Blindness

"For the latter, blindness did not mean being plunged into banal darkness, but living inside a luminous halo." - Jose Saramago

Okay, so that quote might be a little out of context for those of you who haven't read Blindness yet, but I couldn't resist it. To any of you who are looking for a book that will pull you in after the first page, I highly recommend this book. It has a creepy post-apocalyptic feel to it, to which I can't say too much about with out giving away the ending. But I will say, pick it up! It's a quick read, and well worth it. If you want a short synopsis, here is a link to one of my favorite websites to help you out. And if you have read it, I would love to talk about one chapter in particular and the ending. Jeez. What a freaky book.

Milton, revisited.

So I'm taking a Milton class this fall. Which is great. But in yesterday's class, a discussion occurred, of which I was the instigator. Basically, it revolved around the modern reader's inability to recognize medieval and early modern texts for what they are. Something that annoys me, and I think says a lot about myself as a possible future academic, is that many (of course not all) students are unwilling to read in earnest what is simply the writings of belief. Yesterday there was very little sincerity conveyed on Milton's characters, or on Milton. Instead he was given the crushing title, Naive. It's Cute, Laughable, Naive, but come on, take it seriously, that such a brilliant man could hold so strongly to such naive precepts as Protestant Christianity, come on.
My professor called this problem the inability of modern readers to break from the Hermeneutic of Suspicion, to be unwilling to be deeply moved by the sincerity of Milton's belief, while simultaneously being moved by his skill as a poet. Instead we distance ourselves from anything that requires earnestness on our part, and analyze to death what was originally meant to inspire.
If we can't do that, or are unwilling to do it, then I think these texts are dead. In all of this, big props to DR, who taught his students that these texts are first moving, to the point of tears; they are tragic and beautiful (if a bit remote from current thinking) and only second, are they academic fodder.
This is a rant.
thanks for listening.
Yours truly.

The First book of the Americas

Since this is a blog about books, I thought I would link to this story which is about the finding of the oldest known text in the Americas.

From what I can tell, I think it was the grasshopper that stole the bandaids, which caused the ice-cream cones to melt, and all the mail to go undelivered. I've never trusted grasshoppers.

Now For The Shortlist.

You may remember that really intruiging post I made a while ago about The Booker Long List being announced. Well, the time has come. The Short List is finally here. But David Mitchell is not. Sad. Here are the books:

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai


The Secret River by Kate Grenville



Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland



In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar



Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn




The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

What? Already.

What you have heard is true, although being the smarties that you are I'm sure you never doubted it, especially if you read pandas. Cormac McCarthy has a novel coming out at the end of the month, The Road, September 26th to be exact, so now is the time to pre-order it, that is, if any of you happen to be on the edge of your seat about it....

So my reason for commenting is that it seems odd to me that he has two books coming on in just over a year. Hadn't it been years since he had last published a book? What changed? Two in a year, jeez. Who is this man, its not like he's putting out albums?

On that note, I'm off to read the last chapter of Blindness (which I will report on in the coming days) and then finally all this time later, at the probing of whb, I will start All the Pretty Horses. The question is, will I team up with him and drive you all nuts? Or, maybe just be at a complete loss...we shall see.


Anyone else read it?

Books?

I'm curious, since everyone is spread all over the place, and I don't know the minor details of most of your lives, what books have you been reading lately? Anything good? Stuff to stay away from?