Ersatz TLS discussion

Another sad week at eTLS - the devastating news from Magrat about the loss of Bella, You're in my heart, Mags & Mr. M and poor, lonely Lotti. Hugs to all of you.


Interesting links...

(From this week's Literary Birthdays)

The Photography of Eudora Welty

The Paris Review Art of Fiction No. 14: Isak Dinesen

Five Ways to Read Henry James

Literary Quizzes

(Also from this week's Literary Birthdays...)

The Prose of Henry James

Trivia Questions about Karen Blixen

Literary Birthdays are here.

Thanks as ever Lisa.
And thoughts with the Magrat family..

I'm just done with Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías (translated by Margaret Jull Costa), and glad to see the back of it to be honest.
Though the atmospheric setting of Madrid provides stimulation, patience is required with Marias's indecisive narrator. In addition, there's a set of speculative characters to whom everything happens several times over. All this after a frenetic start, a death in the first pages, yet we don't get to know the narrator's occupation until page 70, and his name until page 195. Between, we are bombarded by detail; the description of the funeral alone is ten pages. There are such vast plot deviations that what there is of it would make only a short novella; and yet there is a strong concept here.
I was often bored though, and more than once considered packing it in.
Instead I came away with such memorable tidbits, as the word 'fletcherizing' one's food...
(to repetitively chew, as a dietary system, from Horace Fletcher in 1903).

Otherwise, I had a weekend crammed with vampires; two really good films, Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Both highly recommended.

Andy wrote: "vampires; two really good films, Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Both highly recommended. ),..."

I loved Only Lovers Left Alive. Well, I like Jim Jarmusch films in general ...

A nice cold start to the week, snow falling at 8am but it didnt settle for longer than 5 mins. This cold snap may discourage the more careless covidiot crew from losing all self control today....

The Hungry Grass is a joy, Richard Power has been a real find, an irish novelist who died at 42, only a few months after this novel was published.
Father Conroy makes me smile with his approach to life, a troublesome priest, bending the knee to nobody, intelligent, fustrated and slowly dying. He wanders his parish in the shade of the Wicklow Mountains with a world weary grimace....

Party Headquarters casts light on the dying embers of Bulgarian communism, military service,chernobyl and the feeling that while so many Bulgarians lost everything, the communist goons managed to escape with stolen funds and goods

Sad to hear about death of pets, i remember a family dog, a female lab called Jessie having a repreive from the vets(her back legs had gone, she was 13), as my father carried her back down the path to the house, all of us kids were ecstatic, oblivious to the idea of a days reprieve. That evening my youngest brother covered the kitchen floor with towels and padded seats from garden chairs, so she could walk around without hurting herself when she fell over. I remember before bed that night, saying goodnight to her, her tail was wagging and she was desperate to come towards me but couldnt. the next day, well that is history now, pets are part of families and i hope you are ok Magrat,. ( i cant remember why there was a reprieve though.....from the vets)

AB76 wrote: "A nice cold start to the week, snow falling at 8am but it didnt settle for longer than 5 mins. This cold snap may discourage the more careless covidiot crew from losing all self control today....

..."

It is not only chilly where you are, but some of us Peregrine 'crazies' are still waiting for Poppy to lay a first real egg (earlier one was not viable and was eaten) in Cromer. Since it's been cold there, us watchers have been pondering how much the weather is at fault.

I hesitate to offer up the webcam because watching can lead to addiction issues. So be warned and scroll down here - https://www.youtube.com/results?searc...

This is the second season for this pair whose nest box is on a Cromer church. Henry (the male) is named after a famous Cromer lifeboatman and Poppy (because the area is called Poppyland).

A carryover from last week -

AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Reading another study of mighty Germany Germanys Second Reich a themed study of the Imperial era, which i..."

