Language & Grammar discussion

I love him. I had him pegged for the Nobel Prize ten years ago when a friend and I discovered some of his books in high school.

I've always thought Sinclair Lewis seemed dated when I try to read him. Like it's addressing concerns that seem long past, and in ways that don't seem relevant anymore. I read "Main Street," and I don't think you're missing much.

When I read Main Street and then Babbit in the early 1960s, it was like someone had pried open my life.

That could have been because you read them 50 years ago.

John wrote: "That could have been because you read them 50 years ago."

Absolutely. But I think that world still exists. Thankgawd it's not so prevalent, but I do believe its still there.

I did read Babbitt once upon a, and I liked it, too, because it took down religious hypocrites in a way that I deemed fitting (and still do).

Richard, I once had a flu and read Blindness while flat out in bed for a week. Talk about the blind leading the blind and the sickening leading the sick!

When you're sick, though, it might be best to reach for classic comfort food like Robert Louis Stevenson. Ah, just like sick days as a child, reading Treasure Island or Kidnapped (or, in honor of Ruth, A Child's Garden of Verses)!

I never thought that we needed a book to parody religious hypocrites. I think they very conveniently parody themselves better than anyone else could. A very wise woman once told me to pepper everything I say here with "I think," so no one will think I'm being uppity or tendentious.

I have "Treasure Island" on my nightstand, NE - not because I'm reading it, but because unless I start stacking books in the oven, they have no other place to go.

Blindness is one of the best books I've ever read. I'd be willing to read it again, soon.

But why, oh why, do you honor me with A Child's Garden of Verses, NE?

John, Constant Reader used to have a member who swore she never cooked, and that she kept books in the oven.

It really throws off the food, Ruth. I didn't care for the singed-paper-and-ink aftertaste in my veal milanese.

Believe it or not I read Stevenson's poetry when I was sick as a kid....the Land of Counterpane was a goodie......

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

I loved his poetry when I was a kid, too. My grandmother used to recite the Land of Counterpane to me when I was sick.

Ruth, I simply honored you as a poet. The root of all young poets is Stevenson's classic. Um, "I think...."

That oven anecdote gives "cooking the books" new meaning.

Richard, you couldn't pay me to read Bush's "memoir" -- or any living politician's, for that matter. In fact, it would MAKE me sick.

Newengland wrote: "Joan -- Do you mean Snow by that not-so-young Turk, Orman Pahuk (or somesuch)? It was like walking through six foot drifts. I raised the white flag after 50 pp but no one could make out the white..."
My first attempt was in the summer, then I tried again in winter, after hearing his interview on Authors and Company on CBC. I'm keeping it on my to read list with the hope that the 3rd attempt will be successful. The length shouldn't be a problem.
Ruth wrote: "Constant Reader read My Name is Red a couple of years ago. I was underwhelmed. Here's the review I posted:

I'm not sure how to rate this book. On the one hand, Pamuk is an important writer and I..."

THE PLAGUE is top five in my estimation. I`ve read it twice and in midlife tried to read it a third time and sludged halfway through. The second completion was two years ago.

Anything by Camus is extraordinary. TALKATIVE MAN, MYTH OF SISYPHUS, THE STRANGER-all extraordinary. And yes, they are difficult. But then so is Kafka. Both had very unique perspectives on life and it`s so very difficult to get into the thoughts of someone whose own is so very different, but both are worth the effort.

Both are like eating the richest Bavarian chocolate cake you have ever eaten with 10,000 calories each slice.

Hemingway mentions Thomas Mann? I can't think of two writers further apart in either writing style or their ultimate concerns.

Why should this be so strange? There are many of us who greatly admire those with totally different concerns than our own. Genius is like a tower of blinding light. It`s mesmerizing. Faulkner and steinbeck admired each other-ditto for Hemingway.

Wait a minute -- Hemingway loathed Faulkner and vice-versa. Oh, you mean Steinbeck-Hem and Faulkner-Hem, maybe?

Love Camus' short story, "The Guest," as well as Sartre's, "The Wall."

But then, I'm a sucker for existentialism, which is why I hate to see the politicians taking the word over (they say things like "existential threat" to simply mean an "existing threat," so why not say it in fewer letters?).

I don't think "existential threat" means just "existing threat." I think it's more like "a threat that endangers one's existence." And I guess "existential threat" does have fewer letters than that.

