laughs

Have you read Baker's The Anthologist as well? I also recently got his Baseless (his work on what he calls the ruins of the freedom of information act); yet to begin the latter, but looking forward; got other books to finish first.

Just finished The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. A thoroughly enjoyable novel. Quite popular given that it eschews common ideas about "plot." The "action" in this novel is not grand. It is a meditative novel, a slim one, and a quick read. Yet, it stays with the reader, asks us to see old things anew. Rewards re-reading. In many ways, it is a critique of capitalist modes of production, and capitalist cultural products. Hence, the "lack of action" in this novel is to be seen in this context, but should not be reduced to it. It sort of critiques the enterprise that valorizes capital and the market with such terms as "market revolution." The novel is a good counterpoint to calls for instant gratification and instant access. Yet, very enjoyable despite its political stance.

Been reading Joseph Brodsky's collection of essays titled "On Grief and Reason." I'm almost done with the collection, and so far the stand-outs are An Immodest Proposal, In Praise of Boredom, and his essay on Robert Frost and his works. It's great that he argues against the tendency to reduce Frost's poems to the jovial, avuncular register. He argues instead that Frost is a poet of terror, and nature, too, as depicted in his poems, Brodsky argues, is a thing of terror. Which got me to read a bit about what they call biological magnification (not that this has anything to do with nature and terror, just turned to be a tangential albeit rewarding read; some others call this same phenomenon a planet-level metabolic shift; interesting to consider).

Just began reading Hanif Kureishi's The Last Word, one of his recent works. It's breezy but brilliant. Many claim that the novel is about VS Naipaul; if not him, then at least it's about the things we talk about when we talk about VS Naipaul, or so the argument goes. Harry, an emerging writer, is commissioned to write Mamoon's (an eminent author, who by many readers is seen as a stand-in for VS Naipaul) biography. The novel explores the publisher's/editor's motives, the writer's motives, as well as Mamoon's and his wife's motives. In doing so, it lampoons the publishing industry and the dilettantes who seem to have taken refuge there. It almost works as a great contemporary example of Juvenalian satire (the subject being the publishing industry, of course).

Just read an excerpt from Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley published in nplusone. The excerpt is also called Uncanny Valley, and it's a great firsthand account of life in Silicon Valley, of the ins and outs of the ruthless start-up paradigm. Reminds me a little of Tony Tulathimutte's Private Citizens. Other than that I'm also reading about the unsustainability of ruthless, unregulated capitalism and its effects on the planet, particularly the ways in which it can adversely impact ecological succession across the planet, not just in urban hotspots.

1. Just picked up Hanif Kureishi's Gabriel's Gift this weekend. This is one of his recent works, along with The Nothing, which I really liked. I'm only about 40 pages in so far in this one, and I must say I'm liking this one too so far. 2. Other than this, I'm doing some ecology readings. Nothing advanced, just basic things, but they're still thought-provoking. Currently reading up about climax communities.

1. Tony Tulathimutte's Private Citizens - Really liking this so far. It's intelligent and funny, and the language is beautiful, too. It also feels deeply contemporary, which is not a positive in and of itself. Just that a work that insists on capturing the zeitgeist can fall flat, but this one doesn't. Hoping to finish this one this weekend. 2. My friend and I are doing some introductory readings on formal logic just to mix things up and for the love of learning. We also make it a point to find improbable materials from improbable sources, and the internet doesn't let us down. Currently focusing on transductive reasoning. Feels like the yin to fiction's yang.

I read of a lot of VS Naipaul in college, but it has been years since I read any of his books. Not because he's no more and his output is finite (as is anyone's); I read and re-read his works in college. Even now I take great pleasure in re-reading fiction/literature. But somehow I haven't revisited Naipaul.

That would work just as well too :)

1. On Being with Krista Tippett - She's knowledgeable, gentle, and a great listener. 2. Philosophize This with Michael West - He's thought-provoking and funny. Tries really hard to make philosophy less academic, which is not something we can say of public intellectuals today who tend to hide behind jargon. This is therefore bound to be appealing to the general listener as well as the formally trained philosophy student.

1. Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard - hopefully directed by either Alfonso Cuaron or Alejandro Inarritu. I don't think any other filmmaker can capture the introspective aspect of the book and the brutal beauty of the landscape and settlements Matthiessen describes at length. 2. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels - sure, there are film adaptations of this book, but I'd love to see a faithful film series of the novel. It addresses so many questions and concerns that it's impossible to make this a 2.5 hr film. What we've seen are more like abridged adaptations of the novel. Though I doubt the long, true version would be popular or commercially viable. But still interesting to think about.

My roommate and I recently joined an online non-fiction book club just to see if we can get to read things we may not otherwise have read. These folks are quite dedicated (and sometimes a little humorless IMO, but that's ok), and this month we've been reading: Maria Mies and Vernoika Thomsen - The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy. This one was written in the 90s, but we are reading it now nonetheless to see if the book's diagnoses and insights hold up. For dummies such as yours truly, the group has been nice enough to suggest a list of concepts that we need to understand before partaking in discussions. To that end, I'm now reading up on cost analysis. I feel like George Costanza here: feeling dragged into something by my roommate and looking for some nice out that wouldn't reveal my mild annoyance with the group or discomfort with the subject matter.

Been so long--years in fact--since I listened to Bob Dylan's Visions of Johanna, and memories and emotions just came flooding by when iTunes played this from my Favorites Mix yesterday. Been listening to the Blonde on Blonde album since.

This may not be all that popular a cover version, but this is my favorite of the many versions I've devoured on YouTube. The song: Suite Judy Blue Eyes -- covered by Midnight North I also like The Analogues for The Beatles covers.

Many of you might relate to this: I haven't finished Infinite Jest. Although I do read pages from it at random quite often. The only Wallace book I've finished is "The Broom of the System." I borrowed The Pale King from my sister, but she took it back from me before I could finish it. I really liked The Broom of the System though. Another doorstopper I was dreading for its complexity was Paul Auster's 4321, but that turned to be a breezy read -- enjoyable and though-provoking, and not daunting at all. Unsurprisingly, not finishing fiction has never landed me in trouble. It's coursework that bites me in the you-know-where when I slack off. Couple of semesters back I decided to wing it for a class I was just auditing -- the instructor expected some effort. For a particular in-class test, I decided not to prepare at all and instead write generic answers to questions (Which in hindsight is utterly stupid -- we were doing Zike, Dingrando (lol), et al's work on Matter and Change). The instructor read out my answers to the class, and everyone had a laugh. At least she didn't tell the class whose answers she was reading. I still can't look her in the eye without wincing.