Member: Macumbeira

I just got an extremely sad email from friends in Slovakia. It is the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Slovakia. In the last few months major factories have gone bankrupt and thousands of people are out of work. Winter is beginning and people are losing livelihoods and homes. A survey just asked people about how they feel about the fall of communism. Overwhelmingly Slovaks answered that they were better off then, and they wish the fall had never happened.

My friend is a historian who is documenting what went on in Czechoslovakia just before and during WWII. Jews deported by the thousands into concentration camps, never to be seen again. People lacking the courage to speak up or do anything about it. An artist named Toyen, whom I did not know, hid in her apartment her lover for the duration of the war, risking death.

Such overwhelmingly sad stories.

posted by polutropos at 11:27 am (EST) on Nov 6, 2009

and regarding what slick said, I have been disappointed with everything Kazua Ishiguro wrote since TROTD. I didn't even finish The Unconsoled, and I ALWAYS finish what I start.

posted by tomcatMurr at 7:42 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2009

mmmm

Kahlil Gibran? seriously? Ew.

Braudel i have read,
Kazantsakis, yes (Wonderful!)
Mahfouz, yes. Everyone else is new to me! thank you!

What about Seferis? Elyitis? Ristsos? Cavafis? Lawrence Durrell?

posted by tomcatMurr at 7:40 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2009

If you decide to read another Ishiguro - make it When We Were Orphans, or, if you are feeling really ambitious, The Unconsoled which can be hard going at times but is the truest account of a dream you will ever read.

posted by slickdpdx at 1:48 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2009

ah, yes! how could I not notice that?!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:48 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2009

three more what?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:43 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2009

I'm sorry to be so vague. it's a narrative poem in 11 pieces. Lots of sailing. you can find it in this:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Apple-Kingdom...

http://www.librarything.com/work/1055014

or in Walcott's Collected poems.

Here's a taster:

In idle August, while the sea soft,
and leaves of brown islands stick to the rim
of this Carribean, I blow out the light
by the dreamless face of Maria Concepcion
to ship as a seaman on the schooner Flight.
Out in the yard turning gray in the dawn,
I stood like a stone and nothing else move
but the cold sea rippling like galvanize
and the nail holes of stars in the sky roof,
till a wind start to interfere with the trees....

posted by tomcatMurr at 11:19 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2009

MONSIUER,

Have you read Derek Walcott's The Schooner Flight?

if not, drop everything and read it immediately. I read it again this evening and it made me think of you!

posted by tomcatMurr at 8:46 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2009

I have also recently seen Coco Avant Chanel and it has become one of my top ten films of all time. I will have to purchase that.

So what are other great recent European films?

posted by polutropos at 8:04 pm (EST) on Oct 31, 2009

Mac, you crack me up! You will always be my favorite Belgian from Gent!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:54 am (EST) on Oct 31, 2009

It's just one day. What do I care if it's feminine? Remember, I once formed and ran a group titled, "Transexuals For Christ"!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:34 am (EST) on Oct 31, 2009

Hey, O Great One,

I just saw a very interesting film taking place in Belgium, though the city was not identified as far as I could tell. The film is called Le Silence de Lorna; it is made by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and and won the screenplay award at Cannes. I liked it quite a bit, although I will have to spend some time thinking about the conclusion and its implications. Have you heard of it, or even seen it?

posted by polutropos at 7:02 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2009

oh do share your thoughts when you get there! I revere both of them!

posted by tomcatMurr at 10:58 am (EST) on Oct 30, 2009

You know what, Mac, I've run in to this problem before and unfortunately once a topic title is posted, there's no editing of it available, that I'm aware of. You can edit posts all you want, but not the title of the thread in which the posts appear. If it really bothers you, my suggestion is to send RSHabroptilus a note requesting he cut and paste his post (and you do the same) and then delete your posts, and then restart a new thread with the correct spelling. Beyond that, I don't have access to editing title threads, that would be a Tim or Abby job. Sorry I can't fix that for you.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:48 am (EST) on Oct 17, 2009

Hello
Curious spelling, Pourious. Well that's okay. The idea comes of the Italian Giambattiste Vico, curious spelling. Read his NEW SCIENCE. Read Orwell. Read Robert Anton Wilson. Those who say what they mean and mean what they say. Those who don't cheapen words. Our currency. What we deal with. How we understand one another. But mainly Vico who Joyce looked to for his structure among other things for Finnegans Wake. Vico saw things in cycles. One of those is the age of Barbarism that would after its stay develop into a new age. The cycle was, and is eternal. You will learn all of this, if you have not learned it already, in Vico's NEW SCIENCE. I can compile a little more if you like, just let me know.
Curious: why do you ask?

Porius

posted by Porius at 2:27 am (EST) on Oct 17, 2009

Thank you!

