I am reading ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’ by Lucia Berlin. And it doesn’t really fit me, I guess? The stories are more about a place or a moment than actual conflict/resolution stuff. But there is something in the prose that doesn’t click in my head. There is something about her style that makes it hard for me to read, and I wonder if it’s that I am not used to that type of prose in english, as I don’t have any problem with similar stuff in spanish.
I have Dreadnought by April Daniels and Roadside Picnic by the Strugasky brothers queued after it. I have already read Roadside Picnic (I love it), but it was the (fantastic) spanish translation. I am intrigued to see how the new english one measures up.
Yeah, of his books that I have read, The Road is easily near the bottom. Like I think All the Pretty Horses and that whole trilogy might be more boring, but I read those in high school, so they might be better than I remember but I don’t really care to bother with them when I can just read other books by him if I want.
been reading a collection on sylvia wynter’s work edited by katherine mckittrick. it’s good! it opens with a 90 page interview between mckittrick and wynter, and wynter writes like eva talks about philosophy. so many malappropriated adverbs. it’s good tho! wynter’s project offers a fascinating theory of science, and draws a crucial distinction between the exclusion of the global south from science, and the exploitation of the global south as part and parcel of scientific work. she also charges this idea that we need a new model of the human and with it a new science with a lot of energy, arguing that it’s the only hope we have of acting meaningfully against climate change as the logic of accumulation is central to this epoch of how we think about ourselves as human. on a similar note i was put on to this sick paper which i totally recommend to any of yall w academic access (or just pm me and i’ll email it to you)
also picked up artaud’s theatre and its double in a country town the other week, and been ducking back into that- still bangs, still want more game devs to read it.
finally, weil’s gravity and grace as a continuation of my catholicism/ catholic mysticism kick
I just finished Gravity’s Rainbow. I read it once before 6 or 7 years ago, but I was too young and dumb to really get anything out of it. It’s definitely one of the most imaginative books I’ve ever read, sometimes to a fault. There’s too much stuff in it. That’s part of the fun, to an extent, but even if you cut 100 pages out of the book, there’d still be an overwhelming amount of ideas and set pieces. Basically, it feels like the book didn’t have an editor (but apparently it did). It’s kind of a shame it isn’t a bit more readable, as I think many of it’s core ideas are still eerily relevant today.
The parts that dragged the most for me were the Roger and Jessica chapters (I never cared about them as a couple) and some of the later Slothrop sections in “In The Zone.” For a huge part of that section, you get seemingly every detail of Slothrop’s meanderings and eventually I grew tired of it. Given what ends up happening to him, I feel like it might’ve worked better to treat him more like Enzian and Tchitcherine and check in with him only occasionally. So I guess, weirdly, I wish the book was even more “incoherent” and less traditionally-plotted than it already is.
That being said, when it’s at its best (and it frequently is), it’s as good as anything. The main Pokler chapter could stand alone as an all-time great short story (though it does gain extra resonance through its relation to other plot threads), the Kenosha Kid chapter, Byron The Bulb, that church reverie, the chapter with Enzian and his crew on motorcycles, the utterly bizarre sub-chapter sections in “The Counterforce…”
I still think Mason & Dixon is the best Pynchon novel, but GR is definitely worth it if you can push through the confusion early on. You’ll be surprised how many seemingly disconnected bits make a return later in the book (the adenoid monster from early on has a hilarious payoff at the very end).
I actually read it this time for this podcast I do that’s basically a glorified Pynchon book club. We’re in the middle of releasing eps on GR, so if you’re thinking of trying it and want to listen to some people be confused alongside you, message me and I can link you to it. (We try to keep it fun and as unpretentious as possible.)
I finished The Selected Essays Of Gore Vidal today. It’s divided into two parts. The first focuses on writers/books, the second on politics/culture (primarily US).
He’s great at describing why he disdains things. His critique of Updike was so thoroughly pulverizing it made me embarrassed for Updike. Though I got the impression these sorts of take-downs brought him the most joy, there’s also a charm to his restrained praise of writers/books that managed to impress him. His essay on Calvino made me bump him up my to-read list. I hadn’t heard of Dawn Powell before reading his essay on her, but it was probably my favorite of his laudatory essays. He first reduces her writing to its plain constituent parts (almost all of her novels are about Americans from the midwest trying to make it in NYC, apparently), then builds a heartfelt appreciation back up from (and enabled by) the deconstruction.
The political/cultural stuff seems well ahead of its time for the most part (though early on he does throw around slurs ironically in a way that hasn’t aged well, imo), but isn’t particularly eye-opening today (the predicament of prescience). Still, it’s valuable to see blueprints (that now feel like recaps) of some of the fundamentals of current leftist thinking. Oddly, he seemed to be a deficit hawk - but mostly in relation to military spending, where I don’t think any reasonable person would argue with him.
Topic relevance aside, he’s a gripping stylist and I’d recommend checking out at least a couple essays by him sometime.
Don’t hesitate to read Calvino; Invisible Cities hasn’t left my book-bag in a year because I never know when I’ll need a page for a ruminative bus ride against the only sun I’ve seen all day
mbembe’s critique of black reason is a bit uneven and the conclusion underwhelming but individual sections are phenomenal- mbembe’s treatment of cesaire, fanon and glissant stand out, as does his bit on black christianity. aside from that, many of his particular formulations are v good.
tutuola’s the palm wine drinkard is a great little folk tale kinda thing. definitely the best dragon quest game.
revisiting sexton’s amalgamation schemes and though it leans a bit hard on psychoanalysis at times he remains possibly the most rewarding theorist i have ever engaged with