This is for Review Praise (RP) ONLY! No Banter about Buffy or Quilting Allowed.

I mean it.

I was going to take a snap of the Bloomsday project as it stands now, but self-containment it shall be!

I am rather amused that fibre art that takes 300 hours of hard work to make, and is inspired by and directly related to the group's purpose, is connected to possible quickie comments about an unrelated and totally irrelevant television show.

Maybe Jacques Barzun is right and we really do get the culture we deserve. Hahaha.

Yes! Like a kind of tapestry of a day in the life of .....What parallels do you think this has to Penelope's weaving?

My utter disdain & displeasure is as palpable as pulp.

Though I'm very pleased to point out that right now members of Brave Team Ulysses are holding the top four (4!) slots in Hot Reviews.

1. Aeyan w/his superior Shipping News piece

2. Makifat (don't try telling me you're some Zarathustrian Superman scaling solo -- you're in this group whether you've joined or not -- got it?)

3. tomcatMurr w/the dazzling Dostoyevski

4. Pummzie's perfect Portrait piece

I'm ah, so, I'm so **wipes tear from his fatherly eye** so proud of you all.

Okay, now back to sticking your nefarious needles in this thread.

I love reviews that are written in the style of the book they're reviewing. I've never been so hot at doing this, but I am great at admiring it!

BTU's representing once again on Hot Reviews! Gee, this is getting really old guys, stop writing great reviews okay, and then I won't have to daily (it seems) point them out.

Check out Ganeshaka and his "dollop of Trollope".

tomcat's gettin' all nihilistic on us

and see Anna shed some tears over Dewey the Cat.

Fun informative stuff, all.

Do the reviews we point out always have to be from someone in our group? I ask because TrinaL has an awesome amazing review of Twilight on Hot Reviews right now, and I thought for sure everyone would want to read it. I copied it here. Enjoy everybody!

"I think that people should read this book because it is very intense. I liked this book because it made me want to start the second book of the series. I have finished the series and I would suggest that people that haven't read it yet should read it."

11: Well, that about covers it!

11: While I'm never one to come up with some arbitrary rule, I have nevertheless, for better or for worse, without consulting BTUs executive board, used my discretionary executive powers that be and summarily, dicktatorily, decided that no further Twilight review (reviewed by group member or not) or Harry Potter book review (unless the HP book is reviewed by one BeckyJG) shall be permitted access within the sacrosanct confines of our illustrious, historic Quest.

We are serious readers here with lofty Ulyssesian ambitions and brilliant literary sensibilities; we are on a strict monastic mission to the summit, and I believe Twilight's (no offense hottie) about as helpful to our cause as frostbite or altitude sickness--not very helpful right?

edited to remove an idiot comment of mine

I don't particulary want to read a Twilight or Potter review (or not want to). I'm just following up on your analogy.

Aren't frostbite and altitude sickness necessary corollaries of the climb?

slickdpdx wrote:

Aren't frostbite and altitude sickness necessary corollaries of the climb?

No. No they are not.

Thanks for sticking up for me slickdpdx! What's a corollaries? I haven't gotten to that part of Ulysses yet.

Oh and I'm sooooooo offended Enrique...not! LOL

Ulysses is dope, but Twilight rocks! :)-

In all actuality, if Joyce were alive, he'd have probably read all of Potter and Twilight. After all, he informed Harriet Shaw Weaver in 1925 that he had spent three days lounging on a couch, reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes rather than work on his early Wake sketches.

...Of course, comparing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to Potter and Twilight may be an insult to the memory of poor Ms. Loos.

(And, no, naughtyhottie, Joyce preferred Brunettes)

Ded, in your opinion, do you think Joyce would have watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer?

Seriously, any idea what Joyce's favorite films, novels, poems, history's, biographys, books in general, writers were?

And who would you say were Joyce's major and minor influences regards his themes and concepts and styles in his writings (besides the obvious influences, of course, the Homer's, Shakespeares, etc.)? I ask because I'm sure you know but mostly because I'm too lazy to pull out my Ellmann and your answers, anyway, are just as erudite and far more readable to a lay person.

Good Lord! Are you tryin' to cause an avalanche with those questions!

Ded, in your opinion, do you think Joyce would have watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer?

I don't see why not. It isn't so much (in my opinion) that Joyce had no notion of discriminating tastes--he certainly flaunted them in his early years. But the older Joyce, I think, preferred to read, listen to, and watch (when he could) just about everything: It was all potential fodder for his own works, needed details for his encyclopedic designs.

In so far as television is concerned, Joyce uses it in the Wake as a comedic tool to broadcast flimflammery amongst the flange: There's a Movie Digression, "Peaches and Daddy Browning" at I.4 (64-5). The real show, though, appears in the murky confines of II.3 on a television skit done by Butt and Taff of "How Buckley Shot the Russian General" (337-55). In both cases, television acts as the great and LOUD annoyance, making a greater mess of the "facts" at hand than they already were.

Seriously, any idea what Joyce's favorite films, novels, poems, history's, biographys, books in general, writers were?

The heart of that question was once raised by Frank Budgen to Joyce: Which book would you bring with you on a desert island? Joyce apparently responded: "I should hesitate between Dante and Shakespeare but not for long. The Englishman is richer and would get my vote" (Budgen, 184)--of course, as a dramatist, Joyce ranked Shakespeare far beneath Ibsen (Budgen 183). Joyce claimed to have read every line Ibsen had written; a claim he also extended to the works of Flaubert, Ben Jonson, and Defoe.

He also had enormous admiration for Wordsworth and Yeats, particularly Wordsworth's "The Excursion" and Yeats' "Wild Swans at Coole." Then, of course, is Mangan, whom Joyce wrote an early essay on, extolling "Dark Rosaleen" and "O'Hussey's Ode to the MacGuire."

D'Annunzio utterly captured the young Joyce, as did Giordano Bruno. Then there's Aristotle. Christ, Aristotle (some astute Joyce critics have since shown that Joye's supposed great love for Aristotle may have been a bit of a ploy. It appears that Joyce never read much more of the Greek than out of an introductory primer to his philosophies). This question, though, is still occasionally debated.

Some of Joyce's dislikes are also known (some of these poor souls were, in fact, one time likes): Wagner, Synge, Pushkin, Hardy, Turgeniev, etc.

More so, Arthur Power presents Joyce thus: "But in general he was not interested in modern art which was the rage in Paris. Picasso, Matisse, Braque, were names which never seemed to occupy his mind. ... In fact, he had a contempt for the multiple artistic activities of Paris" (Conversations with James Joyce, 103).

I don't really know too much about Joyce's film preferences. What with the state of his eyes, I'm guessin' seeing one was a rare occasion. He does make mocking allusions to some stars of his time in the Wake, though; Chaplin being the major case. Of course, Lucia loved Charlie Chaplin, so Joyce may have just inserted him into the book to please her.

And who would you say were Joyce's major and minor influences regards his themes and concepts and styles in his writings (besides the obvious influences, of course, the Homer's, Shakespeares, etc.)?

Many are already listed above. Those not mentioned might include his father, John, his brother, Stanislaus, his wife, Nora, Walter Pater, Cardinal Newman, Édouard Dujardin, William Blake, Tolstoy, Chekhov, George Berkeley, Giambattista Vico, damn near all of the 19th century French Symbolists. But ultimately, his themes are largely derived from his own life experiences. That's the base.

One thing which has bugged me since I read JJ 's bio was his "spider dance"
Has anybody an idea, how it looked, what he did ? on what tune ?

I am sure that JJ would have loved the www.

All knowledge and stupidity, all information and disinformation, all words in the world.... just at your fingertips....WOW

Imagine the difficulty of Ulysses and FW without having without having all this knowledge at your disposal !

Hi Glut !

"James Joyce 's mysterious spider dance"

this should be a topic for you ! ; )

Macumbeira wrote:

One thing which has bugged me since I read JJ 's bio was his "spider dance"
Has anybody an idea, how it looked, what he did ? on what tune?

