Reading suggestions and important ideas from the literary world. This week a heavyweight collaboration, good news, bad news, more AI, more reader tips.
"Luckily, the Canadian government has asked them to explain themselves…" I think it's slightly more complicated than that. This began with the right wing government of Alberta stirring up a moral panic over an alleged pornographic comicbook in school libraries.
The school board went ahead and prepared to remove absolutely everything with sex in it from school libraries (either as "vicious compliance," an epic troll, or because they themselves are lickspittles, all depending on who you ask). The leader of the right wing government is extremely online, and sensitive to the charge of book banning (she likes to champion far right 'free speech issues' which generally aren't, and one of the banned books was by her favourite author, Ayn Rand), so she has accused the school board of going beyond their remit, even though they were doing what her education minister told them to do.
So the government has reversed course for now, but they're still very actively trying to whip up a moral panic based on the idea that children might have access to a diversity of books.
The “Canadian” book-banning story is labyrinthine due to the various layers of government. The federal/provincial split is more strongly effective (or ineffective? Or maleffective?) than in the UK. The federal government doesn’t have much to do with the day-to-day education (or health) stuff beyond providing funding and setting a baseline standard.
The Alberta provincial government is in charge of actual policy detail and is currently pandering to a mini-MAGA minority (itching for separation and, in the most extreme cases some sort of Alberta-US connection.
The local authority (in this case, Edmonton) is then responsible for putting the provincial government edicts into effect. Edmonton (sometimes known as “Redmonton” as it’s an island of mild leftism in a sea of conservatism) did that, but after the blowback the provincial government is crying foul, describing what they did as “vicious [sic] compliance”, though they haven’t explained why these books, many of which depict sexual activity, shouldn’t be banned under a provincial law that bans books that depict sexual activity. One might almost suspect that they meant to ban only those books that depict *particular forms* of sexual activity, but who am I to say?
I've almost finished The Dawn Watch and agree it's brilliant. The world events and changes Conrad experienced and wove into his writing often have relevance to our own times. My only complaint is the lack of a chronology and his books and stories not being listed together in the index. You have to already know something exists in order to look it up.
- The new Nicola Barker, TonyInterruptor, was as mad and thought-provokingly brilliant as ever. After an interruption from the audience at a jazz improv gig goes viral, she asks questions about authenticity and honesty - very funny.
- Michael Pedersen's Muckle Flugga will be in contention for my book of the year - the contemporary story of a lighthouse keeper and his son on said island (real northernmost inhabited bit of the UK), the son's coming of age and finding himself tale which featured Robert Louis Stevenson a lot was just beautiful.
- WE Bowman's The Ascent of Rum Doodle was published in 1956. A spoof on gentlemen adventurers of the earlier 20thC, it has a team of misfit 'experts' head to the Himalaya with hilarious consequences - a rediscovered gem.
Richard Flanagan's Question 7 ruined me for other books last month. It's an extraordinary hybrid memoir. It uses the structure of the chain reaction to move from the first kiss between H. G. Wells and Rebecca West, though the construction and deployment of the atom bomb and his father's incarceration in a Japanese POW camp, to his own near-death experience. I loved it and it slayed me.
For a mental palate cleanser I turned to a reread, Gabriel Josipovici's Everything Passes. This is a 60 page novella through which a narrow and intermittent river of text flows, a story of solitude, illness and art. It may be slight but Josipovici's ratio of words to weight of significance is better than any other writer I know. Not enough people read him. Everything Passes is a good place to start, or else for a more recognisable novel, Hotel Andromeda.
On a different note, I see that Audible is bringing out a compilation of all Dickens' novels next month. I read Hard Times in school, hated it, steered clear ever since. But your experience makes me curious, Sam, and I wonder if I'd like him better now? I also wonder whether listening to Dickens would be a better experience for me than reading, given I resent chunksters! And I must admit I'm curious to see how many hours of listening all of Dickens' novels would represent....