If anyone ever gets to Wurzburg, please plan on spending at least a half-day at the Bishop's Residence. They really knew how to live LARGE! I would have drawn up a plastic chair just to spend time looking at Tiepolo's ceiling (of course - that was not possible)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

And the staircase -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%BC...

Andy wrote: "Otherwise, I had a weekend crammed with vampires; two really good films, Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Both highly recommended."


Only Lovers Left Alive is brilliant, such a pity it didn't get a wider release.
(view spoiler)[You drank Ian! (hide spoiler)]

AB76 wrote: "A nice cold start to the week, snow falling at 8am but it didnt settle for longer than 5 mins. This cold snap may discourage the more careless covidiot crew from losing all self control today......."
W

A frost here but it was warm enough to sit in the sunshine in my neighbour's garden in the late morning and have a cuppa or two. But the coats kept going on and off as the clouds passed the sun. Washing dried and lawns mowed, so a successful day.

Only three more days to HCD!

I gave up on two books during the last few days;

1599 A Year in the Life of Shakespeare which was more a case of a Year in the Life of London and not very interestingly written and Night Gate by Peter May which was the latest in his Enzo Macleod series. That was particularly disappointing as I had enjoyed the series up until this one. It was, however, in need of some serious editing.

I had more success with the second of Anja de Jager's Lotte Meerman series which I read in little more than a day. I enjoyed it very much and thanks to the person on TLS who recommended the series to me.

If I give up on a book I remove it from My Books, does anyone else do that?

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "A nice cold start to the week, snow falling at 8am but it didnt settle for longer than 5 mins. This cold snap may discourage the more careless covidiot crew from losing all self contro..."

interesting, so glad you have a pair. my local peregrine has failed to find a missus and has gone AWOL i think, though i havent checked his fave locations since easter

News today that veteran politician, Shirley Williams, has died at the age of 90. A long life, well lived, I had the pleasure of hearing her speak some years ago. The news has given me a nudge to return to her memoir, Climbing the Bookshelves, which I recall enjoying in the sunshine during the last lockdown, but then fiction called me and I put it to one side.

Another book I have recently returned to is A L Kennedy’s novel, Serious Sweet, long listed for the 2016 Booker. Can’t recall why I failed to continue with it, but am now a third of the way through the 500 and odd pages. Hope the two person narrative can keep a hold on my butterfly brain this time.

“Five ways to read Henry James” – I don’t subscribe to any of the feeds, so I couldn’t find out if I conformed to one of the five. But, I did just finish basically my first HJ, and I’m hoping that one of the categories is: “With Enjoyment”.

“The American” – Henry James.

There is obviously a spectrum among writers, from the compressed and purposely meaningful to the expansive and endlessly convoluted. Today we seem to admire mostly those at the tight end. We wish for nuance and subtlety, only it all has to be expressed in as few words as possible. Many of us have little patience for those at the other end of the spectrum who take all the time in the world to get to the point. Yet there is much pleasure to be had in the more relaxed style.

This is a case in point. I was waiting for it to turn precious, inflated and dull, and it never did. If the pace was measured (perhaps quite quick compared with his later novels), and refinement followed upon refinement, there was throughout a discreet enlivening humour, and something to savour on every page.

Early on in the story, a forward, practical, successful American man of business proposes marriage to a distant, restrained, beautiful young widow from the rank-conscious French nobility.

“The expression of pain and embarrassment had passed out of her face, and it was illuminated with something which, this time at least, Newman need not have been perplexed whether to attribute to habit or to intention, to art or nature. She had the air of a woman who has stepped across the frontier of friendship and, looking around her, finds the region vast.”

What’s wrong with that? Nothing, I say.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

You never quite know what to expect from a 'new' author, do you? Although I had some idea, thanks to the comments from others in eTLS... when it comes down to it, enjoyment (or otherwise) is determined by whether we 'get on' with the author's voice. In this case, I'm delighted to say that 'Excellent Women' was an entirely pleasurable experience - the observations were so precise, and frequently witty, that they often brought smiles, or even laughter.

