Recent Purchases

[Mirabell]

In the mail today

Of Mind and Other Matters, Nelson Goodman
Suttree, Cormac McCarthy

[ions]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

Oh, stay away from Pinker. He's not quite over Chomsky which makes for dreary reading.

And do tell us how you liked the Gaddis. I am myself dipping into the Stephenson again (first time read) and into Gaddis' JR (for a reread).

Hugh MacLennan's name doesn't ring any bells for me. Care to elaborate?

I picked up the Pinker solely to see if I'm bright enough to catch the poorly thought out Psychological Darwinism arguments. Not my field so I don't catch them all but it's fun nonetheless. It's not likely I'll read it completely, maybe poke at it while on the can.

The only Gaddis I have read is Agapē Agape which I adored for what it was. Fun fun stuff that made me laugh and think, and so beautifully written. The Recognitions sits on my shelf awaiting my attention but I'll read that one last. I'm treating Gaddis as I did Pynchon, the magnum opus for the last. I'm greatly looking forward to all my Gaddis adventures. Reminds me that I do not yet own J.R. or Carpenters Gothic.

Hugh Maclennan is a Canadian author born in Nova Scotia. He did not ring a chime of any kind for me either until he was listed on the syllabus for my Canadian Literature course I start July 2nd. The little bit of background info I've done has informed me he's responsible for the 'Canadian' novel as it is today, as if it's a genre of its own. Previous to his work most Canadian fiction was of foriegners, as that's pretty much what Canada was from when it became Canada, writing as foriegners in Canada, a theme that is often considered very much Canadian even to this day. MacLennan's book is supposedly the first book about Canada by a Canadian. I'm a few chapters in and have been impressed by a few passages. Like this for example,

Even though his world was composed now of nothing but chance, it was unreasonable to believe that a series of accidents should ultimately matter. One chance must lead to another with no binding link but a peculiar tenacity which made him determined to preserve himself for a future which gave no promise of being superior to the past. It was his future, and that was all he could say of it. At the moment it was all he had.

Barometer Rising, Hugh MacLennan

which I rather like.

[Bjorn]

Picked up Heinrich Böll's Wo warst du, Adam? - yes, in German. Damnit, I used to be fluent, I need to practice. Plus I'm not sure if I've ever read Böll or if I've only seen the movie of Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Stewart

I went out with the intention of buying Stefan Zweig's The Post-Office Girl, but the shop never had it, despite having a pile of copies last week. So, I plumped for Jean Teulé's The Suicide Shop, just to give it a shot.

And bought The Post-Office Girl today.

[Mirabell]

Der Blinde Reiter by Juan Goytisolo. German translation of Telón de Boca.

[Mirabell]

in the mail


The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud

[Stewart]

• Eucalyptus, Murray Bail
• The Glass Bees, Ernst Jünger
• An African In Greenland, Kpomassie Tété-Michel
• Sunflower, Krúdy Gyula

[Eric]

The Jünger looks interesting. I read his "On Marble Cliffs" and have bought (though not read) his "Eumeswil" which is available in English. He's a very equivocal figure.

[Mirabell]

in the mail today

Sea Change, Jorie Graham (the new one. I'm giddy)

Collected Poems 1939-1962, William Carlos Williams

A Cool Million/Balso Snell, Nathaniel West

Enemies: A Love Story, Isaac B. Singer

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

A Cool Million/Balso Snell, Nathaniel West

I find it quite funny you should call him Nathaniel West as his name was the more alternative spelling of Nathanael. Funny, not because your spelling was incorrect, but because it reminded me that some publishers can't get it right...

Anyway, I bought two of the books from the AWS Classics I mentioned on the African Literature thread:

When Rain Clouds Gather, Bessie Head
So Long A Letter, Bâ Mariama

I also nabbed a couple off French novels on the cheap from Amazon Marketplace:

Laura, Journey Into The Crystal, George Sand
Anthology Of Apparitions, Simon Liberati

[Eric]

I went to the second-hand bookshop today and bought:

Hedda Martens: Iemandsland (roughly: Some Man's Land) Price: €1

I read a number of short-stories by this Dutch author twenty years ago, and I have seen little else of hers. This is book of very short stories, one to three pages long. At one euro you can't go wrong.

*

Inger Edelfeldt: Konijnenhemel en ander wonderbaarlijke verhalen (Rabbit Heaven, and Other Miraculous Stories) Price: €5

The Dutch translation of a number of short-stories by the Swedish author Inger Edelfeldt, whose work I admire. I shall start a thread about her, in due course. Her stories combine a childlike quality with, at the same time, threat, uncertainty, and always an unusual angle on things. Edelfeldt has also written books of comic strips and children's books, and illustrates her own works.Translated by Petra Broomans and Elina van der Heijden at Groningen University Scandinavian Department.

