Happy Bloomsday!

James Joyce's Ulysses, which many consider to be the best novel of the 20th century, took place 103 years ago today.

Yes I said yes I will Yes

.

NP: "Declare Independence" - Bjork

Writers list their favorite film adaptations of novels.

Blogging the Bible

Over at Slate, David Plotz has completed his blogging the bible series, with his take on 2 Chronicles.

That's it! After 39 books, 929 chapters, more than 600,000 words—and just over a year—I've finally finished reading the Hebrew Bible... I just wanted to read the book and write about what it's like to read it. No essays, no philosophy, no experts.

Since his project focused on the Hebrew bible (he is Jewish), the order may seem a little odd to Christians or those familiar with the King James version of the bible. I've been following this series since the beginning, and it has been entertaining and occasionally enlightening. I highly recommend it.

He's now looking for someone to resume the project with the New Testament. And I'm looking forward to it as well.

NP: "In a Different Place" - Ride

On the Road Meets Google Maps

Littourati is mapping Kerouac's On the Road with Google Maps. Each post covers a section of the journey with a map, a quote from the book, and some further background information. An example: Creston, WY.

As the site says:

Literature often describes places we are curious about, regardless of whether we know them or not. This blog maps the journeys laid out in selected books and offers reflections corresponding to the various stops. Happy traveling!

I look forward to checking back on this from time to time. I wonder if he'll attempt Moby Dick.

NP: "For Today I Am a Buoy" - Antony & the Johnsons

New Robert Frost Poem Discovered

A new Robert Frost poem has been discovered at UVA. The poem, entitled, "War Thoughts at Home," seems particularly topical right now.

The poem will be published for the first time in the Virginia Quarterly Review (available today). Robert Stilling, the poem's discoverer, discusses the find and provides some details and quotes from the poem in question.

NP: "Citrus" - The Hold Steady

To Autumn

Today is the first day that there is a distinct hint of Fall in the air. Although the leaves haven't begun to change, the skies are crisp and clear, and the breeze has just that touch of coolness that indicates that my favorite season is finally on the way.

In honor of this, I point you to what many folks think is the finest poem ever written in English: To Autumn, by John Keats.

Full disclosure, I've always found Ode to a Nightengale much more interesting.

NP: "Lover's Town Revisited" - Billy Bragg

The Classics in Your Inbox

Too busy to read? No matter how odd a premise that sounds, given the opportunity to provide a solution to a problem I didn't even know I had: DailyLit.com. This service will e-mail you bite size chunks of classic works in the public domain via e-mail at whatever frequency you request. Not sure you'll find anything to read? Here are a few examples of how it plays out (three I've read and one I haven't, extra points to those who guess correctly):

• Moby Dick in 252 parts
  
• Paradise Lost in 108 parts
• War and Peace in 675(!) parts
• The Iliad in 174 parts

I'm not sure how some of the poems will work in a plain text e-mail format, but I thought I'd pass this along for your consideration.

NP: "All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" - Sufjan Stevens

100 Greatest Opening Lines Ever

For novels that is, according to the American Book Review. This has quite a mix of very literary works and some that are not so literary. My personal favorites (as you can see, I tend toward the simple):

• Moby Dick (#1)
• Gravity's Rainbow (#3)
  
• Invisible Man (#10)
• Neuromancer (#30)
• Galatea 2.2 (#35)
  

And yes, it even includes "It was a dark and stormy night" (#22). What are your favorites?

NP: "Of a Life" - Echo & the Bunnymen

Chaucerian Shaft

Something dirty? A lost fragment of the Canterbury Tales? Nope. Just song lyrics. Ya damne righte!

"Wha be tha blake prevy lawe
That bene wantoun too alle tha feres?
SHAFT!
Ya damne righte!

Wha be tha carl tha riske is hals wolt
Fro is allye leve?
SHAFT!
Konne ye?"

Now this is why Al Gore invented the Internets. Read the whole thing. (via Mefi)

NP: "A Million Miles" - The Wedding Present

Time 100 Books Update

To update the post below. Here are my thoughts on the books I've read from Time's top 100 English language novels since 1923.

1. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren - Definitely. One of the best and most enjoyable novels I've ever read, for the beginning of chapter 5 if nothing else.
   
2. American Pastoral, Philip Roth - Typical Philip Roth in its style and probably as good as any of his works for inclusion on this list (maybe Goodbye, Columbus should be considered instead)
   
3. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser - Read this in my undergraduate class on the American Novel. It definitely seems much older than 1923 or maybe that's just me recollecting the feel of Thomas Hardy.
   
4. Beloved, Toni Morrison - Fantastic book that deserves to be on this list.
   
5. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy - I'd probably have included Sutree or All the Pretty Horses instead of this one, and I'm not even that quesy about near-motiveless violence.
   
6. Catch-22, Joseph Heller - A classic in all senses of the word. I wish Heller had written more books that are as brilliant as this.
   
7. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger - Doesn't everyone read this book in high school? I suppose the near cult-like status of the book and its reclusive author probably merit inclusion.
   
8. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess - A fresh dystopia for the Cold War.
   
9. The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron - I'm a little surprised that this book made the list given the amount of controversy it stirred up when published. That said, I thought it was a very thought provoking and enjoyable read.
   
10. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen - I enjoyed this book. I really did. But to put it on this list over Absalom, Absalom! or Underworld. You must be kidding. Talk to me in 40 years.
    
11. The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon - This one is a no brainer.
    
12. Deliverance, James Dickey - This probably surprised a lot of folks, especially those who have only seen the movie, but it is quite a good novel in its own right.
    
13. The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles - Another book I was assigned to read in a British Novel class. I remember slogging through it and being ready to move on to another assignment, so my judgment shouldnt' be trusted.
    
14. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck - Can you imagine 20th century American literature without Steinbeck. This is his best novel. Q.E.D.
    
15. Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon - Somehow time has robbed me of the ability to read this. I read it right after I finished grad school, and I tried to re-read it again recently to no avail. I should dust off my brain I suppose, because this one also belongs.
    
16. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald - Perhaps the perfect American Novel.
    
17. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace - A big, beautiful, sprawling, funny mess. Just like I like my novels.
    
18. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison - This book still leaves me in awe. It really opened my sheltered eyes and taught me to see in a way that I never thought possible.
    
19. Light in August, William Faulkner - I suppose they had to include a Faulkner novel that was a little more accessible than The Sound and The Fury. It still probably deserves a spot (see below). Faulkner is an American literary giant.
    
20. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov - Too many people misread this one, probably because of the movies. There's more here than repressed sexual titters and winking.
    
21. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - I admit that I'm a fan of this, and enjoyed the books and movies greatly. I also appreciate the sheer act of the imagination involved, but sometimes, well, Tolkien's prose can be, shall we say, a little florid. Remembering that their readers ranked this first a few years ago probably explains its presence.
    
22. Money, Martin Amis - Amis the younger as his cynical, snarky best.
    
23. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy - Probably one of my favorite novels of all time.
    
24. Neuromancer, William Gibson - Uhh. You're kidding me right? I read this and enjoyed it for what it was. If you feel you need to have science fiction, where's more Philip K. Dick. This is only here because Gibson invented the term cyberspace.
    
25. 1984, George Orwell - Neuromancer seems even more silly on this list since it's right next to this book
    
26. On the Road, Jack Kerouac - The definitive novel of one of the major literary movements of the century. 'Nuff said.
    
27. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster - Most people would probably have thought Howard's End or A Room with a View would be the Forster choice. In this case, I think the list is dead on.
    
28. The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene - This one is always lurking on my "I have to reread that book" list.
    
29. The Recognitions, William Gaddis - A confession. I haven't read this one fully through. Every time I try, life gets in the way, and this book required an investment of time. As far as I've gotten though, I can already say it belongs.
    
30. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut - The perfect companion to Catch-22.
    
31. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson - What the hell? Another fun-to-read beach type book. Look, I enjoyed this, but Stephenson's style at times? Let's just he writes about women with all the depth of your average 10th grader.
    
32. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner - This has to be on the short list for greatest novel of all time. Others? Ulysses, 100 Years of Soliture, Don Quixote, The Brothers Karamazov, Moby Dick, Tristram Shandy, Great Expectations, and The Tin Drum (and I know I'm probably missing a few, mainly in French)
    
33. The Sportswriter, Richard Ford - Great book, but I'm not sure it rises to this level. I'd always recommend it to anyone though.
    
34. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway - Easily Hemingway's best if not most satisfying book. The perfect example of his writing style outside of the short stories.
    
35. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston - Memo to old white dudes with bowties. This book belongs. Deal with it.
    
36. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee - How could you not like a book that has Truman Capote as a character? I wish she had written more as well.
    
37. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf - File this one under appreciate more than I enjoy. I suppose I identify more with her portray Mr. Ramsay.
    
38. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller - And how, can this man write.
    
39. White Noise, Don DeLillo - I can see why they chose this one from DeLillo's works, but Underworld deserved a nod as well. I mean, what other "important" post-Pyncheon American authors can you think of.
    

Okay, in my estimation, here are the main omissions from their list:

1. Ulysses, James Joyce - This book would be number one if they pushed the date back by a year (or 23). The book wasn't even available in the U.S., where Time is published, until well within their time period (how long Time has been published).
   
2. Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner - This is one of Faulkner's big three and the perfect companion to The Sound and the Fury. It should be included from a technical standpoint alone.
3. Look Homeward Angel, Thomas Wolfe - Has this novel fallen so far in critical esteem?
   
4. Underworld, Don DeLillo - This out corrections The Corrections and is as good a literary history of the second half of the 20th century as I'm aware of. It makes a good bookend to Gravity's Rainbow.
5. Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins - Okay, I'm kidding about this one, but I enjoyed it just as much as some of the other questionable inclusions.
   

100 Best English language Novels from 1923

Time Magazine provides their list. I'm sure this list will be much debated, but I mean really, omitting Absalom, Absalom! You have to be kidding me. And why on earth did they choose 1923 as the starting point? Just to exclude Ulysses (1922)?

