tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4539464693645619980..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: I set my wisdom at work upon a book - preparatory work for the Ambrose Bierce Library of America volumeAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-9818369511824394732012-04-17T15:22:31.655-05:002012-04-17T15:22:31.655-05:00It might teach me the wrong lesson. The buffs kno...It might teach me the wrong lesson. The buffs know things.<br /><br />This whole spate of Bierce reading was unexpected. I was curious about - I do not remember what - and was caught by surprise by how good Bierce's fiction was, and almost shocked by the autobiographical pieces.<br /><br />I was definitely not planning to read all 860 pages! But now I am convinced I could read 860 more.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-66244483556994691772012-04-17T14:43:33.384-05:002012-04-17T14:43:33.384-05:00Bonkers, yes; but only because because the busines...Bonkers, yes; but only because because the business and religious values he's mocking are so lunatic.<br /><br />Bierce was responsible for a couple of books not based in journalism: "The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter" and "The Dance of Death." Both are complicated collaborations, which may make them even tastier. Both benefit from Bierce's skill as a prose stylist. <br /><br />Now you're getting comments from Bierce buffs. That will teach you.Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-64704484500730138692012-04-17T08:33:10.286-05:002012-04-17T08:33:10.286-05:00The LoA book has two of the four "Parenticide...The LoA book has two of the four "Parenticide" stories, including "Oil of Dog," which is completely bonkers. This is what was published in newspapers in Victorian America? You opened your <i>Oakland Daily Evening Tribune</i> on October 11, 1890, and this lunatic nightmare crwals out.<br /><br />The editor, S. T. Joshi, is hopeful that the fables (which I have not read) will show up in a second volume some day. Ah, he is also the editor of the Ohio State book you mentioned!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-24566256238777280892012-04-17T00:51:11.390-05:002012-04-17T00:51:11.390-05:00Ah, Bierce's precise prose must have been a tr...Ah, Bierce's precise prose must have been a treat after James... For me, one of the hidden treasures of Bierce is his body of fables: he wrote hundreds of them, and the form is ideally suited to his talents. Well worth looking up, especially the Ohio State collection, which digs up lots of forgotten ones. <br /><br />And I need to reread "The Parenticide Club" (especially "Oil of Dog") regularly, just to keep going.Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-91099066996599276732012-04-16T21:28:29.907-05:002012-04-16T21:28:29.907-05:00Mocking! Self-mockery, if anything, except that M...Mocking! Self-mockery, if anything, except that Mason has time, and an editor - a good, good editor. I have been reading <i>The Hudson Review</i> for 15 years, so I know. They shoulda chopped that line.<br /><br />"Parker Adderson" is pretty great. It is about a soldier who is a smart aleck in the face of death, an original subject. But at that point, I guess almost anything Bierce wrote about soldiers was original.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-32976823734354642572012-04-16T18:12:13.667-05:002012-04-16T18:12:13.667-05:00I wish you hadn't mocked the technique of &quo...I wish you hadn't mocked the technique of "struggling in search of a strong close." That's practically my M.O., my S.O.P, my...S.O.S.? Ah, well. Interesting to hear about Bierce's memoir. I haven't read or even really thought about reading anything by the guy in years, but the Argentine writer Rodolfo Walsh almost persuaded me to reread Bierce's "Parker Adderson, Philosopher" a couple of years ago on the basis of a wonderful little article he wrote about it before being disappeared by the Junta. I guess I should revisit a couple of the tales in the LOA collection and then check out that memoir.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-28001012066277048192012-04-16T15:55:21.817-05:002012-04-16T15:55:21.817-05:00No, I didn't think much of the Fuentes novel. ...No, I didn't think much of the Fuentes novel. In fact, it's the only thing I've read by him; it was years ago, and I was so unimpressed, I've never picked up anything else.obookihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03885121629202810216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-85221848278979665942012-04-16T15:04:26.220-05:002012-04-16T15:04:26.220-05:00Repeating the same joke, yes. Much like La Rochef...Repeating the same joke, yes. Much like La Rochefoucauld.<br /><br />The current consensus is that Bierce died at the Battle of Ojinaga, 1914, and was buried in a mass grave.<br /><br />Mason on the Fuentes novel (& movie adaptation): "None of the horror and poetry of death comes through - none of the stuff Bierce himself depicted so brilliantly in the best of his uncanny pages."Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-39895253053232875592012-04-16T13:31:01.218-05:002012-04-16T13:31:01.218-05:00It's a long time since I owned a copy of The D...It's a long time since I owned a copy of The Devil's Dictionary, but I do remember after a while that it seemed like a man just repeating the same joke.<br /><br />Didn't Ambrose Bierce disappear into the Mexican Civil War, never to be seen again? Carlos Fuentes' novel The Old Gringo is about the incident, I seem to remember.obookihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03885121629202810216noreply@blogger.com