William Faulkner

[Walter]

So is Bass Ale and so is Faulkner. And the Deathly Hallows perhaps more interesting than one might think. But it does take actually reading it to realize that.

[lisahead]

Sanctuary is horrifying. I love Faulkner, but don't start with the Sound and the Fury

Great Vermeer

[NickAdams]

Sanctuary is horrifying.

I agree. I was tense readin it. It was the first novel I'd read of his. It gave me the trust I needed, in him as an author, to follow him where ever his narrative might lead to. I've also read Light in August and greatly enjoyed it.

If you follow this man to the bottom of the human condition, he will show you humanity.

[Virgil]

I agree. I was tense readin it. It was the first novel I'd read of his. It gave me the trust I needed, in him as an author, to follow him where ever his narrative might lead to. I've also read Light in August and greatly enjoyed it.

If you follow this man to the bottom of the human condition and he will show you humanity.

I love the way you said that Nick. I absolutely agree.

[NickAdams]

Thanks Virgil. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping Faulkner is one of the authors that are eventually nominated next year.

[Virgil]

Thanks Virgil. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping Faulkner is one of the authors that are eventually nominated next year.

I was thinking of him when I nominated the USA.

[jlb4tlb]

hey i'm a big Miles Davis fan! - Kind of Blue is a favorite along with Coltrane's My Favorite Things. that with a...ahem...bass ale, i'm set.

"Kind Of Blue" is a treasure. Have you listened to "Round Midnight" ? A great piece from Miles.

[stlukesguild]

"Kind Of Blue" is a treasure. Have you listened to "Round Midnight" ? A great piece from Miles.

Of course. But then I'm a huge jazz fan. I'd also include Bag's Groove, Sketches of Spain, Nefertiti, Relaxin', Cookin', etc... Ellington, Monk and Davis are probably THE giants too me.

[NickAdams]

I was thinking of him when I nominated the USA.

Good man. I nominated Ireland for Beckett.

"Kind Of Blue" is a treasure. Have you listened to "Round Midnight" ? A great piece from Miles.

Of course. But then I'm a huge jazz fan. I'd also include Bag's Groove, Sketches of Spain, Nefertiti, Relaxin', Cookin', etc... Ellington, Monk and Davis are probably THE giants too me.

Are you familiar with Billy Strayhorn? I ask, because you mentioned Ellington.

[stlukesguild]

Of course... …"And His Mother Called Him Bill". We'll probably never be able to pin down who composed and who arranged exactly what in the Ellington/Strayhorn partnership.

[NickAdams]

Of course... …"And His Mother Called Him Bill". We'll probably never be able to pin down who composed and who arranged exactly what in the Ellington/Strayhorn partnership.

Either way, we get to enjoy the music. But it's a tragedy for an artist not to be credited.

[jlb4tlb]

"Kind Of Blue" is a treasure. Have you listened to "Round Midnight" ? A great piece from Miles.

Of course. But then I'm a huge jazz fan. I'd also include Bag's Groove, Sketches of Spain, Nefertiti, Relaxin', Cookin', etc... Ellington, Monk and Davis are probably THE giants too me.

Davis and Monk are on my short list also. Coletrane, Hancock and Brubeck are also among my favs.

Jazz and reading have been my passions for many years.

Jeff

[Virgil]

Well, talk of Ellington and Strayhorn got me in the mood for some their music. Here's one, "Satin Doll": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDDCzb3dv_Y. Enjoy, even though it gets cut off at the end.

[KidTruth]

"Harold Bloom" ... Gotta love when people quote him. Yes, he's a very well respected literary critic - probably THE literary critic.

But he's an ***. An he's named after, what? The Ullyses character? I guess that cemented his role in life at an early age. Unless your name ends with the word "Emerson" you're not likely to get any praise from him.

As for Harry Potter - I don't understand the hate. At least people were reading books. They were a bit cliched, and they didn't expand any minds (though she did try a bit at the end, with the older/dead teacher being in Harry's head and questioning whether reality was a subjective experience, or whether objective experience mattered at all.)

I admit that I cringed at every one-liner in Harry Potter books, but escapism is its own genre, and the books deserve their place in the literary canon as merited by their own success.

Why not just read the books, enjoy them, don't be a "hater," and judge for yourself? I'm more geared towards high literature, myself... But I read Harry Potter as well as my usual classics.

[stlukesguild]

Hmmm... so it is somehow a sign of intellectual weakness to quote a critic or another wroter with whom one happens to agree? Instead one should...? Draw attention to the work's standing on the Bestsellers list? Or perhaps offer our own deep insights rooted in popular culture: "It's gotta good beat, Dick; you can dance to it. I give it a 7". Personally I'm wondering why you imagine Harold Bloom as being such an a**. I admire his lack of political cant... his insistence upon reading for pleasure and not as part of some social agenda to intended to rectify the wrongs of history. I have found him quite insightful at times and will readily admit that I owe to him (or his critical writings) the discovery of some truly great writers unknown to me previous. I also have to admire his defense of the great Romantic poets at the time at which they had fallen out of grace (post-T.S. Eliot) in favor of the Metaphysical poets. Neither do I get the dig at his name... a very common Jewish name from my experience, which may be why Joyce went with it.

As with every critic... or every writer... the reader must decide what they agree with... and what they don't. Neither Bloom nor anyone is the last word in what is or is not of artistic merit in literature. I also happen to have found much of value in Walter Pater, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Coleridge, Samuel Johnson, Octavio Paz, David Denby, Daniel J. Boorstin, Edward Hirsch, Italo Calvino, William Hazlitt, T.S. Eliot, Roger Shattuck, etc... The notion of faulting someone who just happens to have read a lot... including a lot by writers who have elected to write about writing... is in most cases a lame rhetorical ploy... used by those who have read just as much but differ with what they prefer. In other words... its one scholar or intellectual attempting to portray another... with whom they disagree... as a snob... and themselves as good down-to-earth lovers of truth, democracy, and egalitarianism. Its like the comic attempt by politicians to present themselves as just reg'lar folk... in spite of their net worth of a couple 100 million dollars. Either that... or it is simply another example of the sort of anti-intellectualism, which sneers at anything which requires intellect, or achieves a high standard. In either case... YAWN!