Lots of interesting sounding writers here! Thanks for the recommendation on Bora Chung, who absolutely does sound up my alley. I have a paperback you recommended in the other room, too; it looks excellent. The Elephant.
Update: I’ve read two stories by Bora Chung. Great recommendation! I’m writing a piece about women writers and I’m putting her in there, and thanking you for the suggestion. Your recommendations are always good, but she’s a particularly good find.
Lots of food for thought in this wonderful essay/review. I'm especially in accord with your statement "it is fusion that allows cultures to merge together to create something new and distinct." As humans, we're meant to share in each other's experiences and cultures. It's beautiful when we respectfully do that, when others learn about something new and explore the subject further.
Thanks Nadia! And yes, fusion is a beautiful thing. But it usually doesn't take more than just 2 or 3 cultures to meet somewhere to create that. When it comes to things like this, I'm very much in favor of the argument for a sandwich with, say, 2 ingredients that has flavor vs. the sandwich with 10 ingredients that has no flavor.
Hahaha. Yes. Agree with you here. For instance, the show Drop of God effectively shows both French and Japanese cultures and highlights their differences and how they can come together with one heart. I can tell, but maybe I'm wrong, people who worked on the show made sure to be respectful and authentic in their depictions.
What synchronicity: This morning my Notes feed showed a restack of this post by you just after a restack of my post this week on the suspension of time and silences in the Bhagavad Gita. Are we both thinking of the delight when literature holds still? Particularly funny is that an earlier draft of my post used the phrase "felicitous pause," and I had a little section of wordplay on "felicity, felix, felicitous." Now here you are. That's felicitous. :-) To your question about literature as therapy, we must have a common interest in that too (at least here and there). I'll venture a couple of links in case you or your readers are curious. Here's this week's post on the Gita: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/bhagavad-gita?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web .
Thanks for the kind words Tara! And welcome to Timeless. :-)
My focus is more from the literature angle than the therapy one. But the therapeutic benefits readers seek from literature is impossible to ignore in today's age. My perspective is very much that of writers in and of themselves. For all I know, a Hungarian literature academic might violently disagree with me. But this was my experience reading it. It was very much a literary meditation.
Krasznahorkai, for all his quality, isn't an easily quotable author in the traditional sense. Especially with his long sentences. But I'll share a segment. The book uses a lot more Japanese terms than this segment, but that's also part of what makes it a beautiful translation.
"A swallow flitted across the terrace, and perhaps this gentle contact - as a completely gentle ascent, compressed into two moments, slightly agitated the air with its abrupt, silent momentum - was the reason that the grandson of Prince Genji once again regained consciousness. He didn't know how much time had passed; from the angle of the sunlight he concluded that it must be afternoon already. he noticed the handkerchief fallen in the garden's dust, he leaned down from the terrace to retrieve it, he picked it up and brushed it off, then, collecting his geta, pulled them onto his feet, squeezed the handkerchief in his hand, and set off along the length of the lesser shrine."
Lovely, Felix! Thank you. The passage shows much about the author and translator's attention to detail. I particularly like the handkerchief fallen in the garden's dust.
A little side injection from me-- Tara, I’m intrigued by what you said here-- I’ve been falling behind on substack reading but I need to get over there and see what you’re writing--
Oh, you're singing my song, Karl. I feel so behind on things I want to read, too. I think that is the way it's always going to be on Substack, sometimes up to date, sometimes not. Isn't it wonderful even on the fly to dash off these notes of shared interest and encouragement? The little bits count. :-)
At its best-- and of course it’s not always at its best, there are petty squabbles, and occasionally ugly fights, and the writing quality is all over the place-- but at its best, substack is like a giant magazine stand where all sorts of writers and readers come and hang out and chat and debate and read.
There’s never enough time to read everything, especially if you’re busy chatting and debating and squabbling. But-- there is never a lack of interesting stuff to read.
Lots of interesting sounding writers here! Thanks for the recommendation on Bora Chung, who absolutely does sound up my alley. I have a paperback you recommended in the other room, too; it looks excellent. The Elephant.
Update: I’ve read two stories by Bora Chung. Great recommendation! I’m writing a piece about women writers and I’m putting her in there, and thanking you for the suggestion. Your recommendations are always good, but she’s a particularly good find.
No problemo! And yeah, Chung is awesome. Hope her translator already got a new project to work on. Would be a pity if this was a one-off collection.