Gide and Stalin at Gorky's funeral? No kidding!!! LOl Now that would make an interesting fictional dialogue! The Counterfeiters is the only Gide I have ever enjoyed. Forster writes about it extensively in Aspects of the Novel.

posted by tomcatMurr at 9:30 am (EST) on Oct 11, 2009

More on maritime paintings, are you familiar with the 19th century Russian painter Aivazovsky?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Catego...

posted by tomcatMurr at 12:40 am (EST) on Oct 2, 2009

Hey Mac!

That Maritime Paintings book you just entered looks outstanding, assuming one can judge a books by its cover!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:01 pm (EST) on Sep 27, 2009

Thanks for the comment, Mac. I'm pretty sure you will enjoy Redburn, if only because you have had the good taste to feature Flynn's picture. Glad to see you liked Beam Ends.

Peace,
G

posted by Ganeshaka at 4:06 pm (EST) on Sep 26, 2009

Thanks for the review love Mac!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 6:52 pm (EST) on Sep 22, 2009

Hi Mac, sorry for the delay, I've been away. I've read M&M several times, don't worry about spoilers. I value the comments you've been making on the M&M thread, BTW.
-Wilf

posted by WilfGehlen at 2:24 pm (EST) on Sep 19, 2009

Thanks for the link to your blog post on Possession. That clinches it: I really must have that edition. I was also pleased to find your post on the chronology of In Search of Lost Time--very helpful. I see you have the Gogol, another one of my Folio favorites.

posted by Medellia at 5:47 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2009

Yes, I agree, I don't think civilisation is an illusion. Without it, we would all still be tearing raw meat with our hands, shitting in bushes, and leaving our dead to rot on the hills.

I think what I was trying to express in the introduction to my blog was my sense (of despair) that Western Civilisation is on its last legs. For me Western Civilisation is synonymous with rationality, the rule of law, open-mindedness, a kind of fearless energy in the realm of social improvement, political reform, cultural achievements, and the respect for other people's beliefs. I think of it (following Vico perhaps) as happening in waves, with periods where the above qualities were most evident: 5th Century Athens, Renaissance Italy, the period of the European Enlightenment, the Victorians, and perhaps, briefly, America for 20 years after WW2. I feel that the age we live in now displays none of the qualities I have mentioned.

Western Civilisation seems to me to have been overtaken by the forces of marketing, special interest groups, religious fundamentalism, and a kind of timidity in the face of the media on behalf of all those who should be leading fearlessly. Look how stem cell research was stymied by Bush due to the lobbying of big pharma and the Religious Right. Our culture has become degraded along with our language, and we are producing future generations who will be unable to think, and who will be practically ignorant of the basic facts of our history.

Now, I know that every period of Western civilisation has believed that it is in the twilight phase, and perhaps this feeling is the illusion that Richard means. But I would find it difficult to choose cultural products of our age to set beside the great achievements of the past, and to say with pride to future generations: this is what we did.

Gloomy thoughts.

posted by tomcatMurr at 8:16 am (EST) on Sep 6, 2009

Information is not knowledge.

Saul Bellow

Genius is always prescient: Bellow worte that in the early 70s long before the internet, but it has come so true.

Hey, I wanted to ask you after reading your post on liberal education on your blog, whether you have read Henry Adams's, The Education of Henry Adams . If not I think you would like it.

It's one of my all time favourite books.

posted by tomcatMurr at 10:01 am (EST) on Aug 31, 2009

Your blog is really amazing!! You have been busy reading and writing since you got back from Greece!! The piece on Gogol is excellently done!

posted by tomcatMurr at 6:35 am (EST) on Aug 30, 2009

Is that you Mac?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:37 pm (EST) on Aug 29, 2009

I am, as you may know, from Bratislava, former Czechoslovakia. It amuses me to no end, that in the Czech and Slovak consciousness, it is Czechoslovakia which is the very heart of Europe. And looking at a map, as long as you include Russia in Europe, strictly geographically speaking, because of the enormous territory Russia occupies, it is possible to view Prague as being in the centre. I think the argument would be about perhaps Mozart and Kafka, and if they spent key time in Prague, well, clearly that proves its centricity, does it not? LOL

posted by polutropos at 9:49 am (EST) on Aug 29, 2009

It's the uniform of the 'pre-revolutionary' peasant. Bare feet and candle is the sign of the Orthodox pilgrim/penitent. Bulgakov calls it the Tolstoy shirt, because Tolstoy used to wear peasant dress towards the end of his life. During the 19th Century, wearing peasant dress was a sign of Slavophile commitment, and a rejection of Westerniser influence. Tolstoy himself became a symbol of this rejection. And you're right, the swim in the river is a baptism symbol.

Regarding Gogol, you are in for a treat. The Petersburg tales are very funny, as is Dead Souls. You might find these posts useful in understanding more about Gogol, the central and strangest figure in all Russian Lit, I reckon...

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2008/12/d...
http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2008/12/i...
hhttp://thelectern.blogspot.com/2008/12/...

posted by tomcatMurr at 1:00 am (EST) on Jun 19, 2009