On her Joyce Images site, Aida Yared describes it:

"Sam {Slote} then took us to see the statue of Frank Budgen by August Suter at Uraniastrasse 9. It is customary to do Joyce's famous spider dance at the site.

Ellmann relates it thus: 'When the mood came over him, he might suddenly interrupt a Saturday afternoon walk in the fashionable Bahnhofstrasse by flinging his loose limbs about in a kind of spider dance, the effect accentuated by his tight trouser-legs and wide cloak, diminutive hat, and thin cane' (JJ 429).

'Spider dance' predates Joyce. It may be related to the 'tarantella', the graceful courtship dance that Nora performs in Ibsen's A Doll's House, or to the curative 'tarantula dance' that mimics the agitated mental state of a spider bite victim. A 'spider dance' was made famous by the Irish-born Spanish dancer Lola Montez (c. 1818-1861, born Eliza Gilbert in Co. Sligo, and mentioned in FW 525.14). Her version included shaking tarantulas out of her clothes to provide generous views of her person." (http://www.joyceimages.com/chapter/23/?page=9)

Unfortunately, I can't find any video on YouTube that accurately portrays the way Joyce apparently danced.

Super ! Thanks

Thanks, Ded, for your thorough and always (as usual) enlightening responses.

19 -- !

(applause)

27 Glut, I take note of this promise, but don't forget the diminutive hat, the thin cane and the close fitting trousers !!

Check out benwaugh stirring in some savory "puttanesca" in his review of "The Decameron" on Hot Reviews. Magnifioso, Ben! That smells goooooood!

From dictionary.com:
Main Entry: puttanesca
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a type of tomato sauce including anchovies, garlic, and olives, used esp. on pasta
Etymology: Italian puttana 'prostitute'
Usage: cooking

Hey, and bokai, your "Watchmen" review is excellent, throwing in some personal info to boot (those are my favorite type of reviews). And if I were in charge of LT, I'd get that one updated to "Hot" in a hurry.

And honorary member makifat is back on again, this time with "The Aztec Treasure House". Well done BTUers, well done.

Some new information, related to my previous post:

Having just obtained Phillip F. Herring's Joyce's Notes and Early Drafts for Ulysses: Selections from the Buffalo Collection, I've immediately stumbled upon Joyce's notes in Notebook VIII.A.5, being some of his early notes for the novel, some of which are devoted to his reading of La Rhétorique d'Aristote en françois (a 1654 French translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric by François Cassandre)--apparently Joyce used a 1733 edition available in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. So, it just goes to show that I'm in no position to discriminate nuanced Joycean questions, such as: "How much Aristotle did Joyce read?"

I've also just obtained and read Lucie Noel's (wife of Paul Léon) short and fascinating memoir, James Joyce And Paul L. Léon: The Story Of a Friendship, where she gives this relevant and funny story (pg 19):

"I was {Joyce's} 'seeing eye' on a more difficult occasion in 1935 or 1936, when he took me to see a film in the Rue de Clichy which had been causing some comment. He had tried to get Paul to go, but my husband said the idea bored him. The movie was Extase, in which Hedy Lamarr ran around the countryside perfectly beautiful and quite nude. There was also a very realistic love scene between horses. The picture was quite erotic and I was quite embarrassed, because I had to explain much of the action to Joyce and keep up with the subtitles as well. At that time his eyesight was really bad, and every few minutes he would ask, 'What are they doing now?' I would try to tell him in as general a way as I could, and he would say 'I see', obviously amused by my fumbling explanation. But we both thought it was a very fine picture."

Here's the IMDb page on Extase: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022867/

ETA: For some reason, the touchstone brackets aren't working on this post, so if you want further information about the two Joycean books I've referred to, above, you can find them listed in my library.

and let's not forget to mention our very own team leader's hot review of The Baseball Encyclopedia! Well done Mr Freeque

Well thank you tomcat, you're truly too kind! Would you say I, uh, hit a homerun with that one? Hahahahheeheehee. LOL. Oh Gawd, I crack myself up sometimes!

And look out but here comes Pummzie with The Lover and bokai with Watchmen.

I gotsome rhymin' nickelanddimin' hiphop for ya'll:

"You wants a Hot Review?/Better come on over to BTU!"
--that's Fuhreeque called Enrique

peace-ouuuuut

Naughty Hottie's NEW review of Twilight is much better than her first one. Go check it out. Now.

I can't understand why someone could flag this as not a review. When it has two thumbs up. Must be inherent in the dualism of the review of the review. We need a meta-review layer for the thumbs and flags, and so on. In the limit reaching a non-dualistic group consciousness.

I'm almost tempted to read Twilight, so I'm almost tempted to add a thumbs up.

Thanks Anna! Do you really like it? Isn't Twilight dope!

Your review was dope. I have not read Twilight. My son has. I saw the movie though. It was not as dope as your review.

>36 WilfGehlen:.

If we added a meta-review layer, that would just necessitate a meta-meta-review layer, which would in turn send us down a meta-slippery slope.

>39 aethercowboy: Ok, that tipped me over the edge. I just thumbed up TNH's review and I hope it makes it to the Hot Reviews with its flag intact. And I intend to read Twilight, as soon as my teenage daughter does. And after I read the Book of Mormon.

17
In all actuality, if Joyce were alive, he'd have probably read all of Potter and Twilight. After all, he informed Harriet Shaw Weaver in 1925 that he had spent three days lounging on a couch, reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes rather than work on his early Wake sketches.

It took Joyce three days to read Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?!

I'll attribute this to his poor eyesight. Or perhaps he had Beckett read it to him - an image I find exquisitely comical. Still, the book does not appear in A Catalogue of James Joyce's Trieste Library, but I note that the time period for that library predates 1925. Or maybe he hid the book under the mattress out of embarrassment. But then, he did have a copy of Haig's Uric Acid: An Epitome of the Subject (I can definitely picture Beckett reading that one aloud).

31
Thanks for the heads up on Aztec Treasure House. I had no idea. Now I have to go check out benwaugh's Decameron - a match made in heaven.

makifat wrote:

It took Joyce three days to read Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?!

I'll attribute this to his poor eyesight. Or perhaps he had Beckett read it to him - an image I find exquisitely comical. Still, the book does not appear in A Catalogue of James Joyce's Trieste Library, but I note that the time period for that library predates 1925. Or maybe he hid the book under the mattress out of embarrassment. But then, he did have a copy of Haig's Uric Acid: An Epitome of the Subject (I can definitely picture Beckett reading that one aloud).

You wouldn't find the title listed in the Trieste library: Joyce and his family moved to Paris by July 8, 1920 (the Trieste books were saved by Stanislaus). The book isn't listed in Connolly's catalog of the Paris library (The Personal Library of James Joyce), but that reflects one of two possibilities:

1.) During the winter of 1938-1939, Joyce drastically reduced his personal library in preparation for a move, essentially keeping only his "working titles" and those books that were important gifts.

2.) The more doubtful possibility: Joyce may have kept the book, but Paul Léon understandably didn't bother to save it with the 468 others he collected after the Joyces fled back to Zürich in 1940 in order to evade the Nazi invasion.

Either way, Joyce makes the claim, himself, that he spent three days reading the book in his letter to Weaver on November 8, 1926 (sorry! I was off by a year), printed in Letters Volume I, page 246:

"I set to work at once on your esteemed order and so hard indeed that I almost stupefied myself and stopped, reclining on a sofa and reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for three whole days."

