I finished Parliament of Whores over the weekend. Expect a review midweek. Actually, I've written the review, but it needs a polish. I am, as of this writing, 130-odd pages into Team of Rivals, with another 40 or so due tonight.
I'm debating what to read next. My primary criterion is fiction. For this project, I've read one non-fiction book and am well into a second. Looking back over my library records, the last five books I've read are non-fiction. Surely, I need to escape from all this reality. Yet indecision grips me. Historically, either Roughing It or Moby-Dick would make sense depending on which direction I choose. Why not follow either of these with Leaves of Grass? Journeying backwards, I could follow Whitman with Emerson and pummel anyone left with American Lion. Fears of descending into the morass of nineteenth century history and culture plague me. Moderation in all things is called for.
I think I shall choose among these:
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Corrections
Or maybe something by Cormac McCarthy.
Recommendations?
the best laid plans
8 months ago
i have some:
ReplyDeleteSøren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling)
Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morality)
Franz Kafka (The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment)
Albert Camus (The Stranger, The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel, Caligula)
Jean-Paul Sartre (The Wall, Being and Nothingness (good luck!) No Exit, Existentialism and Human Emotions, Critique of Dialectical Reason)
Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex)
George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984)
Read Nietzche in college, working on my philosophy minor. That was enough.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Sartre performed, with the excellent Michael Kullen as one of the leads. That wasn't necessarily enough Sartre for me, but I fear veering too deeply into philosophy and away from literature & writing. Same goes for de Beauvoir and Kierkegaard, I'm afraid. Though I think I'll add all three to my longer-term reading list. One of the points of this project is to get back into the habit of significant daily reading.
Camus and Dostoevsky are under consideration. Actually, more than so. They'll likely both appear at some point.
I'll take Kafka under consideration as well, though I've been intimidated by him in the past.
I've read 1984. From the perspective of educating myself as a writer, I've already learned most of what I can learn from Orville.
Thanks for the recommendations!
veering into philosophy won't help with the craft of writing per se, but will help you with the all important act of coming up with something to write about. ;-) existentialism is imho _the_ most incredibly potent means to blow up one's carefully crafted intellectual environs and preconceptions.
ReplyDeleteof sartre, i'd highly suggest the wall and no exit and all of the stuff from camus and dostoevsky who're the best writers/novelists of this group imho. i'd also add the brothers karamazov. i can't believe i forgot that one. that book is effin' great! ^_^
I'm fascinated by your assessment of existentialism. My deficiencies in that area compel me to swear to study it in the near future.
ReplyDeleteIf you had to choose between Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, which would you go for?
ugh. hmm.
ReplyDeletecrime & punishment is arguably the better novel (page turner) and has my favorite anti-hero of all time in Raskolnikov. it's primary theme is nihilism. but karamazov is perhaps better literature (but much longer) and of course has Alyosha's poem "the grand inquisitor" which is an existentialist aside all by itself. :-)
if i had to choose, i'd read c&r, but definitely read "the grand inquisitor" from karamazov. ;-)
I'd still encourage you to look at Stranger in a Strange Land. There's a whole lot in that book - and it's gets better each time I read it!
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