tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post6111780603228703824..comments2023-06-18T11:25:31.044-04:00Comments on belᴀtɘd: Madame Bovary, c'est moi.pupilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-80167406445039348612019-07-29T19:02:14.532-04:002019-07-29T19:02:14.532-04:00With reference to Open City, I had written above, ...With reference to <i>Open City,</i> I had written above, "Now I fret that there is something equally despicable in my past that I have secreted away, even from myself, and that the therapist will uncover soon." That was incorrect, for the something despicable in my past is not a thing after all; it lacks event-ness. The despicable thing in my past <i>is</i> my past, in all of its terrible accumulation of harms meted out to others, sometimes willfully but more often: a thoughtless cruelty.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-74337244143146290862019-07-29T18:47:24.509-04:002019-07-29T18:47:24.509-04:00Rather, the central spring of my life is a related...Rather, the central spring of my life is a related but different contradiction: I long for solitude but cannot bear being by myself.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-53477155499138479092017-07-24T11:00:55.859-04:002017-07-24T11:00:55.859-04:00I will not finish rereading The Writing of the Dis...I will not finish rereading <i>The Writing of the Disaster</i> or feel guilty for returning it the shelf. And I didn't enjoy <i>CTTaHYoP</i> as much this time through, I don't think. Perhaps I will pick up some more Murakami. Perhaps I will finally dive into the fiction of James Baldwin or read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...but for now, gentle reader, beloved Emma B., so long. </end>pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-49411867009143959842017-07-17T01:26:38.909-04:002017-07-17T01:26:38.909-04:00...now I find myself struggling through The Writin......now I find myself struggling through <i>The Writing of the Disaster</i>. I slipped right into it the first time around, fifteen years ago. This time, though: <i>struggle;</i> so I'm stalled. And rereading <i>Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage</i> at the same time...pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-69702096178803254652017-06-02T10:03:02.326-04:002017-06-02T10:03:02.326-04:00Murakami's conversations with Seiji Ozawa, Abs...Murakami's conversations with Seiji Ozawa, <i>Absolutely On Music</i>, required a little patience, but once you've made it through the first conversation, it gets better and better...and makes you want to sit around listening to classical music, too. And now I am reading <i>The Gift</i> – no, not <a href="https://verspaetet.blogspot.com/2012/03/dar.html" rel="nofollow">that one</a> – the Englished <i>Essai sur le don</i> of Mauss, which I've never read before and which was given to me as a gift...pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-8234361756182020112017-04-15T22:22:44.144-04:002017-04-15T22:22:44.144-04:00(By the by, Tibor Fischer's Under the Frog is ...(By the by, Tibor Fischer's <i>Under the Frog</i> is what I really wanted to be rereading right now...but I seem to have given my copy away, or solid it, or something.)pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-58978875711265779122017-04-15T22:21:17.081-04:002017-04-15T22:21:17.081-04:00Stoner was incredible, the language simple and lim...<i>Stoner</i> was incredible, the language simple and limpid. The characters (and it is, in the first instance, a novel of characters) are developed, mined, presented unsparingly but without (this is important) cruelty.<br /><br />Because the physical book was the right size and weight – grabbed in haste on the way to the train on a non-biking day – Primo Levi's <i>The Drowned and the Saved</i>...I thought I might read a chapter and then move on. But no, I cannot put it down. As with <i>Stoner</i>, incidentally, it's the language: simple, limpid, piercing. While reading his polemic with Jean Améry, I can't stop thinking about Levi's death.<br /><br />But I'm looking forward...O** brought me a gift: Murakami's conversations with Seiji Ozawa.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-50790097053521714582017-01-29T13:20:36.547-05:002017-01-29T13:20:36.547-05:00empire
