In regard to your PhD story, I have to say you’ve honestly helped further my analytical skills and passion for literature much more than several of my English professors. On some level, I think your UA-cam channel is even more beneficial for the world than if you were a professor, since you’re sharing your intellect on a public platform rather than behind the paywalls of academia, where only a handful of students per year would be able to appreciate the insight you bring to everything you read. Thanks for all you do, man!
You have no idea what that means to me. Especially right now, in the midst of a sort of quarter-(or third of a)-life crisis about what I should really be doing. Many, many humble thanks to you. It is a pleasure to be a part of this community of real readers.
I can almost see your blood pressure going up answering that first question about why you’re not a professor. As someone who went through a highly similar situation, I wholly empathize - and congratulate you on being able to step down from that soapbox when my instinct would have been to let my blood continue to boil for ten more minutes in the hopes that my audience would indulge me. Several years later, I hope you’re grateful that the right thing may have happened on accident. I can’t speak for you, but looking back things, I would have probably resented another 5-7 years of being told what to read, to avid a topic if other scholars had gotten there first, et cetera. You may not have “Ph.D.” after your name, but you get to read whatever the hell you want and no one is there to tell you how to do it or what to take away from it - which is what I’d imagine would be one of the banes of a humanities Ph.D. program. The freedom to read however we please - a mile wide and an inch deep or vice verse, on your own time and your own leisure - has to be one of the greatest feelings a book lover in the modern age can enjoy. And I’m glad you get to enjoy that feeling, too.
Yes, I guess I really didn’t realize how chafed I still was about it! But you’ve made some great points. In fact, at this point I can’t imagine putting the time and energy into it. I’m not even sure what I would specialize in anymore. (At the time I was certain it was Gaddis.) When you put it the way you’ve put it, I am thankful and feel that the right thing happened. And for that I thank you!
I really really really want to thank you for the in depth answers you gave to the questions about objective aesthetics and the literary canon. It made me feel like I was having a conversation with you which is such an honor given your extraordinary erudition and well considered thoughts! Especially in these trying times where we are all isolated this was great! Lots to munch on thanks!
Very kind words, my friend, and I thank you very much. It is a pleasure to connect with you and talk about these things. You posed great, complex questions and I was admittedly a bit on my toes. Hope you are doing well!
Here are some more questions for you: *Have you read the works of HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe? What do you think of their writing styles (if you have read them) and them being essential parts of the 'Weird Fiction' movements of their times, albeit severely misunderstood? How important, do you think, their contribution has been to the literary world (again, assuming that you have read them)? And lastly: How do you feel about their being severely mistreated and under-appreciated while they were alive? *What are your tastes in music? Do you read while listening to any type of music? *If you were given a choice to choose any 10 books to take with you on a dejected and deserted desert, what all will you eventually choose and take with you? There's no return date in sight so choose wisely. Awesome video!!
Great questions! Poe & Lovecraft I like them both but rarely get around to them much these days. I’m sure I’ll cycle back eventually. I liked Lovecraft’s really short stuff, especially stories like “From Beyond.” I wrote several papers on Poe in school. I’m particularly proud of one on “William Wilson” (perhaps my favorite of his stories). I think Poe has had a tremendous impact on literature though he was only really appreciated by the French early on (Baudelaire). He has probably informed horror and sci-fi more than the literary fiction community overall (in some circles it’s fashionable to hate on Poe; not sure why), but I love his overwrought sentences and twisted mind. The more you’ve got me thinking about him the more I want to reread some of his stories. Of his poems there are very few that I like (Alone and Ulalume). Poe is significant in Bottom’s Dream it should be noted. Music I get around to in my next Q and A video. But I like classical (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Satie, Debussy, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Handel, et al.); jazz (Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Monk, Gillespie, et al.). I also like heavier technical stuff like Animals As Leaders. And progressive stuff like Casimir Liberski. I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list: 1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover) 2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”) 3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare 4. Oxford Book of English Verse 5. The Critical Tradition 6. À la recherche du temps perdu 7. Don Quixote 8. Emerson’s essays 9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume) 10. Complete works of Montaigne
1. I've been deeply acquainted with academia for over 40 years, I one thing I can tell you is that if you were my puppet, I would prevent you from entering that dystopia. Suffice to say that what really works, among other, many other, things, with your channel is your fresh approach, unencumbered by strictures other than those imposed by yourself. Your abilities cohere in such a way that you are in this context on a par with the best literary teachers I have ever witnessed teach, even the best history teachers (who outnumber the lit teachers I have experienced). James Alan McPherson and Marylinne Robinson are probable the most intelligent, eloquent, human (each was more of one than the other but I won't say which was what), and I loved them each in a different way--McPherson was better to sit with at his home drinking his scotch), but I get more from your 'classes' than I got from them about literature. This is not a casual remark, nor an attempt to make you feel good; this is as much a remark about academia as it is about your abilities. 2. Translation. I disagree. The translator of Zettel's Traum agrees. But he had to create more than most translators do. Gregory Rabassa is the translator I encountered most and I am certain he would never want to be considered as significant as the author. Every Rabassa translation I ever read was remarkable for the channeling of the specific voice of each author. When I moved to Slovenia I read Vitomil Zupan's Minuet za kitaro in what was said to be a bad translation. But I FELT Zupan and was so taken with him and his novel that I read it again straight away. Antunes has been translated by Rabassa--Fado Alexandrino is a maximalist masterpiece; but also by many others. And Antunes is so singular that each translator has been unable to diminish, alter, suppress, distort, obliterate Antunes. Antunes overcomes translation.
