May's Manic Meanderings Into Marvellously Mystical Manuscripts

[Bick]

Well I finished Clash of Kings by GRRM. Very good, enjoyed it, though a little protracted I felt. I'll be back to Westeros after a short break...

Onto something quite different now: The Day of the Locusts by Nathaniel West. I'm enjoying it so far. A character named Homer Simpson has just appeared! (This is where Matt Groening got the name apparently). Written in '39. Anyone else read any West?

 

[Randy M.]

Well I finished Clash of Kings by GRRM. Very good, enjoyed it, though a little protracted I felt. I'll be back to Westeros after a short break...

Onto something quite different now: The Day of the Locusts by Nathaniel West. I'm enjoying it so far. A character named Homer Simpson has just appeared! (This is where Matt Groening got the name apparently). Written in '39. Anyone else read any West?

Never did get to The Day of the Locusts because Miss Lonelyhearts was the most depressing book I ever read and at the time I didn't want to follow it up with something that promised to be just as depressing. I really should read it again and then go on to TDotL. (Really. No sarcasm intended.)

Right now I have about 20 pages left in The Sinful Ones by Fritz Leiber. I should have had it finished by now, but it hasn't been a good week for reading time. I like it and would recommend it to anyone who can find it, but I think the compressed novella version, "You're All Alone" is sharper and carries a greater punch.

Next up: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Everything I've heard about this makes me anxious to start.


Randy M.

 

[HareBrain]

Cool. I have that book as well but I am yet to read it.

Powys is certainly a well regarded author described by people I've spoken with as being enigmatic and strange even dangerous but with a definite streak of genius...and as you say certainly viewed as a great writer.

Possibly 'A Glastonbury Romance' is even more admired amongst Powys readers again. It's another of his Wessex novels.

I would be grateful if you could post any thoughts about this book and its author along the way here.

Your post has made my day....

Cheers.

Now finished Wolf Solent. It's certainly one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read, and possibly one of the most difficult to judge as to whether anyone else I know would like it. I'll quote from the intro by A.N Wilson:

I began by trying to describe the personality of John Cowper Powys as he comes at us on the page. Those who have never read him before might well find this personality disconcerting, and feel a little as if they have been buttonholed by a lunatic stranger in the street. After a few pages, however, if the Powys magic works upon the reader, he or she will find themselves absorbed, fascinated, enriched.

'The Powys magic' certainly worked on me. In fact, I almost feel that I have read him before. He reminds me a bit of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence and Proust, but most of all of Colin Wilson, in whose philosophical books I first heard of Powys (though Wilson mostly uses A Glastonbury Romance as his example). I haven't read any Colin Wilson for about ten years, but finishing Wolf Solent brought me back to the feeling I used to get from Wilson's breezily optimistic books on consciousness, and which I thought I'd lost.

As a writer, Powys has his quirks, but he is spot-on (and often funny) in describing, often with wildly inventive metaphors, the detail of people's facial expressions and behaviour. And his nature description is profoundly good -- and never indulged in for its own sake; it always relates to, informs and reflects the consciousness of the main character. The vegetative earthiness of it in parts is quite astounding. I'm not sure I found anything in I would have called "dangerous", though some aspects might have been quite daring in the 1920s. He writes the erotic extremely well without going into sex.

Anyway, I'd recommend you at least try it, because if that magic does work, you'll have found something pretty much unique, deeply felt, absorbing, mysterious and entertaining, and one doesn't get the chance of that very often.

 

[GOLLUM]

@Harebrain: Thanks for posting your thoughts. It confirms what others have been telling me about this enigmatic writer. It's motivated me to think seriously about tackling Powys this year. I'll ask the person I spoke to who described his work as dangerous what exactly was meant by that and post here. If you ever read Glastonbury Romance I'll be fascinated to know how it compares/contrasts to Wolf Solent.

@Bick: I read Miss LonelyHearts a while back and thought it was a great work but as pointed out quite depressing. I also have Day of the Locusts and again as per my comments to Harebrain it's made me think about picking this up again. It will be interesting to read your views once you've completed it.

 

[Bick]

@Bick: I read Miss LonelyHearts a while back and thought it was a great work but as pointed out quite depressing. I also have Day of the Locusts and again as per my comments to Harebrain it's made me think about picking this up again. It will be interesting to read your views once you've completed it.

