Contemporary books

[padraig (u.s.)]

currently reading a book that isn't contemporary but feels like it could be

The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell

will probably feel topical as long as imperialism exists

you'll never find a better or funnier dissection of the stiff upper lip and Victorian absurdities in all their sordid glory

 

[Corpsey]

I actually found Knausgaard vol 1 really gripping, perhaps because I related to various elements of his (by the standards of literature, or by the standards of the world?) boring life. Growing up in nowheresville. The first forays into booze and snogging. The undergraduate pretension. And middle aged disillusionment, while at the same time being continually obsessed with the "meaning" of art and life.

And also there is something evocative about banal description sometimes - because after all so much of life is spent doing humdrum, inconsequential things. For example when they find his father dead and the house trashed and he and his brother have to clean up the house. You read all about what cleaning products he bought and then all about the process of cleaning it. And every cigarette and beer as he goes along. It all should be very boring but for me it registered as life-like.

Only thing is because it was so focused on his father dying and mortality in general I think reading it helped (not the sole cause but a favour) to tip me into a full-blown existential crisis in January that I didn't really recover from until 3 months later. So I don't really dare to read the second one now 🤣

I don't think you can really talk of style in translated literature--that is, except for the style of the translator.

That said, Knausgaard I think comes across as a better writer translated than Binet does. Perhaps it's an ironic joke but Binet (or his translator) describes the snow "whispering" under somebody's feet at one point. Later on he says it "creams" underfoot which is on the money.

 

[Corpsey]

I remember reading the stuff in it about him going to parties at his schoolmates houses as a teenager, getting drunk, showing off. It's embarrassing and shallow and one thing after another and it really evoked a stage in my life I had mostly forgotten about

Anyway not long after I found some diaries I'd kept when I was about 17 and sure enough I found the tone of those chapters replicated by my 17 year old self - one thing after another, no reflecting over it, still a child in many respects no notion whatsoever of mortality

So I kind of give him credit for that

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I actually found Knausgaard vol 1 really gripping, perhaps because I related to various elements of his (by the standards of literature, or by the standards of the world?) boring life. Growing up in nowheresville. The first forays into booze and snogging. The undergraduate pretension. And middle aged disillusionment, while at the same time being continually obsessed with the "meaning" of art and life.

sure, totally valid, other people may different things more (or less) compelling than I do, bc they relate to them or simply find them interesting or whatever - I'm not knocking autofiction, it's just not my thing

I just don't find the detail of the lives of authors to be that interesting, like most people's lives, including mine

unlike the assassination of Heydrich, and dissecting the practice of narrative, which I find to be vastly compelling topics

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

like if I was going to write an autobiographical account of being a bike messenger (which I was for 8 years, tbc for anyone who didn't aleady know) I'd make it - or try to make it, at least - a lot more compelling than the day-to-day reality of being a bike messenger, which is full of both banalities and inspirations to muse on the human condition and meaning/meaninglessness. moreso than most jobs, perhaps, since it really strips the Sisyphean futility of most jobs - endlessly repeating the same task w/o ever advancing toward any kind of ultimate goal or meaning - down to its essence

in fact, the best bike messenger novel by a huge margin - that I know of - is Godspeed by Lynn Breedlove (the vocalist of Tribe 8, and a courier in his day I believe), which is about a totally different era of messenger culture - the halcyon paper days of the 90s, vs now when it's basically all food - but captures better than any written or filmed depiction I've ever seen the reality and especially feelings of riding hella fast thru traffic all day at this dumb, more dangerous than it's worth, vaguely countercultural job and the (mostly stupid) air of rebel cachet it imparts, as well as really interesting depictions of queer life, sex work, punk rock, and how all those things related to each other, in the milieu of 90s pre-gentrification San Francisco.