In the previous months, Joyce had been compiling notes for the "night lessons" chapter of Finnegans Wake--what became II.2. He had submitted early drafts of the "Four Watches of Shaun"--what would become III.1-4--and received flat rejections from Dial, when he made the sudden and somewhat bizarre request to Weaver that she place an "order" to Joyce for a piece, much like a Medieval patron would (personally, I think Joyce knew that he worked better under pressure, and was culling such a moment). Weaver complied, ordering a piece about a myth dealing with a giant's grave near Penrith in Cumberland. Joyce paused his work on II.2 to work on this order--it would eventually find its way into I.1--pausing within the pause, as he mentions above, to read Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Although Joyce suffered serious eye trouble in 1925, '26 was a better year than the previous in this regard. He managed to get much more work done on the Wake and would've been able to read the book without help. Besides, Tom MacGreevy didn't introduce Beckett to Joyce until the late fall of 1928.

43
Actually, I was just, you know, making a joke.

But still, three whole days seems like a long time to read the book. Maybe the couch was a tad too comfy and he kept dozing off, or maybe Joyce just liked spending time with Loos women.

Don't mind me. I'm a rambling idiot.

(I suspect most of the three days were spent in thought on how to write up Weaver's order, how to fit it into the larger structure of the book, etc.

ETA: Then again, Joyce may be making a crack about the book, in that it was suitable to read during a time when he had "almost stupefied" himself.)

Oblomov!

Oblomov is awesome. I recommend everyone read Ivan Goncharovs relatively underappreciated classic (underappreciated at least compared to the usual suspects of Great Russian Masters). He was The Slacker a good century before the term was so popularized.

You know who else is awesome around these parts (well, besides All of You, of course), if I may narrow it down to one member momentarily...our very own hallowed & revered Ganeshaka! His latest ultra unique twist on Pop Culture's Contemporary Classic is number One w/a bullet on Hot Reviews. And....his classic review of The Fountainhead has managed to rechart in the top 10 just like Pink Floyds masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon was so often prone to do back in the '70s & '80s. And if I may borrow a passe phrase from the early '90s: "We're not worthy, Ganeshaka, we're not worthy!"

EF, just stop it! :D

To quote Theroux's Eugene Eyestones: "I was brought up not to accept praise."

But about, Oblomov. I read that novel when I was 16, and had a bad premonition about my future. Now that the digits have been reversed in my dotage, I find that a long quiet life on a sofa can be just the thing. The worst that can happen is a chunk of blue ice coming though the ceiling (and I don't mean calving glaciers.) I should reread that novel to see where it went wrong. Perhaps because it failed to anticipate the internet and the world wide sofa?

I am currently reading Oblomov as part of my Russian exile, and I agree, it is a completely awesome and underappreciated book. I shall be posting a review of it soon on my blog and in my Dostoevsky thread, but in the meantime, here are some thoughts, similar to EF's in #47.

congrats on the fab reviews, Ganeshaka.

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2009/03/interaction-of-people-and-books-is.html

world wide sofa love it.

I read Oblomov a couple of summers ago and loved it. I'm afraid any review I could give it, however, would pale next to the Tomcat's.

As did EF, I picked up Theroux's Darconville's Cat on the recommendation of benwaugh. Absolutely fantastic! The chapter about the faculty meeting is a masterpiece of misanthropic hilarity (this is coming from someone who generally abhors comic novels). I can't see how the rest of the book could be nearly as funny...

I know this is a Ulysses group, but I don't care, I absolutely love it whenever an Oblomov or anything by an even more underappreciated American Master, Alexander Theroux gets some much needed props & kudos. Thanks maki & Ganeshaka for bringing him up. Darconville's Cat would make great group reading too...someday (assuming Ded, of course, ever lets us off this mountain!) And its funny, 48, that you brought up Eugene Eyestones, as I just got Laura Warholic in the mail this past weekend. Can't wait to dig deeper into that tome.

Feel free anyone, whether it's lowbrow or highbrow, to recommend other hidden gems out there. I'm always on the hunt for tomes obscure, and yes, benwaugh's & makifat's voluminous collections (so huge you'll hear virtual echoes in their loooonnnnnngggggg shelves) are both excellent sources of esoterica enlightenment.

And tomcat, love the link! I just recently "discovered" tomcat's blog--you want the best takes on Dickens out there, or some insight into Dustoy-however-you-spell-his-name, then click on that link--and be quick about it! :-)

Warning, 52, don't even think about starting Laura Warholic unless 1) you're retired 2) traveling to Mars in a ship without a cryonic sleep lounge or 3) about to serve time at least 6 to 9 months in minimum security facility.

Just one word in the book can send you off on a side trip to wonderland. For example, Eyestones berates Discknickers, calling him a "batshit sedevacantist". OK sez I, surely Theroux made up that word. But no. And I'm off down a Wikipedian rathole for half an hour contemplating issues of papal succession.

Thanks tomcatMurr, re 49, but in truth, my "reviews" are more suitable for the NY Post, while yours are Christian Science Monitor or NYTimes material. My punctuation, for example, is all kinda Jackson Pollack-y. I just stand back aways, and splash on the periods, commas, and dashes until I feel something. And, like a buffoonish Dostoyevsky character, cap in hand, sir, I apologize in advance for that.

lol well, thanks for the compliments everybody.

Laura Warholic sounds like just my kind of book. Off to Amazon again!

Our fearless leader has decided to pan the Book of Mormon. Brent, that was very good, but there's an even better review out there, written in the style of the BOM itself, by Tanstaafl. I sent it to a jack Mormon of my acquaintance and she agreed it was epic. Or dope, if that's the ultimate in greatness.

56
Let's just say epically dope.

Yes, I know, I'm well aware of tanstaafl's classic. I'm still staggering in awe of it. I don't think he'd mind me mentioning that he actually won an award for that piece in a publication I can't at the moment remember the name of. If he still has his messages up from last year, you'll see my many posts of effusive praise to him.

Nevertheless, despite having no hope of going all "epically dope" whatsoever and topping it, (not that I was attempting to; for, as Dirty Harry once said, "A Man's got to know his limitations," and I do, Clint, believe me, I do) I believed nonetheless (whether rightly or wrongly) I had to say what I had to say and the mysterious reviewmuse said say it right now, so, for whatever it's worth, I did.

And you did a great job! Between the two of you, I have even less desire to read the BOM than I did previously (which was close to nil). Seems that there are not many Mormons on LT - no flags yet! Still, perhaps it's their Sabbath today or something and you'll get some tomorrow.

Oh, they'll track you down, EF as sure as the sun sets in the ....what?...west?

It may be tomorrow, it may be 10 years from now. But one day there will be a knock on the door...

As I was reminded when ordering a beer in Salt Lake: "Moroni is watching..."

Thanks Anna (and hey, I'm only, looks like, 196 thumbs-up of catching that unsurpassable tanstaffl! ;-)

Man does that "Moroni is watching" sound like a great title to a Wes Craven bloodfest or what? Ewwwww. Spooky.

Well, EF, I enjoyed your review of The Gospel of Moronic, but even better was your review of
Mamma Mia. I have to learn not to read your reviews when I am drinking coffee in front of the computer!

> 17 ff, late in responding, but I have this rather large book I'm reading just now.

What could occupy Joyce for three days with Anita Loos' book? He might have become engrossed in its philosophy, as was Santayana. Or he might have been intrigued by Ralph Barton's illustration of Mr. Mountginz, which bears a slight resemblance to Mr. Joyce. Or he might have enjoyed the character of Mr. Montrose who, like himself, was "an artist but who has got brains besides." Or he could have been searching for the naughty bits. It is, after all, in this time that Joyce was losing his visual acuity (brief respites aside). Alas, there are no naughty bits. Lorelei was a good girl.

Completing the circle, follow this link to a picture of the star of the movie, GPB, reading for her own pleasure . . . http://www.thewriterscoin.com/2008/06/24/marilyn-monroe-and-ulysses/

Ain't google wonderful?

Edited to add:
Oh, almost forgot (er, I guess I did forget, just remembered now) Lorelei's coming out party (as in debutante) started on Bloomsday, lasted for 3 days. Joyce must have noted the co-instance, as LL would say, and perhaps mulled that over for a few days. Hmm, MM plays LL, HAL, IBM, Sorry Dave, Daisy, Daisy . . .