You’ve made great points on the topic of translation. Admittedly Woods’s Schmidt translation was a bit of a hyperbolic example. This is a big topic and warrants its own video. I think about the Fowlie translations of Rimbaud and how on the one hand they are very close to literal French to English translations but the musicality is thereby completely lost. Between you and LSP I feel I am really missing out not having read Antunes. As for your first points about academia and likening me to Marilynne Robinson (one of my heroes), it’s going to take me a while to recover from the weight of your compliments.
You have the most rational and accurate viewpoint regarding canonization. It should not be based on anything but quality over a long period of time. If you want to give prizes, awards, recognition to works for reasons not based wholly on merit, that can perhaps bring short term satisfaction, but in the long term it weakens the appeal and substance of the work receiving the prize or award, as well as rendering the prize itself as superfluous from a literary point of view.Your channel has become my favorite booktube hangout 📚☕️
Honestly you're probably better read than most literature professors and like others said more free to enrich your reading repetoire instead of being bogged down marking 100 papers on the same book. Sometimes turning your passion into a job isn't the best course of action, it can kill any love you had for it. It might have turned out for the best.
Thank you for the kind words and the encouragement! This is something I think about a lot: if I made my passion a profession would it purge the pleasure? Judging by my actual day-job and how I used to feel about the field, I believe it would indeed at least stifle my enthusiasm.
I appreciate your reference to Stephen King's book On Writing and made me remember something he said in an interview, "My father left the family, but he left us a box in the attic. I got into it and found a book by Lovecraft and that book started me down the road to writing." Here are three books that have helped me in my own writing: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, The Man Who Invented Fiction by William, Egginton, and How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen.
My favorite genres are probably: "books about books"; "books about reading"; and "books about writing." The latest of the lattermost was George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond.... Brilliant!
I have "attempted" to read the philosophers and my mind just gets tangled. I finally realized that I really wanted an answer to one question: "What is the meaning of life?" I read Victor Frankel's The Meaning of Life and it was amazing, but funny as it may seem I found I liked the answer presented in the little book, Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life, better. Sometimes books talk to us the way we must hear it. When you are able to explain an idea to a child and have them understand, is important. Big books, big ideas, yes. Kierkegaard said best, "It is true what Philosophy says: that Life must be understood backwards. But that makes one forget the other saying: that it must be lived---forwards."
Loved your take on translations. I've generally been a bit iffy with translations because it's not the same as the original but your positive attitude on it is great, the idea that you almost get like two works of art in one. I'm new to the channel and I've been going through your videos. Inspiring stuff!
It's a good idea to look at all the different translations available, as some are better than others. For example Pevear & Volokhonsky's style is better for Dostoevsky than Tolstoy, so ive heard. But yeah don't get turned off of them, you cant learn all the languages in the world.
Calvin and Hobbes helped expand my vocabulary when I was a kid and got my excited about words. Calvin somehow has a vast vocabulary and keen philosophical mind but can't add 7 + 12
My love for words is rooted in detention, where our warden thought it would be a punishment to have me copy definitions from a fusty copy of The American Heritage Dictionary. Thank you so much, Mrs. [Redacted]!
I think I said the longest book I owned was ”The Complete Works” of Montaigne, but you mentioned “The Brothers Karamazov” as a long book. I have that one, too, and several other books about the same size. Montaigne’s Works is double the size. Oh, I have a question, no, two! What five books would you take to a deserted island? And-Have you ever read Georges Perec? But don’t feel like you have to answer. Anyhow, great video, as always!
Thanks! I’ve only read Life: A User’s Manual, but I can tell you I want to get to everything he has published. Especially his lipograms (like A Void). I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list: 1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover) 2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”) 3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare 4. Oxford Book of English Verse 5. The Critical Tradition 6. À la recherche du temps perdu 7. Don Quixote 8. Emerson’s essays 9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume) 10. Complete works of Montaigne
Oh, I need to get more of his books, too! He was a fantastic writer. Great list, Chris! The only book I haven’t heard of before is number six. But I’m surprised “The Little Prince” is not on your best ten.
Admittedly I have never finished the Wake. But I have been talking to a few people recently about digging through the Wake soon. I just bought Joseph Campbell’s Skeleton Key and read the predatory material. My interest is high. I think you should definitely make a series!
Very interesting answers. I didn't use audiobooks for years until I started commuting an hour per day. Then I got addicted to them. Definitely not as effective as reading, though. I eagerly await your next analysis.
Yes, that is definitely a problem. They usually take them but extend very meager store credit. Just another reason for me to be very selective about what I buy in the first place! But sometimes I will have a hunch that I am most likely going to take a book to a secondhand shop and I'll make notes outside the book (e.g. Where the Crawdads Sing; The Great Alone; The Terranauts).
