There are nights when his imagination runs wild. As time passes, those get less frequent, but, if anything, more vivid. Some of the material, and characters, reappear from earlier episodes of his life, some from his writing, others are new fantasies, out of the blue. He is now in the habit of discussing his dreams … Continue reading Fantasy
Reading
A tale of two cities
A walk in a park, and a reading of Vasily Grossman inspired those lines. There is the city by the wide river, beyond it there is only the immense steppe, to the sea. There was a turning point, they say, a combat of titans. Here, the river is slow and narrow, feeling its way … Continue reading A tale of two cities
On the second paradox of Zeno
The people Marcel loves are people in motion. Like Albertine - always speeding off somewhere on a bike, on a train, in a car, on a horse or flown out of the window; like Marcel's mother, perpetually on her way up the stairs to kiss him good night; like his grand mother, striding up and … Continue reading On the second paradox of Zeno
A reading of Seveneves
Seveneves, a novel by Neal Stephenson From times immemorial, we have dreamed about it, painted it on caves walls, written fiction and speculations, prayed for it not to happen: it is mankind's common nightmare, Armageddon, the end of our world, the end of our species. Will it be caused by our own misbehaviour, a … Continue reading A reading of Seveneves
T-Rain, and a girl named Zula: a reading of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde #amreading
“Every other thing that he had done for the company - networking with money launderers, stringing Ethernet cable, recruiting fantasy authors, managing Pluto - could be done better and more cheaply by someone who could be recruited by a state-of-the-art head-hunting firm. His role, in the end, had been reduced to this one thing: sitting … Continue reading T-Rain, and a girl named Zula: a reading of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde #amreading
Of Thanatos, Ansky’s Notebook and a City in the Desert, a #reading of “2666” by Roberto Bolaño
"Jesus is the masterpiece. The thieves are minor works. Why are they there? Not to frame the crucifixion, as some innocent souls believe, but to hide it." 2066 "Now what sea is this you have crossed, exactly, and what sea is it you have plunged more than once to the bottom of, alerted, full of … Continue reading Of Thanatos, Ansky’s Notebook and a City in the Desert, a #reading of “2666” by Roberto Bolaño
Pale criminals, a reading of Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr
Bernhardt Günther is a tough guy, a survivor of the trenches of the Great War, a cop, a man who loves women, and his city, Faust's metropolis, Berlin in the 30s. In March Violets - evoking the cynical opportunists who join the Nazi party late, and buy their way to a low number party card … Continue reading Pale criminals, a reading of Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr
#WritersWednesday: Blank Page, a reflection on Gustave #Flaubert
I read that Gustave Flaubert thought the "Communeux" - the revolutionaries who fought the losing battle of the Paris Commune in 1871, and got massacred - had wanted to "return to the Middle Ages". Yet he was a discerning writer and observer of the French society... This prompted some musing on the role of writers in our troubled … Continue reading #WritersWednesday: Blank Page, a reflection on Gustave #Flaubert
#FiveSentenceFiction: Envy
The moon appeared, a moody silvery face half masked by grey clouds, just above the trees. The young woman moved slowly through the quiet house: it was still early, perhaps before seven in the old clock time: she knew where to find her love, the writer, who must have been at work for a good … Continue reading #FiveSentenceFiction: Envy
In a deep well, reflections on reading Haruki Murakami’s Wind-up Bird Chronicle
It is a rare writer who can combine the spectra of recent history in its full horror, the dreams of love, and the mysteries of the soul. So is Monsieur Murakami. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle was published in Japan in 1995, and once again, I regretted my inability to read the novel in the writer's language. … Continue reading In a deep well, reflections on reading Haruki Murakami’s Wind-up Bird Chronicle
