Tony, Just finished _Drive your plow_ last week, and am reading _The Empusium_ currently. I agree with all your sentiments on 'Plow" - 'Empusium' is like 'Plow' with none of the plusses and all the minuses - no great phrasing. Half-way through the book and nothing has happened. It's like a watered down _Magic Mountain_ by Mann, without all the philosophical discourse.
I think Andy might want to look at this article by Kurt Vonnegut, called "A Nazi Sympathizer Defended At Some Cost", where he talks about Celine. For me, well I would never let a writer's contemptible political choices stand between me and his/her writing. If the book is really good- like Celine's masterpiece with its huge impact on writers like Heller or Vonnegut for instance- I would definitely give it a try. .and make an honest effort to understand. .I 'm especially reluctant to condemn writers whose souls had been seared by the atrocities of WW2. Case in point, an Italian writer I love: Curzio Malaparte. In the 1920's he supported Mussolini, then after the war he became a communist and a Catholic. If I had let his controversial personality put me off reading his books, I would have missed his antiwar masterpiece, The Skin. Lovecraft was a racist, Salvador Dali had a cosy relationship with Franco's dictatorship etc etc.. I think that ,as readers, if we reject writers without reading them first, we end up harming ourselves in some way.
Very well said. Excellent examples as well. We'd lose Yeats and Pound as well if we judged their output by views we have which of course also change over time.
Demon Copperhead is a working class coming of age story. I know it was trendy and also that Andy hated Poisonwood in HS, but DC is a tragic masterpiece - you might like it, Tony. I’ll try to think of some others. Maybe Angels by our good friend Denis?
Christopher Hitchens said everyone has one book in them and, in his opinion, that is where it should remain. Such a sweet guy! 57:53 You guys would like Celine's War. Only 105 pages. Alice Munro died on May 13th.
RE: Faulkner While I hadn’t heard of the civil rights comments before this podcast, I think it would be very disingenuous to claim he’s just a “racist from the south.” His books were VERY progressive for his time in dealing with racism and the south’s treatment of black people post-slavery. Almost all of his novels deal with racism on some level, even if that specific MLK perspective was grossly misguided. BTW no hate intended, love the pod. Just wanted to put my own two cents in
I absolutely agree! At the end of the day, a writer's opinion and way of life/ behaviour cannot matter more than his/her overall literary output. Cancel Alice Munro for being a bad mother? Are we serious now?People are not all good or all bad - human nature is a lot more complicated than that. So, instead of cancelling writers whose opinions rub us the wrong way, we should defend their right to say what they think. Theirs and everyone else's actually.
I think "working class" folks might be more attracted to short stories, as it would take less time to get the satisfaction of the beginning, middle and end of a story. Busier people, shorter fiction.
This is correct, I think. Working class is very broad. When I was working at four schools in Saigon teaching English, short stories fulfilled me the most. Or novellas. If you're working 70-80 hours at a low paygrade you need something short.
I think that working class just means working a lot at an unfulfilling line of work for a long time. I would recommend Denis Johnson - probably "Train Dreams" as a primer.
Tony, Just finished _Drive your plow_ last week, and am reading _The Empusium_ currently. I agree with all your sentiments on 'Plow" - 'Empusium' is like 'Plow' with none of the plusses and all the minuses - no great phrasing. Half-way through the book and nothing has happened. It's like a watered down _Magic Mountain_ by Mann, without all the philosophical discourse.
@@kurtfox4944 ahh that's disappointing!
I think Andy might want to look at this article by Kurt Vonnegut, called "A Nazi Sympathizer Defended At Some Cost", where he talks about Celine.
For me, well I would never let a writer's contemptible political choices stand between me and his/her writing. If the book is really good- like Celine's masterpiece with its huge impact on writers like Heller or Vonnegut for instance- I would definitely give it a try. .and make an honest effort to understand. .I 'm especially reluctant to condemn writers whose souls had been seared by the atrocities of WW2.
Case in point, an Italian writer I love: Curzio Malaparte. In the 1920's he supported Mussolini, then after the war he became a communist and a Catholic. If I had let his controversial personality put me off reading his books, I would have missed his antiwar masterpiece, The Skin. Lovecraft was a racist, Salvador Dali had a cosy relationship with Franco's dictatorship etc etc..
I think that ,as readers, if we reject writers without reading them first, we end up harming ourselves in some way.
Very well said. Excellent examples as well. We'd lose Yeats and Pound as well if we judged their output by views we have which of course also change over time.
Hi! Could you please post again the link to join your book club? What are your upcoming reads?
Thanks for the fantastic content
Demon Copperhead is a working class coming of age story. I know it was trendy and also that Andy hated Poisonwood in HS, but DC is a tragic masterpiece - you might like it, Tony.
I’ll try to think of some others. Maybe Angels by our good friend Denis?
Christopher Hitchens said everyone has one book in them and, in his opinion, that is where it should remain. Such a sweet guy! 57:53 You guys would like Celine's War. Only 105 pages. Alice Munro died on May 13th.
@@jackwalter5970 Loved Hitch
Hi, hope you're good. Just wondering if the Book Club is still open to new readers?
RE: Faulkner
While I hadn’t heard of the civil rights comments before this podcast, I think it would be very disingenuous to claim he’s just a “racist from the south.” His books were VERY progressive for his time in dealing with racism and the south’s treatment of black people post-slavery. Almost all of his novels deal with racism on some level, even if that specific MLK perspective was grossly misguided.
BTW no hate intended, love the pod. Just wanted to put my own two cents in
I absolutely agree! At the end of the day, a writer's opinion and way of life/ behaviour cannot matter more than his/her overall literary output. Cancel Alice Munro for being a bad mother? Are we serious now?People are not all good or all bad - human nature is a lot more complicated than that. So, instead of cancelling writers whose opinions rub us the wrong way, we should defend their right to say what they think. Theirs and everyone else's actually.
I believe you can dub anything on Netflix. I turned on dubs for the Spanish film Society of the Snow and they weren't bad.
Small correction: Rubem Fonseca is Brazilian :-)
Thank you for pointing that out. I must’ve been thinking about what language it was translated from and misspoke
I think "working class" folks might be more attracted to short stories, as it would take less time to get the satisfaction of the beginning, middle and end of a story. Busier people, shorter fiction.
And let the bourgeoisie have all the fun with Gravity's Rainbow? No way.
This is correct, I think. Working class is very broad. When I was working at four schools in Saigon teaching English, short stories fulfilled me the most. Or novellas. If you're working 70-80 hours at a low paygrade you need something short.
I think that working class just means working a lot at an unfulfilling line of work for a long time. I would recommend Denis Johnson - probably "Train Dreams" as a primer.
@@brockeldon444i just read train dreams, but my favorite johnson is his last, largesse. i love his short stories
I think The jungle by Upton Sinclair is a good working class book.
@@melissaaugust7016 for sure!