Just this week I was writing a comment about my top 4 booktubers, and I gradually realized that (even if I mentioned you just outside my top 4) you might just be my favorite, your knowledge, your hunger for good hard literature, I feel that in the last few weeks you have started to post more personal things about your reading habits , your taste is excellent. Some questions(hope you can asnwer them in comments at least): I follow literary and culture related magazines but I have never read Rain taxi, looks really promising, but I didnt find the section of reviews on their site, can you link me to their reviews section and/or the reviews you have written? What other literary magazine/newspapers or sites do you follow/read? I recommend aldaily.com(an aggregator) Last video, you have mentioned your habits of reading at the office, do you read during the workday now that you work from home? By the way have you started as a software developer or a tester?
Wow, thank you very much. What an honorable compliment. What makes it all worthwhile to me is people like you who also have the hunger for literature! Answers to your questions: 1. Rain Taxi is a paid subscription-based journal that mails out printed copies. They do, however, have an online edition and I've a few reviews out there. Here's one for the last book in the My Struggle cycle: www.raintaxi.com/my-struggle-book-six/. 2. I don't read a lot of periodicals, but the ones I read regularly are New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, Philosophy Now, Rain Taxi, and sometimes LitHub. 3. I've been treating my quarantine days just like normal workdays, so: yes! 4. I started as a developer. I've never been a tester, though I have much love for all QA people out there!
In regards to the Canon, this site may be of interest to you. The New Canon. Ted Gioia gives little reviews on what he considers some of the best books written in the last 35 years. Hasn't been updated in a few years, but what's included is pretty impressive. thenewcanon.com/index.html Some of his other recommended links are also worth checking out.
Hey there! At this point I cannot remember everything I talked about in my Q and A videos but I do remember sharing quite a few things. Is there anything in particular you want to know?
Very nice! I’ve been to Sweden many, many times (Göteborg)! I have a BA in computer science and an MA in literature. I’ve been a lifelong reader but started working in information technology at 15. I’ve been submitting my own writing for over 16 years. Three years ago I got my first book review published and I’ve been publishing book reviews ever since. I still work in IT (for Volvo, no less-Sweden!). But I do a lot of literary pursuits outside of that, including my channel. It’s a fun life!
@@LeafbyLeafDamn, i seee! Well, i really like your stuff and keep up the Amazing work. Where are your book reviews -except on yt- published so i can read?
A lot of my written reviews are published in print, but I’ve linked most of the online reviews on my little portfolio site. This site also has a link to the recent Great Concavity podcast episode on which I was a guest. chrisviabooks.wixsite.com/chrisvia
Can you please help me? I am forgetting the author(s) who wrote this type of literary criticism, but I am in need of literary criticism that tackles the concept of the "Un-Dead"-- the idea of not being dead and exploring that. I am a graduate student researching on Trumpism and his relationship to evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, and how they quite literally treat him as the un-dead (as well as those who oppose him). Please help! (Googling is difficult because I run into sources that do not cover close to what I want :( ).
That's a very intriguing thesis! I have heard that idea of the zombie as the in-between or undead. Perhaps I read about it in one of Eugene Thacker's three books on the horror of philosophy.
@@LeafbyLeaf Wow! I did not expect a reply! Thank you so much. I will take a look on Amazon. If interested, I can email or drop a link to this comment to the journal I am publishing a piece for about this topic/thesis.
Watched several of your videos, and I must say, I'm thinking you'd hold your own in a PhD examination. I don't disparage the training that a doctoral program can provide, but these days, English could use some deep and broad readers like you.
That’s very kind of you to say. Thank you so much! The PhD will likely be one of those lifelong what-would’ves, but I’m quite enjoying sharing the overflow of my reading candidly here. 😁
Have you seen Le Temps Retrouvé (/Time Regained) (1999) by Raoul Ruiz, Morte a Venezia (/Tod in Venedig) (1971) ( please be aware if you haven't read both that both T. Mann's Death in Venice and his Doktor Faustus are relevant to this before you do; Visconti by his own avowal used both) by Luchino Visconti, Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket (1987 by Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick, The Dead (1984) by John Huston, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by David Fincher, Gone Girl (2014) by David Fincher, Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin, There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson and Inherent Vice (2014) by Paul Thomas Anderson, amongst others, please? Thank you. These do not seem to me to compare poorly with the books. If these adaptations interest you more, I can provide you with a much longer list to the same standards. Thank you.
NO - Le Temps Retrouvé (/Time Regained) (1999) by Raoul Ruiz NO - Morte a Venezia (/Tod in Venedig) (1971) NO - Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick YES - A Clockwork Orange (1972) by Stanley Kubrick NO - Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick YES - The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick YES - Full Metal Jacket (1987 by Stanley Kubrick YES - Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick NO - The Dead (1984) by John Huston NO - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by David Fincher NO (- Gone Girl (2014) by David Fincher NO - Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin YES - There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson Tried to watch this over Christmas, but couldn't connect with it - Inherent Vice (2014) by Paul Thomas Anderson I'm not a big movie watcher. In a year, I probably watch about 5 movies. But last year I did watch Bela Tarr's Satantango (based on the Laszlo Krasznahorkai book) and Valerie's Week of Wonders (based on the Viteslav Nezval book). This year I plan to watch Zama and a couple other, so as to expand my acquaintance with film adaptations. Feel free to send me a list of those you most highly recommend. Thanks for this!