And now, I am nearing the end of "Pse...<a href="https://verspaetet.blogspot.com/2016/12/empire.html" rel="nofollow">empire</a><br /><br />And now, I am nearing the end of "Pseudoreality prevails." Next up: John Williams' <i>Stoner</i>.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-51823266930070668862016-12-02T08:16:58.931-05:002016-12-02T08:16:58.931-05:00(Does this mean I have to go back to Carl Schmitt&...(Does this mean I have to go back to Carl Schmitt's <i>Political Theology?</i> Ugh.)pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-56644532063367991632016-11-26T07:53:48.885-05:002016-11-26T07:53:48.885-05:00(While in the thick of "Pseudoreality prevail...(While in the thick of "Pseudoreality prevails," I take a moment – a subdued, solo dinner – to reread Bataille's "The Psychological Structure of Fascism.")pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-26858380606434859442016-11-19T19:34:05.196-05:002016-11-19T19:34:05.196-05:00"Giovanni’s Room is, finally, a book about an..."<i>Giovanni’s Room</i> is, finally, a book about an American stripped of the myths of America, most of all the story we love to tell ourselves about the possibility of new beginnings and clean starts – that is to say, the impossibility of anything irrevocable ever happening to us" (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/19/james-baldwin-giovannis-room-garth-greenwell-60th-anniversary-gay-novel" rel="nofollow">Garth Greenwell in The Guardian</a>).pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-24264232222536753332016-11-12T09:36:04.931-05:002016-11-12T09:36:04.931-05:00::answers the question:: Now, submerging myself, b...::answers the question:: Now, submerging myself, bit by bit, chapter by chapter, into <i>The Man without Qualities</i> which, this time through, feels somehow even more exquisitely acute in its vision.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-45798203917676722232016-11-04T18:43:34.144-04:002016-11-04T18:43:34.144-04:00Wandering aimlessly in a post-rereading-Lolita wor...Wandering aimlessly in a post-rereading-<i>Lolita</i> world. ::rereads first couple of chapters of <i>Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften</i>:: Now what?pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-38208142708609160572016-09-24T09:35:34.317-04:002016-09-24T09:35:34.317-04:00God, I love all of the VN novels. The scene leadin...God, I love all of the VN novels. The scene leading up to the finale of <i>RLSK</i>, in which V. struggles against time to reach the dying SK, particularly the description of the train ride from Marseilles to Paris: fucking incredible.<br /><br />New plan: I will return to the scene of the crime, that first hit of VN that hooked me for life. <i>Invitation to a Beheading</i>. Then I will turn – and it's been a long, long time – to <i>Lolita</i>.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-13812466500378892952016-09-15T08:41:02.508-04:002016-09-15T08:41:02.508-04:00RLSK! With a jolt, quite apart from the writing th...<i>RLSK!</i> With a jolt, quite apart from the writing therein, the color and design and texture and smell of my copy transports me to 1995.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-42299319843545379742016-09-12T22:15:20.755-04:002016-09-12T22:15:20.755-04:00I read the last few pages of The Defense aloud to ...I read the last few pages of <i>The Defense</i> aloud to Rassa. She was just as bewitched as I was. The finale never gets old, even, apparently, if you don't really understand it.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-56515254169507517892016-09-02T06:45:01.721-04:002016-09-02T06:45:01.721-04:00LATH, encore. Now what? At the moment I don't ...<i>LATH</i>, encore. Now what? At the moment I don't think I have the concentration for <i>Ada</i> or <i>Lolita</i>. Perhaps <i>The Defense</i> then, or something else altogether...pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-59778861015321317072016-08-27T13:35:30.331-04:002016-08-27T13:35:30.331-04:00Babylon Berlin sinks into the past. Its sequels ha...<i>Babylon Berlin</i> sinks into the past. Its sequels have not been translated. An acute tang of shame – my lack of German – melts into my second, I think, rereading of <i>Pnin</i> since that enchanted summer between the pen- and the ultimate undergraduate years. <i>Pnin</i>, astoundingly economical, hilarious, devastating <i>Pnin</i>.<br /><br />The ache.<br /><br />I don't think I've cried like this while reading a book in a very long time.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-54676104415590686112016-08-23T11:28:53.083-04:002016-08-23T11:28:53.083-04:00So, after finishing the first part, "Beginnin...So, after finishing the first part, "Beginnings," I had to abandon <i>The Children's Book</i>. The copy I was reading rests with its owner in Berlin. And now I am barreling through Volker Kutscher's first Gereon Rath mystery, <i>Babylon Berlin</i>, which I purchased in the Pocket Shop at Tegel.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-89920908338458079732016-08-18T06:40:04.527-04:002016-08-18T06:40:04.527-04:00A.S. Young is not sure whether he likes A.S. Byatt...A.S. Young is not sure whether he likes A.S. Byatt's <i>The Children's Book</i>, but he keeps reading it so, for now, I guess so.