Is your last name Cheney, maybe? (Kidding.)

Get a load of this column:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/idea...

... which includes this line: "'Being born is an existential threat, because it means you're gonna die,' noted one blogger, in response to the doomsday rhetoric. 'Did existential just become a fancy word for big?' demanded another."

As much as I hate to say it, that sounds about right. Now, I don't know if Liz knew what she was talking about. She was probably just puppetting daddy, like she puppets him on so many other things.

The guy writing the column is just confusing "existential" and "Existential." Just like I suppose you could do with Pragmatism/pragmatism, Empiricism/empiricism, or any other movement that takes its name from a common English word. He needs to join Goodreads so we can read him real good.

Jan doesn't like being called "guy," but I'll invite her to real goodreads soon.

And once a word becomes entrenched in the language (like existentialism), we allow it to lounge about without its capital letter.

Score: Camus, 1; Cheney 0.

Geoffrey wrote: "THE PLAGUE is top five in my estimation..."

I've read The Plague, The Fall and The Stranger and thought them all excellent, albeit not quite in my top 5.

I do find that they're books to read in a leisurely way, because there are many profound themes that bear deep thought.

Newengland wrote: "Jan doesn't like being called "guy," but I'll invite her to real goodreads soon.

And once a word becomes entrenched in the language (like existentialism), we allow it to lounge about without its..."

We can go back and forth on what Cheney's score would be, but I doubt after 8 years as President that it's a 0.

Cecily wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "THE PLAGUE is top five in my estimation..."

I've read The Plague, The Fall and The Stranger and thought them all excellent, albeit not quite in my top 5.

I do find that they're b..."
I've read most of Camus. I liked his The Rebel very much,read it long ago though.I am fascinated by his Notebooks too-glimpses of things he dealt with more thoroughly in his longer writings.

Am reading Oliver Sack's Seeing Voices. I find it fascinating because we do take our ability to communicate through language so much for granted without really grasping how it helps us to think, imagine, formulate,plan....

Seeing Voices. A new Sack`s book?

No its not new. My Picador publication says copyright1989,1990.However I bought it last month.

I'm reading Angelmaker, and it's going to be a bear to review. It's not often I consider abandoning a book I'm sort of enjoying and sort of hating on p. 400 of 490.

I have it on hold at the library. Right now I am reading Under the Volcano

Debbie your mom's book arrived today. It is lovely.Portrait of a Garden: Excerpts from a New Zealand Garden Diary

How are you liking the Malcolm Lowry book? It's one of those minor, minor classics I often consider and then stop considering.

Newengland wrote: "How are you liking the Malcolm Lowry book? It's one of those minor, minor classics I often consider and then stop considering."

In the infant stages, but I like it so far.

I wonder which chapter will bring the eruption.

Angelmaker has an annoying character -- not the main one, thank God, but an important one. I find that quite a handicap for books.

Reading 'The heart is a lonely hunter' and liking it very much.

Carson McCullers? Another (mini-) classic I've never read! (The world appears to be full of them.)

Sonali wrote: "Reading 'The heart is a lonely hunter' and liking it very much."

That is among my favorites,Sonali. Maybe the girls in school could read it? I like anything by Carson McCullers.

You mean there's more? Oh, wait. She wrote something with "Wedding" in the title, right? Still, I don't think of her as a prolific author.

The Member of the Wedding

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

I think a few short stories, and some novellas.

She wrote poetry also., but you are right she was not as prolific as others in that era.

What surprised me was writing at such a young age the insight that she shows into all her characters. They are all very very American but so universal too.
You are right Carol. I wish this could be introduced in school.But it wont happen, lots of red-tape:-)I get around it by telling the story bit by bit whenever there's some free time and then lend it to those who really love reading.

What did you like most about the book? Do you think the heart is a lonely hunter? Do you think the title was perfect for the book?

I liked the loneliness of the writing. I felt Mick's every angst. I think McCullars character developement was exceptional,with lots of insights into the adolescent mind. John Singer was a wonder character, full of doubt and secrets.

I liked the way she has brought alive a whole town. To a person living in a completely different milieu that is very different,that is important because all my knowledge of the US is from movies and books. That is why, at the end of the day when I find that ordinary people are basically the same whatever the outward differences are, it keeps me hopeful of achieving understanding on a very personal level.I liked the delineation of the bartender's character, his gentleness towards Baby and Mick. I also liked the tragedy of Bubber's young life.And how Mick finally gets entrapped in the subtle, loving coercion which makes her take up the job, her inner room filled with music gradually fading.

