'I FALL upon the spines of books! I read!' -- Autumn 2014: What Are You Reading?

Finished the last of Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann last night. If I had read this at the beginning of the year it would've been more surprising. As it is I've read Bachmann's marvelous Malina earlier this year (couldn't Peter Wortsmann translated one of her actual short stories instead of an excerpt of that novel, as powerful as that extract is, and now that I know a lot more about her affair with Paul Celan this takes on a somewhat different reading). Its one thing reading writers, but another reading them as short stories, and the ones I could connect with the most are the ones by writers I've already spent a long time thinking and reading (this year in partic): Kafka (In the Penal Colony is such as punch to the gut), Musil, Rilke's sketch is powerful if you know his writings (letters in partic). The prose piece by Celan is totally unclassifiable and an inspired inclusion (it is no short story). The exception was Heine's sketch, although in his documentary type piece (a few remarks on the origins of the German fairy tale) you get a sorta backbone to the whole vol. It sorta passed me by. I am ok with what I've seen of Heym's poetry but his story seemed Buchner by numbers.

Von Kleist (as I say above) was my major discovery. I may read something by ETA Hofmann but as good as The Sandman was I'm in no hurry.

Didn't really care for Chamisso’s Peter Schlemiel (once you get over the novelty), Grimm (just a bunch of effects). The other Romantics I had a skim, sorta bored by the forest scenes etc. The other bit that came out was how good Robert Walser really is at the Feuilleton-tale. The Kiss was easily the best of those but similar pieces by writers who write-as-entertainment (Tucholsky, Klabund, Lichtenstein, Kaiser, Mynona, Altenberg, Zuhn) in 3-5 pages just...didn't make enough of an impression.

Probably just me. I don't want to waste my time w/laughter and Romance as I clearly hate life, give me blocky paragraphs of prose, pitch black humour, intensity to the point of madness yadda yadda.

I'll investigate Ulrica Zurm (Fassbinder was working on an adaptation of her last book when she died). Tucholsky's Castle Gripsholm is a short novel my library happens to have a copy of (wtf?) so I'll look.

xp

Sorry when Fassbiner died I should say, and I totally misspelled Unica's name - wiki is here.

Fizzles do you like Golding's THE INHERITORS? Surely a truly pre-historic narrative?

I managed to misspell Fassbinder too.

Apart from Kleist the other surprise was how good the story by Kurt Schwitters was! Thinking about this now it would be the best reason to have my own copy of this (rather excellent) collection. I doubt he has that many published about but I don't really know.

Got a used copy of Kleist's The Marquise of O and Other Stories recently, haven't read yet---is it good? Contents etc here: http://www.amazon.com/Marquise-Other-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140443592#reader_0140443592

Has anyone read Chaplin's autobiography? Is it worth checking out? I have vague memories of seeing the biopic when I was a kid and in love with Chaplin.

Read it long ago, liked it very much.
I've come across HVK in several anthologies, where he's always at least one of the best. Also several amazing satirical fantasies by ETA Hoffman.

that von kleist is the edition i read a few years ago after discovering him via kafka. some were totally amazing: earthquake in chile, st. cecilia, kohlhaas (didn't fassbinder or someone make an adaptation of this? or maybe i'm just imagining it) and others i have absolutely no recollection of. also discovered a sort of contemporary of von kleist's through kafka at the same time who is worth a read: hebel author of the treasure chest. total opposite to von kleist in his artful artlessness.

currently reading some thomas hardy short stories for the first time: drunken farmers entertaining hangmen and prison escapees, blasted heaths, witching and withered arms. enjoying so far.

"Kafka sends his sister a spoof article about how Einstein’s theory of relativity is pointing the way to a cure for TB; his whole family celebrates the good news, of which he then has to disabuse them."

couldn't help loling at that when i read the article. also kind of curious to read the metamorphosis sequel that was mentioned somewhere in there.

got The Golden Strangers by Henry Treece (was that mentioned in the FAP?). More neolithic imaginary - a good and strong depiction of the realism of magic. of its time - the invader model of barrow > henge and stone circle culture is currently not a popular one.