It's late, but this factoid just in. Because of his failing eyesight, his doctor would let Joyce read for only a short time each day. So it was his eyesight that limited his reading and not his reading that limited his eyesight.

Oh wow, so cool.

Marilyn was far from a dumb blonde. Arthur Miller in his autobiography Timebends gives a wonderful portrait of her. She was plagued by insecurities, which The Strasburgs exacerbated so that they could sty in the with Hollywood set, but she was well read and clever.

Apparently, when MM met Edith Sitwell, the two of them discussed Rudolf Steiner, whom Marilyn had also read.

Hi Wilf and tomcat!

Marilyn Monroe is one of my all time idols! Gentlemen not only prefer blondes, but they prefer blondes who read Ulysses don't they?

Um, tomcat, I saw a book at Borders today in Montclair, CA, that made me think of you. It's called I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume. Are you familiar with it? Here's the first couple lines of the book in case you're not:

"I am a Cat. As yet I have no name. I've no idea where I was born. All I remember is that I was miaowing in a dampish dark place, when for the first time, I saw a human being."

I like Soseki Natsume's cat meows a lot better than James Joyces, don't you?

I purrpurrpurr
for tomcatMurrMurrMurr....

Naughty, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm afraid your tired "dumb blonde" act is venturing into possibly inappropriate territory don't you think? I simply can't stand by and remain silent while you potentially scare away one of BTUs most vital members (and by "member" you know exactly what I mean, c'mon, don't even go there, hottie, you and your naughty mind, I don't care if Joyce might think that mildly amusing--I know I certainly don't!).

Look, a lot of us are on to your schtick by now in case you thought you were still fooling us. We know who you are. We know you're really not a dumb blonde bimbette, but a serious and simulataneous Joyce and Pop Culture aficionado in disguise. So off with the wig and the sprayed-on-tan and the OMGs and LOLs all right? We (and I think I speak for a majority) simply expect more out of you from now on).

"Gentlemen not only prefer blondes, but they prefer blondes who read Ulysses don't they?"

Yes, we do! You naughty hottie, you have made your pussy purr! Grrrrrr. :)

I know the book you mentioned but have not read it yet. I will rectify that as soon as I get out of my Russian exile.

Yes, I will at some point. I have already read most of him, but I think it's time for a reread.

What does Gore Vidal say about him? I'm a huge fan of Gore Vidal.
And Cat Scratch Fever looks very trashily intriguing.

Robert Kelly's cat scratch fever would be acceptable. I forgot I had it until I read the recent comments. I wonder where it is? I'd take Ted's Snakeskin Cowboys, Stormtroopin' (?!), or Death by Misadventure before Ted's Cat Scratch Fever.

Edited to be more clear.

Holy cow I did not realize there were so many Cat Scratch Fevers out there! Slick, those bands you've referenced have done their own versions of Cat Scratch Fever? I'll have to check that out since I too, glut, am a Nugent fan, but that doesn't necessarily mean I drive around town with shotguns mounted to the cab windows of my Chevy truck, thank God!

Hey tomcat, since we're on a Russian tangent, have you read anything by Alexander Zinoviev? I grew up during the tail end of the Cold War, Breznev and Gorbachev, and Zinoviev's The Yawning Heights is some of the sickest, blackest Cold War Russian satire I've ever encountered. His work was so wondrously black and offensive in fact that Brezhnev wouldn't allow him to return to the U.S.S.R. when he had temporarily left for (I believe it was) a teaching position in Germany. I think Zinoviev's short-lived legacy was due to his being what I'd call an ironic victim of Russian Communism's collapse, for once the Berlin Wall fell, his work, it seems, was suddenly and irreparably made irrelevant, unnecessary, passe, which I think is a crying shame since his work probably helped fell the Berlin Wall and presents an authentic, encyclopedic black humourous history of what Russian life was like during those late 70s, early 80s paranoid c.y.a. years.

One more name and then I'll stop the name dropping: Hedrick Smith's The Russians--same era as Zinoviev. Fascinating, well written bio of the Russian people particularly during the decades approaching the end of the Cold War. I sort of miss the Cold War, a simpler time, can you tell? ;-)

Hey Guys, up here, the bordello scene !!
Familiar ground at last....

Anybody an idea why the " Brothel's Madame" is Jewish Just like Bloom ? Is Bella Cohen, Bloom's Mama ? What kinky "jeu de mot" has our J.J.Jesuit concocted this time ?

And why is Bloom a Jew ? Just to make him a stranger in his native Dublin ? Or does his identity position him between the rational West and emotional East ?
If so, is he the Arch - Modernist anti hero like other unassuming young men without qualities ?

Enlighten me ! somebody !

74...I wish I could help enlighten you...these sound like excellent questions for our experts.

Lots of scintillating Oblomov talk of late; go read more if you like on Hot Reviews, courtesy of our member who meows.

#73
I have put Zinoviev on my TBR list after reading your post. I originally planned my Russian exile to take me up to 1881, the year of Dostoevsky's death, but I have since been introduced to Russian Decadence, which I want to explore further, and I want to do a jag on the Russian Silver Age as well (Akhmatova, Babel, Blok, Mandelstam et al) and then another jag on Soviet literature. I have never read Platonov, or Zamyatin, for example, and need to reread Bulgakov and Pasternak.

The trouble is Russian literature is so huge and so excellent, that one could feasibly read nothing else. *Sigh*. When will it ever Beyenov?

Ha!

76...Neva Beyenov! And since you mention Akhmatova, don't forget Europe Central, since Akhmatova and Dmitri Shostakovich play huge roles in that National Book Award winning novel written by a 21st century American w/a prostitute fetish pretending to be a 19th century Russian master writing about key events in the 20th century. And hey you could read Zamyatin's We (now as I glance over to the right why the hell does Ayn Rand come up on the touchstones when I clearly input Zamyatin's We!? and not We The Effing Living!) in one day easily.

Hey Ded, you've been awful quiet of late, everything okay? I didn't offend you did I? Macumbeira up at 74 could use your assistance (or bokai, bzine, wilf, anna, slick, rmckeown, anybody?--is there anybody...out there?); do you need a raise, Ded, is that it? What I been payin' you ain't enuff? You moonlightin' on BTU?

Oh yes, Europe Central is fantastic. I read that last year. We is on my TBR list.

Enrique, you sound like Pink floyd :

Is there anybody out there ?

Ha! You caught me! Good for you. Did you catch my Alanis Morisette from yesterday?

nope, but i did find some Paul Mccartney lyrics

Back from the..... Back from the ....USSR !
How many good writers ther are !!
from the.... from...... U S S RRRRRR

>74 Macumbeira: >78 absurdeist: Thrown off by the "jeu de mot," google points me to a page that's all in French, which I can't read. Elsewhere I see that mot is a colloquialism for Jews, jeu is the archangel at God's right hand, overseeing the cosmos. Closest I can get to this concept is powerful Jewish angel, perhaps a faulty reference to Elijah, hence Elijah in Nighttown.

Bloom's mother was not Jewish, so Bella Cohen is likely not a stand-in for his mother. Besides, Bella is flesh-and-blood. I wouldn't get hung up on particulars. The whole chapter brings up the place of Jews in Ireland, in the context of the Irish rebellion against the red-coats, sets Bloom in that context, and places Stephen next to Bloom. Then see what happens.

That's the point I think. But I defer to those who have trod these paths before.

Edited to say:
Oh, it's a pun. Nevermind.

83: That pretty much covers my attempts at understanding stuff. It's either a dissertation length obscure reference, which requires TomcatMurr or ImNotDedalus to elucidate it - or a pun!

Thanks Wilf & Anna. I bet there's a dissertation just on Joyce's use of puns in Ulysses floating around out there somewhere.

Hey all!
Sorry that I've been a little absent from the group for a few weeks. I've been swamped in the office and had limited time for tapping. Hence, I have only just discovered this thread - what a lovely idea! And thank you so much, Monsieur de Freeque for the mention - very, very kind!