Good God, Sonali, DON'T judge us by movies and TV. Even we are unfamiliar with people in THOSE things.

I just finished a garden-variety YA sci-fi, hero's journey sort of book in A CONFUSION OF PRINCES. It's by Garth Nix, the Aussie who's chugged out all manner of YA fare of that sort.

Now I'm on to another YA deal, Chris Lynch's Kill Switch, which is garnering some abysmal ratings here. Still, it's an ARC, and read and rate I must.

Then I'm on to a final attempt (with a group and the new Edith Grossman translation) at Don Quixote. Hey, it worked for Moby-Dick, so why not?

:-):-)True.Like if you judged us by our movies and books.Especially the silly Bollywood movies which I never ever watch.

I've never seen a Bollywood movie, sorry to say. My cinema pedigree is as suspect as John Wilkes Booth.

I started a Bollywood movie once. It was highly touted as the best of the best and I thought I should explore. I didn't last more than 20 minutes.

If you like inflated drama, love and splendor , then Bollywood is for you. Occaisionally I indulge.

I am reading a piece of no brainer fluff. Murder on the Rocks , murder and mayhem in Maine, at The Grey Whale Inn. A little culinary fare, mixed and stirred in for good measure.

In countries such as the UK or the USA where there is plenty of immigration, immigrants quickly become British or American, with only symbolic tokens to differentiate them from other ethnic groups. Thus Italians consume pasta, the Irish porter, Indians curry, etc.

Sometimes however we are confronted with the genuine foreignness of the ethnic groups in our midst. In Britain, there is witch-finding among Africans and cross-cousin marriage among Pakistanis.(Most British people don't even know what a cross-cousin is!)

Bollywood reminds us that foreigners really are foreign, with often quite different cultural values from ourselves.

Bollywood sounds like the soaps on daytime TV. Is this a fair comparison, though?

Carol, Murder on the Rocks sounds like that dreadful TV series of yesteryear, Murder, She Wrote. Set Maine back 100 years, that did.

I sped read and thoroughly disdained the YA novel, Kill Switch. In fact, I pulled the switch myself after 50 pp., jumping ahead and reading swaths in the middle and end to see if the same bad taste was there. Sure enough.

Now, Quixote. Once more to the plains of Spain...

I loved the Don. When I read it, I wondered if Twain had been influenced by Don Quioxte. Quioxte and Sancho reminded me of Tom and Huck.

Yes. Twain considered Quixote one of the greatest books ever written -- which is why it is soon to spill out of my bucket list. Or would if I had a bucket list. Should I make a bucket list? Maybe I'll put "making a bucket list" on my bucket list.

I'm rambling -- and dreading Week #2 of my return to 10-mile, 6:30 a.m. Sunday trail runs. Last week I felt it until Wed. I don't mean to whine, but you're here and all, so I figured...

Oh, hell. Let me put the elimination of whining on my bucket list. Before I die, I will stop. Unless Death catches me unawares, with whine, women, and song still in my heart.

Anyway, I'll see if I can drum up a Twain quote on Cervantes.

Oh, yeah. This is one of the books he was inexplicably trying to keep from his tender young wife's recently-virgin eyes:

I had rather you read fifty "Jumping Frogs" than one Don Quixote. Don Quixote is one of the most exquisite books that was ever written, and to lose it from the world's literature would be as the wresting of a constellation from the symmetry and perfection of the firmament--but neither it nor Shakespeare are proper books for virgins to read until some hand has culled them of their grossness.

- Letter to Olivia, 3/1/1869

Oh, wait. They married in Feb. 1870. Thus the virgin reference. Or so he hoped. ;-)

I'm being bad. To the trails with my badness! Later, Carol!

Who needs or wants a bucket list. It is just one more thing to get your shorts in a bunch.

I have been gimpey all week , my foot is wacky,so I must be commiserating with your run. Don't run this week , I need to work.


Sometimes Cervantes rambles on ,but to me that ws the charm of Don Quioxte. The humor wqs priceless. Good luck I hope you enjoy it and not give up.

Have a nice run and a good day afterward.