And that's another thing... humour is very personal - I found an awful lot to amuse me in Pym's narration, and even though it seems this is the majority reaction, scanning a few Amazon reviews shows that some readers simply don't 'get' Pym. Is this because they read too quickly to notice the droll remarks, or because they do notice and don't find them funny?

For example, when the narrator Mildred Lathbury first meets the new occupant of the flat below her own, it is not (as she had hoped) over a civilised tea, but by the dustbins, as she "scrabbled a few tea leaves and potato peelings out of the bottom of my bucket. I was embarrassed that we should meet like this... here I was standing awkwardly in my oldest clothes, carrying a bucket and a wastepaper basket."

I can just picture that situation, and the feelings of poor Mildred... in addition, the choice of "scrabbled" is so exact, letting us know that there is an element of panic in her reaction to being suddenly confronted by her new neighbour in 'undesirable circumstances'.

I love it, but (apparently) some do not, for whatever reason.

giveusaclue wrote: "Anja de Jager's Lotte Meerman series..."

I think I was the one who recommended it - glad you liked it! Or I confirmed someone else's recommendation ...

Russell read The American by Henry James 'with enjoyment' 😀. I hope you try some more & continue to enjoy.

Good to see Barbara Pym has found another fan in scarletnoir.

Russell wrote: "“ did just finish basically my first HJ"

I'm pleased you enjoyed it - if you are interested, I tracked down my review from 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...

James in his later career determined that The American was melodramatic, further evidence that he had lost his mind by that point.

scarletnoir wrote: "Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

You never quite know what to expect from a 'new' author, do you? Although I had some idea, thanks to the comments from others in eTLS... when it comes..."

i must read some Pym, while i've been promoting Northern irish novelist Janet McNeil(who Justine loved), i have seen a lot of mentions of Pym

Who would everyone say Pym reminds them of most? I did try an Elizabeth Taylor novel, but it didnt agree with me, though that was a good 5-6 yrs back

MK wrote: "Cromer peregrines..."

You said the second year they'd nested, was last year the first? I ask because we usually go to Cromer every year and I've never known about them before. Obviously last year we didn't go, so if that was their first then I wouldn't have known.
We go for the tennis tournament in August and camp on a temporary site on the high school playing field virtually next door. I don't play but my husband does and he loves that tournament.
Last year we'd hoped to take our two young grandchildren for a few days, this year is looking possible. The site is open and the tournament is a maybe.
When we do go next I can add birdwatching to my list of tennis widow activities.

Tam, some more observations on Germany 1871-1945

1. it is interesting how among the federaration of states in Imperial Germany, how liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand, creating a national mood that was monolithic in time of crisis and expansion but more nuanced in times of "peace". However, confessional, cultural and social unrest in some areas was consistent throughout the 1871-1918 period, something which i dont think ever vanished and the Nazi's successfully tapped into this from the mid 1920s, with the post-Great War depression as a lever

2. I read a very good study of german militarism in the Imperial period and what was illuminating was the Prussian military spirit becoming more inflexible, a code of extreme intolerance to occupied nations and to any question of dissent or disobedience from occupied civilians. From the victories of the Danes, the Austrians and the French (1860-70) came a system of violent reprisals and military control of order that was very different to other nations. By the time of WW1, the policies and codes adopted in european and colonial wars were applied to occupied Belgium and France, harsh and violent reactions to rebellion or dissent.

This military code was then applied in WW2 but with even more violence and far less caution or semblance of judicial enquiry,by the Nazi militias(SS) and the German armed forces. The threat of violent, vicious reaction to civilian unrest was incubating for over six decades

Tellingly when WW1 started, all regions of Germany had a military commander, even the fatherland was a military run affair.

James Retallack is a brilliant writer and historian, his footnotes and commentary have led me to many upcoming titles on Imperial Germany which he divides into two eras:
1870-1888 Bismarckian Germany
1888-1918 Wilhelmine Germany

AB76 wrote: "Who would everyone say Pym reminds them of most?"