Apologies if this is already well-trodden ground, but the TomCat wrote an excellent review of Oblomov a few days ago. Definitely one to check out if you have not done so already. I immediately ordered the book and am looking forward to reading it (as well as Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, also courtesy of a review by Tomcat...).

I shall be keeping an eye out for others! And will try not to stay away from you good folk for so long again.

*blushing furiously, quite a feat for a cat*
Thank you Pummzie. Ahem!

And welcome back! :)

I'd love to know what you think about F&S and O.

88: Glute, try writing a review!

Re maintenance of this list: I guess what Brent does/did is go to profiles and look for new reviews. Because sometimes he points out reviews that I don't see on my "hot reviews" sidebar. Anyone else know what the secret is?

I have no idea how he did it. It's hard enough for me to keep track of one group. I'm thinking magic is involved, or perhaps a small cadre if trained internet monkeys.

Perhaps the toll of climbing up Ulysses while simultaneously keeping us all up to date with each other has burned the poor guy out. I certainly hope not!

OK Brent, if you are gone, you have to give the internet-monkey-cadre to a handpicked successor. Hellooooooooo?????

I am so gutted that Brent has left us. I hope he comes back.

G2tM - thanks for flagging Ganeshaka's new review - what a fab review! Even though the last thing I need is another 900 page book on the TBR pile, I can't help but think, hmm, that sounds interesting...

Ganeshaka- you review is hilarious.

Thank you Pummzie and glute! I was shocked to hear about the avalanche that swept Brent away. But recall that old Sean Connery movie, Five Days One Summer? There's still hope we'll see him again some day. And with a proper microwave, and a cryonics expert, great wonders are possible!

Although our brave leader is MIA, a rather excellent review of Smiles on Washington Square (A Love Story of Sorts) by Raymond Federman turned up on his profile page yesterday. Check it out.

Only problem with this thread is that, despite recent promises to various members of family about reducing my book acquisition rate, it is making me order even more books than usual! D'oh!

Now now, no reason to throw rotting fruit at the guy under two tons of snow. At least we are still trekking!

You judgement is most definitely skewed by your feelings of abandonment! My review (in fact all of my reviews!) consist of nothing more than my general feeling about a novel - a bit of a brain dump on completion, if you will. Although, of course, I am chuffed to bits if they are to someone else's liking, they are NO WAY in the league of the reviews of De Freeque, Ganeshaka or our friendly TomCat, or indeed other learned members of our fellowship. But thank you very much anyway!

I was, on reflection, a bit of a brat - not in the classic sense - I was always bookish and given to introspection. BUT I was rather selfish and I did hurt people, in the same cavalier manner as these young ladies I have been meeting in my reading lately. Not something I'm particularly proud of and I dread the thought of having a daughter that turns out to be like me in those days! With the passage of time, it's hard to identify with one's teenage self and accept that we are one and the same. I think that's why I've found all these young ladies I've been encountering this year so compelling - following their deluded thought processes that allow them to justify their actions is like stepping into a time machine!

Anyway, enough. This isn't group therapy hour!

On the subject of quitting - we may well be joining him - best save the condemnations for when we actually cross the finish line! Maybe we should launch a COME BACK DEFREEQUE campaign on his profile page. If we inundate him with pleas to return, maybe our phoenix will rise again?

btw G2tM - you can call me whatever you please!

100: Thanks for pointing it out! 101: Testy testy! I put the book on hold at my local library immediately. My sister and I are big Sasquatch fans (hey, we DO live in the Pacific NW - represent!) Sorry to the Yetis among us, but we love Bigfoot.

103: I know what you claim on your review because I have read it. It's Joyce whose writing makes me wonder if I have understood it correctly - not yours.

I make it a policy not to interrupt a man when he's talking to himself.

Does this mean the camping trip to Yellowstone with the naughty hottie has been cancelled? My bowling team won't take kindly to refunds.

Oh no Ganeshaka, you tell your adorable bowling buddies the Yellowstone trip is still on! Woohoo! I'd simply hate to deprive a bunch of old guys from getting to enjoy their geysers! ;-)

Hottie, It's so much more than just enjoyment! It's downright tantric. Coming every "44 to 125 minutes, its duration is 1 1/2 to 5 minutes and its height is 90 to 184 feet". How little you know about geezers and geyzers.

http://www.geyserstudy.org/geyser.aspx?pGeyserNo=OLDFAITHFUL

Sir! I'm blushing! Are you talking about multiple geysers?

Well, there ARE more than one. My personal favorite is in Xanadu. Now that's the spot for a camping trip. (my apologies to S.T.Coleridge for not phoning ahead for reservations)

"But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river."

I always wondered what those fast thick pants looked like on the earth, and where I could procure a pair. They sound hot!

But what shall we do about the mad person in our midst? I mean it could be anyone of us. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect that Genashaka and thenaughtyhottie are one and the same!!!!! Based on internal forensic evidence of their writing, I detect remarkable similarities of discourse features in the two posts.

I am now evacuating, as the good doctor recommended. I would appreciate it if someone could empty my litter tray when I have finished.
Thank you.

TomCat - don't think I'm fooled by you. Clearly you are thenaughtiehottie. And you are an alterego of Enrique the Freak. In fact, I am convinced that actually there have only ever been three members of this group. Me. Imnotdaedalus (who got out with his sanity intact). And the collective You.

Sayonara

Or it could be like in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, and we're all effectively just one or two people filling different roles at different times. At least, that's how I interpreted it...

Or even worse, we could all just be one person, talking to him/herself.

How sad would that be?

goo goo g'joob

Hehe. Did you ever see that one episode of Doctor Who, "The Three Doctors"?

Third Doctor: Jo, it's all quite simple - I am he and he is me!
Jo Grant: And we are all together, goo goo g'joob?
Both Doctors: What?
Jo Grant: It's a song by The Beatles.
Second Doctor: Really? How does it go?

Classic.

don't knock yarn. Some of us have great fun with it.

Nice one ER on The Road. I have read Suttree and No Country for Old Men but I thought the Road sounded like too much of a downer. Maybe if Ulysses leaves me in too euphoric of a mood I'll read it next. After Great Gatsby which is now next on my tbr pile.

I saw the movie version and then read the book. My dad and I saw the movie together - he'd read the book - and he was amazed at how accurate it was. I read the book right afterwards, and the only difference was the physical appearance of the hit man character. However, Javier Bardem did such a good job, it does not matter.

I was turned on to McCarthy by my father who's read everything. He buys cheap paperback editions of everything. The version of Suttree I read was a typical yellowed paperback.

Does it matter to you what the book looks/feels like? Do you like to read expensively printed / bound / illustrated books? It's never been an issue for me.

ER- nice work on the Road. I totally see where you're coming from with the whole anti-chat show endorsed-books thing - we have the equivalent in the UK in the guise of Richard&Judy and their annoying stickers can be found over all sorts of books these days. And I, similarly, find myself rejecting their recommendations without pause. But, although some of their endorsements are for the likes of Niffenegger's Time Traveler's Wife - ie one trick ponies that tend to make good bestsellers - they were also responsible for pushing David Mitchell into the limelight in the UK, which is no bad thing.

I hope you felt better after purging your elitist demons.

I thought it was pretty cool of Oprah to try to get her fan base to read actually difficult books that one summer when she pushed Faulkner.

I also think a lot of voracious readers automatically want to show indie street cred or something, and feel annoyed about the book trumpeting its popularity on the front cover. but that would go just as much for "#1 NYT Bestseller!" headers as it would for Oprah stickers, wouldn't it?

ETA: I personally shy away from books that have a movie-tie-in cover. I hate that. I always look for an older edition. do you guys do that as well?

yes, I do. And I don't really like what it says about me that I do these things (I don't like buying books that have #1 bestseller/ booker prize shortlist etc on them either....).

