A Momentary Taste of Being

Interview with Geoff Dyer via Books Inq.

An interview with Howard Bloom (via Books Inq.) I've always found the concept of "the anxiety of influence" interesting.  What is more interesting and perhaps less commented on is the anxiety of the canon, by with I mean that as time spins out and more an more new works come to notice, it becomes more and more difficult to stand out.  Certainly time does a fair share of weeding--but it is easier to stand out in a world where perhaps a thousand books a year are published as opposed to a thousand books a day/and hour/(with the internet) a minute.  Standing next to Shakespeare and Joyce, it takes a tremendous amount to hold your own, much less be pulled into the canon.  It suggests that we need to develop the literary equivalent of atavan.

The Common Reader, who is most decidedly an uncommon reader, takes on Arrian. And then starts his reading and analysis I have had this one for a while to read, but the debris of all the more recent publications simply drowns it.

The Phantom Tollbooth : An Appreciation by Michael Chabon

The longevity and power of the KJV What we often forget is that the KJV is the truncated version of the Authorized Version that included the deuterocanonical books and fragments.  The article includes a snippet/reference to Adam Nicholson's magisterial and readable God's Secretaries , one of my very favorite books of recent years.

An appreciation of Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels

Algorithmic book pricing and how Drosophila makes the top of the list.

Homeless mom jailed on grand theft charges for enrolling her son in Kindergarten I'm appalled that we can even think this way.  I pay taxes to support the schools even though I homeschool.  I would gladly give the "voucher" to someone who needs a place for their child.  There are millions of childless people who pay into the system and who get nothing from it other than the proper education (by some lights) of all of our children.  How is enrolling your child in a school stealing anything at all?  Perhaps if this enrollment actually prevented the enrollment of another child, I could see the point.  And yes, there will be a problem if everyone starts doing this.  No question.  So, why not bring the underperforming schools up to par?  (Easier said than done, but better than relegating countless children to them.)

Surveying the new Haggadot--a marvelous article by Michael Medved. Thanks to Prof. Myers.

Prof. Myers posts an interesting note about misreading Victor Frankl. Prof. Myers's point is quite different from my own.  The book is often presented as the story of the triumph over the inhumanity of death camps--but I failed to find any real triumph here.  Frankl was as oppressed and impressed by the camps as any other survivor.  His triumph was a triumph of numbers and accident--not a triumph of will--or at least not exclusively.  This doesn't detract from either Frankl or what he came to understand from the experience, but it records an instance of "reading into."  There is no triumph here--there is no meaning that one can paste over the experience of the holocaust.  There is no ultimate conclusion from it except that some, for reasons of grace, will, or completely opaque causes, survive and others do not.  When the "how" of existence becomes merely mechanistic there can be no triumph.  I have not yet found the triumph in Frankl's book an...

"Canterbury Bells (Good Friday)"

I have always liked F. Paul Wilson's work--ever since The Keep I have paid attention on and off, and as I read more, I realize that I should probably have been paying more attention.  Now I have a lot of catch-up to do.  Which is a good place to be. Jack: Secret Circles is the second in a trilogy of Repairman Jack books intended for the YA market.  In this work Jack learns a life lesson about how repairs don't always take right and what is being repaired may indeed need to be replaced.  The story of the relic found in the previous book continues and we learn something more about the mysterious Lodge that seems to figure large in the tale. Wilson promises that these three novels will have a prominent role in the last Repairman Jack novels, whenever they may be produced. During the weekend also took in a large portion of Soft , the first of the short story collections.  Particularly wanted to read "Dat Tay Vao" as it has importance for The Touch .  Bu...

"A Morning Walk" Ms Chopin, noted mostly for the short novel that got her in trouble, The Awakening , had a deft hand at the short story as well.

from "The Biblical View of Reality" in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity Abraham Joshua Heschel Philosophy of religion is primarily not the philosophy of a philosophy, the philosophy of a doctrine, the interpretations of a dogma, but the philosophy of concrete events, acts, insights, of that which is immediately given with the pious man.  The dogmas are merely a catalogue, an indispensable index. For religion is more than a creed or an ideology and cannot be understood when detached from actual living. It comes to light in moments in which one's soul is shaken with unmitigated concern about the meaning of all meaning, about one's ultimate commitment, which is integrated with one's very existence; in moments in which all foregone conclusions, all life-stifling trivialities are suspended, in which the soul is starved for a inkling of eternal reality; in moments of discerning the indestructibly sudden with the perishably constant. Religion is never meaningfu...

I have a problem with T.C. Boyle.  Every time I start a book by T.C., every time, I find myself in awe of the gorgeous writing. . . but lacking any desire to read through it to find out what story may lurk behind the facade. Without fail.  Short stories included--though I get through those by dint of length.  Tackling what seems like the longest novel ever written right now.  I'm sure it's note--I'm certain that Julie Orringer's The Invisible Bridge holds that record--what was it, four times as long as A la recherche du temps perdu ? But When the Killing's Done is a close competitor.  Here's to hoping I get over the slump soon. from When the Killing's Done T. C. Boyle It was only then that she became aware of the height of the waves coming at them, rearing black volcanoes of water that took everything out from under the boat and put it right back again, all the while blasting the windows as if there were a hundred fire trucks out there with their ...