There's no easy answer to that (for me)... if I had to mention anyone, it would be Anne Tyler - both authors share an ability to observe the small things, and comment on them, with much of the humour arising from an extremely precise use of language which could be easy to overlook... though Tyler is American and deals with more modern characters (and attitudes) than the earlier and quieter British milieu portrayed by Pym.

My edition of the Pym contains this recommendation from Tyler, as it happens:
"Barbara Pym is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life."

Gpfr wrote: "I think I was the one who recommended it - glad you liked it! Or I confirmed someone else's recommendation ...

Russell read The American by Henry James 'with enjoyment' 😀. I hope you try some more & continue to enjoy.

Good to see Barbara Pym has found another fan in scarletnoir."

Thanks to you, and others... I think that I'll leave Henry James to one side for the moment, though!

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Who would everyone say Pym reminds them of most?"

There's no easy answer to that (for me)... if I had to mention anyone, it would be Anne Tyler - both authors share an ability to obse..."

thanks scarlet

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Who would everyone say Pym reminds them of most?"

There's no easy answer to that (for me)... if I had to mention anyone, it would be Anne Tyler - both authors shar..."
It must be forty years since I worked my way through all of the Pym novels, think there are a couple of hardbacks upstairs still. I remember thinking them quirky and full of ladies that I had met.

https://youtu.be/uA_in-_wiIg
Loads of books on show from a book loving family on Curiosity Incoporated Channel

SydneyH wrote: Russell wrote: “did just finish basically my first HJ"

Your earlier review of The American captures it nicely, and I will definitely at some point read another Henry James. Thank you to you and Gpfr for prompting me to read this one.

Barbara Pym

I have all her books, including:
Civil to Strangers which consists of a novel unpublished at her death, sections of others, short stories and an essay, "the author's only written commentary on her writing career"
A Very Private Eye. An Autobiography in Letters and Diaries

I feel some re-reading coming on!
Excellent Women is one of my favourites, as is A Glass of Blessings

AB76: “Tam…Germany 1871-1945”

There’s an interesting passage at the end of Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom where he sets out the fierce determination of the Allied leaders to stamp out every last vestige of Prussian militarism – not just Churchill but also Attlee, who one thinks of as rather mild, and FDR, who I at least hadn’t thought of as approaching Germany in a historical way. Apparently it explains the early insistence on unconditional surrender. They were not interested in a result which saw the end of the Nazi regime but left in place the German military apparatus as the party with whom the Allies had to negotiate.

Rather excited that I’m about to read The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, a rediscovered novel set around Kristallnacht. It's part Franz Kafka, part John Buchan, according to one review when it came out in Europe. Published here today, and I’m getting it on loan from our brilliant village library.

Russell wrote: "AB76: “Tam…Germany 1871-1945”

There’s an interesting passage at the end of Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom where he sets out the fierce determination of the Allied leaders to stamp out every last..."

i have yet to read that Clark book but its on my list and i totally agree with this analysis.

I see the original prussian military up to and beyond Waterloo, as a different beast to what emerged post 1848. Something in the water led the Germans into a belief in standing armies and huge reserve corps(in Britain we never had such large armed forces, even in empire days)

Historical issues with France possibly swayed the Prusso-German thinking, from the 1690s until 1810ish, the french had got the better of the Prussian armies, after Waterloo i think there was a feeling of needing a stronger force to keep France down

Russell wrote: "Rather excited that I’m about to read The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, a rediscovered novel set around Kristallnacht. It's part Franz Kafka, part John Buchan, according to one review wh..."

ooh, that is interesting, love german novels being re-discovered, interested to see what you make of the novel Russ

I am making a note of it now

AB76 wrote: "Tam, some more observations on Germany 1871-1945

1. it is interesting how among the federaration of states in Imperial Germany, how liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand, creating a nationa..."