Love it when ILBers make synchronous purchases - picked up a copy of this just the other day, a Savoy books reissue with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.

Got a used copy of Kleist's The Marquise of O and Other Stories recently, haven't read yet---is it good? Contents etc here: http://www.amazon.com/Marquise-Other-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140443592#reader_0140443592

― dow, Wednesday, 3 December 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He wrote a few stories (less than ten) and about 2/3 plays (not performed) in his short life. The translation I have is by Peter Wortsman (who also translated The Tales...), and this was the volume I thought I was going to find before I saw a cheap copy of the ed. on Archipelago.

kohlhaas (didn't fassbinder or someone make an adaptation of this? or maybe i'm just imagining it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_Horseback

finished A GIRL IS A HALF FORMED THING.
I think to me it became less boring and more compelling.
It actually does become moving, to me, in the last quarter or third.
I quite like the ending.

dipping in to Terry Eagleton THE TASK OF THE CRITIC for sheer joy of it.

buying that Kleist volume on reputation alone & diving into "Kohlhaas" unprepared one evening was among my favorite reading experiences of recent years

got The Golden Strangers by Henry Treece (was that mentioned in the FAP?). More neolithic imaginary - a good and strong depiction of the realism of magic. of its time - the invader model of barrow > henge and stone circle culture is currently not a popular one.

Love it when ILBers make synchronous purchases - picked up a copy of this just the other day, a Savoy books reissue with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 3 December 2014 08:54 (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was a sort of ILB hivemind choice: woof thought I'd mentioned it in the FAP (and possibly someone had. but I don't think it was me), I looked it up and thought I liked the look of it, and picked it up.

trying Sarah Waters, TIPPING THE VELVET
not very convinced. feels modish and sophomoric, if that is the word.

it reads like it was written to be a TV series.

Avoid! Avoid! I loved Fun Home too, but the follow-up is a ludicrous thing.

― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Friday, November 28, 2014 2:21 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is interesting to hear.
can you say more about why it is bad?

― the pinefox, Saturday, November 29, 2014 5:28 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry for slow response.

It's staggeringly self-indulgent and very silly. Full of Bechdel talking to her psychotherapist and drawing the most ludicrous of long bows in order to drag in enough associated ideas/thoughts/memories to desperately pad out the thing to book length. It's a fundamentally misconceived book on almost every level, starting with the lack of any strong material to write the damn book about in the first place.

Thank you JM!

I think the inclusion of a lot of the material in FH is already a stretch!

it was a sort of ILB hivemind choice: woof thought I'd mentioned it in the FAP (and possibly someone had. but I don't think it was me), I looked it up and thought I liked the look of it, and picked it up.

historical recontruction of hivemind action: I think you mentioned someone else and I couldn't remember treece's name so i thought it might be him. I've never read him myself – came across him while reading about Savoy Books.

buying that Kleist volume on reputation alone & diving into "Kohlhaas" unprepared one evening was among my favorite reading experiences of recent years

― I can just, like, YOLO with Uber (bernard snowy), Wednesday, December 3, 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this! Just finished it now and you can totally see what Kafka took from it - the need for justice and how to get it, how state bureaucracy deters one from doing so - and then by the way it is written. There are many differences: the crazy/completely random plotting, the up-and-down (sometimes within a page or two) fortunes of the characters, so much so you have no idea where it will ultimately end up, even if you can guess where it might go in the next page.

Mad, mad book.

One thing though Von Kleist is making me want to read Pushkin - don't have much to hand right now but I've been meaning to chase down The Captain's Daughter

So Dracula is actually pretty great for the first 200 or so pages; genuinely creepy (particularly during the opening "Jonathan Harker's Journal" chapters) with a fair number of hysterically awesome WTF moments (the scene with the dogs and the rats), but it really started to feel like a slog once the hunt for Dracula got underway. I really wanted Van Helsing to STFU already.

TE's book of interviews is the most readable book I have ever opened.

