kodwo eshun's more brilliant than the sun book - C or D?

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i love the ambition and the scope and the militant futurist bent plus all the OTM disses about black music coverage in the mainstream/rock press, but sometimes i think hes just not making sense. not that it matters of course - his rhetoric reads so brilliantly i think kodwo could be a great podium speaker.

titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, 14 November 2004 15:46 (nineteen years ago) link

M.I.A.

nick.K (nick.K), Sunday, 14 November 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I have owned this book for some years and out of all the hyper-textual essays on music I've read, I have to say I find it hard going and consequently haven't bothered to get heavily into it.

I can fathom Simon Reynolds' analytical approach, but Eshun's Wire-bound sonic fragmentations get buried in wordy jargon that the casual reader can lose interest very quickly.

I will re-aquaint myself with it at some stage though.

herbalizer12 (herbalizer12), Sunday, 14 November 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, hes quite flighty with the prose. i sometimes get lost and have to bring myself back again. hes got a good imagination though.

titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, 14 November 2004 16:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Would it make more sense with the CD on at the same time? I liked it a lot but didn't finish it, but I was in the library so I couldn't really hear or imagine the music. "militant futurist" is a good way to describe what's good in it, yeah.

Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 14 November 2004 16:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Read the book when it came out. Took me samthung like a week (what with me being a non-native Eng'ish uzer and all), but I enjoyed reading it a lot. Even so much that after finishing it, I immediately started again for a second time... The second wind, though, wound down around page 50 or there'bouts... :)

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 14 November 2004 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, Like everyone else i find it more than a little dense in style and prose, but then i got really into it and started speed reading it; i ended up rationing it for myself and reading it in sections. I only actually finished it a couple of months ago so i'm still digesting it... but definitely Classic.

I noticed that there’s a reference in Toop’s Haunted Weather, which I can’t work out is dismissive – Thinking back now, maybe it’s more neutral…but then More Brilliant… isn’t listed in the Bibliography…?

james porter (james porter), Sunday, 14 November 2004 20:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Afrofutrism (space is the place )

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 14 November 2004 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I liked this book a lot, particularly his take on Sun Ra. I think the thing about "jargon" is that he's being creative and coming up with his own terms sometimes- if they're disorienting, that's actually a good thing, because he's coining a new term of art that helps him put his finger on something: that compound word "rhythmelody" looks clunky on the page, but it helps him explain a certain traffic between two concepts that get totally separted in most musical analysis. I have found that idea pretty portable and helpful when thinking about music (it really suits gamelan, actually).

Drew Daniel, Sunday, 14 November 2004 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link

separated, I meant to say

Drew Daniel, Monday, 15 November 2004 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link

I heard a rumor that there was a companion cd for this book that I've never seen. Anyone know whether such a thing exists? If so, where's a tracklisting?

mike h. (mike h.), Saturday, 27 November 2004 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link

i'd love to do a CDR700 based on that book and may well get around to it!

jed_ (jed), Saturday, 27 November 2004 19:13 (nineteen years ago) link

five years pass...

yesterday I speed-read and notated Toop's Ocean of Sound and it was pretty smooth going. Today I'm trying to do the same with this. Distinctly less smooth, but I'm liking it very much so far. The zings are nicely brutal, and I'm enjoying his particular way of taking concepts from other writers and smashing them into each other and everything else he can find. Anyone else read it / had thoughts on it in the past five and a half years?

Merdeyeux, Thursday, 22 July 2010 18:08 (thirteen years ago) link

Every time I try, I get bored. Wish he didn't try to be so clever with his style. Anyone want to buy it off me?

brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 22 July 2010 22:44 (thirteen years ago) link

i love this book to death. regularly revisit it, and always understand it a bit more as a result.

brotherlovesdub - i think its OOP and therefore worth DIRTY CASH just some advice

the crucible of easily debunked e-mail fwds (stevie), Friday, 23 July 2010 07:29 (thirteen years ago) link

72 quid used on Amazon :(

flashing drill + penis fan (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 July 2010 13:19 (thirteen years ago) link

yeah, I've been enjoying my library copy so much that I went to Amazon hoping to find it for, ooh, £8, and oyyy. Needs 1 reprint, quick.

