tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post114871405540748758..comments2023-11-22T04:10:49.266-05:00Comments on Dispatches from Zembla: Elfriede Jelinek's Lust: Random ThoughtsAlokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-74001360921692534442012-10-02T02:43:42.120-05:002012-10-02T02:43:42.120-05:00There are moments when you seem to fault her for n...There are moments when you seem to fault her for not living up to her interpreters' expectations. Hardly fair. A work of art that lived up to its interpretations would be dead. There are moments when you seem to fault her for failing to live up to your own expectations of what a novel should be. Fair enough. By what else do we finally judge? But I think we'd do well to appreciate everything we come across as fully as we are able. (Admittedly, this makes me a poor reviewer.) Here's what I'd suggest to try to help you out: <br /><br />Think of what a strange work of art she has produced. Have you ever read anything quite like it? That moved and didn't move in quite the same way? That seemed not to advance through time in a line but to hover through it, as if capturing an essence drifting all about like a cloud? Or that laid down an idiom so dominated by metaphor as to seem at times more metaphysical than physical, elevating the particular to the universal, even while describing the most physical, most concrete, maybe lowest of human acts? That repeats itself?--no does not repeat itself: rather, takes an aspect of human existence, so long passed over in silence--nowadays more frequently dashed through in a few sweaty paragraphs of nervous authors hoping to avoid embarrassment--and devoted a whole book to it, sex, not repeating herself so much as exploring every leaf on its neglected tree, attending to every shade and nuance, never quite the same, in its vivid intensity of concentrated feeling.<br /><br />It's easy to produce something strange, but not something strange that's so well formed. A piece of art that works in its own new language, its own new rhythms, its own new expression of the soul. I read it and am not sure what to make of it. That's how I discover that I am learning.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12114739405091449571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-26730017293699578352009-06-15T00:27:37.710-05:002009-06-15T00:27:37.710-05:00I wholeheartedly agree, just finished it myself.
...I wholeheartedly agree, just finished it myself.<br /><br />The Piano Teacher is much, much better; it has all of the intensity and power of language but a much more complex and interesting story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-11740025522649335272008-11-19T15:29:00.000-05:002008-11-19T15:29:00.000-05:00Very good review of the book. My assessment of th...Very good review of the book. My assessment of the book would be very similar to yours. The book is somewhat poetic-ish. Altogether, a less than powerful novel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-1151445432958170512006-06-27T16:57:00.000-05:002006-06-27T16:57:00.000-05:00thank you! :)thank you! :)Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-1151397190386905822006-06-27T03:33:00.000-05:002006-06-27T03:33:00.000-05:00great review :)..great review :)..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com