Books/Reading Thread

[GnRIzzy]

Amazing movie, book is not exciting.

[nameless_girl]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

[ADPT]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

Now I feel really quite ignorant. Thanks NG.

Anyway, I'm reading The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.

[Y2marmar]

Amazing movie, book is not exciting.

You think so? I actually prefer the book

[Fun n' Games]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

Jeeez, going by this whole thread you are ridiculously well-read, who the fuck is Helmut Krausser; never heard of him. So are you telling me you are reading her in German? Otherwise, I guess there is still some radical notion and uncompromising pose left in English-language Jelinek, but to you personally my recommendation is if you got a free weekend, get your German to an advanced level, it will be three times as much fun to read her. My favorite of her stageplays are Raststätte and Mit Stecken, Stab und Stangl. The early ones I don't know and the later ones bore me. The nobel-prize gives you some worldwide readership for one year, right, after that I'm not so sure. And now back to the books already, what are you still doing here...!??

[Angelica]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

That's my little genius... A cousin recently lent me The Athiest Manifesto by Michel Onfray. It was quite fine.

[JeanGenie]

I read recently "The Kingdom Of Fear" by Hunter S. Thompson. A very interesting read and a very political book too.

[maXx]

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

way to go

[nameless_girl]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

Jeeez, going by this whole thread you are ridiculously well-read, who the fuck is Helmut Krausser; never heard of him. So are you telling me you are reading her in German? Otherwise, I guess there is still some radical notion and uncompromising pose left in English-language Jelinek, but to you personally my recommendation is if you got a free weekend, get your German to an advanced level, it will be three times as much fun to read her. My favorite of her stageplays are Raststätte and Mit Stecken, Stab und Stangl. The early ones I don't know and the later ones bore me. The nobel-prize gives you some worldwide readership for one year, right, after that I'm not so sure. And now back to the books already, what are you still doing here...!??

I didn't start reading her in German, but I eventually got to that point. Not that my German is amazing or anything, but it's not like I have to write in it myself, just get what I'm reading, so it works out. I've tried her in English too, and I agree; for a language from the same branch as German, it still somehow doesn't translate. I think it's to do with her long sentence structure and particular use of conjugations.

Krausser is completely underrated, so I don't blame for you never having head of him. I only found out about him by picking through the trash at a fundraiser my old school organised. I'm classy that way. We were meant to bring old items our families had no use for any more and have a sort of larger "garage sale," and everything that was deemed to look either too old or unappealing to sell got chucked to the side, Der Grosse Bagarozy included. I think that's his only work that also got a (severely flawed, but sort of lovely in its own way) film adaptation, but I could be wrong. Even though you do have to be acquainted with basic philosophy, it's probably his most accessible book, and I'd recommend it as a start. As I would seeing his plays, that is if they're running anywhere at all this decade. Theatre managers don't seem to appreciate him quite as much as I do.

PS: Angelica and ADPT.

Edited March 22, 2009 by nameless_girl

[bescientific69]

I read twilight recently.... awful.

Currently reading nineteen eighty four, for an essay.

[Fun n' Games]

Has Elfriede Jelinek ever written a novel that didn't tempt her reader to fling the thing away during some point of the read? I love her to bits and pieces, but I need to really delve into my masochistic streak to endure some of her descriptions, especially when she's discussing sex. Which is what she aims for to disturb people out of their everyday perceptions, but knowing that and being drawn towards her brutally honest depictions of degradation and horror because of the psychological insight behind them doesn't make the reading experience any less nauseating. If you ever need to preach safe sex to someone, forget about contraceptives and just hand them a copy of Lust. Poor bastard might turn to priesthood.

Where are you from? I'm asking because I didn't think anybody in the US, or even anywhere outside the German-speaking world, would read anythink written by Jelinek. She is one of my favorite authors, but reading her in English would definitely not be fun at all - because she is all about language and her work is basically not translateable. She is the absolute, unreachable master of German language!

I would have thought that a Nobel prize in literature guaranteed you some cross-cultural readership. I'm part Ukrainian, part Slovenian. There used to be an hour long show in Slovenia called Knjiga mene briga ("Books concern me"), on which people from various literary, psychological and sociological fields would discuss various interpretations of a given novel each week, and one of their most popular episodes dealt with Die Klavierspielerin, so catching reruns of that at my grandmother's while I was in Slovenia was what first sparked my interest. I've read nearly all of Jelinek's work since, although a significant portion of her stage plays remains impossible to find, at least where I've been to. I couldn't even find all of her work while I was involved with Erasmus in Austria, but at least she seems to be aware of this problem herself, because she has been publishing all her new prose on her official website since 2007. As a sidenote, I seem to have the exact same problem with Helmut Krausser, who unfortunately hasn't been publishing anything online as far as I know, and which is a terrible shame because I love them both to bits.

