![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Happy Dumb but Not Gay Pride from My Book Blog
Some of these were mentioned in last month's review. I still have not finished Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas even though it's a really good read ... I've ordered this list by the totality of my enjoyment.
The Summer Book, Jannson - after reading The True Deceiver in January, I decided to wait to read The Summer Book for when it was actually summer. Really different book and read, but I still loved it. Big Surprise!!
The Summer Book is about a young girl and her grandmother and the summer they spend on the island after the girl's mother passes away.Tthe chapters are short, episodic vignettes: a new pet cat, an old friend who's come to visit, a big storm. My copy from the recent NYRB translation has some illustrations from Jannson as a little treat. It's a perfectly accomplished book, one of those books where you're like, I guess some people just have more wisdom than I do!!! with gratitude... Not much else to say here except that if you're feeling a bit out of it or like you want something to read in one hot afternoon or across a few days, this it it.
In the Freud Archives, Malcolm - Still on my Malcolm and psychoanalysis kick. The initial, "I'm VERY into this!" of psychoanalysis is fading a little after reading some 1950s/60s papers, and I'm remembering why it's a really annoying analytical tool that we need to slap away from people, but I'm still really into Malcolm reading Freud and diving into the psychoanalytical world.
This is famously the book that dragged malcolm into a 10 year lawsuit with the subject, Jeffrey Masson, and after reading this book, I'm just like, wow, Masson comes off looking like a total fucking buffoon... rightly so lmao. It covers similar thematic ground as Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession in terms of subject, but here Malcolm dives deep into specific interpersonal dynamics between analysts, The politics around the Freud archives and a split revolving around the Oedipus complex/transference vs the seduction hypothesis: to me, fascinating stuff. Is it ever a good thing to go, "wow, the Oedipus complex is more interesting than I thought it was and isn't just the punchline for a bunch of people who also find CBT funny?"
I think the amazing thing about Malcolm is that she is really good at getting people to talk... this isn't the most incriminating bit by any means but there's a bit where Malcolm proposes to Eissler, the director of the Freud archives who was really taken in by masson and then betrayed, that Eissler might have been fond of Masson and did not want to hear ill of him, and Eissler responds, VERBATIM, "The homosexual explanation. Yes, he had great homosexual appeal, strong appeal. Not that I ever had any homosexual fantasies about him, but I find the homosexual explanation even worse. I prefer the other explanation." and I was like, huh? he thinks he can choose whether to be gay or to be stupid? Most of us have no choice but to be both.
The Alphabetical Diaries, Heti - I GUESS I'M ON A SHEILA HETI KICK RIGHT NOW? It's kind of a gimmicky book: Heti takes her diaries, written over the course of ten years, and arranges the sentences alphabetically. Each chapter is made of sentences that start with the same lette. I think it helps that she keeps a digital diary (terrifying). By its nature, it's an intimate book. Heti mentions in an interview that at one point she got despondent over how hard it is to really change yourself and how repetitive her thoughts are... on the other hand lol it is good for a consistent reading experience. Reading through Diaries is a ton of fun in the way that nonchronological works want to be fun: you're assembling the web of relationships, career moves, and growth on your own. You quickly come to understand that meaning is often created by simple repetition, placement, and juxtaposition. Heti is, as always, smart and funny and manages to get the balance of being boring, showing good curiosity, and being self-aware and self-absorbed without being precious or defensive... honestly a lesson I think more essayists and writers should take.
The Merchant of Prato, Origo - I read the first half of this in a zip and the second half while desperately praying for it to be over... As a biographer, Origo is very interested in the totality of the papers she has access to: not just the business material, which provides an easy to construct narrative (born - apprenticeship - early ventures - expansion - employees - more expansion - more employees - more ventures - how did they do this in the 1300s - death), but also materials that people would overlook: letters Francesco sent to his wife, how to manage the household, his affairs and how he handled the children from them, his friend and notary Mazzei (Origo loves Mazzei more than anyone else in this cast), the tax structure of 14th century Florence, a list of furniture, how people paid the stone mason, and so on. If I were writing a novel set in 14th century, Italy this book would be perfect for me, but I was really struggling through the last quarter, even as intellectually I was thinking, mmm yes, the Plague... This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the experience of reading it, it's just also. quite a lot... I probably could have skimmed more.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures, Lispector - Going to be totally honest, I thought that this was going to be a murder mystery book of some kind set in like South London or whatever, but instead it's a real bugfuck uhh romance?? There's an afterward by Sheila Heti at the end of this and that did help me go, oh, yes, this is the kind of book Heti would really like. Makes sense.
A simple explanation of An Apprenticeship would go something like this: Lori meets a man named Ulisses. They are both overpoweringly attractive. She notices he resists her sexual wiles and decides to make him her master. Ulisses says that they cannot have an affair until she has prepared herself to live, which will prepare her to love. Lori embarks on a remarkable transformation, stripping her self naked and learning as though for the first time what it means to be a singular entity in the world; her encounters with the world are both ecstatic and horrifyingly raw, and these encounters are sometimes as simple as going to the market or taking a taxi late at night. After a long period, she experiences a few moments of grace and goes to Ulisses. They fuck like five times. Afterwards, Ulisses says they should get married. Also, he won't be able to see her so often because he has to write an important essay. okay??
I read this essay by Jose Castello and after reading it I was like okay, got it, I'm not clicking with this book because I was not possessed by Clarice while reading her work. I'm not a Virginia Woolf guy either. I feel like this book could be really important to someone who is not me... it's certainly stylish and I can see the uh spiritual? transformational? highly esoteric? potential of it. The essay is really wonderful and harrowing and I highly recommend giving it a read. If the essay makes Lispector sound appealing and you have not read her before or it has been a while since your last attempt, I think. maybe you will enjoy An Apprenticeship. I cannot make a recommendation if only because I am a mere mortal, with not so much spiritual brain.
Terraformers, Newitz - I read this in the middle of the month and after reading it I came to the conclusion that reading is worthless, writing is bad, and I don't think we should envision a future any longer... I guess what makes it bad to me is its lack of commitment to the alien or the unknown, and also that the author is SOOOO transparently writing about contemporary problems and contemporary solutions in the guise of a Dreamworks movie... I cannot even pretend it is a Disney production at this point. Will people in the year 60,000 care about being carbon neutral? Why is this discussion of building subway lines connecting one city to the next align perfectly with the opinions of people who think America can be solved with highspeed rail? If a train can be sentient then I think it should get to fuck a sentient train station. But no one is ready to have that conversation.
Its only virtue I guess is that it covers three different generations speedily enough that you do not have to hate any one cast of characters for a particularly long time, but this in turn worsens one of its central vices, which is watching Newitz present problems badly and then cartwheel into solutions and resolutions that are even worse. I don't think I hated this as much as I hated Red Mars by Robinson, but I did hate it in a unique and particular way. The author thanks Robinson in the afterward, proving that you can really hate up and down a family tree no problem. I will have a blood feud any day.