Bibliophile

I am familiar with Meike Ziervogel in her role as founder of Peirene Press but now I've had the chance to think of her as a novelist. (It's an aside but I find Peirene's progress encouraging and inspiring. People talk about the death of ...
I am familiar with Meike Ziervogel in her role as founder of Peirene Press but now I've had the chance to think of her as a novelist. (It's an aside but I find Peirene's progress encouraging and inspiring. People talk about the death of the book and other such nonsense, but the success of small independent publishers shows that the world is a much better, and much more interesting, place than some would have us believe.) Some time in the dim and distant past I watched a documentary about Magda Goebbels and I've found her an interesting character ever since. The idea of mothers who harm their children seems to have a power to shock like nothing else (nothing else I can think of anyway) but when I first watched that documentary it seemed to me quite possible to empathise with Magda's decision to kill her children, uncomfortable, but possible.I also read somewhere that the British have such an obsession with the second world war that more books are published about it here than anywhere else in the world, I'm still not quite sure what I make of that but I am interested in how Germany has come to terms with it's 20th century history, and more specifically how we, the British, can accept and discuss that changing relationship with the past. The book that started this interest was Bernhard Schlink's 'The Reader', easily the first time I'd seen a Nazi portrayed with any sympathy, it's an excellent book but Schlink chose to make his heroine a victim of circumstance. 'Magda' moves that process along, Magda is hardly a victim but Ziervogel does make her human.Fiction that uses real people or events isn't always my cup of tea and I must admit that whilst I enjoyed the first half of 'Magda' enough to carry on reading it wasn't until the second half of the book - when the family arrive in the bunker - that it really came alive to me. The bunker is deftly sketched, mentions of the dark, the close air, the impact of bombs falling over head, drunken soldiers gathered in corners, and whispered conversations as Eva Braun and Hitler's wedding preparations are made heighten the sense of tension and claustrophobia as the story winds towards it's inevitable conclusion. It's at this point that Magda's eldest daughter, Helga, really makes her impact on the narrative. She's recording her experiences in the bunker - the day to day life, first love, and a growing sense of unease with her mother. For Helga and the children there is the idea that life is the thing, and that the future will take care if itself. They have been shielded from the reality of war, even into the last days the possibility of defeat is inconceivable, the talk of soldiers who say it's so seems iconoclastic to the point of blasphemy. For Magda there is the reality of the situation, she knows what the consequences of defeat are likely to be for the first lady of the Reich. Ziervogal chooses to have Magda believe in Hitler with a religious fervour so that her final act is a blend of loyalty and protectiveness amongst other things.In truth I've always been inclined to see what Magda did as at least in part an act of compassion. Her children would have had a hard legacy to bear. In a letter to her eldest son from a previous marriage Magda stated that Our glorious idea is ruined and with it everything beautiful and marvellous that I have known in my life. The world that comes after the Führer and national socialism is not any longer worth living in and therefore I took the children with me (or at least something like it, that quote is lifted from wikipedia). What kind of life can you imagine for those children, and later yet their children? 'Magda' is a complex portrait of a difficult and emotive situation. It's good to read about these names from history as people rather than monsters, and worthwhile to try and understand what drives a person to do terrible things. The result is something that has lingered in my mind and imagination weeks after reading it and which I wholeheartedly recom
38 minutes ago
If you're wondering what films based on books will release in Summer 2013 (May - August), BookBrowse has the answer!  The Great Gatsby Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire Director: Ba...
