tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4787456539825798144..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: The appalling and calm solitudes awaiting the breath of future creations - some Lord Jim puzzlesAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-66272333782443785202012-08-23T10:24:00.057-05:002012-08-23T10:24:00.057-05:00The Norton Critical Edition of The Good Soldier is...The Norton Critical Edition of <i>The Good Soldier</i> is an amazing piece of work. I must use it when I next read Ford.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-111467923395364902012-08-23T08:03:45.480-05:002012-08-23T08:03:45.480-05:00Yes, exactly--"like all good sailors, Conrad ...Yes, exactly--"like all good sailors, Conrad actually hated traveling" (I'm paraphrasing now).<br /><br />The essay is good; I've got it in one of my Norton Criticals of <em>The Good Soldier</em>. I'm pretty sure Conrad like disowned it or something later. Or do I only think Conrad disowned things because that's part of the Marías story too?nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-80655461332846677222012-08-23T00:24:29.538-05:002012-08-23T00:24:29.538-05:00Oh, yeah, it's all about domestic Conrad. I g...Oh, yeah, it's all about domestic Conrad. I guess to counter any idea of world traveling adventuresome Conrad.<br /><br />No, I have not read that Ford essay - I guess I have read the chopped up hash of it that is sprinkled through <i>The March of Literature</i>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-16933741270687553392012-08-22T19:35:20.241-05:002012-08-22T19:35:20.241-05:00And besides, I think it's clear that that was ...And besides, I think it's clear that that was an obsession of Cnrad's too--fiction being about fiction, narrative about narrative. Have you read Ford's essay on literary Impressionism?nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-71154472762572219902012-08-22T19:31:25.843-05:002012-08-22T19:31:25.843-05:00Conrad in bathrooms, Conrad in bathrobes, Conrad a...Conrad in bathrooms, Conrad in bathrobes, Conrad absentmindedly setting fire to things. But!<br /><br />"they say that his tone [in the company of friends] was more like the tone in his book of essays, The Mirror of the Sea, than in his stories or novels."nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83636178708640302812012-08-22T16:54:17.339-05:002012-08-22T16:54:17.339-05:00I should read the other Marlow books, too, I guess...I should read the other Marlow books, too, I guess - that one and the other one. I will have to look them up.<br /><br />The performance aspect of the novel, Marlow's rhetoric, is so pronounced that this seems promising. But of course this is also my usual obsession, that fiction is so often about fiction, narrative about narrative.<br /><br />I wonder if Marías translated Conrad? <a href="http://www.flavorwire.com/48731/exclusive-qa-spanish-author-javier-marias" rel="nofollow">He did!</a> I wonder <i>what</i> he translated? <i><a href="http://www.javiermarias.es/PAGINASDECRITICAS/criticaselespejo.html" rel="nofollow">El Espejo del mar</a> / The Mirror of the Sea</i>. Well, that means nothing to me. There is a Conrad chapter in <i>Written Lives</i>, but I do not remember anything about it.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-38862696377209911992012-08-22T09:42:21.165-05:002012-08-22T09:42:21.165-05:00My misreading of Lord Jim is that Marlow stretches...<em>My misreading of Lord Jim is that Marlow stretches a simple martyr complex to unnecessary lengths for his own dramatic reasons – another presentation of the Great Marlow Show. “You thrilled to the spear attack, you shivered at ‘The horror, the horror’! Marlow is back with another existential shocker” etc. etc. I would have to reread the novel to build this up, though.</em><br /><br />I love this. You should do it!<br /><br />The question of the outside-narrator is one I mostly dodged when I wrote about this. Re-reading <a href="http://www.bibliographing.com/2011/06/14/marlow-and-the-french-lieutenant/" rel="nofollow">my post on Marlow and the French lieutenant</a>, I'm thinking that Conrad is at least <em>using</em> the double-frame for something—it gives Marlow a chance to tell and retell and tell differently, always reminding us that Marlow <em>is</em> doing this, and holding up the possibility that there is a "real" story that happened that Marlow is trying to tell, trying to learn enough to tell properly. (Marías strikes again!)<br /><br />Or, making absurd the idea that there is such a real story—is that narrator for the first four chapters just a cosmic joke on the idea that anyone but Marlow could ever really tell us anything?nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-12402601460830542042012-08-20T13:43:01.733-05:002012-08-20T13:43:01.733-05:00Yes, The Secret Agent, yes: it's the second-gr...Yes, <i>The Secret Agent</i>, yes: it's the second-greatest comic novel of terrorist anarchism of its time. It's also a strangely European British novel. Only one narrator in that one (some expert limited third) but the time-scrambling is quite good.<br /><br />"Luminous" is now close to a curse word for me.<br /><br />Conrad seems to have so much in common with Melville, although I do not believe that Conrad knew M.'s work. They were just plowing the same row, I guess, sailing the same seas.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-53120339637925448332012-08-20T13:15:36.179-05:002012-08-20T13:15:36.179-05:00"The kind of thing lazy reviewers now call &#..."The kind of thing lazy reviewers now call 'luminous'" is my favorite line in this Melville and/or Conrad appreciation post of yours, Tom. In the meantime, will have to watch out for that dual narrator trick once I dip into <em>The Secret Agent</em>. Do you recommend that one, by any chance?Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83171604017261751972012-08-20T12:53:21.737-05:002012-08-20T12:53:21.737-05:00I am always happy to see Melville's work menti...I am always happy to see Melville's work mentioned, because his life breaks my heart.Shelleyhttp://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83153009810068953402012-08-18T16:33:39.848-05:002012-08-18T16:33:39.848-05:00Ah crowded by the stars. That's good. It giv...Ah crowded <i>by</i> the stars. That's good. It gives the word a double meaning. The ship is crowded with passengers, the plenty with people, the sky with stars, the planet by the stars. <br /><br />The paradox is that space is empty - but so is the sea, and the next thing that happens is a surprising accident in which the ship has a collision in the empty sea, which was more crowded than it looked.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-89872481212776435402012-08-17T22:22:48.384-05:002012-08-17T22:22:48.384-05:00Not sure what is the import of this, but I read &#...Not sure what is the import of this, but I read 'the crowded planet' meant that the ship travelled on a reflecting surface of so many many stars--so the planet/ship do not contain crowds but instead is hemmed about with the glittering stars on the water surface. Regardless, now that I've read this, I'm going to have to reread Conrad. Thank you much.Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10345150170501621426noreply@blogger.com