Picked up any good reads at the bookstore?

[Repat Van]

I just finished 'The Help' by that American then another of Andrea Levy's which I forget the title (not Small Island, I read that ages ago) then tried to read The Human Stain by Roth and set it aside due to it being boring, now reading Cry, The Beloved Country which, thus far, is a bit odd. Too much going on for me to get into books at present.

[Marshall]

Last week finished The Secret Agent. A good read, but not full of intrigue like I'd imagined.

[lala]

As in Conrad's The Secret Agent?

[Marshall]

Yes, your favorite author (?)

[lala]

By a country mile. The Secret Agent's a lovely little book, but you're right, it isn't a tale of intrigue and mystery. More in line with a classic tragedy, as everything moves inevitably towards it's climax, which can be foreseen but not avoided.

I love that description, fairly early on, of dubious young men visting Verloc's stationary cum pornography shop, seeing Winnie behind the counter and - dismayed - trying to cover up their true intentions by purchasing bottles of ink, which are immediately deposited in the gutter on exiting the shop.

[Marshall]

He can turn a nice phrase. This is one I liked:

"His worn-out passion, resembling in its impotent fierceness the excitement of a senile sensualist, was badly served by a dry throat and toothless gums which seemed to catch the tip of his tongue."

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

The Secret Agent's a lovely little book,


Sod nostromo, Secret Agent here I come.


And your right Marshall, he's a dab hand with words n sh*t.

[lala]

I may have decived you somewhat. It's still a decent sized tome, just not as epic as Nostromo. If you want short and (comparatively) accessible Conrad, try The Shadow Line.

[mids]

The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by some Russian bloke. Pretty good.

[justmyopinion]

The Devils Star - Jo Nesbo. Norwegian crime in the style of Wallender. Very good and readable

[Amazed]

Everything by Nesbo is readable.
Plus Harry Hole is the most likable anti-hero you can imagine.

[lala]

Today, in one fell swoop (is there any other kind of swoop?), we knockk of the whole of the fourth paragraph of Nostromo. Ming might need to take a deep breath, as the act of reading a whole paragraph in one day may prove too much for his ticker:

LINES 15, 16. 17, 18 and 19: On the second evening an upright spiral of smoke (it could only have been from their camp-fire) was seen for the first time within memory of man standing up faintly upon the sky above a razor-backed ridge on the stony head. The crew of a coasting schooner, lying becalmed three miles off the shore, stared at it with amazement till dark. A Negro fisherman, living in a lonely hut in a little bay near by, had seen the start and was on the lookout for some sign. He called to his wife just as the sun was about to set. They had watched the strange portent with envy, incredulity, and awe.

It should be immediately apparent that these four lines contain a thematic unity not hitherto seen in Nostromo; all four of them deal with the sighting of the smoke from the gringo's fire, and the reaction to this strange sight.

This is to some extent a triviality - the paragraph is unnecessary and Conrad could easily have omitted it. It's a nicely turned paragraph, but little more. The religious motif - here suggested by 'Amazement,' 'Sign,' 'portent' and 'Awe,' is already familiar. The paragraph in itself adds little that is new.

What it does do is indicate Conrad's control and shade out the depth of his bleak vision of human nature. A lesser, more strident writer, might have had the on lookers react more crassly, with outrage or curses, in a vain attempt to drive home the (already well elucidated) opposition of man's defilement of nature's sanctity. The denizens of Conrad's Costaguana are simply stunned by what might be a mystic vision. Only the reaction of the negro on the beach - a curious admixture of "envy, incredulity, and awe" hints at the profoundly bitter view Conrad holds of human nature, where the exalted and the venal can exist side by side, and the venal will always triumph in the end.

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

It should be immediately apparent that these four lines contain a thematic unity not hitherto seen in Nostromo;


Can't say it was at the time, but I'm starting to feel inadequacy washing over me.