*

Franz Rosenzweig: The Star of Redemption Price: €9

This author and work were reviewed somewhere, either in my Dutch daily, the Guardian Review, or the TLS recently, and the price of the book had been reduced from €16, which made it more affordable. Rosenzweig was a German philosophical mystic who nearly converted to Christianity, but stopped on the brink and returned to the Judaism of his forebears. But he was hardly divorced from the world as he was an anti-aircraft gunner during World War I, then contracted a wasting disease, but managed to finish his main work before his death in 1929.

*

For those who like doing sums, one euro (symbol: €) is worth about £0.80 or $1,50.

[Mirabell]

wowo

Rosenzweig wuchs als einziges Kind des jüdischen Fabrikanten und Kassler Stadtrats Georg Rosenzweig und dessen Ehefrau Adele in gutsituierten Verhältnissen auf. In seiner Familie wurde ein emanzipiertes, liberales Judentum gepflegt.
1905 begann er in Göttingen, München und Freiburg im Breisgau Medizin zu studieren. 1907 wechselte er das Fach und studierte Geschichte und Philosophie in Freiburg und Berlin. Er promovierte 1912 bei Friedrich Meinecke. Seine Dissertation, in der er Hegels These von der Irrelevanz des Individuums für die Gesamtheit kritisierte, arbeitete er später zur Habilitationsschrift aus: Hegel und der Staat 1920.
1913 beschloss er unter dem Einfluss von Freunden und konvertierten Familienmitgliedern wie seinem Vetter Hans Ehrenberg, mit dem ihn eine besondere Freundschaft verband, zum evangelischen Glauben überzutreten. Bald darauf widerrief er diesen Entschluss und vertiefte sich in das Studium der jüdischen Überlieferung. Er ließ sich einige Monate von Hermann Cohen in Berlin unterrichten und entschloss sich schließlich, den Judaismus zu studieren und zu lehren.
Im Ersten Weltkrieg meldete er sich freiwillig. Er wurde als Sanitäter und bei der Artillerie eingesetzt. Von der Front führte er seit 1916 einen Dialog in Feldpostbriefen mit dem christlichen Rechtshistoriker Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Den Briefwechsel veröffentlichte er 1929 unter dem Titel Briefe eines Nichtzionisten an einen Antizionisten. Noch im Krieg begann er mit der Verfassung des Stern der Erlösung 1921, seinem philosophischen Hauptwerk, das in strenger Systematik verfasst, aber auf den üblichen wissenschaftlichen Apparat von Anmerkungen verzichtend, eine philosophisch-theologische Reflexion des Glaubens liefern will.
1917 veröffentlichte Rosenzweig erstmals das von ihm entdeckte älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus, eine gemeinsame Frühschrift von Hegel, Schelling, und Hölderlin.
Nach dem Krieg wurde Rosenzweig beauftragt, das „Freie Jüdische Lehrhaus“ in Frankfurt am Main aufzubauen. Die Aufgabe dieser Bildungseinrichtung war, Wege zu weisen, wie jüdisches Leben in der Moderne gelingen könne. Zu den dort Vortragenden zählten neben Rosenzweig und vielen anderen der Religionsphilosoph Martin Buber, Siegfried Kracauer und Erich Fromm.
1922 erkrankte Franz Rosenzweig an einer Amyotrophen Lateralsklerose, die mit starken Bewegungs- und Sprachstörungen verbunden ist. Rosenzweig musste die Leitung des Lehrhauses aufgeben, die fortschreitenden Lähmungserscheinungen hinderten ihn auch an der Vollendung vieler geplanter Schriften. Trotz seiner Krankheit erschienen jedoch die Übersetzungen der Hymnen und Gedichte des Jehuda Halevi (1075–1141) sowie die ersten Teile der „Verdeutschung der Schrift“ (Die fünf Bücher der Weisung, 1925), an denen er gemeinsam mit seinem Freund Martin Buber arbeitete, der das Werk nach Rosenzweigs Tod vollendete. Seine philosophische Abhandlung Das neue Denken 1925 diktierte er - inzwischen völlig gelähmt - seiner Frau mit den Augenlidern.
Kurz vor seinem 43. Geburtstag erlag Rosenzweig am 10. Dezember 1929 in Frankfurt am Main seiner Krankheit.
Jährlich wird die nach ihm benannte Buber-Rosenzweig-Medaille durch den Koordinierungsrat der „Gesellschaften für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit“ an Personen verliehen, die sich besonders für den christlich-jüdischen Dialog einsetzen.

