what are you reading now?

[luka]

It's possible that he is trying to emulate an American conversational casualness, and failing, but that seems unlikely.

 

[WashYourHands]

It’s a paradox of deliberate vagueness and reminiscent of an old prep-school lush trailing off

Tension and release by sense of acknowledging the futility of capturing the ineffable, quite cheeky too

 

[Benny Bunter]

Noticed Pound using "whatever" quite a few times in the pisan cantos in that cheeky kind of way

 

[Benny Bunter]

Or maybe not so much cheeky, but trailing off when he can't quite remember something he wants to quote (obviously not having access to his books in the prison camp)

 

[luka]

Yes, and it's interesting how the same device in two different poets can register in quite different ways, just the tone of voice, the attitude towards the reader and the world

 

[Benny Bunter]

It stood out to me in Pound cos normally he's so exacting

 

[Benny Bunter]

Like, you couldn't imagine him trailing off with whatever in the earlier cantos

 

[Benny Bunter]

Related, I was actually getting really annoyed reading something from the New American poetry anthology, can't remember what, where they used 'etc'. I know it's supposed to be like casual, deliberately vague, but it just seems like a cop out.

 

[luka]

I find a lot of that irritating in the Americans, faux-folksiness, etc

 

[WashYourHands]

You’d love Cracker Barrel

 

[version]

Cities of the Red Night. Strange reading Burroughs writing like this after being so familiar with Naked Lunch and the cut ups. Reads a bit like Ballard's Crystal World atm and doesn't feel as fresh and exciting as something like Nova Express.

 

[luka]

I like them though, that trilogy. They're sentimental but they're still Burroughs.

 

[linebaugh]

havent read anything in awhile now. not a word. my mind is free

 

[luka]

Books are for nerds anyway

 

[jenks]

After rr-reading Morretti’s Atlas of the European Novel, I have started Old Goriot. Already hooked, not quite Lost Illusions brilliant but certainly feel like I’m in the hands of a master. @craner weren’t you going to do something on him?
Also got the Tin Drum on the go, somehow I’ve managed to miss out on this up til now.
And The Promise - don’t usually bother with Booker winners but it’s very good - like a South African Faulkner. Reckon a few on here would like it.

 

[craner]

Hadn't planned to Jenks, I love the novel though.

 

[luka]

He's already written his Bakzac essay.

 

[craner]

But it was so good he wants me to write another one.

 

[jenks]

But it was so good he wants me to write another one.

i'll go and look it up - i just remember @luka teasing you about how long it was taking you to write

 

[craner]

The Writing Racket: Balzac’s ‘Lost Illusions’

During his lifetime, Balzac’s debts were as famous as his novels and more widely discussed than his love affairs. Money was the great unifying subject of La Comédie humaine and the legal and moral …

olivercraner.com