Life & Opinions of Tomcat Murr

So for everyone who is starting this on Memorial day, here's a thread to discuss it. We are very privileged to have the cat himself here on this list, so I will take this opportunity to ask him if he recommends any preparation for this ascent, or whatever other metaphor people want to use (whitewater rafting? Bungee jumping?)....

I cannot wait to begin! I'm thinking of it as more of a wallow. TCM?

I am confused.
Are we going for the Master and Margueritte by Bulgakov or Hoffman's Tomcat F'murr ?
My list of "books to be read" is growing and growing... : )

M&M is scheduled for Labor Day (US) - 1st Mon in September.
Those of us who want to read something right now, are also reading Hoffman starting Memorial Day (US) (I think it's called Armistice day in other countries) which is coming right up.

Yes, I have Tomcat Murr, after careful consideration, officially listed as a group read, and the weekend of Memorial/Armistice Day begins Sat., May 23rd, so, next Sat., that read, for those who will be reading, begins.

While I won't be available for this expedition, I am eagerly anticipating the comments and observations of those who will be reading. I suspect, after seeing what ya'll have to say, having no option but to obtain a copy of the book.

tomcat, if you could meander away for a moment from Mum, could you summarize for us the genesis of E.T.A. Hoffmann's influence and inspiration on you. What is it about Tomcat Murr that makes tomcatmurr tomcatmurr?

Sure. I came across Murr about 10 years go in an article in the LRB on the new Penguin Classics edition. I got the book and read it avidly. I adore cats, and the genre of cats in literature and was initially intrigued as to how a German Romantic would conceive of the character of a cat. Hoffmann is brilliant at capturing the catty nature of Murr. (He actually did have a cat named Murr.)

I found the book incredibly modern. Although it was written in 1820-1822, it has all the hallmarks of a post-modernist text: it is highly referential and satirical, making fun of key texts in the European Enlightenment (The German Romantics were largely a reaction against the Enlightenment), it embraces many other arts: music, poetry, illustrations (Apart from Hoffmann's own engravings, the book has elicited many wonderful illustrations throughout its history. When I have time, I will do some digging around and post some links. Meanwhile you can see an example on my profile) and also science: alchemy and chemistry. I loved the structure and the conceit -two books spliced together at the printer's by mistake- because it's so bookish. Readers of Italo Calvino will find many of the structuralist games Calvino plays here as well. Above all, it is funny. Its humour is quite different from Anglo-Saxon humour, which works in waves, setting up the punchline, then the punchline comes, little climaxes and outbusts of laughter. Hoffmann's humour is low key but steady and constant: it's a cheshire cat grin, rather than outbursts of laughter, a slow steady witty burn.

Preparation for Murr:

Here are some links which you will find relevant before starting:

http://www.littlebluelight.com/intro.php?ikey=9 Hoffmann's life and work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Romanticism German Romanticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Stern Sterne was a huge influence on Hoffmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabelais as was Rabelais.

When you begin part 1 here are some themes to be aware of as you read. Let's start by focussing our discussion on these themes, and add others as we progress.

1. The book foregrounds itself constantly as a text. Read the introductory matter carefully: The Editor's Forward, the Author's Preface and Forward: these give clues to the narrative provenance and to the book's main themes. When the kreisler story starts (p.13) marked w.p. (waste paper) questions of narrative provenance are pushed to the front. This section is very difficult- we will talk more about this later, but pay especial attention to the punctuation, the speech marks especially.

2. The theme of developing consciousness and Murr's physical and moral education. Notice the birth imagery. There are satirical references to Stern and Rousseau: if anyone has read either of those authors, perhaps they can help out here.

Here is an engraving of Hoffmann.



I have my Mother staying with me at the moment, and we are off to Hong Kong for a jaunt in a few days. I have already started rereading Murr so I can stay ahead and try to lead well. I have never lead a group read before, so please bear with me, and don't hesitate to ask questions. I may not know the answers, but at least it will stimulate discussion.

In all humility
Murr

In Robertson Davies LYRE of ORPHEUS there is an attempt to finish an unfinished opera of Hoffmann. Maybe it might help with Hoffmann background?

7...very well could help. I'm not familiar with that particular work (what say you tomcat, anyone?) but, wow, Robertson Davies, love 'em, what little I've read, and how exactly has he flown under the radar for so long? It's nice to see that a couple of his works have surpassed 1,000 members here in LT.

Oh goodie! The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr is in my tbr pile. I will gleefully join you.

Did someone mention Bulgakov? I adore the Master and Margarita!

I hope your mother enjoys her visit. It sounds like a wonderful trip.

P.S. What has become of our Mamushka? I miss her.

>8 absurdeist:.

Readers of The Lyre of Orpheus may want to start with The Rebel Angels and What's Bred in the Bone (the preceding two works of The Cornish Trilogy).

8 and 10: The Cornish Trilogy was great. I liked it much better than the Deptford Trilogy. Not sure how much relevance it would have to Tomcat Murr but yes, there is quite a bit about ETA Hoffman in book 3.

Orderd my Hoffman through amazon on sunday.
ETA wednesday ! Just in time. : )

Just joining us from The Netherlands, let's welcome Pim Philipse! I see that you're in the Doestoy & Fans of Russian Authors groups, and wanted to direct you, just as slickdpdx several months ago, directed me (in case you're not already aware) of what I believe to be finest blog on Doestoy & the Russians in general, right here (and not to mention Dickens!): http://thelectern.blogspot.com/. In fact, tomcat, the author of this blog, will be leading the next group read beginning this weekend. You're just in time for a journey into the mind of a cat; two cats, really, E.T.A. Hoffmann's book, and his biggest fan: the man, the one, the only...tomcatMurr

Welcome again!

And DavidX, yes, M&M begins the first weekend of Sept. I see you keep good company with many members from Ben's gorgeous abyss. Nice meeting you here - and great blog! And hold that thought for a moment while I move over to a related thread....

I saw tomcatMurr's blog, and I was quite impressed. I did some reading in Die Serapionsbrüder, so Lebensansichten des Katers Murr would be a nice follow-up. So what are the requirements for participation?

So what are the requirements for participation?

Excellent question from Pim.

No "formal" requirements really, except that we insist you have fun with both the book and the group and feel free to comment on it in any way you so choose. Feel free to ask any questions related to anything about the book/author - there are no "dumb" questions here, not a one. And don't worry either about staying on topic. This group craves asides, going off on tangents, "longueurs" - a nifty term I learned from Ganeshaka. One, in my opinion, should never be intimidated to ask questions or to stray off the beaten path into some gnarly terrain. And we insist also, that while reading the text, should you make an interesting observation, or see an allusion, or what you've read reminds you of something else you've read, that you would share that information with us. We are always greedy for such nuggets of insight & information. Please post them. Even if the information might seem extraneous to you, trust me, it's probably not.

Other than that, we're fairly informal, loosey-goosey.

Tom Catt Murr seeker after comfort relentlessly is everywhere relevant. From Lyre of Orpheus:

"Hoffmann's life was a long fight with the Philistines. Poor devil! You have not read Kater Murr yet?"
"No."
"Not an easy book, but you cannot understand Hoffmann without it. It is the biography of the great musician Kreisler."
"I didn't know he was as old as that?"
"Not Fritz Kreisler, stupid! A character invented by Hoffmann. One of his many alter egos.The great musician and composer Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, the romantic genius whom nobody understands and who has to put up with insults and slights from all the Philistine crew of society in which he lives. His life has been written by a friend, and left on the desk; the tom-cat Murr finds it and writes his own life on the back of the sheets. So off goes the copy to the printer, who stupidly prints the whole thing as a unity, Kreisler and Kater Murr all mixed up in a one book. But Kater Murr is a deeply Philistine cat; he embodies in himself everything that Kreisler hates and that is hostile to Kreisler. Kater Murr sums up his philosophy of life: 'Gibt es einen behaglicheren Zustard, als wenn man mit sich selbst ganz zufrieden ist?' You understand German?"
"No."
"You should. Without German, very poor music. The tom-cat says: 'Is there a cosier condition than being thoroughly satisfied with oneself?' That is the philosophy of the Philistine."

Davies' novel is most informative concerning the tom-cat and his creator.

You can find the passage on 187 and 188.

16: Wow, thanks! It's been several years since I read it...

Yes, poor-ious, thanks for sharing that. I have to read The Cornish Trilogy again I see. WARNING: do not read the last part of the Cornish trilogy in public. It is probably the funniest thing i have ever read, and I read it on a crowded underground train in London. I was asked to leave the carriage because i was laughing so hard.

I agree largely with what Davies writes in the extract you posted, but there is more to Murr than meets the eye. He is a very great ironist, for example, and he pokes fun at the philistines as much as Kreisler wrestles with them, an element which I think Davies missed. Murr represents Enlightenment philosophy, while Kreisler represents the new Romantic sensibility. The book is a much a dialogue between Enlightenment thought and the newly emerging Romantic movement as a struggle between the Artist and the Philistines.

Thanks for the kind words on my blog, Enrique and Pim, and welcome to all newcomers.

Pim, what language did you read the Serapionsbruder in? do you know if it is available in English? I have long wanted to read it.

The Lyre of Orpheus opens the door to the underworld

E T A Hoffmann

18: I read it in German, it consists of many tales, some of which have been published in English as stand-alone novels, most famously Nutcracker and mouse king. But it is really a frame story of people telling each other tales, interrupting and commenting as they go.

You are of course more familiar with Hoffmann's feline. Maybe Davies fell into the trap of cat herding when he wrestled with his book, I don't know. I've read enough of KATER MURR to know that the tom-cat is more complicated than old Davies gave him credit for. The clever cat is not simply boorish or uncultured; there is something, or somewhat more than something of the artist about him.

This of course to the tom-cat on 2 legs.

Ok guys and gals, I am ready!

The postman rang twice and delivered Murr exactly on the ETA !
I have Pencil nr.2 ( Count Faber and Castel ) sharpened,
a brand new moleskin note book for anotations ( Just like Bruce ),
the oxford dictionary,
wikipedia pages printed,
a list to be filled in of the" dramatis personae" and
the zubrowka in the freezer.

who will wave the flag ?

Go! And they're off!

The salon is behind you tomcat! Is there anything you need that we could send you as you begin your journey? More pickled herring? More vodka?

Is mackerel an acceptable alternative?

Grmph. Postcard (!!!) just in from the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft: the edition of Murr that I ordered from them is no longer available. (Hey, guys... I know that you have my email address... what the...)
So for now, I'll have to settle for the eBook in "Deutsche Literatur - Großbibliothek" from Directmedia. (DVD with >2900 German classics)
The good news is that I found a Belgian second hand bookshop that is going to send me a complete Hoffman (15 parts!) for only 30 €. (Excluding postage, I'm afraid). That means that somewhere next week I can continue reading the story in Frakturschrift (the way it was MEANT to be read).

I started The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr last night. I was immediately addicted. Such a clever feline and so modest.

I can already see the influence of Rabelais. I'm going to pick up a copy of The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, which I've been meaning to read for a long time.

just back from my jaunt in Hong Kong with Mother. Utterly exhausted from strenuous shopping and walking. Hong Kong is basically a vertical city so there is a lot of stairs. At 70 years old, Mother coped wonderfully, and I am nominating myself for the Nobel Peace Prize.

David, I'm delighted that you are enjoying Murr. I keep thinking of you as I reread it and know how much you must be enjoying it. I had forgotten actually how wonderful it is and am relishing this reread. As our resident Rabelais expert, please let us know more about the connection you see here.

Pim, I am very jealous of the complete Hoffmann shortly to arrive. If you're going to be reading in German, any comments you have on the Anthea Bell translation most of us are using would be greatly appreciated.

Slick, anything with fins will be fabulous.

I will have more to post on Part 1 of the novel tomorrow morning. It's good to be back. I have missed you all.
Murr.

And we've missed you! I second the NPP nomination.

Thank you Lol.

I have put together a brief summary of part 1. When I was reading I found the Kreisler sections quite difficult. I hope this will help newcomers to the book. Part 1 consists of five sections each from Murr and Kreisler's stories.

Part one: Sensations of existence
Murr:
1. birth and the attic
2. learns to read
3. Mina
4. Ponto
5. The theft of the manuscript, Professor Lothario tells MA Murr is writing poetry

Kreisler:
1. MA is talking to K, reporting a conversation he had with the prince, in media res using a story by Rabelais to explain how the wind destroyed the festivities for the Prince’s name day. This is interrupted by K asking MA to describe the festivities from the beginning, which MA then does. During the terrible storm which destroys the festivities, MA finds a small kitten and stuffs him into his pocket. MA offers Murr to Kreisler, who after some reluctance, is impressed by Murr and agrees to adopt him.
2. The narrator comes to the fore here, and describes the imaginary court of Prince Irineus in the town of Sieghartsweiler: Madame Benzon and her daughter Julia are introduced and other characters. The narrator is referring to a court chronicle written by an anonymous historian, which describes how MA came to the court in the days of PI’s father.
3. This section opens with a disquisition on the part of the narrator about how the life story of K is pieced together from oral history: we thus have two sources for the K story: the Court Chronicles, and oral history. The story of K’s arrival at S. Julia and Princess Hedwiga are walking through the park when they bump into a mysterious man playing a guitar. Julia is curious about him, but Hedwiga is terrified. Madam B begins to tell the story of K.
4. Conversation between Madame B and K about the origin of his name and in which it is revealed that they knew each other from before When K was a Councillor. K tells how he was formerly Kapellmeister at the court of the grand duke after leaving his Councillor position, but left in disgust at the boredom and triviality of the art there. He has always been compelled to wander abroad since his earliest youth. He has come to S to visit his father’s closest friend, and his own tutor, MA.
5. Conversation between the Privy Councillor, MA and K in which K tells of his birth and early youth. The influence of music in his early life, especially the lute. The death of his Aunt Tootsie. His attempt to write and opera and the fire. He studies law. Narrative provenance is not clear here.

The key structural difference between the two stories here is that Murr's stories are linear. THe next one starts where the previous one breaks off, even at sentence level. The Kreisler sections are not linear and jump around all over the place, with lots of analepses and prolepses. It's really not clear how to order the events in the Kreisler story. All will become clearer as the book progresses.

THere are some delicious moments of high modernism, even magic realism, as when Prince Irinius loses his kingdom when it falls out of his pocket one day when he is out walking. And the stuff about walking around his kingdom wearing a cloak and wide brimmed hat so that everyone knows he is incognito always makes me laugh. Hoffmann's irony is quite unique.
There are lots of quotable sentences: let everyone look for his own herring heads and not anticipate the perspicacity of others: guided by a good appetite they'll soon find theirs.

Perhaps a good starting point for discussion might be the relationship between the Murr sections and the Kreisler sections, can anyone see any connections here?

it might also be productive and stimulate discussion if we post quotes or passages that strike us as we read. What say you all?

The most obvious relation between K & Cat is their ongoing struggle against the comfort that is not conducive to the life of the artist. The Philistine life that Davies mentions in his novel. Muzius lures tcM out of the comfort of his home, but Muzius is killed by the forces of Philistinism. K is tempted by the Abbey to join the good life of the Benedictines, he is teased by Romantic Love, he wanders in search of something not unlike the two main male characters in ULYSSES. Hoffman and Joyce are artists, it seems to me, cut out of the same cloth. Shaakespeare is ever-prsent, and the strains of fine European music fill the air. So far, for me, the tcM sections are better reading. The K sections are hard to follow, as our human tom-cat says they are. I suppose that it will come clear in the end.

As a start, I hear two sounds.

If Murr is an onomatopeia for the purring of the (self-) satisfied cat, Kreisler could mean hysterical screamer ( Ger. Kreischen ) which is not really a nice nick for a musician.

