tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post2138750448910293145..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Writer as prophet: Janne Teller and Philip K DickDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-77564663039263683142016-12-11T16:36:49.025+00:002016-12-11T16:36:49.025+00:00I'll look at that shortly. Interesting, incide...I'll look at that shortly. Interesting, incidentally, that a friend who works in the field of promoting new literature noted how The Bookseller is predicting that 2017 will see a proliferation of escapist literature. I already see the trend, and find it goes hand in glove with the infantilisation of society and especially youth/twentysomethings.<br /><br />As we've observed together, there's room for escape in order to return refreshed to the fray. But I don't see why one should need to stick to powder-puff books in order to find fantasy or a different world as solace. All reading is solace in that it tells us we aren't alone.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-56879457658179688652016-12-11T15:54:17.838+00:002016-12-11T15:54:17.838+00:00Good point about stylists. With you completely on ...Good point about stylists. With you completely on Mantel. One of the greats. Was thinking again about PKD this AM, and realized that probably this isn't the best time for me to embark on reading him, given the particular nightmare we're living in right now. Better, for me, to "escape" to Berlin with Nooteboom, then on to your many Sicily book recommendations. Meanwhile, I happened across this video, from what now seem such fond, hopeful times, reminding me how very much SF has become the reality here: https://youtu.be/35UjqvSubpA (the quality of the video is poor, but the audio and lyrics are spot-on, and the opening of the bridge oh, so poignant).Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-88999048521782642432016-12-11T10:34:57.428+00:002016-12-11T10:34:57.428+00:00IMO there are not so many great stylists around, s...IMO there are not so many great stylists around, so the feeling of instant highest quality can be immediate (like, say, when I first heard Nixon in China in Edinburgh, and knew it would last...) Problem is I haven't read so many, but I know that Saul Bellow, Steinbeck and Vonnegut are up there (and F Scott Fitzgerald is hugely overrated). Dick grabbed me, so to speak, from the start. There are also great storytellers (Donna Tartt, A M Holmes), but I wouldn't make quite the same claims. In the UK, it seems to me our best writers in terms of style are Hilary Mantel and Martin Amis.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-10533467727230065742016-12-11T01:27:15.962+00:002016-12-11T01:27:15.962+00:00Have just read your TAD review linked here. Fascin...Have just read your TAD review linked here. Fascinating, not only for the music, but also for the cultural/political surround. Re PKD, I must say, as I ponder this, that I don't feel equal to making the claim "literary great" for any 20th-21st C US writer, though I would agree it's best not to pigeon-hole into SF, e.g., as one might very well lose out on a good, substantive read. As with so much, time will have to tell, I suppose. (In the course of thinking about this, I ran across this rather interesting side-by-side list of English language novels: http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/.)Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-75769149024436413002016-12-10T18:43:12.023+00:002016-12-10T18:43:12.023+00:00Well PKD turns out to be one of your literary grea...Well PKD turns out to be one of your literary greats. Who would have thought it? Like I said, the SF label hasn't done him any fables. But then Margaret Atwood might be found under SF today...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11162207949895806552016-12-10T17:56:40.273+00:002016-12-10T17:56:40.273+00:00Janne Teller, that should have been!Janne Teller, that should have been!Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-30019973901858327832016-12-10T17:52:32.275+00:002016-12-10T17:52:32.275+00:00Haven't read any Dick, or at least that I reca...Haven't read any Dick, or at least that I recall. So much to read, so little time. Have taken note of the Janne.Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16646335806118021562016-12-10T16:54:06.227+00:002016-12-10T16:54:06.227+00:00Janne's the thing here, though. I was going to...Janne's the thing here, though. I was going to add a footnote to the effect that everyone should buy copies of 'War' (it's only £6.99 in the UK, with proceeds - not sure how much - to Amnesty) and give them as seasonal gifts to everyone they know. Present-giving, whether you believe in it or not, solved.<br /><br />I read the Nooteboom some time back, very potent in places. Isn't it typical of our (in the UK) lack of knowledge of mittelEuropean writers that I've only heard of one of the four he mentions (assuming Konrad is not Conrad and Hein is not Heine)?<br /><br />Most curious of all to know if you've read any Philip K Dick.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-57710213560380934772016-12-10T16:22:17.933+00:002016-12-10T16:22:17.933+00:00Have saved your TAD piece to read later & look...Have saved your TAD piece to read later & look forward to that. Heard a Péter Eötvös piece, DoReMi, at the NY Phil sometime back, with Midori as the violinist. I don't remember enough to say anything about it, but did enjoy it at the time. Your "writer as prophet" theme offers a bit of serendipity, as I'm in the midst of reading Cees Nooteboom's "Roads to Berlin" (non-fiction, meditations on post WWII Berlin and the fall of the Wall as it happened) and on the very page I have just read he writes, "In the coming decades, that era will be documented [by which he means pre-Wall Mitteleuropa]--the indignities, the nonsense, the betrayal, the pettiness, the fear, the pride. But nowhere will it be captured so tragically, so cynically, so ironically, so solemnly, so hilariously as in the novels of Konrad, Hein, Monikova, Kundera, Nadas, and their ilk." (Please forgive the lack of diacritical marks.) Makes one want to read them all. For now, though, after Nooteboom, I have a stack of Sicily novels/books, all gleaned from your posts. The last of them (Sicilian Uncles) arrived just today. So, best get cracking and back to Nooteboom!Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.com