[#LEspritCritique] «L’esprit critique» littérature: retour sur le Goncourt
Notre podcast culturel revient sur le prix décerné à «Houris», de #KamelDaoud, et s’intéresse aussi à deux romans oubliés des prix de la rentrée, «Archipels» d’#HélèneGaudy et «Petits Travaux pour un palais» de #LászlóKrasznahorkai.
Notre podcast culturel revient sur le prix décerné à « Houris », de Kamel Daoud, et s’intéresse aussi à deux romans oubliés des prix de la rentrée, « Archipels » d’Hélène Gaudy et « Petits Travaux pour un palais » de László Krasznahorkai.
Book 24: “Spadework for a Palace” by #LaszloKrasznahorkai.
A grumpy librarian named herman melvill, who’s bound in other ways to that other Melville, wants to hide books away from people.
Wonderfully misanthropic. But the final two-thirds of this 80-page, single long sentence don’t bear out the promise of its quietly weary start. Big points for the premise though; I can definitely identify with it.
Une prophétie du Hongrois László Krasznahorkai, l’homme fait littérature
L’écrivain nobélisable #LászlóKrasznahorkai offre un condensé hilarant de son œuvre prodigieuse, habituellement plus sombre. Comment un employé névrosé de la bibliothèque de New York aura rêvé de mettre sur pied un établissement «éternellement fermé».
Un article de Maurice Mourier (En attendant Nadeau)
L’écrivain nobélisable László Krasznahorkai offre un condensé hilarant de son œuvre prodigieuse, habituellement plus sombre. Comment un employé névrosé de la bibliothèque de New York aura rêvé de mettre sur pied un établissement « éternellement fermé ».
Get it into your thick head that jokes are just like life. Things that begin badly, end badly. Everything's fine in the middle, it's the end you need to worry about
#mihalyvig #photography #countryhouse #enamel #enamelkettle #crochet #crochetblanket #sátántangó #lights #stilllife #stilllifephotography #vintage #cinemapoetry #winterlight #beforethestorm #lifeisnotfair
#belatarr #waitingforthetea #photooftheday #february
#satantango
#laszlokrasznahorkai
#satantango
And now the upcoming revolution in the world of "Melancholy of resistance" becomes clear, I'm excited! Krasznahorkai so far strips everyone out of their dignity. Everyone is petty, mean and disgusting. Well, maybe almost. I know he introduced some more noble characters in "Satantango" though, so I wonder who'll be more dignified in "Melancholy".
#LaszloKrasznahorkai #TheMelancholyofresistance #EasternEurope
I'm reading Krasznahorkai's "The melancholy of resistance". It's so fun so far, pretty lighthearted despite playing with negative emotions. I needed something more distanced, less serious. The atmosphere of the small town is nice too. I'm curious about its inhabitants. Valushka seems so relatable. Too bad I'm tired and may fall asleep soon.
#LaszloKrasznahorkai #apocalypse #EasternEurope #TheMelancholyofresistance
I can't focus on anything, so I'm reading "The melancholy of resistance". Thank you based Krasznahorkai. Oh man, his characters are so unlikeable. But the small town atmosphere of his novels and original things that happen there are quite fun. ^___^ I needed something like this, something not serious.
Book 24: “Spadework for a Palace” by #LaszloKrasznahorkai.
A grumpy librarian named herman melvill, who’s bound in other ways to that other Melville, wants to hide books away from people.
Wonderfully misanthropic. But the final two-thirds of this 80-page, single long sentence don’t bear out the promise of its quietly weary start. Big points for the premise though; I can definitely identify with it.
Book 25: “Record of a Spaceborn Few” by #BeckyChambers.
Love this author and this series, but this is the least successful so far. We’re moving further away from the original characters and follow five new (mostly) unrelated characters. It just felt disjointed. And I cared more about some vs. others, e.g. Eyas the caretaker who does funeral rites. Learning more about Exodans and the culture of humans who left earth was really interesting though.
Book 26: “Witch King” by #MarthaWells.
What a beginning. Unfortunately, the rest doesn’t quite gel. A standalone fantasy novel that throws you into its world building without any handholding. There’s a way to do this that’s successful, and normally Wells has no problem with it. Not here. The things she focused on were not what I wanted to read more about. Kinda frustrating!
Book 27: “The Sympathizer” by #VietThanhNguyen.
Came to this one late: I remember when everybody seemed to be reading or talking about it. Really enjoyed Nguyen’s immigrant short stories in “The Refugees”. This is much more politically sophisticated as the title says, but not what I expected. Nor did it go where I thought it would—more espionage than I normally like. While the sequel is also on my list, the TV show isn’t anymore. Too dude-focused.
Book 28: “Unraveller” by #FrancesHardinge.
Billed as YA, which I’ve grown tired of, this didn’t come off that way at all. Except for a lot of yelling, there’s nothing significant that marks the two protagonists as young. One can unravel curses, the other is formerly cursed. And their world sits uneasily but peaceably next to The Wilds. Found this on a list of recommended books from 2023—I can only do the same. A new favorite author.
Book 29: “Wait” by #GabriellaBurnham.
