Reboot

[davidjmcgee]

Hello.

It's been a while. Nearly two months. Here I am.

The past two months have been extraordinarily busy; The play that I'm assistant directing opens in less than two weeks. It's been an occasionally rewarding, occasionally frustrating experience. Perhaps I shall do a greater evaluation after some time has passed. At this moment, I'm far too

Comments

you mentioned books, so I had to put in my two cents...

[winninghamster]

I actually set a similar classics task for myself about a year ago, so here are my thoughts on the subject: the best of the best is Les Miserables. It's the kind of writing that leaves you numb for a couple days afterward. I don't know if you read french...if not, read the translated version but give your profoundest apologies to the spirit of Victor Hugo. Jane Eyre comes a close second. Read Lolita; Nabokov's style is unequaled and it's a good jumping off point for his other works. Shame on you for never having read Mark Twain--how did Mr Fenderson ever let you get away with it? His short stories are a fine beginning, as is Roughing It, though that certainly isn't short. You probably read Moby Dick junior year, but read it again, you'll appreciate it much more when it's not ruining your summer. DO NOT under any circumstances read Wuthering Heights....I thought Emma Bovary was an unapealing character, but at least other characters in the book are likable. Wuthering Height is the first book I've read where you just hate everybody. Demian by Herman Hesse, also brilliant, though I may only think that because I was in kind of an existential rut when I read it. And if you're going to pretend that 100 years of solitude is a classic you must go out this instant and pick up the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges. Start with Ficciones. This is even worse to read in translation, but better to read in translation than not at all.

Finally, I was at a used bookstore the other day and they had placed Tom Robbins in the classics section. Don't ask me why. But this gives you leave to read Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas as well as Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, my two favorites (because they're the most linguistically decadent and self-congratulatory, but what can you do...)...

Thus ends my diatribe. :) I haven't talked to you in a million years, but instead of a "how's it going?" you get a book rant. :) Oh, incidentally, this is Elizabeth Arlotti (don't fall off your chair!!)...I've been out of the country for a few years and everyone tells me that internet searching is the thing to do to reconnect with people. I personally think it's kind of creepy, but whatever. :) anyway, I was using my friend (she is winninghamster, notI) livejournal login to look around and I randomly found you. So, there you have it--a soapbox worth of classical literature opinions and a long lost hello. :)

Oh, one last bit--if you love GGM, try Louis de Berniere's magical realism trilogy...one's called Senor Vivo and the Cocoa Lord, one The Troubling Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, and I don't remember the third. It's heretical, but I like de Berniere much more than GGM.

Re: you mentioned books, so I had to put in my two cents...

[davidjmcgee]

Elizabeth Arlotti (and Elizabeth Arlotti's friend winninghamster), I darn near fell off my chair. I was fiercely curious when the livejournaler (livejournalista?) I didn't recognize seemed to know my senior year English teacher... had he stuck around for another year (sadly, Timmy F. left just before my senior year (and, oddly, I was actually the first student at the school to know that he was leaving as we had taken to discussing literature and how the next year was going to proceed)). So, Elizabeth et al, is there a way that I could contact you directly? Have you an e-mail address all your ownsome?

Re: you mentioned books, so I had to put in my two cents...

[winninghamster]

Yes, T Fenderman was the ill-used genius of Temple City High School. It's a shame you never had him as a teacher. Of course, my best discussions with him were not in class, but were after class when I should have been in physics. :) and yes I do have an email: sanyamakadi@yahoo.fr (and no that is not just as random smattering of letters...i'll tell you what it means if you're interested...)