Jeeez, going by this whole thread you are ridiculously well-read, who the fuck is Helmut Krausser; never heard of him. So are you telling me you are reading her in German? Otherwise, I guess there is still some radical notion and uncompromising pose left in English-language Jelinek, but to you personally my recommendation is if you got a free weekend, get your German to an advanced level, it will be three times as much fun to read her. My favorite of her stageplays are Raststätte and Mit Stecken, Stab und Stangl. The early ones I don't know and the later ones bore me. The nobel-prize gives you some worldwide readership for one year, right, after that I'm not so sure. And now back to the books already, what are you still doing here...!??

I didn't start reading her in German, but I eventually got to that point. Not that my German is amazing or anything, but it's not like I have to write in it myself, just get what I'm reading, so it works out. I've tried her in English too, and I agree; for a language from the same branch as German, it still somehow doesn't translate. I think it's to do with her long sentence structure and particular use of conjugations.

Krausser is completely underrated, so I don't blame for you never having head of him. I only found out about him by picking through the trash at a fundraiser my old school organised. I'm classy that way. We were meant to bring old items our families had no use for any more and have a sort of larger "garage sale," and everything that was deemed to look either too old or unappealing to sell got chucked to the side, Der Grosse Bagarozy included. I think that's his only work that also got a (severely flawed, but sort of lovely in its own way) film adaptation, but I could be wrong. Even though you do have to be acquainted with basic philosophy, it's probably his most accessible book, and I'd recommend it as a start. As I would seeing his plays, that is if they're running anywhere at all this decade. Theatre managers don't seem to appreciate him quite as much as I do.

PS: Angelica and ADPT.

Krausser is quite young; I thought he was an old man or dead after reading your post... I'll put him on my list, but it's a long list and he is right at the bottom now...

In regards to Jelinek, it's not so much about the sentence structure or conjugations (I guess pretty much every translation has to deal with those) as about her wordgames and her playing with language. There is just no way to translate this, the translator has to make up his own ones in other parts of the paragraph or the script, so he would basically have to be a second author (or just leave the wordgames out). So to really understand what she is doing there you need to speak German on a mother tongue level; but then she is even more amazing.

It's funny, for years I would say in my hatred speeches against the nobel prize, an amazing author like Jelinek would never get the nobel prize because she was not translateable. Well, they proved me wrong... I suppose the blind ones sometimes hit it right on too.

[Budweiser]

I'm really looking forward to starting this one when I can find it:

http://www.amazon.com/Word-Street-Debunkin..._pr_product_top

[ummagumma]

I've got to read 22 books by the end of June. I know that's three months, but I've got a lot of other coursework to do! I picked up my first round today, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, James Joyce's Dubliners, Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight and George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. Heart of Darkness is amazing so far.

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

Generation Kill is interesting in a somewhat disturbing way.

[John Bonham]

The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber

A fantastic piece of fiction.

Sex, drugs, mystery, etc.

[axlfan88]

Les Chants de Maldoror by Lautréamont (1868).

Probably the most disturbing book ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comte_de_Lautr%C3%A9amont

[Angelica]

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

[axlfan88]

Bad: The Autobiography of James Carr

This book tells the story of the development of James Carr from an apolitical gang member, to a black nationalist associated with the Black Panther Party, and finally to a Korsch/Lukacs/Situationist-influenced position critical of the vanguardism of the Panthers. The book was first published in 1975.

Carr died young, and most of the book is taken up with the gang life and particularly the prison experiences preceding his eventual politicization. James Carr survived prison through strength, intelligence and ruthlessness, qualities which he applied not just to the screws and governors but also to his fellow inmates. Like other cons, Carr was involved in a war of all-against-all on two levels: first the interpersonal competition and bullying, and second the 'race' war between blacks, whites and Mexicans. In the book, graphic examples of inter-ethnic violence among prisoners illustrate how this relationship of divide-and-rule served the prison system. But the significance of Carr's experience and perspective is that he was in some of the biggest and most violent Californian prisons in the mid 1960s when a more politicized and united movement of prisoners began to develop. The movement emerged through a turn to black nationalism, which, Carr suggests, at least offered the possibility of enabling cons to see their connections with others in struggles outside the prison. The nationalist movement later developed into a movement against the prison structure itself, and attracted all the ethnic groups.

More here : http://www.geocities.com/aufheben2/auf_5_carr.html

[Axls Rocket Queen]

I've been reading the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm halfway through #6, The Killing Dance just now.

It's a pretty good series. Her writing isn't amazingly good, but the storylines and characters really pull you in. Unfortunately the books belong to my flatmate, and as she's moving out in a few weeks I'm now gonna have to buy the rest of the series myself...damn!

[GET OFF AXLS BACK]

Been reading a bit of Sherlock Homes lately

[Use Your Delusion 1]

Armageddon

bout' last years of WW2, VERY good

[Angelica]

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

[ARC]

Some of my favourite books:

Dubliners - James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man - James Joyce

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

The Trial - Kafka

Understanding Media - Marsall McLuhan

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Rebecca - Du Maurier

[Jackie Moon]

the best book i ever read was called 'avengers of the new world', about the slave rebellion in haiti. it was exciting stuff.

[stevGNR666]

Right now I'm reading Simulacrum and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard.

I've actually been reading it for the last 2 weeks. It's my constant companion.