I am late to respond to your comment last week:

The interesting part is the more catholic southern states that joined the empire in the 1860s, who traditionally looked to Hapbsurg Catholic Austria not Protestant Northern Germany

This is only true as far as Bavaria and the better part of Baden is concerned.

Württemberg has not only been protestant for centuries, it has been heavily influenced by the pietist movement (schwäbischer Pietismus) that was most puritanical in its essence. The Suebians shared more with Prussia than they did with Bavaria, let alone the Habsburg empire. The catholics had fun, the pietists had virtues.
Which wasn't all bad.
Nowadays Suebian protestants are, by and large, liberal, left-leaning and socially engaged, While the Pope's selling of old wine in new bottles is viewed as progressive, even revolutionary.

As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century and read (about) the influential thinkers of that time, namely Ludwig Börne and Heinrich Heine. And about the 1848 revolution.

so many fascinating rabbit holes to pop down!... eeek!... and it all rather sadly reminds me of just quite how little I do know, about European history... Great ceiling the one in the bishops palace in Wurzburg. I'm sure the painter must have been on magic mushrooms or something similar. Come to think about it lsd, was originally discovered in a mould growing on rye bread, and the Germans did eat a lot of rye bread?...!

When all this covid stuff is over I think I'd like to take a long slow train ride round the bits of Germany which (folklore, history and art and doors of course...) I have encountered under lockdown. But the main thing I am wrestling with is why idealistic, spiritually aspirational, and religious young people were so much in favour of war, as a spiritual 'cleansing' act. I can't blame it all on Nietzsche... (she said, very much tongue in cheek...)

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam, some more observations on Germany 1871-1945

1. it is interesting how among the federaration of states in Imperial Germany, how liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand, creat..."

Georg I have decided on rewriting the 'Franz Marc' essay as my next offering on my lazy blog, in order to hopefully shed some light on this question. No idea if I will succeed though... still it has made me think a bit...

Pomfretian wrote: "MK wrote: "Cromer peregrines..."

You said the second year they'd nested, was last year the first? I ask because we usually go to Cromer every year and I've never known about them before. Obviously..."

There was a mad scramble to put up a nest box in early 2019. The peregrines were there but with no place to nest. So that was the beginning. When you go there next time, I expect you can ask most any resident about Poppy and Henry and get an earful.

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam, some more observations on Germany 1871-1945

1. it is interesting how among the federaration of states in Imperial Germany, how liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand, creat..."

hi georg
i named baden seperate to Wurttemburg on purpose for the original comment (religious differences)

I studied 1789-1848 at uni and its a fascinating period, there is still much more for me to read. As a pro-German, i differ from many british perspectives of 19thc Germany, the current chapter of Retallack i am reading is looking at Germany in the eyes of the British through the 19th century, co-incidentally

I think the second reich had many positives and negatives, where a mighty nation rose and usurped france as the major european nation between the 1880s and 1914. Innovations in science, education and thought were embraced by the world. The downside was the colonial expansion, the religious tensions and the system of government where Chancellors were raised above the parliament. I am not sure what would have happened if WW1 had never occurred, though i feel the socialist movements would have got stronger and stronger, creating a reactionary backlash, possibly

Looking forward to this also.
Its Pushkin also, and a great cover.

Covid jab all done, very well organised at my local hospital good spacing, helpful volunteers and all done in about 10 mins

AB76 wrote: "Covid jab all done, very well organised at my local hospital good spacing, helpful volunteers and all done in about 10 mins"

And you are still alive and your arm hasn't dropped off yet?

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Covid jab all done, very well organised at my local hospital good spacing, helpful volunteers and all done in about 10 mins"

And you are still alive and your arm hasn't dropped off yet?"

not yet, just two fingers and an ear.......

