books every intelligent person should read

Thu Apr 10 09:20:27 CDT 2014

Many of Pynchon's alternate/imagined topoi are sweet, but only in flashes
of the America M&D encounter beyond the frontier does he come close to the
sustained, aching sweetness of Demonia/Antiterra. It's hard not to trace
that to VN's own lost world of Vyra and Rozhdestveno.

On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 6:11 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

>
> > With Ada he completely got lost in a puzzle wrapped in beautiful but
> senseless writing, and most don't even see the puzzle, taking the writing
> at face value.<
>
> Funny. These days I'm finishing my first read (new German translation from
> 2010) of Ada, and the post just brought the English original which I'll
> enjoy immediately afterwards. Agreed that Pale Fire is often mere crossword
> riddle, I cannot say this for Ada at all: Actually it's one of the most
> erotic and playful books I know. And while Lolita, the character, suffers
> from an asymmetry towards the male protagonist Humbert Humbert (which is
> unavoidable because of the age gap), the character of Ada is an actual
> equal to Van. There's entomology, SciFi elements, art history and countless
> jokes about literature. A gloomy sense of nowadays arises from the Crimean
> War (1853 - 1856) which is highly present in this novel. (Not to get - as
> you, David, experienced it -  "completely lost in a puzzle", it helps to
> check out competent notes: Dieter E. Zimmer offers about 250 pages with
> detailed annotations, samples from interviews with Nabokov, a time line, a
> glossary of places plus reproductions of relevant paintings and photos in
> color; this helps to enter the center of the maze.) According to my
> impression, there is no contradiction of the puzzle and the beautiful
> writing in Ada. And beautiful it is! That's why I need to reread it in
> original without hesitation. There are sentences in Ada far more poetic
> than whole library shelves of poetry. I also sense the light hearted spirit
> of the 1960s in it. One more thing: That Ada, she's definitely hot!
>
>
>
> On 10.04.2014 02:07, David Morris wrote:
>
>> I prefer Lolita. With Pale Fire N let the puzzle making take the lead to
>> the detriment of passion and real wit.  Puzzles and wit are not the same,
>> nor are they equals. With Ada he completely got lost in a puzzle wrapped in
>> beautiful but senseless writing, and most don't even see the puzzle, taking
>> the writing at face value.
>>
>> I know many disagree with me on this.
>>
>> David Morros
>>
>> On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, <malignd at aol.com <mailto:malignd at aol.com>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>     Why was this good fortune?  Both books are wonderful.
>>
>>
>>     -----Original Message-----
>>     From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com
>>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','eburns at gmail.com');>>
>>     To: Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com
>>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com');>>; Charles
>>     Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com
>>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','cfalbert at gmail.com');>>
>>     Cc: Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us
>>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','mikebailey at gmx.us');>>; P-list
>>     <pynchon-l at waste.org
>>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','pynchon-l at waste.org');>>
>>
>>     Sent: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 3:16 am
>>     Subject: Re: books every intelligent person should read
>>
>>     I second that emotion. I had the good fortune to read Pale Fire
>> _before_
>>     Lolita._
>>
>>        Original Message
>>     From: Mark Thibodeau
>>     Sent: Wednesday, April 9, 2014 7:30 AM
>>     To: Charles Albert
>>     Cc: Erik T. Burns; Michael Bailey; P-list
>>     Subject: Re: Re: books every intelligent person should read
>>
>>     I've read Pale Fire, and I loved it.
>>
>>     YOPJerky
>>
>>     On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 8:34 PM, Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','
>> cfalbert at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>     > Hasn't anyone here read Pale Fire?
>>     >
>>     > love,
>>     > cfa
>>     >
>>     >
>>     > On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','
>> eburns at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>     >>
>>     >> mine would include _J R_ and _The Dog of the South_
>>     >>
>>     >> On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 2:16 AM, Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','
>> mikebailey at gmx.us');>> wrote:
>>     >> > Per Jacob
>>     >> >
>>     >> > ---Infinite Jest needs to be on here. That book made me love
>> writing.---
>>     >> >
>>     >> >
>>     >> > - OK but what are your other nine (-:
>>     >> >
>>     >> > (Mine is already at 10 & although I liked ij, I'm disinclined to
>> bump
>>     >> > any to
>>     >> > make room --- maybe put IJ as Alice's #9 but need to go ask
>> alice....but
>>     >> > ms
>>     >> > malice I think was looking for a bouquet of top tens which is
>> always
>>     >> > fun,
>>     >> > why not add one?)
>>     >> >
>>     >> > - Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>     >> -
>>     >> Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>     >
>>     >
>>     -
>>     Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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