I received a bouquet from my husband, bought a package of mini saucissons secs and 500g of unsalted peanuts, and I’m ready for the second night at the hospital.
What I didn’t do is the dishes because there’s a limit to human endurance.
Thank you for asking this question. You’re a kind person. Thinking about books makes me feel like myself again. It’s not an easy question to answer because these three are among my favorite works of literature. It makes perfect sense to put them together because they are all exquisitely modernist works. I can see from this short list that you really understand literature.
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis wins on the content. The book is a sort of a prophecy of what the 20th century was going to be. Reading it today entails wanting to tear your hair out with screams of, “How did the bastard know all of this so far ahead of time?”
Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo doesn’t do much story-wise. But on the formal level, it is a work of absolute genius. There is not a word out of place in the text. The novel shows what an artist can do with words to deliver a devastating punch without needing to come up with a story. It also happens to be the very first book I read in Spanish. I read it 3 months after saying my first words in Spanish, and, as you can imagine, understood nothing. Then I read it again, and on the third reading, started figuring out that something insanely beautiful was happening.
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is not about the content or the form. It’s about turning the reader into an artist. Conrad hands the text over to the readers and transforms them into the source of emotion, interpretation, and meaning of his own text. Every introduction to English literature seminar debates afresh what the novel means because, in it, the author shows the extraordinary daring of controlling the readers by giving them the entirety of control.
The funny thing is that I don’t like modernist art. I like gritty realism. Or something extremely postmodern, like Rafael Chirbes. Everything that lies in between 19th-century realists and the postmodernists of the 1990s tends to bore me. But the three novels that you listed are so good that I would not be able to choose which one is best. This is a contest between content, form, and emotion. And it’s hard to pick the winner.
It was really funny at the conference because a dear friend of mine brought his two young children to my talk. I hadn’t warned him that the novel I was going to discuss was titled A la puta calle.
Of course, I had to omit the title of the book from my talk and refer to it as “this novel” or “the novel I’m talking about.”
A somewhat deaf older professor in the front row kept grumbling, “But what is the novel? Will somebody finally say the title?”
Everybody in the audience struggled not to laugh. Everything I do tends to turn into a comedy skit.
Single-use plastic cutlery has been replaced with the wooden variety in many places in Canada. These wooden spoons and forks make food taste disgusting. On the positive side, this works as a weight loss measure because, after a couple of spoonfuls, you get such an unpleasant taste in your mouth that you no longer want to eat at all.
GBNEWS/status/…
The Bank of #England has decided to remove historical figures like Churchill, Jane Austen, and Alan Turing from future banknotes and replace them with images of #British wildlife. #UKNEWS 🇬🇧
Among other things, a nation-state requires a cast of Great People who represent the spirit of the nation and are venerated by the citizenry. These should be great leaders, artists and scientists who embody the best qualities that the nation identifies with.
I’m going to be at this hospital for at least 24 hours straight, and my aunts are bringing me food.
I took it to the family room of the palliative care department and started eating. One patient in a wheelchair was there. She was poking listlessly at a slice of sad-looking pizza.
“You have chicken,” she said wistfully, looking into my plate.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“It looks nice,” said the patient. “Probably homemade?”
“Yes,” I said, almost choking with embarrassment.
“I’m so happy for you,” said the terminal patient morosely.
Given that women initiate 70% of divorces, according to this logic, all of these women could be accused of rape because they went back on the promise of a lifelong commitment.
It’s really weird that people who come up with these suggestions don’t think through even the most obvious consequences.
Amazon has a new AI feature that is supposed to describe you based on your shopping. I shop on Amazon a lot but its AI has misread me completely:
Aside from the cat care products, none of this is true. I hate grocery delivery, I’m the exact opposite of a vegetarian, and I prefer Gerolsteiner or Borjomi for sparking water.
This part is probably based on the purchases I made for my kid but she hasn’t liked unicorn toys since she was 4:
I’m also quite stunned by “the girl doesn’t read books” part. We are maniacal readers in the family. Unless the girl in question is the cat, there’s no non-reader in our household. Also, we don’t have a girl who dislikes pink in the house:
But the one that really slaughtered me is this:
Every line item on it is wrong but the “has a boyfriend” part is really disturbing. Nobody in the household is of age to have a boyfriend, and the cat is spayed.
