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Stating that book is poorly written or not someone's cup of tea has nothing to do with patriarchy, so I have to disagree about this whole trend. This patriarchal opression thing is really lot more complicated, it makes sense in some circumstances, but is lot more complicated than that. I have to disagree about Rooney's being representative of a literature or whole generation. Her work differs a lot from usual British literature/topics, and a lot

I believe we submitted to the same contest 😂 Good luck to you!

Whenever I read something translated, I'm always reminded of that great saying: "reading poetry in translation is like trying to take a shower with a raincoat on." It's always hard to judge the quality of a translated work, since you're reading the translator just as much as the author. I've tried on three separate occasions to read War and Peace and I failed each time. Too baggy and meandering. Which is why, if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to give Anna Karenina a try. I think the scope of that narrative benefits from a narrower focus on the emotional and spiritual arcs of four characters. Remains one of my favourite novels. But Middlemarch for the win, absolutely.

But Joe,what do you REALLY think of these books?

Deronda-yeah, the Jewish subplot doesn’t quite work, but Gwendolyn and her nightmare marriage…brilliantly done. Tolstoy had an unmatched ability to bring utterly plausible beings into existence in a few sentences. The long excursus on war, the rising and falling generals-eminently skippable.

I suspect that Rooney is where the Hoover and Maas readers land when they decide that they ought to improve their intellectual muscle and read some literary fiction; they simply can’t tell, after all that preposterous, smutty garbage, whether Rooney has anything to say.

Very interesting what you have to say about Russian literature. Makes me wonder how familiar you are with 19th-century French literature. Do you know Stendhal and Flaubert? They are some of my favourite authors, but I have a sneaky suspicion you might be more of a Balzac and Zola man, to say nothing of Hugo.

Why is Joe punishing himself reading Truss and Johnson and a book on Powell? I suspect a buried masochistic streak. Also, I have to laugh at a book titled "Shakespeare: The Biography." We don't even know who the man (woman?) was, so why not write a 500 page book on "his life." LOL I have to say, though, that Joe is a good and accurate critic when he hates something.

While I agree with your criticisms your speech pattern is headache inducing

I think it is fair to surmise that you are probably not going to be included on Ms Rooney’s Christmas card list this year.

Half into White Teeth - and it's feeling a bit more like work than pleasure. Thanks for the thoughts.

Does it work the other way around for you, Joe? (i.e. reading first and then writing?) Or are you drawn straight to the keyboard when the words are flowing?

I feel in this video you created a star man caricature of believers so you could easily demolish belief. It would be as if someone equated all atheists with communism. It is remarkable that you are so enamoured with atheism considering itrs record in the 20th century and even now in China. You should stick to book reviews.Sharing what you read creates openness whle your personal viewpoints seem to shun others who have differing atttitudes. Great literature is appreciated by all points of virews not just yours alone.

Honestly that’s like the perfect type of weather that would be labeled as “perfect day” here in California.

Great to hear about your writing, Joe! I’m very happy for you! I will also be curious to hear your thoughts on Tennyson’s poetry later on. I remember your In Memoriam video from way back, and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunate about that Maga sign. You’re right in attributing it to social media - the lies spread on certain platforms reach beyond America. Trumpism is alive in Canada too.

I first learned about mammaries from that Joe Spivey thumbnail. If they take it down where can I possibly go to refresh my memory of them?

One must subscribe to the meditations of Enzo Maresca. No title race here!

I can see the thumbnail from my end as of this moment. The trump supporter may be an American living in England. If it makes you feel better then you can just tell yourself that. As an American living in England, I'll take the heat. I'm currently visiting my home in the Sunshine State and keeping my head buried in Wodehouse and Pratchett as needs demand.

Again the ignorance and arrogance of those who believe themselves to better than others shows through in this post. First thing you should have considered when seeing in the Trump 2024 sign was not how this person must have been bamboozled by social media but rather why would he endorse Trump. It has nothing to do fascism because his message is not fascist but has to do with hope for a better more affordable tomorrow. Maybe if you went to the detestable quieter part of town with deteriorating home price you would better understand the reasons why that person endorsed Trump.