A Dog's Tale

Pulitzer Winners announced. The good news:  Kay Ryan for her collected poems. The pitiful news: Jennifer Egan for A Visit from the Goon Squad.

iPads at Pompeii

Billy Collins on assembling poetry collections Link courtesy of a friend:  Thanks TSO

Since the time of The Keep (which in the demise of our much beloved Borders, I have repurchased with intent of rereading), F. Paul Wilson has been one of my favorite purveyors of dark fantasy.  Recently I read and reviewed his riff on the classic vampire story, Midnight Mass , and now it is my pleasure to record impressions of the first of a series (likely a short series) that he has written for the YA market. Jack: Secret Histories is a Repairman Jack novel set in Jack's teen years.  Jack, his friend Weezy, and her brother Ed are out exploring the edges of the Pine Barrens in New Jersey.  In the course of their work, they discover a dead body and a mysterious artifact.  From there the story is a roller coaster ride as they try to decipher the meaning of the artifact, the facts about the dead body and its relationship to a mysterious Lodge, and the realities of teen life int he 70's and 80's. The story is deftly told, with Wilson's customary aplomb, but absent m...

On the Banks of the River of Heaven is, in one word, lovely.  It is a collection of short stories, some related by time, place, and character, others unique in all three.  Each story is a gem, a small jewel of Scheherezade-like story telling--compelling, fascinating, alive. The title story "On the Banks of the River of Heaven" concerns the actions of the otter that lives in the river of heaven and how otter, upon receiving a special blessing from the cowherd/fisherman who lives on one of the banks, bestows upon this hard-working soul his own benediction.  He does this by fooling with the powers that be and showing them what really is rather than what they thought was. In the second story, "The Finer Points of Destruction," Kali Ma manifests inside our heroes television set and reports that she, along with another 10 avatars, is searching for her husband, Shiva.  She intents to manifest (and thus destroy some object) until her husband is found.  And so the ...

For those of you who don't know me on facebook sharing something from there. An aquarium with whale sharks and manta rays:

Confessions of an E-Book Convert I've been a long-term unashamed e-book reader.  I read them on PDAs. So I'm ecstatic with the huge and lovely screen offered by my iPad.

Compressed Air Car

Considering DFWs posthumous opus maximus

"An Interview with Jennifer Egan."

Some video of this most infamous of Nazi War Crime trials.

"Interstate"

"The Sensual World" becomes "Flower of the Mountain" I have long lived in blissful ignorance of Stephen Joyce's stranglehold on his grandfather's estate--one of the best reasons I can think of for systematic conscientious objection to our present ludicrous copyright laws.  But Kate Bush can now sing what she first had in mind when constructing her magnificent song. And what better tribute to Joyce himself than to take his most musical novel and make of a bit of it a piece of music. (Ah, I love Kate Bush--from Wuthering Heights to the present.)

Is Ulysses overrated? Ah, this is so simple--of course it isn't.  It may be liked more by some, less by others-but its fundamental influence on the shape of nearly all subsequent fiction--the one-two punch of Joyce and Woolf given us much of the restucturing and understanding of the way fiction works.  It is, in fact, impossible to overestimate the importance of Ulysses .  I would ask rather that in the shadow of Ulysses , have we underestimated the importance of some other works of twentieth century fiction?

Travels with Charley Steinbeck's book examined as a heavily fictionalized memoir.  This doesn't rise to the height of even notability.  If one thinks that a memoir does not contain heavily ficitonalized or even large stretches, one is being somewhat naive about human nature.

A Wagner Matinée In all that she does Willa Cather is without equal--her stories, her novels, her sense of place and person--all of these are worth a little of your time.  And this story provides a pleasant enough entrée into the work.

"How to Train Your Gargoyle" A review of Fr. Longenecker's The Gargoyle Code, a book in the vein of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters , Peter Kreeft's The Snakebite Letters , and Randy Alcorn's Lord Foulgrin's Letters. These are most helpful not when one is smugly observing all the sins of one's neighbors, but rather when one is being pinned to the display board oneself.

from Rilke's Book of Hours   from "The Book of Pilgrimage" Rainer Maria Rilke tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy  Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you. Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you. And without feet I can make my way to you, without a mouth I can swear your name. Break off my arms, I'll take hold of you with my heart as a hand. Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat. And if you consume my brain with fire, I'll feel you burn in every drop of my blood. II, 7 The mystical strain of this poetry follows the common ground of a mysticism.  There is a mysterious and serious violence that seems to follow "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."  This seems to be the strain we are entertaining here. The violence of this poem suggests the violence of the love that will transport the individual. This love is transformative--"stop ...

A new sub-atomic particle, a new force, or a fundamental misunderstanding of present physics?

Ugh--the Joycean Copyright trap.