The sculpture “Orange Plague” by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt is on display in the European Parliament’s “Art” pavilion in Strasbourg; it depicts a naked, gold-plated Donald Trump sitting on the shoulders of a starving person.
For liberals, Trump is a sexual fetish. They are deeply enamored of him and despise themselves for this love.
It’s almost embarrassing to watch such painful manifestations of an unfulfilled sexual desire.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
We have, but you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are. And you can’t know…
What was the Second World war but the defeat of Nationalism by Globalist forces. Don’t underestimate the demoralization of generations…
Wow, we do have a lot in common.
As you read, think of it in the context of the ongoing mass migration from precisely the heart of darkness.
Read Metamorphosis many years ago and the teacher was an Ayn Rand Objectivist so the discussion was mostly about rationality…
I disliked Heart of Darkness when I read it in high school. I might have to give it another go!
Pedro Paramo all the way. Strangely enough, that was also the first book I read on Spanish. I didn’t get…
All of this nitpicking is enormously less important than preserving the nation state today. What you’re doing is exactly the…
I specialize in very contemporary literature, and in my field, we don’t do the test-of-time approach. Thank you for the…
Hmmm, I believe we have had this dance before ;-D
Glad the fish turned out. My Mom simply decided she was going to the “Big House” because all her old…
Winston Churchill was the great betrayer of the British empire. Both Churchill and Hitler knew that the Empire could not…
I don’t think I’ve read enough of her to make an informed judgment, but I always see these things as…
The fish is for me. My mother isn’t eating anymore. It turned out well.
Wow, phenomenal news! I had no idea, thank you for the update.
It’s the hangtime beforehand that’s weird: we all know what’s coming, but right now… we wait.
LOL, modern British politicians have to remember that those of the past have a habit of telling unfortunate truths. Although…
Kid, glad you have family to provide decent food. Modern hospital food is usually horrible. Did your Mom get the…
Clouds were spectacular, remind me of prairie storm formations at sun set/rise. Be careful.
OT: In a bit of hopefully good news, the head of Rybar was detained in Montenegro… https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/2108475701280010482
Exactly. I asked this question because I saw the poems of hers that The New Yorker has put out as…
It’s a unique cloud formation. We’ll be fine– this one’s not looking catastrophic. It’ll make a big mess and take…
” the poetry of the Canadian writer who was awarded the Nobel” I’m not a poetry person in general and have…
On a different subject, have you read the poetry of the Canadian writer who was awarded the Nobel yesterday? My…
Asked and answered. It’s true, that like Walt Whitman, I contain multitudes, but there’s no contradiction in this case.
Look at the text of your previous comment and then at this one. That is not the same reaction.
Yes, I would, too. I like Obama and even admire him in some ways, but he’s also a legitimate target…
Would you have the same reaction if there was an identical statue of Obama? I would.
Become a dirty word. The idea is that everything goes as long as there is consent, but on a deep…
I saw the pictures but I had no idea it was a lead up to a hurricane. Please stay safe!!
May you all be safe!
This is how you start talking when you can’t conceptualize a sex act being morally abhorrent without being rape
Sorry: all that sucks so much. We were rewarded for spending a whole day feverishly buttoning up the house, topping…
We had obligatory worker unions in the USSR but they were fake. They were additional means of taxation and had…
And you’re right. I have absolutely no idea where this is even coming from. Oh, I know! It must be…
I’m VERY HAPPY that this is what I found: About you We haven’t saved anything yet. As you shop on…
Hmmm, cutting a pretty wide swath there Kid, what about workers unions or credit unions or co-op stores/Insurance, never mind…
https://x.com/npc_alyx/status/2108092373440122964
As someone who actually knows and likes the song “set it off,” I’d be shocked if anyone in your household…
“I have to clarify that I am not the author of the sculpture…” That… has nothing to do with what…