 

[luka]

i feel slightly envious of all the food delivery people. it looks sort of great. all electric bikes now too, dont even have to sweat.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

i feel slightly envious of all the food delivery people. it looks sort of great. all electric bikes now too, dont even have to sweat.

you shouldn't

I worked for an independent company that predated all the apps and it's a proper courier company - radios, some level of professionalism, lots of big catering clients (which is where all the $ is)

app people are at the mercy of Uber or whoever, the zones are insane, tips are meh, you don't have consistent clients so you have no control over how restaurants package things and so on. that's why I've never done the apps, even early in the pandemic when regular work was so grim we thought it might go under and a lot of people were doing app work on the side. I don't want to deal with any of that nonsense.

and even at my old job with its significantly better $ and security, there's all the other bullshit - the constant risk of injury (which means you can't work and don't get paid), no benefits of any kind, paying for all your own equipment and health care, riding in all the miserable weather. that crucible of shared suffering is really what makes messenger culture. and that's not even accounting for the usual customer service stuff - incompetent clients, awful customers, etc.

electric bikes are a real double-edged sword. they extend accessibility which is good, but they also lead to people who barely know how to ride in the first place zooming thru traffic at 25 mph which is...not great.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

remember when you wrote somewhere in some thread about ghost kitchens (or dark kitchens or whatever you call them in Europe)?

I don't remember the description but it was pretty accurate

my company tried them out when we we were desperate during the pandemic - like 80-90% of our normal clients were closed - and as bad as things we were we ended it almost right away bc they're so terrible to work with

app people have to deal with that nonsense and all kinds of other bullshit. it's not something to envy.

just get a bike and ride it. like most things, doing it for work takes all the joy out.

 

[luka]

its on the deliveroo thread. i just get whistful about the camaraderie of work i think. 'the crucible of shared suffering' to coin a phrase.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

i just get whistful about the camaraderie of work i think. 'the crucible of shared suffering' to coin a phrase.

yeah I totally get that

I suppose all jobs have it, it's just so literal with messengers - the suffering is physical and includes the element of everpresent danger

it's rare but I did know a guy who was killed by a bus a few years ago. plenty of other people who've been hit and hurt pretty badly.

even without injury you're exhausted, it's winter, you're trying to stay dry, etc, while in endless low-level warfare with drivers

you miss the camraderie and freedom - and occasionally, on a truly nice day, it really is the greatest job in the world - but mostly, no

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

mostly it is more like the banality of Knausgaard or whatever tho

you're waiting for work to come in, you're waiting on orders for to be ready, you're waiting on customers to answer their phones

you're riding through traffic all day doing this task which is both relatively mindless - i.e. it requires close attention, reflexes, organization, etc but no deep or analytical thought - and seemingly pointless, so if you're inclined that way it does lead to a lot of existential musing. or it did for me at least.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

one time when we were getting absolutely crushed during lunch catering rush the owner, who was dispatching, came on the radio bemoaning how fucked we were, orders late etc - which is bad form, tbc - and to calm him/everyone down I got on and was like "listen, in 100 years we'll all be dead and no one will care if some dude got his sandwiches or whatever 5 minutes earlier or later, so everyone just stay calm, do your best, and we'll get through it like we always do"

you can see how that kind of mindset would inspire thinking about meaning and meaninglessness

I always say being a courier has no future and no past - there is only the eternal now of whatever runs you're currently doing

anyway, probably enough courier talk

 

[IdleRich]

not naming cthonic deities so as to avoid invoking them is a common precaution across different cultures, I believe

i.e. the innumerable euphemisms for the Devil

And in the Wheel of Time books where "naming the dark one" is a terrible sin. ps you were right about book five or six or whatever, I just couldn't finish it.

 

[IdleRich]

Doesn't Lucifer mean angel of light or something similar

Lightbringer I think... hence it also became a word for a match. Luz (pronounced looze) is Portuguese for light and I guess that derives from Latin.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lucifer#:~:text=lucifer (plural lucifers),the side of the box).

 

[woops]

i can't find the thread where we were discussing ping pong, but my dad says the game was originally played with champagne corks after dinner. @IdleRich