LOL

Thank you Murr, The Kreisler sections ARE rather difficult to follow. I kept backing up and rereading parts. Your summary is most helpful.

Here is Anthea Bell's footnote regarding the "Rabelais" story about the notary who lost his hat.

Hoffman takes the tale of the notary who lost his hat on the Pont Neuf(not quite accurately, and elaborating on it) from the passage entitled "The Fragment" in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, by Laurence Sterne(1713-68), first published in 1768. Sterne's narrator finds the fragmentary tale written 'in the old french of Rabelais's time' on a sheet of waste paper wrapping a pat of butter.

Checking in with everyone to say, I am really loving this book. It's so funny. Both the cat narration and the Kreisler storyline. I love the over-the-top style. I am so glad we decided to read it. I am at about page 60 right now because I have not had so much reading time and am mostly getting in ten or so pages a day on bus trips.

I especially find Murr's feline self-confidence so very funny because obviously, this is what a cat would sound like if it wrote about its life.

How is everyone else enjoying it?

I am really enjoying it too. Just started reading in earnest. Page 40 or so.

slow start but i catch up on the plane

I'm glad to hear that everyone is enjoying it so far. I have just got to the end of part 2 volume 1. The plot is thickening. I'm enjoying it even more this time than the first time I read it about 10 years ago, despite constant interruptions. I'm beginning to see more connections between the Murr part and the Kreisler part.

Well arn'cha going to elaborate on the connections between Murr & Kreisler? Please? Pretty please?

Simply terrible of me to ask an already heavily burdened man, what with teaching and writing and maintaining his own Club Read, to elaborate further. Do know that slick and Anna asked me to ask you - so this really isn't me asking.

The novel explores (and gets a lot of mileage out of) a host of dualities. Prince and subjects. Master and pupil. Cat and Dog. Sense and sensibility. Love the name of that poodle. There was also a phrase I wanted to quote but I've got to get to work. Maybe later.

I have started but only just. I am finding the whole book amazingly funny; I just wish I didn't have so much required reading right now. It is getting in the way of fun reading of which I am desperately in need at the moment.

My 1904 Hoffman edition arrived, these are the illustrations that form the starting and finishing pages of the Murr volume.

As I get more into it there seems to be more connection between the two parts - not that they overlap but that Kreisler being in similar positions relative to the rest of the world. But I'm most curious about Master Abraham.

Thanks for sharing! Great to see Kreisler too.

The Kreisler scenes should be put on the screen by Tim Burton ( first choice ) or Terry Gillian ( second choice ). TG made the movies Baron von Munchhausen and Brothers Grimm which seem to fit the weird humor of ETA Hoffmann.
But the general weirdness would better suit Tim Burton

I agree with the Tim Burton, Mackie. He would be just right.
Pim, how fantastic! thanks for sharing!
Solla, please tell us more!!!!!

Enrique, I will try to put something together over the next few days.

And would Johnny Depp make a great feline or what?

Yes, And if Johnny Depp plays Murr, My cat is interested in playing the part of Murr's sweetheart Kitty. By the way, my cat's name is Kitty, her choice not mine (I wanted to name her something exotic like Astarte). TM is Kitty's favorite book and she is currently working dilligently, for a cat, on a screenplay adaptation. Unfortunately her penmanship is not the best and I can't read a word of it. Of her singing I will say nothing for I fear her claws.

Charming illustrations Pim. Thankyou.

Accoding to TS Eliot your cat can have three names !
So you are ok with Kitty - Astarte and that ineffable effable, Effanineffable, Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

The Naming of Cats

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

love it. thanks for sharing that, Mackie! David, beware those claws!

So where are we all? I have been considering the role of the Eternal Powers, which the narrator of the Kreisler sections mentions frequently:

the Eternal Powers may be trusted to put everyone in the right place at the right time.

I see that as quite ironic, given the highly fragmentary and disordered state of the K sections, especially when these are contrasted with the more ordered and linear Murr sections. Are the Eternal Powers a symbol for the editor of the book, the Origin of the Narrative, the Creator, what Milton would call the Great Author, and who is in fact Hoffmann himself? What say ye?

Here is a summary of part two, which I assume most people are on now. Like part one, part two has 5 sections of each story, starting with Murr's. I hope the summary shows some of the interconnections between the two parts: the fire, Chiara and Murr in the box. If anyone can see others, please let us know.

Part two: My youthful experiences

Murr:
1. M runs away and has his first adventure and meets Ponto on the street.
2. Ponto elicits a sausage from a sausage seller and Murr learns about the guile of friendship. The story of Formosus and Walter provides further lessons.
3. The fire, Murr is locked into a basket, and comes under threat from the Professor of Aestheitcs and his coriens, rescued just in time by MA.
4. Murr’s meditations on his greatness and posterity. He meets Kitty and woos her, suffering the pangs of love.
5. Kitty and Murr perform numerous Duets, but Murr confesses himself bored by her. Muzius enters the story and tells Murr of Kitty’s other lover. Murr attacks the other tomcat and suffers humiliating defeat. He turns to the arts and sciences as consolation and distraction.

Kreisler:
1. The narrative provenance of the previous section is explained: ‘reported directly’. The editor then projects to clear up two mysteries: how MA came to be involved with K’s family, and what caused K to leave the court of I the first time. Master Abraham is introduced to K as a young boy and becomes his teacher. As for the second mystery, there is not enough information in the sources, but it has much to do with the invasion of Prussia by Napoleon.
2. Conversation between Prince Irineus and MA about K, MA plans to find his friend and former pupil a post as Kapellmeister in S. Meanwhile, K and Julia are making music together at an evening party. K and Princess H share some strange moments, and the Princess becomes more animated and hysterical.
3. Music lesson with K and PH. PH unburdens herself and tells the story of her love for the painter Ettlinger, who goes insane. K is the double of E, which is why K terrifies PH so much. The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the Crown Prince Ignatius, with a broken cup in his hand. Prince Hector arrives, striking up immediate Enmity with K. K goes for a walk in the park at dusk and sees his Doppelganger Ettlinger reflected in the lake. A storm is brewing. Meeting between MA and K in the fisherman’s cottage. MA explains the optical trickes behind the appearance of the doppelganger. MA tells the story of the Invisible Girl, Chiara, who like Murr, is kept in a box.
4. Prince Hector’s back story, and the reasons for his visit to S: to woo PH. Hedwiga is still acting strangely and hysterically, and faints at the ball to celebrate the arrival of Hector. She spurns Hector who leaves in a huff. Madame Benzon and Julia talk about Julia’s dread around Hector. She misses K and is in love with him. Julia and Hedwiga go to evening mass and hear K’s music performed there. After wards, Hedwiga feels faint and sits down on a bench. The mysterious old woman who appears and heals her.
5. A calm before the storm. K and MA are talking. They both distrust Hector. K decides to challenge H to a duel, but MA cautions guile. Out walking in the forest, K encounters H and J talking on the bridge and observes them through a telescope. H leads J to the fishermans’ cottage, and K follws them, convinced that H is up to no good. He rescues J from H’s evil intentions. The perform a duet in the cottage. K shows a portrait to H, who reacts very violently to I, and leaves immediately. Madame B runs in and wants to know what’s happening and why H has suddenly left. K walks through the forest and a shot rings out. K disappears from S, and from the narrative for a while. I fear the worst....

For how can I help noticing that everywhere I am alone, as if in the most desolate wilderness, that I am not of this present age, no, but of a future and more cultured era, since there's not a soul alive who can appreciate me properly?

btw, Does it show that I dearly love this book? Murr is so funny.

thanks Tomcat for your help;

Kreisler point 3 : The Doppelganger is a subject which seems to have fascinated Hoffman. This fascination was triggered by his friendship with Chamisso ( author of Peter Schlemihl ,the man without shadow ).
I suggest that both Murr and Kreisler are doubles of Hoffman and the whole book should be understood as a play with ( distorted ) mirrors.
Hoffman was indeed a multi faceted man. In the vincinity of 13 year old Julia Marc, the great Musician probably felt like a Tomcat himself.

lol
all excellent points, I agree wholeheartedly. And thanks for the biographical information. Do you have a biography of Hoffmann in English, Mackie?

No unfortunately. I have some french pages in an old paperback : )

I have to work with snippets gathered left and right.

Who didn't laugh out loud at "Gloss?"

Biography

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hoffman.htm

http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/hoffmann.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._A._Hoffmann

http://www.littlebluelight.com/intro.php?ikey=9

To me, the Murr part seems more modern, while the Kreisler story had an old fashioned air to me with all that emotionality hanging around, and women's "virtue" imperiled by men.

The cat part seems more tongue in cheek - the funeral speech given for Muzius the cat is the most obvious. The idea of genius in the cat has to do with reason and learning, while in Kreisler it is much more of an emotional/mystical sensitivity.

In the Kreiser part I don't feel so much the underlying commentary on what is being presented (well, not on what is being presented about Kreisler, there is a lot of jibes about other things) - maybe that is just because it is not Kreisler claiming to be a genius, but others claiming it about him.

I'm expecting Master Abraham to be a synthesis of these two sorts of genius.

By the way, I totally missed it that Julia was only 13. I had her pictured as at least 16.

Does anybody think that a book such as this would be publishable today?

Yes, I agree, Solla. The three main characters Kreisler, MA and Murr are all mirror images of each other. I'm wondering, though, if it's just me, or have others picked up on this, that the Master Abraham of the Murr sections seems to be a different character from the Master Abraham of the Kreisler sections, in much the same way that Odysseus in the Iliad is a different character from the Odysseus of the Odyssey.

I'm also having problems with the chronology. MA offers Murr to Kreisler at the start, and K accepts him, but, then Murr appears to be living with MA not K. Are the events described in Murr's section before or after the events described in the K sections? it's all a bit confusing. Who is the mysterious narrator of the K part, and who is the mysterious woman in the park?

The funeral oration made me laugh out loud, and yes, so did 'Gloss'. I love Murr's verse, it's so utterly bad.

solla, (why) do you think it would not be published today? It seems such an incredibly modern book to me, with all the structural games and references.

i have to work with snippets gathered left and right. just like the narrator of the K sections! Wow! Mackie, are you the mysterious narrator?

Thanks for those links.

i was comfortable with the action around the Abbey: the relaxed lead monk, and the Malvolio or Antonio (Measure for Measure) monk waiting in the wings to stomp out any pleasure. K thought fleetingly about retiring to the holy life, but refrained in the end. What ever the end was. there was ever the tension between the life of the artist, and the comfortable life of the Philistine. there is little doubt that Hoffmann faced the horns of this dill-emma everyday of his adult life.

Yes Tomcat, I am constantly recreating the books I read. Mingling them, reshaking, restructuring. Yesterday i was reading the Master & Margarita, today it is the master and Julia ? 13 year old girls ? JUUUUU-LIIII-AAAA or LOOO-LIIII-TAAA.

Yes Sola, the real Julia was 13 when dear old ETA was madly in love with her.

favourite quotes :

Love is found in every byway
The more culture, the less freedom
Morality whipped into them

BTW I loved following sentence in the Lectern:

"the reforms of Peter the Great in the 17th century, which had dragged the country virtually kicking and screaming out of Medievalism into the Early Modern Age"

Thanks for that one Tomcat

You're welcome Mackie!

Also, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet was 13, just occurs to me.

The more culture the less freedom. Now that is provoking!

Well done, Poor, for spotting the Antonio reference, I missed that one. It's amazing how the spirit of Shakespeare hovers over this book, especially As you Like It, the most pastoral and sunny of Shax's comedies. and I agree with you about Hoffmann's double life.

BTW, can I refer readers to Mackie's blog, where there is a lovely picture of the statue of ETA and Murr.

57> Murr, L.T., Jeremy Adler speaks to the chronology of the two narratives in his Introduction to the Penguin edition.

The structure of the novel plays fickle games with time. The Murr action lasts only a few months and occurs chronologically in the interval between the first and last Kreisler chapters. The Kreisler narrative reverses time. Chronologically, the first Kreisler fragment in the novel actually follows the last: at the end, Master Abraham invites Kreisler to the celebrations he describes at the beginning. The Murr autobiography fills the time span between Master Abraham inviting Kreisler and Kreisler's arrival. Murr offers a linear story, the Kreisler plot has a circular structure.

I'm enjoying the read, it goes quite fast. I'll have to sandwich in As You Like It sometime soon.

13 was the age of majority in ancient times and in parts of the US only partially touched by modernity. I think Nabokov lived in one of those parts, in the US or elsewhere.

Just came across this link to MIT Open Courseware on nonlinear narrative, connection to Nabokov, Pale Fire etc.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-Studies/21W-765JSpring2004/Read...

I tought the MIT gave only MATH

Class looks awesome.

#57 - It seems like the beginning Kreisler part is actually chronologically later. I was wondering, too, who was narrating that first section. At first I thought it was Master Abraham, because he was talking to the Prince, who then addressed Master Abraham by name, but then later, it uses Master Abraham in the third person.

M.A. does seem to be more on an even keel in his sections with the cat.

Dear tomcatmurr, I was so delighted to find a person with this name. A French Swiss/Jordanian friend lent me this book in French last year and I loved it. The funniest book I have read for years. I've bought the English edition now but haven't started reading it. I'm following your readers' discussion with interest. I want to find Macumbeira's blog to see the picture of ETA and Murr that you refer to.

Here you go, gossypia... http://www.macumbeira-macumbeira.blogspot.com/ We love our Big Macumbeira!

Won't you consider joining the salon too?

...although cats of tolerable education may be equipped in other respects with the best of capacities, such as a bloodthirsty disposition, an instinct for thieving, rascally behavior and so forth, they have no sense of direction at all, and having once run away can never find their way home...

Tomcat?

A vile calumny! Everyone knows cats are endowed with perfect directional sense. History is full of incidents of cats who have returned home after years of wandering: a cat named Odysseus being only one example.

I refer you to chapter 2 of the Tiger in the House for a more realistic view of the traits of cats.

As for the other qualities attributed to cats in the extract, Slick, I spurn them: they are vicious lies put about by my enemies, who are legion.

I am suffering and dragging myself through the book.

Are you not enjoying it, Mackie?

I am at the beginning of Part 2
The Murr parts are still ok, but the Kreisler stuff is boring

but I ain't quitting

But, but, what about poor lovestruck Hedwig?

Hey Mac, please don't tell me it's as bad as Ulysses. Say it ain't so Mac!

Blasphemy ?....

Probably I am still dog tired after Mount Ulysses...

After the Himalaya, even an ant anthill exhausts you

and I have been rewriting my review of Bulgakov and I have been pondering over this Doppelganger theme of Hoffman and I have received two new books which i would rather read an I am boggled by this unfinished Capote novel Answered prayers and and and....

#78 - is that the one with Handcarved Coffins?

Oh good. I thought I was the only person around here who hated Ulysses.

I absolutely love TM and Hoffman. The Murr sections are the most fun, but I am enjoying the Kreisler sections as well. Jeremy Adler's brilliant introduction and Althea Bell's fascinating footnotes are both indispensable. I am still moving very slowly through the book, and rereading parts, while reading other things. I'm taking my time and have only just started part 2. I will try to catch up over the weekend.

Speaking of M&M, I wonder if Behemoth is a descendant of Murr?

And thank blessed Fate that I'm not alone in my loathing of Ulysses! Thank you, DavidX, for standing stalwart witn me against those despicable sods who'd dare posit that the great fraud of Ulysses dare share the same breadth and depth and sublime scope of...of something good and worth reading!

I've said it once and I'll say it many times again until the academian ingrates get it: Life is too short to read that awful Ulysses (and Finnegan's Wake)!

But do read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

DavidX, do please solicit other Ulysses Haters to join the salon, won't you?

No, I will not read Dubliners or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, EVER, and you can't make me. I want the precious hours I wasted on Ulysses back and James Joyce's name erased from history.

***Bravo, Mr. X***

Joyce? Who's Joyce?

Oh God forgive them , they don't know what they are saying

And google is forever. Its a stain that will never wash.

79 : no, handcarved coffins is not one of the chapters of the lost book.
See the Wikipedia article on "Answered prayers" It seems that the lost chapters of Truman Capote will remain a mystery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Y5niAuE6Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfUZ32q8Qc&feature=related

some cool cats

80-83> There's another thread already for those who need to cry on each other's shoulders, If You Loathe Ulysses Like Me, Hate On It Here. Thanks, hottie, for being so prescient!

Hoffman gives lie to the false appellation of Ulysses as postmodernist. It belongs truly to the Romantic genre, a brother to Tomcat Murr, even to the meow.

With all the time that has passed, I wonder why no editor has corrected the original publisher's error in convolving the two stories. Surely the worth of the work does not hang on this single conceit. Oh well, perhaps some literary critic will take it in hand.

The way Hoffman leaves things hanging at the end of LOTM is evocative of Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Though Pynchon had an artistic reason and Hoffman did not. So here the postmodern and Romantic perhaps do not convolve. In an illuminating aside, Jacques Offenbach shared Hoffman's unfinished approach when he died before completing the opera, Tales of Hoffman.

ETA fixups to link.

Thanks Wilf! I totally forgot about that thread! Thank's for the reminder! Also, since you mention it, here's a link to a group that's way better than this silly salon (and a lot less crowded too)...

http://www.librarything.com/groups/ihateulyssesdontyout

Thanks for joining my group, DavidXXXOOOO And thanks for that lovely message too! I like you.

Let's go over to that thread Wilf mentioned so we can...talk, just you and me...

Thanks EnriqueFreeque! I will join in. I felt like Macumbeira in the beginning - I kept skipping the Kreisler bits until later. You know what I like, the bit where he 's given a herring .. but maybe people haven't got there yet. Should I wait?

I have been reading the Sandman by Hoffman this weekend.It is so weird that Freud spent a whole study on it.

>84 Macumbeira: *making the sign of the cross* Impenitentia ulyssia Impeneterabilis tuis.

There. You are all forgiven.

>67 gossypia: Gossypia, welcome! It's so nice to meet another admirer of LOTM.

>62 WilfGehlen: Wilf, thanks for the quote from the introduction. I have not read the introduction yet. I usually leave them till last, as I don't want my reading to be coloured by someone else's interpretation.

I finished the book last night, and was struck by the circularity of the story. Finishing the last Kreisler section, whcih mentions the impending Princess's name day celebrations, I turned back immediately to the first Kreisler section to see how it follows the last section by describing the celebrations. This leads me to conclude that the 'unfinished' nature of the book is a fiction. It is in fact highly finished and not at all interrupted by death. The last Kreisler section wraps up all the loose ends in the story, in a very subtle way, and then loops back to the first Kreisler section. The last Murr section is the only Murr section in the whole book that is not interrupted mid sentence, and ends at the end of a sentence.

>88 WilfGehlen: Wilf, I'm wondering whether the whole book is structured on a musical analogy. Hoffmann was a musician and a musicologist, and it strikes me that the way the two stories interweave, and the way themes and incidents echo each other is rather like a fugal counterpoint. Or a cannon, which goes on and on in a circular fashion and can (only) be stopped at an arbitrary point, like death. To separate the two stories would only give us half the vision.

I'm sorry to hear that you are not enjoying the Kreisler sections, Mackie. Their fragmentary nature is hard going, I admit, but ultimately worth it, I think.

the most wonderful divine miracles occur in the mind of man himself, and he must proclaim these miracles aloud as best he may, in words, musical notes, or colours. This is very fine, imo.

"This leads me to conclude that the 'unfinished' nature of the book is a fiction."

I think that is correct. Nothing is as it seems in this book. Everything is suspicious, a sham, done with mirrors or something like Master Abraham's entertainments at the name day celebrations.

In his opening line Murr quotes Goethe's Egmont reflecting in prison before his death, "Oh thou sweet habit of existence". It's an odd quote to use while ruminating about his birth.

Here is the full quote from Egmont

Sweet life! Sweet, pleasant habitude of existence and of activity! from thee must I part! So calmly part! Not in the tumult of battle, amid the din of arms, the excitement of the fray, dost thou send me a hasty farewell; thine is no hurried leave; thou dost not abridge the moment of separation. Once more let me clasp thy hand, gaze once more into thine eyes, feel with keen emotion, thy beauty and thy worth, then resolutely tear myself away, and say;—depart!

Egmont continues:

Young friend, whom by a strange fatality, at the same moment, I both win and lose, who dost feel for me, who dost suffer for me the agonies of death,—look on me;—thou wilt not lose me. If my life was a mirror in which thou didst love to contemplate thyself, so be also my death. Men are not together only when in each other's presence;—the distant, the departed, also live for us. I shall live for thee, and for myself I have lived long enough. I have enjoyed each day; each day, I have performed, with prompt activity, the duties enjoined by my conscience. Now my life ends, as it might have ended, long, long, ago, on the sands of Gravelines. I shall cease to live; but I have lived. My friend, follow in my steps, lead a cheerful and a joyous life, and dread not the approach of death.

I think Hoffman planned the 'unfinished' manuscript as a posthumous joke. Tomcat Murr was his magnum opus written in the last two years of his life. It seems a carefully planned and executed masterwork to me, as sublime as the barcarolle from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman.

Egmont on gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1945/1945-h/1945-h.htm

Les contes d'Hoffman - Barcarolle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEiZ-J97O5A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1AL8SAmWeQ

Everything is suspicious, a sham, done with mirrors or something like Master Abraham's entertainments at the name day celebrations.

Yes, I agree totally, and Master Abraham's conjuring tricks, in which magic and physics merge, are an excellent metaphor for the structure of the book. Your forensic investigation and analysis of the Egmont quote (wonderful stuff!) only confirms the circularity of the book: "In my beginning is my end", Hoffmann/Murr seems to be saying.

Loved the Offenbach links!

Wilf: I think Pynchon and the other great American post-modernists are very Hoffmannesque in their narrative structures, I agree. Calvino and Nabakov are other writers who spring to mind that do similar things with narration.

Here are a couple of cool cats for Poor-ious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpO5xIltlyU&feature=fvw

LOTR and CL49.

To connect the two/ Borders on hilarious./ I think it a waste.

ETA corrections to hyperlink.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4FEn-ZKdDg

some big cats for the Tom-Cat.

Vladimir Nabokov had a cats approach to time, ask a real cat for the time of day and for your effort you'll get the Hillsborough treatment cat style. Or what Hal answered Falstaff when the Fat Knight was so impertinent to ask that annoying question.

90...oh no, feel free to expound on the herring. No need to wait. Do know I'd send you, gossypia, an invite to this group, but unfortunately, try as I've tried, I can't. My sending an invite out to anyone is impossible now since I left the group way back when as a gag. Let this be an object lesson to all of you future group-formers to the natural consequences of leaving your own group. See, when you form a group, and then leave it, you cannot reenter it. LT won't let you - it's a quirk in the system. Believe me, I've tried to get back in. But I'm still stuck outside. And worse, if you're not a member of the group, you can't send out an invite to the group. So, while I still participate in the group, I can't technically be a "member" of the group nor invite anyone to join the damn group. Serve's me right, I suppose. Joke's ultimately on me.

So, would someone be so kind as to send gossypia an invite to the salon since LT won't let me?

Or, perhaps this could be construed as an informal invite: "I thought you might be interested in this group". I'm very, very upset by this. How am I supposed to recruit new members when I'm not even a member myself? Does any of this tie in to E.T.A. Hoffmann?

97: Can't you use the EnriqueResurrected handle to do it?

98...but of course! Duhhhhh!

Well, er, the herring...(If I may assume the invite you tried to send me EnriqueFreeque) I love the touching reunion with Murr's mother and her reminiscences about his father and then his concern when he notices her hunger but when he takes the herring out from under the stove he can't help suddenly devouring it. Then he spends ages racking himself with guilt and soliloquizing on and on and never mentions his mother again! I was rolling around laughing at this and nearly crying for the mother - perhaps she starved to death.

I think I get a bit too involved sometimes

Appetite, thy name is Cat!

Hah! Cat, thy name is Appetite!

Tomcat Murr's confidence in his own genius reminds me of this syndrome that I have recently heard of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.

However, I can't help but feel that his self-confidence, wrong as it is, is adorable and if I were a female cat I would probably be smitten. :)

Those conclusions always struck me as a bit redundant. They're more like elaborations of the definition of incompetence!

The question is about being self-aware while incompetent. For example, I am perfectly aware how bad I am at strategy games such as Chess. I don't have, on top of my lack of skill, an idea that I am skilled.

So incompetence + obliviousness = double incompetence. :)

97. Many years ago, two friends and I formed a secret society called The Bad Mood Guys Club. The club was so exclusive that there were no members, not even ourselves, the founders, were members.

The Bad Mood Guys Club motto:

All men are weasely dogs and we hate them.

104. The Dunning-Kruger effect sounds like complete rubbish to me, like psychology in general.

I think Tomcat Murr is a genuine genius. I find his self confidence and intellectual courage very inspiring and yes, adorable.

I can really relate to TM because I am also a genius. My mother said so.

Stop laughing or I'll have my kitty come over there scratch your eye's out.

106. I have noticed that most chess enthusiasts are complete nobs, to use a jungian term.

107: I am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I had better stop checking LibraryThing at work, raucous laughter not being suitable to the cubicle hell in which I am ensconced....

106: You are competent enough to recognize your limitations re: strategy games. You may not be competent enough to win against, say, a dwarf chess master imprisoned in a chess playing "robot" (bringing it back to Tom and the Jerrys). You may be competent enough to enjoy them all the same!

I remember a recent reference to the DK effect (in essence, if not by name) where it was applied to a certain governator from AK who wanted to be VP of the US.

This appetite thing of Murr's reminds me of Sally Rand's sudo-philosophy, Objectionable-ism. Murr is unapologetic, his needs come before his starving mother's. She probably got along ok, or we would have seen her body in the basement. I wonder if they have a Hoffmann wing at the Institute.

Hey there, 111 & 112

I tried leaving you a message at your profile page but you apparently have your messages turned off.
I'd prefer to handle this privately but you've left me no alternative to go public with this simple request. First, could you please be kind enough to delete your posts; the ones which make fun of jjskye?

Secondly, I don't want to have to be a snitch and tattle on you to Tim Spalding, but listen, I will if you continue this course in the salon. You may think what you're doing in the salon is funny, but, Friend, whoever you are, trust me, it's not funny. It's tired and it's old. Maybe the first time was funny, a little, but enough's enough, okay? Please please don't make me go over your head and get Tim Spalding involved in getting you to stop posting. I'm asking you, politely, please stop the mockery of jjskye right now. I've received three private complaints about your post so far - the feedback I'm getting is that what you're doing is meanspirited, unkind, and unfair, and it needs to stop. And, personally, I agree with the feedback, for what it's worth. You may think you're funny, but you're offending people, so please cut it out.

Thanks for your (I'm hoping) impending cooperation.

Brent

wow the things that go on around here when I am asleep!

Davushka, I want to join your club, or at least receive the newsletter as well.

104. The Dunning-Kruger effect sounds like complete rubbish to me, like psychology in general. I agree. Talk about stating the totally obvious.

I'm not so sure that the tomcat is incompetent. After all, he has learnt to read and write and has written his autobiography, along with the other works mentioned on p.27. and he is a cat with ungovernable instincts, hence the herring incident. But I agree with you that his puffing of his own genius is totally charming.

I think Hoffmann uses the cat to poke fun of the way we are all the centre of our own worlds. As we grow up we learn that this is not so, and we learn to compromise with the realities of other peoples lives (our 'education' in the Rousseau/Henry Adams/Flaubert sense) and to balance our natural egoism with the demands of society. Murr doesn't do this, he remains very self-centred, which is perhaps what we secretly would like to be: He speaks the true language of our inmost thoughts . The two Author's prefaces sum this up nicely. And I agree with Wilf, silly Sally Rand's Objectionable-ism (love it!) is another (charmless) parallel to the egoism of the cat.

Poor, love the lions!

Hello, everyone. Rather than posting on the site I'm afraid I've been working away on a sort of playground for the book. Please take a look at http://thecat.bootstraps.net/. The idea is to be kind of like those colorforms that kids get where they can arrange people and things on a page. Click on the button at the bottom of the page to get an idea.

You can click on the shapes on the right to get them on the page and then drag them around to place them. There's also a toolbar to let you change the size, rotate etc. If you hover over a shape you'll see Spanish. If you drag, you see English. I know German would be better but I haven't gotten to it. What I've added for this one is that you can have more than one screen, and write text on each page.

If you come up with something you'd like to keep or share, there is a stories menu from which you can select - Get Story Data - which gives you some xml (kind of like html, but you define the tags yourself, or, in this case, I did). You can save this, or share it, and it can be used to recreate a story (stories menu - set story data). You can also tell me if you'd like and I can add a button to show your work.

One caveat, though, Library thing things the xml is html that it doesn't understand, so it doesn't show it if you add it to a message. So, there is another option - get story data html encoded. If you paste this into a library thing message it will wind up looking the way it is supposed to.

I hope this isn't overly technical, so please don't be put off, and just go play around with it.

115: I am going to hurry home tonight and commandeer the computer so I can play with your game.

Rambling thoughts on Tomcat Murr:

I am still adoring this book and reading it much slower than I normally read in order to make it last longer.

The parodies with which the narrative is saturated are humorous and light, as opposed to the fierce nasty kind like some baroque spanish poetry I had to read in college.

Hoffman's funny style (in both Kreisler and Murr sections) also reminds me of the chapter of Ulysses that seemed entirely made up of parodies of other styles (Oxen of the Sun) except that it isn't nearly so disjointed (Oxen of the Sun was frustrating for me because i was just getting into a style and finding it funny when he would abruptly switch gears).

The chapter on Murr's joining the feline fraternity is completely wonderful and reminds me of adventure stories like The Prisoner of Zenda.

And thanks for the Jackson Browne quote too, Solla! Don't get me started talking Jackson Browne now, especially not how great Late For The Sky is. Don't do it! Did you know that the title song was featured in Taxi Driver?

And The Pretender - what an awesome lyric and awesome song - was featured in Mr. Holland's Opus. Please don't get me started....

118: Mr. Holland's Opus was filmed at my high school shortly after I had graduated.

Anna, I hope you create a "story" too. I was torn between getting the thing up and coming up with something witty. It all took much longer than I thought, so I just put it up.

Brent, Hopefully this won't get you started, but I am a Jackson Browne fan also, and, I recently discovered that our public library actually has a lot of cds. The only drawback is that you can't browse them all online, or, at least I haven't figured it out. You have to look by name of author(artist). They have Jackson Browne, and even, Dar Williams who I discovered on last.fm and hadn't heard of before. My latest favorite is Mary Gauthier, who is from Louisiana, not a blues singer, but in that direction. I have only heard Mercy Now on the regular radio stations. I think I got her off last.fm as well.

In the course of looking for cat images I found that there was actually a book called, "Why Cats Paint."

The farther I get the more convinced I am that there was a real Tomcat Murr, just as Hoffman has given Kreisler so many parallels to his own life, per the endnotes from Bell in the Penguin edition. Another (and not exclusive) possibility is that the two stories are different images of the same events, offering a very different POV for the same events with Master A. as the hinge connecting the two images. That seems less likely and I'm not much more than halfway so...

if all characters in the book "Murr", represent one aspect of Hoffman the Artist, then the Tomcat represents the selfconfidence the artist ( writer or musician ) needs to get into the open with his creation. Cats are by definition self-confident and tomcat Murr fits perfectly

Such a character would become annoying after a few pages but it is the genius of Hoffmann to exagerate this selfconfidence to such a point it becomes funny and cute ( You know like little kids bragging, they are funny )

The more relaxed part of the Tomcat gives an additional advantage to work as a funny intermezzo between more difficult parts.

Berlin, 30 Nov. 1821

In the night of 29-30 Nov. my beloved ward, Tomcat Murr, passed over to a better life after a brief but severe illness in the fourth year of his promising life, of which I most humbly notify his well-disposed patrons and friends. Whoever knew that departed youth will find my deep sorrow justifiable and will honor it with silence
Hoffmann

From one of ETA's letters some time before the cat's passing:

To Speyer in Bamberg

Dearest friend
1 May 1820

I suppose that now and then you take notice of my literary activities! I recommend to you the wisest and most profound Tomcat Murr, who right now lies near me on a small, upholstered chair. He seems to give himself up to the most extraordinary thoughts and fantasies, for he purrs a great deal. I raised this REAL tomcat of great beauty (his striking likeness is on the cover of his book), and of even greater intelligence, and he gave me the impetus to the farcial thread that runs through the actually very serious book. Incidentally, the publishers now pay me fees the very mention of which would make Herr Kunz drop down in a faint . . .

123 and 124: Purrrrr! Thanks for these wonderful, endearing quotes - they made my afternoon.

Hey Brent, did you imagine that we'd have book-inspired "write your own adventure" games and conversations with ETA hoffman when you started up the Salon Littéraire? I am so grateful to be here, you guys.

Not in a million years Anna! This group has gone places beyond my wildest imaginings. Who'd of ever thought that sane people would actually purposely set out to read Ulysses? It was sort of a jest, actually, and now look at!

And it's been (this is difficult to address) very healing for me, actually. Allow me to take a moment and be quite candid. See, there was once a time not too long ago, here in LT, that I had big plans for another group ~ http://www.librarything.com/groups/transvestitesforchri#forums ~ but, for whatever reason, people stopped posting, and it was a very very sad and dark day for me when the truth finally hit the fan. Eternally grateful, makifat!

God, I miss my tranny so much. I really really miss it. My tranny's so lonely now; isolated, alienated from all but a few who've remained faithful for so many dreary, lonely months. So sad. Hardly anyone ever shows up there anymore. It's just not right. But what can you do? Just move on.

And so here we are. And, yes, thankfully, good fun smart people like you, Anna, found us here (and we found you) - and everybody else out there, thank you for being you and for being so creative and intelligent and hilarious.

May our curls come out just right; may our stylings be a cut above the rest out there. Brave Salon Stylists (BSS) spread your hair gel through & through, snip with precision, trim with elan; may all our collective coifs return to us one hundred fold....

Yes, Hurrah for us! I love this group too. And I'm thrilled that so many people are reading and enjoying this delightful book.

slick, I think you're on to something with your description of Master Abraham as the hinge between the two narratives.

Poor, I love those quotes from Hoffmann's letters. Where did you find them?

Solla, I have looked at your online thingy, but I fess I am simply too much of a luddite to be able to play with it. Perhaps it's not loading properly (mac user here. should that make a difference?) Perhaps if I could see what other people have done with it.... I don't know, books are so much easier. just open the cover and read.....on the other hand I don't want to miss out on anything fabulous.

OMFG Trannys for Christ?

I joined immediately. THe whole concept I love IT!!!!!!!

Selected Letters of ETA Hoffmann
Ed. and trans. by Johanna C. Sahlin
Univ. Chicago Press 1977
p.313
p.291

wow! I want that book!
I must visit the university libraries here. I have been told that they are some of the best in Asia and that they are open to the public, but have never been to investigate.

Here is a rough summary of part three: notice that there are again 5 sections for each narrative.

Part three: My apprentice months

Murr:
1. Murr’s lovesickness. Muzius reenters the story and introduces the theme of philistinism.
2. A description of a philistine cat. Murr decides to join the Feline Fraternity. The initiation ceremony.
3. Murr’s colossal hangover. His further carousing with the fraternity. His encounter with the black tom. The duel. First editorial intervention in the Murr story: Murr is quoting AYLI.
4. The carousing of the fraternity is ended by the dog Achilles. Ponto reappears into the story. The professor of Aesthetics mentions again the educational experiment that he thinks MA is conducting on his cat. MA gives Murr some useful advice: dissemble your gifts.
5. The funeral of Muzius. Hinsman’s funeral oration. Murr encounters Mina and falls in love. Kitty tells him that Mina is Murr’s and Kitty's love child, and that Murr is lusting after his own daughter. Second editorial intervention: Murr is quoting Schlemihl

Kreisler:
1. Hedwiga’s catalepsy. The court physician posits a psychic cause and is rebuked by Princess Maria. Outside in the park, the Lord Marshal and the valet are sharing secrets. They bump into PI on his way back from visiting MA in the Fisherman’s cottage. Scene between Madame Benzon and MA. The narrator tells us that MB wants the union between Hedwiga and Hector to go ahead and is working towards that aim. She resents MA for challenging her control over the Prince and over the court. She informs MA that she blames Kreisler’s disappearance for Hedwiga’s condition. She warns him not to interfere.
2. A letter from K to MA in which he describes his murder of Hector’s assassin, his meeting with Brother Hilarius, and his arrival at the Abbey. MA’s back story, his love for organ building and the importance of music in his life. In the castle, the incident of Prince Ignatius and the bird execution.
3. Description of the Abbey and Abbot Chrysostom. K joins the Abbey as a lay brother and composes music for the monks. He dreams of Julia. Conversation between the Abbot and K. The Abbot tries to persuade K to join the Abbey permenantly. K refuses. Abbot mentions Ettlinger and warns K that he could share the same fate if he presumes to love a noblewoman. Is K in love with H or J?
4. Conversation between J and H. J confesses her love for K. H is still terrified of K. H tells J about the mysterious figure she has seen in the pavilion, and her encounter with the four Benedictine monks removing the body of the assassin. H tells Julia, that Hector is in fact after her, J. Very significant conversation between Madam B and Prince Irineus in which it is revealed that the P and MB were lovers who had a child called Angela, who was taken from her mother at birth and is now missing. It is also revealed that Chiara was kidnapped at the behest of the Prince. B warns him that MA might be out for revenge. It is also revealed in this conversation that MB is trying to marry off her daughter to Prince Ignatius. MB tells the prince that Hector left not because he was rejected by Hedwiga, but because of the quarrel with K. Julia in a walk through the park with her page encounters the mysterious figure from the pavillion again. She is very upset and turns to the piano to console herself, playing K’s compositions. Prince Hector makes a dramatic entrance and swears his love for her. They are disturbed by MB and the servants who hear noise.
5. K and the abbot are hanging a painting. They talk about the painting. Discussion about art and painting. K recognises the face of Hector as the murderer’s face in the picture. The abbot tells K that soon all will be made clear. Brother Hilarius tells K that soon the abbey will change as a new abbot is coming, a puritan. When the new abbot arrives, K recognises his face from the painting: the youth who saw the miracle.

Thanks Tomcat, these overviews are really usefull !

Glad to oblige Mackie!

It can be seen that in this part the K sections are more linear and chronologically organised than in the previous two parts. Which is just as well, I think, as the plot starts to get very complex.

I particularly enjoyed this nugget of wisdom from Murr, about the use of poetry in a prose work:

Verses in a book of prose should serve the same function as bacon in a sausage, that is they should be scattered about in little bits here and there, lending the entire mixture a greasier gleam, a more deliciously sweet flavour.

: )

I am getting more and more fascinated by Hoffmann.
The guy was a Genius. I have to get the book poor-ious mentions

part 2 k 3 is pivotal.
Kreisler meets his Lunatic double Ettlinger which scares the hell out of him.
This character stands for the asocial excesses of the Artist; Weird behaviour is not uncommon in geniuses( I think )

makes me think about the line in TS eliot Waste land :" But who is that, on the other side of you ?"

yes indeed, or this from Auden: All we are not stares back at what we are.

I think this section had a big impact on Dostoevsky, especially on The Double

superb !
another insert in my quotation book

Miss Twinkleton is not an artist but turns more interesting by night. She attends to the scandalous town gossip and basks in the memory of a far-off 'homage of the heart' revealed by a certain gentleman in Tunbridge Wells.
In THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, 1870, of course.

Nabokov writes with his old white borzoi? asleep at his feet.
As to his belief in Tom-cats: Hoping to provoke a little salutary chill,- I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more.

Great idea Mac! You've got my thumbs!

I have to find where I put my thumbs.

The bad news: You're all BUSTED!

The good news: My silence can be bought.

#127 - it might make a difference. Unfortunately I don't have a Mac to check it out. It could be that browser differences would make it impossible to load the story by pressing the button at the bottom. Do you see anything on the page, like a scrollbar with a lot of things in it to the right? If you do just click on them. I'll try to look into a Mac Emulator.

More good news: Maki is a cheap tart who can easily be bought with a fish head and a glass of Whiskey.

I don't have thumbs, but I like the idea of creating a Hoffmann buzz very much. Let's aim for global domination.

As Murr progresses , the book gets better and better

148
You had me at glass of Whiskey.

If you wonder if one opinion can make a difference in a global reputation of someone else, I strongly advice you to read " Captain Scott" by Ralph Fiennes ( yes the brother of the actor )

Mac, have you been drinking Maki's whiskey? What the hell does Mansfield Park have to do with anything here at the moment? Are you not reading Tomcat Murr? I don't care if Mansfield Park has 32 votes, I have 36 thumbs!

Obviously you need a whiskey too....

Hi Macumbeera!

I have enough whiskey for us all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TehFZ38kt6o

Whiskey in a jar?

Aye, I'll give ye streams of whiskey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaHMG_SvUkw&feature=related

And another for my one true love, "the measure of my dreams..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQtAFpEmK8

Rye whiskey Rye whiskey
if the sea was full of whiskey
and I was a duck
I would dive to the bottom
and never come up

Damn it Mac! It's past me bedtime. You win!

157
if a tree don't fall on me
I'll live 'til I die

I am erasing my post on Hoffmania.
Enrique, it is up to you now to unleash your 36 thumbs,
who posts the first review ?

Great Pogues links, Maki - great band many forget.

Mac, I think you're probably chomping at the bit here (and it was your idea) so why doesn't the salon begin with your review. So, post it, let the group know when its posted, and within 24 hours I promise you you'll (and more importantly, Hoffmann) be famous.

Nobody else should post a Hoffmann review until Mac's had his full run - I think each review is at least worthy of a one week run at the top of the charts don't all of you?

Who wants to go after Mac? Call "shotgun" and you'll be up front in the passenger seat awaiting the checkered flags.

I think mine will be ready by then.

Go Mackie go! * Chorus of Kittens in Tutus with HUGE pompoms* Rah Rah Rah!

What a great idea! It will be very interesting to see the different angles everyones takes with Hoffman and TM. There are so many possibilities.

one problem: I read very slowly - allt hese big words bother me- I am only now finishing part 2. It can still take two more weeks before I am ready to post something.

No worries, Mac. Is anyone finished with Tomcat Murr who's jonesing to write a review? Do let us know and a off we go....

I am nowhere near finished Mac. I am reading a little at a time. Also, I take forever to write anything. Relax and take your time.

Yes, no rush. Savour it.

No No No, this is way too funny, this can't be postponed. I'll finish reviewing part 1 and then post it somewhere next week. But if anyone is ready, just go for it, i'll back you up. Hoffmania will be the new fashion !

Enrique, please insist on following dresscode for "le salon"

http://www.costumes.org/Classes/fashiondress/FrenchRevolution.htm

LOL Love that link!!!!

I have been playing with tying regency neckties all evening. Not only are they difficult to put on, but they are also very difficult to take off, and the risk of STRANGULATION is very high. No wonder gentlemen had valets. I am now wearing a translucent frock a la Grec and it looks marvelous on me. Just my colour. What is everyone else wearing?

Mac's link reminded me of some research I did recently. French fashion in the late 18th century swung briefly towards the diaphanous. This trend arrived somewhat later in Russia, in time for Helene in War and Peace to attend the opera with both her assets on display.

Too risque for most,/ Ideal for a cross-dressed host?/ Let's hear the riposte.

Murr, what species would you have for a valet? A poodle, no?

Far too clumsy, Wilf. A poodle would dip his ears in my chocolate flavoured vodka and scatter the whist cards with his tail. No, i think it would have to be a human. They have thumbs, which are an indispensible necessity for tying neckties, as I have discovered through my own experience.

More on Regency neckties:

The Trone d’Amour is the most austere after the Oriental Tie. It must be extremely well stiffened with starch. It is formed by one single horizontal dent in the middle. Colour: Yeux de fille en extase.

I kid you not:
Colour: Yeux de fille en extase.

http://www.jasa.net.au/images/neckclth.gif

Enrique, I think you should insist that everyone in the salon wears a regency necktie.

Ok, here's a game (You can tell Hoffmann is driving me nuts this evening. It's pouring with rain and extremely hot here.)

Invent your own tie description using the template below and the example above.

The Italics is the most ..... after the .. It must be ............ It is formed by .. Colour: Italics

So many fine choices for new logo attire, so little time. Let's collaborate. I love Wilf's idea of possibly involving a poor, lonely, alienated tranny in the early 19th century high couture mix.

Murr, just a fly-by thought association:

I think Hoffmann uses the cat to poke fun of the way we are all the centre of our own worlds.

All of a sudden I remembered a lovely strange book, by Andrei Bely (Russian symbolist and all-around oddball, Petersburg is probably most widely available in English): Kotik Letaev. Or, literally, "Little Tomcat Letaev". It's a memoir told in first person by a three-year old boy (or maybe five year old, I forget). Who is possibly more "the centre of his own world"?

I haven't finished Hoffmann and I barely remember Kotik, but it seems to me odds are good that Bely nodded, winked and nudged Hoffmann.

I was up until 3AM reading The Art of Tying a Cravat; Demonstrated in Sixteen Lessons, including 32 different styles by H. Le Blanc Esq..

It's quite possibly the most important book ever written.

Thanks Lola, I have added Kotik Letaev to my TBR list.

LOL

Lola! What are you wearing? You look superb in that necktie! I'm so glad that you're reading Murr as well!

Thanks for the Bely tip. I read Petersburg years ago, and then lent my copy to someone and never got it back. Grrrrr. I'll look out for Kotik Letaev as well. Is the publisher NorthWestern University Press?

174 Lola, I think the same

see my previous post :

if all characters in the book "Murr", represent one aspect of Hoffman the Artist, then the Tomcat represents the selfconfidence the artist ( writer or musician ) needs to get into the open with his creation. Cats are by definition self-confident and tomcat Murr fits perfectly

Such a character would become annoying after a few pages but it is the genius of Hoffmann to exagerate this selfconfidence to such a point it becomes funny and cute ( You know like little kids bragging, they are funny )

The more relaxed part of the Tomcat gives an additional advantage to work as a funny intermezzo between more difficult parts.

Invent your own tie description using the template below and the example above.

The Jardin d'extase is the most exciting after the "noeud Kung Fou de David". It is formed by two loops in a dark closet. Colour: Ambre Thailandais

MWahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

EXcellent, Mackie! one HUGE STURGEON coming your way!!!!

clapping my flippers frantically oink oink oink

Exquisite, Mac. Didi and Gogo suggest Viagra instead of feeding the mandrakes.