Merdeyeux, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link

PDF considerably cheaper :) but not mad keen on reading books via computer

flashing drill + penis fan (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 July 2010 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link

SEVENTY TWO QUID!!!

r|t|c, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:28 (thirteen years ago) link

OCRed PDF also significantly quicker for transcribing passages! But reading in that format isn't ideal for me either. Although people doing academic etc stuff could be bothered when it was all handwriting all the time I do not HEY LOOK A BUTTERFLY.

(at the moment, after reading the Parliament section, I'm wondering how many times I can use the word 'booty' in my dissertation and get away with it.)

Merdeyeux, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:29 (thirteen years ago) link

how people etc etc.

Merdeyeux, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:29 (thirteen years ago) link

tenner in german translation tho

r|t|c, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:30 (thirteen years ago) link

Drexciya section wd be cool in German obv but don't think my reading skills wd be up to it

flashing drill + penis fan (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 July 2010 13:32 (thirteen years ago) link

crashing rocks books in florida is doing it for £195.24, maybe j0rdan can do you a solid

r|t|c, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:33 (thirteen years ago) link

Can't do books in pdf either - tried to read Voice of New Music and its a fail :-(

xyzzzz__, Friday, 23 July 2010 13:36 (thirteen years ago) link

I enjoy this book to death and my copy is beyond dogeared. Wish it came back into print.

¿Can Your Gato Do the Perro? (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 23 July 2010 14:20 (thirteen years ago) link

i've sold two copies of this on amazon for £££s - the first was a copy i picked up secondhand, i think i sold it for £80, then i sold my own battered copy for around the same amount a few weeks later. i'd like to have it again but it was good to have the dosh at the time.

jed_, Friday, 23 July 2010 14:20 (thirteen years ago) link

Genius book written by a genius.

Andy K, Friday, 23 July 2010 14:24 (thirteen years ago) link

DONE. Loved the Sun Ra section, could feel me head rearrange itself as I read it. Not sure how much of the overarching themes and arguments I grasped from that speedy read, but there are flashes of brilliance everywhere.

Merdeyeux, Friday, 23 July 2010 14:44 (thirteen years ago) link

price will only go up when he wins the turner prize

Ward Fowler, Friday, 23 July 2010 14:52 (thirteen years ago) link

Somewhat (but not very) ashamed that my copy is in fairly pristine condition.

henry s, Saturday, 24 July 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link

He pops into the shop I work in sometimes and I always want to tell him that I love this book. But I wimp put everytime.

Dwight Yorke, Sunday, 25 July 2010 09:20 (thirteen years ago) link

you should!

what's the man up to these days?

jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 12:06 (thirteen years ago) link

jed, i wasn't kidding abt the turner prize!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/7679081/Turner-Prize-2010-shortlist-in-pictures.html?image=9

Ward Fowler, Sunday, 25 July 2010 12:35 (thirteen years ago) link

oh right, i'll look into that.

jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 12:42 (thirteen years ago) link

looks kind of chris marker-ish?

jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 12:44 (thirteen years ago) link

he's also co-editing an upcoming edition of the journal Third Text, tentatively titled 'Third Cinema'. Dunno if he'll be writing anything for it too. (I know this because a friend of mine has translated a few articles for it, including one on Chris Marker's Loins du Vietnam. Yay my friend.)

Merdeyeux, Sunday, 25 July 2010 12:59 (thirteen years ago) link

you should!

what's the man up to these days?

― jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 13:06 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

He teaches an MA at Goldsmiths.

Dwight Yorke, Sunday, 25 July 2010 14:52 (thirteen years ago) link

In fact he's a lecturer in Visual/Aural Culture. ALWAYS surprised that the Guardian is 40p for some reason.

