Nora Bossong recommends Mason & Dixon as Corona reading because it has so many pages ...

[Allan Balliett]

Crap, I never even heard of The Man Without Qualities until today. One peak
at Wiki and it's clear that my post-consumer confidence is not strong
enough about the future to start that jewel!

What "miniature masterpieces' have you read or want to read would you
recommend?

On another topic, I enjoyed PHAROS of CHAOS on MUBI last night. It's a very
unusual in-his-last-days interview with Sterling Hayden. Although its a
very informal home  movie quality chronicle of Hayden talk about Life and
disown life on his barge in Europe, it does give enough biographical info
to renew my respect for how robustly he lived life.However, I wasn't aware
that he was one of the real hollywood commies who gave up fellow travelers
during th McCarthy hearings. I have a hard time excusing him of being a
weasel at that point and yet and yet and yet I sure loved him in Altmas's
THE LONG GOODBYE and in DR STRANGELOVE  I can't recommend this film to
anyone because it's a slow long beautiful slog but I hope you see it just
the same

EveryoneL Please alert me if any service starts streaming FIRST COW. Seeing
it has b come something like a Last Wish for me.

-Allan in WV where the tap water in our town is toxic  enough to sterilize
our hands without soap

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 11:02 AM Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> The ‘big book’ I’m going to attempt at some stage is The Man Without
> Qualities
>
> Without claiming anything approaching the erudition of some fellow members
> of this mailing list, I have read all the published Pynchon, all the
> published Joyce (save his letters), The Magic Mountain, War and Peace, Anna
> Karenina, Infinite Jest, Underworld and A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu
>
> Still plenty more doorstoppers (and more miniature masterpieces) to get
> through. Maybe I should order The Epic of Gilgamesh...
>
> On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes, of course: "A little bit like it"? The polar opposite!
> >
> > (Drinking mezcal, I'm reading Under the Volcano: what a great book.)
> >
> > Am Di., 31. März 2020 um 14:27 Uhr schrieb Samir Sellami <
> > samir.manuel.sellami at gmail.com>:
> >
> > > To compare M&D to the Kehlmann fluke is really the most inappropriate
> > thing
> > > I've seen in a while.
> > > The rest is rather obvious and random. I am surprised though that
> García
> > > Márquez' "El amor en los
> > > tiempos de cólera" is missing. The master's real novel of quarantine
> and
> > > confinement, however, is
> > > "Cien años de soledad". Good times for re-reading it.
> > >
> > > Am Di., 31. März 2020 um 11:36 Uhr schrieb Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
> > > lorentzen at hotmail.de>:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > I've never read literature by Nora Bossong, and this text, although
> the
> > > > recommendations (which contain besides Pynchon authors like
> Boccaccio,
> > > > Mann, Proust, Arno Schmidt & David Foster Wallace) are certainly
> > superb,
> > > > does not motivate me to do so. Especially since her comment at the
> end
> > > > on Schopenhauer's main work is so exceptionally clueless that it
> > appears
> > > > doubtful whether Bossong has really read all those long books ... &
> if
> > > > it's just about the number of pages, "Against the Day" would make an
> > > > even better reading. Well, of course it's not a bad advice to read
> long
> > > > books now, but in the case of Pynchon I would, of course, recommend
> > > > "Gravity's Rainbow" (which is long enough, no?). Especially to a
> German
> > > > audience.
> > > >
> > > > "A little bit like [Kehlmann's] "Measuring the World" in crazy & less
> > > > upright. & most of all: with many, many more pages! It's funny,
> clever,
> > > > tough, meta ..." Plus references to the talking dog & the mechanical
> > > duck.
> > > >
> > > > *+ ... Thomas Pynchon:/Mason & Dixon/
> > > > <https://www.rowohlt.de/taschenbuch/thomas-pynchon-mason-dixon.html>
> > > > *Ein bisschen wie/Die Vermessung der Welt/in durchgeknallt und
> weniger
> > > > bieder. Und vor allem: mit viel, viel mehr Seiten! Es ist lustig,
> klug,
> > > > hart, meta, es gibt einen sprechenden Hund und eine mechanische
> > > > Flugente. Wann wollten Sie jemals so gern eine Flugente sein wie
> jetzt?
> > > > *–*So sehr nach einem sprechenden Hund haben Sie sich aber auch seit
> > > > Ihrer Kindheit nicht mehr gesehnt. Und wieder müssen Sie feststellen:
> > > > Sie werden ihn einfach nicht bekommen ... +
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > https://www.logbuch-suhrkamp.de/nora-bossong/zehn-buecher-
> > die-man-sonst-nicht-schafft/
> > > > https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Bossong
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > > >
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>