Literature post ...
Kawabata has been set aside for now. My mind seems to have been taken over by a novel called "The Elementary Particles" by the current french writer Michel Houellebecq.
The question of "why" is certainly legitimate in this case. I never quite know what to say about contemporary literature. I find the characters abysmal. I am always bogged down by the feeling that the author is trying to "expose" what a certain kind of people are really like, behind the scenes. That is ... their characters are manifestations of their belief that people can't really sincerely disagree with them and be both honest and intelligent. [DeLilo's "White Noise" comes so much to my mind when i say this.]
But it more than just one or two authors, it is all of them i have read. Their characters lack all sincerity. Only when they write about crazy people do they really do justice to human minds.
I'm sure there are many good contemporary writers. I have delved into but a small portion, and usually because someone says that i "just have to read this". That usually means the author will charicature and laugh at the viewpoints with which i disagree. Straw men and "proof by fiction" ... two pet peeves of mine.
For every topic out there where i have a strong disagreement with others, where the country is spilt between 40-60 and 50-50 ... there are very smart and sincere proponents of the diametric (to mine) idea. I would much rather engage that ... give me Umberto Eco taking madmen seriously to some yahoo taking pot shots at New Age or Christianity or what-not in the most adolescent of passages.
We hated our wrestling coach back a Drake U. for scheduling the Division III tournaments and for having mutliple duels against the worst of D-I teams like Valparaiso. We wanted to wrestle Iowa and Oklahoma State, all the time.
Nothing has changed in my mind when it seeks opponents.
Anyway ... after all that ... this Houellebecq novel is supposed to be very depressing, very Celine ... and it is trying. It is sincere in its intent. {How many times have i used the word "sincere" in this post, i must be having an Existentialist evening.} It you like books like Camus' "Stranger" then this text comes recommended. I'm guessing it is the mix of pessimism and science that sent the woman who suggested it to do said suggesting.
Do i seem like a pessimistic scientist? Just because i call myself that, and maybe throw in nihilism too, doesn't mean its remotely true.
What else ...
... ah yes, Lord Jim. I never wrote my final thoughts there. I liked it. It may be my favorite Conrad novel. The ambiguiuty of the authenticity of the story is striking, and Conrad does a good job of keeping in our minds that the narrator is just a perspective teller, and in this case, perhaps he is trying to convert the dead to be "one of them" as we see intellectuals, especially metaphysicians, do so often when they interpret hisotry.
Bravo !
... back to it,
The question of "why" is certainly legitimate in this case. I never quite know what to say about contemporary literature. I find the characters abysmal. I am always bogged down by the feeling that the author is trying to "expose" what a certain kind of people are really like, behind the scenes. That is ... their characters are manifestations of their belief that people can't really sincerely disagree with them and be both honest and intelligent. [DeLilo's "White Noise" comes so much to my mind when i say this.]
But it more than just one or two authors, it is all of them i have read. Their characters lack all sincerity. Only when they write about crazy people do they really do justice to human minds.
I'm sure there are many good contemporary writers. I have delved into but a small portion, and usually because someone says that i "just have to read this". That usually means the author will charicature and laugh at the viewpoints with which i disagree. Straw men and "proof by fiction" ... two pet peeves of mine.
For every topic out there where i have a strong disagreement with others, where the country is spilt between 40-60 and 50-50 ... there are very smart and sincere proponents of the diametric (to mine) idea. I would much rather engage that ... give me Umberto Eco taking madmen seriously to some yahoo taking pot shots at New Age or Christianity or what-not in the most adolescent of passages.
We hated our wrestling coach back a Drake U. for scheduling the Division III tournaments and for having mutliple duels against the worst of D-I teams like Valparaiso. We wanted to wrestle Iowa and Oklahoma State, all the time.
Nothing has changed in my mind when it seeks opponents.
Anyway ... after all that ... this Houellebecq novel is supposed to be very depressing, very Celine ... and it is trying. It is sincere in its intent. {How many times have i used the word "sincere" in this post, i must be having an Existentialist evening.} It you like books like Camus' "Stranger" then this text comes recommended. I'm guessing it is the mix of pessimism and science that sent the woman who suggested it to do said suggesting.
Do i seem like a pessimistic scientist? Just because i call myself that, and maybe throw in nihilism too, doesn't mean its remotely true.
What else ...
... ah yes, Lord Jim. I never wrote my final thoughts there. I liked it. It may be my favorite Conrad novel. The ambiguiuty of the authenticity of the story is striking, and Conrad does a good job of keeping in our minds that the narrator is just a perspective teller, and in this case, perhaps he is trying to convert the dead to be "one of them" as we see intellectuals, especially metaphysicians, do so often when they interpret hisotry.
Bravo !
... back to it,
posted by Thomas F. Schminke at 10:12 PM
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