What are you reading?

[James C. Fretz]

[Quijote]

Originally Posted by James C. Fretz

Most apt. Do you think Sarkozy has ever read it? If not, he'll certainly have the time to do so now, n'est ce pas?

[Quijote]

Originally Posted by Quijote

[...] I've been reading:
Developing Variations : Style and Ideology in Western Music (Rosengard Subotnik). [...] If you are familiar with Kant and Adorno, could you give it to me in simple terms? [...] The other thing that I gleaned (as far as I can tell) is why the high classical style seems "inevitable" in its compositional intentions. Also something to do with Kant and the enlightenment mindset ... or something.

Always risky to qote oneself, I know. Mr Philidor, I appealed for brains bigger than mine to help me get a "take" on Kant to better understand the book I mention above. I note that in post #31 on the "Why beauty matters ...?" (Scruton) thread you said that you studied such stuff. OK, I'll let you off about Adorno (even his translators admit they have problems, and unless one truly speaks Deutch at native or near-native level I fear many subtleties will be lost on us), but you, Sir, could surely help me out on the Kant?

[Musaeus]

Originally Posted by Balthazar

So I finally finished Finnegans Wake and joined the, um, exclusive club of people who've read the book cover to cover.

That is impressive - would you mind saying briefly what you made of it, what it gave you, etc. I have always thought that life was too short for FW, apart from a bit of browsing now and then.

[Quijote]

Originally Posted by Balthazar

So I finally finished Finnegans Wake and joined the, um, exclusive club of people who've read the book cover to cover. [...]

I read it cover to cover some years ago, so that club ain't so exclusive Balthazar, given that I am boorish and uneducated. I cannot recall for one moment any phrase from said tome, but I can whistle a ranz des vaches I once heard in the Alps when I was last there 2 years ago. Funny how the memory works.

[Balthazar]

Originally Posted by Musaeus

That is impressive - would you mind saying briefly what you made of it, what it gave you, etc. I have always thought that life was too short for FW, apart from a bit of browsing now and then.

That's up to you, obviously, but I thought the book was well worth the time and effort. It's difficult to summarize something as vast as Finnegans Wake and the experience of reading it, but I'll give it a whirl.

It's definitely a difficult read, but with a guide or two, it's not that much more demanding than Ulysses. You get the feel for the rhythm and density of the Wake's prose poetry, and pretty soon the crazed narration starts to make something like sense. Following along with Roland McHugh's book of annotations, I was able to appreciate a lot of the multiple meanings in the invented words.

Like most of these meganovels (like Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow), FW is less than the sum of its parts. It's all about set pieces, digressions, wordplay, puzzles, songs, and riddles, and not "about" a consistent set of characters and conventional plot development. It's a novel of ideas from an author who had the funniest and most fascinating ideas ever put to paper.

I enjoyed the experience greatly, and laughed plenty.

[Tarantella]

I very much admire your intellectual heft, Balthazar, and wish I had the staying power for FW. Joyce has always been difficult for me, but you've kindled my interest with your affection for the book and thorough knowledge of it. It obviously also appeals to your sense of humour.

[Alberich]

FW = Constipated logorrhoea.

It's been over 30yrs since I looked at this daunting work.
All I can remember, and I may have remembered it wrongly, is that is starts with the word, Annaliviaplurabelle.
It is one of those books that when I was at uni in the 1970s all the Marxist dons used to rave about. But am happy to say, I haven't looked at it since then, and life has been unchanged as a result of that.

[Balthazar]

Originally Posted by Tarantella

wish I had the staying power for FW...

It obviously also appeals to your sense of humour.

Even if you just read the first chapter and the Anna Livia Plurabelle episode, you'll get the spirit of the book.

It takes some effort, but it was ever so funny. My wife can testify that at certain points I was doubled over with laughter at the running gags.

Originally Posted by Alberich

FW = Constipated logorrhoea.

Wow, the constipated kind is twice as bad!

[Green Knight]

Elizabeth Gaffney--Metropolis