> 123, 124 Hmm, yes. Currently, and regrettably, have Gatsby with a movie cover, but found in good condition on the used shelf. Won't get the current Solaris new because of the Clooney connection on cover. My bad. Always look for older, hardcover editions where I can find them.

I think Pynchon is really Oprah.

>127 QuentinTom:.

It makes me look at Gravity's Rainbow in a whole new light.

It's a diet book!

HAHAHAHAH!!!! Bananas!

OMG, do you hear that mad cackle? I think tomcat just went bananas before our very eyes!

Woohoo!

Hi, no RP. Just wanted to note the passing of the wonderful JG Ballard.

Great, just what I need. More attention and more reason for Tim to be pissed off at me...

Here's a delightful non sequitur from the Wikipedia article on Myers (author of The Reader's Manifesto):

He continuosly critics the DSI kids for drink too much.

Well, he made me want to for drink too much too.

at the risk of putting my paw in it, can I ask why Tim is pissed off with you? What have you been doing?

Oh, nothing much, except that the Spalding boys are conspiring to make my life a living hell. Even now, I'm crouching behind the sofa, waiting for the cover of darkness so that I can scurry out and fix myself a drink. It's gotten so that when I leave the house, I nearly jump out of my goddam skin when I see a Cohiba coming around the corner. You never know which one has your name on it. They've even sic'ed their lawyer on me, a libertarian privateer who goes by the name of StormTracker. Don't let the label fool you. When those libertarians are done, your ass is cooked real good. Might as well carve it up, put it on a plate and write it on the chalkboard as the daily special. The whole thing has gotten me so wound up, my IBS is back, and I've now moved to the back door, waiting with the top button of my pants unbuttoned, a copy of Lookout Cartridge and a roll of quarters in my satchel..... Jesus. someones coming

Do you need the Pussy Posse to rescue you? I can get them there in 20 minutes, just say the word.

Hmm, maybe. I'll want to take a shower first.

Sorry, I misunderstood. We already have a cat.

haha!

Thanks. It was the worst book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of stinkers (e.g. Piers Anthony's Xanth series).

I try to find gold in everything I read. Sometimes, though, I find coprolite. Either way, I bring it to the marketplace and let the other buyers know what I've found. But I have fun in the process.

I'm eagerly anticipating the day Amazon lets me post a review for Pureheart (I haven't checked in a spell, but I was just deferring it until a little before the book's release to try give people at least a little forewarning). My fingers are hovering over the old Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V.

Coprolite?! No wonder you didn't like it, you elitist b*stard! Can't you just call a turd a turd?

lolz.

My elitism has nothing to do with my enjoyment of this book, unless you define elitism as the liking of books that are decently written.

I just was running with the rocks/minerals imagery.

You mean like a bass turd?

Oops, I posted as EF instead of ER. I'm losing track of myself.

I'm losing track of myself.

No shit. I'd send you a note, but I don't know which of your multiple personalities to send it to...

No, send the notes to me. I'm the real, real one.

No, send the notes to me. Because you know you want me!

Your're all crazy, and none of you is real.

It's me, and you guys know it. Now get back down into my subconscious and stay there.

Wait a sec, I thought I was BeckyJG.

I am, therefore, I thought I was....

tomcat, I'm just trying to be helpful, so please don't take it personally, but I really really believe your tense is off kilter in post #156. Take another look. Shouldn't "I thought I was...." instead be, "I am."? It just makes reading the first part of your post, "I am, therefore," harder for me to understand when the tense in the second half of your post isn't consistent w/the first half of your post.

HA!

;-)

yes, you are right. It's still work in progress, a draft. I will change it later. Thanks.

Ha!

;-)

When did I step into an Oscar Wilde play? When!?

Cowboy, you had no idea of the bucking bullride this group would be when you agreed to join did you? And you've lasted longer than 8 seconds (though I should probably stop this post pronto before someone uncouth takes that "lasted longer than 8 seconds" out of context!)

Too humble to flog your own review?

Hey everybody! Check out an awesome review of one of the awesomest books ever: Over the Edge : Death in Grand Canyon.

P.S. What's up with the author's names? Thomas? Michael?

O are you referring to 'lil 'ol moi? Please...stop...I feel so awkward, because I'm a shy sort and you're crimsoning my countenance.

Yes, as awful as my reviews irreparably can be, I've always tried remaining humble and decent toward them, and so have never (not once) flogged them. No. Though there are, in fact, several reviews I've read of late which I would indeed like to flog, but I've restrained myself regarding them too. ;-)

I believe the authors are co-authors. One of them has written another what sounds like a pageturner Off The Wall: Death in Yosemite. Need to read that too! Death and the outdoors - YEAH!

Oh, and you want to read some very funny vitriolic venting, check out honorary BTU member, Lola Walser's piece on an obscure work by Celine: http://www.librarything.com/work/67902 and then try telling me you can read that w/out chuckling your derrier off - you can't.

162: Have you ever read Nature Noir? It's a true story by a park ranger in California about his experiences in the 1980s in a national park that was slated to be destroyed by a dam (forget the name of the dam, perhaps Auburn?). I enjoyed it a lot.

I haven't Anna. I'm going to touchstone it Nature Noir, as a reminder. Am voluminously reading anything Sierra Nevada-ish at the moment (I mean, that is, when I'm not reading Ulysses of course!).

Everyone, tomcat took a gambler's bet on a nasty story on some cat named Bobok and wrote yet another fine Hot Review. Go read...skedaddle.

Naughty Hottie, could you put the old picture back in your details.The actual one ressembles too much my previous girlfriend.

165
Hear, Hear. If I want to see that kind of fleshy nastiness, I'll browse the novelty card collection at Spencer's.

165...so are you saying that you're single? available? wanting to connect w/other hot singles in your area? Do you live anywhere near Iowa, or the Inland Empire? Your previous girlfriend, that skank! broke your heart, didn't she? bi%$#! My insides ache when I think of your anguish, Big Mac Daddy. But I want you to know I'll have my own 1-800 number up and running soon, and we'll talk, so I can be your late night source for fleshy nastiness, just like I already am for makifat.

Ba bye. Pssst. Call me, at 1-800-Skanks! and meet other exciting singles like me in your area!

I already regret my previous post : )

Regrettez rien!

Hi makifat!

Love love love your review of Darconville's Cat. I honestly didn't think anyone could add any more layers of insight to what Ben Waugh, slickdpdx, & Ganeshaka had already written, but you soooo proved me wrong! Woohoo! Thanks!

You know, I'm just a "hick chick from the sticks" too, so I can sooooo relate.

Thanks again! Call me.

Yee-ha Cowboy!

Rollin' rollin' rollin', get those reviews rollin', Raw-Hiiiiiiiiidddde!!!

Steppin' into the Hot Review rodeo once again is As I Lay Dying, bein' rode by Aether Cowboy.

Nice ride Cowboy.

I'm glad to be able to review things that are actually good, as opposed to my LAST hot review...

Murr, where on your site is your discussion of Eumaeus? I can't find it. Can you provide a link?

Wilf, nice review of Ulysses!

Good eye, Anna, I concur. Here's Wilf's review: http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=WilfGehlen

I think it would be Hot except there's currently another (less positive) review of Ulysses that's Hot and I don't think LT allows reviews of the same book to be Hot simultaneously. So, for Wilf's review to get Hot - don't get me wrong, it's a "hot" review already in my mind whether it's officially designated "Hot" or not - I suggest more BTUers thumb-up it so that it can usurp that other, less positive, review of Ulysses written by a non-BTUer.

Are we in agreement? C'mon now, take a break from your important job, read Wilf's review, and thumb-up it - now!

And makifat, quit deleting your posts, especially any which make reference to soft porn. Ulysses is replete with what amounts to soft core porn. Father Joyce would approve, so don't be embarassed and rethink it, makiLad, let your soft core porn references flow... ;-)

I think it would sound better if you used the construction "thumb it up" rather than "thumb-up it" but never having been a grammar teacher I am probably wrong.

