From a Dead Beat to an Old Greaser

[Laura Kelber]

I agree with all of this, Rich. There are minefields of gratuitous violence
and cruelty (it sells!) and dreary political rectitude (the critics behoove
themselves to praise it) that scare me away from a lot of current
literature.

I've also been looking back, making my way through some of the old (too
few!) books I rescued from my late mother's bookshelves. There's nothing
like plunging into an unknown, blurbless old novel. Some are mediocre, but
there are also pleasures, if not treasures: Prodigal Daughters, by Nancy
Hale; The Fall of Paris, by Ilya Ehrenberg.

No better place to scrounge for old books in NYC than the dusty basement of
Argosy Book Store.

Though The Book of Numbers by Cohen sounds intriguing.

On Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 10:10 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Kai
>
> possibly. I used to read more for sure and like music there's so much out
> there. I think one factor to consider is the loss of physical stores to
> wade in and browse. even here in NYC.
> I found much out of the way stuff that way. impossible to do that online.
> Another factor is the plain fact of growing older, changing concerns and
> the like. so solely a personal judgement, a self-reflection if you will.
> and finally, I would say, and I'm sure I'm going to get disagreement on
> this, is in today's heightened and anxious time, with the dangerous
> buffoonery politically front and center, I find alot of what I come across
> in various artistic endeavors
> so weighted with politics that the aesthetic, the art itself is reduced in
> some way. kinda takes the mystery out of things.
>
> I've tried reading Joshua Cohen (Witz) and I dig what he does but I'm just
> not that well-versed in the subject matter. it felt like work. i'm too old
> for that (I know that sounds like a cop out)
>
> I did enjoy Imperium. I've yet to read The Dead. think those are the only
> english translations available
>
> I should also point out when I say 'personal pedestal' I dont really mean
> hero worship (I find alot to argue with in Pynchon). I mean someone i look
> forward expectantly to new work. it's most definitely not anyone in the
> group of Pynchon's so-called literary children.
>
> and I'm not sure I'm looking for some like Pynchon.
>
> I just seem to being looking back more than forward. maybe it's just
> inevitable.
>
> thx for listening
>
> rich
>
> On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 6:52 AM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
> lorentzen at hotmail.de>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > But isn't that sadness more about you own declining energy as a reader?
> >
> > There ARE brilliant new books & authors ...
> >
> > Like, to name an American example, Joshua Cohen ("Four New Messages",
> > "Book of Numbers", "Moving Kings"), who writes, in my humble opinion,
> > better than Philip Roth, an author he often has been compared to.
> >
> > Cohen, just by the way, helped Edward Snowden by teaching him how to
> > write, as Snowden reveals in the acknowledgements of "Permanent Record".
> > When I read this I had to think of Pynchon who would perhaps, and not
> only
> > because of his writing skills, also have been a good candidate for that
> job.
> >
> > Since you mention your "personal pedestal": If I should name just one
> > novel from the 21st century which was written in the German tongue &
> > reminded me, in terms of artistic audacity, of "Gravity's Rainbow", it
> > would be "Die Stunde zwischen Frau und Gitarre" (The Hour Between Woman
> and
> > Guitar; this may sound like the title of a Borges story, but the novel
> has
> > 1020 pages), which was published by the Austrian author Clemens J. Setz
> in
> > 2015 (by now a paperback edition is available).  Setz - there's an
> explicit
> > reference to the dodo episode from "Gravity's Rainbow" in his former
> novel
> > "Indigo" (which got translated into English) - is a Pynchon reader and he
> > studied, along with German literature, mathematics which becomes manifest
> > in his metaphors. The style of Setz is sometimes called "synaesthetic"
> and,
> > indeed, reading this novel is a highly psychoactive experience.
> >
> > Setz was born in 1982, Cohen in 1980: Both brilliant writers, still young
> > (in terms of literary art). And then my "literary hero" Christian Kracht
> (*
> > 1966) will be "gracing us" with a new novel in 2020!
> >
> > + In a residential home for people with physical and mental disabilities,
> > a young woman – Natalie Reinegger – is employed as a caregiver to
> Alexander
> > Dorm. The man is confined to a wheelchair, has an unpredictable temper
> and
> > is regarded as »difficult«. Nevertheless, he has a visitor every week.
> That
> > visitor, of all people, is Christoph Hollberg – the man whose life Dorm
> > allegedly ruined years ago when he stalked him so relentlessly that he
> > drove Hollberg’s wife to suicide.
> >
> > The »arrangement« was based on mutual benefit, Natalie is being assured,
> > and they liked one another very much. But soon the blatant aversion that
> > Hollberg shows towards his supposed friend unsettles Natalie. She tries
> to
> > uncover the enigmatic visitor’s secret and to understand the motives for
> > his actions. She quickly realises that her new environment is shaped by
> > nearly inscrutable relationships: the way the other carers behave among
> > themselves is unfathomable, opaque are their relationships with the
> > patients. Natalie is slowly drawn into a subtle, double-edged power play,
> > the rules of which she only begins to understand gradually.
> >
> > The novel spans over 1.000 pages – a book like »a lively micropolis«, as
> > the author describes it – and is filled with peculiar niches and asides,
> > full of outrageous and shocking moments, but also full of tenderness and
> > moving scenes.
> >
> > *The Hour Between Woman and Guitar* is a rollercoaster ride into the
> > world of Clemens J. Setz. He reveals its inner order, its secrets and
> > principles: power and the lack thereof, the search for meaning and loss
> of
> > orientation, submission and love in all forms and shapes: nurturing,
> > respectful, obsessed love, love as delusion and as a tool of
> manipulation.
> > And of revenge. So subtle and painful that the question of who is the
> > victim and who the perpetrator leads into a nameless abyss. +
> >
> >
> >
> >
> https://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/the_hour_between_woman_and_guitar-clemens_j_setz_42495.html?d_view=english
> >
> > Am 11.12.19 um 15:32 schrieb rich:
> >
> > Soon the curtain of one's literary heroes gracing us with new work will
> > close. The current obsessions of new and upcoming fiction writers I have
> > found are not mine, worthy as they are. I wont be one of those grumps
> > bemoaning the ascendance of a new generation of writers. But it does
> sadden
> > me a bit that soon there won't be anyone left for me to put on my
> personal
> > pedestal. Part of me realizes this is just natural. But I will miss the
> > excitement  I once had.
> > musing on a snowy winter's day
> >
> > rich
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > .
> >
> >
> >
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>