I have finished How the Dead Dream by Lydia Millet. I think it deserved a little more than I gave to it. I don’t know why I wanted to be finished with it so much. The main character was kind of faceless in my mind. He was like a zero-person. Someone who is so detached that he is like an absence rather than a real person. Which is weird, because I think throughout the book he is trying to make that connection with animals. Human beings are failing him. His father left his mother, moved to Florida and became gay. His mother is getting Alzheimer’s, his girlfriend died suddenly. He cannot make sense of any of the human side of things. But then, he feels compelled to reach out and plan excursions to sit with animals in zoos. Animals on the verge of extinction. Partly this plays out because in one episode he runs over a wolf on the highway and in another he finds out that his land development has caused the extinction of some rodent. All of this somehow gels into him finding himself on the ultimate excursion to a jaguar habitat. Of course, his human guide fails him and dies on the journey. He is left alone and the book is ending… and I don’t want to give too much away. And I haven’t figured out why it ended the way it did. He was never going to make another human connection and I think this is where the importance of money factors into the theme. Do you see why some professors think I need to be clearer? My mind is jumping to all these different things that are going on beneath the surface. I really appreciate this book and recommend it, I’m just not promising clarity at this time. Bon Appetit!
How the Dead Dream Monday, Mar 24 2008
Reading 10:43 pm
Hi, I’m Marcel Proust. Monday, Mar 24 2008
Reading 9:31 pm
I have finished Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust and am glad to take a little break before the next one. A little break being going to NYC for a few days. The Captive and the Fugitive will be waiting for me when I get back. This book ends with Marcel professing that he will marry Albertine. He must, really, because Swann married Odette and this would follow along the lines of Marcel being parallel to Swann, being that Swann is now dead, randomly, and I don’t know where else to go with that. This book focused a lot on M. de Charlus. He is pretty outrageous and gay. I love it! Meanwhile, I will now go finish Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream. I will then start reading Against the Day, which will involve me talking about each little section on here in an effort to figure out what the hell is going on. And also to share with you some pretty awesome new vocabulary words courtesy Thomas Pynchon. Will confused patrons interrupt me mid paragraph every other paragraph for the next 2 hours? Check back to find out!
Finishing some books along the way Sunday, Mar 23 2008
Reading 5:01 am
I have finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. Wow, could these two books be any different? Let’s start with Eat Pray Love: I think that this book is pretty self indulgent. I mean-I think that maybe I just don’t understand mid-30s life problems, feelings of middle aged despair and self pity that only requires a year abroad chilling out to cure. Most people can’t chill out abroad to solve all their problems and most people have bigger problems than this lady did. It was well written, funny in spots, and it made me jealous for Italy (I’d skip the ashram) and Bali. But in all honesty, this is the same person who came up with the whole Coyote Ugly concept and I just never was able to take her seriously. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with my review and I don’t regret reading it, it was just not everything I wanted it to be.
Mysteries of Pittsburgh, on the other hand, was fantastic! Art Bechstein is the son of a mobster with a bunch of hangups. He spends a hot summer in Pittsburgh becoming extremely close to a fantastically diverse, interesting, and sad bunch of people. Hijinks’s, love, and disaster ensue and if you have ever read any Chabon, you should read this. For me, it was like eating the frosting first (Kavalier and Clay, Yiddish Policemen) and then eating the cake. Love Chabon! Can’t wait to read more. Plus, it was a really fast read. I love his pacing and editing.
I sold a bunch of junk at the flea market today. It was lots of fun. Everyone wanted Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Nicholas Sparks, etc. I just couldn’t deliver! There was also a normal looking girl who had never heard of Jack Kerouac. Hello? Cultural literacy anyone?
Thank jeebus I only have to work 2 days next week.
Little update Friday, Mar 21 2008
Reading 6:02 am
Becky got me a present at City Lights. Since she’s not coming home before my trip, it’ll be a plane book for the way home. Now both Mark and Becky got me City Lights stuff. Thanks pals! I had a hard day being a mini librarian today. I only want my life to be about books. Just books. Me and a pile of books. Is that idealistic? I’m still working my way through the 4th Proust with the 5th on the way from inter-library loan. I was so discouraged by The Lusiads yesterday, but after class I have been inspired to keep working on it. Sometimes it just takes someone you respect telling you that they understand your struggles. Then you are motivated to continue working through things. It just takes patience. 17th century Portuguese epic poetry is pretty tough! I have to write a paper on it during and after my trip so I’m trying to finish reading it now.
Tomorrow should be a big reading day. Also: I was nominated for student worker of the year and was chosen to be the top 100 and get to go to a luncheon with Leanne there with me. This is good because I am a big fan of Leanne. (She nominated me). Free lunch! Woo Hoo!
I hate how real life interrupts my reading schedule. Screw you, life!
Let’s be Nice! Thursday, Mar 20 2008
Reading the niceness revolution 9:05 pm
I am starting a revolution. LET’S BE NICE TO PEOPLE!
