tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post5175095367312115959..comments2023-11-22T04:10:49.266-05:00Comments on Dispatches from Zembla: Life-affirming literature?Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-7731745123545338232008-09-10T11:42:00.000-05:002008-09-10T11:42:00.000-05:00I had written a brief note on Daisies sometime bac...I had written <A HREF="http://marcelproust.blogspot.com/2007/04/daisies.html" REL="nofollow">a brief note</A> on Daisies sometime back.<BR/><BR/>Queneau has been on my to-read list for a long time besides Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe Grillet both of whom I know only from the films they have been associated with (the two classics by Resnais). They have actually made a few films too. Will definitely check him out sometime soon.<BR/><BR/>With Pynchon I have tried both The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow but couldn't get past the first 40-50 pages. He sure is very clever and intelligent but sometimes it is just a case of sensibilities not matching. It may of course change over time. I will rather wait! I think he might be funny but there is also something cold and lifeless about his writing. May be it is a sort of negation as well.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-67817982842758783202008-09-10T11:24:00.000-05:002008-09-10T11:24:00.000-05:00Don't forget the greatest and most creative of Cze...Don't forget the greatest and most creative of Czech film-makers, Vera Chytilova. Her ''Daisies'' is one of the wildest, craziest most anarchic films ever made.<BR/><BR/>Raymond Queneau is a fascinating figure of French literature. A fellow-traveller surrealist, mathematician, critic and also a reader for Gallimard company. His influence on literature extends to writers like Italo Calvino. Equally great is his influence on French cinema. He was a huge favourite of the French New Wave and Francois Truffaut in particular. He famously also wrote the narration for Alain Resnais masterpiece and final short, ''La Chant du Styrene''(an industrial film about the workings of a polystyrene factory). Of the ones I've read, I loved ''Odile''(the same name as Anna Karina's in ''Bande a part'' as a hommage), ''The Flight of the Icarus'' and ''Zazie dans le metro''(made into the film by Malle).<BR/><BR/>Thomas Pynchon is a writer that's hard to get into, an acquired taste and not all his books are interesting. To me, I liked all his work upto and including<BR/>''Vineland''. He ought to be read chronologically, starting from ''V'' through ''Vineland''. <BR/>''Gravity's Rainbow'' is something I find difficult to get into. I've only been able to read the first two sections. His other books are comparatively accessible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-66684635483242322132008-09-10T09:46:00.000-05:002008-09-10T09:46:00.000-05:00I was just thinking aloud there. I agree bleakness...I was just thinking aloud there. <BR/><BR/>I agree bleakness and pessimism can be fetishized too ("bleak chic") but I feel they are much more resistant to commodification and co-option than "life-affirming" arts. I was also thinking about a general attitude towards works of art. Even a film about Holocaust has to provide some life affirming message! I hate shallow and easy cynicism much more than shallow cheerfulness but even writers-directors who are profoundly cynical are routinely apologised for. people look for messages of hope and redemption. I am just saying that this may not matter than much - this necessity for work of art to provide hope or show us a way out.<BR/><BR/>I haven't read anything by Queneau yet and i have trouble with Pynchon, I can't seem to get into his world though I haven't really tried hard enough. Completely agree about Kundera, it gets actually worse if you compare him with his compatriots who all have wonderful and truly unique sense of humour full of absurdity and despair as also reflected in the wonderful Czech-Slovak films of late 60s - Closely Watched Trains, Loves of a Blond, The Fireman's Ball, or The Shop on Main Street. These are all really wonderful films. I need to read the Czech writers though specially Bohumil Hrabal and also finish the class The Good Soldier Svejk.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-90277257607458196192008-09-10T01:46:00.000-05:002008-09-10T01:46:00.000-05:00The whole talk about negation sounds a lot like Bu...The whole talk about negation sounds a lot like Buddhism. <BR/><BR/>In my opinion being a little light-hearted never did literature any harm. I personally find much bleak literature or serious literature these days as...bleak chic. Many people do cleave to alienation and angst as a safety blanket, instead of making them approach life they use that as an excuse for not doing anything. I used to do that as well. <BR/><BR/>James Joyce for instance had a worldview that was essentially comic in it's approach to life and it's characters. ''Ulysses'' is a serious book, a meditation on identity and social functions but it's also riotously funny and life affirming. The most life affirming of all books as it's final word "Yes" makes so clear. In fact Joyce disliked tragedy and preferred a comedic approach over a serious or portentous worldview. And he's regarded as the eminence grise of modernist writers. Of course Joyce's life affirming stance isn't a happy utopian, tree-hugger variety but it's certainly one of life having endless possibilities and of course a lot of fun.<BR/><BR/>In general there aren't many writers with a genuine sense of humour anymore. Thomas Pynchon for one, I suppose. Once you read his book six times, his jokes start to be really funny. Then Raymond Queneau the great French polymath was also an essentially comic writer. <BR/><BR/>Milan Kundera is a writer who I find unintentionally funny. Everytime he gets serious, I start to laugh out loud. His ''The Art of the Novel'' is his most comedic work. Not that I think he's without interest but he's unbearably pompous. <BR/><BR/>So the concept of ''Life-Affirming Literature'' isn't much of a contradiction for me. To me all great literature is life affirming, be it ''Lolita'', ''The Trial'' or most of Kafka(any world that rich for endless gags is automatically worth living in), ''As I Lay Dying'' and many others. Even ''Madame Bovary'' or Stendhal's moody masterpieces.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com