[wetkingcanute]

The denizens of Conrad's Costaguana are simply stunned by what might be a mystic vision. Only the reaction of the negro on the beach - a curious admixture of "envy, incredulity, and awe" hints at the profoundly bitter view Conrad holds of human nature,



Or, the natives could have said: "oh look they've started a fire - just like we do."

[lala]

Aug 17, 2010 11:58:22 GMT Minge är en jävla besserwisser said:

Can't say it was at the time, but I'm starting to feel inadequacy washing over me.

Don't wworry about it. I'm f**k**g useless on a bike. And the nearest I get to flash cycle gear is elastic bands to stop my trousers fouling the chain.

[jaggs]

any thing by antony beevor

[lala]

Before we consider tonight's lines, I fear I have omitted an important point, that should have been mentioned last night. You will recall I mentioned how Conrad hints how the exalted and the base can co-exist in an individual - the Negro watching the curl of smoke with envy and awe. I pointed out that in the bleak worlds Conrad describes, the base inevitably trumps the exulted. This is a major theme of the novel, as we will see in due course. There is an exception, however. Even bitter Joe Conrad could not deny the exultant power of love. But, before we get too Huey Lewis, there is an important caveat. For Conrad, the only love that can last is unrequited love, thwarted love.

We will see in the novel several examples of love that endures because it is never fulfilled. Fate and chance confound love, but can not destroy it. That's about as good as it gets in Conrad's world.

LINES 20, 21, 22, 23, 24: The impious adventurers gave no other sign. The sailors, the Indian, and the stolen burro were never seen again. As to the mozo, a Sulaco man -- his wife paid for some Masses, and the poor four-footed beast, being without sin, had been probably permitted to die; but the two gringos, spectral and alive, are believed to be dwelling to this day amongst the rocks, under the fatal spell of their success. Their souls cannot tear themselves away from their bodies mounting guard over the discovered treasure. They are now rich and hungry and thirsty -- a strange theory of tenacious gringo ghosts suffering in their starved and parched flesh of defiant heretics, where a Christian would have renounced and been released.

This is perhaps the most important passage in the first part of the book. It predicts all the action that awaits us. We will see characters, many characters, like the luckless gringo adventurers, fall under the spell of the silver of the San Tome mine, and who will find themselves trapped like the ghosts of the gringos, unable to tear themselves away from the loot that they have bought with their souls.

This could be taken as meaning that, having read thus far, you need read no more, having just absorbed the story in minature. Ah, but you'll miss out on so much.

Aside from the typical religious references, it is worth noting the mention of 'defiant heretics' in the final line of the paragraph. The gringos were presumably protestants. The scheming Holyroyd, who backs Charles Gould's bid to re-open the San Tome mine, dreams of using it as a means to infiltrate Costaguana with protestant missionaries, in defiance of the ferociously Catholic traditions of the country. So even this early on, Conrad is foreshadowing the ideas that will underpin the later action of the story.

[feral]

Aug 17, 2010 11:58:22 GMT Minge är en jävla besserwisser said:

It should be immediately apparent that these four lines contain a thematic unity not hitherto seen in Nostromo;


Can't say it was at the time, but I'm starting to feel inadequacy washing over me.

And so you should . I thought everybody read books and was immediately struck by thematic unities or the hitherto lack of them .

[lala]

Well, we have to make allowances for Ming. He's not bright enough to have figured out how to use a motorbike, so he has to pedal everywhere.

These, then, are the legendary inhabitants of Azuera guarding its forbidden wealth; and the shadow on the sky on one side, with the round patch of blue haze blurring the bright skirt of the horizon on the other, mark the two outermost points of the bend which bears the name of Golfo Placido, because never a strong wind had been known to blow upon its waters.

I do not discern anything terribly important in this extended sentence. It is very prettily written, however. The placidity of the gulf will have terrible significance for one character, however, as we will see in about 400 pages time.

[Repat Van]

I am trying to struggle my way through the confusingly boring 'Cry, The beloved Country'. I hate to not finish a book so trying to do so before I move onto Under the Dome or one by Lionel Shriver, both of which I picked up last night at the library.