NP: A spontaneous exhortation to read a new great book just published in the US. But available in Europe earlier.

[David Morris]

I already own that other one.

On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 9:08 AM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:

> many times!
>
> (oh, you mean The Book of Jacob...)
>
> On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 2:03 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ok, but have you READ it yet?
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 8:10 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> looks like I lost the line in this THAT SAID THAT, LOL....(self-editing
>>> is
>>> like cutting your own hair)
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 8:01 AM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Koincidentally 2/2/22 is the 100th anniversary of the publication of
>>> > *Ulysses*.
>>> >
>>> > To celebrate one hundred years since Sylvia Beach, publisher and
>>> > bookseller, published James Joyce’s ULYSSES, Hay Festival is
>>> partnering the
>>> > iconic bookshop Shakespeare and Company, Paris, on a global read-along
>>> of
>>> > the complete text to be released as a free podcast between the 100th
>>> > anniversary of the publication on 2 February 2022 and Bloomsday on 16
>>> June
>>> > 2022. https://www.hayfestival.com/ulysses100
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 12:35 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> On The Books of Jacob on pub day, in which Ulysses plays a role
>>> >>
>>> >> That great modern, modernist, novel Ulysses created and rode a change
>>> of
>>> >>
>>> >> human awareness in a myriad of ways. A humanly felt single day in
>>> Dublin
>>> >>
>>> >> full of cooking smells and shitting and female desire and all kinds of
>>> >> thoughts, high and low
>>> >>
>>> >> it contains wonders precisely but over-the-toply, newly, expressed.
>>> >>
>>> >> Every time I hear the kids at the Montessori school two doors away
>>> play
>>> >> noisily in their playground,
>>> >>
>>> >> I think of a famous line. Those who know, know (and it loses almost
>>> >> everything just being flatly repeated here)
>>> >>
>>> >> "Round about 1910 human nature changed", wrote Virginia Woolf,
>>> >>
>>> >> no fan of Ulysses but another artist who worked the change of
>>> >> consciousness
>>> >> in the culture and in her work fully.
>>> >>
>>> >> Art can do that. Art does that. (He says pretentiously. Swaggering
>>> >> Swaggadocia, as a friend said of this streak. Or was it Staggering
>>> >> Swaggadocia? )
>>> >>
>>> >> Ever since I learned of Ulysses and its publication, my fantasy life
>>> >> contained the fantasy of being
>>> >>
>>> >> part of the publishing, the whole Surround, someway,  as it happened.
>>> >> Stuart Gilbert's pony* for reading it was
>>> >>
>>> >> being written while Joyce was writing and publishing parts of it.
>>> There
>>> >> was
>>> >> a circle; there were
>>> >>
>>> >> thousands of waiting interested outsiders to the circle game.
>>> >>
>>> >> Today, Feb 2, it seems that another writer of genius (with her
>>> translator
>>> >> as they are getting more recognition
>>> >>
>>> >> in recent years; as partial co-authors in some sense)  with, maybe,
>>> the
>>> >> planning of her American publisher has had
>>> >>
>>> >> another masterpiece purposely published on Ulysses' birthday.  That
>>> rumor
>>> >> is circulating; I haven't confirmed
>>> >>
>>> >> that that is why Feb 2 was chosen but….. The rumor has circumstantial
>>> >> plausibility since this work, The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk,
>>> >> Nobelist,
>>> >> was published in English in England late last fall. I almost ordered
>>> one
>>> >> from England but indie store concerns in this country took over. That
>>> no
>>> >> longer matters, the book is out in this country.
>>> >>
>>> >> The opening teems with Joycean, Bosch-Bruegel-like life
>>> >>
>>> >> in a small village and its market in Poland in 1759: all the sights
>>> and
>>> >> smells, all levels of society; themes and characters brought forth to
>>> >> capture our attention thematically. With viscerality. "Nerves and
>>> endless
>>> >> intrigues. Politics."
>>> >>
>>> >> Books themselves permeate the opening; the worlds they open; a lousy
>>> >> translator scene makes one laugh ...there is this line amidst that
>>> talk:
>>> >> "Perhaps it also has to do with the alphabet---that there isn't only
>>> one,
>>> >> that there are lots of them; each produces its own type of
>>> >> thinking.".....The Tower of Babel is invoked as are the Tigris and
>>> >> Euphrates. Ms. Tokarczuk is fearlessly ambitious, yes?; who can't love
>>> >> that? ....of a character, "people say ..she has the soul of a man".
>>> But
>>> >> another woman "doesn't see that supposed masculinity. All she sees is
>>> a
>>> >> woman who likes to be in charge." A woman punctures the gender
>>> stereotype,
>>> >> quietly fine, no?
>>> >>
>>> >> And for one of Ms Tokarczuk's grand important subjects, the meanings
>>> of
>>> >> women (I know an earlier-published novel) there is THIS:...."the
>>> science
>>> >> of
>>> >> coaxing out bloodstains [women helping a woman during a heavy
>>> >> menstruation]. For centuries it has been taught to future wives and
>>> >> mothers. If a university for women ever came about, it would be the
>>> most
>>> >> important subject. Childbirth, menstruation, war, fights, forays,
>>> pogroms,
>>> >> raids---all of it sheds blood, ever at the ready, just beneath the
>>> skin."
>>> >>
>>> >> Another book as rich as life itself. "If books are not life, then what
>>> >> is?"--as someone once wrote. (If you are on Facebook, like the Group
>>> page
>>> >> entitled this for occasional miscellaneous publishing  and bookstore
>>> news)
>>> >>
>>> >> I urge, beseech you to read this book. I would like a secret society,
>>> a
>>> >> growing circle, that can allude to it together, openly. Make time
>>> when you
>>> >> have time to make. It will change your mind. You will live longer, old
>>> >> neurons newly aglow. Gut bacteria improved. (But I won't ask)
>>> >>
>>> >> And, since you won't believe me, ex-salesman, please read Ron
>>> Charles's
>>> >> wonderfully appreciative and over-the-top review below.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/02/01/olga-tokarczuk-books-of-jacob-review/
>>> >>
>>> >> *Also, a "pony" could be a cheat sheet or other material used in a
>>> test by
>>> >> students
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> --
>>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>