Ersatz TLS discussion

Hello, everyone

Bill got us counting how many best books of the century / best Sci-Fi books we've read — maybe we had some surprises.
The conversation can of course continue here if people have more to say 📚📃.

Good reading to all, whether on or off the lists!

Thanks Gp.
I have been reading an old book off my TBR pile by Elizabeth George, the last of the Lynley books Something to hide and it’s not pleasant but I keep reading.
Why not pleasant? It deals with a subject not often mentioned, one of those almost taboo subjects, FGM, female genital mutilation. It makes one shudder to think of it and yet we know it goes on particularly amongst Nigerian or Somalian people.
It has been illegal in the UK for more than twenty years and punishable by up to fourteen years imprisonment.
How could a mother allow her daughter to be cut like this giving lifelong difficulties ? Usually the cutting is done between ages five and eight. It says in the story that it is done to make a girl ready to become a bride and produce children. A girl may be sold for a ‘bride price’ to a much older man and her value to the father is increased if she has been cut.
Sorry to introduce such horrors - I hope to learn more. Surely if such subjects are more openly discussed it might bring the end of such awful practices.
The worst that could be done to a female child had been done to her, she explained. ‘It’s called infibulation. But those who do this to girls – and those who did it to me – don’t call it that. They call it a rite of passage or female circumcision or making you a woman or cleansing you of the nasty bits or preparing you for eventual marriage or increasing your value to a man or increasing that man’s pleasure when he takes you, which is your duty as a woman. But it’s all the same at the end of the day. It’s being mutilated.’


It’s all about CONTROL again, the control of one individual by another. How often this occurs in various forms. Not only individuals of course, countries might ‘control’ the population, churches might seek to control the behaviour of their parishioners - that was certainly true in times past .

If you're not yet fed up with lists, Goodreads proposes A Reading Roadtrip Across the USA, 1 book per state + comments:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...

CCCubbon wrote: "Thanks Gp.
I have been reading an old book off my TBR pile by Elizabeth George, the last of the Lynley books Something to hide and it’s not pleasant but I keep reading.
Why not pleasant? It deals w..."

I've read this and of course agree with your reaction. I was trying to remember another crime novel I'd read where it was written about and it's just come to me: Ruth Rendell, Not in the Flesh. Here's an old article where she speaks against FGM, against which she campaigned: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/...

FGM is a disgusting practice. I think we can all agree (female or male) that it's not acceptable to have your bits cut off just because some religious or social practice deems it desirable - for "those who control", not for the poor victim.

Gpfr wrote: "If you're not yet fed up with lists, Goodreads proposes A Reading Roadtrip Across the USA, 1 book per state + comments:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2..."

I saw this, too - I've read just one - Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden... a very good read. I've read books by Percival Everett, but not the one listed which is 'James'. It looked like a list of recent books by mainly living authors rather than the 'best book' per state, but I may have misunderstood.

Edit: This list was written in 2019, but I didn't notice since it has reappeared on the G's book pages. Sorry.

And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its own list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

I've read 14, and will edit this to list them later.

Edit: the ones I've read are...
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Bill will be horrified! (I enjoyed it.)
Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan - very interesting... Dylan writes about his music making, but not much about his personal life.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - I liked this, but gave up on another of hers...
The Constant Gardner - le Carré in his late, preachy mode. Depressing and obvious - I didn't care for this one.
Gone Girl - another for Bill's bookshelf? ;-) Slight, cynical, entertaining. Not sure I could be bothered to read another by the author.
Brooklyn - not bad, but underwhelming when compared to the hype. An over-praised book which disappointed compared to the expectations raised.
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - brilliant and disturbing both as a graphic novel and as an animated film.
Levels of Life - the best thing Julian Barnes ever wrote - a moving memorial to his deceased wife, written in three sections dealing with different protagonists but linked by the themes of love and grief.
Atonement - you probably already know what I think about this one.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - a very good imitation of the thinking processes of an autistic boy.
The Road - anyone for cannibalism?
The Corrections - another one for Bill's collection? I enjoyed this, a lot.
My Brilliant Friend - OK, but the TV adaptation was much better.
Half of a Yellow Sun - excellent - Adichie's best to date, IMO.

scarletnoir wrote: "And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its onw list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

I've read 14, an..."