(wiki)

[nnyhav]

Got to the new Kinokuniya bookstore (41st & 6th across Bryant Pk from NYPL) for the 1st time since they moved out of the Rock. As the article I linked in Japanese Lit indicates, offerings in English are expanded: they cover Asia (not just Japan anymore) and include English authors whose topic involves the region (Australia included). So I got:

Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone V1 (David Hawkes) [saw V2 at the local used bookstore, will be back]
Rabindranath Tagore, The Tagore Omnibus V1 includes Chokher Bali/A Grain of Sand, Ghare Baire/Home and the World (Sreejata Guha) Chaturanga/Quartet (Kaiser Haq), Yogayog/Nexus (Hisen Bhaya), and Malancha/The Garden (Malosree Sandel)
Junichiro Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (Seidensticker)
Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human (Donald Keene)

Penn Books topped it off with B.S. Johnson, The Unfortunates.

[Eric]

I noticed one difference between the account of Rosenzweig's life in the English intro that I read, and in the German text that Mirabell posts. In the English it says "anti-aircraft gunner". The German makes him a "Sanitäter" which I believe to mean "medical orderly". These are not the same thing. I wonder who's right.

In the following article it says he underwent "officer training" which is hardly the route of a pacifist in the Red Cross:

http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.e.../rosenart.html

In 1916 FR was sent to ballistics school in France and was subsequently transferred to the Macedonian front. Because there was so little activity in Macedonia, FR had much time to think and to write. FR was attached to an anti-aircraft gun unit, but because there were hardly ever any enemy planes FR did not have much to do.

It matters little to his mysticism, one way or the other, what he actually did in WWI, but I suspect the German text has been doctored to make him more politically correct.

I didn't know about the Rosenzweig medal for Christian-Jewish dialogue. But it fits in with Rosezweig's way of thinking.

[Mirabell]

in the mail

Sterben und Auferstehen by F.E. Sillanpää (german translation of Hurskas Kurjuus)

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Eric

I noticed one difference between the account of Rosenzweig's life in the English intro that I read, and in the German text that Mirabell posts. In the English it says "anti-aircraft gunner". The German makes him a "Sanitäter" which I believe to mean "medical orderly". These are not the same thing. I wonder who's right.

In the following article it says he underwent "officer training" which is hardly the route of a pacifist in the Red Cross:

The Divinity Library, Rosenzweig Exhibit


It matters little to his mysticism, one way or the other, what he actually did in WWI, but I suspect the German text has been doctored to make him more politically correct.

I didn't know about the Rosenzweig medal for Christian-Jewish dialogue. But it fits in with Rosezweig's way of thinking.

er, what the heck are you talking about? it says "und bei der Artillerie eingesetzt." nothing in the english suggests that he didn't ALSO do duties as a medic (which is what sanitäter means in military terms, it can also, in military terms, mean aidsman or corpsman).

[Eric]

Mirabell, I simply missed "und bei der Artillerie". You are right. So no politically correct utterances in the article. I must say I've never heard the terms "aidsman" or "corpsman". But that is because I am British and have no knowledge of the American military, naval, marine, or otherwise. Have you been in the military in Germany, Mirabell?

The bit I find interesting about Rosenzweig is the area of Christian-Jewish dialogue. There always used to be that cliché about the Jews murdering God, which seemed a little over the top. I believe that the present Pope has contributed to such a dialogue to cool down tempers in this long-standing spat.

The title Hurskas kurjuus means something like "pious misery". I wonder why the German translation turns it into "dying and rising again". But I've not read the book, which would no doubt explain this change. Nor is the English translation of the title "meek heritage" exactly the same.

From what I can gather, this novel is about the Finnish Civil War which took place during the struggle for independence around 1918 after Russia released Finland to become an independent country, but Red elements felt aggrieved at what the Whites did. These key birth pangs of Finland as we know it have not died to this day. Under the surface Finns whose forebears fought for the Reds or Whites still argue about the legitimacy of various actions.

The following website gives some insights:

History of Finnish Literature - Google Book Search

[Mirabell]

Have you been in the military in Germany, Mirabell?

+

I am a strong pacifist. so, no.

but I have a couple of german/english dictionaries
because of the translating I do.

[nnyhav]

Got V2 (no I'm not talking German artillery ), Story of the Stone, at the local usedbookmonger, as presaged above, but also:

W.H.Auden, The English Auden: Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927-1939 (ed Ed Mendelson)—have EM's selection, wanted to extend into early Auden.

Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin (trans Chas Johnson)—supposedly taking Nabokov's massive explication into consideration, which is something I intend to do soon, so a "poetic" version will be a help.

Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (Ralph Manheim)—Having read all the novels between Cat and Mouse & Headbirths (and more recently Crabwalk), it's about time, isn't it.

The impending collapse of my bookshelves is freighted with good intentions ...

[Mirabell]

In the mail today

The Wings of the Dove, Henry James

The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan