What are you reading at the moment??

[Kelly B]

Confederacy of Dunces is a thoroughly wonderful book!  There is also a non-fiction book called Managing Ignatius by Jerry Strahan all about being a manager for the real Lucky Dog hot dog vendors in New Orleans which is equally as amusing.  There is also on Canal Street in New Orleans a statue of Ignatius J. Reilly in full lumberjack/hat with flaps regalia!  I love that city!

As far as what I'm reading at the moment, now that fall break is here (from grad school), I'm reading The Liar by Stephen Fry and enjoying it immensely, largely for its satirical bits about the pretentiousness of English faculty and students about literary theory.  As someone being slowly driven mad by theory, this book is making me feel that maybe I'm not the only one.

I also just finished Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and loved it, as well as the latest Robin Hobb paperback.  Other than that it's been children's fantasy lit, Renaissance English poetry/drama, history of imperial Britain, and endless amounts of theory for school.  Blergh!

[Kelly B]

For taxing, try "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser - that, after "Jonathon Strange" got me through Xmas and New Year!

Jonathan Strange was my last book for the summer, and I really enjoyed it.  The history was a lot of fun, since I've studied probably too much English history, and the mix with fairy and magic was thoroughly enjoyable.  I also really enjoyed The Quincunx.  Another hefty but fun to read tome is The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber.

[Heidi G]

I also just finished Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and loved it,

Crivens!  The next Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle is out?!

GOTTA pick that one up.  My kids are running around sounded like NMF right now as it is (well, somewhat edited Feegles...) 'cause we're reading The Wee Free Men together.

Thanks for mentioning it was out, Kelly B!  I needed something to make me smile, and you just did that.

As for theory, I tried to cram as many of those classes into one semester as I could, just to get them over and done.  May have to pick up Liar as well, sounds funny and interesting...

[lucy]

Jonathan Strange was my last book for the summer, and I really enjoyed it.  The history was a lot of fun, since I've studied probably too much English history, and the mix with fairy and magic was thoroughly enjoyable.  I also really enjoyed The Quincunx.  Another hefty but fun to read tome is The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber.

Wasn't The Crimson Petal and the White gorgeous?  It was so opulent yet earthy.  I didn't like Jonathan Strange as much as I thought I would but think it's remarkable nonetheless.  I love Stephen Fry - wish he'd write more (although then he wouldn't be on the telly as much so that'd be a double-edged sword).  Have you read Tom Sharpe?  His Porterhouse books are brill on academia although Terry Pratchett's Unseen University would be my fave institute of higher education!  Can't wait to get my hands on Wintersmith *happy dance*.  Loved Thud.

[norby]

Jonathan Strange was my last book for the summer, and I really enjoyed it.  The history was a lot of fun, since I've studied probably too much English history, and the mix with fairy and magic was thoroughly enjoyable.  I also really enjoyed The Quincunx.  Another hefty but fun to read tome is The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber.

Wasn't The Crimson Petal and the White gorgeous?  It was so opulent yet earthy.  I didn't like Jonathan Strange as much as I thought I would but think it's remarkable nonetheless.  I love Stephen Fry - wish he'd write more (although then he wouldn't be on the telly as much so that'd be a double-edged sword).  Have you read Tom Sharpe?  His Porterhouse books are brill on academia although Terry Pratchett's Unseen University would be my fave institute of higher education!  Can't wait to get my hands on Wintersmith *happy dance*.  Loved Thud.

Are talking about Jonathan Strange and Mrs.Norell?  I bought that waaaay back when it first came out but never got around to reading it.  I should now that I have so much time on my hands I suppose.

[lucy]

That's the one, Norby - definitely worth a read.

[Kelly B]

I also just finished Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and loved it,

Crivens!  The next Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle is out?!

GOTTA pick that one up.  My kids are running around sounded like NMF right now as it is (well, somewhat edited Feegles...) 'cause we're reading The Wee Free Men together.

Thanks for mentioning it was out, Kelly B!  I needed something to make me smile, and you just did that.

As for theory, I tried to cram as many of those classes into one semester as I could, just to get them over and done.  May have to pick up Liar as well, sounds funny and interesting...

You are more than welcome.  I, too, was in desperate need of something to make me smile and thus stayed up till 2am reading the new Pratchett the day I got it.   

And I think that if I tried to take all my theory classes at once I really would go completely insane.  I have to kinda space out the pain, y'know?   

On a note related to both of these topics, however, has anyone else who has been tormented by theory noticed a strong Lacanian flavor to (of all books) Where's My Cow??  I know Pratchett has expressed distaste of critics in the Discworld novels, but I just keep finding Lacan's stuff in that book. 

On the other hand, maybe the theory has already taken its toll...