Thanks Gollum. My edition of Day of the locust (Vintage pb) includes Miss Lonelyhearts, so I'll be reading that too. ML is really quite short, so I'll give it a go, even though both you and Randy suggest its depressing! I suppose Day of the Locust might also be described as depressing, but while the tone and events could be described that way, it doesn't have that effect on me as a reader - I find the intelligence of the writing, and the nuanced observation of the characters to be entertaining. 'Day' is also quite humorous, so the overall impression is enjoyable. Interestingly, a fair few american novels of the 30's seem to present the fall and decline of a protagonist (or at least have them shun the social expectations and mores of their time) . In so doing, they paint a contrast between individual reality and the "american dream". I'm reminded of John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samara", which, albeit different in style, also carries this theme. For those who haven't read it O'Hara's novel is excellent too.

 

[HareBrain]

If you ever read Glastonbury Romance I'll be fascinated to know how it compares/contrasts to Wolf Solent.

You shouldn't have to wait very long: it's next on my reading list.

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks Gollum. My edition of Day of the locust (Vintage pb) includes Miss Lonelyhearts, so I'll be reading that too. ML is really quite short, so I'll give it a go, even though both you and Randy suggest its depressing! I suppose Day of the Locust might also be described as depressing, but while the tone and events could be described that way, it doesn't have that effect on me as a reader - I find the intelligence of the writing, and the nuanced observation of the characters to be entertaining. 'Day' is also quite humorous, so the overall impression is enjoyable. Interestingly, a fair few american novels of the 30's seem to present the fall and decline of a protagonist (or at least have them shun the social expectations and mores of their time) . In so doing, they paint a contrast between individual reality and the "american dream". I'm reminded of John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samara", which, albeit different in style, also carries this theme. For those who haven't read it O'Hara's novel is excellent too.

Those are very interesting comments you make regarding West. Miss Lonelyhearts as I recall carried a similar theme. Again West mixes tragedy with wit but a combination that leads inevitably to total despair. The writing is undeniably powerful and Yes West has a certain genius for characterization. My impression is that he is a criminally under-read writer in America but I don't know that for certain. Locusts is apparently a little less depressing but regarded almost as equally powerful a work as Lonelyhearts.

I have a copy of selected short stories by John O'Harra and I know of Appointment in Samara by reputation but I haven't read it yet.

 

[GOLLUM]

You shouldn't have to wait very long: it's next on my reading list.

I look forward to it then.

 

[Fried Egg]

I recently finished John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids" and have since moved onto Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge" and plan to go onto H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" next.

 

[Mr Fraaz]

I'm reading Game of Thrones for the first time. It's good, but I've watched the first two seasons on TV, so it's not exactly thrilling. It's also interesting to see if the characters look like they do on TV, or if my imagination conjures up it's own character. For example, in my head, Jon Snow looks like the guy from TV, but Eddard Stark and Arya are basically replaced by my own imagination.

Then I've read The Watchmen (graphic novel) for the first time. Very original and immersive. A nice flavour of the 80's, but nevertheless feels totally fresh. Never read anything like it, really.

Not SFF, but, I'm also finishing China in Ten Words by Yu Hua. Also a very good read, unpretentious and elegantly written. He's using 10 different concepts and his own experiences to narrate the development of China during the last decades. Very personal, but still very convincing.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Age of Rock: Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution edited by Jonathan Eisen. (1969)

An anthology of essays from the second half of the 1960's dealing with the popular music of the time. Fascinating reading for those of us who can remember that time. (I must have been about 11 years old when my parents, on a visit to San Francisco, drove us through the Haight-Ashbury area to see the hippies.) It's almost as if the essayists were seeing their own time, as it was happening, as "historical."

 

[j d worthington]

With all the stresses which have been going on, I decided I needed something a bit lighter for a while, so decided to go ahead with that reading of James Branch Cabell's "Biography of the Life of Manuel" (and no, that is not, as I've sometimes seen it said, a redundancy) I've been meaning to get around to for so long...

... and, well... I was right about "lighter" -- in tone, at least; not in content. While Cabell is extremely adept at presenting his material in an ironic, witty, often amusing manner, what he is addressing is often about as heavy as it gets in dealing with the human condition. Yet these have been anything but depressing, or heavy going; they have been delightful, though as often because they have moved me deeply as due to their "comic" qualities. As I am reading the entire set as a whole for the first time, this is a mixture of things I've read before, and several I've never encountered, and the choice to do it this way, rather than simply pick up the ones I've not read before, is decidedly a good one. Not only are several of the fantasies among the most beautifully written things in the field, some of these are also among the most genuinly noble books I've read in a very long time. And oh, how those I've read before have grown! Sooo much more than simply urbane, witty, deft novels, these things often show a poetic sensibility -- not to mention a Romantic one -- such as one finds only in the very best writers... and yet Cabell is distinctly a modern or, rather, a blending of the distinctively Modern with one of the most deeply-imbued traditionalist, romantic, and genuinely generous and humane approaches to grace fiction.

