I finished Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours today and the best comparison I can make with it is with Ellis' American Psycho, written a century later. It's a practically plotless and only has one character - a seemingly eccentric and near-solipsistic sensophile bent on living out the rest of his life detached from society and the world. He lives only to surround himself with things which please his senses - not people, but objects. It's an odd little indictment of society as a whole, but more specifically, society at the time it was written: the novel was basically a non-novel in that it followed none of the conventions, a sort of liberating Gautieresque work that never ceases in its obscurity and relentless synaesthetic descriptions in some sensory-political fashion.
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Feb-11-2009 00:35
Lebezniatnikov
Stupidity Annoys Me
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: DC
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
Yeah, Lebez used to play Football (I believe?) and is far more well-read and well-spoken than I am.
Snu snu!
Erm, I was joking. I don't think I'd win an intellectual pissing contest. I may have read more books, I don't know. I do still need to read Salammbo.
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Feb-11-2009 03:31
pkcRAISTLIN
arbiter's chief minion
Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
quote:
Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
I finished Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours today and the best comparison I can make with it is with Ellis' American Psycho, written a century later. It's a practically plotless and only has one character - a seemingly eccentric and near-solipsistic sensophile bent on living out the rest of his life detached from society and the world. He lives only to surround himself with things which please his senses - not people, but objects. It's an odd little indictment of society as a whole, but more specifically, society at the time it was written: the novel was basically a non-novel in that it followed none of the conventions, a sort of liberating Gautieresque work that never ceases in its obscurity and relentless synaesthetic descriptions in some sensory-political fashion.
cool. read it to me next time i need to get to sleep.
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Feb-11-2009 03:36
Ania_xox
let me drive
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: on the midnight street
quote:
Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
I think you may have us confused.
you both turn me on in a pornographically intellectual kind of way that deflects any sense of reality
except of course your obvious interest in english and indo-european literature which I find exceedingly hot
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quote:
Originally posted by Slylee
oh well, different strokes different vaginas
Some dance to remember ~ Some dance to forget
Feb-11-2009 03:53
Lebezniatnikov
Stupidity Annoys Me
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: DC
Now reading:
It's getting harder to make much progress in a leisure book now that grad school is picking up a notch.
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Feb-11-2009 13:17
Ania_xox
let me drive
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: on the midnight street
Just finished this last night.
A rather depressing lolita-esque tale of a pasteur who takes a blind "wild" girl under his wing and teaches her speech, life, music and Protestantism. Horrible ironic undertones as he begins to ignore and chastise his own family while getting closer and closer to her. It seems clear to me that André Gide is using the pasteur's flaws to represent flaws in the Protestant religion, not to mention hypocrisy as the pasteur begins to have carnal thoughts about the girl and banishes his son away for attempting to court her.
Gide's descriptions of nature are what redeem the book, imo; trying to describe colours and textures to the blind girl.
Next, I think I'm going to give Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables another shot. Anyone read that one?
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quote:
Originally posted by Slylee
oh well, different strokes different vaginas
Some dance to remember ~ Some dance to forget
Feb-11-2009 13:53
Stasis
41º 42' N, 86º 10' W
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: New England
If you're interested in Mario Batali, Italian cooking, the New York city restaurant world, or rural Italy...I highly recommend it.
It's snippets from authors in The New Yorker. My belly hurts from laughing all the time
Feb-11-2009 15:42
Lebezniatnikov
Stupidity Annoys Me
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: DC
quote:
Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
Now reading:
It's getting harder to make much progress in a leisure book now that grad school is picking up a notch.
Finally finished - took over a month of reading on the train to work, but well worth it. A great author, and a very interesting take on the pre-Civil War period in Virginia.
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Mar-12-2009 15:54
nefardec
Tranceaddict in tranning
Registered: Oct 2004
Location:
The Archaic Revival, by Terrence McKenna
Etidorhpa: or The End of Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey, by John Uri Lloyd.
It is basically Journey to the Center of the Earth plus several grams of mushrooms plus freemasonry plus period science plus philosophical and metaphysical inquiry.
The book was written as a book within a book within a book, under a psyeudonym... because this guy was so afraid of being outed as a psychedelic user in the late 1800s.
Southern Vampire Series (Sookie Stackhouse) by Charlaine Harris which HBO's True Blood is based off of. Just finished all of them and I am waiting for the next book to come out (#10)
Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Anyone ever read either Jupiter's Travels or Dreaming of Jupiter by Ted Simon?
I've heard they're supposed to be fantastic (especially Travels). I'm just wondering how well Travels has aged seeing its 25+ years old, so which of the two is better?