Just realised I didn't reply to this! Sorry. Listening to Dickens is a wonderful thing to do. You're definitely in it for the long haul - but with a good narrator, it is hours of joy.
Great to see a good review of Leonora Carrington. I read quite a bit this past month, some good, some not so much
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea was better than I had expected it to be. It didn't fall into the muscle-flexing bullshit that generally overtakes his longer novels. While reading A Farewell to Arms, I could see Ernie flexing in front of a. mirror and yelling "Hey, everybody come see how good I look." Ron Burgundy-style.
The Old Man eschewed the emotionally stunted main character who somehow found himself a magnet for feminine attention for a defeated throwback. The Old Man , overtaken by technology, out-fished by bigger boats, out-paddled by younger men, was just waiting out the days that remained him, never quite giving up. It was the first of Hemingway's books that felt honest to me. Sure, it still leaned too heavily on the "suffering is nobility" and "pain will bring you closer to God" tropes, but it felt like Hemingway let the curtain drop for a bit and kicked the machismo to the curb. It's a pity he didn't adopt this genuinity in his longer works.
Up next was A Canticle For Leibowitz, which I had seen on all of those Best of Sci-Fi lists and never had actually heard discussed. If you had told me a post-apocalyptic Catholic novel would be an improvement on its better known contemporaries, I would have plotzed.
Certainly, it was a product of its time, the Nuclear Age, where fear of bombs had schoolchildren hiding under their desks. It was much better than other attempts at melding religion and science fiction (such as Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light) and was not as poorly aged as the big names that defined his era: Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein (I hated Starship Troopers with enough energy to melt lead). If I had to quibble, I would say that the belief that post-fallout Catholic monks becoming the repository for the hoarding, maintenance and growth of scientific learning was the sort of wide-eyed optimism that only a new convert could have made. However, the velocity with which post-apocalyptic society turned upon expertise and higher learning, I mean...see Florida. Definitely a good read.
Thank you Paul! Fantastic reviews. Glad you enjoyed The Old Man And The Sea. (I see much more vulnerability from Papa in his other works than you do, I think. He lets you see the pain beneath the swagger....) A Canticle is fascinating too. As I remember, it breaks down in part three, but before that, very impressive.
I agree, the third epoch of Leibowitz was definitely the inferior. As for Hemingway.... well, I don't think he would have been one of these "Alpha-male" meat-eating troglodytes that seem to be gaining traction amongst the youngins. He didn't strike me as someone who saw females as a lesser species. I kind of think of him as proto-Bear Grylls. A bullshit artist who pretends to represent the zenith of manhood while knowing the hollowness of his position. Hemingway strikes me as quite vulnerable, but someone who wants desperately to hide that vulnerability behind boxing gloves and Pernod. I would have warmed to him more if he had more glimpses into those moments in which his guard was down. I keep hearing that his short stories are where his best work can be found.
Try this one (first 7 pages), "Hills Like White Elephants", recommended to me by @deadgod, and discussed later with @NatFat, I think. I thought it was great despite feeling meh towards Hemingway myself.
Not that it needs any more publicity, but I bought Andrew O'Hagen's Caledonian Road for a 'light' holiday read and am enjoying it even more than I'd expected. It has many similarities with John Lanchester's Capital but is a much richer, deeper novel for me. There are some nice knowing nods to Dickens too, although I wonder if Trollope might be a better 19th century comparison.
Thanks Drew! Had a fine time - and that in spite of the fact that my favourite pie shop in Windermere has closed down. (If you'd tried those pies, you'd know why I lament...)
"Luckily, the Canadian government has asked them to explain themselves…" I think it's slightly more complicated than that. This began with the right wing government of Alberta stirring up a moral panic over an alleged pornographic comicbook in school libraries.
The school board went ahead and prepared to remove absolutely everything with sex in it from school libraries (either as "vicious compliance," an epic troll, or because they themselves are lickspittles, all depending on who you ask). The leader of the right wing government is extremely online, and sensitive to the charge of book banning (she likes to champion far right 'free speech issues' which generally aren't, and one of the banned books was by her favourite author, Ayn Rand), so she has accused the school board of going beyond their remit, even though they were doing what her education minister told them to do.