Even with the gnashing of teeth here, I've managed to read over a third of these (3538). Admittedly, most of them were for school--a by product of a master's degree in English.

Does anyone else note any glaring omissions?

NP: "Skyscapers" - Immaculate Machine

Howl

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix..."

GrabbingSand has already totally scooped me on this one, but things like this are why I re-started this whole blogging thing. For those of you who don't have time to read his thoughts (and I'd recommend that you do), last Friday was the 50th anniversary of the first public reading of Howl by Allen Ginsberg. It must have dropped out the largely unassuming-looking and bespectled man's mouth like a figurative nuclear bomb that night. Really, even now, there is no substitute for reading it aloud.

Back when I still thought I wanted a life in Academia, I had to opportunity to meet Ginsberg. It was an odd occurrence. Ginsberg was at the school where I was pursuing my master's degree to read and sign books in the college bookstore. All the time he was there, he was squired around like royalty by certain members of the English faculty at the time. So much so, that we poor graduate students were, by and large, expressly uninvited to a party that was to be held in his honor.

Of course, some of us crashed the party anyway. Then what? a largely bemused Ginsberg is found in the kitchen avoiding most of the brouhaha. That is the image of him that I like to remember--that and the sunflower he drew in my copy of his collection wrapping around the word "Ah!". I was studying Blake at the time, so it was especially fortuitous.

All that said, I've long had a curious relationship with the Beat poets. Right away, I have to acknowledge their impact, but at the same time, by the time I was in my late twenties, laboring part time at their same craft, I'd gotten awfully tired of would-be poets and critics basing their poetics on poems that were by then a generation old.

There was no winning with some of my peers--either emulate them, good and bad, or get left in the cold. So, I began to tire of them altogether, and later, to actively be angry at some of them. Mostly, for their lack of craft and disdain for revision. However, this definitely does not extend to Ginsberg, merely some of his contemporaries and followers. Heck, even I'd admit they're a hard act to follow. And no one can deny the incredible impact that this poem, and Ginsberg's work as a whole, has had on American letters.

Go read the whole thing.

NP: "What Goes On" - Built to Spill

Searchable Shakespeare

I can't pass this up. Everything and Nothing has a pretty complete post of links to sites where Shakespeare's works are fully searchable.

Now, you have no excuse for saying: "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well."

NP: "Feel Flows [Van Basten Mix]" - The Charlatans UK

Literature Map

Along the lines of What should I read next? Literature map is a nifty site that can give you some insight into what other authors you might enjoy. Instead of giving you a list of books you may enjoy, it displays a web of authors (Thinkmap's Visual Thesaurus is a very good example of the way the data points are represented). Those authors that are closest to the one you entered are the ones, according to this, you are most likely to enjoy reading.

I ran this through a couple of test runs, and by and large, the results seem to be pretty relevant. Take, for example, what the service returns when you enter Don Delillo. The number of names returned, compared to some of the other authors I tried, is a bit low, but that makes it easier to talk about. For instance, some of the closest writers to Delillo are Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Umberto Eco--sounds about right to me, though the Dostoevsky may be a bit of a reach.

Once you get to the outer reaches of the web, however, it starts to break down. (Tom Robbins? Hello?) I have a feeling that a lot of these writers on the outer reaches would show up for just about any literary author I choose to investigate. In any case, it's something cool to play around with if you have a bit of time to kill.

NP: "Essex Dogs" - Blur

Odysseus's Tomb

Has apparently been found. It seems that archeologists had been looking on the wrong island all along. Instead of being on modern Ithaca, they now place the tomb on an entirely different, but neighboring island, Kefalonia.

Archeologically, I have no idea how to rate these claims, but according to some of the background in the linked article, Kefalonia seems more logistically suitable as the site of a major Mycenaean city. Even the ancient Greeks needed water last I checked.

Archeologists were silent on whether they found a tomb full of 50 suitors.

NP: "Look Here" - The Clash

Pick a Path to Tragedy!

Ever wondered what it would be like to be one of Shakespeare's protagonists? Ever play Zork or some other text adventure game? Then you need to check out Robin Johnson's The Most Lamentable and Excellent Text Adventure of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (via boingboing). And I realize that my knowledge of Zork probably opens a window to my inner geek, but it's the Shakespeare angle I'm most interested in really.

After playing with this for awhile, I begin to see why Hamlet was a nut case. Oh, and I wouldn't try fighting Othello either. I suppose I'll find Lady Macbeth in the washroom--those damn spots are murder to get out.

I can't decided if this is brilliant or annoying. I'm leaning toward brilliant right now, but we'll see how much of my afternoon I end up wasting on it.

UPDATE: At least it ends happily for Juliet and probably Richard III.

NP - "Thinking About You" - Ivy

Which Literature Classic Are You?

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a
mystery novel dealing with theology, especially
with catholic vs liberal issues. You search
wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that
learning is essential in life.


Which literature classic are you?
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Not too far off really.