I agree Anna!

And check it out yo, Wilf's review of Ulysses is officially Hot now; and so is your fabulous Bigfoot review, Anna - I love how you stuck it to that nasty Yeti; and Aeyan! - woohoo! on Sarajevo, I've always wanted to visit Spain now that the war is over - and the same goes for you too, BeckyJG!, kickin' it with some sweet urban fantasy!

Wilf is Hot
Anna's Hot
Aeyan's Hot
Becky's Hot

Guess I'm not the only Hottie in town. Ha! LOL!

Cowboy rides again! Galloping through that Eyre Affair labyrinth of twists & untold convolutions. Nice piece there, Aether, on a complicated (but fun!) book.

Anna's back with Nine Lords of the Night. I particularly like the patience & magnanimity she demonstrates with this first time author whose prose & characterizations are occasionally weak, but still, apparently, worth reading.

And bokai returns giving us a great dose of...The Plague! He's right the plague is much more than just the plague isn't he? Go read bokai's shrewd analysis now - you won't be disappointed!

I wouldn't normally do this; far be it for me to ever prop moi, but "Dr." Laura (that bi&$%) denigrated David Foster Wallace (and no one! - NO ONE ever puts my DFW in the corner!) less than two weeks after his suicide, (http://www.drlaurablog.com/2008/09/29/novelist-david-foster-wallaces-ironic-commencement-speech/) and I've been looking for payback and pretty much seething at that Heartless Wench ever since. My anti-"Dr" Laura rant is over there too, if you're curious, along with Cowboy's, Anna's, & Bokai's all three of 'em excellent eruditions.

It's Friday! Really? Gee, did not know that. But do not fear, Monday's less than 72 hours away! Woohoo!

Happy Mother's Day weekend to all the mamas out there. I'll be seeing my mama this weekend, and I think tomcat'll be seeing his mama too. God bless my mama, and God bless all your mamas too!

Your attentiveness to bringing us the news on the LT street is second to none Monsieur Freeqy! I don't know who this Dr. Laura is, but on casual perusal of your link... well, I do not like the taste of my foot so I'll stop there.

An axe-grinder like you wouldn't believe, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Interesting because so immersed in Indian culture. Certainly brings more to the table than any review I've offered...

This review of Booker winner The White Tiger - http://www.librarything.com/review/45625970

Whoa! He tells us how he really feels! I like it. Thanks slick! Has anyone hereabouts read The White Tiger? Curious if you would concur with this person's take.

Also, I just noticed, honorary member Ben Waugh has a Hot review going right now: one on Hanns Heinz Evers Vol. 1, recently translated into English. I'm sure those who regularly haunt the Abyss are well versed in Evers. Good goin', Ben!

I read white Tiger in January this year and rather liked it. It is not really clear if it is one of us who wrote the review in slick s post or that it is just being referred to.

I always feel uneasy when criticizing a work of fiction on the basis that it does or does not represent reality. In my opinion it never does and it doesn t matter. The review above reminds me of the reactions on the books of Bruce Chatwin : the songlines and in patagonia. People whom he met where objecting to what he said in his books about aboriginal culture and the German and English settlements in Argentina. All the remarks that were made at the time were missing their point. Chatwin reacted that as the writer he could let his personages say whatever he wanted. And so it is with Aravind , he can say what he wants in a book of fiction.

On the other hand, it is dangerous when an untrue fiction work gets the status of a classic representing a certain period of history in a certain country.
After a time readers will not check if what is written represents or not reality.
Conrad s Heart of Darkness accusation of Belgian Colonialism contained a hidden political agenda but today his book is seen as an accurate detailed description of the situation along the Congo River. But it is not. Heart of Darkness and an Outpost of progress are works of fiction.

Often people claim non respect of their religious thinking. My reaction is : get used to it. As a Catholic, I have seen only attacks on our beliefs, desecration of our God, in cartoons, in movies, in books and other expressions of art.
So what ? It is the Fatwah which made Rushdie a celebrity, not the satanic verses. A modern reader unfortunately has to live today with a general disrespect of any religion.

Finally any writer can write good books and be a great artist but being him or herself a plain asshole. They are just people. It is our right to accept them or not but again this is seperated of the content of the fiction work. We have in the end the choice if we want to embrace them in our small ring of favourite writers.

I agree with everything you just said Mac - however, I also felt like I learned more about India in that outraged review than in many a news article or novel, even. Plus, its not common to find that much passion in a book review. Its blistering hot!

I read that review and several of the others. They varied WILDLY between "eh, what on earth made them give this guy a Booker" and "5 stars! Wonderful!" The defensive tone in the review referenced by Slick reminds me of many S. Asians' response to somebody like VS Naipaul or S. Rushdie. However, in this case the defensive Indian guy writing the review may be right and A. may indeed have more of a "social agenda" in writing the book than an actual realistic view of India. It's hard to tell because the review is so very defensive and that usually makes me think, "a little thin skinned aren't we? Why?" On the other hand I have had outraged reactions to books such as Infidel, etc. and sort of know where the author's coming from. Unfortunately when it comes to religion everyone has an "agenda."

"For instance, he asserts that many water buffalos can be bought in seven thousand rupees. Let him purchase just one!"

C'mon, tell me that's not one of the best lines you've read in a book review. Or, find a better one!

PankajSaksena had me at the first footnote. I would definitely not take anything written with such bias at it's word, but honest opinion and an offering of means by which to pursue that opinion are the ingredients to a good review.

Now that I come to look at it your way, it is indeed funny and passionate !
:)

He's ba-ck!

No, not the Terminator. Someone even more destructive, as his Hot Review wipes everyone ahead of him out of his purely singular path: the man (of whom I'm a fan) GANE-freaking-SHAKA!

Check out his take on Beam's End by Errol... Flynn? Yes, that Errol Flynn.

Nice job, G. Glad to have ya back in the lower 48 too.

Our sponsor is too shy to flog his own work so let me suggest you check out his review of Frank Herbert's 21st Century Sub aka The Dragon in The Sea, a book you probably know nothing about. The best subject for a review in my...opinion.

I saw My Wicked, Wicked Ways in Ganeshka's library, picked it up and never looked back!

That looks like an outrageous autobio of Flynn. Fun stuff. And, slick, thank you, you're very kind (as usual) to flog my review.

However, ya'll want to read a review by a dude who lives on another planet compared to our collective output? Check out Jason Pettus' latest 1,500 word review http://www.librarything.com/work/5116802/reviews on Anathem, a genre bending (if not its own genre) oft-mislabeled Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel. I'm salivating after reading Pettus' review, jonesing for this behemoth that's been sitting on my shelves since it came out.

Pettus puts him in the same league as Pynchon. What ya'll think about that?

Pettus' reviews are always worth reading. He also is propreitor of a nice website: The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. The guy is nearly indefatigable! (sp?)

http://www.cclapcenter.com/

Honorary salon stylist, Makifat, has written a very personal, poignant review of Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes. Check it out!

That is a good one indeed.

I offer these interesting reviews of Daphne Du Maurier's Don't Look Now.

The story of the book is mystery. There are four main character in the story. First the man and his wife met two strange old girls .
And they met two strange people many times and occur strange things.
I think this story is easy to read. And a little interesting. (4 stars)
ojko98y6 | Nov 12, 2008

A couple realizd the two sister looking at them wen they rest in cafe. The two sisters said that ther daughter who died is there with you.
It is very misterious story. Why didn't the sister told about the last?(4 stars)
hishamaru | Jul 13, 2008

193
Freaky-boy, as usual you are too kind.

194
Back in the day, my friends and I would wander the 99 cent stores at the tail end of our lunch hour, laughing uproariously at the unintentional humor of the English translations on the Asian products (the realization that I was a mostly monoglot American, notwithstanding). Still, these reviews are quite charming!