So the government has reversed course for now, but they're still very actively trying to whip up a moral panic based on the idea that children might have access to a diversity of books.
The “Canadian” book-banning story is labyrinthine due to the various layers of government. The federal/provincial split is more strongly effective (or ineffective? Or maleffective?) than in the UK. The federal government doesn’t have much to do with the day-to-day education (or health) stuff beyond providing funding and setting a baseline standard.
The Alberta provincial government is in charge of actual policy detail and is currently pandering to a mini-MAGA minority (itching for separation and, in the most extreme cases some sort of Alberta-US connection.
The local authority (in this case, Edmonton) is then responsible for putting the provincial government edicts into effect. Edmonton (sometimes known as “Redmonton” as it’s an island of mild leftism in a sea of conservatism) did that, but after the blowback the provincial government is crying foul, describing what they did as “vicious [sic] compliance”, though they haven’t explained why these books, many of which depict sexual activity, shouldn’t be banned under a provincial law that bans books that depict sexual activity. One might almost suspect that they meant to ban only those books that depict *particular forms* of sexual activity, but who am I to say?
Thank you! Will add an edit to the piece above. Clearly more to it than I first surmised.
FWIW I thought the Jasanoff book was brilliant, both on Conrad and his work and on the contemporary worlds he navigated.
I've almost finished The Dawn Watch and agree it's brilliant. The world events and changes Conrad experienced and wove into his writing often have relevance to our own times. My only complaint is the lack of a chronology and his books and stories not being listed together in the index. You have to already know something exists in order to look it up.
Love the photos.
I had a brilliant run of 10/10 books in August.
- The new Nicola Barker, TonyInterruptor, was as mad and thought-provokingly brilliant as ever. After an interruption from the audience at a jazz improv gig goes viral, she asks questions about authenticity and honesty - very funny.
- Michael Pedersen's Muckle Flugga will be in contention for my book of the year - the contemporary story of a lighthouse keeper and his son on said island (real northernmost inhabited bit of the UK), the son's coming of age and finding himself tale which featured Robert Louis Stevenson a lot was just beautiful.
- WE Bowman's The Ascent of Rum Doodle was published in 1956. A spoof on gentlemen adventurers of the earlier 20thC, it has a team of misfit 'experts' head to the Himalaya with hilarious consequences - a rediscovered gem.
Thank you! These are all fine recommendations. I've been glancing through Rum Doodle myself. Delighted to hear the NIcola Barker is so good.
Crooked Cross is currently available to listen to on BBC Sounds, it is really good.
Richard Flanagan's Question 7 ruined me for other books last month. It's an extraordinary hybrid memoir. It uses the structure of the chain reaction to move from the first kiss between H. G. Wells and Rebecca West, though the construction and deployment of the atom bomb and his father's incarceration in a Japanese POW camp, to his own near-death experience. I loved it and it slayed me.
For a mental palate cleanser I turned to a reread, Gabriel Josipovici's Everything Passes. This is a 60 page novella through which a narrow and intermittent river of text flows, a story of solitude, illness and art. It may be slight but Josipovici's ratio of words to weight of significance is better than any other writer I know. Not enough people read him. Everything Passes is a good place to start, or else for a more recognisable novel, Hotel Andromeda.
On a different note, I see that Audible is bringing out a compilation of all Dickens' novels next month. I read Hard Times in school, hated it, steered clear ever since. But your experience makes me curious, Sam, and I wonder if I'd like him better now? I also wonder whether listening to Dickens would be a better experience for me than reading, given I resent chunksters! And I must admit I'm curious to see how many hours of listening all of Dickens' novels would represent....
Just realised I didn't reply to this! Sorry. Listening to Dickens is a wonderful thing to do. You're definitely in it for the long haul - but with a good narrator, it is hours of joy.