Young children know the deal.
Not Reading…Browsing…yak! Wednesday, Mar 19 2008
Reading 9:20 pm
I am currently obsessed with these homemade art books that you can buy from links from this website. Some are super expensive, some you can find on amazon and some are cheap…you just have to contact the artist. The link is on the blogroll at the right. Here is an example:
This one is Turbulence by Henrik Drescher. I also really, really like 365 Penguins:
Every day of the year another penguin comes. By the end of the year there are so many penguins the family does not have anywhere to put them. This one is available on Amazon and is relatively inexpensive. Go to the site for some amazing artwork.
I found this on some random website and thought is was hilarious.
Love, Jessica
This is interesting to me… Wednesday, Mar 19 2008
Reading 8:35 pm
This is from the site www.readysteadybook.com and I need it to reference later…
“A friend writes, saying: “I’m trying to hunt down novels whose form is that of an encyclopedia, catalogue or dictionary, and where the narrative/non-narrative evolves from the entries. Apart from Ballard’s Atrocity Exhibition, Han Shaogong’s A Dictionary of Maqiao, Roberto Bolano’s Nazi Literature in the Americas, Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars and Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch. Do you know of any others?”
No, I don’t. So, over to you guys!”
Posted by Mark Thwaite
Consider Harry Mathews’s The Journalist, a novel in the form of a diary that gets more systematically elaborate and detailed in its classification system. In a very disconcerting way, the system rather “works” for the reader.Danilo Kis. A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. profiles of revolutionaries.Enrique Vila-Matas. Bartleby & Co. Series of footnotes to nonexistent text.Stanislas Lem. A Perfect Vacuum. One Human Minute. Reviews of nonexistent books.Stanislas Lem. Imaginary Magnitude. Introductions to scientific textbooks not yet written.
Rhys Hughes. A New Universal History of Infamy. Riffing off Borges’ version.
It’s a start at least..
forgive my vaguery -is there not a Borges story that does this or am I imagining or remembering a dream of one ? -there’s Borges for youYes! The Last Window Giraffe, by Peter Zilahy.
Originally in Hungarian and since 15 March available in English, Anthem Press. And 18 other assorted languages.
See also www.zilahy.netNot sure if this counts, but Stanley Crawford’s Some Instructions to my Wife Concerning the Upkeep of the House and Marriage and to my Son and Daughter Concerning the Conduct of their Childhood (published by Dalkey) is in the form of an informal instruction manual…Speaking of Dalkey, here’s one I haven’t read, but I remember looking at some time back: The Tar Baby by Jerome Charyn. The description from the website:”Cast in the form of a hilariously ribald parody of a literary quarterly, The Tar Baby is a brilliant, audacious, story-filled novel populated by an array of brawling academics and earthy townies. A commemorative issue honoring the late Anatole Waxman-Weissman, the book/journal parodies a number of academic fads and concerns as the various contributors expose their and their subject’s many idiosyncrasies while pursuing their own private agendas.”Again, don’t know if these are what your friend has in mind, but his inclusion of Hopscotch suggested a looser interpretation…
One more: Richard Horn. Encyclopedia. Grove Press, 1969.The fourth and final section of David Grossman’s See Under: Love.Alexander Kluge: Case Historiesand apparently, Dmitri Galkovsky’s Infinite Deadlock.It’s hard for me not to lump in Pale Fire, at least in spirit
Karel Capek’s “War with the Newts” is made up of newspaper accounts, encyclopedia entries, trade journal articles, telegrams, letters, propaganda pamphlets, official diplomatic missives, etc. And it’s amazing.Not quite the form of an encyclopedia or dictionary, but a fascinating novel about the compiler of a dictionary of mythology: Lempriere’s Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk. Get the British rather than American version if you can.I think Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” probably counts.Two more: Sarah Emily Miano, Encyclopedia of Snow (London: Picador, 2003) and Garth Risk Hallberg A Field Guide to the North American Family (NY: Mark Batty, 2007)
Flaubert’s “Dictionary of Received Ideas” is a bit off the mark but might still be of interest.”
More Reading Done Monday, Mar 17 2008
Reading 2:50 am
I have finished Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore and I really loved it. It was the kind of book where you balance between laughter and tears. The best part is where the narrator remembers a school project where each kid is dressed as a planet and positioned around town in the position that the planets would be in orbit. The narrator is Pluto and gets put 30 miles outside of town in a corn field by herself. Do you see what I mean? Its a coming of age novelette and also a middle aged woman looking back in order to figure out why she is in Paris with some guy that happens to be her husband. She suspects it has something to do with her hometown of Horsehearts.
I have FINALLY tracked down Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream at the library. I emailed access services and lo and behold it showed up on the shelves this morning. Now its mine, All Mine!! Hahahaha, evil laugh… The reading lineup is now:
1)Sodom and Gomorrah….almost done w/ (How in the heck do I get a hold of the next one, I ask you and don’t even get me started on the last 2…Interlibrary loan that’s how, what a inconvenience)
2) Eat, Pray, Love…also almost done…I’ll have some things to say about this soon.