I've read 9, about 50% more books than on the Times list. I feared he would show up on the Times' list, but the Guardian managed to include the dreadful Stieg Larsson. Again, a nonfiction book stands out as the one really great read from those I read.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Tops the list of the worst books I've ever read)

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (this list mixes fiction and nonfiction as well. As with my nonfiction read from the Times' list, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, I thought this an outstanding book)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (a harrowing account of King's serious injury and slow progress toward recovery, but I've pretty much forgotten the rest of the book)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (an enjoyable read for comic book fans, but the turn to pathos near the end didn't work for me. On the whole, The Yiddish Policemen's Union was better)

Atonement (I thought it was OK, but prefer McEwan's earlier, edgier work)

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (Solomon’s own privilege blinds him to an accurate assessment of the experience of depression across classes, cultures, and throughout history)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (I enjoyed this pretty well, but it didn't get inside me like the best books do)

The Corrections (Oh, God, Franzen. A completely forgettable book, far less interesting than the story of Oprah's choosing it, Franzen's reaction, and the resulting fallout. Google "high art literary tradition" for details.)

The Amber Spyglass (the completely disappointing end to the engaging fantasy offered in the previous two volumes)

Uncertain Glory by Joan Sales (1971) is an epic novel of the civil war in Spain and has been heralded for decades.

Written from different viewpoints it covers the 1937-39 period on the Aragon Front in Spain. The observations of customs are interesting as a Catalan regiment gets used to the empty spaces of Southern Aragon, the backwards ways and the poverty, compared to the more educated and progressive Catalonia they all know.

Elements of anarchism, religion and communism intermix. Sales was unusual in the Republican side as he was a committed Catholic and defended his faith and his loyalty to the state. A lot of the content is autobiographical and like so many on the Republican side he was forced into exile once the Franco regime won the Civil War in 1939

scarletnoir wrote: "Gone Girl - another for Bill's bookshelf? ;-) Slight, cynical, entertaining. Not sure I could be bothered to read another by the author."

I've actually thought of reading Gone Girl since I've seen it compared to Highsmith.

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "If you're not yet fed up with lists, Goodreads proposes A Reading Roadtrip Across the USA, 1 book per state + comments"

I've read just one..."

I've read 3: Tom Lake, Demon Copperhead, The Lincoln Highway (which I found disappointing).
I've got but not yet read The Night Watchman.

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its onw list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.... I've read 14 "

I've read 9 ..."

I've read 27, but can't be bothered to say more just now :)

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Gone Girl - another for Bill's bookshelf? ;-) Slight, cynical, entertaining. Not sure I could be bothered to read another by the author."

I've actually thought of reading Gone ..."

Peak Highsmith is much better, but I suppose 'Gone Girl' wins if compared to late era potboilers such as the dreadful 'The boy who followed Ripley'.

Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out by a judge appointed by him!

Can anyone save the USA from President Elect Donald Trump?

I hope the NATO and other organisations have started to stockpile funds, ready for his 4 years of damage

AB76 wrote: "Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out by a judge appointed by him!

Can anyo..."


It's a little late for NATO methinks. It's not like Trump invented the talking point, he just amplified it, it's been around since Bush and Obama. After 9/11, the USA has largely decided it doesn't want to police the world and pay the cost. Even if the government has been slower at adopting the policy, a certain amount of isolationism has been growing for decades.

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its onw list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201......"

Hmmmm, on this one I've read 21, but of the remainder there are very few that hold any interest for me. It's a pretty boring list with a few truly mediocre books.

Paul wrote: "Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its onw list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201......"