AB76 wrote: "Covid jab all done in about 10 mins"

We had to sit in another room for 15 mins afterwards before being given our paper & allowed to leave

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Covid jab all done in about 10 mins"

We had to sit in another room for 15 mins afterwards before being given our paper & allowed to leave"

apologies, yes that was part of it (i meant the passage from front door to jab was 10 mins). I made sure i sat down and then stood outside in the nice cool air for another 10 mins

AB76 wrote: "not yet, just two fingers and an ear......."

Tee hee (I Think!)

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Covid jab all done in about 10 mins"

We had to sit in another room for 15 mins afterwards before being given our paper & allowed to leave"

That's the usual procedure for flu jabs at our surgery - though it's not 'supervised', so I always just clear off straight away.

For the COVID - no doubt because it's a very small space - they took people in (distanced) at one door, went through the Qs and formalities, gave you the jab and then kicked you straight back out through the back door! All done in 5 min or less...

MK - Wurzburg. Those pictures are wonderful, and they brought back memories. When I was 14 the family holiday was a camping trip round Germany (canvas tent, sleeping bags, tripod over the primus, everyone jammed in the Morris Oxford). My parents took us to Wurzburg specifically to see the ceiling and the staircase in the Bishop’s Palace.

While reading John Lukas' "The Duel," I found:

On the weekend of 13 July [1940, Churchill] told Colville that human beings do not require rest, "what they require is change, or they become bloody-minded."
Fourteen months of lockdowns, and I believe that Churchill was right.

Georg wrote: "...
As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century and read (about) the influential thinkers of that time, namely Ludwig Börne and Heinrich Heine. And about the 1848 revolution. "

Hardly anything of Börne's available in English, unfortunately, at least as far as I can tell after a quick online search. But perhaps there's something about him in English out there, if not by him. I will keep looking!

Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "...
As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century and read (about) the influent..."

i hadnt heard of Bohne, both Jewish which is interesting, lets hope somebody translates Bohne soon!

had a memory last night of leafing through one of my grandfathers copies of The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden, that my mother now has in her bookcase

What do people think of the novel, i like the idea of it and Godden is certainly an author, like Babs Pym that i need to explore

The Richard Power novel is educating me in the ways of the Catholic Church, as a fairly lapsed but respectful Anglican, i have very little knowledge of the traditions and services on the Catholic side of things

I felt i was neglecting the catholic novels of which there are many, themed around faith(Bernanos, late Husymans, Rodenbach etc)

Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh supplied the convert-Catholic british experience but its quite different to the Irish Catholic traditions

Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "...
As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century and read (about) the influent..."

I find that very strange. Börne and Heine are the two most prominent writers of their time.
What about academia? Whether you do research on the history or literature of that time you can hardly write about Heine without giving Börne his due, I think. Are these academics expected to read Börne in the original (even with an excellent command of German that would be challenging)?

I did my own quick search on Börne and came up with the same result as you. Just one article which you probably found already:

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/ar...

When we think about censorship we tend to think about the most extreme form of it, as it happened in Germany in 1933.
One hundered years earlier books weren't burnt. But the authorities felt so threatened by the revolutionary ideas published by many writers that they did everything in their power to shut them up, to destroy their existence.

Georg Büchners pamphlet Der hessische Landbote is the only piece of overt political writing he left.. In Germany he is as famous for that as he is for his small literary output.

It starts with the words Friede den Hütten! Krieg den Palästen! (Peace to the hovels! war on the palaces!).

I found this wiki article which gives you a glimpse on how writing could endanger your life during the Vormärz:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hes...

AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "...
As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century and read (abo..."

AB, by all means call him Borne, if you must (the correct spelling of ö would be oe, so "Boerne")

But please do not call Carl Ludwig Börne, born Juda Löw Baruch, "Bohne" (Bohne = bean)!

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "...
As for the German Reich: I think to really understand how it eventually came into existence you need to delve into the first half of the 19th century ..."

haha that was a typo...