I have learned that the first thing he ever published was the 4-page article 'New Bearings: The Beatles', 1964.

xposts: seem to recall there are parallels between kohlhaas and pushkin's novel fragment dubrovsky (which usually gets collected together with his stories)

Just read the plot summary - good call!

Collected Short Stories by Paul Bowles - 'A Distant Episode' might be my favourite short story of all time, am quite happy to read countless varations of same

I love his short fiction.

Don't miss Jane Bowles!
Pinefox, who is TE?
More pre-Kafka: been a long long time since I read it, but got that vibe from William Godwin's Caleb Williams: a guy takes obscure offense at a younger guy, and takes legal action so the y.g. can't leave the island of England, Scotland, and Wales, which gradually starts to seem like this sweaty little boarding house. The younger guy wants to make amends, wants to be faithful to the system, incl the squirearchy, but is baffled.
Godwin is not a man of few words, but it's not that long a book, and, as in his daughter's best-known novel, the degree of verbosity adds to the sense of feverish struggle, of suspense---like I said, it's been a while, but it seemed really good at the time.

TE=Terry Eagleton, no?

I'll second dow's praise of Jane Bowles. Paul's work receives more attention, but Jane's Two Serious Ladies is just staggering.

Like, as unsettling as Bataille's fiction in a much quieter way, but also very archly funny.

The Bookshop, Human Voices, The Gate of Angels, The Blue Flower. I don't get the fuss about the last; I preferred the first two titles.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, December 1, 2014 5:05 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All of my Fitzgerald reading was confined to the semester in college when I took a course on her, so they all sorta blur together in my mind, but I kinda remember At Freddie's being particularly great.

J Redd / dow -- yes, that is TE in this instance.

Two Serious Ladies sounds really up my alley. Thankfully its been reissued so my library has it.

That's often considered her masterpiece, but once you're hooked, can often find a good used trade paperback copy of My Sister's Hand in Mine: An Expanded Edition of the Collected Works of Jane Bowles online for a nice price. She didn't publish that much, alas. Letters have also been collected, but I haven't read them. Really an unusual voice, urgent and distanced, sometimes too distant, but more often compelling, though she should've written more, should've been less paranoid, shouldn't have drunk that potion, whattayagonnado.

I've never gotten very far with Paul, esp. since reading ahead in The Sheltering Sky makes it seem like a violent revenge fantasy about an inconvenient wife, in what was supposed to be a marriage of convenience.

Don't do online buying of books but if I see it I'll have a look.

Elena Ferrante - Those who Leave and Those who Stay.

I laid Rabelais aside temporarily and inserted two other books into the hiatus.

Ranch Under the Rimrock is a memoir published in 1968 mainly covering the years from 1910 to 1940 and was written by the mother of Tom McCall, who grew up to be governor of Oregon. She and her husband were New Englanders who grew up in wealthy families and moved to central Oregon soon after they married, where they took up ranching. The country was still pretty rough, but their parents bought the land, built a mansion for them and gave them livestock and machinery, so it was not exactly hardscrabble homesteading.

The Montefeltro Conspiracy is a history of Italian Renaissance politics leading up to the assassination attempt on Lorenzo de Medici and his brother, when they were young men. The brother was stabbed to death, but Lorenzo survived. It then follows the war that was the aftermath. The author struggles valiantly to make the intrigues and personalities exciting, while also keeping the narrative clear, but those two impulses do not mesh well and it's a bit of a mess. But then, so was Renaissance Italy.