Agreed, she is really unusually good. I read a fair amount of weird fiction type stuff and hers stands out as serious lit, but also quite accessible
Lots of food for thought in this wonderful essay/review. I'm especially in accord with your statement "it is fusion that allows cultures to merge together to create something new and distinct." As humans, we're meant to share in each other's experiences and cultures. It's beautiful when we respectfully do that, when others learn about something new and explore the subject further.
Thanks Nadia! And yes, fusion is a beautiful thing. But it usually doesn't take more than just 2 or 3 cultures to meet somewhere to create that. When it comes to things like this, I'm very much in favor of the argument for a sandwich with, say, 2 ingredients that has flavor vs. the sandwich with 10 ingredients that has no flavor.
Hahaha. Yes. Agree with you here. For instance, the show Drop of God effectively shows both French and Japanese cultures and highlights their differences and how they can come together with one heart. I can tell, but maybe I'm wrong, people who worked on the show made sure to be respectful and authentic in their depictions.
What synchronicity: This morning my Notes feed showed a restack of this post by you just after a restack of my post this week on the suspension of time and silences in the Bhagavad Gita. Are we both thinking of the delight when literature holds still? Particularly funny is that an earlier draft of my post used the phrase "felicitous pause," and I had a little section of wordplay on "felicity, felix, felicitous." Now here you are. That's felicitous. :-) To your question about literature as therapy, we must have a common interest in that too (at least here and there). I'll venture a couple of links in case you or your readers are curious. Here's this week's post on the Gita: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/bhagavad-gita?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web .
And here's one about literature, trauma, and Ursula LeGuin: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapenry/p/give-gen-z-a-literature-class-stat?r=1mk0zn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. I look forward to circling back this weekend to read more from you.
BTW, do you have a favorite phrase or passage from A Mountain to the North to share the sound of the translation? I'd love to hear how it sounds.
Thanks for the kind words Tara! And welcome to Timeless. :-)
My focus is more from the literature angle than the therapy one. But the therapeutic benefits readers seek from literature is impossible to ignore in today's age. My perspective is very much that of writers in and of themselves. For all I know, a Hungarian literature academic might violently disagree with me. But this was my experience reading it. It was very much a literary meditation.
Krasznahorkai, for all his quality, isn't an easily quotable author in the traditional sense. Especially with his long sentences. But I'll share a segment. The book uses a lot more Japanese terms than this segment, but that's also part of what makes it a beautiful translation.
"A swallow flitted across the terrace, and perhaps this gentle contact - as a completely gentle ascent, compressed into two moments, slightly agitated the air with its abrupt, silent momentum - was the reason that the grandson of Prince Genji once again regained consciousness. He didn't know how much time had passed; from the angle of the sunlight he concluded that it must be afternoon already. he noticed the handkerchief fallen in the garden's dust, he leaned down from the terrace to retrieve it, he picked it up and brushed it off, then, collecting his geta, pulled them onto his feet, squeezed the handkerchief in his hand, and set off along the length of the lesser shrine."
Lovely, Felix! Thank you. The passage shows much about the author and translator's attention to detail. I particularly like the handkerchief fallen in the garden's dust.
A little side injection from me-- Tara, I’m intrigued by what you said here-- I’ve been falling behind on substack reading but I need to get over there and see what you’re writing--
Oh, you're singing my song, Karl. I feel so behind on things I want to read, too. I think that is the way it's always going to be on Substack, sometimes up to date, sometimes not. Isn't it wonderful even on the fly to dash off these notes of shared interest and encouragement? The little bits count. :-)
At its best-- and of course it’s not always at its best, there are petty squabbles, and occasionally ugly fights, and the writing quality is all over the place-- but at its best, substack is like a giant magazine stand where all sorts of writers and readers come and hang out and chat and debate and read.
There’s never enough time to read everything, especially if you’re busy chatting and debating and squabbling. But-- there is never a lack of interesting stuff to read.
And this is a meditation on Lady Gaga and my past love affair with her.
https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/eh-eh-ls
Good for you bro! I hope she liked visiting your volcano. :D
Meditation is always good. My today's post's got great music for it. Let's keep the snowball of meditation rolling!
https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/animation-music-videos
And yesterday's meditation is about Lilith, the demonic Goddess. https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/lilith-and-libor
That's what I hear!