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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Biblioteca Barbelith

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12:26 / 19.12.01

I'm in for the Iliad/Merlis combo, as it should prove interesting to me as I've had little exposure to "queer lit."

Although, if we're doing the Iliad, I may have to bandy about some crackpot theories from Julian Jaynes' "The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind."

00:44 / 09.01.02

Is this the first sentence of Pyrrhus?

"Start with the boy, Pyrrhus."

01:00 / 19.01.02

Suggestion for the clubs next book - INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace - one of the best things published in the past ten years. I've gone through it three and a half times and would gladly cruise through it again.

06:53 / 21.01.02

Isn't Infinite Jest rather, ah, long?

11:00 / 22.01.02

Biblioteca Barbelith "Building Bigger Biceps while Building Better Brains."

pointless and uncalled for

11:18 / 22.01.02

I'd like to suggest Tales of the Night by Peter Hoeg.

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:21 / 22.01.02

Fuck it: nobody will really want to read it, but I figure that a barbewide reading of Ulysses could be a goer. Either coinciding with Bloomsday or not, I reckon a meaty dissection of the tome would be a Good Thing. Persephone's expressed interest in reading it, so I'm probably going to reread it in tandem with hir anyway - the more the merrier would be my view.

Then again, this may fall victim to the same problems that books like Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest do, I guess; namely cost and length. But hey.

Failing that - there's some Lovecraft or Poe stories online as etexts: anyone up for any of those? Do you know the dread cthulhu? Or Roderick Usher? Want to read 'em? Eh? Eh?

12:26 / 22.01.02

I was going to suggest a [small voice]nice little nordic saga[/small voice]

...but let's get this round started before we start really considering what to read next.

16:02 / 29.01.02

So yeah, Rothkoid and I are going to read Ulysses together and, first stop, I second his nomination of the same for the book club. You can readpeople's opinions in this thread.

I sort of also had this idea --since everyone seems to say that Ulys is best enjoyed aloud-- of recording ourselves reading parts and posting them online, this alongside the discussion.

It just seems so cool for the book club, to me. Rothkoid and I are going ahead with our reading regardless and welcome any joiners, but I wonder what people think about having a de facto second channel for the book club?

Also, question, after Iliad/Pyrrhus, did we not agree that Canticle would be next? (I have procured a copy.)

Don't need an immediate answer, just wanted to file a post here for laters...

Jack The Bodiless

00:01 / 02.02.02

I'm late getting down to the whole Iliad thing, but I'm fascinated, and willing to read quickly to catch up...

And can I recommend 'Song Of Solomon', (the love songs/poetry in the Bible, not the Toni Morrison book - which is wonderful in it's own right...) as the next one?

Actually, or 'Beloved', by Morrison, or 'The Woman Warrior' by... I forget the name of the author. Both deeply wonderful. And (in an effort to get some trash in there), 'Only Forward' by Michael Marshall Smith always makes me cry. But I recognise that it's probably not in the spirit of the book club...

01:57 / 02.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Jack The Bodiless:
'The Woman Warrior' by...

Maxine Hong Kingston.

<making a little face>

19:22 / 04.02.02

Kick ass book - based on the same story the Disney flick "Mulan" was made from.

Only with a grandma eating furry demons in it.

11:47 / 11.02.02

Was wondering what's next in BookclubLand and when?

11:56 / 11.02.02

Well... I was hoping that we could get a bit more out of the Iliad discussion (because I think there's a lot more to say apart from the thoughts on heroism that we've already thrashed out - and what happened to the people who were reading Pyrrhus?) before we actively started solicitng for the next round. Unless we want to speed up the cycle of the whole book club thing, of course (which would work for me, but I'm conscious that some people just don't have as much reading time...).

Anyway, IIRC we had some nominations floating around - for A Canticle for Leibowitz, Ulysses, Infinite Jest, a Peter Hoeg, and... uh... some other stuff (which is on this thread anyway).
So there are a few options to start thinking about.

Can I just reiterate - that anyone can start a thread on any book at any time. In fact, please do. I'm at something of a loss as to how to ramp up the forum & would appreciate any ideas (in view of the fact that Barbelith is going to be revitalised shortly).

12:36 / 11.02.02

suggestions for next book club:

Something by Marquis de Sade

Story of the eye Bataille

I don't know, something "transgressive."

13:59 / 11.02.02

I was hoping for more Iliad, too, but it was starting to sound like one hand clapping... even two hands clapping starts to sound a little sarcastic, if you think about it too hard.

As for "transgressive," doesn't Pyrrhus fit the bill?

Show of hands for Pyrrhus?