Oh dear, I've only read 3. What a Philistine.

Paul wrote: "Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "And while we're on lists, the Guardian has posted its onw list of the 100 Best books of the 21st. C.:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201......"

Snap!... I have read 21 as well, but I'm not impressed on the whole, with the selection, and some of those I have read have barely stayed with me, though admittedly read quite a long time ago, for most of them. I haven't really got my mojo back from the various medical 'stuff' that has gone down in the last year or so. I currently think I'm doing quite well if I manage to finish 2-3 books a month, and I have found myself deliberately choosing the shorter interesting sounding ones on offer...

Werner Herzog's autobiography is still glaring at me from the bedside table, from 3 months ago, a quarter read. It was a present from the sprog, (we saw quite a few of his films together, as no-one else we knew was a fan) so I would feel a bit of a failure if I didn't give it something of a good go... As a sort of linked observation, I had similar problems with the biography of Bertholt Brecht. Brecht: A Choice Of Evils (Plays and Playwrights) Paperback – 9 Feb. 1984 by Martin Esslin (Author). I'm sure the author found him interesting, but didn't really like him very much. I'm always impressed how much 'witheringness' can be put into the art of the backhanded compliment...

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out by a judge appointed by h..."

too late for any chance to restrain Trump domestically too with a pliant SC and he will make sure this time he guts the civil service and removes whistleblower safeguards. A third term will probably follow with the SC paving a dozen ways for him to cement a legacy for decades after

Thanks for the new thread, GP.

On The G’s list, I'm another who has read 21. Some were dreadful (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a page turner, no more), some were disappointing (Atonement, completely flat, apart from the clever turn, another example of the movie being better than the book), and several were excellent (glad to see The hare with the Amber Eyes). Of the ones I hadn’t read, quite a few were in the category “I’m know all Guardian readers are supposed to have read them but they just weren’t enticing enough for me” (of which Piketty is the prime exhibit).

I too enjoyed giveus’s photos from Stratford. Some of those colours – that blue! - would have been way beyond the means of stage companies in Elizabethan times, but this doesn’t mean that actors did not have such costumes. I read somewhere that the lords and ladies of the court would sometimes donate their cast-offs.

Une Vie – Simone Veil (2012)

I came across this absorbing autobiography in a used book store and am about half way through. I never knew much about her personal history. I was just aware of this political figure across the Channel, the minister responsible for modernising the laws on contraception and abortion, who impressed one with her seriousness.

Her parents were non-practising Jews. She had a normal childhood centred on family, school, and the Guides. In stages from May 1940 their lives became tragic. She says that in Nice as much as in Paris the atmosphere was exactly as described by Irène Némirovsky in Suite Française. Eventually they all went into hiding, sheltered by different families. Apparently some three quarters of French Jews survived the War in this way – many more than in other occupied countries.

The day after managing to complete her Bac in March 1944 she was arrested in the street for having a false identity card. She survived nine horrific months in Auschwitz and other camps. Her mother died in Belsen. Her father and brother were transported to Lithuania and killed there. Two sisters survived the camps. Returning to France she found that no one wanted to hear what had happened to a deportee. For her though, these experiences were as indelible in her life as the number tattooed on her left arm.

I’m not sure I will read the sections on her later public life (minister in several governments, president of the European Parliament). The interest for me lies in what made her the figure she later became. From an early age she showed a strong spirit of independence., and a photo shows a four year old girl already with an assessing look. Observing her parents, she was determined that she would have her own career, unlike her mother, who relinquished a passion for chemistry in order to bring up a family while her father pursued his practice as an architect. After the War she married and had three boys while studying for her law exams and working full time as a judge in the prison service. She says that everything she accomplished in life was due to her mother’s character and influence.

It was Chirac who in 1974 plucked her from the obscurity and made her his minister of health. The annexes give the text of several of her speeches. Reading these it is no wonder she commanded attention.
…

A hundred pages into the Journal of Anaïs Nin I am tiring of the endless, pointless roundabout of moody self-absorption in her three-way affair with the Henry Millers, not to mention the monotony of the style. It cannot stand comparison with the humanity, compassion and commitment of Simone Veil.

AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out by a judge a..."

A third term is an absolute impossibility. The US constitution is not modifiable. If it was so easy, term limits for senators and representatives would have been implemented as was attempted 20-sone years ago

I know that former posters @LLjones and @Machenbach are fans of Marilynne Robinson and the latter also of WG Sebald. Are there any fans of these writers, apparently essential to these "best of the century" lists, among the current posters?

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out..."

Good to know, the US system throws up some "wierd shit" (to quote Dubya). I am still amazed we could get Trump back in November, he is pure Teflon....

I hope no one is planning to do anything foolish, like reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone

Bill got us counting how many best books of the century / best Sci-Fi books we've read — maybe we had some surprises.
The conversation can of course continue here if people have mo..."

Thanks for the link.

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Forget John Gotti...The Teflon Don, we now have Donald Trump, the Teflon Teflon Don

First he survives an assassination and now one of his cases is thrown out..."

The Constitution can be modified, as it was when the two-term limit for Presidents was added in the 1950s. However, it is a darn difficult thing to amend.

Logger24 wrote: "Une Vie – Simone Veil (2012)

I came across this absorbing autobiography in a used book store and am about half way through. I never knew much about her personal history. I was just aware of this p..."

There was a pretty good movie last year based on her life: Simone Veil, A Woman of the Century.

Bill wrote: "I know that former posters @LLjones and @Machenbach are fans of Marilynne Robinson and the latter also of WG Sebald. Are there any fans of these writers, apparently essential to these "best of the ..."

I've been impressed by the two Sebald books I've read, The Emigrants and Vertigo, and look forward to continuing with his work - The Rings of Saturn should be coming up soon.

I haven't heard anything about Robinson that would interest me in her work.

From the Guardian 21st-C books list I've read:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - by Stieg Larsson (2005)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - by JK Rowling (2000)
Stories of Your Life and Others - by Ted Chiang (2002)
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (2004)
The Amber Spyglass - by Philip Pullman (2000)

More than I'd expected, although there are only two I'd recommend without reservations: Mitchell and Chiang.

I think it's pointless to compare Stig Larssen or Rowling to more serious literary work. Larssen wrote a page-turrner, as Vermont logger mentioned, and I doubt he had any ambitions to be the next Graham Greene. Rowling was writing for children and so was Pullman, though I agree with Scarletnoir that this third book was a disappointment after the first two.

Berkley wrote: "I've been impressed by the two Sebald books I've read, The Emigrants and Vertigo, and look forward to continuing with his work - The Rings of Saturn should be coming up soon."

Reading descriptions of Sebald's work, it's hard for me to get a handle on him, but I kind of get the vibe that he's not for me (like many Eastern European writers). I checked the NY Times' recommendations if you like Austerlitz, it says, "Try “Transit,” by Rachel Cusk or “Flights,” by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Jennifer Croft" neither of which I'm interested in.

That said, I also have a kind of strange, probably petty, problem with Sebald’s title Austerlitz which would make me hesitant to try the book.

For me, Austerlitz is one of those names, like Gettysburg or Verdun, which have one overriding association. From everything I know about Sebald’s book, it has nothing to do with the battle of Austerlitz; it’s the name of the protagonist, who is a 20th century European. In thinking about taking up this novel, I feel like my associations with the name are a big piece of baggage I’d be carrying on board with no place to stow it.

I had a similar problem when reading Ravelstein. In it there’s a tailor Bellow named Gesualdo; he’s an extremely minor character who didn’t even need to be assigned a name considering the brief role he has in the novel. My problem was: Why did Bellow give the character such a portentous name if he wasn’t going to do anything with him?

Berkley wrote: "I think it's pointless to compare Stig Larssen or Rowling to more serious literary work."