I recently finished Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina, which was slow going for a while and then devastating. I need to think more about the relationship between the "unknown woman" narrator and her partner and ambiguous male double Malina, and I feel like I should know more about Viennese history beyond the broad strokes, but the novel was really haunting in the way its evocation of everyday longing and asymmetrical desire splintered into fantastical images of historical trauma and patriarchal violence. I'll probably get more out of the novel on a second reading, and after having read Bachmann's poetry, but in some ways my reading experience might have been more powerful for having been approached with few expectations. I do wish the translation had kept the text originally intended for the German cover, since it seems like a pretty crucial paratext in the way it sets up the final sentence of the novel, as Karen Achberger pointed out:

Murder or suicide?
There are no witnesses.
A woman between two men.
A last great passion.
The wall in the room, with an imperceptible crack.
A corpse that is not found.
The last will and testament missing.
A pair of glasses, broken to bits, a missing coffee cup.
The wastepaper basket, unnoticed,
not searched through by anyone.
Covered tracks, footsteps.
Someone then who still paces back and forth,
in this apartment--for hours on end:
MALINA.

I recently finished Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina, which was slow going for a while and then devastating.

I had a similar experience with it. You may want to chase her correspodance with Paul Celan as well. I'll certainly chase a copy of Malina for a re-read.

Thanks, xyzzzz__! I've been meaning to read that correspondence (and will when I don't have to worry about accumulating books before a cross-country move); Bachmann's relationship with Celan was one of the few things I knew about her when I started her novel, although I tried not to assume that Ivan was meant as a Celan-figure in any simple way.

I didn't know anything about their affair actually so that led me to investigate the letters and the poetry from both. (I was interested in her by watching Malina by Werner Schroeter, its a bit annoying in some of its art-house mannerisms (Schroeter was capable of so much more) but it has Isabelle Huppert as Bachmann which is p/good)

The letters are mostly about their relationship but there is lots of interesting bits on Heidegger, the German literary scene of the time.

That's cool--I'm interested to see what they wrote about the latter topics, especially since Bachmann studied Heidegger, and Heidegger's fascism made Celan's dialogue with his thinking so painful and complicated. Since much of what makes Malina compelling is bound up with the narrator's voice, the novel seems unfilmable in important ways, so I'm curious to see what choices Schroeter made.

Do Walter Scott's Waverley novels need to be read in a particular order? They seem to jump all over the place in history.

Herman Melville - The Confidence Man. This is simply great.

Although I am not sure whether I will finish. Got a lot on this week, could easily get knocked off course and even a bit of that could be disastrous. Hope not.

How good is Galsworthy? Yo Ornamental Cabbage, or somebody around here must have read him. Also, my local library has Compton Mackenzie's Sinister Street, with good blurb by Evelyn Waugh (something you or at least I don't see everyday).

I totally love The Confidence Man, which reminds me oddly of Gravity's Rainbow at times: the dizzying accumulation of minor characters, the sense of the duplicity of official language and the hollow places in the vernacular, the way hilarity vies with gathering dread.

I've been splitting time between Rabelais and other books. I'm now as far as the start of Book 4 of Gargantua and Pantagruel. The first three books had a boatload of misogyny in them, which made them rather uncompelling at times. Book 4 supposedly is more soberly philosophical than the first three books, so I will test that assertion by continuing on with it. Book 5 is now considered to be by another hand than Rabelais.

In the meantime, I read The Archimedes Codex, a 2007 non-fic about the restoration of a palimpsest which is the oldest surviving copy of Archimedean material and which contains the only extant copies of several Archimedean manuscripts. After a somewhat breezy opening chapter, it was actually quite informative and interesting.

Deleuze : The Clamor of Being - Alain Badiou. huh, i'm actually following this.

one way street - I have the Dalkey edition of this book and the intro talks this up as a kind of proto-postmodern. I picked it up because of the ilx thread on it.

How good is Galsworthy? Yo Ornamental Cabbage, or somebody around here must have read him. Also, my local library has Compton Mackenzie's Sinister Street, with good blurb by Evelyn Waugh (something you or at least I don't see everyday).

Only read the very first galsworthy forsyte book, plus some shorts. It was quite good, and i intended to go on, but other thongs got in the way, and now its been so long i,d have to ewad vol one again to remember who everyone was. Classy potboiler level as i remember it.

Never read sinister street, but other - shorter - mackenzies are good. Thin Ice is about spies and their moral problems, Whiskey Galore is lightweight but fun. Read some gay-themed short stories by him in some anthology, though i cant remembervwhat it was.