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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

2005: What are you currently reading?

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01:56 / 27.10.05

The Other Hollywood: The Oral History of the Porn Industry and Transmetropolitan : Lonely City. Legs McNeil des the same slam up job with the porn industry as he did with Please Kill Me-the uncensored oral history of punk.

paranoidwriter waves hello

15:36 / 04.11.05

'Confessions of Zeno' by Italo Svevo. I'm only twenty pages into it, but I'm really enjoying this book already (and believe me, it's been a while). The writing is excellent, and as a smoker I can empathise with the narrator's attempts at trying to stick to a set date and finally quit the cancer-sticks:

"Once when I was a student I changed my lodgings, and had to have the walls of my room repapered at my own expense because I had covered them with dates. Probably I left that room just because it had become a tomb of my good resolutions, and I felt it impossible to form any fresh ones there.

I'm sure a cigarette has a more poignant flavour when it is the last."

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:58 / 04.11.05

Just started the new Houellebecq, "The Possibility of an Island". So far (about fifty pages) it's ticked all the boxes as far as misanthropy goes, and it's his funniest since "Whatever" (I don't really get why everyone considers "Atomised" his defining work- personally I think it was his weakest book by far). I thought the SF element was gonna put me off (not because I dislike SF- in fact, it probably makes up about 90% of my reading- just that that's not what I read Houellebecq for, and because I didn't think he'd do it very well... as I say, I'm only 50 pages in, so there's still amplke opportunity for him to embarass himself with it, but he's showing no signs of doing so thus far).

08:58 / 08.11.05

I am reading, and loving, Kafka's The Trial, one of those gaps that I had always intended to fill some time. Now I do not know why I waited so long!

A work colleague tells me that Orson Welles, commenting on Joseph K. in The Trial, merely said, 'Oh-- he's guilty.'

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:47 / 22.11.05

Just finished Philip Roth's The Plot Against America about an alternative history for his family if Lindberg rather than Roosevelt had won the US Presidential Election of 1940 and so kept America out of the Second World War whilst ramping up anti-Semitic tensions instead. I did enjoy it, but the last chapter is rather messy, I can understand it explaining what happens up on a national level and then going back in time to do it for Philip's family, but when Philips' father and brother are travelling across the country on a mercy mission it skips around all over the place so one paragraph they're going, then they're coming back, then they're still going, then they've arrived home, then it's filling in on something that happened while they were coming back, then they're still going again. And there are character's whose fate is left hanging, such as Philip's Aunt Evelyn or cousin Alvin.

Anyway, now flicking through Derek Jarman's Garden a book of photos, then it'll be Sabriel by Garth Nix, which is tremendously popular with 'the kids'.

12:42 / 22.11.05

Just finishing up Anthony Burgess's Kingdom of the Wicked for the third time. Its been a while since I read it and still as good as ever. Definitely worth a read.

NP

13:48 / 22.11.05

I've been asked to add more to the above poor post so here goes:

Kingdom of the Wicked is Burgess's attempt to retell the early years of Christianity from a very humanistic point of view. Christ is treated as merely a man, only appears in the early chapters and from then the story takes a more historical bent.

Many personal stories mix in with genuine historical characters. The descriptions of a dying Emperor Tiberius and his relationship with a young Caligula hungry for power are especially strong bringing to mind Gore Vidal's screenplay for Caligula minus the added erotica. Nero's growing madness and the inability of his advisors to control him are also memorable withe final days of his reign strangely moving.

This was a time of great change for the Roman Empire and Burgess underlies the social problems and potential Jewish rebellions with the issue of the growth of a new faith. Biblical individuals are mixed in with believable characters such as Sara, Caleb and Cornelius. There is a real feeling of gritty politics here as well as cruel torture and plenty of over the top sex. Perhaps the criticisms of BBC2's Rome are flawed after all!

I doubt that any born again Bible literal Christian would enjoy this matter of fact tale of the birth of their religion (which is a relief) but as a typically Burgess multi-language strewn text this is hard to beat for anyone with a more open mind.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

04:16 / 24.11.05

I'm reading Alice Hoffman's The River King. It's quite a solid read, dangling it's toes in the murder mystery river, although at times the private school setting shuffles too far into turgid adolescent flail. I like, however, that it is unrepentantly gothic, in the literary sense - the symbolism is so crystalline and apparent and I find it rather funny as a result. Hoffman's point of view is loose - a quality I admire, she roves around and lets the characters flow into each other at unexpected moments. It is not rigid, or constricting in that sense. There is the odd bit of paranormality to it, and I'm driven to find out how it ends, which means it's doing something right...

11:39 / 24.11.05

I've just started Justina Robson's Living Next Door To the God Of Love. Never read any Robson before, but the first chapter alone is enough to make any fanboy cream his pants, set in a virtual comics world as it is. After that it goes to some kind of near-future UK where a teenage girl is about to do a runner. Nice writing, only just started though. Anyone read any more Robson?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:04 / 26.11.05

I've read Silver Screen, which I'd actually forgotten about until the other day when a friend at work, who'd just started it, asked if it was any good, as she'd picked it up for about 20p secondhand somewhere.

"Yes" I said. "I must remember to read her other stuff".

Now I remember it, Silver Screen was fucking wicked. I think there was even a doomsday cult in there somewhere. And I love that shit.

(Actually, it may have made me cry. But everything does these days).