If you're wondering what films based on books will release in Summer 2013 (May - August), BookBrowse has the answer!  The Great Gatsby Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire Director: Baz Luhrmann Opened: May 10 in USA (opens in 60+ other countries during May and early June) A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor. Based on the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scotts Fitzgerald Rated: PG-13 IMDB Rating: 7.5/10 Epic Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Beyoncé Knowles, Josh Hutcherson Director: Chris Wedge Opens: May 24 in USA (and 70+ other countries during May and early June) Summary: A group of bugs call on the mythical Leaf Men to save their garden from the evil Spider Queen. Based on the children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce Rated: PG IMDB Rating: 6/7/10 Man of Steel Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe Director: Zack Snyder Opens: June 14 USA (and 40+ other countries in June) Summary: A young journalist, Clark Kent, is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of his race. Based on the comic book superhero created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, and first published in 1933. Rated: PG-13 World War Z Starring: Brad Pitt, James Badge Dale, Mireille Enos Director: Marc Forster Opens: June 21 in USA (and in about 65+ other countries between June and August) Summary: United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to decimate humanity itself. Based on World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks Release Date: 21 June 2013 Starring: Brad Pitt, Matthew Fox, Mireille Enos The Lone Ranger Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner Director: Gore Verbinski Opens: July 3 in USA (and in about 40 other countries between July and early August) Summary: Native American warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice. Based on the 1933 radio show written by Frank Striker, that led to a series of books also written by Striker; and then a TV series, comic books and movies. Not yet rated The Wolverine Starring: Famke Janssen, Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee Director: James Mangold Opens: July 26 in USA (and 60+ other contries between late July and August) Summary: Wolverine makes a voyage to modern-day Japan, where he encounters an enemy from his past that will impact on his future. Based on the graphic novel saga wherein Logan goes to Japan and falls in love with a woman who is the daughter of a crime lord. Wolverine first appeared in the final "teaser" panel of The Incredible Hulk in October 1974 written by Len Wein and drawn by Herb Trimpe. Not yet rated R.I.P.D. Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon Director: Robert Schwentke Opens: July 19 in USA (and in 20+ countries between July and August) Summary: A recently murdered cop teams up with a group of undead police officers to find the man who killed him Based on R.I.P.D. by Peter Lenkov Not yet rated Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Logan Lerman, Nathan Fillion Director: Thor Freudenthal Opens: August 7 in USA (and 30+ other countries in August) Summary: In order to restore their dying safe haven, the son of Poseidon and his friends embark on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece and to stop an ancient evil from rising. Based on the second book in Rick Riordan's five book series. Not yet rated but presumably will be PG, like the first Percy Jackson movie Paranoia Starring: Amber Heard, Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth
about 3 hours ago
Chris Petit‘s The Museum of Loneliness. * A brief history of appropriative writing. * If streets are sentences. * Celebrating the A303. * An interview with Glenn Branca. * The Japanese have a name for it: tsundoku. * What next for ...