The NY Times list seems to have avoided doing this somehow, though it's not clear how exactly. The sample ballots they published cerainly show this kind of mix.

But there are a number of readers and some critics who will claim that the high / low distinction is meaningless and that genre writing should be considered on a par with "literary fiction" (which, as John Updike noted, seems itself to have devolved into a genre in order to facilitate marketing). This is one of the implications of the 2001 Oprah / Franzen dustup which has made the incident seem to me in retrospect to have provided a kind of keynote for 21st century fiction.

Berkley wrote: "There was a pretty good movie last year based on her life: Simone Veil, A Woman of the Century."

Thanks, didn't know that.

Berkley wrote: "I've been impressed by the two Sebald books I've read, The Emigrants and Vertigo, ..."

I’m another who likes WG Sebald. Vertigo is actually the one of his I like best, and also the one I read first. It seems to be disregarded in favour of Austerlitz. His allusive, drifting, semi-factual way of creating a coherent whole out of his mental flotsam made an immediate impact, perhaps because I loved the way he used it to explore the sensibility of Stendhal, another of my literary heroes.

I’ve never read any Marilynne Robinson.

Bill wrote: "
Reading descriptions of Sebald's work, it's hard for me to get a handle on him, but I kind of get the vibe that he's not for me (like many Eastern European writers). I checked the NY Times' recommendations if you like Austerlitz, it says, "Try “Transit,” by Rachel Cusk or “Flights,” by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Jennifer Croft" neither of which I'm interested in.

That said, I also have a kind of strange, probably petty, problem with Sebald’s title Austerlitz which would make me hesitant to try the book.

For me, Austerlitz is one of those names, like Gettysburg or Verdun, which have one overriding association. From everything I know about Sebald’s book, it has nothing to do with the battle of Austerlitz; it’s the name of the protagonist, who is a 20th century European. In thinking about taking up this novel, I feel like my associations with the name are a big piece of baggage I’d be carrying on board with no place to stow it.

I had a similar problem when reading Ravelstein. In it there’s a tailor Bellow named Gesualdo; he’s an extremely minor character who didn’t even need to be assigned a name considering the brief role he has in the novel. My problem was: Why did Bellow give the character such a portentous name if he wasn’t going to do anything with him?"

I share some of those problems, but since I'm reading Sebald in order it'll be a while before I get to Austerlitz. For all I know, Austerlitz might be a common enough name in German-speaking countries that it doesn't automatically evoke the famous battle. At any rate, Sebald's already built up so much credit with me as a reader that I'll probably be willing to let him off with this lapse in judgement, if it is one, by the time I get to that book.

I agree it's difficult to categorise his work. I'm not sure, for example, that it's fair or accurate to characterise Vertigo or the Emigrants as novels - they seem more like a mixture of memoir and essay. The question of whether the memoir-like sections are partly or purely fiction doesn't feel too important to me - or at least it isn't something I found bothering me while I read or even afterwards.

edit: I just remembered that there are some fictional elements in The Emigrants (so probably in Vertigo too?) but it seemed very slight - more or less a thread to tie together his ruminations on various subjects.

Forgot to add - on the (algorithm-driven?) suggestions, have they ever had a good success-rate? Defining success subjectively here, from the readers POV. The only way I've found them consistently useful is in giving me the satisfaction of mentally jeering at how inept and/or over-obvious they are.

I suspect you're right about why Tokarczuk was suggested - roughly contemporary east European - and after a glance at her wiki page I think can guess that Cusk might have come up because of the way her recent trilogy is described:

"Outline, Transit, and Kudos. The books largely consist of an unnamed narrator chronicling the conversations she has with others, as she goes about her life as a writer...

Not exactly what Sebald does but probably sounds close enough at a glance, especially if it's just an algorithm comparing keywords, etc.