Dwight Yorke, Sunday, 25 July 2010 19:53 (thirteen years ago) link

it's a pound tho innit?

jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 19:59 (thirteen years ago) link

Not in our student union shop. I think most universities sell the Guardian/Independent at a discounted price (Indy's 60p here).

Dwight Yorke, Sunday, 25 July 2010 20:01 (thirteen years ago) link

i'd be surprised every day as well!

jed_, Sunday, 25 July 2010 20:03 (thirteen years ago) link

five years pass...

looks like this is getting reprinted!
https://www.amazon.com/More-Brilliant-than-Kodwo-Eshun/dp/1784786721/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469132255&sr=1-1&keywords=kodwo+eshun

guess I should have sold my copy for a ridiculously high price? in any case, everyone should pick it up when it's out

mh, Thursday, 21 July 2016 20:19 (seven years ago) link

Much referenced since its original publication in 1998, but long unavailable, this new edition includes an introduction by Kodwo Eshun as well as texts by filmmaker John Akomfrah and producer Steve Goodman aka kode9.

:o

mh, Thursday, 21 July 2016 20:20 (seven years ago) link

eleven months pass...

it is indeed http://thequietus.com/articles/22679-more-brilliant-than-the-sun-reissue I've never read this so looking forward to picking up a copy

André Ryu (Neil S), Thursday, 22 June 2017 15:19 (six years ago) link

It’s coming out, like, next October or something.

the ghost of markers, Friday, 23 June 2017 00:41 (six years ago) link

one year passes...

this finally gets reissued in a couple of weeks.

FRE SHA VAC ADO (jed_), Friday, 28 September 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link

Is it too late to sell my original edition for a bazillion dollars?

brotherlovesdub, Saturday, 29 September 2018 01:47 (five years ago) link

Was just wondering that too. That book was my retirement plan!

henry s, Saturday, 29 September 2018 03:16 (five years ago) link

me three

the late great, Saturday, 29 September 2018 03:59 (five years ago) link

four fuck's sake why did i wait so long

canary christ (stevie), Saturday, 29 September 2018 22:10 (five years ago) link

one month passes...

this didn't actually get released and is now no longer on the Verso website and is "currently unavailable" (the new version, that is) rather than pre-order on Amazon. I tweeted Verso to ask what happened but got no reply.

brokenshire (jed_), Tuesday, 20 November 2018 21:54 (five years ago) link

seven months pass...

was going to reread when the reissue came out, but I guess I’ll either read one of the pdfs or pull my (apparently increasingly valuable again) copy off the shelf. amazon usa officially cancelled preorders of the digital version, too

mh, Saturday, 22 June 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link

What's the going rate?

djh, Sunday, 23 June 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link

looks like a hundred on amazon (us)

mh, Sunday, 23 June 2019 20:34 (four years ago) link

it’s a bit dated

the late great, Monday, 24 June 2019 02:10 (four years ago) link

three years pass...

Richard Skelton is selling a copy here:

https://www.corbelstonepress.com/library-sale?page=4

djh, Monday, 27 June 2022 18:13 (one year ago) link

Wasn't this getting republished at some point?

politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 27 June 2022 19:19 (one year ago) link

lol more than one

maybe he's aiming for the 25th anniversary

mark s, Monday, 27 June 2022 19:44 (one year ago) link

Where is the best place to sell a copy of this book? Best meaning most money for least effort.

brotherlovesdub, Monday, 27 June 2022 22:43 (one year ago) link

I guess it depends on how you feel about Amazon?

(There's actually a copy being advertised at £197.50).

djh, Tuesday, 28 June 2022 12:16 (one year ago) link

abe has copies ("new") at £500+ and "good" at c.£400

mark s, Tuesday, 28 June 2022 12:51 (one year ago) link

and Spanish and German language copies cheapish.

bulb after bulb, Tuesday, 28 June 2022 14:20 (one year ago) link


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