Chris Petit‘s The Museum of Loneliness. * A brief history of appropriative writing. * If streets are sentences. * Celebrating the A303. * An interview with Glenn Branca. * The Japanese have a name for it: tsundoku. * What next for Joshua Cohen?: “It’s the book Nabokov would’ve written had he liked Joyce”. * Robert Walser: scribe of the small. * An introduction to Josef Winkler. * Ben Marcus on “The Dark Arts“. * On Anne Carson‘s Red Doc>. * He is perhaps the closest Ireland has come to producing a Susan Sontag“: Brian Dillon interviewed by Kevin Breathnach: “My patience for fiction that isn’t very sophisticated is kind of limited. This sounds stupid, but I like really, really, really good fiction. I get bored very easily with what you might call ‘middling’ fiction”. * Ben Greenman and Darin Strauss in conversation. * An interview with Maggie Dubris. * WG Sebald‘s legacy. * Sebald‘s A Place in the Country reviewed. * Tracking Sebald. * A conceptual literature bibliography. * Stop the South Bank developers! * Femen. * Mike Covey‘s “The Offbeats” (featuring Ben Myers, Joseph Ridgwell, Matthew Coleman and a brief cameo by Lee Rourke). * A forthcoming documentary about JD Salinger. * Generation X to reform? * An interview with David Shields. * Faction of the Fox (thanks guys!) * Prozac and artistic creativity. * Garbage girls. * Iain Sinclair and Jonathan Meades in conversation (video). * A museum devoted to East Germany. * Nina Hagen interviewed. (See her infamous live masturbation lesson here.). * Kafka‘s Metamorphosis — read backwards. * “Did you hear about the Oulipian stripper? She delivered a lipogram before vanishing, with an invisible wink.” * Ten Lessons in Theory. * Stanislaw Lem‘s Summa Technologiae. * Punk as fashion, music, and theory. * Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee‘s correspondence. * Bill Drummond. * As I Lay Dying trailer. * Adrian Tahourdin on the one and only Iggy Pop. * John Berger‘s G. * Laurie Penny‘s “Saudade“. * Quiet Paris. * Dan Holloway on the Albion Beatnik bookshop‘s viral success. * Empty hotel corridors. * Retyping The Great Gatsby on a 1936 Remington. Twitter: andrewgallix
about 6 hours ago
The Gambler, Fyodor Dostoevsky (F, 50s, little round glasses, blunt cut hair, plaid shirt, M103 bus) http://bit.ly/16Ci8Ff
The Gambler, Fyodor Dostoevsky (F, 50s, little round glasses, blunt cut hair, plaid shirt, M103 bus) http://bit.ly/16Ci8Ff
about 6 hours ago
I read the latest chapter of Led to the Slaughter to Linda and she grinned and said, "Yeah, you've got a real book there."Which got me to thinking. What is a 'real' book?Very often I don't feel a though I'm creating a story so much as u...
I read the latest chapter of Led to the Slaughter to Linda and she grinned and said, "Yeah, you've got a real book there."Which got me to thinking. What is a 'real' book?Very often I don't feel a though I'm creating a story so much as uncovering a story. It's as if they exist in their own right -- that they have their own existence and reality, apart from whether anyone ever reads them. As though the Universe has recognized their reality.As if, in some alternate universe, this story exists.I have a fully complete book that no one has read. Linda heard the first 15% or so, but no one has read or heard any of the rest of it. (Wolflander.) It exists on my computer -- the characters are doing their thing, feeling their feelings, events happen. But without anyone reading it. I finished the book and immediately took the Donner Party werewolf chapters out (without affecting the book, really) and started writing on those instead.I also have a Sometimes a Dragon version that no one has read; and the last version of Nearly Human, only one or two people have read.All just stored in digital bits, ready to spring alive.But they are alive, inside their little bubble of reality. I have to believe they exist, because they were written (created or discovered.) Whether or not anyone ever reads them.Feeling this way, the online option seems like a good one. I put out these little alternate versions of reality and they float in their little cocoon, waiting to be discovered.But they already exist whether or not they are ever discovered.
about 6 hours ago
Time // 8:50 a.m. Place // My sister’s couch in Minneapolis Eating and Drinking // At the moment, a glass of water. But I hope we’re going to go out and get some fancy coffee and donuts soon. Reading // I had to go look at m...
