly admire your work, it means so much for me' platitudes coming out of me-[a Pynchon aside as I was not aware of the real friendship he shared with Barthelme regularly participating in his legendary poker games]

[alexv]

Commuting Chronicles Reading:

"The World is What it Is", the Naipul biography-I posted some links to early reviews here when this came out a while back. I've just finished it. Best novel I've read in years!! Paul Theroux's book and other comments kind of clued us in on V.S's madness, but this authorized biography, told in a novelistic style, tells the full story in all its tawdry, yet fascinating detail. You get the long-suffering wife's diary (which Naipul knew nothing about), you get his letters, and you get the letters from the other woman. It's like reading Troyat's biography of Tolstoy where secret diary entries are the weapons of choice for the warring couple. But in Naipul's bio, the subject himself comments to his biographer on all the sordid goings on, from his current perch, with one woman dead, the other banished, and a third much younger one sitting by his throne.

"Many Mutinies"-- i've never been a Naipul fan, but dipped into this while reading the bio, just to get a flavor for his travel stuff. His style on this book on modern India was to conduct lengthy and excruciatingly detailed conversation with typical Indians and let them tell their tales. You do get a sense for the daily life in India, but the details, many of which clearly interested Naipul, simply bored me. Not recommended.

The Letters of John Keats-- A great letter writer, but unfortunately for him, his early illness, as well as the health issues of his brother and other travails, feature far too much for my liking. Every cough or sneeze sent the poor guy running for cover. Those were bad times. Come to think of it, with the swine flu stuff that's going on now, we may soon be in the same boat. College tennis players are being told not to shake hands after matches for fear of contamination. Achoo. I prefer Byron's letters, by far, although Keats' comparison of Scot/Irish peasants is a hoot.

Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island--edited by Greil Marcus-- This book, a series of essays by rock critics, was put together back in 79. Early EC is featured heavily. An eery trip down memory lane. I loved some of it, and cringed at a lot. This type of rock criticism has not aged well. The music itself is rarely discussed. The most memorable piece is one by John Rockwell praising Linda Ronstandt to the hilt (Linda has just done Living in the USA, the record where she covered EC tunes), which Marcus, the editor, followed with a piece by Dave Marsh titled "Onan's Greatest Hits" (there's an Elvis tune in the masturbatory list). I found the sequencing to be quite appropriate.

Coincidentally, who would have thought that the very same Greil Marcus, counterculture icon back in the day, would now be one of the editors of "A New Literary History of America".

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/books ... .html?_r=1

That's heavy, man.

[Jack of All Parades]

Nice to read a post from you, AlexV-missed your comments-have to agree regarding Naipul- was formerly a huge reader of his work and passionate advocate- but the recent Theroux book has turned me- I know I should be able to separate the work from the man but I find it difficult with him-what he has done to the women in his wife is disturbing-the publication of the authorized biography and its revelations has only reinforced my disgust-strange irony that he has an Argentine woman just like the governor in South Carolina-an equally worse nightmare would be to find revelations behind Roth and his relationship with women- as to Keats I really enjoy his letters particularly when he is writing about poetry and his creative theories-there are few equals when he talks about the imagination-concur though that for sheer fun and boisterous enjoyment of life nothing beats the letters of Byron- that is why I noted in a different post that this new movie in the theaters "Bright Star" has it all wrong[a movie merits being made about Keats and his star-crossed love] just do not sell it as the great story of the first "rock star"- that was solely Byron.

[Jack of All Parades]

Have previously mentioned in another thread about cds that this site has helped introduce to me - music I had no notion of-well I can add books to such introductions- previously I had ignorantly assumed that an English author named Jonathan Coe was Danish[the name should have been my first clue] such was my ignorance that I had never heard of this writer- my loss-I just completed "The Rotters' Club" and I want more. This guy can write and more to the point he can do something that so few can do-that is write in a comic manner that is both hilarious and serious at the same time-I can only count a handful of writers with that talent-the four young men in this book growing up in 1970's Birmingham are people you care about- I was touched by their development as friends-I am no expert on class but I came away from this novel with a keen appreciation of how it has permeated English culture- I also read with sympathy about a time that mirrors my own coming of age as a young man so the incidents in the book resonated with me-mostly I laughed-I marvel that Coe can deal with intimate moments in people's lives and at the same time interweave them cleverly with the broader social and economic issues that were working there way through British culture at that time. I am eager to move onto "The Winshaw Legacy", "The House of Sleep", "Closed Circle" and 'The Rain Before it Falls"- Jonathan Coe is a revelation for me and he may very well be my new favorite 'comic' writer-I am on an English bent these days having spent much time with Keats and Alexander Pope and I can only paraphase from Keats re: Coe -then have I felt like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into my view-this isn't just a Pluto but a Jupiter or Saturn that I have spotted.

[mood swung]

That damn library keeps having used book sales. I've been twice this week. Amongst the haul:

Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses (read Joy Luck ages ago, so hoping for good things here)
Rick Bragg - All Over But the Shoutin'
Doris Lessing - Prisons We Choose To Live Inside (not too sure about this)
Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer (I think this is a list book; was once banned here (I think) - bonus!!)
Roseanne Cash - Bodies of Water. Had no idea she wrote fiction, and this is small and short, so bonus!!
The salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors - first one mentioned? Edward Abbey, so bonus!!!! I was so excited to see him "canonized" by somebody. I was this close to becoming an eco-warrior back in the day.

and others too embarrassing to mention.

[Jack of All Parades]

As our government struggles with how to proceed in Afghanistan, I have been redrawn to a particularly favorite short story -one of Hemingway's Nick Adams stories "In Another Country". In rereading it this week I was struck by a particular resonance it has for this time, at least for me. It starts with simply one of the most striking opening paragraphs I can recall:

"In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more. It was cold in the fall in Milan and the dark came very early. Then the electric lights came on, and it was pleasant along the streets looking in the windows. There was much game hanging outside the shops, and the snow powdered in the fur of the foxes and the wind blew their tails. The deer hung stiff and heavy and empty, and small birds blew in the wind and the wind turned their feathers. It was a cold fall and the wind came down from the mountains."

The resonance is the wind-surely one of the strangest deadening winds I have ever encountered because it lays a pall on the characters in the story as they struggle with their fear of death and the war enveloping them like the dead animals hanging outside the shops-the polite conversation that engages the recovering soldiers is only an attempt to keep this 'wind' from further scarring them as they move through their days of therapy on the machines-when walking in town the main character always tries to stay in the 'light' - it is a wind I like to think that invests another Northern Mid Westerners song "Blowin in the Wind" as he too contemplated the futility of war and death-I am fed up with the waste of young men's lives and limbs in this never ending struggle and I find cold comfort in the words of this story- I am like the Major in the story 'utterly unable to resign myself' and too want to walk 'past the machines and out the door'.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Odd turn of phrase 'but we did not go to it any more'. Makes war sound like the movies. I've read little Hemingway. I've done stylistic analysis stuff on 'Cat in the Rain' as student and so forth, but never wanted to engage as a reader. The simple flatness of the sentences cited reminds me why. Almost al the sentences there are constructed in the same way: 'It was x and x happened.' Almost childlike syntax. It's always seemed to me that Hemingway believed this was how real men wrote, and anything more complex meant you were an effete poofter like Henry James. I accept that it's evocative with its wind and all, and compressed, but I can't be doing with its lack of linguistic adventurousness. Give me Pynchon!