| |
 |
Saturday, April 12, 2008 |
A few more days and Carlos Ruiz Zafón's new book, El Juego del Angel, will be out. If you have read Zafón's earlier book, La Sombra del Viento, you will know what I am talking about.
You can download three of his unpublished stories here. And if you hadn't already downloaded the music to La Sombra del Viento a year ago, you can get it there too, with some desktop wallpapers.
5:33:27 PM 
|
|
|
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 |
Scotsman: "A housewife from Dundee who became the last woman to be jailed in Britain for witchcraft was framed by a team of British intelligence officers who worked with or for James Bond creator Ian Fleming, according to new research."
Fleming never amounted to anything really worthwhile and that includes his writing.
11:54:33 AM
|
|
|
Sunday, May 13, 2007 |
I have just finished reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. An amazing book. It gives you the feeling of being taken apart bit by bit and then put together again with each part cleaned. You are left with a knowledge of the state of all your parts. In short, Murakami writes literature that doesn't leave you cold.
It is said that Murakami is unJapanese. Well, stuffing your books with references to Western literature and music does not make them unJapanese. Murakami is firmly lodged in the Japanese tradition of storytelling. He is a master storyteller. He tells us stories, that is he makes the unreal look real. If you can turn totally unrealistic things into almost palpable stuff, you are a master.
His craftsmanship is in line with the Japanese tradition of storytelling as well as the Western tradition of the dream allegory. The Wikipedia entry for Pinball 1973 says: "the plot is not intended to be interpreted allegorically". Ah, but in really good literature, things are more complicated than this.
Murakami works a lot with things that can be interpreted allegorically, the well pops up in many of his books, there are the dreams or surreal happenings. If anything is allegorical, it's a dream. Of course, when you start naming things as an allegory with a specific meaning, you are overstepping the boundaries. Great literature manages to bring across something of the mystery, the secret behind our own being. Murakami does that.
So even when there is no intention of producing allegories, there is something present that gets at the bottom of things (the well again). Even when Murakami says he hasn't put any meaning in his works, it is there. How can this be?
Simply because when Murakami writes and is not consciously making plans, schemes, and doesn't force his inspiration through his conscious intentions, he - as a talented writer - cannot but bring those things to the surface that are already deeply embedded in his subconscious. And we know that our dreams do have a relation to our deepest anxieties, wishes and situations. His stories seem to pop up like the bubbles in a bottle of fizz when you pop the cork.
Murakami's works come from deep down and like every good story they tell us something. It's not always easy to pinpoint exactly what, but like every work of art it skims that which lies beneath the surface.
His books are a coming to terms with his own life, his Japaneseness, his anxieties, his wishes. He is rooted in Japanese history, as a writer, but also essentially writes about modern Japan, its anxieties, its cutting loose from the restraints of feudalism and militarism, its search for individualism in a very group-oriented culture. His many references to Western culture are a sign of breaking loose, which may make him less popular among the Japanese literati steeped in tradition. But the well from which his stories pop up is essentially Japanese. However, his appeal is universal. Maybe that's because he is writing about 'la condition humaine'. He is a master storyteller, tout court.
Getting a copy of the English translation of Pinball 1973 will cost you hundreds of dollars, some ask $800 for it. Which is ridiculous of course, it's just because the translation is out of print. But you can buy the Japanese book new for Yen 420 (US$ 3.50), and used copies for Yen 204 ($ 1.70). You only have to learn Japanese.
What do you think is worse? Asking $800 for this book or ...this copy?
Haruki Murakami website.
11:18:48 AM
|
|
|
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 |
LiterarySaloon: "Elfriede Jelinek's most recent German work is appearing chapter by chapter and only online: see chapters one and two of the 'Privatroman' ('private novel') Neid ('Envy')."
10:16:24 AM
|
|
|
Thursday, April 19, 2007 |
Guardian: "A Charles Dickens theme park opens in Kent next month. Don't go expecting grimy Victorian authenticity, says Simon Swift - just enjoy the Great Expectations log flume."
The Disneyfication of literature. People want to be amused, they don't want to hear about social things in this our greedy world. It's commerce and that can only thrive in an atmosphere of merriment. It was the best of times and it was the ... best of times.
10:49:56 AM
|
|
|
Friday, April 13, 2007 |
Wikipedia: "While a prisoner of war, Vonnegut witnessed the aftermath of the February 13-15, 1945 bombing of Dresden, Germany, which destroyed much of the city. Vonnegut was one of just seven American prisoners of war in Dresden to survive, in an underground meatpacking cellar known as Slaughterhouse Five."
Guardian: "Vonnegut's writing career spanned more than half a century and saw him produce 14 novels (many of which were bestsellers) as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays. He ranged from the conventional science fiction of his 1963 novel, Cat's Cradle (which hangs around the discovery of 'ice-nine', a substance with the properties of water but which is solid at room temperature) to the satirical Breakfast of Champions (1973) and the semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five, the catalyst for which was his own experience as a soldier with the US 106th Infantry Division and as a prisoner of war during world war two."
Custodians of Chaos by Kurt Vonnegut.
Kurt Vonnegut on The Daily Show.
10:43:59 AM
|
|
|
Saturday, March 31, 2007 |
Two teachers in California have created a new Literature Trip site in which they present their own literature projects as Google Earth placemarks.
It is their intention to add literature projects made by other people as well.
Wonderful site.
11:07:43 AM
|
|
|
Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
Susan Sontag: "A great writer of fiction both creates - through acts of imagination, through language that feels inevitable, through vivid forms - a new world, a world that is unique, individual; and responds to a world, the world the writer shares with other people but is unknown or mis-known by still more people, confined in their worlds: call that history, society, what you will.
But of course, the primary task of a writer is to write well."
What you so often see is that people read (if they read at all) to be distracted from the real world, to have a good laugh; in short to be amused and entertained. That's the realm of television (and please forget about its informational value or task in the present time, it no longer has any - on the contrary, the task of television seems to be disinformation). Some people don't even notice the beauty of the written language. The only thing they are focused on is the plot, the story. They can't be bothered about the rest.
No harm, you would say. Well, not really. Quite often every attempt to point to the real meaning(s) or value of a novel, to elucidate it or attempt to understand the connotations to the real world, are ridiculed and torpedoed. They only want to be amused and will twist anything that does not conform with their own limited views.
You will find many of these among the collectors of every edition of their beloved writer. Fortunately not all of the collectors fall into this category. But there is a caste of literature groupies that resembles more that of stalkers and pop fans.
11:40:00 AM
|
|
|
Tuesday, February 6, 2007 |
|
Monday, December 25, 2006 |
© Copyright 2008 Hetty Litjens.
|
|
|
|
| April 2008 |
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| 13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
| 20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
| 27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
|
|
|
| May May |
|
|