Time // 8:50 a.m. Place // My sister’s couch in Minneapolis Eating and Drinking // At the moment, a glass of water. But I hope we’re going to go out and get some fancy coffee and donuts soon. Reading // I had to go look at my Goodreads queue to figure out what I’ve been reading this week! It’s been one of those sorts of busy, no time to settle in sorts of weeks. But I did finish two books, All the President’s Men by Carl Woodward and Bob Bernstein and Queen of the Ait by Dean Jensen, which is a June release about the two most famous circus aerialists in the 1930s. I thought it was awesome. Yesterday I stared reading The Boys in the Boat by Danie James Brown, which is about the U.S. Olympic crew team in 1936. I have a total weak spot for historial sports nonfiction, so this one seems to be right up my alley so far. I’m also slowly making my way through Getting Things Done but David Allen and getting nerdy excited to try implementing his systems to get my life more organized. Watching // I didn’t have much time to watch much this week. I think I forgot to mention that I finished season four of Fringe last week or the week before (the season got MUCH better about six episodes in), but I’m holding off a bit on starting the final, abberviated season. This week was all about season finales for the shows I’ve been into. My sister and I watched the finale of The Office last night, and although it was a bit heavy-handed it was also nostalgic and funny and lovely. Listening // I’m taking a break from my current audio book — Insurgent by Veronica Roth — to catch up on some of my favorite podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour. I love those guys, but I’m bad at keeping up week-to-week and so end up getting caught up in big batches. Working // I have had a crazy couple of weeks at work, but they’ve been the good, lots of news to cover and write about kind of crazy. This Friday I got to come down to the Twin Cities to see our local FFA (Future Farmers of America) chapter teach some inner city elementary school kids about where their food comes from. There is really nothing more fun than taking photos of little kids with animals. Updating // Last week I mentioned a phone photography class that I was thinking about signing up for. I decided to just go for it, and I’m happy about that decision. I take a lot of photos on my phone, but I want to improve them. I think that’ll be fun. Plus, starting it on the week of my vacation will be fun because I’ll have new and interesting things to take pictures of. Anticipating // My sister and I are heading out to do some shopping this morning, including a stop at Half Price Books, one of my favorite places to visit. I got rid of about 20 books this week, so I’m anxious to sell a few (and see what goodies I can bring home). After that, we’re meeting one of my best friends from college for brunch at a place that does $2 mimosas. Yum. Organizing // The “to do” list application that I have been using, Astrid, appears to be going away thanks to an acquisition by Yahoo. So I’m shopping around different apps and looking for some recommendations. Right now I’m testing out Remember the Milk and Todoist, but I can’t seem to make up my mind on either. Wanting // I would love if there was a way to teleport from where I live to the Cities. The drive isn’t long, about 2.5 hours, but it’s awfully boring. I’m not really looking forward to it this afternoon. Apologizing // I’m sorry for any typos in this post! I’m writing it on my tablet in the WordPress app, and I don’t think there’s a way to do spell check… that’s annoying! Hmm… I’m at the end of the post, and I don’t think I’ve explained any of the photos in my picture at the top… so, from top left going clockwise: the sign in front of a groce
about 7 hours ago
Piotr Gąsiorowski has produced the perfect rejoinder to the Pagel nonsense—in this Language Evolution post he proves, using the same allegedly rigorous techniques the proto-Eurasiatic crew rely on, that "the Quechua people are...
Piotr Gąsiorowski has produced the perfect rejoinder to the Pagel nonsense—in this Language Evolution post he proves, using the same allegedly rigorous techniques the proto-Eurasiatic crew rely on, that "the Quechua people are a lost Nostratic tribe. Note that the semantic matches are impeccable and the similarity of the words is quite obvious to any open-minded observer. Indeed, the matches are much better than many of those in the LWED." This reductio ad absurdum should convince any sensible observer that the Pagel results are garbage, and Jacob Shelton in the comment thread says "You should totally turn this into a real paper"... but I fear that the kind of people (by which I mean credulous journalists) who swallowed the serious paper would take this as further confirmation rather than refutation.
about 8 hours ago
I was introduced to Samantha Bernstein once at an event at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore not long before her memoir Here We Are Among the Living came into the world. When her book was nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-...