@@LeafbyLeaf I should have been more precise. I have edited my reply to correct my other mistakes, but have left that one there since it is more enlightening to deal with it here. After Barry Lyndon's commercial failure in the U.S. and commercial success in Europe, in 1975, which not only upset Kubrick the pragmatist, but also the Kubrick who liked his films to be seen by the widest possible audience,, tough he distrusted those he called the middle-brow, Kubrick made two versions of The Shining, both of which Stephen King hated and hates, though it's hard to understand why if one looks for a better adaptation of any of his work, one for the U.S. and one R.O.W. (rest of the world) one. I do not want to say any more about the two versions, since I cannot think of any information I can give beyond this which would not spoil the experience. I expect given where you are that you have seen the U.S. version, however the version I most highly recommend is the R.O.W. (Rest of the World) one, which is available in the U.S. However if you choose to see the R.O.W. version, I would urge you to get all arrangements made for you by a friend who has already seen both, since there is a lot of data you will find out if you look on your own, which ideally you would not know at all. I have a friend who did not realise there were two versions, and who was next to me, as close as possible to the centre of the first row where I always am if I can help it, and it is amongst the fondest of memories in my life seeing his reaction to what he had never seen before, and did not even know existed. I should have also included Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the above list. Pynchon likes Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation of his book if it helps to know that. Pynchon being Pynchon, Anderson had to let this be known in the most subtle way possible, but I know him well enough to know he would not lie about this. Pynchon liked Paul Thomas Anderson's films before he made this adaptation.
Funny to hear you talking about my country. You said you were intrigued by spy stories taking place in Bangladesh. Well I am from Bangladesh and if you are interested in the country we can chat about it. By the way we were just talking about The Book of Disquiet by Pessoa in your Books for Grazing video.
Well, hello there (again)! Yeah, I cannot remember where the idea even came from, but I would sit down at the family typewriter on the dining room table and bang out these short stories about spies in/from Bangladesh!
@@LeafbyLeaf That's so weird, man. Bangladesh police department is one of the the most corrupt in the whole world. And our capital city Dhaka is the perfect set up for crime fiction. I think our country even topped the charts for the most corrupt country three times in a row. If there were spies in Bangladesh they would be playing both sides and taking money from both that's for sure.
Let me say that you are much more interesting than any of my English professors at a small state university in New Mexico. Try again. P. S. I made more money as a public high school English teacher than my professor friends to their envy. I have a Master's degree.
Very, very kind of you to say. In some way, I have found that being outside of the institution keeps me "pure" while also restricting my opportunities. I think I will eventually get my PhD, just not sure when. For now, I'm just having fun making and sharing these videos. :)
@@LeafbyLeaf Thank you for doing the videos. Your viewers love them. I only discovered you yesterday. Though thoroughly enjoying your shows, I feel overwhelmed for not having read contemporary fiction. I am stuck in the twentieth century and a post modern fan. Maybe you could do an episode to catch some of us up on the most important novels of the 21st century. Thank you.
Thanks so much! I actually feel that I don’t keep up with contemporary fiction enough to do that. Like you, I seem to stay in the twentieth century and earlier. I do try to read a handful of emerging fiction or recent fiction each year (especially to publish written reviews) but I don’t do a good job staying current. Still-I have been asked several times to offer my favorite twenty-first-century books, so perhaps.
I envy people who can lock in with them and retain comprehension. For my part, I am just not an auditory learner. That explains why I mispronounce so many words!
I just have to read at my own pace, or at times, I want to stop and reread an especially sublime passage. Plus, I don't want anybody else's voice in my head but my own!
In regard to your PhD story, I have to say you’ve honestly helped further my analytical skills and passion for literature much more than several of my English professors. On some level, I think your UA-cam channel is even more beneficial for the world than if you were a professor, since you’re sharing your intellect on a public platform rather than behind the paywalls of academia, where only a handful of students per year would be able to appreciate the insight you bring to everything you read. Thanks for all you do, man!
You have no idea what that means to me. Especially right now, in the midst of a sort of quarter-(or third of a)-life crisis about what I should really be doing. Many, many humble thanks to you. It is a pleasure to be a part of this community of real readers.
@@LeafbyLeaf Just stumbled across this comment a year later and I wholeheartedly agree.
Exactly. This is beautiful. I've been binging your videos.
I can almost see your blood pressure going up answering that first question about why you’re not a professor. As someone who went through a highly similar situation, I wholly empathize - and congratulate you on being able to step down from that soapbox when my instinct would have been to let my blood continue to boil for ten more minutes in the hopes that my audience would indulge me.
Several years later, I hope you’re grateful that the right thing may have happened on accident. I can’t speak for you, but looking back things, I would have probably resented another 5-7 years of being told what to read, to avid a topic if other scholars had gotten there first, et cetera. You may not have “Ph.D.” after your name, but you get to read whatever the hell you want and no one is there to tell you how to do it or what to take away from it - which is what I’d imagine would be one of the banes of a humanities Ph.D. program. The freedom to read however we please - a mile wide and an inch deep or vice verse, on your own time and your own leisure - has to be one of the greatest feelings a book lover in the modern age can enjoy. And I’m glad you get to enjoy that feeling, too.
Yes, I guess I really didn’t realize how chafed I still was about it! But you’ve made some great points. In fact, at this point I can’t imagine putting the time and energy into it. I’m not even sure what I would specialize in anymore. (At the time I was certain it was Gaddis.) When you put it the way you’ve put it, I am thankful and feel that the right thing happened. And for that I thank you!