So far, I have finished: Beyond Life, Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, Domnei (with "The Music from Behind the Moon"), and am about halfway through the story collection, Chivalry. I rather think I'll end up going through a goodly portion more of the series (if not the entirety) before taking a break, at this rate.

For those who would like a little something out-of the-ordinary for their fantasy reading, I highly recommend tackling this "series". This stuff is good!

 

[Vertigo]

JD, Cabell sounds interesting. Could you recommend a good starting point to try him out. Whilst Beyond Life is listed as first in his canon, it does not look like the most accessible of the books so I was wondering if Figures of Earth might be the best to add to my TBR mountain if I wanted to give him a try (it is also available from Gutenberg!)

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished A Tale of Two Cities. It was not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. Some parts were a little too descriptive for me. But when the action was happening, and there was dialogue, I enjoyed it. The last 75 pages or so were the best IMO.

Now I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

 

[Lobolover]

Have recently finished Geoffrey Dennis' Harvest in Poland. A real interesting bit but

Spoiler

the build up of the insane, borderline psychotic environment of the polish family is great but then in the last few pages of the book Dennis brings up the "real villain" in the form of an incidental character mentioned once before that had nothing to do with any of those realy impressive scenes, and showed the main character into a rather rushed "gothic" setting for a blood curdling finale. Mind you it wasn't bad but it felt like he was throwing away the whole cultist aspect of the self-proclaimed martyr dwarf and the incredibly needy mother for a character who gets barely any build up at all before the climax.

Also some readers might get discouraged by the fact that within the first three or so chapters Dennis has an extremely "christian" passage, constantly reffering to God, his glory, praying etc. in the most tedious, tired, phrase-like manner possible. However the books language is incredibly good beyond that, having a sarcastic tone to the writing I didn't think possible in 1925.

There is also one rather unpleasant episode involving an Armenian thief that is capped off with a more humble evaluation of the Armenian Genocide in favour of the Sultan but....the book is so good at presenting the ludicrousness of hating people based on their race/religion that I don't think this was intentional. This is also one of the book's strong points.

Have moved on to Groff Conklin's In the Grip of Terror Anthology. I read The Cross of Karl from it before, which was amazingly mesmerising, but so far the other stuff isn't measuring up much. The most advertised story is Lovecraft's In the Vault which isn't exactly the best thing Lovecraft ever penned as it's sort of typical stuff in my opinion, the Crane story being rather flat, and Will F. Jenkins' night drive being alright but not exactly what it was advertised as in the description before the contents. The best thing of the stuff I read so far is Bradury's The Illustrated Man.

 

[FireDragon-16]

Recently picked up a copy of The Irish Princess by Karen Harper at my library. It's a historical fiction novel about Elizabeth Fitzgerald during the time of Henry VII. I'm only a few pages in, but so far it's pretty good.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Just starting this old anthology:

 

[J-Sun]

JD, Cabell sounds interesting. Could you recommend a good starting point to try him out.

I was going to ask the same thing - I picked up Jurgen, Figures of Earth and The Silver Stallion all at once and Jurgen is much more famous and written first but the other two are apparently "prequels" and the publisher sells them that way, advising starting with Figures. So I was, of course, going to start with Jurgen but was wondering if a case could be made otherwise.

 

[j d worthington]

JD, Cabell sounds interesting. Could you recommend a good starting point to try him out. Whilst Beyond Life is listed as first in his canon, it does not look like the most accessible of the books so I was wondering if Figures of Earth might be the best to add to my TBR mountain if I wanted to give him a try (it is also available from Gutenberg!)

I was going to ask the same thing - I picked up Jurgen, Figures of Earth and The Silver Stallion all at once and Jurgen is much more famous and written first but the other two are apparently "prequels" and the publisher sells them that way, advising starting with Figures. So I was, of course, going to start with Jurgen but was wondering if a case could be made otherwise.

Even though Jurgen was (as with many people) the first book I read by Cabell, more than thirty years ago, I think I would follow the order given here:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/46063-james-branch-cabell.html

save, perhaps, if you choose to skip Beyond Life.... It really is, in its own odd way, a fine introduction to the series, but it certainly isn't what most people would be expecting....

The reason I suggest this order is because it develops characters and themes from book to book, as well as ringing changes on some of them which might be confusing if encountered in a more haphazard order. At this point, I have only one more story to read in Chivalry, and while not every one of them is as good as the first, they are all well worth reading, and the development of the theme is very well done through this set of tales.

 

[Vertigo]

Thanks for that, JD, I think I'll try starting with Figures of Earth. I shall download it from Gutenberg and add to my pile. Not sure when it's likely to surface though!