https://twitter.com/fzosh85/status/1668726688916684804
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James Franco made a Child of God adapatation? What… what the hell?
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do you know he did a faulkner too
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shrug just informed me that James Franco has like 30+ director credits and I am losing my mind
He did two Faulkners.
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Milorad Pavic - Dictionary of the Khazars
A compulsive read. Actually went back and checked connections between all the different entries. Not a huge fan of the conceit of the paragraph difference between the male and female versions of the book but I suppose it continues the theme of trying to assemble truth (or the body of Adam) through so many different written accounts. Even on rereading it you sink into its looping structure and string together its most interesting parts in any way you want. I had assumed the Khazars were completely fictional until I did some research after reading and it’s a good choice of focus for a book like this whether real history is hazy enough that you can kind of push it anywhere you want through several layers of unreliable narrators. Highly recommend.
The Calendar - David Ewing Duncan
A good overview of the history of the Gregorian calendar. Shit was pretty messy prior to the 16th century and without going into detail the book is a nice account of how people try to impose order on the natural world and it is just impossible. Even atomic clocks reveal tons of aberrances in the tropical and sidereal years that we can generally make up for it with leap days and other intercalary stuff. Also interesting to see how accurate each major effort to measure the lunar or solar year was throughout the centuries. Some cultures were just millennia ahead on some stuff but it wasn’t really united or agreed for ages thanks to mainly religious differences. Although arguably we have a stable calendar thanks to the need of religious organisations to observe holidays at the correct time. I never realised the calculations for (the different) Easter dates were so complex.
You Can’t Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe
I’m struggling. The book’s title is something I learned about at university. It is one of those sayings that gets a lot of attention from theorists for its potency whilst also being a phenomenon that is pretty mundane. The reason I’m struggling is because the book is long (600+ pages) but also long in its writing. A lot of prose is pretty good but just goes on at length when it could probably cut several pages worth of description of how company hierarchies work, or endlessly describing every single person in a neighbourhood. The book also just uses the N-word a lot and betrays the author’s own cultural existence rather than enriching any particular idea. I know it’s the 30s but I don’t get anything from its preoccupation with race. I had to skip multiple passages either because they feel dated or have tried to describe something for longer than it really needs. The central story is okay and I’ve made it through the first book but it does not need to be this long. Either explore the theme through the most interesting parts or write your very comprehensive autobiography - not both. Probably dropping it.
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big ol nuyoika thing on delany reminds me i’ve only done dhalgren and babel-17, what’s worthwhile of the rest in the opinion of yous all
before i go downloading hogg
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Nova rules
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Times square red times square blue has been a core text in my life ever since reading it. Heavenly breakfast is great also. I havent read any of his fiction yet so curious what people say
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Einstein Intersection’s good but avoid Gaiman’s intro like the plague.
Also no-one talks about Big Joe. It’s good. Big Joe.
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And so easily disproven by Bon Jovi.
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True of every book he writes an intro for.
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The paradox of Gaiman: it is good to pick out books if he has an introduction in them, because those books are probably pretty good, but you must never read the words gaiman writes, because they are trash and he has a gift for liking all the right things for all the dumbest reasons.
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shirley jackson, the haunting of hill house - this is the scariest fucking book i have ever read in my life. immediately recontextualizes stephen king’s output inside my brain as “trying to do this and also william hope hodgson x ec comics”
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bao ninh, the sorrow of war - extremely harrowing and brilliant, a thinly veiled autobiography about doing 10 years in a north vietnamese youth battalion, the horrible things that war does to absolutely everybody and how it goes on and on
i also read the sympathizer and the committed pretty recently, also absolutely good as fuck and extremely funy, i keep trying to get people to read these by explaining how fucked up and funny and humane they are and its not working and im disappointed
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the squidfucking part in the sympathizer pops into my head every once in a while and cracks me the fuck up
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Currently reading The Haunting of Hill House, Titus Groan, and just finished The Three Body Problem. Was recently reading The Computer Wars too, but found the author’s tone real grating. Also also, lost steam a couple months ago on another read of The Solar Cycle, so need to jump back into that; things were really popping off in the Pringles Can.
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I am reading an excellent historical biography recommended by Josh Sawyer about one of the few medieval executioners to ever keep a regular diary for the duration of their career. It is called The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington and I found out about it in an article linked by @daphaknee I think it was in the Pentiment thread. It is really, really fantastic. This kind of book is far away from my usual sort of reading, so I am learning lots and really just basking in the craft of historical and biographical writing that I’m really underexposed to. The book has a stirring narrative quality in the reconstruction of the historical era and the biographical subjects actual life, his perspective as he approaches the Lady’s Gate of 16th century Nuremberg at its absolute peak of influence and wealth. But it still hooks me by the brain because, despite being easy to read, and plenty fun in the way learning about history always is, it remains theoretically hefty and un-fluffy, since the author does all this speculation and reconstruction through a close reading of a rather opaque “diary” that reads more like a matter of fact ledger about the guys killed by the titular faithful executioner Frantz. The author explains his work, but there’s also plenty on display for one to quietly observe too, as Frantz admits slight glimpses of subjectivity when describing or glossing over the details of his executions and those who he executes.
The life of an executioner at this time is interesting in its historical generalities, including the stigma it carried. But the particulars of Frantz’ life are as interesting and even stranger. You should look forward to learning how a distant relative throwing a dog at his owner, killing both the dog and the owner, could lead to multiple generations becoming fated to the loathsome profession of execution. What was it like to do this work, and what kind of lives lead to this line of work, and who did Frantz make himself to be and have to be for him to eventually escape the stigma after a career of 45 years of acting as the sharp judge, a butcher, the last executor of state power? These kinds of questions are what this book seeks to somewhat answer.
HUEG recommendation.
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im just finishing up the book of the new sun, so that might be a really good next read. ty!
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