I really really really want to thank you for the in depth answers you gave to the questions about objective aesthetics and the literary canon. It made me feel like I was having a conversation with you which is such an honor given your extraordinary erudition and well considered thoughts! Especially in these trying times where we are all isolated this was great! Lots to munch on thanks!
Very kind words, my friend, and I thank you very much. It is a pleasure to connect with you and talk about these things. You posed great, complex questions and I was admittedly a bit on my toes. Hope you are doing well!
Here are some more questions for you:
*Have you read the works of HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe? What do you think of their writing styles (if you have read them) and them being essential parts of the 'Weird Fiction' movements of their times, albeit severely misunderstood? How important, do you think, their contribution has been to the literary world (again, assuming that you have read them)? And lastly: How do you feel about their being severely mistreated and under-appreciated while they were alive?
*What are your tastes in music? Do you read while listening to any type of music?
*If you were given a choice to choose any 10 books to take with you on a dejected and deserted desert, what all will you eventually choose and take with you?
There's no return date in sight so choose wisely.
Awesome video!!
Great questions!
Poe & Lovecraft
I like them both but rarely get around to them much these days. I’m sure I’ll cycle back eventually. I liked Lovecraft’s really short stuff, especially stories like “From Beyond.” I wrote several papers on Poe in school. I’m particularly proud of one on “William Wilson” (perhaps my favorite of his stories). I think Poe has had a tremendous impact on literature though he was only really appreciated by the French early on (Baudelaire). He has probably informed horror and sci-fi more than the literary fiction community overall (in some circles it’s fashionable to hate on Poe; not sure why), but I love his overwrought sentences and twisted mind. The more you’ve got me thinking about him the more I want to reread some of his stories. Of his poems there are very few that I like (Alone and Ulalume). Poe is significant in Bottom’s Dream it should be noted.
Music I get around to in my next Q and A video. But I like classical (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Satie, Debussy, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Handel, et al.); jazz (Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Monk, Gillespie, et al.). I also like heavier technical stuff like Animals As Leaders. And progressive stuff like Casimir Liberski.
I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list:
1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover)
2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”)
3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare
4. Oxford Book of English Verse
5. The Critical Tradition
6. À la recherche du temps perdu
7. Don Quixote
8. Emerson’s essays
9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume)
10. Complete works of Montaigne
1. I've been deeply acquainted with academia for over 40 years, I one thing I can tell you is that if you were my puppet, I would prevent you from entering that dystopia. Suffice to say that what really works, among other, many other, things, with your channel is your fresh approach, unencumbered by strictures other than those imposed by yourself. Your abilities cohere in such a way that you are in this context on a par with the best literary teachers I have ever witnessed teach, even the best history teachers (who outnumber the lit teachers I have experienced). James Alan McPherson and Marylinne Robinson are probable the most intelligent, eloquent, human (each was more of one than the other but I won't say which was what), and I loved them each in a different way--McPherson was better to sit with at his home drinking his scotch), but I get more from your 'classes' than I got from them about literature.
This is not a casual remark, nor an attempt to make you feel good; this is as much a remark about academia as it is about your abilities.
2. Translation. I disagree. The translator of Zettel's Traum agrees. But he had to create more than most translators do. Gregory Rabassa is the translator I encountered most and I am certain he would never want to be considered as significant as the author. Every Rabassa translation I ever read was remarkable for the channeling of the specific voice of each author. When I moved to Slovenia I read Vitomil Zupan's Minuet za kitaro in what was said to be a bad translation. But I FELT Zupan and was so taken with him and his novel that I read it again straight away.
Antunes has been translated by Rabassa--Fado Alexandrino is a maximalist masterpiece; but also by many others. And Antunes is so singular that each translator has been unable to diminish, alter, suppress, distort, obliterate Antunes. Antunes overcomes translation.
You’ve made great points on the topic of translation. Admittedly Woods’s Schmidt translation was a bit of a hyperbolic example. This is a big topic and warrants its own video. I think about the Fowlie translations of Rimbaud and how on the one hand they are very close to literal French to English translations but the musicality is thereby completely lost. Between you and LSP I feel I am really missing out not having read Antunes.
As for your first points about academia and likening me to Marilynne Robinson (one of my heroes), it’s going to take me a while to recover from the weight of your compliments.
Adding Fado Alexandrino to my TBR list. I'll have to check out James Alan McPherson, too
I loved studying Literature as undergrad in a very comprehensive course. But that was enough. Self-directed reading waaay better
Thank you for the encouragement and affirmation!
You have the most rational and accurate viewpoint regarding canonization. It should not be based on anything but quality over a long period of time. If you want to give prizes, awards, recognition to works for reasons not based wholly on merit, that can perhaps bring short term satisfaction, but in the long term it weakens the appeal and substance of the work receiving the prize or award, as well as rendering the prize itself as superfluous from a literary point of view.Your channel has become my favorite booktube hangout 📚☕️
Glad you’re enjoying hanging out around here-great to have you! 😁
Your bookshelf is pristine
Honestly you're probably better read than most literature professors and like others said more free to enrich your reading repetoire instead of being bogged down marking 100 papers on the same book.