I've read one book by Tokarcazuk (The Passport) that I thought was pretty good but wasn't so impressed with that I put her on my must-read-more-of-this list, as I have Sebald. I probably will try something else of hers eventually. Cusk I haven't read but might try something soon, maybe one of her earlier ones, Saving Agnes or The Country Life, since I'm doing the 1990s.

Logger24 wrote: "
I’m another who likes WG Sebald. Vertigo is actually the one of his I like best, and also the one I read first. It seems to be disregarded in favour of Austerlitz. His allusive, drifting, semi-factual way of creating a coherent whole out of his mental flotsam made an immediate impact, perhaps because I loved the way he used it to explore the sensibility of Stendhal, another of my literary heroes. ."

Yes, Stendahl is such an interesting character. I've read only the two famous novels, but I'm thinking of trying Lucien Leuwen, though I'm a bit ambivalent about reading something left in an unfinished state - is it fair to Stendahl to read and inevitably in some sense judge a work that he hadn't finished preparing for publication? I think it's a different case to someone like Kafka, who probably never would have gotten around to finishing anything to his own satisfaction. Stendahl apparently did begin to revise Lucien Leuwen but never completed it.

Tam wrote: "Werner Herzog's autobiography is still glaring at me from the bedside table, from 3 months ago, a quarter read. It was a present from the sprog, (we saw quite a few of his films together, as no-one else we knew was a fan)..."

Herzog is a bit of a stirrer and awkward character... I like many of his films and have this book under consideration, though I haven't bought it yet.

If interested in autobiographies by film directors, I'd recommend Luis Buñuel's My Last Breath: The Autobiography of Luis Bunuel. Other than that, I also enjoyed François Truffaut's The Films in My Life and Hitchcock/Truffaut.

Logger24 wrote: "Une Vie – Simone Veil (2012)

I came across this absorbing autobiography in a used book store and am about half way through. I never knew much about her personal history..."

I know a bit about Veil from my time living in France - a very impressive woman - but haven't read the autobiography.

Berkley wrote: "I've read only the two famous novels, but I'm thinking of trying Lucien Leuwen, though I'm a bit ambivalent about reading something left in an unfinished state..."

I must confess to finding Lucien Leuwen a struggle. You wonder if it was left unfinished because he knew it wasn’t working. Much more to my taste – beyond the two great novels – was his Vie de Henri Brulard (which is where we find a lot of the material for Vertigo), the colourful histories in Chroniques italiennes, the wonderful musings of De l’amour (where he describes his theory of “cristallisation”), the charming and digressive travelogue Rome, Naples et Florence, and the lighter but entertainingly romantic novella Mina de Vanghel. I’ve read Armance and Lamiel but so long ago I now don't remember either of them very well.

Paul wrote: "A third term is an absolute impossibility. The US constitution is not modifiable."

I wish I shared your confidence. Given that his supporters have already attempted to overthrow the government once by force of arms, and that the Supreme Court (and many others) are in his pocket, and in addition that it has now been proved conclusively (to true MAGA believers) that "God is on Trump's side", what's to stop him and his supporters replaying this next time around, but with success?

In the meantime, his VP candidate reckons that the "UK could become the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.

(Note to our American friends - "According to the latest 2021 United Kingdom census, 3,801,186 Muslims live in England, or 6.7% of the population."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_i....)

In the meantime, the expensively educated JD Vance seems to have learned nothing at Ohio or Yale, since the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (its official name) first tested its nuclear weapons on... 28 May 1998. Hardly recent history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakista...

Sometimes you wonder if politicians are congenitally stupid, or if they just pretend to be.

Berkley wrote: "I agree with Scarletnoir that this third book was a disappointment after the first two."

That must have been someone else (unless I seriously messed up a copy/paste) as I haven't read Pullman, though at least one daughter has. From what I know, I admire his political opinions but can't comment on his writing.

Bill wrote: "From everything I know about Sebald’s book, it has nothing to do with the battle of Austerlitz; it’s the name of the protagonist, who is a 20th century European."

