thursday afternoon and books and Hemingway
It's been raining all day. I've been on calls. That's all done now, I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off.
I'm between big reads right now. In other words, I've finished all the novels and longer works. I've been reading short stuff. Last night I read the title story from Murakami's Men Without Women. Sadly, I didn't like it. What I did like I projected to it, or the story made me think of things totally unrelated to what I was reading.
Finished the Hemingway documentary last night. In the end I'm left feeling it's a very, very flawed documentary. If only because of the forced present day morals and ideas applied to a time when those morals and ideas were nonexistent. (For example, having a modern day psychiatrist tell me he was suffering from mental illness and if he was treated now wouldn't undergo electroshock is obvious and a waste of my time. If you didn't know this you probably shouldn't be watching this documentary, but, I get it, this documentary was made for the lowest common denominator, so, you over explain... And, yes, I get that we wouldn't survive in the MeToo world we live in now. But....he did all this literally a 100 years ago, so...two very, very different worlds. This isn't to condone bad behaviors, (Cuz, by all accounts, he could be a REAL bastard) but to understand the context. Frustrating.) The sign of a truly great masterpiece is that it can stand outside of time. You can read it 100 years later and it still holds all its power. The best of Hemingway's stuff does this. Anyway, having spend six hours over the course of the past three nights, the Esquire period of his writing interests me (again). I have his selected journalism, and I've read some of what's n that book, I think I'll read/reread all the Esquire stuff I have next.
The latest edition of the Red Right Hand Files was about "Camille Paglia’s dazzling ‘Break, Blow, Burn’." This looks interesting. Looks like the same kind of thing done in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, only with poetry. I LOVED 'Rain,' so, I'm game right now for anything like it. I've also got The Portable Chekhov coming in the mail sometime this week, if the postoffice sees fit...
So, anyway, some shorter stuff for a while. Then I'll dig into something longer, I think. That list of books is LONG.
I'm between big reads right now. In other words, I've finished all the novels and longer works. I've been reading short stuff. Last night I read the title story from Murakami's Men Without Women. Sadly, I didn't like it. What I did like I projected to it, or the story made me think of things totally unrelated to what I was reading.
Finished the Hemingway documentary last night. In the end I'm left feeling it's a very, very flawed documentary. If only because of the forced present day morals and ideas applied to a time when those morals and ideas were nonexistent. (For example, having a modern day psychiatrist tell me he was suffering from mental illness and if he was treated now wouldn't undergo electroshock is obvious and a waste of my time. If you didn't know this you probably shouldn't be watching this documentary, but, I get it, this documentary was made for the lowest common denominator, so, you over explain... And, yes, I get that we wouldn't survive in the MeToo world we live in now. But....he did all this literally a 100 years ago, so...two very, very different worlds. This isn't to condone bad behaviors, (Cuz, by all accounts, he could be a REAL bastard) but to understand the context. Frustrating.) The sign of a truly great masterpiece is that it can stand outside of time. You can read it 100 years later and it still holds all its power. The best of Hemingway's stuff does this. Anyway, having spend six hours over the course of the past three nights, the Esquire period of his writing interests me (again). I have his selected journalism, and I've read some of what's n that book, I think I'll read/reread all the Esquire stuff I have next.
The latest edition of the Red Right Hand Files was about "Camille Paglia’s dazzling ‘Break, Blow, Burn’." This looks interesting. Looks like the same kind of thing done in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, only with poetry. I LOVED 'Rain,' so, I'm game right now for anything like it. I've also got The Portable Chekhov coming in the mail sometime this week, if the postoffice sees fit...
So, anyway, some shorter stuff for a while. Then I'll dig into something longer, I think. That list of books is LONG.