Sometimes turning your passion into a job isn't the best course of action, it can kill any love you had for it. It might have turned out for the best.
Thank you for the kind words and the encouragement!
This is something I think about a lot: if I made my passion a profession would it purge the pleasure? Judging by my actual day-job and how I used to feel about the field, I believe it would indeed at least stifle my enthusiasm.
I appreciate your reference to Stephen King's book On Writing and made me remember something he said in an interview, "My father left the family, but he left us a box in the attic. I got into it and found a book by Lovecraft and that book started me down the road to writing." Here are three books that have helped me in my own writing: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, The Man Who Invented Fiction by William, Egginton, and How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen.
My favorite genres are probably: "books about books"; "books about reading"; and "books about writing." The latest of the lattermost was George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond.... Brilliant!
I have "attempted" to read the philosophers and my mind just gets tangled. I finally realized that I really wanted an answer to one question: "What is the meaning of life?" I read Victor Frankel's The Meaning of Life and it was amazing, but funny as it may seem I found I liked the answer presented in the little book, Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life, better. Sometimes books talk to us the way we must hear it. When you are able to explain an idea to a child and have them understand, is important. Big books, big ideas, yes. Kierkegaard said best, "It is true what Philosophy says: that Life must be understood backwards. But that makes one forget the other saying: that it must be lived---forwards."
This is a beautiful statement! (And thanks for the Fink recommendation!)
Loved your take on translations. I've generally been a bit iffy with translations because it's not the same as the original but your positive attitude on it is great, the idea that you almost get like two works of art in one.
I'm new to the channel and I've been going through your videos. Inspiring stuff!
Thanks-and welcome! Glad you got something out of the video. I try to exercise positive criticism as much as I can.
It's a good idea to look at all the different translations available, as some are better than others. For example Pevear & Volokhonsky's style is better for Dostoevsky than Tolstoy, so ive heard. But yeah don't get turned off of them, you cant learn all the languages in the world.
Fascinating discussion of topics! 8:50 Whelp? Once Dante moves up & Shakespeare moves up then Joyce moves up and *Pynchon* is in! 😉
Thanks for answering the questions Chris
Thanks for asking them!
Calvin and Hobbes helped expand my vocabulary when I was a kid and got my excited about words. Calvin somehow has a vast vocabulary and keen philosophical mind but can't add 7 + 12
My love for words is rooted in detention, where our warden thought it would be a punishment to have me copy definitions from a fusty copy of The American Heritage Dictionary. Thank you so much, Mrs. [Redacted]!
I think I said the longest book I owned was ”The Complete Works” of Montaigne, but you mentioned “The Brothers Karamazov” as a long book. I have that one, too, and several other books about the same size. Montaigne’s Works is double the size. Oh, I have a question, no, two! What five books would you take to a deserted island? And-Have you ever read Georges Perec? But don’t feel like you have to answer. Anyhow, great video, as always!
Thanks! I’ve only read Life: A User’s Manual, but I can tell you I want to get to everything he has published. Especially his lipograms (like A Void).
I recently posted a picture of my Top 10 Books on Instagram. Here’s the list:
1. Complete works of Plato (Hackett Pub. single volume hardcover)
2. 1560 Geneva Bible (“Shakespeare’s Bible”)
3. The Norton Complete Shakespeare
4. Oxford Book of English Verse
5. The Critical Tradition
6. À la recherche du temps perdu
7. Don Quixote
8. Emerson’s essays
9. Iliad (Loeb Library two-volume)
10. Complete works of Montaigne
Oh, I need to get more of his books, too! He was a fantastic writer. Great list, Chris! The only book I haven’t heard of before is number six. But I’m surprised “The Little Prince” is not on your best ten.
I'm thinking of reading/making a video series on Finnegans Wake. Have you ever finished it?
Admittedly I have never finished the Wake. But I have been talking to a few people recently about digging through the Wake soon. I just bought Joseph Campbell’s Skeleton Key and read the predatory material. My interest is high. I think you should definitely make a series!
@@LeafbyLeaf The Skeleton Key is a very impressive Wake reference, IMHO, especially considering it was published a mere 5 yr's after _GW._
Great video. You know he means business when the jacket comes off half way through the video!
HAHAHA!!! For this and the next Q&A video, I cobbled together a few different takes. :P
Hello, Chris! Love your videos. Do you ever think of opening a discord server?
Hey! I’ll have to look into what that is.
Very interesting answers. I didn't use audiobooks for years until I started commuting an hour per day. Then I got addicted to them. Definitely not as effective as reading, though. I eagerly await your next analysis.
Thanks! I really wish I could latch onto audiobooks because then I would find even more opportunities to “read”!
since you write a lot on your books, do you have any problems with used bookstores accepting the ones you prune from your collection?
Yes, that is definitely a problem. They usually take them but extend very meager store credit. Just another reason for me to be very selective about what I buy in the first place! But sometimes I will have a hunch that I am most likely going to take a book to a secondhand shop and I'll make notes outside the book (e.g. Where the Crawdads Sing; The Great Alone; The Terranauts).
Just this week I was writing a comment about my top 4 booktubers, and I gradually realized that (even if I mentioned you just outside my top 4) you might just be my favorite, your knowledge, your hunger for good hard literature, I feel that in the last few weeks you have started to post more personal things about your reading habits , your taste is excellent.