For a month of poetry: Wilfrid Owens's "Six O'Clock in Prince's Street"

On How Fiction Works . I note this review because I'm ambivalent about the book.  I've read it once and read at it a couple times after.  I'm not sure how much I agree with the essential oils pressed from literature.  I'm not certain where I stand with respect to where Wood stands. In short, I probably didn't really understand it.  But the prose is engaging and readable, if, one sometimes observes, sparser than one might like.  I recommend the book to all--if only as an antagonist (which is not the way it is to me, as I've said above)--it is worthy of consideration.

from Rilke's Book of Hours from "The Book of Pilgrimage" Rainer Maria Rilke Tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy So God, you are the one who comes after. It is sons who inherit, while fathers die. Sons stand and bloom. You are the heir. II, 9 I don't even know where to start with this.  The logic is so alien and yet so right that reading this opens many doors.  In what way, precisely is God the heir?  What is it that he inherits?  How is it that He comes after.  And yet-- "I am the alpha and omega,  the beginning and the end, the first and the last."  So not only is He father, but He is also the last, the one to whom all things must come. As I said, there is a logic here that makes the poem like a little puzzle box, fascinating, mysterious, and worth the time to think about carefully.

Part of a poem that really struck me: from Rilke's Book of Hours from "The Book of Pilgrimage" Rainer Maria Rilke Tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy . . .  This is what the things can teach us: to fall patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly. II, 16

from Rilke's Book of Hours from "The Book of a Monastic Life" Rainer Maria Rilke Tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy I come from the soaring in which I lost myself. I wa song, and the refrain which is God is still roaring in my ears. Now I am still and plain: no more words. To the others I was like a wind: I made them shake. I'd gone very far, as far as the angels, and high, where light things into nothing. But deep in the darkness is God. I, 50 Whether it is Rilke himself, or Rilke through translators, he exactly captures some sense of what St. John of the Cross describes in the via negativa .  In the darkness, one finds God.  It is only by not seeking and not possessing that we find and we have.  It makes no sense.  Unless you've been there.

Another distraction in a long line of distractions that distract me from my distractions.  I wonder when I'll discover what it is I'm being distracted from.  Reading, it occurs to me, is like a long conversation between two old friends--you may start anyplace, but in the course of ranging the field, you'll cover a great deal of ground and never truly exhaust the initial topic of conversation. Ah, well then,  The King of Plagues.  For a reasonable description think, James Rollins crossed with Matthew Reilly.  James Rollins for the fact-based scenarios and Matthew Reilly for the sheer love of military equipment.  It is this latter that I find hard to take in the Joe Ledger series of books.  So difficult, in fact, that I have not finished the first in the series-- Patient Zero --dearly beloved of the Zombieists in the audience. So, what to say without giving the house away?  Well, once again we're in plague-land--while it isn't obvious from the...

The unfortunate closing of Borders across the country has led to momentary benefit for me in straightened  circumstances.  Wandering in, I came across a book of poetry I didn't even know I wanted at a much reduced price.  The example will clearly indicate why this was a good thing. from Rilke's Book of Hours   from "The Book of a Monastic Life" Rainer Maria Rilke tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy   Because someone once dared to want you, I know that we, too, may want you. When gold is in the mountain and we've ravaged the depths until we've given up digging, it will be brought forth into day by the river that mines the silences of stone. Even when we don't desire it, God is ripening. I.16 Gorgeous in its expression of the mystical desire for God and in the subtle understanding of God's preparation of the individual for same.

Gorgeous--Czech Baroque Library via Books inq

More about Diana Wynn Jones via Books Inq.

The Contemplative Journey of Franz Liszt A friend sent me this link.  Franz Liszt is one of my very favorite classical composers--I love the Etudes after Paganini and the Mephisto Waltzes, the Second Hungarian Rhapsody, amongst other wonderful pieces. An excerpt: Both Franz Liszt's piece, "Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude," and St. John's poem revel in their rich and ecstatic language, daringly extreme in their attempts to depict a state of spiritual bliss, the highest form of which was pointedly called the spiritual marriage by many saints The first-time listener or reader would have been unwittingly on target in his intuitive, instinctive reaction. Both the composer and poet realized (the former through aspiration and reading, the latter though inspiration and burning experience) that Christian contemplation is meant to be a love affair; that human love, even at its pinnacle, is a mere shadow of that love with which God created us and to which he...

The Greatest Hits of the Dictator I think this was from Books Inq.  Tab has been open so long I don't rightly recall.

Orbital Pictures of Mercury I'm with Miranda on this one--"Oh brave new world that has such [features] in it."

There are many theories as to what a book review is supposed to do and it is in the application of one or the other of those theories that we can determine how successful a review is.  Following on the article re: NYT book review going into chador , I found one condemning statement made therein provocative.  The article condemned the NYT reviews for not intriguing a reader into reading the book but for providing a kind of cliff's notes to it so that in a passing conversation the NYT reader could avoid reading the book but also converse intelligently about it.  And I would say that the statement identified what I think central about a book review--intriguing the reader, coaxing the reader into deciding that the book is worth the time. On this basis, I have noted that two reviews from Bookmunch in a row--one yesterday and the one posted just below this post--have successfully performed the functions of a good book review.  The two books they have reviewed in the pa...