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wastedwalrus said:
Well played, sir. Well played ;)
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Thanks, buddy.:)

While we're on the subject of Tennyson, do you know "Ulysses"?

Great piece for old farts like me.

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
 
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More Huxley

He wrote a book called "Ape and Essence."

In it is depicted a scene symbolic of WW III. There's two opposed armies of baboons...one in red uniforms, one in blue. Each one has a mascot Einstein on a leash.

One Einstein calls out to the other: Is that you, Albert?

The other Einstein replies: Yes, Albert, I'm afraid it is.
 
fasteddie said:
Thanks, buddy.:)

While we're on the subject of Tennyson, do you know "Ulysses"?

Great piece for old farts like me.

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
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Of course... and I assume you're familiar with "The Lady of Shalott"? Great piece for young, hopeless romantics such as myself ;).
 
wastedwalrus said:
Of course... and I assume you're familiar with "The Lady of Shalott"? Great piece for young, hopeless romantics such as myself ;).
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I do not know it.

Lessee...poets...

Another of my favorites: Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters.
 
I haven't read that one either but I will before I get offline.

Let me recommend anything from Rainer Maria Rilke's "Book of Images". It's one of the greatest works of poetry of all time.

I would recommend... to start with... I suppose "Progress". Simply because his metaphors and imagery are so outlandish and unique.
 
wastedwalrus said:
I haven't read that one either but I will before I get offline.
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lol... how long did you stay online?

I read the Spoon River Anthology recently on the recommendation of my mentor. It's certainly not well known outside North America, but I understand it's standard issue in the States - on school reading lists, etc?

Rilke is wonderful. I love the Duino Elegies, especially the eighth.

And I've read The Lady of Shalott... my first girlfriend was obsessed with that poem.

At the moment I'm re-reading an anthology called Conductors of Chaos, which covers experimental UK poetry, mainly from the the latter half of the 20th century, up to the 90s. There's a fair bit of impenetrable, linguistically challenging stuff, but it has a fantastic selection of Jeremy Reed poems.
 
Rilke (sp?) I do not know at all. That's a deficiency I'll be correcting shortly.

As for Masters, he was a working Chicago lawyer during a very turbulent part of American History. That is one of the things that makes that book so interesting.

He had some other works, but they did not catch my interest.
 
(Wordy) said:
lol... how long did you stay online?

I read the Spoon River Anthology recently on the recommendation of my mentor. It's certainly not well known outside North America, but I understand it's standard issue in the States - on school reading lists, etc?

Rilke is wonderful. I love the Duino Elegies, especially the eighth.

And I've read The Lady of Shalott... my first girlfriend was obsessed with that poem.

At the moment I'm re-reading an anthology called Conductors of Chaos, which covers experimental UK poetry, mainly from the the latter half of the 20th century, up to the 90s. There's a fair bit of impenetrable, linguistically challenging stuff, but it has a fantastic selection of Jeremy Reed poems.
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Haha I had no idea what I was promising to when I said that... so nevermind ;)
 
fasteddie said:
Thanks, buddy.:)

While we're on the subject of Tennyson, do you know "Ulysses"?

Great piece for old farts like me.

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Click to expand...

great piece..
 
i'm currently finishing up reading a biography of edith piaf.. amazing.. then its onto peter ackroyd's london .. which has being collecting dust for a while.

I think a book club on here would be a cool idea!
x
 
eeek just finished london.. was amazing!
onto darkmans by nicola barker.. its a new one.. has anyone read it?x
 
Primo Levi - The Periodic Table

Anybody know it?

I frequently think of the chapter in it - "Vanadium."

(All the chapters in it are named after chemical elements)

Levi wound up, some twenty years after he got out of Auschwitz, having business dealings with the guy who had been his supervisor in the lab he worked in there, in Farben's slave labor factory. The guy was a civilian...over the years, he had made up to himself, apparently, this collection of stories about how good he'd been to Levi and the other guy who worked there. Levi started corresponding with him, and, he didn't remember any of that. Because, none of it ever happened. They're going back and forth by letter...they were going to meet...then Levi gets a letter from the guy's wife that he'd died suddenly.

My interpretation...this fellow, in order to live with himself as a collaborator with the great death machine, had made up these stories...told them and retold them until he believed them himself. Then, Levi comes along, and the clash between made up reality, and real reality, set up a conflict in the guy that killed him.

Like Reverend Dimmesdale, dying with a scarlet 'A' stigmata on his breast.
 
I would like to recommend to everyone here any book by tom robbins, However, a good one to start is "fierce invalids home from hot climates." Tom robbins is always loaded with sex drugs and philosophy, my 3 favorite things.
I will check out the "steal this book."
 
I've got a couple of fiction books going:

Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu, in the original french. I like the way he is able to savor the details of life,and then to put the reader in his shoes.

When that overwhelms me, I switch to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It's written for children but it's also a lot of fun.
 
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^ Wow, what a contrast! I guess the only comparison between the two is their size. ;)

I'm actually reading Baudelaire in French (with the help of Francis Scarfe's English translations). My French isn't great; I studied it for 6 years in high school, and spoke it a little while in Europe... a lot of the vocab and grammar is coming back to me though. It's definitely rewarding, and great to be able to consider the different possibilities available to the translator. I'm planning to give Rimbaud and Mallarmé a shot once I'm done with Baudelaire.
 
mm. Baudelaire. makes me quiver with delight. heheh.

i'm still working on the grand inquisitor by dostoevsky. it's not long, but my days run into each other.
next i'll be reading haroun and the sea of stories by salman rushdie.
 
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