Some questions(hope you can asnwer them in comments at least):
I follow literary and culture related magazines but I have never read Rain taxi, looks really promising, but I didnt find the section of reviews on their site, can you link me to their reviews section and/or the reviews you have written?
What other literary magazine/newspapers or sites do you follow/read? I recommend aldaily.com(an aggregator)
Last video, you have mentioned your habits of reading at the office, do you read during the workday now that you work from home? By the way have you started as a software developer or a tester?
Wow, thank you very much. What an honorable compliment. What makes it all worthwhile to me is people like you who also have the hunger for literature!
Answers to your questions:
1. Rain Taxi is a paid subscription-based journal that mails out printed copies. They do, however, have an online edition and I've a few reviews out there. Here's one for the last book in the My Struggle cycle: www.raintaxi.com/my-struggle-book-six/.
2. I don't read a lot of periodicals, but the ones I read regularly are New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, Philosophy Now, Rain Taxi, and sometimes LitHub.
3. I've been treating my quarantine days just like normal workdays, so: yes!
4. I started as a developer. I've never been a tester, though I have much love for all QA people out there!
In regards to the Canon, this site may be of interest to you. The New Canon. Ted Gioia gives little reviews on what he considers some of the best books written in the last 35 years. Hasn't been updated in a few years, but what's included is pretty impressive.
thenewcanon.com/index.html
Some of his other recommended links are also worth checking out.
Thanks for this! I love lists so much-it’s like its own genre of literature. I’ll check this out.
What is your story really? Do u have a video on your career so for or anything? Gets me very interested.
Hey there! At this point I cannot remember everything I talked about in my Q and A videos but I do remember sharing quite a few things. Is there anything in particular you want to know?
Your degree and ambitions when u was younger? Im a literature student in Sweden.
Very nice! I’ve been to Sweden many, many times (Göteborg)! I have a BA in computer science and an MA in literature. I’ve been a lifelong reader but started working in information technology at 15. I’ve been submitting my own writing for over 16 years. Three years ago I got my first book review published and I’ve been publishing book reviews ever since. I still work in IT (for Volvo, no less-Sweden!). But I do a lot of literary pursuits outside of that, including my channel. It’s a fun life!
@@LeafbyLeafDamn, i seee! Well, i really like your stuff and keep up the Amazing work. Where are your book reviews -except on yt- published so i can read?
A lot of my written reviews are published in print, but I’ve linked most of the online reviews on my little portfolio site. This site also has a link to the recent Great Concavity podcast episode on which I was a guest.
chrisviabooks.wixsite.com/chrisvia
Ikr why are you not a professor i was laughing so hard in my room
Hahaha, that’s a complicated answer but perhaps one day I’ll transition to professing. Until then, UA-cam is my classroom.
I remember there's a quote that goes "reading a translation is like kissing a woman through a veil"
I love that!
Have you read Neal Stevensons trilogy "the Baroque Cycle" ?
No, I haven’t read any Stephenson, though I do have Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon on my shelves.
Your response to 3:54 shows how much you've read
I think that's a compliment? (I can read this two ways.) :)
@@LeafbyLeaf haha, big compliment. I love what you're doing.
🙏🙏🙏
Do you have a Netflix subscription?
I think you have to have one to be a global citizen.
Can you please help me? I am forgetting the author(s) who wrote this type of literary criticism, but I am in need of literary criticism that tackles the concept of the "Un-Dead"-- the idea of not being dead and exploring that. I am a graduate student researching on Trumpism and his relationship to evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, and how they quite literally treat him as the un-dead (as well as those who oppose him). Please help! (Googling is difficult because I run into sources that do not cover close to what I want :( ).
That's a very intriguing thesis! I have heard that idea of the zombie as the in-between or undead. Perhaps I read about it in one of Eugene Thacker's three books on the horror of philosophy.
@@LeafbyLeaf Wow! I did not expect a reply! Thank you so much. I will take a look on Amazon. If interested, I can email or drop a link to this comment to the journal I am publishing a piece for about this topic/thesis.
Send it along!
Watched several of your videos, and I must say, I'm thinking you'd hold your own in a PhD examination. I don't disparage the training that a doctoral program can provide, but these days, English could use some deep and broad readers like you.
That’s very kind of you to say. Thank you so much! The PhD will likely be one of those lifelong what-would’ves, but I’m quite enjoying sharing the overflow of my reading candidly here. 😁
Yes! 2.5 books in a trilogy how? Every story has a function, every beginning its conclusion and 2+2=5
Jacket Brooklyn Taco fifth
At this point, I can't remember what this may be in reference to, but--lol!
Have you seen Le Temps Retrouvé (/Time Regained) (1999) by Raoul Ruiz, Morte a Venezia (/Tod in Venedig) (1971) ( please be aware if you haven't read both that both T. Mann's Death in Venice and his Doktor Faustus are relevant to this before you do; Visconti by his own avowal used both) by Luchino Visconti, Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket (1987 by Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick, The Dead (1984) by John Huston, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by David Fincher, Gone Girl (2014) by David Fincher, Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin, There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson and Inherent Vice (2014) by Paul Thomas Anderson, amongst others, please? Thank you. These do not seem to me to compare poorly with the books. If these adaptations interest you more, I can provide you with a much longer list to the same standards. Thank you.