Thanks - I've learnt something there. I also assumed it had something to do with the battle.
FWIW, from the comments I've read about Sebald, my instinct or 'inner voice' also tells me that I'd be unlikely to warm to his books, and I have no plans to sample them any time soon.

Berkley wrote: "Yes, Stendahl is such an interesting character."

I tried to read The Red and the Black a very long time ago - at a time when I was minded to read as many classics as possible, and was favourably inclined to the French (as I still am, in general terms). I couldn't get into it at all, and gave up - at a time when I knocked back Dostoyevsky's great (and longer) novels with no effort at all.

So, for whatever reason (I don't remember) - Stendhal is not for me!

scarletnoir wrote: "Tam wrote: "Werner Herzog's autobiography is still glaring at me from the bedside table, from 3 months ago, a quarter read. It was a present from the sprog, (we saw quite a few of his films togethe..."

He is also someone who I suspect is a bit economical with the truth, and shifts his stories around a bit, both for greater affect, and to bigging up his role in order to get some bragging rites... So I am a bit conflicted about the book. But he is a story teller first and foremost I guess. If you do choose to read it I would keep that in mind, but I think I would order it from the library rather than shell out for it... if I were you, perhaps. I also have been left wondering if being brought up, very rurally, in only lederhosen, had an enduring psychological effect on him!... ? All that chaffing etc.

scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "A third term is an absolute impossibility. The US constitution is not modifiable."

I wish I shared your confidence. Given that his supporters have already attempted to overthrow the g..."

it looks like a dreadful four years ahead and i do wonder how far Trump will go in 2025, as he re-creates the role of President of the USA. Its amazing how shabby the US constitution and the separation of powers has been made to look. He basically has been told "continue as before"

Logger24 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I've been impressed by the two Sebald books I've read, The Emigrants and Vertigo, ..."

I’m another who likes WG Sebald. Vertigo is actually the one of his I like best, and also the..."

i'm Handke over Sebald every time, which i think was a discussion we had a few years back on the G. Though i do have Vertigo nudging me for a re read

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "A third term is an absolute impossibility. The US constitution is not modifiable."

I wish I shared your confidence. Given that his supporters have already attempte..."


I've got to ask, and this is an inevitable logjam I find almost always with Brits: why in the name of fuck are you so obsessed with US politics. Please don't to the usual Euro crying about how the USA controls everything, this is precisely the infantile response that is making NATO go bye-bye. I mean, it's hard to think of a country as profoundly fucked as the UK. You lost all your bargaining chips with Brexit, you have no natural resources that you don't pillage, and you don't have enough arable land to feed your population. I mean congrats on finally"electing" Labor, but you guys are a few decades removed from.living in turf huts and painting yourselves blue again. Farage is right around the corner, and European nationalist movements tend to lead a few million corpses.
So yeah, Trump bad, but I'll take the US constitution over the Lord's and Ladies Parliament any day of the week.

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "A third term is an absolute impossibility. The US constitution is not modifiable."

I wish I shared your confidence. Given that his supporters have alr..."

with me it stems from reading the Federalist Papers and the pamphlets from the 1770s about the pre-war debates over the status of the 13 colonies from 2020-2022 and looking at the USA afresh.

I'm not remotely patriotic about the UK or its systems of government, in some ways i think i believed too much in the strength of the american system and developed a rather rose tinted view of a jaded and un-modified system(14 amendments in over 200 years is not a lot).

The UK system is rotten too, i'm a believer in the worst of all worlds when it comes to the Anglo-Saxon establishment (US-UK-Aus-Can-NZ)

and i opposed brexit and knew it would be a disaster!

i would go with the Swiss system of govt if i could choose one...

scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Yes, Stendahl is such an interesting character."

I tried to read The Red and the Black a very long time ago - at a time when I was minded to read as many classics as p..."

i need to read Stendhal again, i too tried The Red and The Black but it stank., although i was younger and more rigid in what i wanted from a novel