Write by day and squeeze in a little reading at night? It helps me to read in the genre I'm writing while in the process. Whatever works, great luck our good man.

Sorry to hear about recent difficulties, Joe, and very sad to hear about trump posters showing up in BBC England. Great news, though, about the request for the rest of your manuscript. That’s wonderful! Stay well, friend.

Subscribed to your channel to more conveniently spend time with your quality work

Great review! Did you watch the movie? I actually enjoyed it

I'm with you. But @RoisinsReading did a video that shed some light on what her writing is meant to be doing within the context of Rooney being Irish. It helped me understand, but it shed no light on the quality of her writing, nor did it shed any light on the fact that, without understanding any of this context, people praise Rooney's books for all sorts but never for their supposed elucidation of life in late-stage capitalism in the context of Ireland. It was a good, well-researched take on her books' merits. What you said is spot on, however: Sally Rooney is for a generation of people who have continuously been described as lacking reading comprehension skills. So that's just that, then. Can't fault them.

I read this novel some 20 years ago and thought it was the most bizarre and disturbing book I had ever read. It is strangely enjoyable all the same. I still think about it to this day and will re-read it soon.

Loved the way you recite Keat's poetry - so simple and with a good sense of the mood and state of the piece, so that you managed to deliver it through the screen I also think that the painting chosen for the cover brilliantly conveys and sets the nature of his writing

genuine question, but what about metric verse is patriarchal? pretty sure aurora leigh is written in iambs lol i don't get it

Subscribed for "elasticised dusk". You're great.

Keatsssss!

It reminds me: I should find actors reading poetry/dramatize books... Different video that really provokes discussion. Good work

Just some random associations that the video brought up: On the term "hysterical realism": during an interview with Jack Nicholson -- who was talking about being directed by Stanley Kubrick in "The Shining" -- Nicholson said, "I was getting really caught up in realism; in trying to make my performance as real as possible, and Stanley said to me, 'It's real, Jack, but it's boring.'" I laughed when you used the phrase "Churchillian intentionality." It made me think of a vignette Orson Welles would tell. He was in the West End, directing and staring in "Othello," and Churchill came in, unnoticed, and sat in the front row. Welles said, "The whole time I was on stage I kept hearing this low muttering. At one point I looked into the audience and saw Churchill and realized he had memorized all the dialogue and was repeating it with me, including the cuts I'd made!" LOL I like that story. It seems to me obvious why you chose to read to us the sonnet "Written In Disgust ..." It pairs well with your rant on religion which you were kind enough to share with us last video. The poem is nice, but not one of Keats' best. It's almost too strident, and just about manages to save itself from didacticism. I agree with the sentiment of the poem (Keats throws himself into the camp of "becoming" rather than "being") but I believe others have done better with the theme. Here's an example (written by e.e. cummings): O sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee ,has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods (but true to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover thou answerest them only with spring)

I love Keats. I hope you’ve read his letters.

Thanks for focusing on Keats, Joe. He’s one of my favorites. I included “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” in my Poetry Thursday last week. I’m a big fan of the Romantics. Interesting story about this sonnet: I first read it in college about a thousand years ago, and at that time, there was always a footnote from the anthology editor after the poem stating that Keats was “obviously mistaken”because he attributed the discovery of the Pacific to “stout Cortez” instead of to Balboa. I remember thinking that the editor had, in fact, been the mistaken one. The poem is about the absolute state of wonder inspired in Keats when he read Chapman’s translation of Homer for the first time. It’s about the wonder we can feel upon discovering a new author for ourselves. Keats was not the first to read Chapman’s translation, just as Cortez and his men were not the first humans to see the Pacific. The sense of wonder and awe was no less significant. It’s about discovering a new world for oneself. This is one of my favorite sonnets. Thanks so much for focusing on Keats and for including this sonnet in your reading. Hope you’re doing well!