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:01 / 30.11.05

Currently I'm reading Make Love... The Bruce Campbell Way, by, well, Bruce Campbell. It's a novel disguised as autobiography, or the other way round, or somewhere in between, about Bruce's attempt to become an A list actor by appearing in a film with Richard Gere. If anything, it's actually funnier than If Chins Could Kill. Bruce is the MAN.

sdv (non-human)

09:09 / 05.12.05

Thought others might enjoy this:

Babylon Babies Maurice G.Dantec ... published by semiotext(e) 2005

At least as good as China Meville, The Wu-Ming collective, Gianna and others...

Lovely...

11:21 / 15.12.05

The only thing I've been managing to read apart from lots of academic writing and filmic theory is a novelisation of the BBC series This Life. The characters are painted in pretty broad strokes so in alot of ways it's purely an excercise in nostalgia. The omniscient third person perspective sometimes offers comment on actions playing into character's psychologly. Sometimes it works well in this way, it makes Milly and her bosses relationship seem a bit tenable and Egg seem a bit more likeable. Other times it seems seem out of whack with what I had previously thought of a character and tends on the jarring.
Still funny in places but not unexpectedly it is a very light read.

OJ

14:12 / 16.12.05

Taking a little break from fiction, I've just very quickly read Aimee and Jaguar, by Erica Fischer (translated by Edna McCown) after seeing the excellent film of the same name.

I don't read much biography, so I'm not accustomed to unpicking it, but this one was interesting. It's subtitled "A love story, Berlin 1943", the romance being that between a Nazi housewife and a German Jewish lesbian living underground.

It's interesting on a couple of levels, neither of them romantic in the slightest (unlike the film, which is to an extent).

The detail about the incremental outlawing of Jewish citizens is of course horrifying in its mundanity. But this is probably documented in many other places.

The insight into women's lives, and the lives of civilian populations in general during war was fascinating for me. How people survive, who it's okay to scam money from, who you trust, how ordinary extraordinary events become etc.

There is also a really fascinating friction between the avowed romance between the Aryan woman (Lilly Wust - who survived) and the Jewish one (Felice Schragenheim - who didn't) - and the acquisitiveness of the Aryan population towards the Jews' possessions. Does she want to possess the woman she passionately loves or does she feel a right to possess her worldly goods? The two are pretty confused and the ambiguity is extremely uncomfortable.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

01:40 / 17.12.05

As mentioned on Page 8 of this thread, I've yet to finish Delany's Dhalgren. So I started it again this evening, and this time I refuse to be distracted. This time the "Ulysses of science fiction" shall crumble before my steely gaze. Oh yes.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:18 / 18.12.05

Just finished The Treason of Isengard by Christopher Tolkien, which covers old J.R.R.'s first drafts of the end of Fellowship of the Ring and the start of The Two Towers, how he originally envisaged scenes like Gandalf's fall and return, and the treachery of Gollum. If you're not already into LotR then it's not going to grab you.

Now I'm reading LOCAS: The Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez, first time I've tried any of the Love & Rockets stuff. It's way too heavy to carry to and from work every day though so I'm also reading Glass Soup by Jonathan Carroll.

20:30 / 18.12.05

I'm reading Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice For All Creation, which is fun, and which means I am also (not to put too fine a point on it) full of fascinating facts about sperm. It's a very enjoyable popular science book, with the 'problem page' layout not played up as much as I thought it might be -and since I've not been able to find many biology books that aren't aimed at experts I've enjoyed it for that reason as well.

23:08 / 18.12.05

I@ve been mainly reading Has Modernism Failed? Suzi Gablik, a discussion on capiltalism and how graffiti will save us all. Next, the Art Question, Nigel Warburton, which walks through 4 different philosopical theories on art, the most interesting being the Wittgenstein's family resemblances. The conclusion he comes to in the end is slightly dissappointing and in reflection to the rest a little rushed, like he only had five more minutes before the exam ended. And now I have to finish John Hoffman's Beyond the state and then onto Max Weber and the theory of modern politics, David Beetham.

Also, just finished David Gemmell's Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow! (but without the exclamation point), Dave returns to Lion of Macedon/Ghost King period, Historical fiction (not history as it was but as it should of have been, I seem to remember from a preface to one of his books). Still, started off well, got sluggish during the middle and failed to set fire after that. But still a Gemmell. So still the best place to dissappear in for a few hours.

One more, just started a novel about the Vampire Hunter D, which I hope will be good. Which it should be, if the hand turns up alot.

"...you're not so bad after all, you just dress bad."

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:15 / 19.12.05

Shantaram by ex-crim Gregory David Roberts. I was a bit dubious about it, but I'm absolutely loving it. Only halfway through, it's the story of a bloke who escapes from a maximum security prison in Melbourne, and flees to India. It tells of his experiences there, and of slum life. I don't know how realistic it is, having never been to India, but there's certainly something infectious about the writing style.

I find myself smiling at the book a lot, thus far - though I'm only about 300 pages into it (it's about 900?) and am sure there'll be something horrible coming up soon.

wembley can change in 28 days

07:06 / 22.12.05

I'm halfway through DF Wallace's new collection of essays, Consider the Lobster.

I love David Foster Wallace in a very pure and honourable way, and that pretty much sums up how I feel about the book so far. He's even getting me all excited about John McCain, for chrissakes.

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