Dear friends,

Although I only just finished part two of LOTM, i have my review posted on my blog.

http://macumbeira-macumbeira.blogspot.com/2009/06/life-and-opinion-of-tomcat-mur...

I'll wait for your signal to post it on Lt. I appreciate any comment on typo's , wrong word use or un-english sentences

cheers

Masterful! Makes me want to go out and read it! Then I realize I have, but not in the same way.

Bravo, sir, bravo!!!!!!!!

*wild applause and whistling from the gallery*

That will definitely get them all reading it!!

Great ! Bowing deeply

I posted it on LT 5 min. ago
Henry unleash your powers !!

Well done Mac! A great review! I've added you to my blog roll.

It's already a hot review! Well done! I have spent some time reading more of your blog, Mackie, and there is some very interesting and cool stuff there. I'm adding you to my blog roll too.

Wow, what a great way to start the week...

Ok, here is part 4, the final part, of my summary for those interested.

Part 4: Beneficial Consequences of a superior education

Murr:
1. Murr turns to poetry to console himself for the death of his friend. The books he and MA study together: mostly books on magic and alchemy. The carrying on of Mina and Kitty. Murr decides to go to the street. His encounter with Scaramouche who warns him off Ponto. Ponto reappears and tells Murr how he has left his previous master the professor of Aesthetics and taken up with Alcibiades Von Wipp. Ponto’s tale of the adultery between his previous master’s wife and her lovers, how they conspire to get rid of him. Ponto’s description of the daily routine of him and his new master. Murr resolves to learn about high refinement.
2. Murr reflects on the difficulty great philosophers and poets have in society, how difficult they find it to socialize, and how society never understands them. Third editorial intervention in the Murr story: Murr is quoting K himself now. Murr decides to focus on his social aspect and learn social graces. He goes for a stroll, and encounters the Baron and Ponto, who feigns to attack him. Ponto introduces Murr to the salon of Badine, where he shines, but feels uncomfortable until he meets a greyhound, Monina, and falls in love. His love is doused by a dose of iced water. He becomes ill and is nursed back to health by MA. MA has to go on a journey and leaves his cat with K. Here ends the story of Murr, at the end of a sentence.

Kreisler:
1. MA is dreaming of his Chiara. He seems to hear her voice speaking through the device again. Editorial intervention: the cat has torn out a huge chunk of pages. The story jumps within this section to: Prince I and Julia’s page, Lebrecht who tells the P that there might be a plot against the court due to the strange figures he has seen prowling round the castle at night. P panics and summons the army. Lebrecht tells him the pavilion is already surrounded. MB enters and informs the P in secret that the mysterious man hiding in the pavilion is Hector. P is embarrassed as now all the army have arrived. MB is worried that MA and K mean to scupper her plans for Hector and Hedwiga. She hints that K is after Hedwiga, but Prince Irineus doesn’t buy it: he confirms his loyalty and commitment to MA and K. Hector arrives and is received at court. The two girls arrive. Hedwiga looks radiant in the company of Hector, but Julia looks pale and almost faints. MA is summoned to help her. Hector is shocked at the appearance of MA and cells him Severino, the former master of Chiara. They converse hurredly in Neopolitan in which it transpires that MA has some means of control over Hector. MA warns H to desist from his plan of ruining Julia and K. MA treats Julia and tells her to put her trust in him and K. He takes her to the fisherman’s cottage and gives her the letter from K to read. He shows her his automota, and then reveals MB’s plot to her.
2. K wakes at night to hear ghostly music from the Abbey. A funeral has been ordered by the new Abbot Cyprian. K goes to the church and sees that the dead man is Hector’s assassin that he himself had killed. After the funeral, a strange figure appears in the church, attacks K and blames him for the death of the adjutant, whom he calls his brother. He is stayed by Cyprian, but escapes. Conversation between Chrysostom and K. C warns K that the days of music in the abbey are over. K realises that he figures in the dark machinations of some plot he cannot understand and that the Abbot is in on the plot. He decides to return to MA. Conversation between K and BC about the nature of music.. K shows Cyprian the portrait he has, which is of Cyprian himself. Cyprian is deeply shocked and reveals the whole plot to K: Hector is C’s brother, and the two of them were roisterers. They both fell in love with Angela in Naples, who is looked after by an old woman who sometimes dresses as a gypsy. Angela and Cyprian marry secretly. Hector finds out, and maddened by rage, he stabs his brother and poisons Angela. At the end of this revelation, Cyprian faints and is carried off to the infirmary. Chrysostom reveals the last elements of the plot: It was in fact Cyprian/Antonio who poisoned Angela. MA was in Naples looking for Chiara, whom he found. She gave him the portrait, which has secret compartment containing a portrait of Antonio and some papers which prove that Antonio is the murderer. The section ends with a letter from MA to K mentioning that Julia has been engaged to Prince Ignatius and that MB has been elevated to Countess. The letter also mentions the Princess’s name day celebration with which the K sections begin.

Great ! thanks !
I still am only halfway

I also much enjoyed your review, Mac. I definitely had the feelings of the mirrored reflections as well. I also like your idea that the Tomcat represents the self confidence the artist that is necessary to create. After all, how presumptuous is it to feel that you have something so special to say, that your story has a unique meaning. There is that conflict about feeling oneself set apart, and, at the same time, longing to feel oneself part of the community of humans (or of singing cats). One way to resolve it being to feel the specialness of each story that is told honestly.

I've written my review, and I'll wait until someone tells me it is time to post it - it doesn't matter to me whether it is earlier or later.

Also, I wanted to share a bit of good news. I am not very good about submitting my work, but a couple of years ago I did submit a poem to To Topos, mostly translations but also centered around themes, and put out by the foreign language dept of Oregon State University. I also submitted a poem of my daughter's, with her permission, that I thought fit the theme of poverty. Then I heard nothing until just now when I got an email invite me to read with other local contributors to the journal. After I responded he asked me to invite my daughter, too, since her poem was also accepted. So, we will be reading together.

Her poem:

My Mom's Backpack

Most mothers carried purses filled with
normal things like a hairbrush, gum, or zip-locked
bags full of goldfish crackers.
My mom carried a backpack with
jars of iced tea to cool off on the long hot walk
back from the downtown library.

She was an expert at packing a backpack
just right, just balanced, so when she pulled on
both straps on both shoulders
she could carry it, no matter how heavy.

At the grocery store, the checker would ask,
"Would you like
help out with that, ma'am?"
My mom always smiled firmly and announced,
"nope, we're walking."
Then she'd stand right next to the checker as she rearranged
all of the just-packed groceries
in a more sensible fashion.

On those days when my mom managed to convince me
to bring my backpack,
I did it all wrong--
I slung it carelessly over one shoulder,
the way cool people do.
I'd have to wait as she adjusted my straps
and repacked it so the books
wouldn't dig into my spine.

My mom never complained on the walk home,
with her huge backpack straining,
two bags of groceries in her arms.
I didn't either, with the lightest bag full of
chips and bread and toilet paper
the one she saved for me.

I agree with you Sola, and I think you hit the button on the head. The difference between the two prefaces is a good example of the kind of candid solipsism that Murr represents,especially the last sentence of the second preface. It always makes me chuckle that line, coz I'm so sure it's true!

Congrat's to you and your daughter on both getting published! I like the poem you posted!

Congrats Solla ! Way to go.

Thanks for confirming my hunch about the cat as a representative of the self confident artist.
In order not to ruin our liking of Murr, Hoffman has the genial idea to exagerate it. Now this self-confidence without measure becomes cute, so we keep on loving Murr !

Posting your review : Enrique is the master of ceremony. He understands this working of LT better than any of us. He will give the signal I suppose.

Henry, est - tu là ?

Wow !!! 20 thumbs up !
What is funny is that my other reviews get thumbs also.

( humbly and in tears : thank you thank you )

Great poem of your daughter's, Solla. Now, what about your poem you spoke of? Can we see that one too?

Yes, everyone, when you see the black smoke rising from the slums of the Inland Empire (and there are no forest fires on the news to speak of) that will be the signal that the next review is to be posted. Btw, Mac, I (er, we) only used tres thumbs for the initial launch - so that's 17 thumbs either from the salon or I suspect also people who just happen to be checking what's Hot that have added fuel to keep your piece airborne. What we do is honorable, amen? - for Hoffmann!

I'd say your review will probably remain top 10 through the week, and by this weekend either Solla or tomcat can go on - do catfight amongst yourselves, Solla & tomcat, as to who's next, especially in honor of Bloomsday.

Solla, Ladies first, I insist. * Murr bows*

All righty then, Solla, you'll be up next. Just wait for the signal....

I will be waiting.

The poem, Missouri Summer, is quite long. It was actually a class assignment with the point of pushing us past the usual length of poem that we wrote. So, rather than put it here, I will post it on my reading blog thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/62376) shortly and share a briefer poem here. There is also a poem of mine about my grandmother that I was to memorize along with two other sestinas that feature grandmothers (http://www.librarything.com/topic/61871 - #120), not yet memorized I'm afraid.

Tree Climber Sonnet

Arms wrapped around the low branch, I lift my legs up to hang
slothlike, pull my body over on top,
rub arms and legs. The bark scrapes my undersides tender.
Sturdy legs in the trunk’s first fork, I brace to reach and climb
up and up, until the limb’s circumference is no longer enough to hold
my forty odd pounds, distributed between handholds and toeholds,
higher than ever I’ve gone, when Billy comes to gather me home. “Up here,” I call.
His head leans back to find my voice, his face pale moon atop a sky of white t-shirt.
Eyes widen. He only says, “Mama wants us home now,” so I look
down to see only distance, no way back. Billy circles, directs
right foot down, just to the right, reach left, like guiding the blind
until body memory awakes, “I know,”
scuttle down the cracks and knobs, drop past the last small fear, and when
I get down remember to walk as though nothing had ever been lost.

I can imagine Hoffman tossing this off, freely drawing on his own life, dreaming about his cat, drawing illustrations when he was blocked.

Having finished, I can say I identify with the sentiment expressed by Robertson Davies, according to poor-ious. The cat was charming (and the animal stuff was carried off really quite well.) However, that rotten varmint used as scratch paper and partially ruined the more interesting tales of Kreisler, Hedwiga, Julia, Madame Benzon and many others! Master Abraham is far more intersting as a mysterious magician than a cat's master!

Professor Lothario went nowhere. That was disappointing.

The circular structure of the story did not bother me. But, I wish Hoffman wrote an extended remix of the Kreisler portions of the tale. I'd read it!

Thanks for the beautiful poem, Solla! I'll get over to your reading thread this weekend and check out your longer work. Thanks so much for sharing, and if your work gets published online, please do link it somewhere here in the salon. I know that aethercowboy has also had a short story published online - it's very cool to see the creative and/or scholarly-type works the salon stylists are up to outside the salon.

I do regret not reading Murr with you all, since it sounds absolutely fascinating based on all your comments.

Be careful what you wish for, slick. It's satisfying to know what happens to characters you grow to know quite well through the telling of their story. Tolstoy has his appendix to War and Peace, Tolkien does the same in LOTR. But part of the interest is in the mystery. Life goes on, or in this case, doesn't, and we never get a chance to go back and resolve the loose ends. So it goes.

One fascinating example of the continuation conceit is the musical, Into the Woods, the story of what happens in the fairy tale after "happily ever after." You'll never think of Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk in the same way again after seeing it.

Hoffmann is certainly worth a revisit to read his other works and to explore his musical connections.

Sometimes a cat is just simply a cat.

#201: Actually, I was kind of hoping our Tomcat would make up for Hoffman's Tom by writing that extended remix himself!

#202: Except when he's That Darn Cat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4rzG-6knbU

P.S. Holy sh*t! A capital letter! Edit!

23 thumbs and still going up..

Wow! Congratulations, I'm beginning to get thumb envy.

That Darn Cat was a childhood favorite that I had forgotten. Thanks.

I'm also looking forward to our own Tomcat's hoped for extended remix.

24 and counting.

Brent, how is the Harry Potter re-reading session going? Isn't that the reason you were not available to read Tomcat Murr?

I have two mystery novels from the library waiting for me to finish Murr. I'm almost there, but am going slowly on purpose to savor it. I love this writing style, it's so retro and really funny. Keeps me smiling all day!

>203 slickdpdx:, 205..... Mmm, you've just given me an idea....
* pauses, pen in hand, gazing upwards*

Anna, I'm so glad you're enjoying this book!

Master Abraham is far more intersting as a mysterious magician than a cat's master! Slick, this is a very interesting observation!

207...not going yet...my daughter has moved swiftly on from Potter to the fad that begins with T and ends with t before I could convince her otherwise, and she's suddenly not interested in Potter at all. So I've been spared (I mean, I'll have to wait). But...I'm reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in its place, and I'm not disappointed so far in the least. I should've been reading this Murakami cat a long time ago. This is another novel that begins indirectly with the misadventures of a cat.

and 'twould be terribly remiss of me not to give credit where credit is due and say thank you very much to my friend and salon stylist, Medellia, for convincing me to pick up the Murakami....

Hurry, Hurry, Mac's review has slipped off the hotlist. Solla, post yours ASAP. Drat that Enrique, he napping on us, or what?

He can't be blamed. I've just arrived home, and responded to his signal first thing.

212...scuse me? I don't sleep! I sit before the keyboard tuned to LibraryThing all day and all night. Solla has taken the handoff from Macumbeira w/out a glitch and she's off...

http://www.librarything.com/work/364321/reviews/45831477

I want to see some callous's on those thumbs people! By my calculations, we need 30 thumbs to keep Solla up for a week. Don't worry, Mac, if we can get 30 for Solla and for everybody else thereafter, we'll come back to you and get you your 30 and your rightful full week atop the charts that the righteous name of E.T.A. Hoffmann may be sounded throughout LT if not the entire created universe!

to all of you out there : thanks for the thumbs !
Go Solla Go !

It is true, what a fine and elevated thing is life, in the words of the Tomcat. I am so pleased to have been invited here to Le salon litteraire de Henri Freeqy IV by my friend who happened to read a book review that I left lying about and who felt that I ought to share it.

I will be glad to do so. It is a small thing, but then it does come from a unique perspective - or perhaps not so unique - as I do seem to perceive the aroma of one or two others of my species in the salon. I am a delicate creature so I will not say more.

So, I shall share my review with you, and, if you think it worthy, perhaps later post it for the entire LT world to share in - not, of course, before the older members of the salon have had their week for I am no Philistine, but a good, honest cat who want to make her mark as a worthy member of a literary community.

But I should introduce myself, Imagine a lovely queen cat of sleek black fur - or, if you will, go view my photo on my profile page.

I am quite well read. Admittedly, my library is small as yet, but the books are quite the best. I am a linguist and an author myself. You may read chapter 1 of my first book Why Cats Paint #1 at http://thecat.bootstraps.net, more to come, and there is a whole unwritten treatise - The Cat and her Symbols currently fermenting in my unconscious.

Well, enough for now. I will expound more later.

My Review of The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr

This book was a delight, for no sooner had I started to read the first entry by the delightful Tomcat Murr than I realized that I had stumbled upon my soulmate, my doppergonger, so to speak, or as close to one as male and female can become. Why, I too love the race across rooftops under the wide and starry sky, have a heart that stirs at the very thought of the warmth of pigeons, and took to seeing as if I had never been a blind little kitten. And the memories this chapter brought back of my kittenhood. I was a skittish kitten and my mistress went to great lengths to show me I had nothing to fear from her. How she petted and love me, and played this delightful game with a stuffed fish tied to a stick with a piece of yarn which she twirled so I could run and bat it about.