Although you are right that this book might not be one of James's best works, it is one that I personally love because of its intersections with my own historical interests: the post-war North/South thing (and related social idealism and reform issues), early feminism and Boston marriages, and other radical movements popular in New England at the time. (Interestingly, most people seem to think Miss Birdseye was sort of a parody of the real woman who ran sort of the precursor to the Brattle--Steve's hangout. More on that story another time.) As others have mentioned in your comments, James was writing about a time when some women were choosing to form committed partnerships with other women in order to live independent lives even if they never married or were widowed or whatever. We don't really know if all of these relationships were romantic much less sexual, but many of the couples had commitment ceremonies, wore rings, etc.--and their heterosexual friends treated them more or less as they did their heterosexual married couple friends, accepting their committed partnerships (perhaps because it was subtle enough not to be threatening). James had both a sister and a friend in this kind of relationship. My take on this book is that Olive is desperately jealous--not a manhater in the abstract. She hates Basil and other men who flirt with Verena because she is afraid they might steal the woman she loves. While I do think he is satirizing feminism in this book and his portrayal of Olive is often unkind, he also seems to be quite sympathetic to the pain Olive clearly feels when Verena does not love her back. I really need to make my own video on this book sometime! Sorry to take up so much space in your comments!

Speaking as one of those squalid UA-cam viewers, and I thank you for that estimate- I think most would regard The Bostonians as a minor James effort, not least because many are surprised not to find him more sympathetic to feminist and progressive views. But he isn’t-wasn’t-and there’s an end on’t. Or- to persevere-despite his own unconventional background in Swedenborgianism and a dozen alternatives to standard American Victorian thought, and despite his own not-quite-buried homosexuality, he couldn’t resist throwing mud on feminism and lesbianism. There are better instances of James elsewhere, as you know.

Look up the term "Boston marriage".

A French novel by your choice, or thoughts on new things published in France, would be wonderful. I presume you are not fond of French literature, but there are excellent novels there. I would like to hear your opinion

Many thanks for sharing. I will have to check out this video from Alex. Too bad that a lot of people are tied into a belief system because of social and economic reasons. For a future episode would you share your thoughts on "morals" (past, present and future)? "Philosophy" would also make a good vid. Hm, I think you did already on about literary criticism. Have a good week!

I've enjoyed all your commentaries. After this one I like you even more.

Hey Joe, do you think it’s wrong to believe in a higher power? You’re understandably hard on the ugliest expressions of organized religion, but I’m not convinced the god element is its most salient feature. Atheist communists had no need for a god - were, in fact, explicitly opposed to the belief in one - and "rationally" killed many millions. In other words, do you take issue with the belief itself, or the ways belief influences policy and social norms?

This is a good video (though frustrating at times!) and an important discussion to have. I can’t tell if this is rhetorical flourish on your part or if you’re trying to be antagonist, but I hope you realize that almost no Christian (or Jew, or Muslim) believes that God is a man in the sky. If you read any of the church fathers, going all the way back to the ancient church, this was not their belief. But I’m assuming you know that. I think you’re being unfair to Ayaan Hirsi Ali when you say she believes without the Gospels, Genesis, etc., that we’d all be murdering and raping with impunity. I don’t think she’s denying that there are good morals in countries relatively untouched by Christianity. What I think she may mean is that many of the values in the West we take for granted for being universal are actually not universal, that they derive ultimately from Christianity. I don’t think this is an extraordinary claim. The more history I read, the more I’m convinced that there’s no such thing as a system of universal values across all cultures. I think that is an untenable position. I recommend checking this book out which has been well received from across the theological spectrum: openlettersreview.com/posts/dominion-how-the-christian-revolution-remade-the-world-by-tom-holland?format=amp On the point of there being other Gods, people will answer that differently. You might find a firebrand saying, “My one is the right one and everything else is Satanic!” Obviously not much progress could be made there! The other perspective though would be that the variety of religious experience points to a greater truth and that points of light can be found in other religious traditions but Christianity (or name your tradition) represents the fullness of the truth (this is actually the perspective of the Catholic Church post Vatican II). I would also differentiate an actual religious tradition from folk paganism. To me there’s a pretty clear difference between Aphrodite and the utterly transcendent God of Islam. Lastly on Hitchens’s snarky comment on “illiterate Palestine,” that Jesus didn’t go to a “great place of learning,” wouldn’t a Christian argue that’s kind of the point? That God did not incarnate as an elite of great renown but that of a peasant from the backwaters of Galilee. And isn’t that part of the shock of the claims of the Christians of those early centuries? Jewish messianic expectations were of a great and towering figure. Some speculated the messiah would be a great warrior-king, or a pious priest, or maybe even a cosmic judge. No one thought that it would be a crucified peasant. A man who died the agonizing death of a slave. And the it’s hard to understate just how shocking of a claim that was not only to ancient Jews but the Greco-Roman world as well. The social stigma against crucified people was extraordinary. You could not possibly be lower than that. And here was the early Christians claiming not only that Judaism’s long awaited messiah was a crucified criminal, but the eternal lord of the universe, God himself, was beaten, spit on, humiliated, and crucified in excruciating agony. It’s an incredibly powerful belief. That God became the lowest of the low. Suffering is unbelievably difficult to explain but a Christian can at least be assured that we are not alone in our suffering. Typing this on my phone, I hope that text doesn’t appear too jumbled. Again, very good video. Cheers

A small point. 99.9 recurring % is equal to 100% because the recurring means recurring for as far as you go, infinitely. When there is a limit to the recurrance, of course, it stops short of 100% where the recurrance stops. I know that you were speaking loosely so I am not arguing wirh you. You can disagree, of course, but I have a PhD in Mathematical Physics. Anyway, as an atheist, I think your speech is excellent. I did hear online that there were over 6,000 gods over the history of humanity but I have not researched or checked. I think Pascal's Wager is rubbish and I believe Richard Dawkins has provided a good refutation of Pascal's Wager as other atheists have also.

Dear Joe, you are quite right-she has long exploded her own case by suggesting that she believes…because it makes her feel better. I think almost the more interesting question is why we are inclined-inspired, doomed?-to believe in someone or something, and what that yearning, or the answers we think we find, reveal. Four hundred! A mere four hundred! In Hinduism alone, there are thousands. Add another few thousand from Buddhism. Add another several thousand from Egypt and the Ancient Near East. Add more from Africa and China and…true, many now forgotten: most don’t have their own scriptures or hymns. But there they are.

You will receive no such chastisement from me, Joe. I am very much on your side of the ecclesiastical fence when it comes to believing in or worshipping any gods, whether of the bearded sky variety or those wielding hammers or with heads of elephants etc. All religious dogma is nothing but superstitious hocus pocus intended to instil fear in believers to more easily gain power and control over them. Education of the masses in any given society usually causes a steep decline in religious belief, the good ol’ US of A being the obvious outlier, for some strange reason.

Great commentary as always!

But there is a morale for good reason, some sense of morale at least, even at the biggest offenders, and awful as it may seem, the preposition that there should be no tragedies or suffering on life on Earth that is by default, short and consists partly of tragedies and pain, is, let's say, not insane, but inaccurate... That may evoke question of fairness of life, and whether luck is distributed in righteous manner, but god's intentions are hard to understand for good reason.

A nice collection of books, except the John Updike, a very overpraised writer. I'm not anti- American literature, but that era is grim. They make Henry James or later writer's like Pynchon shine.

I’m reading Emma at the moment, via a free ebook (I prefer paperbacks but free is a win, and it’s handy for squished Tube commuting!). Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility, though, are my fave Austen novels. I love her witty observations.

9:40 this cover cured my artistic imposter syndrome

I will be curious to hear your thoughts on Howard’s End. I read A Room with a View this summer and loved it, and Howard’s End is next up for me.