NO - Le Temps Retrouvé (/Time Regained) (1999) by Raoul Ruiz
NO - Morte a Venezia (/Tod in Venedig) (1971)
NO - Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick
YES - A Clockwork Orange (1972) by Stanley Kubrick
NO - Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick
YES - The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick
YES - Full Metal Jacket (1987 by Stanley Kubrick
YES - Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick
NO - The Dead (1984) by John Huston
NO - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by David Fincher
NO (- Gone Girl (2014) by David Fincher
NO - Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin
YES - There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson
Tried to watch this over Christmas, but couldn't connect with it - Inherent Vice (2014) by Paul Thomas Anderson
I'm not a big movie watcher. In a year, I probably watch about 5 movies. But last year I did watch Bela Tarr's Satantango (based on the Laszlo Krasznahorkai book) and Valerie's Week of Wonders (based on the Viteslav Nezval book). This year I plan to watch Zama and a couple other, so as to expand my acquaintance with film adaptations.
Feel free to send me a list of those you most highly recommend.
Thanks for this!
@@LeafbyLeaf I should have been more precise. I have edited my reply to correct my other mistakes, but have left that one there since it is more enlightening to deal with it here. After Barry Lyndon's commercial failure in the U.S. and commercial success in Europe, in 1975, which not only upset Kubrick the pragmatist, but also the Kubrick who liked his films to be seen by the widest possible audience,, tough he distrusted those he called the middle-brow, Kubrick made two versions of The Shining, both of which Stephen King hated and hates, though it's hard to understand why if one looks for a better adaptation of any of his work, one for the U.S. and one R.O.W. (rest of the world) one. I do not want to say any more about the two versions, since I cannot think of any information I can give beyond this which would not spoil the experience. I expect given where you are that you have seen the U.S. version, however the version I most highly recommend is the R.O.W. (Rest of the World) one, which is available in the U.S. However if you choose to see the R.O.W. version, I would urge you to get all arrangements made for you by a friend who has already seen both, since there is a lot of data you will find out if you look on your own, which ideally you would not know at all. I have a friend who did not realise there were two versions, and who was next to me, as close as possible to the centre of the first row where I always am if I can help it, and it is amongst the fondest of memories in my life seeing his reaction to what he had never seen before, and did not even know existed.
I should have also included Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the above list.
Pynchon likes Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation of his book if it helps to know that. Pynchon being Pynchon, Anderson had to let this be known in the most subtle way possible, but I know him well enough to know he would not lie about this. Pynchon liked Paul Thomas Anderson's films before he made this adaptation.
16:23 haha it just so happens that I am a native bangladeshi. Curious about your spy stories btw.
That’s awesome! I’ll bet my mom still has some of them. 😁
College is about learning more and more about less and less until you know less and less about more and more
Well put! Hyper-specialization.
Do you read theology?
Yes
@@LeafbyLeaf Have you read Hans Kung?
Funny to hear you talking about my country. You said you were intrigued by spy stories taking place in Bangladesh. Well I am from Bangladesh and if you are interested in the country we can chat about it. By the way we were just talking about The Book of Disquiet by Pessoa in your Books for Grazing video.
Well, hello there (again)! Yeah, I cannot remember where the idea even came from, but I would sit down at the family typewriter on the dining room table and bang out these short stories about spies in/from Bangladesh!
@@LeafbyLeaf That's so weird, man. Bangladesh police department is one of the the most corrupt in the whole world. And our capital city Dhaka is the perfect set up for crime fiction. I think our country even topped the charts for the most corrupt country three times in a row. If there were spies in Bangladesh they would be playing both sides and taking money from both that's for sure.
😆😆😆
Let me say that you are much more interesting than any of my English professors at a small state university in New Mexico. Try again. P. S. I made more money as a public high school English teacher than my professor friends to their envy. I have a Master's degree.
Very, very kind of you to say. In some way, I have found that being outside of the institution keeps me "pure" while also restricting my opportunities. I think I will eventually get my PhD, just not sure when. For now, I'm just having fun making and sharing these videos. :)
@@LeafbyLeaf Thank you for doing the videos. Your viewers love them. I only discovered you yesterday. Though thoroughly enjoying your shows, I feel overwhelmed for not having read contemporary fiction. I am stuck in the twentieth century and a post modern fan. Maybe you could do an episode to catch some of us up on the most important novels of the 21st century. Thank you.
Thanks so much! I actually feel that I don’t keep up with contemporary fiction enough to do that. Like you, I seem to stay in the twentieth century and earlier. I do try to read a handful of emerging fiction or recent fiction each year (especially to publish written reviews) but I don’t do a good job staying current. Still-I have been asked several times to offer my favorite twenty-first-century books, so perhaps.
A book on science shaming the Bible?
I don't understand the question.
Are u Polish?
I’ve spent a good amount of time there and made some great friends-but no, I’m not.
I hate audiobooks!
I envy people who can lock in with them and retain comprehension. For my part, I am just not an auditory learner. That explains why I mispronounce so many words!
I just have to read at my own pace, or at times, I want to stop and reread an especially sublime passage. Plus, I don't want anybody else's voice in my head but my own!
Being white and male wouldn't help you getting into academia, or trad publishing, for that matter.