I too had to learn to curb my impulses, though my mistress only resorted to a water bottle for my lessons. Alas, there was one couch that was sacrificed to my education. But it had a rough texture which just called out to my claws, and the new red one is so much prettier anyway. I read with interest the struggles that Murr went through to learn to read. Technology has advanced so much that I needed only to snuggle in the lap of my mistress while she brought up pages of material. Of course my dexterous paws took to the keyboard easily. How much simpler it might have been for Murr could he have made use of the Gutenberg Audio Books Project as I did, listening to the spoken text as I read along. Perhaps he could have soared to even greater heights, were that possible.

How moving was the reunion of Murr with his mother after their cruel separation. How my breast filled with emotion at his fine impulse to share his fish with her. How tragic the instinct that overwhelmed and shamed him. To read of such experiences is to be reminded of the depths of our common cat nature.

But there is yet more to evoke the communion of felines, for any cat who has ever loved will be charmed by the youthful affection of Murr and Ponto. One can't help but be drawn into the turmoil and confusion of his adolescence or the triumph and heartbreak he experienced in love.

Finally, I was so moved by how Murr, this learned poet and philosopher, was yet able to be that simple, honest Tomcat who communed with his fellows under the moon and filled the night with song. And how he mourned in common with them over the untimely death of the good cat, Muzius.

Have you picked up the subtext of this review, the emotion that spills out from my heart despite my best efforts to contain it. Yes, life is sometimes so difficult in this modern world for a single female like myself, who struggles to maintain the faith that she will, one day, find a mate worthy of herself, a match for her intelligence and passion. And then to read such a work, about such a cat. To find him in a book nearly two centuries old, how cruel this truth, how can I not but mourn, "Alas, all the best ones are already dead."

---

Well, what do you say? Do you like it? Do you admire me a little? Are you amazed at my perspicuity and erudition. But you should not be, for in the words of that great philosopher, De'Cat - I think, therefore I am a cat.

Pekoethecat,

Your review is worthy of a Nobel. how my heart leaped to read your sincere words and effusions of a lonely heart! None but cats can truly understand the joy and sorrow of a caterwhaul on a rooftop at midnight! Come to my arms, my frabjous queen! My soul desires you this instant!

Murr.

The beautiful things that happen here while I am away....

What is he dead? Sit you down father rest you.

ETA Hoffman, Sterne, Barthes and music. Here, Poor-ious, let me have some of that.

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post.html

Looks like a first rate operation. I will send along some of my that when this work I am involved in gives me a little chance to branch out, if you know what I mean. I enjoy the way you do that little catdanse between jocularity and seriousness. My footwerk isn't nearly so agile but I'm working on it.

Dear all !

Don't forget Solla's review !! We need all the votes we can get !

219
turn me on, dead man.

I certainly hope Pekoe is using its thumb on Solla's review since several of mine have been amputated by the nefarious, well meaning powers-that-be over the past 36 hours. I'd clone myself some more thumbs for Solla but since I'm under close surveillance at the moment, can't, for fear of being exiled from LT to the island of Elba were I to get caught.

So, are there any more Pekoe's out there (or potential Pekoe's in the making from you all - hint hint) which could produce more thumbs for Solla's review as it's already fallen from its rightful, deserved #1 spot and need to get back there pronto.

Brave Salon Stylists, answer the call to action - you all must clone your own thumbs as I'm all out - please, please, you're our only hope O-BSS. You can do it! And don't worry about me, they'll let me out of this strait jacket sooner or later, but until they do, it's up to you to keep Hoffmann at the top. Haven't you always wanted to be someone else? Well now is your opportunity to be that person you always dreamed you could be. You all need to get going Sybil asap if we're to keep the dream of Hoffmania alive. Help, BSS, help!

oh and maki, I certainly trust you've already had makimusic thumb up Solla's review right? Thanks!

Alas, I tried with all four paws, but noted that the number went down instead of up every other time.

Pekoes in the making, now that is a pleasant thought. A pleasant dream for my next nap, yawn...

yes, that happened to me as well. Is this only a feline problem, you think, or do humans have it too?

So who is next for reviewing? Slick? Anna? David? Wilf?

I was hoping to go last in order to plagiarize everyone else's wonderful reviews. I was going to have my cat write it for me, but as there has already been a wonderful review written by another cat, she is upset. I've been trying to coax her over here to the keyboard all evening, but she won't even look at me. She just keeps sitting there staring wistfully out the window. I'm afraid she is jealous.

lol

227 I thought that you were next.

Yeah, isn't Pekoe (I mean tomcat) next? Or is Pekoe, Solla?

Who is Pekoe?

Who am I? Who are you? Who are we?

I've been gone most of the day but I see that Solla is still hanging tough in the #2 spot at 18 thumbs. Those of you who may have inadvertently clicked a second time on Solla's review and saw the number of thumbs decrease by one, all you have to do is click on it again and it will add back your thumbs up. We've still got work to do, People, let's get her up into the mid twenties and keep Hoffmania going strong!

There are now 208 owners of Tomcat Murr, up from 198 when we began; a 5% increase in ownership or wishlist in about a week-and-a-half.

Please, I am female, and most definitely not (a) tomcat.

Oh you wonderful Queen, I am speechless with lu.. love.

Wait a minute! Could Pekoe be Anna? Or Lola?

Who is the Mystery Pekoe Cat?

It's a rule of thumb, says Ponto to Murr, and a very common one, that no one can escape his fate, do what he may, and you being an educated cat can read more about that in a very instructive book, written in delightful style, entitled Jacques Le Fataliste.

I have just finished reading this book, by one of the key Enlightenment figures, following Ponto's friendly advice. It is delightful and profound. One of the best discoveries of the year, for me. I have posted a review here which I humbly submit to the assembly.

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2009/06/jacques-le-fataliste-dennis-diderot.html

We are good to go here with the Kater Murr review whenever we receive orders.

Murr
Standing by

Oh and Happy Midsummer, everyone!

solla is still going up...

OK, I finished Tomcat over the weekend and am sad that it is over. Really, if anything screamed "I need a sequel" that book was it. I'm waiting to thumb up at least two other reviews - tomcatMurr and then PekoeTheCat? - before submitting mine.

It looks to me like it is time for tomcatMurr's review to go up. My hot reviews only shows 4 and no Tomcat Murr.

ok, it's up.
:)

tomcat got it up everybody! Woohoo!

C'mon everybody, go look - now!

Woke up at 5, in the hope to see Murr's review at the same moment as the rising sun.

And yes there they both are ! Climbing steadely to the Zenith.

Hoffmania is not enough ! Hoffmanism is a new Religion ! A bold Murresque worldview!!!

( Bowing very deep ) Thank's Tomcat !

Naughty, I am happy your old picture is back. You haven't changed a thing !

The Cat's meow.

Thanks poor-ious! I adored Alan Rickman as the foil in Die Hard.

Notorious poor-ious, you just keep your eyes on me Fella, until your final day, and you'll be sure to die har ***censored for your protection by the powers-that-be***.

Message edited by its author only for your protection against anything risque or vulgar, Today, 2:54am.

I said it was 2:54am, not 2:53am, you liar!

248: you may thunk that bullshit is funny, but I most assuredly do not. So if you would please refrain from outbursts of that nature I would be satisfied. I lost my temper there for a moment, but I don't like to have my life threatened even in jest. Please desist.

Now, now, stop fighting, and focus on the matter on hand: I AM SLIPPING OUT OF THE HOT REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

HELP HELP HELP MAYDAY MAYDAY SOS SOS SOS SOS

Pekoeeeee !

I will have my review up before you can say meow in French (though I could say it faster)

Okay, People, give Pekoe the fing, er, yer thumbs!

Who is Pekoe, this wonderful wonderful cat?

http://www.librarything.com/work/364321/reviews/46403853

And hottie, cut it out! I'm not kidding. You don't EVER joke about death - especially in light of all the high profile deaths of late. Not cool. Not cool at all. I think you owe poor-ious an apology, but that's just my opinion.

Thumb given !!
There is also an ALZO whom we can still thumb !

Hi poor-ious - are you sure it is not purr-ious - I just listened to the video and it is very moving - (though it does neglect us cats a bit). I will add that to my list of neglected topics - the effects of war on cats - indeed the entire animal kingdom, and attend to it as soon as I can. That may not be for awhile - I have gained some fame in the cat community as a result of my posts, and, at present, I have a very full life. (Sorry tomcatMurr).

Pekoe's holding steady in the top 5 still, don't know for how much longer with 16 votes.

Anna, are you up next? Who else either has or was planning on writing a tomcat Murr review?

Oh man! I'm sorry I wrote such an awesome review of The Scarlet Letter! I should hold off on writing awesome reviews until everybody has done their Murr reviews. Sorry, once again. :P

Yeah, don't think I didn't notice that, renegade cowboy!

Awesome my ass!

It's super awesome.

--257...don't forget me, Freeque, I want to review the bookcover.

Hi-ya Cowboy! Your review is so Hot it's smokin'...and so are you in those sunglasses!

There is an unknown reviewer named ALZO at the bottom of the MURR list. We could boost him to win time !

Oh, now I understand what you meant by ALZO. That's a great idea! Once Pekoe drops off the charts, let's give ALZO our collective love and support! Maybe invite her or him to the salon too, eh?

Btw, this review from wisewoman is very funny if you haven't noticed it already: http://www.librarything.com/work/57069/reviews/35713333

257: I will thumb up Alzo once you give me the OK.

I can do the next review after we give Alzo some love.

Perfect! Pekoe's #4 still. Why Pekoe only has 16 though...I'm very disappointed in certain presumably dog-loving-only salon members who've obviously chosen to to turn up their prideful noses to PekoeTheCats lonely plight. You think your stupid mutt could write a review that good? Up yers and yer pooches!

I've been indulging in a bit of bibliomancy with Tomcatt Murr.

Here is a quote from Theophile Gautier's charming memoir of his families menagerie entitled My Household of Pets.

Let us now come down to a more
modern epoch. From a cat im-
ported by Mademoiselle Aita de la Pen-
uela, a young Spanish artist whose studies
of white Angoras adorned and still adorn
the windows of the print-shops, we obtained
the tiniest possible kitten, which looked
like one of those puffs of swan's-down
which people use in rice-powder boxes.
On account of this immaculate whiteness,
he received the name of Pierrot, which, as
he grew larger, was amplified into that of
Don Pierrot de Navarre, a name infi-
nitely more majestic and having a savor of
real grandeur about it. Don Pierrot, like all
animals who are petted and spoiled grew up
charmingly amiable. He shared our family life
with that enjoyment which cats find in being
admitted to the intimacies of the fire-side.
Seated in his wonted place beside the fire,
he seemed always to understand the conversation
and to be interested in it. He followed the eyes of the
talkers, emitting from time to time a little
mew, as if he too had objections to make,
and would like to add his opinion on the
literary topics which were usually the
theme of our discourse. He adored books ;
and whenever he found one lying open on
the table he would seat himself by it, look-
ing earnestly at the pages, and sometimes
gently turning one with his claw. He usu-
ally finished by going to sleep, as soundly
as though he had in reality been reading
a modern novel !

When we sat down to write he always
jumped upon the writing-table, and watched
with a profound attention the point of the steel
pen as it scattered flies' legs over the white
surface of the paper, making a little movement
of his head at the beginning of each new line.
Sometimes he took a fancy to join in the work,
and would try to get the pen away from us, doubtless
with the intention of using it in his turn ; for he was
an aesthetic cat, like the cat Murr, described by Hoffman,
and we strongly suspected him of spending nights in
some hidden gutter writing his memoirs by the light
of his own phosphoric eyes. Unfortunately these
lucubrations, if they ever existed, are forever lost.

Another quote about Don Pierrot's spouse Seraphita.

Don Pierrot de Navarre had a companion
of the same race, no less white than him-
self. All the comparisons which we have
heaped together in " The symphony in
white, major" cannot express the idea of
this immaculate snowiness, which makes
even the fur of the ermine look yellow.

This second cat was named Seraphita, in
honor of Balzac's Swedenborgian romance.
Never did the heroine of that marvel-
lous legend radiate a purer whiteness, not
even when, accompanied by Minna, she
climbed the icy peaks of the Falberg.
Seraphita was of a contemplative and
dreamy disposition. She would lie for long
hours on her cushion, not asleep, but fol-
lowing, with an intense expression of the
eyes, sights which were invisible to com-
mon mortals.

A Swedenborgian cat!

If anyone is interested. Here is a link to the entire text online.

http://www.archive.org/details/myhouseholdofpet00gautiala

Gautier is a copy - cat ! : )

In 1836 Théophile Gautier published “Les contes d’Hoffmann” in the Chronique de Paris. Gautier’s piece is a beautiful analysis of what made the German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann so appealing to the French public, and it contributes to our understanding of nineteenth-century notions of the fantastic.

In part I we are told that Kreisler's Tante Füßchen played an uncommon instrument, the Tromba Marina. To my amazemet, the Dutch society for instrument building published in their newsletter of May 2009 a description of this instrument, focusing on the bridge. Here are some images I scanned.

http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww205/pim_philipse/TrombaMarina-1.jpg

http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww205/pim_philipse/TrombaMarina-2.jpg

In part I we are told that Kreisler's Tante Füßchen played an uncommon instrument, the Tromba Marina. To my amazement, the Dutch society for instrument building published in their newsletter of May 2009 a description of this instrument, focusing on the bridge. Here are some images I scanned.

oh interesting, interesting!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for adding to our knowledge of things Murrian!

265-268...yes, very cool contributions. Keep 'em coming!

And Pekoe, wow, is still hanging tough in the #5 slot having gained three more thumbs - miraculously! - during the past 24 hours, moving our mascot Cat up to 19 thumbs! Well done, Salon! Can our mascot make it to 20?

All righty, salon stylists, PekoeTheCat's review has dropped to the 10 slot and is about to drop off the charts looks like, so when you see this message, feel free to start giving ALZO your love.

Didn't Anna have a review ready to go?

The ALZO person made only 3 reviews and all on the same day : 24 January 2007.
And now suddenly two and a half year later he is in the middle of a litterary frenzy organized by a bunch of Hoffmaniacs...

" Life is a strange thing"

272...she did but in #263 advised us to love on ALZO before her review.

OK, I posted my review. ILTM (I love Tomcat Murr)!

Great review Anna! Its interesting how reactions to Murr and Kreisler are so varied. I am in your camp.

Pim: Thanks for the Tromba photo. I still want to hear one.

Oh my - http://www.trombamarina.com/tm/tm%20air.MP3

At http://www.trombamarina.com/unprofitable_instruments.htm

Its a strange sound - like a brass and a string together. Hoffman would have loved the singing saw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBRR4esvzY

Wow, Alzo's review made it to my hotreview sidebar. Maybe we should hold off on promoting mine for a while?

Yes, definitely hold off on promoting yours, Anna, otherwise Alzo & yours will just cancel each other out -or, everyone who's thumbed-up ALZO can de-thumb her or him and then we'd be okay to thumb-up yours.

Still I cannot find this hotreview sidebar.
I'll wait for a sign of Anna to give her a thumb.
Meanwhile allow me to say that you made a very nice review Anna !

Mac, on your homepage - not your profile page - you can edit it to show up to 10 Hot reviews. You're missing out, man! Alzo is right now #2! Please go try to do that, and if you have any problems, I'd be happy this weekend to walk you through it step by step - and then maybe you could teach me the easiest way to start your own blog!

Let's barter, brother!

got it... simple.... no sweat...

Setting up the blog is nothing compared to this !

Thanks Enrique !

I got a blue text baloon beside my Murr report. What is that ? Who put it there ?
Should I, like Bulgakov, throw my laptop in the fire before the secret police falls in ?

After you reported on the balloon I went and checked my reviews and found blue balloons by all of them. Feeling daring I clicked on one which brought me to a sign into twitter screen. Perhaps the idea is why bother with the secret police when we can simply report on all our activities and movements ourselves.

But what is the twitter thingy doing there ?
I don't need it, didn't ask for it either !

What is twitter? It sounds like something birds do. Can I eat it?

That cat !

Always peeping behind the corner when food is discussed

The founding Father of this Salon, Enrique Freeque himself, has posted a negative review about James Joyce......

I am stunned. What a disrespect for all of us who have lost our fingers and toes and mind in this ascent.

Failure can make a person bitter and twisted. I'm not sure what EF's excuse is!

Solla: Very Funny

I haven't had a nice bird in ages.

Solla: Very True!!!!!

I did a search on twitter, and found some talk here - http://www.librarything.com/topic/68040#1362125 Apparently clicking the balloon puts a link to your review on twitter.

http://www.librarything.com/blog/2009/07/twitter-your-reviews.php - apparently it is not automatic, you have a chance to edit, and I'm assuming it didn't work on mine since I'm not a member of Twitter, and I only saw a sign in screen.

You's guys & dolls are a crackin' me up! A veritable Python troupe!

Listen, why does Anna already have four thumbs when alzo is #1 right now? People...you're depriving both Anna and Hoffmania of the longer term notoriety they both have justly earned and deserve. Don't you realize that four thumbs is roughly the equivalent of 2-3 days on Hot Reviews, dependent upon how Hot the competition is? Cease and desist from giving your love to Anna right this second, I insist! Better yet, remove your thumbs from Anna pronto before alzo inevitably drops off the charts so that Anna does not get short shrifted - and Hoffmania!

Yes, I know, it's a great review (really, Anna, fabulous job - Hoffmann has brought the best out of so many of you & I'm a very proud founder) and yes, Anna's review is in fact worthy of thumbs right now, but!... that wasn't the plan was it!?

alzo first, and then Anna.

Anna, I'm so sorry, some of our fidgety, jumpy, impatient salon stylists can't seem to resist giving you the thumb. I'll hope they'll abstain over the holiday weekend, and you get every hour and day of time at the top you have earned.

AAaaaaaargh Look what they've done to my hair!!!!!!!!! Damn bl*****y stylist!

Fabulous review, btw, Anna. I'm thrilled that so many people have enjoyed this book. Is anybody tracking the number of copies owned on LT? is it still going up?

Still going up indeed. We began at 198 and now we're at 213, a 7.6% increase in a matter of weeks.

If anyone else has read or is reading the Penguin edition, a note (translator's) in the back puzzled me--I think it's #10--it says that the aria "Mi lagnerò tacendo" was lost, whereas there's a famous and much-recorded Rossini setting. It's possible that the translator meant some Hoffmann's own composition (presumably to the same words, judging by the title, by Pietro Metastasio), I don't know. I think the singing cat, Murr, doesn't mention the composer of the aria...

215 copies of TCM !

Lola, I think it's Hoffmann's own setting of 'Mi Lagnero....' that is meant (or perhaps Murr's own?).
The text is full of references to Hoffmann's own compositions.

I know of three settings of this aria:
Rossini, Mozart and Handel.

Rossini:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hen9Gyc6ovs&feature=PlayList&p=3A5115F7D0...

Mozart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT3sZaLABkc

Handel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvTLRnNf1vE

I prefer the Handel. :-)

Okay Anna! Pekoe has disappeared into some back LT alley looks like.

It's time for everyone to give Anna some love and hopefully usurp from the top of the charts that simply dreadful & disgusting review of Ulysses by a person who should know better!

Shame on you, Enrique!

Salon, I call you on you to kick serious bum and get Hoffmania back on top where it rightfully belongs.

Goooooooooooooooo Ann-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I really liked what Anna said about gentle satire in her review of TLOTM. Great review Anna.

Many thanks to Tom and Lola for the information(and wonderful clips) regarding the aria 'Mi lagnerò tacendo'. I had searched unsuccessfully for information after reading Althea Bell's footnote.

I have had no luck finding any recordings of Hoffman's own compositions so far. I am interested in any parallels between Offenbach and Hoffman. Both Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman and Hoffman's Kater Murr were supposedly "unfinished" at the time of the artist's death. Coincidence?

I am also curious as to whether or not the barcarolle from Offenbach's opera, inspired by Hoffman's Councillor Krespel, in which Krespel's daughter Antonia sings herself to death, is derived in any way from one of Hoffman's own compositions.

Anna is number 1 !!!!

Way to go Anna! & salon!

Now let's try and keep her there for awhile. You all might want to consider taking a vacation from thumbing up non-Hoffmann reviews for the time being too - that way our competition will be at even more of a disadvantage against the Tomcat Murr!

Btw, who's on the docket after Anna? Who's got a review ready to go by the end of this week?

I wonder what alzo is thinking right now, assuming he's even noticed? Last time he checked he had one thumb. A month later he's deep into double digits - and the review was written over two years ago.

Have you all seen how many M&M reviews are already in existence? Are you thinking what I'm thinking come the first weekend in Sept.? Brilliant minds....As we begin our M&M read, we go right down the list of M&M reviews already there and do our collective thumb-thing - bringing greater attention & ownership to the works we've (because we're awesome) deemed righteous & worthy of greater recognition. Or is that too insane? But if it is too insane, then it's a no-brainer that we do it, right? Right?!

Hi all, thanks for the votes and the kind words on my review. Who's up next?

I know the hottie was saying she wanted to give it a go. Anybody besides her? She can go last as far as I'm concerned.

Anna is dropping down in the review list.
We need a new review asap !

All right Naughty Hottie, you're up next since nobody else has stepped up to the plate. I think Anna's review, even though it has dropped to third, will likely remain in the top 10 at least through today.

So, hottie, get your review ready to rock pronto, okay? You're still game, right? The salon really needs you, believe it or not.

Sorry, Mac, for dissin' Ulysses like that. I'm a bad person and I know I need help.

Um, I can probably get one done tonight. But I'm completely booked today. Day spa in Laguna and then I get my nails done. And then dinner at Las Brisas! Woohoo!

Gotta run. Ba bye.

Wouldn't want the naughty one to shorten her spa antics so I put one together at this short notice.

Excellent, porious! Very well said. The hottie will have to wait.

Now, everyone, please refrain from thumbing up poor-ious' fine piece until Anna's drops off - she's still holding steady in the top 5 and another vote or two might keep her there well into tomorrow. So please, restrain yourselves once again until the signal.

And cowboy, would you please quit writing your superlative reviews of the classics (Catch-22 is his latest) just for one month or two so the salon can have less competition please?! How rude.

You too bard with your science fiction, cut it out.

Sorry. The last review I wrote was for a wonderful book on linear algebra. I'm sure that one won't get too many thumbs...

Okay salonistas, Anna's review just dropped off the charts. Let's give some love pronto to poor-ious (and in the process kick that aethercowboy out of the number one spot!).

There is no poor-ious review to thumb (yet )

right here Mac: http://www.librarything.com/work/2468923

Good thing I'm wearing shades. That drop from #1 is BRIGHT!

got it,
thumbed it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zJUuuAc24M&feature=related

Fields was nothing but a big tom cat.

poor-ious, I've literally done everything I can at the moment for your review, which is now at 12 though in my estimation if the salonistas were paying attention it would be much higher now and in the #1 slot rather than #2. Even if you're on vacation, People, it's called a laptop. Open it up, check your personal email if you must, but more importantly, check into the salon, and get busy thumbing up poor-ious' review. He'd be at 20 now if you had all done what you should've done hours ago. There's internet cafes too if you're on vacation you know. Inexcusable.

Enrique
Thanks for your support. It's a slow period for all this sort of thing, and I'm not the most popular member of the salon. I was glad to step in for tnh, it was fun to put my little thing together and anything else is a bonus. Thanks again.

I hear what you're saying poor-ious, but in this place, we're supposed to be all for salon and salon for all. No favorites! People, this isn't Le Clique Litteraire...it's Le Salon Litteraire. This isn't High School. It's LibraryThing. And keep in mind, the longer we can keep you Hot, poor-ious, is the longer we don't have to hear from the hottie!

Good point.

Poor-ious is #1 with me! But only one thumb to a customer...

What do you mean only one thumb, Anna? Aren't you PekoeTheCat?

I'm not the most popular member of the salon says who? let me scratch 'em.

It's a bloody well written review, that.

Indeed it is, tomcat, and lo and behold, with 14 thumbs now it's numero uno!

Thanks and many thanks to Anna, Tomcatt, and to the Salon's fearless leader EF. Here's a little token of my appreciation. I am a big believer, tho I hope not too big, in Practice. Here is Practice's reward:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R3pjDWRKmQ&feature=related

Poor-ious impact was immediately visible : 221 people now own TCM. We increased with more than 10 % the number of people owning this marvelous book !!

The salon is the new Oprah.

LOL
right so, any other young writer who needs help to get world famous ?
From Taiwan to New York over Brussel !

Poor-ious is dliding down in the charts. Might we now see the long awaited review of naughty hottie ?

Oh no! Poor-ious was #2 just this morning here on the West Coast of U.S.A. and now he's off the charts! What happened? Hottie! O Hottie, (unless someone else has a review ready right this minute) we need your "help"! Hurry!
Gosh, I hope she's not still out shopping or getting a makeover.

Hi everybody! You caught me at a good time. I'd just gotten a full body massage and was about to go sit out by the pool.

Here's my review. Hope it's as good as everybody elses.

http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=thenaughtyhottie

Well, thenaughtyhottie, your review is hilarious, and having taken a look at the link, I think you are probably deeply disturbed.

I've been traumatized by a naughtyhottie. Yowl.

I think you are probably deeply disturbed.

I've been traumatized by a naughtyhottie.

Thank you so much solla! That's very sweet of you!

Please let me offer up this poor epitaph which I have composed in an effort to sublimate my grief :

On the Late Massacre in the Driveway
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered cats, whose skins
Lie flattened on the concrete driveways cold;
Even those with tales(tails) of such length as are rarely told
When all our brothers worshipped cars, not kin
Nor cats of soft fur pressed pelts now hard and thin
Forget not how now they’ll never grow old
Even cat years cut short to never unfold

Some mother’s kitten, crunched to broken bones
Their shrieks rebounded to the suburbs and they
To heaven (cat heaven), thy grace bestow
New rooftops and alleys that they might play
Far from churning washing machines and grow
Into as fine tomcats thou didst intend, I pray,
Well hung, and tails unfurled where aught they go

--- Pekoe The Cat (after Milton)

oh BRAVO! BLoody bravo, I say!!!!!!!

Hmmm,

I see you share Kater Murr's "gift" for poetry.

Here's a clip of Chopin played sublimely by a true master, the great Arthur Rubinstein.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WpDH5zbhIk

Alls Helle thet ents vel. Hoffmann would not be shocked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=230isC2LDMI

Gave you the tumb !
I hope the people who bought TCM will not try to sell it now.

I sink zay know bettah. Ve mus tayk sa gut wis za bat. Though I wont be the first to say which is which. Though maybe the cat is out of the bag. When all is said and done we did our little part for ETAH, what else can we do?

Poor-ious! You sound so...German all of a sudden! Is everything okay? Not that there's anything innately wrong with sounding German of course!

Amen to that.

Uh-oh!

Some law abiding LT-twit just flagged the naughtyhottie's review as not being a review! Huh? Who ever said that reviewing the book cover didn't constitute a review? Is that delineated in LTs tos? Oh no! I wonder if Tim Spalding will intervene?

I gladly thumbed up 'tnh' what lover of litrachur would committ such a heartless act?

Always risqué to even give a hint of cruelty to animals on any anglo-saxon forum...
I think it is just the competition.

I counterflagged the Tomcat Murr flag, but I couldn't understand the Twilight review so I didn't counterflag that flag.

Robert

Thanks Robert !
If you are new to this Salon, could you please give a thumb to all the " Life and Opinion of Tomcat Murr" by Hoffman reviews. It is compulsary to participate here but you will not regret it.

Pekoe,

What a beautiful poem! It made me cry. Not just for my dead tomcats, but for dead tomcats the whole world round.

344...Thank you so being such a gentleman and coming to my defense like that. I really appreciate it. Regarding my Twilight review, I could interpret it for you and post it here if you like, later on today. Text interpretation is one of my specialties. I'm off for a pedicure right now but would be happy to assist you - and perhaps the salon too - in understanding what I wrote.

Bye everybody (for now) thanks so much for the poetry and support. I love being #1!

Woohoo!

Pekoe,

That's an amazing poem. Your ad lib poetic abilities are unsurpassed.

Hottie, please feel free not to interpret any texts of yours. We're, I trust, all not interested. You got your silly review, okay, that's just terrific, but we don't need anymore from you for a long time.

That link isn't funny, btw. If anyone out there has ever run over a poor cat, and heard that sickening thunk underneath the car, then you know indeed the terrible, guilt-ridden feelings that can elicit. Very insensitive and, quite frankly, very sick, hottie.

I had no idea that that's the type of review the hottie would post. I'm truly sorry to anyone who might've been offended. By thumbing up her review, salonistas, we are complicit in enabling her in whatever twisted behavioral predilection she has toward felines.

Should we unthumb it?

Robert

#348: Why bother? I suppose the damage is already done.

That's a good question. I think what's important is that both individually and collectively we're able to live with ourselves and keep a clean conscience. Personally, since I didn't give it a thumb, I'm not faced with that decision. I think it comes down to doing what you feel - personally - is the right thing to do.

Though as a group - and as the group's leader....far be it from me to direct any of you into doing something against your will...I'm a free speech man all the way...I can't stand censorship, but, only because...have you seen how many people here in LT are in to their cats? It pains me to think that so many LT users with their cat logos might be put off by hottie's review and thus a decrease in salon membership soon follow. I'm not telling anyone to do anything, though I think it's safe to say that my position on this issue is clear.

no no no, please don't unthumb my review. It took me forever to write it.

You can't be serious, Freeque. I think maybe you're just jealous that I have the #1 review right now and you don't.

And I will be interpreting my review of Twilight for rdurick. I probably wouldn't have, but you had to open your mouth and stick your foot right in it didn't you! You're such a control freak sometimes. Chill out dude. You call me silly? I think your salon is silly, and it's not even a real salon like the one I go to. Those hairstyles you've got going in the logo are so retro 80s, and retro 80s went out of style in the late 90s. Please.

Let "tnh" have her moment. It will pass and all the cat lovers will be able to sort the matter out for themselves. I doubt such as she can do anything but appear and disappear like any other summer phenomenon. So I say, let it rain.

Thank you, poor-ious, your support means a lot to me. And I am sorry for going too far with you the other day - the joke that was in bad taste, I mean.

Okay everybody, here's my promised interpretation of my Twilight review. First is the original text review, and the below that is my interpretation.

twilight b dope, u b dope u 2 dmb 2 c it cuz u jus jlus

That's called text, yo, and if u dnt no u b dope 2 dmb 2 no yo cuz ed he b hot c, i do hm n he like it he like it, not cuz he mikey yo, cuz i hotty n no 1 say no to hotty not ed not ted not fred no 1 cuz i hotty b noty n i no dnt say no let m bite n frght his fangs alrght 2 nite he no how 2 suk dam rght o! ed bites ed bites n i let him yo neva no neva no not ed cuz he bled 4 me period

Interpretation

Twilight is very good. If you don't think it's very good, then you're dumb, or you're just jealous that you couldn't write something as good as it and get paid tons of money for it.

