Date: 2005-05-05 00:00 Subject: 'The Atrocity Exhibition' by Ballard Security: Public Tags: j_g_ballard, old_journal_entries, uk

Finished reading The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard. This is the 'expanded and annotated edition'. No illustrations though. It's sort of an experimental novel where each little paragraph takes a big jump from the one preceding it.

I did sometimes get a bit of that Ballard-esque vibe, but I do like him a lot more when he sticks to more standard narrative. This is probably as experimental as I ever want to get with literature. I could sometimes piece together some of his points and ideas, but I think they would have been better served in a regular story (and they have been subsequently); and I don't see what advantage this form has other than letting the author write randomly and freely without needing to work it into something more coherent. The annotations, provided several decades later, actually present a more interesting voice, and prove Ballard's much more reasonable and rational than his own work sometimes is.

note: entry transferred from: http://aras-55555.livejournal.com/122793.html

Date: 2005-04-10 00:00 Subject: 'Pere Goriot' by Balzac Security: Public Tags: france, honore_de_balzac, old_journal_entries

Finished reading Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac, translated by Henry Reed. The old man of the title is a father who has given all of his fortune to his two daughters, and they now live in luxury ignoring him while he lives in a downtrodden boarding house. There's subplots with a young law student courting one of the daughters, and an entertaining character named Vautrin who is a criminal in hiding.

Balzac delivers some very witty and incisive comments on people and society, but these seem to be almost separate from the actual narrative, which doesn't rise much above a melodrama. And for whatever reason I jumbled together the names of a lot of characters, especially the ones in the aristocracy who are sometimes referred to three or four different ways. The point Balzac seems to be making is that ambition for money and social status is the road to pain and ruin; though none of the characters are sympathetic or even interesting (except perhaps Vautrin). A quick read and definitely not difficult, and I can see how it would have been quite the thing at the time it was written, but I was expecting something more.

edit: transferred from http://aras-55555.livejournal.com/116258.html

Date: 2005-03-16 00:00 Subject: The House of the Dead by Dostoevsky Security: Public Tags: fyodor_dostoevsky, old_journal_entries, russia

Finished reading The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by David McDuff. A fictionalized account of his own time in a Siberian prison, it sketches the habits, living conditions, and the personalities of convicts and jailers.

This was a really captivating read. The book is somewhat episodic rather than driven by a linear plot, but it is probably the closest you can get to spending several years in prison without actually doing so. One impressive thing was how D would take about a page to sketch out a single person's personality, and this not only fleshed that person out but categorized an archetype of a certain kind of person that you might meet anywhere, at any time. The chapters that stick out most in my mind were the ones on Christmas (both the feast and the play that was put on), the coming of spring, and the relationship between convicts and the animals they sometimes kept.

'How much youth had been buried in vain within these walls; how much power and strength had perished here for nothing! For the whole truth must be told: all these men were quite remarkable. These were perhaps the most gifted, the strongest of all our people. But mighty powers had perished in vain, perished abnormally, unlawfully, irrevocably. Yet who is to blame?' (pg. 355)

Date: 2005-02-17 00:00 Subject: The Adolescent by Dostoevsky Security: Public Tags: fyodor_dostoevsky, old_journal_entries, russia

Finished reading The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The book has sometimes been translated as A Raw Youth or An Accidental Family. The narrator is a young man about 19 years old who has been raised in boarding schools and such, and is finally traveling to Petersburg to meet his real (not official) father, his mother, and other relations. He also happens to be carrying a document that, if revealed, can change the fate of several lives.

This is quite an obscure and overlooked novel by Dostoevsky, which is strange as it was written during his greatest period, and was actually the second-last one he ever wrote, followed only by The Brothers Karamazov. So I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised! The novel is written in the first person and it's an amazing rendering of adolescent consciousness. It's split into three parts and to be honest the last part does seem to lose steam and focus, so that it descends from the excellent to the good. Still, very unjustly ignored! Sort of a combination of the manic narration of Notes from Underground, the social drama of Dickens, and (I reluctantly reference) the world and self-exploring fragile consciousness of The Catcher in the Rye.

Date: 2005-02-08 00:00 Subject: The Gambler by Dostoevsky Security: Public Tags: fyodor_dostoevsky, old_journal_entries, russia

Finished reading The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett. Follows the story of the tutor of a family that is staying at a gambling spot in Germany following different social intrigues interspersed with the seductive lure of gambling, mostly roulette in this short novel.

This book was really good, considering that it's mainly known for being written in a flash to cover a contractual obligation before a looming deadline. It takes a bit of time to get going, but then the amusing eccentric character of Granny shows up, and then in the later parts of the book the downward spiral of the narrator experiences after he wins a large sum is interesting and somewhat original in D's work.

Date: 2005-02-07 00:00 Subject: The Double by Dostoevsky Security: Public Tags: fyodor_dostoevsky, old_journal_entries, russia

Finished reading The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett. A short novel about a government clerk who is frustrated by a lack of success in his career and his personal life, and then encounters his exact double, with the exact same appearance and name. The double somehow gains a better reputation than the original character, and soon the impostor is acclaimed, while the hero of the novel is defamed.

A somewhat interesting book, but it was D's second novel and you just see some of the seeds he would later develop. Definitely a strong Gogol influence. D's work would become much stronger, deeper, and more complex after his death sentence (commuted at the last minute) and long imprisonment.