Writing about writing and reading
It's that time of year again, where we all decide to really do the things we want to do. Usually it lasts for a couple months then we fall back into our ruts. That's why it's better for goals to be concrete, realistic, and achievable! Here are some of mine for the next year. Make …
I've been listening to my first Raymond Chandler novel, The Big Sleep, and it's a lot better written and a lot less sexist than I'd expected. What has stood out to me so far is how good he is at quickly putting a clear picture of a new character in your head. All of the …
I'm so enamored with Sebald that I got a book of his poetry, Across the Land and the Water (from the library, just in case it turns out I'm not a poetry kind of guy.) I've not read much of any poetry, by anyone, but Sebald's writing is just so damn poetic anyway, I figured …
Continue reading "Translating poetry: how can meaning be preserved?"
Have you ever read something so good, so skillfully subtle and thoughtful and emotional and striking and shocking and beautiful, something that pulled at your mind and heart so softly and strongly that you wonder how it can possibly exist? That makes you wonder if it even does exist in this same, perfect way for …
Whenever I've read something boring or confusing, or just plain bad, I read some Nabokov as my next, cause it's guaranteed to be good. This time I read Pnin, and as always, it was beautiful, funny, and just lovely. Pnin is a Russian living in America, and teaching Russian at a college. He is absent …
Jonas David 