[Kelly B]

Wasn't The Crimson Petal and the White gorgeous?  It was so opulent yet earthy.  I didn't like Jonathan Strange as much as I thought I would but think it's remarkable nonetheless.  I love Stephen Fry - wish he'd write more (although then he wouldn't be on the telly as much so that'd be a double-edged sword).  Have you read Tom Sharpe?  His Porterhouse books are brill on academia although Terry Pratchett's Unseen University would be my fave institute of higher education!  Can't wait to get my hands on Wintersmith *happy dance*.  Loved Thud.

Yes, it was gorgeous indeed!  As for Stephen Fry, he's not on the telly much in the States, so he can write as much as he pleases in my opinion.    I haven't read Sharpe, but one of my professors recommended him to me, so he's on the (very long) list of stuff to read. 

I don't know about Unseen University, but I think I'd definitely have to try and join the Watch.  Thud!  was fabulous, and made even more so since I managed to write two papers about it for one class last semester.  It's so nice to write about a book that's actually fun to read, as opposed to the one I have due soon on The Faerie Queene... 

[Heidi G]

On a note related to both of these topics, however, has anyone else who has been tormented by theory noticed a strong Lacanian flavor to (of all books) Where's My Cow??  I know Pratchett has expressed distaste of critics in the Discworld novels, but I just keep finding Lacan's stuff in that book. 

Kelly B, can you elaborate a bit here?  My theory classes were all in rhetoric and writing theory, so I feel a bit ignorantly in the dark, but very interested in what parallels you see and why.  If it's not too much to ask, I'd love to hear/learn a bit more.

And don't despair, there are some beautiful verses in The Fairie Queene; if you need convincing, pick up Emma Thompson's Sense & Sensibility and fast forward/scene select to near the end.  You'll get to hear Alan Rickman read a bit of it to Kate Winslet.  I think that man could make a grocery list sound beautiful, mind you, but he really does capture the soul of the lines he reads.

[Kelly B]

Kelly B, can you elaborate a bit here?  My theory classes were all in rhetoric and writing theory, so I feel a bit ignorantly in the dark, but very interested in what parallels you see and why.  If it's not too much to ask, I'd love to hear/learn a bit more.

And don't despair, there are some beautiful verses in The Fairie Queene; if you need convincing, pick up Emma Thompson's Sense & Sensibility and fast forward/scene select to near the end.  You'll get to hear Alan Rickman read a bit of it to Kate Winslet.  I think that man could make a grocery list sound beautiful, mind you, but he really does capture the soul of the lines he reads.

Jacques Lacan was a French psychoanalyst who posited a theory of subjectification, the process by which we become individual selfs.  He basically said that when we're born, we have no concept that we are individual beings, but conceive of ourselves as part of an amorphous fractured whole.  This is called the Imaginary Order, where the child takes in images without perceiving them as separate things.  At about 18 months, the child passes through the Mirror Stage, either by seeing him or herself in a mirror or by noticing the lack of the (m)Other's gaze (Other is anything that is not the self; when the child conceives of the mother as separate from him/herself, he/she begins to conceive of self).  At this point, the child begins to enter into the Symbolic Order, where objects are symbolized by words.  Each time a child learns a word for an object, it adds another thing to the Other, until the child is a complete self.  There's also something called the Name of the Father (or Law of the Father), which I think signals that the child has fully entered the Symbolic Order, but I'm not entirely sure.  Lacan had an annoying habit of deliberately writing in a confusing manner to prove his point about language and the unconscious (and please don't ask me to explain what that is all about!  ). 

So, in Where's My Cow?, the loss of the (m)Other is shown when Lady Sybil leaves Sam and Young Sam for storytime.  Sam starts introducing Young Sam to one version of the Symbolic Order, before realizing that it's the wrong one.  The next night, Sam introduces Young Sam to the correct version of the Symbolic Order for his society, which also happens to be the Name of the Father (where's my daddy?).  And the fact that the last page has Sam saying, "Stop in the name of the law!  That's my daddy," while Young Sam responds, "Law," seems to doubly refer to the Name/Law of the Father in Lacan.

There's another part of Lacan where he lists the three stages of subjectification:

(1)   A man knows what is not a man;
(2)   Men recognize themselves amongst themselves to be men;
(3)   I declare myself to be a man for fear of being convinced by men that I am not a man. (“Logical Time,” 18, qtd. 40)

Here again, Where's My Cow? seems to be referring to Lacan.  In the first story Sam reads to Young Sam, he shows him what is not a man (and what is not a cow as well).  The second story has Sam showing Young Sam a variety of other people rather than animals, and, by using "where's my daddy?", Sam shows Young Sam that he, Young Sam, is a man among men.

I really hate this stuff (Lacan and the other theorists, I mean).  It just seems like they work at deliberately excluding people from understanding their theories in an attempt to make themselves feel intellectually superior.  Sorry for the mini-rant, I'm still adjusting to grad school. 

As for The Faerie Queene, it's not that bad to just read (although I do have to read it out loud to myself because of the funky spelling).  It's trying to get anything out of it that my professor will appreciate.  I tend to focus on the history of the time, while she's more into the allegory and religious aspects and not so much into seeing how the two overlap.

