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This was a fortuitous discovery on the way back from the reunion - Kingfisher Books in Creston.
A congenial owner and fine selection of classics and vintage books in a cafe styled setting. I stocked up on winter reading, titles included:
- The Four Chambered Heart - Anais Nin
- The Wisdom of the Heart - Henry Miller
- Fantastic Fables - Ambrose Bierce
- Lectures on Don Quixote - Nabokov
++ The Master and Margarita and a poor translation of Choderlos de Laclos's "Dangerous Liasons". These last two I am perpetually recommending, thus to find them means I have something to pass on to other readers - when I meet them.
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by John Kennedy Toole.
I read this book a long time ago, and like certain other books (Lolita, by Nabakov, The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov, etc, etc) I always pick up when I come across.
I'm like that Jehova Witness of readers (and film) who comes across something good and will spare no expense to share it with others.
Anyways, I picked it up with the vague idea that I'd pass it along to Ken. It was a great book.
And it's been kicking around in my Jeep and finally I thought I'd pick it up and relive a few passages - and - fresh as ever, barely a page read and your laughing out loud.
The descriptions, preposterous, apt, hilarious, the characters drawn from life as grotesque as they - as we all - must appear, the plot heaps absurdity upon absurdity in a manner that only real life can emulate.
That John Kennedy Toole took his own life is hardly a surprise, to see things this clearly - while it makes you laugh - also can lead to despair. Comedy is the means to deal with life, tragedy is the means to end it.
Anyways, would that I could write prose that good.
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On Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
Taking a break from Carl Jung (having got my phone plug cleaned out I've been listening to a lot of youTubes more intelligent offerings) and I found this.
Which - again - resonated with me:
The above is a fine reading. And this - I've come to notice, with all my delving into odd books, listening to - that the narrator makes the difference. There are no end to incompetent narrators, implausible, or with voices that do not carry the rhythm or the subject. This one does fine.
You can read a version of it here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53b59f96e4b089bf6ae90076/t/5dc19b0aa9a2b60e2f72e207/1572969227533/TGC+Gilgamesh.pdf
Although there are abundant copies around, much depends on the translation.
And this - an excellent lecture with various experts offering context and interpretation to the poem: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Lecture by Andrew George
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This is a curious read - written in 1911, set in the distant technological future - the year 2660 - any number of his "predictions" have already come to pass.
Others, well, not so much...
In any event - an appallingly written story - the "storyline" or "plot" really just a hinge for the technical utopia the author cares to describe. So - painful - almost cringe to read, but - sometimes that's a joy as well...
Link: The Wikipedia on Ralph 124C 41 +
Link: The full novel, online
When it neared noon Ralph escorted his companion to a luxurious eating place, which across its entrance bore the name Scienticafe. “This is one of our best restaurants, and I think you will prefer it to the oldfashioned masticating places,” he told her. As they entered, a deliciously perfumed, yet invigorating fragrance greeted them. They proceeded at once to the Appetizer, which was a large room, hermetically closed, in which sat several hundred people, reading or talking. The two sat down on leather-upholstered chairs and looked at a humorous daily magazine which was projected upon a white wall, the pages of the magazine changing from time to time. They had been in the room but a few minutes when Alice exclaimed: “I am ravenously hungry and I was not hungry at all 53 when we entered. What kind of a trick is it?” “This is the Appetizer,” Ralph exclaimed laughing, “the air in here is invigorating, being charged with several harmless gases for the purpose of giving you an appetite before you eat—hence its name!” Both then proceeded to the main eating salon, which was beautifully decorated in white and gold. There were no attendants and no waiters, and the salon was very quiet except for a muffled, far-off murmuring music. They sat down at a table on which were mounted complicated silver boards with odd buttons and pushes and slides. There was such a board for each patron. From the top of the board a flexible tube hung down to which one fastened a silver mouthpiece, that one took out of a disinfecting solution, attached to the board. The bill of fare was engraved in the board and there was a pointer which one moved up and down the various food items and stopped in front of the one selected. The silver mouth-piece was then placed in the mouth and one pressed upon a red button. The liquid food which one selected would then begin to flow into the mouth, its rate of speed controlled by the red button. If spices, salt or pepper were wanted, there was a button for each one which merely had to be pressed till the food was as palatable as wanted. Another button controlled the temperature of the food. Meats, vegetables, and other eatables, were all liquefied and were prepared with utmost skill to make them palatable. When changing from one food to another the flexible tube, including the mouthpiece, were rinsed out with hot water, but the water did not flow out of the mouth-piece. The opening of the latter closed automatically during the rinsing and opened as soon as the process was terminated. While eating they reclined in the comfortably upholstered leather armchair. They did not have to use knife and fork, as was the custom in former centuries. Eating had become a pleasure “Do you know,” said Ralph, “it took people a long time to accept the scientific restaurants? At first they did not succeed. Humanity had been masticating for thousands of years and it was hard to overcome the inherited habit. “
Eating had become a pleasure! Anyways, there's no accounting for taste, pardon the pun...
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Found this at the library, and so while soliciting inspiration took the time to give it a read.
As the title suggests, it's premised on the idea that the most interesting thing about travel is the people that you meet, and with this in mind Scott & Gina interviewed fellow travelers for their most interesting tales.
A couple of the best - "Honey of Man", "UFO's" & one about a fellow traveler that had eaten a "Cobra Bird" - apparently a species of Hawk that eats cobras and so has developed an immunity to their venom - and by eating the hawk one experiences some psychedelic effects.
I tried looking this up to verify - to no avail. I'll check it again at the library today.
Unfortunately too many of the stories are from Scott and Gina themselves, and it reads a bit like an "influencers journal", adventure travel done solely with the point of regaling their friends and relatives with their adventures. But - if you see a copy in the library, pull it down and look up "Honey of Man", perhaps 3 pages, but curious...