I think I've only read If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. It was one of those books, like Foucault's Pendulum, of which I have an overall sense of being profound but without being able to remember anything but the vaguest detail.

P.S. I forgot W.B. Yeats - indulge me a minute as I reproduce possibly my favourite poem of his -

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

and Jean Paul Sartre, whose book Nausea clarified like nothing before my own feelings in many ways.

And Camus.

Look, this is just too hard, Orph.

Cito de Pense would like your choice of poem.

There. You see. You do have something in common.

Hey, I like Cito. Or as I still tend to think of him, Non Ergodic.

Sorry. So do I.

So, you recommend 'Nausea'? I'm looking for a book to cheer me up. Y'know, a nice distraction.

archibald wrote:

orpheus wrote:

archibald wrote:

orpheus wrote:.....
3. Italo Calvino....

I have tried, more than once, but I can't get into him.

Which book(s)? His output is somewhat uneven, IMHO.

Let me think.....'Invisible Cities' came very highly recommended, and had v good reviews.

'Mr Palomar' was actually a bit better, imho.

I realise he is very complex, perhaps too much for me, but I find with complex writers, you have to read and re-read, and somehow I couldn't summon the effort in his particular case.

Hmm, different strokes for different folks, as they say. It's interesting, though - in some ways I had the reverse experience of yours. "Mr. Palomar" was highly recommended by a friend, and I liked it okay, but it was "Invisible Cities" that was the real life-changer. It's hard to say why. But it has a lot to do with that intricate structure: there are at least three or four ways to read the book, and the experience is completely different depending on which path you take through it. And the inventive and beautiful variety of each city -- and that stunning final paragraph. Part of its influence on me was as a model of how an idea can create its own form, which in itself can be multifaceted and irreducible to a single experience. It's also an inexhaustible source of jewel-like details and images that act as powerful spurs and metaphors for my own work.

I've read some of his others: "T-Zero", "Cosmicomics", "If on a winter's night a traveler" (that's really good) and his essays in "Six Memos for the Next Millennium" (also a good one). I find him always very worthwhile, but for me "Invisible Cities" stands above the rest.

I didn't particularly like English at school. I enjoyed reading the literature, but I used to hate having to write about it. (I greatly preferred Latin and other languages, where there was some of that, but more focus on the language itself.)

But with hindsight it was incredibly valuable. Shakespeare taught me to get into the head of another person. As tiresome as it was, at school, to write down the features of each character's character, derived from the clues in the text: it taught me that this is the function of fiction: to show me how to see the world through someone else's eyes.


Puccini, for showing me the sheer beauty of the human voice.


Beethoven and Bruckner, for grasping the sonata form and the meaning of a perfectly poised and balanced structure that arcs over, spans and sums up a human life.

TS Eliot. For some reason The Waste Land has haunted me ever since I read it at about 19.

Sappho, for the magic of lyric language and the emotion it conveys. (That was when I could still do Greek.)


Chopin, for nearly unbearable beauty.


Wolf, Schumann, Schubert: similar, but coupled with language.


JS Bach, who really is the guv'nor: for simply being the master.

Just to mention, a posthumous 3rd book in the travel series from Patrick Leigh Fermor is being published. If it's half as good as A Time of Gifts, it'll be brilliant


Edit: fat-fingered typo

archibald wrote:Sorry. So do I.

So, you recommend 'Nausea'? I'm looking for a book to cheer me up. Y'know, a nice distraction.

I definitely would.

orpheus wrote:... But it has a lot to do with that intricate structure: there are at least three or four ways to read the book, and the experience is completely different depending on which path you take through it. And the inventive and beautiful variety of each city -- and that stunning final paragraph. Part of its influence on me was as a model of how an idea can create its own form, which in itself can be multifaceted and irreducible to a single experience. It's also an inexhaustible source of jewel-like details and images that act as powerful spurs and metaphors for my own work.

Like I said, possibly too complex for me.

Or, on a subjective level, just nothing to reel me in to want to grasp the complexity, I suppose.

orpheus wrote: "If on a winter's night a traveler" (that's really good) and his essays in "Six Memos for the Next Millennium" (also a good one)....

Hm. I'll google. I have a feeling he's very worthwhile, but if it don't click.....better to move on, I find.

archibald wrote:oh, sorry

Linda Lovelace
Anais Nin
Jenna Jameson......

Ah, now we're talking!

Fallible wrote:

archibald wrote:Sorry. So do I.

So, you recommend 'Nausea'? I'm looking for a book to cheer me up. Y'know, a nice distraction.

I definitely would.

Really? I was kidding. I thought the last thing it does is cheer you up.

orpheus wrote:

archibald wrote:oh, sorry

Linda Lovelace
Anais Nin
Jenna Jameson......

Ah, now we're talking!

In all honesty, given your reminder of the point of the OP, I would have to sheepishly put my hand up and say I'm not kidding in this instance....lol

archibald wrote:

orpheus wrote:... But it has a lot to do with that intricate structure: there are at least three or four ways to read the book, and the experience is completely different depending on which path you take through it. And the inventive and beautiful variety of each city -- and that stunning final paragraph. Part of its influence on me was as a model of how an idea can create its own form, which in itself can be multifaceted and irreducible to a single experience. It's also an inexhaustible source of jewel-like details and images that act as powerful spurs and metaphors for my own work.

Like I said, possibly too complex for me.

Or, on a subjective level, just nothing to reel me in to want to grasp the complexity, I suppose.

orpheus wrote: "If on a winter's night a traveler" (that's really good) and his essays in "Six Memos for the Next Millennium" (also a good one)....

Hm. I'll google. I have a feeling he's very worthwhile, but if it don't click.....better to move on, I find.

That's certainly true. Also, often I find coming back to something later I'll feel completely different about it. Things I didn't understand at first sometimes become clearer; but the reverse can happen too: things I once understood (or thought I did) become confusing and opaque. Sometimes this spurs me on to try to figure it out like a puzzle - and to try to understand why my perception changed so much. Other times I just give it a rest and go on to something else.

archibald wrote:

orpheus wrote:

archibald wrote:oh, sorry

Linda Lovelace
Anais Nin
Jenna Jameson......

Ah, now we're talking!

In all honesty, given your reminder of the point of the OP, I would have to sheepishly put my hand up and say I'm not kidding in this instance....lol

I know what you mean, I know what you mean.

archibald wrote:

Fallible wrote:

archibald wrote:Sorry. So do I.

So, you recommend 'Nausea'? I'm looking for a book to cheer me up. Y'know, a nice distraction.

I definitely would.

Really? I was kidding. I thought the last thing it does is cheer you up.

Yeah, I know. But it is actually quite uplifting. Genuinely.

Fallible wrote:

archibald wrote:

Fallible wrote:

archibald wrote:Sorry. So do I.

So, you recommend 'Nausea'? I'm looking for a book to cheer me up. Y'know, a nice distraction.

I definitely would.

Really? I was kidding. I thought the last thing it does is cheer you up.

Yeah, I know. But it is actually quite uplifting. Genuinely.

Ok. I'll order it.

Done.

What a rewarding forum!

Double Bonus Miles!

orpheus wrote:

That's certainly true. Also, often I find coming back to something later I'll feel completely different about it. Things I didn't understand at first sometimes become clearer; but the reverse can happen too: things I once understood (or thought I did) become confusing and opaque.

I've had the former (clarity second or third time around) but not the latter.