And as for Alan Rickman, he is definitely up there on my list with Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones of people who I could happily listen to reading ingredients off a box.    I loved him as the voice of Marvin the Robot in Hitchhiker's Guide!

[Jayne]

If you let me know what you want changing, Kelly, I can alter it for you. Hope you're enjoying the forum, by the way.

[Heidi G]

Wow Kelly Bi!  Thanks--I'll be giggling (strange reaction, but true) about that every time I read my copy of Where's My Cow now!

I really hate this stuff (Lacan and the other theorists, I mean).  It just seems like they work at deliberately excluding people from understanding their theories in an attempt to make themselves feel intellectually superior.  Sorry for the mini-rant, I'm still adjusting to grad school. 

Sigh.  Know just what you mean.  My entire class had a discussion (i.e. argument) with one of our profs that bad, incomprehensible writing should not qualify as good simply because it "speaks in the language of our discipline".  Being incomprehensible seemed to be a badge of pride/"superiority" for some of them.  Give me Murray or Selfe any day.  They both presented/present good, thought provoking writing theory without making you feel like you needed a special nonsense understander to interpret for you.

As for The Faerie Queene, it's not that bad to just read (although I do have to read it out loud to myself because of the funky spelling).  It's trying to get anything out of it that my professor will appreciate.  I tend to focus on the history of the time, while she's more into the allegory and religious aspects and not so much into seeing how the two overlap.

Hmmm, how about how the history of the time influenced the religious aspects that permeate the poem?  Didn't have to "do" FQ as an undergrad, but unless I'm remembering very badly (and I may be) it would seem hard to discuss it without discussing the hisortical/political climate of the time...

And as for Alan Rickman, he is definitely up there on my list with Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones of people who I could happily listen to reading ingredients off a box.    I loved him as the voice of Marvin the Robot in Hitchhiker's Guide!

Freeman and Jones, definitely!  ESPECIALLY James Earl Jones.  I'd watch a movie I hated just to hear him.  Think I may even choose him over Rickman, though  it would be a close race...

[Kelly B]

If you let me know what you want changing, Kelly, I can alter it for you. Hope you're enjoying the forum, by the way.

Thanks Jayne, I am enjoying myself! 

I also managed to figure out how to edit my posts (after posting them), so I got the last one unitalicized except where it should be.

Another book I just finished reading (yesterday actually; living up the fall break woohoo!) is Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's some wonderful combination of Jerry Stahl and Terry Pratchett -- complete and utter insanity with random rants and weird sex bits (okay, not that weird, but definitely odd...or something).  I finished it in a day, and laughed throughout most of it.  Not a book to read in a public place unless you don't mind explaining why you just blew coffee out your nose while laughing (and no, it doesn't feel good  ).

[Kelly B]

Wow Kelly Bi!  Thanks--I'll be giggling (strange reaction, but true) about that every time I read my copy of Where's My Cow now!

Glad I could give you a new and horrid perspective on Pratchett!!   

I really hate this stuff (Lacan and the other theorists, I mean).  It just seems like they work at deliberately excluding people from understanding their theories in an attempt to make themselves feel intellectually superior.  Sorry for the mini-rant, I'm still adjusting to grad school. 

Sigh.  Know just what you mean.  My entire class had a discussion (i.e. argument) with one of our profs that bad, incomprehensible writing should not qualify as good simply because it "speaks in the language of our discipline".  Being incomprehensible seemed to be a badge of pride/"superiority" for some of them.  Give me Murray or Selfe any day.  They both presented/present good, thought provoking writing theory without making you feel like you needed a special nonsense understander to interpret for you.

Part of the problem with the language in the theory I'm being subjected to is that fact that most of these guys were French or Russian, so not only did they write in confusing language originally, but they then had to be translated by someone else using confusing English.  Jack Zipes is a theory guy who's rather fun to read, though he focuses mostly on children's lit, especially fairy tales.  But he makes his works accessible for the average reader, not geared to impress other PhDs.

As for The Faerie Queene, it's not that bad to just read (although I do have to read it out loud to myself because of the funky spelling).  It's trying to get anything out of it that my professor will appreciate.  I tend to focus on the history of the time, while she's more into the allegory and religious aspects and not so much into seeing how the two overlap.

Hmmm, how about how the history of the time influenced the religious aspects that permeate the poem?  Didn't have to "do" FQ as an undergrad, but unless I'm remembering very badly (and I may be) it would seem hard to discuss it without discussing the historical/political climate of the time...

Yeah, you would think it'd be hard to discuss FQ without history, but apparently it's not.  Ah well, my prof is getting at least some of it in the paper I have due in a week.  I just really don't know how not to write about it.

 

[kevindj]

Belshazzar's Daughter by Barbara Nadel, who, according to the front cover, is the Donna Leon of Istanbul. High praise indeed, IMHO.