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-31974027674841064912016-08-12T06:54:26.523-04:002016-08-12T06:54:26.523-04:00I have never read any of James Baldwin's ficti...I have never read any of James Baldwin's fiction, only some of his nonfiction, so it is a revelation to pick up, quite randomly, <i>Giovanni's Room</i>, which, because it is organized around <a href="http://verspaetet.blogspot.com/2015/03/authentica-habita.html" rel="nofollow">(self-)exile and alienation</a>, suits me to a T...reading it here, on the U-Bahn or on the toilet in the small bathroom of the apartment where I am living near to the Schlesisches Tor. I find myself <a href="http://verspaetet.blogspot.com/2015/04/madame-bovary-cest-moi.html" rel="nofollow">identifying</a> with David's confusion, not in its specifics (gay, straight, bi?) but in its general economy (there, here, here and there?). And the novel is one of the most beautifully composed that I have ever read. Now I have ten days remaining in Berlin for which I need to find a new novel. But first I will let this one sink into me for a spell or, rather, I will let myself fall into its wake...pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-89563766899530550502016-08-02T07:07:42.892-04:002016-08-02T07:07:42.892-04:00...ended up being too busy to acquire Ferrante. Bu......ended up being too busy to acquire Ferrante. But I did buy <i>Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore</i> in an airport bookstore (is that ironic?) in a paperback edition that includes a prequel novella, <i>Ajax Penumbra 1969</i>. After many small bites on the plane, on the train, in the bathroom, waiting for a rendezvous, I am done with the volume. It was fun, but I think I must have overlooked what made people so excited about the book when it was first published. Yes, it's "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/books/mr-penumbras-24-hour-bookstore-by-robin-sloan.html" rel="nofollow">slyly arch</a>," and I don't think it's going to stick to me. I preferred – forgive the <a href="http://www.datasociety.net" rel="nofollow">work</a> connection – "<a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-counselor" rel="nofollow">The Counselor</a>."pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-87803778013211256632016-07-09T01:34:47.537-04:002016-07-09T01:34:47.537-04:00Glory was luminous, the mood, the color of the nov...<i>Glory</i> was luminous, the mood, the color of the novel vibrating at an exquisite frequency. It was my least favorite VN novel when I read them all the first time 20+ years ago – also the only one that I haven't re-read since...but this time, something went <i>click</i>. The effect was so compelling that I had to write a ten-page letter to a friend recommending the novel.<br /><br />And now, on the strength of multiple recommendations, instead of picking up with misogynist Thomas Bernhard while I'm in Berlin for the summer, I will try to track down Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels...pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-56821339633497086782016-07-04T09:49:09.699-04:002016-07-04T09:49:09.699-04:00I plundered Radio Benjamin for all of its treats f...I plundered <i>Radio Benjamin</i> for all of its treats for Kinder but for now decided against reading the other radio-related texts it collects. But then...back to Bernhard? No, I'm succumbing to the magic of my first re-reading (a twenty year syncope) of VN's <i>Glory</i>.pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828905401214154457.post-47813502948946167172016-06-24T21:11:00.026-04:002016-06-24T21:11:00.026-04:00Love this in "A Crazy Mixed-Up Day":
&q...Love this in "A Crazy Mixed-Up Day":<br /><br />"I opened the door and there was my friend Anton's deaf housekeeper. She handed me a letter from Anton. 'Dear Heinz,' writes Anton, 'yesterday, while I was at your house, I left my hat hanging by the door. Please give it to my housekeeper. Best regards, Anton.' But the letter continues. Below he writes: 'I just now found the hat. Forgive the disturbance. Many thanks for your trouble.'"<br /><br />Here Benjamin reworks, for a younger audience, a bit ("that legendary example of epistolary art") which he had used in his earlier "On the Image of Proust":<br /><br />"My dear Madam, I just noticed that I forgot my cane at your house yesterday; please be good enough to give it to the bearer of this letter. P.S. Kindly pardon me for disturbing you; I just found my cane."pupilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085197110139248913noreply@blogger.com