3)The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. I am kind of glad it took me so many years to figure out that I needed to be reading Chabon because now I have started a love affair with this extraordinaryly lovely author.
4)How the Dead Dream…may not have time to start today.
5) A book for school that since I lost my syllabus I have no idea which one that would be for right now.
6) some poetry here and there…namely herbert and milosz
When something gets finished from this list I will finally begin Against the Day.
The End
Mata Hari Monday, Mar 17 2008
Reading 12:48 am
I have just finished Yannick Murphy’s Signed, Mata Hari. The book is about the life of a real life exotic dancer and spy for the Germans who was killed by firing squad. It was a very interesting and beautifully written book. I really like Murphy’s style and look forward to her work to come. Research Mata Hari more if you are interested, though the book is a fictional account of her life.
An Author Spotlight–Tom McCarthy Sunday, Mar 16 2008
Reading 5:58 am
I am presenting an author spotlight today on an intriguing author I enjoyed this past year. The cover of the book I read, called “Remainder” is a juxtaposition to the kind of psychopathic tension caused by the narrator’s neuroses. It’s a calming cover, but the feeling you get when reading this book is anything but. I think it may also be referring to the windshield wiper fluid that breaks in the tire scene (if you’ve read the book and know what I’m talking about here). Tom McCarthy, in his interviews, betrays no hint that he is as bat-shit crazy as the character he creates and there is a fan site called www.surplusmatter.com that I’m going to refer to from now on.
Et ce sont les chats qui tombèrent is the French translated title. Can anyone translate this for me?? Something about cats?? There is something creepy going on in the books about cats. The book has also been translated into Greek.
Tintin and the Secret of Literature is a book of literary criticism and Men in Space is his new novel. I am excited to read them both soon, but in the meantime here are the synopsis’s:
“Arguing that the Tintin books’ characters are as strong and their plots as complex as any dreamed up by the great novelists, Tom McCarthy asks a simple question: Is Tintin literature? Taking a cue from Tintin himself — who spends much of his time tracking down illicit radio signals, entering crypts, and decoding puzzles — McCarthy suggests that we too need to ‘tune in’ and decode if we want to capture what’s going on in Hergé’s extraordinarily popular work. What emerges from McCarthy’s examination of Tintin is a remarkable story of illegitimacy and deceit, in both Hergé’s work and his own family history. McCarthy’s irresistibly clever, tightly constructed book shows how the themes Tintin generates — expulsion from home, violation of the sacred, the host-guest relationship turned sour, and anxieties around questions of forgery and fakes — are the same that have fueled and troubled writers from the classical era to the present day.” –Amazon.com
“Set in a Central Europe rapidly fragmenting after the fall of Communism, Men in Space follows a cast of dissolute Bohemians, political refugees, football referees, deaf police agents, assassins and stranded astronauts as they chase a stolen icon painting from Sofia to Prague and beyond.
The icon’s melancholy orbit is reflected in the various characters’ ellipses and near misses as they career vertiginously through all kinds of space: physical, political, emotional and metaphysical. What emerges is a vision of humanity adrift in history, and a world in a state of disintegration.”–Almabooks.co.uk (Is the American edition out yet??) (Do we have it at the library??) (If we do, will it spend three weeks in processing??) (Yes!)
Tom McCarthy is also involved in this, which completely blows my mind:
“His ongoing project the International Necronautical Society, a semi-fictitious avant-garde network that surfaces through publications, proclamations, denunciations and live events, has been described by Untitled Magazine as ‘the most comprehensive total art work we have seen in years’ and by Art Monthly as ‘a platform for fantastically mobile thinking’. In 2003 the INS broke into the BBC website and inserted propaganda into its source-code. The following year, they set up a broadcasting unit at the ICA from which more than forty ‘agents’ generated non-stop poem-codes which were transmitted over FM radio in London and by internet to collaborating radio stations around the world.”
If you go this site there is a manifesto, proclamations, and it really seems like an extension of what was going on in Remainder. The narrator becomes obsessed with his mission and pays every one he can to go down with him. Perhaps McCarthy is more like the facilitator of the cracked out plans of the novel. (Sorry for being cryptic, I don’t want to give much away).
Here is one last review of Remainder just in case you haven’t decided to go out and read it right away!
“Tom McCarthy’s success is an ostensibly British peculiarity in a best-sellers chart populated by conspiracy novels and against all odds tales of domestic abuse. Much like Booker Prize winners Martin Amis, Julian Barnes or Salman Rushdie, McCarthy, a fellow male Oxford alumnus, writes with a set of openly academic ideas in mind. Remainder, his first novel, is concerned with the particulars of artistic genesis and its implications upon notions of identity and history; so far, so analogous.”
I hope you have enjoyed this author spotlight. There will be more as my fancy flies this way or that. Szia!
