Comments on: I Fell Asleep Three Times Reading Heart of Darkness

By: Gaellen Quinn

Gaellen Quinn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:06:10 +0000

Did you know that Joseph Conrad was influenced by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde?

Personally, a 19th century book that really gripped me is Moby Dick. No kidding. I read it for the first time about a year and a half ago because writers I admire (specifically John Gardner and EM Forster) raved about it. But I fully expected to be bored.

Nevertheless, I was charmed from the first. Melville is so funny and has some truly transcendent moments that elevate you to a new consciousness and leave you wondering (if you write) how in the world did he just do that???

By: J. Arthur Rath

J. Arthur Rath — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:01:35 +0000

Makana: Think so, best ask UH Professor Craig Howes to do it, he's a star of stage literature dreams and UH Bio Center's maven. Lots of actors used to read on at our gatherings--"An audience, an audience, my kingdom for an audience..."unlike Sartre who described "Hell" as being other people."

A read-in would be right on, albeit impromptu and improper. Come to think of it, "A Round Table" would be nice.

Arthur, local reader

By: Makana Risser Chai

Makana Risser Chai — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:37:07 +0000

J. Arthur, This sounds like so much more fun than a library book reading, or even a coffee shop. Could this tradition be revived today?

By: Misty-Lynn Sanico

Misty-Lynn Sanico — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:30:47 +0000

J. Arthur,

Haha! Hmm, it sadly seems this practice has fallen out of fashion. Perhaps more classics would be read and enjoyed, dare I say, even devoured if it weren't. Although it wasn't just "classics" at the time I'm sure- from the generation that brought us buttons that say "Bilbo lives!"

Sounds like a bit of fun! Maybe worth a revisit... as long as it's a short story because I don't think I could stay up that long even with generous spirits. And I'm not patient enough, as I once was, in dealing with morning after... knowledge.

By: J. Arthur Rath

J. Arthur Rath — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:50:27 +0000

"What classics stonewalled you?" Initially, James Joyce's "Ulyssess"...until we were stoned instead of walled. Every few years or so when a bar invited readers to start at the beginning of the book and stay until it was ended. Folks took turns until the book was done--the beer lasted all the way through the marathon.

Should you think Joyce is idiosyncratic and multilingual, you need to experience the flourish smashed readers add with ports and portmanteau. Being "stoned" removed any walls of misunderstanding. The longer we listed the more lucid it seemed--as if something we dreamed. Heads hurt the next day from so much knowledge.

J. Arthur Rath, local reader

By: Michael Little

Michael Little — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:50:03 +0000

Of course I fell asleep three times rereading my last post.

By: Michael Little

Michael Little — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:48:35 +0000

Makana, I enjoy reading to music, as well as writing to music. Often the music is so much better than what I'm writing, and sometimes I simply have nothing to say, and the muse is snoozing (again!), and I close my eyes to imagine a sparkling sentence or two, and ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...

By: Makana Risser Chai

Makana Risser Chai — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:02:12 +0000

Thanks Arthur for the reminder that music and books do go together. I spent one lonely summer reading Kafka and listening to Rachmaninoff. Could not have done one without the other!

By: J. Arthur Rath

J. Arthur Rath — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:31:20 +0000

Cheers for Misty:
All you say is true, and only Dickens defied convention to use both past and present tense in a novel. (Bleak House). Huzzah, huzzah, for the olde-tyme innovators.

J. Arthur Rath, local reader

By: J. Arthur Rath

J. Arthur Rath — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:17:19 +0000

Per my earlier post:
I Anglicized Brando's name to "Brandon" after the God Father series...personal aberration; preferring to think of him as he used to be. I think he was on the cusp as a Conrad character in "Apocalypse Now," from which he adapted his new identity. Mr. McKinney, hope you'll try "Lord Jim," best taken with brandy.

J. Arthur Rath, local reader and film buff