I finished james rolfe’s autobiography today and he talks about how he broke a window when he was 15 years old because an adult said to him “Nobody tells us anything. We’re the bottom of the totem pole. The balls on the dick” before following it up with an anecdote about how later the day his grandma died he put HIS OWN BAGEL in the toaster all by himself LIKE AN ADULT and then cries while putting his own butter on his own bagel (emphasis on that part the author’s) for the very first time.
He also narrated the audiobook and there’s multiple times where he fucks up and just reads the line again without any editing. he claims it was a 20 year process to write and that’s honestly kind of amazing since it’s atrociously written
While reading a collection of essays about the Situationists earlier this year, I learned Guy Debord wrote a follow up to Society of the Spectacle 20 years later in the late eighties. It’s just called Comments on Society of the Spectacle and, having read it, I think it’s just as essential for people to read, though less revelatory, and much better written. He basically observes that things only became worse in the 20 years since 68, and he coins the idea of a totally spectacular culture called “the integrated spectacle”. It’s a bleak book, but that kind of makes engaging with it feels essential. It was sad to discover with only 15 pages left that Guy Debord didn’t just die in the year I was born but that rather, according to the bio on the back of my copy, he specifically killed himself. Woof.
Next up is Nadja by Andre Breton, which I suspect to be asinine and poorly written like nearly everything the Surrealists ever wrote!
The civil war of Myanmar is continue, few of the world pay attention on there now. But consider if the massacre even keep 10 years more in the furture, to most of the world, just only replaced some rare earth and rubber supply brands, sounds inhumane but FACT.
Since I read books about Gandhara which bring me back to the Eurocentrism, I got huge instrests in a geographical theory called Zomia. In the book The Art of Not Being Governed, James, the author discuss a very reasonable theory on various overlapping territorial and hill tribe in Asia, based on language and geography reappear the mechanics of how hill tribes dealed with tons of empires around them, also explain why a land could be claimed own by different empires at the same time, though in fact none of those could be control these freemen.
Thai Hill Tribes phrasebook is an outdated handbook published by Lonely Planet, but it offers very strongly proof how these languages connected before they create their own modern nationality, many tribes in these areas have the same phrases and grammar. And Burma In Revolt wrote by a professional journalist who deeply in Burma policital topic for years, explored the last civil war and in Bruma/Myanmar and how different national states were created inside Myanmar since past 70 years.
I am now reading Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds and it is soo good for me. I discovered him only a bunch of years after writing stories full of absurd meta literalisms about characters and cartoons, so it’s both affirming to know someone in history had similar interests and artistic goals that I did as a writer, but also a bit of a feeling since no one really gave a shit about his best book and he mostly seems appreciated as like an Irish guy. But I love his book and AS-T-B is bizarre and hilarious. I wasn’t really on board with it until about 40 pages in when I started to understand what was happening was that a young, sedentary college student was writing a book about a man writing a book filled with invented or borrowed characters that would live in the same hotel as he does and at night dose him with extra strength sedative so that they could live their autonomous lives in spite of their creator.
Hey you may also like “The People Between the Rivers: The Rise and Fall of a Bronze Drum Culture, 250-700 CE” by Charlotte Churchman. I think it’s mostly focused on an earlier period than what Scott is writing about and about a different region, but also about highlands cultures in SE Asia. I haven’t read the whole thing yet but what I have read so far is really interesting.
hate when that happens. this is from Les Chants de Maldoror, the ur-surrealist text by Comte de Lautreamont, which is actually pretty great and hilarious.
I got through all of this in the last few months. Some SB recommendations nestled here and there, good stuff to be read.
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: I liked the formal writing touches but the actual plot just reminded me how miserable school is. The way the style of writing changes as the protagonist ages stuck with me though. Dreamlike snatches of imagery and simple grammar in early childhood then pretentious and wordy in late teens.
Thor Heyerdahl - Aku Aku: This is about Heyerdahl’s expedition to Easter Island. Good but there is a huge colonial lens you gotta swallow. Heyerdahl spends way to much futzing around trying to out-sucker the Easter Islanders and it gets pretty uncomfortable when he documents trying to use the local rituals to trick people into showing him their secret caves so their statues can just be sent to a museum. The most fascinating part is the discussion of how the extremely heavy moai statues were raised (the island’s mayor actually does a live demonstration and it’s gripping to read). I’d recommend reading the first half and then move on when you’re bored, the good stuff is just too front heavy.
Kobo Abe - Woman in the Dunes: How much can sand be described? Find out in this book. I liked it a lot! It’s obviously very Kafkaesque but the ambiguity of whether the main character eventually enjoys or finds some meaning in his new horrible existence was very compelling. Also enjoyed the breakdown of how the escape attempts are based on a very scientifically experimental approach which makes it feel a bit more real. Highly recommend.
Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow: was good for seeing where Lovecraft came from but then I remembered I don’t really like the Lovecraft storytelling anymore where the story is just:
Unsettling thing is witnessed
Vague feeling of malaise since witnessing
Mysterious but inevitable death
Hint that the supernatural element is genuinely supernatural and not just a hallucination of the author
Didn’t love it.
Sei Shonagon - Pillow Book: Was very interesting but required reading almost as many footnotes and endnotes as there is actual book. The perspective is very interesting not just for being that of a 10th century noblewoman in the imperial court but also for how mundane it is. So many of the sections are gripes. It’s difficult to follow but it’s interesting how everyone is just expected to know so much poetry as like the dominant form of shared textual references. An exhausting read overall. Probably best dipped into than read straight ahead.
Adolf Grünbaum - Modern Science and Zeno’s Paradoxes: While dated (1967), and featuring many lengthy refutations of other basic interpretations of Zeno’s paradoxes, this is just such a fascinating topic. Mainly unpacks distinctions between geometry and chronometry to answer why an infinite amount of divisions can exist within a completable series and how this acts one way for space but another for time. I wouldn’t say I fully understood it but liked confronting the perception vs reality problems within.
Lily Hoang - Parabola: Ergodic fiction is my go to literature and this felt a bit messy at first but really works as a holistic piece. Each chapter is a point on a parabola and it starts as a sort of short story anthology but eventually knits up to become a really interesting chain of themes and narratives. Ultimately autobiographical, dealing with the author’s struggle as a misfit from a Vietnamese-American family, but by way of a loopy numerological form. The book is just a cool artefact.
Reading Milorad Pavic - Dictionary of the Khazars based on some SBer’s recommendation, and so far loving it.
Not yet! I’ve always wanted to after seeing Woman in the Dunes. With so many pieces falling into place for a second time (shared director, cinematographer, screenplay writer, and composer), it sounds too good to be true.
feeling since no one really gave a shit about his best book and he mostly seems appreciated as like an Irish guy. But I love his book and AS-T-B is bizarre and hilarious. I wasn’t really on board with it until about 40 pages in when I started to understand what was happening was that a young, sedentary college student was writing a book about a man writing a book filled with invented or borrowed characters that would live in the same hotel as he does and at night dose him with extra strength sedative so that they could live their autonomous lives in spite of their creator.
