Monday, August 07, 2006

Miscellaneous asides

The Kenyon Review has started a blog.

Bryan Appleyard, whose Updike-enthusiasm I responded to the other day, also has a blog. Among the selected articles of his journalism, I don't see the one on Beckett that momentarily redeemed the Sunday press for me some years ago, which is a pity.

And speaking of Beckett, at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, there's an exhibition of paintings by artists who influenced the writer.

Jenny Davidson of Light Reading has got hold of an early copy of The Zürau Aphorisms of Kafka.

Ellis Sharp speaks of 'the blindness of Aharon Appelfeld' and calls him 'an interesting minor novelist'. I would still urge him to read The Age of Wonders (preferably in this edition) to see if that judgement holds up. It might also complicate the rather black and white moralising about his silence.

Do you shout at the TV newsreaders as they twist and spin facts into camouflage? I know I do. Well for once, someone else who shares my derangement actually got to do so during a live broadcast. I salute you Mr Galloway!

Oh, and this is This Space's 300th blog entry.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:03 pm

    Well done on your 300th post.

    I was at the Beckett exhibit yesterday. The guy knew his paintings, and knew how to be influenced by the right stuff. You could see why he admired Cezanne's recognition of the indifference of nature in Mt Sainte Victoire. And it's contrasted with some complacent bullshit by a 17th century hack. Humans at total ease with the land. Or at least they think they are.

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  2. Thanks Rory. I envy your proximity to that exhibition.

    Handke also wrote about Mt Sainte Victoire in "Slow Homecoming", one of the best things he's done.

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  3. Galloway is satisfying there. The truth is we could really use someone like him (if a little more nuanced, moments) across the pond.

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  4. Anonymous4:27 pm

    Long time reader, first time commenter. Just wanted to say thanks for the shout-out.

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  5. "The Zurau Aphorisms" was originally published as "Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope and the True Way" by Brod in a collection of Kafka's fragments. Many are taken from K's diaries and "The Blue Octavo Notebooks." The Exact Change edition of TBON includes the Reflections.

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  6. Yeah, I know they've been published before. Sigh. Look at what it says on Amazon:

    "By chance, Roberto Calasso rediscovered Kafka's two original notebooks in Oxford's Bodleian Library. The notebooks [have been] freshly translated and laid out as Kafka intended"

    OK?

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