What you're reading is called "text". If you don't know that what you're reading is text, then your streetwise intelligence is greatly lacking.

Edward is hot! I'll have sexual intercourse with him in a heartbeat and he'll like it, he'll like it. Not because he's like Mikey from that Life cereal commercial, but because I'm the ultimate hotty and no one says no to the hotty. Edward doesn't say no to the hotty; neither does Ted or Fred say no to the hotty. No one says no to the hotty. Why? Because I'm the naughtyhottie and no one but no one says no to the hotty because I never say no to anyone too.

Let me bite you, Edward. Let me fright you! Woohoo! Your fangs will be all right tonight for sure! Because, Edward, you know how to suck (darn right).

OMG, Ed bites, he bites...and I let him!

You never know, you never know, you might like it if Ed bit you too, you never know. Ed bites my neck and I bite his and there's a lot of blood.

Hope that helps, rdurick! Can you counterflag that review for me now too? Thanks again!

I did.

I found another Twilight review to flag. So it all worked out even.

Robert

Are you saying my retro 80's counterculture look is passé?

David, I think that if you are presently in a retro - 80 - Counter culture, you might be labelled a precursor instead of a has-been. If the retro wave takes approx one generation ( 30 years ) to come back in fashion and you need to count 5 or 10 years to develop a counter culture as a reaction, then you are at least 5 years in advance on your generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRKYsao2ciY&feature=related

A nod to to the nabir is as good as a wink to the wabsanti.

357. I have looked like this for 30 years. I think that makes ME vintage.

I thought fashion ate itself in the nineties and no one cared anymore. Maybe I'm just getting old.

358. Thanks for another great MP clip. :)

hottie's review is as hot as hot can be

A triumph of Le Mot Juste. 3 cheers for 'tnh', and none from the Bronx, please.

Wow. And some people are not pleased apparently. Now her review has been red flagged as "abuse" of tos as well as blue flagged "not a review". Uh-oh!

It too will pass.

Its funny how these systems never seem to have a mechanism for remarking on the more problematic issue of users who flag improperly. I don't like your review - I flag your review. I throw flags without respect to the guidelines - you have to suck it up.

I don't like your review - I flag your review.

Why don't you like my review slickdpdx? Why did you flag it? Why? Why me?

What have I ever done but love the salon with my whole being and my whole heart. And this is the thanks I get? Flagged! I'm so sure. I'm going to Coldstone Creamery right now and eat all the ice cream with crumbled Snickers I want and nobody can stop me!

Tough love!

Actually I meant that as a fictional other flag-crazy person's statement. The I that is me never flags, except a counterflag.

I guess hottie gets these flags from ex-lovers.

At work today I discovered this book, much to my horror.

Entr@pment: A High School Comedy in Chat by M. Spooner

It's written entirely in that text gibberish.

This is really the end of western civilization.

Oh DavidseXy thank you so much!

I'm putting that book on my wishlist right now!

Woohoo!

OMG I'm so stuffed from so much ice cream! And I feel so much better about the flags now too. Let them flag me! They're just jealous (jls - text) that I'm hot and they're not!

368 David, they said that too after "Finnegans wake" and still....

368: There are two young adult books written entirely in chatroom conversation text dialect, called TTFN and TTYL. I browsed them in the bookstore. They were pretty funny. I wonder if people wrote books in Morse code when it first came out?

Hi Anna
WhFor what stands TTFN and TTYL ?

So who's up next with a Tomcat Murr review? Any takers? I'd say we've got probably two more days before the hottie's falls off the charts.

373:
Ta ta for now
Talk to you later

(I had to ask someone about TTYL after seeing the book, it was a new one on me)

Just a guess:

TTFN - teen commits suicide, TTYL - other teens dabble in the occult in attempt to contact dead teen?

Please say "Yes."

TITE, MOF, TE.

This is the end, my only friend, the end.

Perhaps we should start a colony in the himilayas to preserve human civilization for future generations.

378...I don't know about that. Perhaps if the reviewers supplied you with their best lines from their reviews...maybe then.

378. I loved Lost Horizon too. The book and the film are favorites. :)

>377 DavidX: The Himalayas are very cold. Could it not be a lovely tropical island with all amenities? I'm in favour of the idea, though.

Slick:

YES!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_dHE5hQIA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4PSju9HYwU&feature=related

378 That is fine with me. Slice away.

378 - You may have all the lines you wish.

three seventy eight: Which notes would you like to remove? Kidding. By all means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVX7ePgFqyw&feature=related

What great fun to spray out these little gems. And the amazing availability of them, as the Poet of POMES PENYEACH would put it. Apologies to those who find ULYSSES a work which passeth their understanding.

Reggie, go for it. (but why not the hottie's review as well?)

and aren't there readers who have not yet submitted a review? David? Slick? Wilf?

388: Yes, it's OK with me. I am kind of intrigued by this idea.

387: haven't found the nugget in lotcm that speaks to me. enjoyed the book, clever literary conceit. speaks through the ages, anticipates post-modernism. master storyteller. just no nugget.

ETA unfinished story lines very intriguing. thought tcm was a rare breed, but too many cats and dogs were literate to make him very special. legend in his own mind.

Fair enough Wilf. 'The nugget' is all important. I found several in it this time round, that i did not find the first time I read it.

it remains one of my all time Great Books.

Nuggets?

He: Ah, there you are monsieur lephilosophe. And what are you doing among all these loafers?
Do you also spend your time pushing wood? (What they scornfully call chess & checkers.)
I: No, but when I have nothing better to do, I always enjoy watching for a while those who push it well.
HE: In that case you rarely amuse yourself; accept Legal and Philodor, the rest don't know what it's all about.
I: You are hard to please, and I see you only spare sublime men.
HE: Yes, in chess, checkers, poetry, eloqyence, musick, and other baubles. What's the use of mediocrity?
I: Very little, I agree. But you see there must be a lot of people trying in order to discover the genius. He is one of the crowd . . . But what have you been doing recently?
HE: What you and I and everybody else does, good, evil and nothing. And then I've been hungry, and I ate, when I had a chance to; after eating, I was thirsty, and I drank, sometimes. Meanwhile, my beard grew, and when it came I shaved it off . . . That's the way you are, you philosophers, you think that the same happiness is made for everybody. What a strange vision! You decorate that queer idea with the name virtue, and you call it a philosophy. But are virtue and philosophy made for eveyone? Imagine the world wise and philosophical; admit that it would be devilishly sad. Here! Long live the philosophy of Solomon: drink good wine, gorge yourself with delicious food, roll over pretty women, rest in soft beds - the rest is vanity.
I: What! To defend one's country? . . .
HE: Vanity! There are no more countries: from one pole to the other I see none but tyrants and slaves.
I: To serve one's friends?
HE: Vanity! Do we have friends? And even if we did, why should we make ingrates of them?
I: To follow a carrer in society and do one's duty.
HE: Vanity! What does a career matter as long as you are rich, since we take up a career only to become rich. Do one's duty? Leads to what: jealousy, trouble, persecution.
I: To raise our children?
HE: Vanity! A tutor's job.
I: Suppose your sort of tutor, using your principles, neglects his job? Who will suffer?
HE: Not I. Maybe my daughter's husband, my son's wife.
I: Suppose they dishonor themselves?
HE: They are Rich!
I: What makes rhose social butterflies so delicate about their amusements is their profound idleness. Since they can never tire, they can't relax. Pleasure for them always a business, never a need.
HE: Good! A need is always disagreeable.
I: They wear out everything. Their senses become dull. They are bored. I don't despise sensual pleasures. I have a palate too, Good Wine; Good Food; I have a heart and eyes, and I likes pretty women; I like to . . . to expire in her arms; sometimes a great notion; in the company of my friends, doesn't displease me. But it is infinitely sweeter to help an unfortunate person . . . give useful advice, read something delightful, walk with a man or a woman dear to my heart, spend some instructive time with my children, to write a fine sentence, to do a job well . . .
HE: Then according to you we should be Virtuous people?
I: To be Happy, yes.
HE: Still I see alot of good people who are not happy, and alot of bad who are.
I: Says you.
HE: As long as I can be happy with the vices which come naturally to me. I'd be very queer to torment myself like a damned soul to twist myself into somebody that is not me. Simply to give myself a character that doesn't fit me. some very estimable Qualities, I'll admit for arguments sake, but would be Wormwood for me to aquire and practice, which would lead to nothing. People praise Virtue but secretly they despise it. They flee from it. But it freezes them. And in this world we've got to have warm feet. And it would make me ill-tempered, all this Virtue chasing. I've got to be pfunny and clownish, buffoonish, amusing. . . to cut to the chase, I don't care for your kind of Happiness or that of other Visionaries like you.
I: I can see my dear fellow, that you don't know what it is and can't possibly learn.
HE: No, God damn it! And so much the better. It would make me die of hunger, boredom, and maybe, even, remorse.

Hoffmann swallowed all of Diderot. He put much of it to use in KATER MURR. If you can find no 'nugget' there, sir, I suggest seeking out another currency.

Poor, what Diderot is that?

From Rameau's Nephew. The 'I' of course they would later call the 'nihilist.' The nephew was veneered by a mask of culture. He saw all as pantomime, the vile hypocritical posturings of the persona. If the nephew attains any greatness at all, it is in this pantomime, not in life. Not in the realm of mortal experience, as a man, but in the sheltered realm of aesthetic experience, as a clown.
My response was to WG not finding a 'nugget,' well fine, maybe no nugget for him. But the close reader will find Hoffmann dealing with all these issues.
oh, every once in a while I get to feeling like Ishmael in MD, I just got to knock the hat off someone, and it takes no special courage to do it in this way, ie. from the safe distance of my study.
From RAMEAU'S NEPHEW. Published in French in 1821. It went to Russia with the rest of D's papers after his death. In 1804 Goethe translated and pub. a copy of the original manuscript. Just when ETAH got a hold of it I can't say.
It just simplifies, to me anyway, how shall I act especially when no one is watching. Shall I act as the 'I' in RN, or the perennially silly nephew. Golly, you can read just about anything with this in mind, can't you. Forgive my chatter. These days i have alot to say, or as Trollope would understand it: I think I have alot to say.

Very interesting. I recently read Jacques the Fatalist, actually mentioned in TCM, and I also found many of the same ideas from JLF in TCM. I need to read more Diderot: Jacques blew my mind.

With that little ponderous sentence: 'The nephew was veneered' I was trying to say something but my little sentence collapsed in upon itself. It happens, but my meaning struggled through, or up as the case may be. I trust. I should have simply answered your question. But it is unusually cool here in Michigan, so I have much more gumption for these sort of things than I usually have in the Dog Days of Summer. Yes they start in the first week of July with the helical rising of Sirius, or so I am told. But there I go again, as "Dutch" Reagan said to Jimmy Carter.

Of course, I did not say there was nothing worthwhile to be found in LOTCM, nor that I found nothing worthwhile in reading it the first time. In fact, I listed several features that I like. I just have no insight of my own at this time to form a review. I no longer write book reports since they have ceased to contribute to my GPA.

That is your choice 398. It doesn't have to be so dreadful as a book report. It could be full of whimsy like the 'tnh' or filled with matter like tcm, annapdx, or macum, et al. For mine own humble effort, it was stitched together in a couple of hours, I'm certain that it displayed all the faults of a hurry-up job, though it was fun nevertheless. As to the 'nugget' thing, well that's how you felt, I respect that, I was simply trying to stir the pot, or push along the argument. Isn't that what these forums, or whatever you call them, are all about. Maybe I had better get my golf clubs out of the attic.

Forgot I sold em so I could buy a Complete Arthur Machen, oh well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jw1gl0-zEI&feature=related

Yeah Wilf! Ulysses has no nuggets and you certainly had no problem writing a review of Ulysses now did you!? Maybe you've got a case of . . . Chicken McNuggets. Bawwwwwk bawkbawkbawk...bawk....bawkbawk....

Well spoken, EF. Maybe 'tnh' can mine that vein of hers for another 'nugget.' Or nuggets. But I realize that one can only go to that vein so often. But in vain
do I look to my vertiginous whether vane for direction of some variety.

and don't forget solla's & Pekoe's reviews too. Those were full of matter.

Matter, indeed!

EF, I think you're confusing nuggets with noogies. Admittedly, Ulysses has no noogies.

But the center of Ulysses and of my review is the love story, the image of Molly and Poldy on the high heath, the tragedy that threatens their marriage, what Bloom is willing to do to fix things up. "Greater love hath no man . . ."

To get back on topic, the thread I find most interesting in LOTCM is Master Abraham. The unfinished story of his separation from Chiara. His whole story, in fact. He seems a sort of Frankenstein character, delving too deep in the art of alchemy until he comes close to discovering the dark secret, not of nature, but of powerful people who will control his destiny.

Who is this Abraham, apart from savior of discarded cats and composers? What does he have to say to me?

I probably did mean noogies. It's just, Wilf, I'm being selfish, since I want to read something superb, and I know you'd knock another one out of the park if you sat down and wrote something about Tomcat Murr, I just know it! We all do.

But I respect what you're saying.

Something of an apology: I spent some time talking about Samuel Johnson and Jane Austen in my little review. If it seemed to some that I treated them roughly, that was hardly my intention. I revere the name of Sam: Johnson and I relish any opportunity to peruse something from his oeuvre, or something written about him (I am currently reading Meyers' biography). And what finer pleasure than to pick up a novel by Jane Austen and drift into that bright tight little world of polite company, etc. Of course there would be no place there for such as me, a yahoo from dear dirty Detroit, Michigan, I must be content to read Miss Austen's novels, and read about her in fine books like David Cecil's, and loving essays by that 'Janeite' Arthur Bingham Walkely.
I was merely bringing attention to the idea of Imagination and what it meant to S.J. & J. A. and what it meant to ETAH.
If you remember to chapter in TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf wherein Mr. Ramsey retires for the night with a novel by Walter Scott in hand. The Mr. R. who was ensconced in a pride of aesthetes, who was always going on about 'reality' as though it were a hard, angular, well-scrubbed kitchen table, blind to the flamingo clouds of the Imagination.
I was simply bringing attention to the fact that this realm, the fantastic realm of the Imagination, wherein tomcats could distinguish between a male and a female caesura, was out-of-bounds for the long suffering Docktor, and Jane Austen - who as it seems faithfully read THE RAMBLER and everything else she could get her hands on. Of course Leslie Stephen was a giant of Common Sense who would have no ravens, or cats at the writing desk.
I swing back and forth between these two worlds, one of Common Sense and the other of Uncommon Nonsense, so I trust that my swing holds together, because I have the feeling that the safety net is no longer there.

that's macumbeira's blog, salonistas. well worth your investment of time . . .

Warning ! There are several master and margarita reviews on my blog.
If you do not want to spoil your first reading don't go there.

Did you notice that our ravings about TCM some months ago has pushed LT ownership of that fabulous book from 198 to 250 !!

Great observation Mac! By my calculations, that's a 26.3% increase in ownership, in a relatively short time.

The power of the salon compelled them.
The power of the salon compelled them.
The power of the salon compelled them....

For lovers of Hoffmanniana and all things Hoffmann, the real Hoffmaniacs:

Gofmaniada - a russian animation film with dolls, based on the stories Klein Zaches, The Golden Pot and The Sandman, but also featuring Herr Hoffman himself.



First 20 minutes:
http://mults.spb.ru/mults/?id=2700

Russian news item:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl27t6xRI3c

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gofmaniada

three hurrah's for Pim ! hurrah hurrah hurrah

Amazing Pim, thank you!