Porcine Crawl
In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naïve and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.
- Fydor Dostoevsky
It has been an ill-focused week on the reading front. This may concern the return to work after the holiday but a growing futility and resentment of self-awareness may remain at the fore. Ed and I went out on Saturday and I bought a half dozen books, one of them People and Empires by Anthony Pagden, I read in a single session on Sunday. It is more of a survey of the nature of empire from Alexander through the EU and it was certainly appreciated. My interest in Patrick White lost momentum, largely self-inflicted, though its hovering over the notion of loss and redemption brought Absalom, Absalom to close to bear. I had not thought of the associations between White and Faulkner before, but there is something present. Much as I read Atonement, finally, by Ian McEwan in two days later in the week. McEwan captures the sizzling link between thinking and writing on an almost impeccable level. As was the case with Saturday, Atonement was nearly a brilliant novel, in my estimation, yet a clumsy linchpin in both novels failed the illusion, as it were. The imagery in Atonement, which may be that in the murky plagiarism dispute was absolutely haunting. If it was cribbed from Vera Brittan, then I need to move from off of my ass and read Testaments.
The trouble with the Greeks is that they have no idea how old the Earth is. They seem not to realize that everything has already happened that will ever happen, save the end. In India, they think that the end has happened over and over again, as cycles of creation burn out – and rekindle.
- Gored Vidal
Thoughts remain concerning what to do next and I waiting for N to read p. 200 or so in the Karamazov and I will rejoin the parade. I have thought of some other intermediary selections but I would like to immerse myself in some theory or history. I am not sure at this juncture. I did read 50 pages of the new Mailer today but will abandon it. As it continued to sleet I then read 100 pages of Lord Jim. There have been ample references to Conrad in my life recently, it appeared as an almost muscular election.
- Fydor Dostoevsky
It has been an ill-focused week on the reading front. This may concern the return to work after the holiday but a growing futility and resentment of self-awareness may remain at the fore. Ed and I went out on Saturday and I bought a half dozen books, one of them People and Empires by Anthony Pagden, I read in a single session on Sunday. It is more of a survey of the nature of empire from Alexander through the EU and it was certainly appreciated. My interest in Patrick White lost momentum, largely self-inflicted, though its hovering over the notion of loss and redemption brought Absalom, Absalom to close to bear. I had not thought of the associations between White and Faulkner before, but there is something present. Much as I read Atonement, finally, by Ian McEwan in two days later in the week. McEwan captures the sizzling link between thinking and writing on an almost impeccable level. As was the case with Saturday, Atonement was nearly a brilliant novel, in my estimation, yet a clumsy linchpin in both novels failed the illusion, as it were. The imagery in Atonement, which may be that in the murky plagiarism dispute was absolutely haunting. If it was cribbed from Vera Brittan, then I need to move from off of my ass and read Testaments.
The trouble with the Greeks is that they have no idea how old the Earth is. They seem not to realize that everything has already happened that will ever happen, save the end. In India, they think that the end has happened over and over again, as cycles of creation burn out – and rekindle.
- Gored Vidal
Thoughts remain concerning what to do next and I waiting for N to read p. 200 or so in the Karamazov and I will rejoin the parade. I have thought of some other intermediary selections but I would like to immerse myself in some theory or history. I am not sure at this juncture. I did read 50 pages of the new Mailer today but will abandon it. As it continued to sleet I then read 100 pages of Lord Jim. There have been ample references to Conrad in my life recently, it appeared as an almost muscular election.
posted by jon faith at
7:46 PM
1 Comments:
Apparently it was a memoir from a nurse named Lucilla Andrews, not VB. my mistake.
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