Excerpts of excellence

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orpheus
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by orpheus » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:50 am

Hermit wrote::whisper: Girl with a Pearl Earring
That painting was one of Hoban's obsessions. Here's what he says about it in Kong and the Vermeer Girl, the introduction to the text of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Second Mrs. Kong. (Hoban wrote the libretto.)

"I have looked at many reproductions of Girl With a Pearl Earring; several are before me now as I write, and I know that what happens with these is what would happen with the original: no matter how steadily I look at her I cannot see her continuously; she is like music, always partly now and partly remembered. In her look is the terror of Creation, in her eyes a question that can never be answered; on her lips a word never to be spoken. Of course the lost and lonely child that is the idea of Kong will cross the soul's dark sea to find her, and it is in the nature of things that these two predestined lovers can never have each other. But it is the longing for what cannot be that moves the world from night to morning."

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by charlou » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:52 am

Hermit wrote::whisper: Girl with a Pearl Earring
That's one. I recently watched an interesting documentary featuring his work, The Allegory of Painting. Useful to know when placing the genre of his work into the context of orpheus's quoted text.


rEvolutionist wrote:Oh, good thread! I'm glad I found it. I've always wanted to quote large chunks of Henry David Thoreau, as I find some of the passages fascinating. But all my book are up at the farm, so can't quote anything at the moment. Just bookmarking now.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:53 am

Pappa wrote:
Charlou wrote:Kafka
I ♥ Kafka.
I love the start to Metamorphosis. So "wtf?" and also damned funny. :) As my books are up at the farm, I just screen grabbed off google books.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by charlou » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:58 am

orpheus wrote:
RiverF wrote:*googles Vermeer*
I've spent a lot of time in museums googling at the Vermeers. :)
Half your good fortune!
That's one of the great things about Russ Hoban's novels: they're peppered with references to artists, music, books, films, mythology, etc. And it's not off-putting at all; he does it in such a way that one feels "oh, this is something magical", and makes a note to follow up on it. One can get a pretty good cultural education just from following the trails of breadcrumbs he leaves in his novels. At least that's what I've done, and it's been (and continues to be) a joy.
Following trails ... Very much so .. and applies to so many points of reference across all media, really.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by Hermit » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:00 am

orpheus wrote:
Hermit wrote: :whisper: Girl with a Pearl Earring
That painting was one of Hoban's obsessions. Here's what he says about it in Kong and the Vermeer Girl, the introduction to the text of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Second Mrs. Kong. (Hoban wrote the libretto.)

"I have looked at many reproductions of Girl With a Pearl Earring; several are before me now as I write, and I know that what happens with these is what would happen with the original: no matter how steadily I look at her I cannot see her continuously; she is like music, always partly now and partly remembered. In her look is the terror of Creation, in her eyes a question that can never be answered; on her lips a word never to be spoken. Of course the lost and lonely child that is the idea of Kong will cross the soul's dark sea to find her, and it is in the nature of things that these two predestined lovers can never have each other. But it is the longing for what cannot be that moves the world from night to morning."
Uhm. OK. I think you have provided a sufficient number of Hoban's excerpts of brilliance for me to give reading his works a miss.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:01 am

Cormac wrote:
Trolldor wrote:I do not like them
Sam I am.
I do not like Green Eggs and Ham.
If you don't eat your meat, how can you have any pudding? How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
:hehe: I was going to post that. And I would only be 2 years too late!
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by orpheus » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:02 am

Hermit wrote:
orpheus wrote:
Hermit wrote: :whisper: Girl with a Pearl Earring
That painting was one of Hoban's obsessions. Here's what he says about it in Kong and the Vermeer Girl, the introduction to the text of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Second Mrs. Kong. (Hoban wrote the libretto.)

"I have looked at many reproductions of Girl With a Pearl Earring; several are before me now as I write, and I know that what happens with these is what would happen with the original: no matter how steadily I look at her I cannot see her continuously; she is like music, always partly now and partly remembered. In her look is the terror of Creation, in her eyes a question that can never be answered; on her lips a word never to be spoken. Of course the lost and lonely child that is the idea of Kong will cross the soul's dark sea to find her, and it is in the nature of things that these two predestined lovers can never have each other. But it is the longing for what cannot be that moves the world from night to morning."
Uhm. OK. I think you have provided a sufficient number of Hoban's excerpts of brilliance for me to give reading his works a miss.
:(

Ah well, to each his/her own.
I think that language has a lot to do with interfering in our relationship to direct experience. A simple thing like metaphor will allows you to go to a place and say 'this is like that'. Well, this isn't like that. This is like this.

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:04 am

RiverF wrote:I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco ..
Are you crazy? :o That's pretty much the most impenetrable book I have ever read.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:09 am

orpheus wrote:"And those of us who think about the empty spaces tend to paint pictures, write books, or compose music. There are many talented people who never will become painters, writers, or composers; the talent is in them but not the empty spaces where art happens."

– Russell Hoban, Amaryllis Night and Day
I like that!
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"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
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"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:13 am

orpheus wrote:
Hermit wrote:
orpheus wrote:
Hermit wrote: :whisper: Girl with a Pearl Earring
That painting was one of Hoban's obsessions. Here's what he says about it in Kong and the Vermeer Girl, the introduction to the text of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Second Mrs. Kong. (Hoban wrote the libretto.)

"I have looked at many reproductions of Girl With a Pearl Earring; several are before me now as I write, and I know that what happens with these is what would happen with the original: no matter how steadily I look at her I cannot see her continuously; she is like music, always partly now and partly remembered. In her look is the terror of Creation, in her eyes a question that can never be answered; on her lips a word never to be spoken. Of course the lost and lonely child that is the idea of Kong will cross the soul's dark sea to find her, and it is in the nature of things that these two predestined lovers can never have each other. But it is the longing for what cannot be that moves the world from night to morning."
Uhm. OK. I think you have provided a sufficient number of Hoban's excerpts of brilliance for me to give reading his works a miss.
:(

Ah well, to each his/her own.
I suspect, going by his username, that Hermit is well and truly on his own. No surprise with his social skills.
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"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
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"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by orpheus » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:17 am

rEvolutionist wrote:
RiverF wrote:I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco ..
Are you crazy? :o That's pretty much the most impenetrable book I have ever read.
Reading that book was a weird experience for me. Half of Eco's references went right over my head. And I felt he was (unlike Hoban) showing off. "Okay" I wanted to shout at him. "We get the point! You're smarter than us!" But (and here's the weird part), I still enjoyed it. Strange.
I think that language has a lot to do with interfering in our relationship to direct experience. A simple thing like metaphor will allows you to go to a place and say 'this is like that'. Well, this isn't like that. This is like this.

—Richard Serra

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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:22 am

Yeah, I feel like an intellectual dwarf when reading Eco. I never finished that book. I probably got about 2/3rds of the way through and gave up.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by charlou » Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:49 am

I've read the same passage over and over .. such density is an effort for me, too. And, yes .. some have called his style pretentious, and I can understand that, but I find it quite lyrical, and rewarding once penetrated.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by Cormac » Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:39 pm

Looks like I'll have to read it again.
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Re: Excerpts of excellence

Post by Sean Hayden » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:00 pm

rEvolutionist wrote:
Pappa wrote:
Charlou wrote:Kafka
I ♥ Kafka.
I love the start to Metamorphosis. So "wtf?" and also damned funny. :) As my books are up at the farm, I just screen grabbed off google books.
I enjoyed it too. I'm currently reading all the well known absurdist fiction I can find.

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