14:24 / 11.02.02

Yes, I know... I'm not quite sure what happened there - based on the enthusiasm in the 'Notes and Queries' thread, we should have been able to keep it going for longer. I will bump it up again and see what happens.

Pyrrhus - my original idea was that this one could be added to the Iliad discussion when it began to run out of steam - a way of 'queering' the discussion (as I think Haus suggested). But it's really up to everyone - I'm not going to pick something on my own.

17:08 / 11.02.02

How about some non fiction?

Er - Christopher Hitchens' No-one Left To Lie To?

Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test?

A Chomsky?

Something like that?

07:03 / 12.02.02

Yeah, I should really really read some Chomsky. My only quibble is that the resulting discussion would probably be more suited to the Head Shop than Books...

10:02 / 12.02.02

Why not choose two books? One fiction and one nonfiction. Then the participants could choose which book they read and discuss it, or if they have an overabundance of time; they could read both books and take part in both discussions.

11:06 / 12.02.02

Can do - though I am conscious still of differing burn rates - I read quite quickly and have time to get through a fair bit, but other people may not.

16:57 / 12.02.02

originally posted by Kit-Kat Club:

more suited to the Head Shop than Books...

I disagree; but even so, let the thread roam if need be.

I think it's a bit worrying that we can only discuss works of fiction in the books forum...

19:05 / 12.02.02

I sort of feel that the thing with the book club is critical mass... to me, ideally you want at least five people reading and posting about the same book. I think it would be great to have separate book club "channels" & you could pick the one that interests you, only I am not sure that there are enough people to sustain multiple discussions at the moment.

Of course anyone could read any book alone; but a book club is a different activity than just reading & you sort of have to feed its special dynamics--recruiting and so forth.

06:58 / 13.02.02

Quite. Actually, I think we probably *could* just about sustain multiple discussions, but I think we might find that the same people are posting in them. But I don't know - we could always try it...

NMA - of course anyone can talk about non-fiction in the forum, & of course the thread could roam. But I still think the kind of discussion that some non-fiction would prompt would be more immediately headshoppy than bookish (unless you want to talk about Chomsky's style and structure, which would probably work best here). Why don't you start a non-fic thread and see what happens?

(Is there anyone out there who reads history books?)

16:25 / 13.02.02

Kit-Kat: Good idea. Will start it in the abstract first, but may hit on a book later to go for as a Book Club choice...

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:08 / 13.02.02

Actually, I reckon a Book Club-style treatment of Chomsky would be great: we could bat the resulting thread back and forth between here and the Switchboard, Kit-Kat. I'd like to recomment his recent 9-11 because:

a) it's slim

b) it's in a very accessible format that requires very, very little (almost nothing) in the way of previous knowledge of the subject matter

c) it ties in some of what I understand to be Chomsky's more general/oft-repeated points with very recent and high-profile events (obviously)

d) everybody needs to read this book...

17:15 / 13.02.02

[stamps feet] But I wanted to do Hitchens...

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:17 / 13.02.02

I want to do Hitchens too. With a plank.

06:59 / 14.02.02

No planks in the Books forum, by special request of the moderator.

I don't mind which we do - I'll read both of them. But I can't buy any more books for another fortnight, so...

16:07 / 14.02.02

Shit. Now I gotta try and find Hitchens and Chomsky in a bookshop in Wrexham. No mean feat, y'know...

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:25 / 18.02.02

So, er, is anyone else up for this? Chomsky book clubbing, that is? C'mon, you're supposed to be a bunch of revolutionaries but all you ever talk about is comic books and sex. And the Iliad.

08:25 / 18.02.02

I can't find the damned thing - where do they put it in chain bookshops?

The suggestions we've had which have gained some sort of response so far are: 911 - Chomsky, Ulysses, A Canticle for Leibowitz, & Infinite Jest. I would like to try a saga - perhaps Njal's Saga - but I might well do that anyway, & maybe also the Hitchens which NMA suggested.

Who wants what?

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:25 / 18.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Kit-Cat Club:
I can't find the damned thing - where do they put it in chain bookshops?

Well, more seriously, this is the problem - I'm not sure they do. The commie bookshop on the way to Gosh! comics has it, though (come out of Tottenham Court Road and head East, past the Centrepoint, the evil 101 bar and the equally evil Forbidden Planet
on your right, then take the first left and it's on your left). Other similar places will have copies, I imagine, but that might not help people stuck in the sticks/provinces.

[ 18-02-2002: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

08:25 / 18.02.02

I'll look out for the Chomsky, if that's the choice.

What about Peter Robb's M? I bought it last year, but haven't had a chance to read it yet and it looks *so* inviting, though another large tome.

10:03 / 18.02.02

Thought I'd lost the previous post. Strange.

[ 18-02-2002: Message edited by: Cavatina ]

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