(Can't recommend using Audible, however.)
Great to see a good review of Leonora Carrington. I read quite a bit this past month, some good, some not so much
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea was better than I had expected it to be. It didn't fall into the muscle-flexing bullshit that generally overtakes his longer novels. While reading A Farewell to Arms, I could see Ernie flexing in front of a. mirror and yelling "Hey, everybody come see how good I look." Ron Burgundy-style.
The Old Man eschewed the emotionally stunted main character who somehow found himself a magnet for feminine attention for a defeated throwback. The Old Man , overtaken by technology, out-fished by bigger boats, out-paddled by younger men, was just waiting out the days that remained him, never quite giving up. It was the first of Hemingway's books that felt honest to me. Sure, it still leaned too heavily on the "suffering is nobility" and "pain will bring you closer to God" tropes, but it felt like Hemingway let the curtain drop for a bit and kicked the machismo to the curb. It's a pity he didn't adopt this genuinity in his longer works.
Up next was A Canticle For Leibowitz, which I had seen on all of those Best of Sci-Fi lists and never had actually heard discussed. If you had told me a post-apocalyptic Catholic novel would be an improvement on its better known contemporaries, I would have plotzed.
Certainly, it was a product of its time, the Nuclear Age, where fear of bombs had schoolchildren hiding under their desks. It was much better than other attempts at melding religion and science fiction (such as Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light) and was not as poorly aged as the big names that defined his era: Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein (I hated Starship Troopers with enough energy to melt lead). If I had to quibble, I would say that the belief that post-fallout Catholic monks becoming the repository for the hoarding, maintenance and growth of scientific learning was the sort of wide-eyed optimism that only a new convert could have made. However, the velocity with which post-apocalyptic society turned upon expertise and higher learning, I mean...see Florida. Definitely a good read.
Thank you Paul! Fantastic reviews. Glad you enjoyed The Old Man And The Sea. (I see much more vulnerability from Papa in his other works than you do, I think. He lets you see the pain beneath the swagger....) A Canticle is fascinating too. As I remember, it breaks down in part three, but before that, very impressive.
I agree, the third epoch of Leibowitz was definitely the inferior. As for Hemingway.... well, I don't think he would have been one of these "Alpha-male" meat-eating troglodytes that seem to be gaining traction amongst the youngins. He didn't strike me as someone who saw females as a lesser species. I kind of think of him as proto-Bear Grylls. A bullshit artist who pretends to represent the zenith of manhood while knowing the hollowness of his position. Hemingway strikes me as quite vulnerable, but someone who wants desperately to hide that vulnerability behind boxing gloves and Pernod. I would have warmed to him more if he had more glimpses into those moments in which his guard was down. I keep hearing that his short stories are where his best work can be found.
Try this one (first 7 pages), "Hills Like White Elephants", recommended to me by @deadgod, and discussed later with @NatFat, I think. I thought it was great despite feeling meh towards Hemingway myself.
https://www.rvclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/May-Short-Stories.pdf
Yes, good recommendation. The short stories are wonderful.
In Our Time is one of the greatest books. Men Without Women too.
Not that it needs any more publicity, but I bought Andrew O'Hagen's Caledonian Road for a 'light' holiday read and am enjoying it even more than I'd expected. It has many similarities with John Lanchester's Capital but is a much richer, deeper novel for me. There are some nice knowing nods to Dickens too, although I wonder if Trollope might be a better 19th century comparison.
I've had a copy of THE HEARING TRUMPET on my shelf for a while now... I may need to move it up the list.
Oh great! I hope you enjoy it.
I loved The Hearing Trumpet. It's very funny!
The book-banning is mad. Of all the things causing harm to children these days, real or alleged, books must come several miles down the list.
Welcome back Sam. Hope you had a great holiday.
Thanks Drew! Had a fine time - and that in spite of the fact that my favourite pie shop in Windermere has closed down. (If you'd tried those pies, you'd know why I lament...)
Will try to look it up. Thanks!!