I was introduced to Samantha Bernstein once at an event at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore not long before her memoir Here We Are Among the Living came into the world. When her book was nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, one of just three books written by women on a long-list of ten, I knew I had to read it, and it turned out to be one of my favourite books of 2012. Yes, this is a memoir written by Irving Layton’s daughter, but Bernstein’s literary lineage was less interesting to me than the Toronto she writes about, and her stories of what it was to come of age at the turn of the millennium. I came away from the book wanting to expand on the questions it posed, and so I was very pleased when Bernstein agreed to engage in an email conversation with me. The following interview was conducted over the past five months, which seems like a long time, but considering it took place between two pregnant women with rich and busy lives, it’s really a wonder that we pulled it off at all.  KC: Did you always know that your memoir was going to be in epistolary format? Why was it important that it was? And were the emails in your book based on actual correspondence? SB: Yes, I knew from pretty early on that the book would be in emails. I first started working on it during my undergrad in creative writing at York, and my prose assignments started coming out as emails. The idea of writing a book was like a pair of sunglasses I couldn’t take off, but which I felt quite stupid about wearing—Who am I trying to be? and all that. My world at the time was completely tinted by those damn glasses (which, as my mom would tell you, I was super pissed off about much of the time). That need to transcribe everything got funneled into my correspondence with my friends Eshe and Joe; so writing in emails was at first just a less intimidating way to write, because it was familiar and because they presuppose an interested audience. In my last year of university I read The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe’s epistolary novel that sparked rebellion in the hearts of his contemporaries. Werther’s letters, at first, just seem ridiculously whiny and self-indulgent (as twenty-somethings are apt to sound…), but as we discussed the book, the self-narration began to take on a broader significance. The intensity behind Werther’s writing is fueled by the fears of youth, fears of being turned into something you despise, of betraying ideals, of failing to properly appreciate or capture the beauty you are experiencing. And as I learned more about the epistolary form, I liked its history of social engagement and criticism, its continual probing of moral and ethical questions. I felt like it would make sense for this book to be in that tradition. Especially because, as it appeared the book would have to be a memoir, I thought that the epistolary concern with subjectivity—its political implications, its distortions and narcissism—would at least be a formal recognition of the problem of writing about one’s self. The book is based on actual correspondence, but the letters are almost entirely made up. Some lines are direct from emails I’d sent to Joe and Eshe, and certainly the correspondence we’d had helped me to remember what was going on at the time, and what we’d been thinking about. Thoughts and images from our emails got reworked into the book. I’d also been gathering moments and things people said in notebooks for years. I’ve been surprised, though, at how many people think I just printed out my hotmail folder. If only! But I’m glad the emails are believable. It was hard, sometimes, to keep my late-twenties self from editing my early-twenties self into a less obnoxiously naive/enraged person than I was. KC: How does email change the epistolary format? Granted, your emails aren’t so cyberish—no emoticons and LOLs. But I imagine the immediacy makes a difference. Does email offer
about 8 hours ago
Ladies and Gentlemen: we're keeping it real out here in Beth land.
Ladies and Gentlemen: we're keeping it real out here in Beth land.
about 9 hours ago
Some of you may recall, as part of the Edward Thomas project on here a couple of years ago, a lovely post that included some pictures of a beautiful, hand-illustrated and bound edition of Edward Thomas's poem Adlestrop, done by ninety-ye...
Some of you may recall, as part of the Edward Thomas project on here a couple of years ago, a lovely post that included some pictures of a beautiful, hand-illustrated and bound edition of Edward Thomas's poem Adlestrop, done by ninety-year old Harold Page, Fran H-B's father. Fran has been a daily visitor here for years, comments regularly, and we meet up occasionally, and indeed Team Edward Thomas saw that work for real as Fran brought it with her when we took tea with author Matthew Hollis as part of the project.On arriving in Sussex for a few days walking the South Downs with Fran last Monday, before I headed into London, she broke the news that Harold, now ninety-two, had been taken into hospital the day before. All was stable and family support was in place, and Fran had very much wanted my visit to go ahead. We talked a great deal about her Dad during my stay, and I was almost brought to tears by the sight of the most beautiful book, hand-written and bound by Harold which displayed some of his work as a gift for members of the family. As an artist, with architect's training, Harold had quickly excelled at the art of calligraphy which he took up as a hobby in his seventies, rapidly gathering in diplomas which should have taken many years to achieve. I had never met Harold, but I learned from Fran that he was a quiet, gentle unassuming man, immensely modest about his talent and utterly thrilled when he saw that blog post and imagined others seeing and enjoying his work. It was with much sadness that I received Fran's e mail to say that Harold had died suddenly but peacefully on Friday afternoon, and I just wanted to send Fran, her Mum and her family, our love and thoughts and to wish them gentle days ahead.  Harold Page has left the most incredible legacy in his art work and we can but hope for an exhibition, or even a book eventually, I can promise you it would something to behold.
about 11 hours ago