A novel about issues that doesn’t hit you over the head with them: undocumented workers, “nice” white people and the harm they blithely cause, Nantucket’s tourist economy and the income inequality of the island’s locals. But it’s mainly about two sisters and the eldest’s rich friend.
Another contemporary book that disposes of quotation marks and indenting paragraphs for new speakers. WHY. Enjoyed it nonetheless.
Book 30: “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by #PatrickSüskind.
Set in 18th Century Paris, a man with no scent possesses an incredible sense of smell. If it were written today, it could easily be a super-villain story: scent is the key to power and control here. It avoids those tropes, but gets mired in others that are unfortunately very gendered and tired. Interesting details on perfumery though, and the language can be entertaining in its hyperbole.
Book 31: “3 Streets” by #YokoTawada.
Three short stories named after streets, which themselves are named after famous people, in East Berlin. Surreal things happen. Tawanda’s writing was slippery for me and I ended up glazing over and skimming. There’s more there for people who know what to look for, but I wasn’t one of them. Finished only because it was so brief.
Book 32: “Queen of America” by #LuisAlbertoUrrea.
Went to a reading and Urrea clearly delighted in his own writing. He convinced me to buy a copy even though I hadn’t read the prior book in this duology. It’s about his great aunt, Teresita, The Saint of Cabora, who either has healing powers or is a dangerous revolutionary, depending on who’s asked. An immigrant story that started in 19th Century Mexico in the first book—I plan on reading it soon.
Book 33: “Witchmark” by #CLPolk.
‘Bout to start some shit: getting tired of non-gay men writing gay male characters. True: there’s a long history of slash, fan-fiction, yaoi, and really great gay stories written by non-gay men. True: not every gay man is hypersexual. But it’s starting to feel sanitized, even tokenizing, to have two hot men who are clearly interested in each other not get it on. Or fantasize, masturbate, get hard, or anything embodied. /1
Yes, we fought hard to not be defined by the sex we have. But many also fought hard to not be shamed for it either: the sluts, people living with HIV, and other “non-respectable” gays. I’m not asking for non-stop fucking (just this once)—it’s not a binary. Rather, more thinking around gay inclusion. What purpose does it serve, you as a non-gay man, writing these characters? What does the presence/absence of sex mean? Otherwise, it feels exploitative. /2
Book 34: “Storm of Locusts” by #RebeccaRoanhorse.
Picks up after the first book and does everything a sequel’s supposed to: we go outside the walls of Dinétah, Maggie gets a bad-ass lightning sword, encounters more tricksy gods and a more powerful adversary. Everything feels bigger. But it’s not as good as the first book. Still, a fascinating world with some good character progression.
Book 35:”Unflattening” by #NickSousanis.
Similar to Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” in its examination of visual thinking, what you can do by combining words and images. Sousanis’ panel structure is amazing. As a cartoonist, I learned a lot from that alone. A bit repetitive in places, and maybe longer than it should be, but an enjoyable example of what one can do with this medium.
Book 36: “All This & More” by #PengShepherd.
Terrible. I made myself finish. When I play videogames, I like to find the seams, explore, and test boundaries narratively and programmatically. That’s what kept me reading: to see how this choose-your-adventure format operated in terms of story and reader experience. There’s nothing but this gimmick. And a lead who’s obsessed with editing her life over and over until it’s perfect. Girl, go back to Instagram.
Book 37: “The Storyteller’s Death” by #AnnDávilaCardinal.
Set between Puerto Rico and New Jersey, Isla, our half-Boricua protagonist inherits a gift (or a curse?) from the cuentistas in her family: their stories play themselves out in front of her. Naturally, family secrets are unearthed. Lots and lots of them. Dávila Cardinal’s first adult novel, but it read like YA. There’s a flicker of something meaningful near the end, but it feels a little late.
Book 38: “The Saint of Bright Doors” by #VajraChandrasekera.
What an arresting premise. The opening is great too. And it goes in all sorts of unexpected directions. It drags a bit in places while operating in a context I know very little about: Sri Lankan history and Buddhism, by way of fantasy. I still found much of it engaging and learned of the author’s blog post on “Unbuddhism”that should be read once you’re done with this: https://vajra.me/2021/10/27/%e0%b6%85%e0%b6%b6%e0%b7%9e%e0%b6%af%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%b0%e0%b6%9a%e0%b6%b8-unbuddhism/
And that’s the end of my book thread for 2024. Didn’t read as much because of being exhausted from work, which is pitiful when I think about what matters. Also did poorly on posting about them soon after I finished each one. Sorry for spamming the Bookstodon group on NYE (again!). Here’s the full list on #Bookwyrm:
http://books.theunseen.city/user/otts/2024-in-the-books?key=4221c38361ae4f80b896dc9e436e734f
@ottsatwork thanks for sharing that blog post, it’s a powerful pushback on the “atheist Buddhism” that has a lot of readers in the West.
His more recent book, Rake’s Progress, is amazing and well worth a read if you enjoyed Bright Doors — IMHO it has the consistency and through-line that Bright Doors almost had but fell frustratingly short of.
Diego Fernández Magdaleno
Mediapart
Hoochie Daddy
Lina P. Sopiadou
Mark Alexander
Redo
Dustin Kiyeon Chang
Luis Villa
Lisa
John McChesney-Young
Demian