What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Just finished the biographical section of this. Very enjoyable and informative reading, essential for a proper understanding of the life and achievement of this complex, generous, and prodigiously talented man, in Osborne's own and very apt words.

The idea even crossed my mind, to listen to all of Rossini's operas in chronological order (those which have been recorded, that is --- and to my surprise, a very good deal of them have. Of the total of 39 I have 23 and more are available). It should be a fun and interesting project.

[vers la flamme]

Alex Ross's Wagnerism. Very fascinating book, a lot more about what happened after Wagner than about the lifetime of the composer himself.

[Florestan]

Alex Ross's Wagnerism. Very fascinating book, a lot more about what happened after Wagner than about the lifetime of the composer himself.

I intend to read this one too.

[vers la flamme]

Today I started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm not very far into it, but it's very good so far; her writing style is quite unique.

[Ganondorf]

Reread this:



And read for the first time completely this:



Both astonishingly well written. I may not agree on every point with them but still especially the latter book (as Shaw initially thought the work somewhat unfinished) contains great insight to many aspects which make Wagner's Ring the masterpiece it is.

[vers la flamme]

Today I started Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm not very far into it, but it's very good so far; her writing style is quite unique.

Well, that book just ripped my heart out through my throat. It was a beautiful novel, but turned out to be quite bleak and hopeless in the end. It's as incredible to believe that the author was 23 when she wrote it as it is to believe that Thomas Mann was 25 when he wrote Buddenbrooks.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Well, that book just ripped my heart out through my throat. It was a beautiful novel, but turned out to be quite bleak and hopeless in the end. It's as incredible to believe that the author was 23 when she wrote it as it is to believe that Thomas Mann was 25 when he wrote Buddenbrooks.

Great book. When I saw the movie first and later read the book around 20 years old, I never imagined that I would live in Deep South.

[vers la flamme]

Great book. When I saw the movie first and later read the book around 20 years old, I never imagined that I would live in Deep South.

I hope that when you got here you found it slightly less bleak than McCullers made it out to be

Just finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message, and I definitely don't agree with the author's seemingly total rejection of music. But it was excellently written, very evocative, and very psychological, like the best of Dostoevsky, only more concise. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I hope that when you got here you found it slightly less bleak than McCullers made it out to be

Just finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message, and I definitely don't agree with the author's seemingly total rejection of music. But it was excellently written, very evocative, and very psychological, like the best of Dostoevsky, only more concise. 

We all discussed Dostoyevsky VS Tolstoy several times. I even made a thread. I used to admire Tolstoy when I was a teenager, but not anymore. IMHO, the preachy stories/narratives and the mixup of (self-serviced) ethics and aesthetics make his works unrealistic.

Have you seen the movie, Mississippi Burning by great Gene Hackman? That depicts the South very well imo.

[vers la flamme]

We all discussed Dostoyevsky VS Tolstoy several times. I even made a thread. I used to admire Tolstoy when I was a teenager, but not anymore. IMHO, the preachy stories/narratives and the mixup of (self-serviced) ethics and aesthetics make his works unrealistic.

Have you seen the movie, Mississippi Burning by great Gene Hackman? That depicts the South very well imo.

We watched it in school. It's been a while, maybe I'll watch it again.

Thanks for your perspective on Tolstoy, it seems a lot of people approach him with blind adulation. What do you make of Ivan Ilyich? That book completely blew me away, each time I've read it.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

We watched it in school. It's been a while, maybe I'll watch it again.

Thanks for your perspective on Tolstoy, it seems a lot of people approach him with blind adulation. What do you make of Ivan Ilyich? That book completely blew me away, each time I've read it.

I remember I was not a big fan of The Death of Ivan Ilych while I liked Karenina, War and Peace (currently titled as Special Operation and Peace in Russia), Resurrection, and some short stories. I will purchase the Ilych and re-read it.

[Florestan]

War and Peace (currently titled as Special Operation and Peace in Russia),

 

Also, I expect the scelerate Putin to celebrate in his speech today The Great Patriotic Special Operation. 

[Ganondorf]

Just finished Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. I'm not sure I entirely agree with its virulent anti-sex message

Havent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.

[vers la flamme]

Havent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.

This is something I didn't know, but had been suspecting: that Tolstoy was something of a "reformed libertine" who went as far as possible in the other direction after finding God, renouncing sex altogether.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Havent completely read Kreutzer but I remember that part bothering me. Not that considering sex sinful was anything exceptional back then but all the more awful considering he had sex with serf girls in his youth who most likely had little choice in the matter.

I read that Tolstoy had partly a similar experience and resulting remorse. We see that in Resurrection.

[Florestan]

I read that Tolstoy had partly a similar experience and resulting remorse. We see that in Resurrection.

Exactly.

Isaiah Berlin made the astute observation, in his superb and highly recommended book Russian Thinkers, that it is absolutely incorrect that Russians are chaotic and unpredictable in behavior; on the contrary, once a Russian has embraced a philosophical, ethical or political system or doctrine, they think and act it to its ultimate consequences with unflinching obstinacy, no matter how high the price is to be paid for that, either by themselves or by others. Tolstoy is exemplary in this respect, both in debauchery and asceticism.

[BWV 1080]

once a Russian has embraced a philosophical, ethical or political system or doctrine, they think and act it to its ultimate consequences with unflinching obstinacy, no matter how high the price is to be paid for that, either by themselves or by others.

Yep, or a Georgian wannabe Russian

[Florestan]

Yep, or a Georgian wannabe Russian

Of course. Not to mention a former KGB resident in Berlin...

[toledobass]

Has anyone read Robert Persig's Lila?

It's a fascinating book that I'm spending a lot of time with.

I find it much more interesting and a deeper exploration of what he was thinking about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

A lot to grapple with but quite a profound way to look at the world.

~Allan

[SimonNZ]

Finished this quickie:



Less what you might expect from the title, more a very freewheeling memoir of Wilson's own changing attitudes to the work throughout his life and especially a series of reminiscences of a friend who challenged his thinking about the work.


Starting:



The fact and fiction of the siege and of the Texas Revolution followed by a cultural history of the myth and the political uses made of it.