tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32999748.post201008601177818496..comments2024-03-04T01:47:18.750-05:00Comments on Lemurian Congress: The Barthathon: "The Book of Ten Nights and a Night"Adam Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05634565262440008573noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32999748.post-71431552651879781262007-12-22T09:12:00.000-05:002007-12-22T09:12:00.000-05:00Adrian, it really has become an unpleasant chore!B...Adrian, it really has become an unpleasant chore!<BR/><BR/>But it didn't start to get unbearable until about four books ago, and by then it was too late...how could I spend half a year and go all this way, just to give up now?<BR/><BR/>Only one book left, and it's his shortest. It will feel SO GOOD to read something else.Adam Thorntonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634565262440008573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32999748.post-4405408734082824442007-12-22T09:09:00.000-05:002007-12-22T09:09:00.000-05:00"It was the dream itself enchanted me"How true, ex..."It was the dream itself enchanted me"<BR/><BR/>How true, exactly!<BR/><BR/>I've only read Barth's official books, not any biographical or critical pieces that he hasn't written himself, so I'm not privy to any secrets.<BR/><BR/>But on the basis of his (very autobiographical) work, I think he's become increasingly isolated and cocky. I think he stopped absorbing external events (in any detailed way) around "Chimera," and since then has relied entirely on what his life has become: him, his wife, their sailboat, and the books he read in University.<BR/><BR/>It's interesting to note that his books "got stuck" around the time that he got his divorce and stopped using amphetamines. This certainly is not an endorsement for bad relationships or drugs.<BR/><BR/>He has made no apologies for his writing style in his "Friday Books" (saying just that he prefers "tell, don't show").<BR/><BR/>His status, I think, is based entirely on the reputation of his brilliant first novels (even "Giles, Goat-Boy" seems good to me in comparison with his later stuff), his "Lost in the Funhouse," and with selective assignment of his later books (each of which is good ALONE) in University lit courses.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who can't hack his Scheherazade'ing. I had ALREADY read many of those books in the past, but I actually liked them because I read them in alternation with his earlier novels.<BR/><BR/>Now that I see the sorry, entire "arc" (or rather "flat line") of his latter-life composition, it really has coloured my perception of the whole.<BR/><BR/>Sad, definitely.Adam Thorntonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634565262440008573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32999748.post-15341604183329597852007-12-21T23:58:00.000-05:002007-12-21T23:58:00.000-05:00Why do you do this to yourself? :)Why do you do this to yourself? :)Adrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17036864398303518556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32999748.post-38254614440996954652007-12-21T22:35:00.000-05:002007-12-21T22:35:00.000-05:00Why did Barth get stuck in these themes, anyway? ...Why did Barth get stuck in these themes, anyway? I stopped reading him years ago, and it's taken your blog posts to remind me exactly why. The first Scheherazade-themed book I read was interesting enough, but when I hit the third one, I gave up. <BR/><BR/>I'm inescapably reminded of that wonderful Yeats poem, The Circus Animals' Desertion (http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/anthology/Yeats/Circus.htm), which is about a writer being stuck in his themes. I don't think that Barth ever got the epiphany that Yeats wrote about achieving, the one that lifted him out of "the foul rag and bone shop of the heart". It's sad.Mantellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118686160226756681noreply@blogger.com