Yes their English is clearly better than my theirs. It is what they take away from the book that surprises me. Think of a whole series of reviews (in King's English) of other books.

Ulysses: Two guys in Ireland wander. They meet each other. One guy likes butts and kidneys. What happened at the brothel?

196 Mac is screaming with laughter !

196> a little work and you'll have a ulysses haiku! Or, if you believe Kerouac, you already do. (Hmm, looks like my inadvertent rhyming is kicking in again).

13 syllables in each line, Wilf - kudos to you!

196...the master of the dry aside or snippet

RSHabroptilus was one of the first to join the salon, back when it was BTU. I don't believe he's ever posted here once. No matter, he's just written a rip-roaring, risque fun fest of a review of Goldfinger that I strongly suggest you mosey on over and peruse. Give that Fleming hell, Todd!

Thanks for counting, EF, hadn't noticed myself.

Obscure as always, let me elucidate on 198: haiku is constrained by the number of kanji symbols in each line. Some have taken syllables to be the equivalent of symbols and I go along with that quite happily. But, since a picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps we can allow other interpretations. Kerouac argued for a much looser interpretation. It still has to be pithy and clever.

Another constraint is including the image of seasonality, which most do not comply with. I try, but if I have to let it go, I let it go.

Beautiful review by Makifat of Julian Barnes book Nothing to be frightened of.

Very funny review by Monsieur Freeqy of the Bible New International Version.

check them out!

Indeed! I especially enjoyed the portrayal of young Freeque!

Hey Anna: What book by Idries Shah would you recommend to a first time reader?

Thanking you kindly,

202: The Sufis was the first book I read by him and I believe it may be the first book he wrote. Also, the compilations about Mulla Nasrudin are pretty accessible.

201/202/203

Thank you, Anna.

Not to butt in, but Shah's Learning How to Learn is a very good introduction to his brand of Sufism from a psychological perspective.

thank you both

p.s. all be enlightened by the recent review of drood by poor-ious

Aren't we a grateful, thankful bunch! After this post, this will be the third consecutive post (and fourth out of the last five) or, fifth out of the last seventh, in this thread, in which an LTer has expressed gratitude by saying "thanks"!

We rock! And I'm not just referring to the Ronnie James Dio song. Thank you Anna, and you slick.

Poor-ious, dude, you are now officially "Hot". I love your Kinks links on your profile page. Here's my all time favorite Kinks song (and a great amateur video to boot)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh23A2GptAQ

EF: i'd like to be cool but i'm afraid that state has passed me by. your favorite Kinks song is also one of mine. i love all of ARTHUR and MUSWELL HILLBILLIES.
Ray Davies writes some awfully good songs.

Excuse moi, poor-ious, if you like the Kinks, you're cool.

Enough said.

Celluloid people never feel any pain.
Celluloid people never really die.

You boys inspired me to drag out my dynaflex copy of Muswell Hillbillies:

I'm breathing through my mouth so I don't have to sniff the air....

she don't eat no buttered scones

I need to publicly apologize to Wilf for falsely accusing him in another thread, but worse, I must apologize for having allowed an unforgivable two weeks to transpire and not one - not one I tell you - mention of his fantastic review of Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49 ~ http://www.librarything.com/work/4918/reviews/45743354 ~ Forgive the delay, Wilf. It is so hard to keep track of all of you!, and all of your fine reviewing. I try, I do, and if you out there, whoever you are, have written something exceptional like Wilf, won't you please bring it to our attention (or tell a friend to bring it to our attention if you're modest) because we (I know I) want to praise fine writing every chance I/we get.

Now I'm off to Wilf's blog I just found out about too. How dare you, Wilf, not link your blog in the appropriate "link your blog here" thread!

Thanks to Mac's insightfully stellar, makes-me-wanna-go-order-the-book now review, "Hoffmania" as Macumbeira coined it, is off and running! I give it my hearty thumbs up! Won't all of you too?

http://www.librarything.com/work/364321/reviews

Oh, and Mac, I like how you mention Freudian psych. It's always fascinating to me how some writers are so on with human nature that reading them reminds one of revolutionary theorists who hadn't even been born yet!

Off topic - I studied Poe's, The Cask of Amontillado in some psych/lit class way back when, and it was astounding how Poe described to the reader almost all of the diagnostic criteria to a tee for a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, when, obviously, such a term was at least another half century away. It sounds like Hoffmann is as presciently astute, psychologically speaking.

I recommend reading Poe with a copy of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., revised handy. Fun times!

Well done, Mac!

Give Mac your thumbs people - he (er, Hoffmann) needs 'em!

Hoffmann and Freud

Chech this :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uncanny

A Therauxly* suitable review of the confessions of mycroft holmes was recently posted by Ganeshka. Check it out!

*Blame reviewer for the pun. I can't take the credit. Or blame.

Makifat has a review of The Journal of Jules Renard that shouldn't be missed.

Thanks dude.

This author has been edited.

*OUCH!*

This author has been deleted.

*phew!*

Well I just checked and Macumbeira's review has dropped off the charts after a glorious #1 run of several days - thought we'd make it a full week - but if only twenty something of you out there (one-third of the salon's membership) don't turn out for the thumbs-up then it's going to be impossible to keep anyone Hot for a full week! It takes time to clone new thumbs (I only have so many) so those of you out there in the salon who didn't do your patriotic duty and didn't exercise your free right to thumb-up (especially when you were instructed TO DO SO)!!! feel free, please, to thumb up Solla's pending review of The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.

"Black smoke rises from the Inland Empire
A smoke signal rises, but there's no fire...."

Honorary salon stylist, BeckyJG, vicarious world traveler, has written an excellent review, The Fourth Watcher: A Novel of Bangkok, that's definitely worth your time:

http://www.librarything.com/work/5028781/reviews/46662586

Solla, dear (if I'm not being presumptuous calling you dear) you - and Hoffman (let Hoffmania ring true thru the Cosmos!) are #1 with a bullet. Congratulations on your fine review.

Brave Salon Stylists, keep thumbing it up!

Would someone here in the salon please try explaining to me why Solla's review is stuck on 19, down to the 8th slot and about to drop off the charts, when Macumbeira's review got 26 thumbs and remained on the charts for six days rather than what looks like it's going to be, four days, for Solla, unless...UNLESS...people who've withheld their thumb-favors get clicking fast!

This discrepancy in votes reeks to me of probable rank sexism & misogynism in the salon (say it isn't so, Brave Salon Stylists! and I'll not stand for it!). Just because men have historically been paid more than women for doing the same job is no reason that that similar discriminatory practice of thumb-withholding should also be occuring here in our Salon! It's abominable & embarassing to me that you all are not giving Solla the same love that you gave Mac! No offense, Mac, and I'm truly sorry, Solla, I've done everything I can.

Happy to see you again Henry! And no offence taken..

The individual score does not matter, it is the collective result we should focus on. I have given my vote to Solla and would gladly give her even more but the game is played differently.

Time for action !

There are some books, where I cannot change the cover. Does anybody know why ?

Yeah, you're probably right.

You should be able to change the cover on any book. What book is it? Link it here if you would and we'll look at it and try to diagnose the problem.

Okay, I guess either PekoeTheCat or the tomcat is up next. Feel free to post the next review - our thumbs are itching!

Go, Tomcat.

Tomcat, Tomcat he's our, um,

I want your hot review now, you luscious lynx you, now, tomcat, I want it now!

Woohoo!

C'mon how many more affected Twilight sux reviews do I need to see? Answer: none!

salon stylist's very own, rmckeown, is giving alzo a run for the money on Hot reviews with his inimitable piece on Henry VIII.

http://www.librarything.com/work/4305582/reviews/336278

Aethercowboy's review of Dune: House Atreides had me in tears.

I certainly hope there weren't tears of misery!

Tears of relief! I won't be reading any of those after your review. I love Frank Herbert, but not what his son has allowed happen to his father's legacy.