February 5, 2021
"We ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?"
Said Kafka, quoted in "Please Don’t Ask Elizabeth Kolbert How She Organizes Her Books" (NYT).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
120 comments:
Mixed metaphors
Like a blow to the skull.
Like “A Whack on the Side of the Head.”
Bullshit. Walking on stilts. We should read whatever we damn well want, for whatever reasons we have to read it.This plea for only stinging reading is faux elitism demanding our attention to the interests of the faux elite.
Fuck that. I read some books because they are challenging, and some because they are like a warm bowl of chili on a winter afternoon: comforting. I'll read whatever the hell I want.
If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?
Because books are a great source of yet more free advice, if you don't pay for them.
"We ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?"
Nobody's stopping you from doing just that, are they?
Oh, but you think other people should do what you think is good for them, not what they think is? I see.
r Wibble said...Fuck that. I read some books because they are challenging, and some because they are like a warm bowl of chili on a winter afternoon: comforting. I'll read whatever the hell I want.
Me too. I alternate between books I read for pure pleasure and books I read for self-improvement. The idea of choosing only one or the other holds no attraction.
Well, I don't have to read Kafka.
For light entertainment? Why this insistence that everything to be read has to be deadly serious, why the call for high trauma-drama? Is relaxation and enjoyment to be avoided always?
I have never quite understood this narrow-minded thinking about art, whether literature, painting, sculpture and so on. Everything must be as dreary as their lives.
Now do newspapers.
Me too. I alternate between books I read for pure pleasure and books I read for self-improvement. The idea of choosing only one or the other holds no attraction.
I do the same. I'll read The Confessions of Saint Augustine and then the latest Dresden book. Right now it's a history of the Continental Navy and a book on the Financial Instability Hypothesis.
"We ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?"
Sounds very unsafe.
In practice, of course, the prog application of the Kafka principle only means that lit prescriptions should bite and sting deplorables and their children. Everybody else gets their preconceptions affirmed and their feelings protected.
Applying the Kafka principle becomes a form of kafkatrapping: you deplorables always say you want a classic approach to lit; Kafka is a classic; we are applying his principle; QED.
It's a very tiresome 20th-C opinion. I've been a sophomore in college once already and I don't need to do it again.
I guess Kafka wasn't much of a reader. It was a "bother." He's speaking to people who find it work to read a book... which is, actually, most people. When do you stop reading this and that on line and read a whole book?
Anyone here ever read “American Tabloid” by James Ellroy?
I found that book fascinating, hard to put down and thoroughly enjoyable.
"When do you stop reading this and that on line and read a whole book?"
That's become my daily fight. Then finding time to write on top of it. I need to remove the internet from my life.
But then I kinda wanna to just glance at Althouse in the morning and then...next thing you know..it's 10:19 and I'm back looking at it again. Aaargh.
I’m reading Breakfast In Nudie Suits right now. Ian Dunlop is not only a really nice guy, but a helluva writer. Gram was much funnier that what I have read about. She wouldn’t get it.
PS- I read and was stirred by Kafka in college or high school- I don't remember which. But I cannot imagine me ever wanting to read Kafka again. So it's doubtful he'd be my go-to for opinions on what to read.
Not merely asceticism, but sadomasochism under a reality bereft of principles, and laboring under empathetic and sympathetic quasi-religious burdens. We live in interesting times.
Why would I want a blow to the skull when I could have ice cream instead? It's not that complicated.
Physical and Kindle books get read, but audiobooks are voraciously consumed while walking. A house with a layout offering some kind of circuit allows for walking in all weather.
FUCK YOU FRANZ KAFKA. DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!
Completely off-topic, but here is an excerpt of a story from ESPN this morning about NFL concussion claims. Now, there are probably some of you who have already seen this story elsewhere since last night that pointed out the error in logic that is contained somewhere in the excerpt, so if you have, don't spoil the puzzle for others. Your task is to find out where the writer makes that mistake. The topic is about testing former players of cognitive impairment, and the lawsuit two them brought because they thought the testing protocols were biased:
"Some clinicians tasked with evaluating the eligibility of former NFL players for compensation from the league’s landmark 2013 concussion settlement worry that the testing process and protocols discriminate against Black players, an ABC News investigation published Wednesday has found.
The New York Times reported in August that two Black former players — defensive end Kevin Henry and running back Najeh Davenport — have filed a lawsuit against the NFL, accusing the league of “explicitly and deliberately” discriminating against Black players filing dementia-related claims.
At issue is a process called “race-norming,” which has been used by scientists for decades as a way to correct for the lower levels of education often found in minority communities. It was designed to prevent the overdiagnosis of cognitive impairment in these communities, but according to Henry and Davenport’s lawsuit, when applied to the NFL concussion settlement, it is having the opposite effect — making it more difficult for players to show cognitive decline."
Where in the above is the glaring error, and do you think it is deliberate, or did the writer really not get why it was wrong?
Yancy,
The problem with the NFL concussion protocol (if reported accurately) is that neuropsychologists test cognitive decline by looking at factors such as memory and processing speed not IQ or education related knowledge.
Unbelievable. The NERVE of this guy, Kafka....
Kafka?
Get the bug out of here!
I'm sure "liberals" will follow Kafka's advice by devoting 2021 to reading Murray Rothbard, Leonard Read, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand and other pro-freedom writers.
Speaking from experience a “blow to the skull” has rarely made me feel more awake and I have no desire to endure anything that can be compared to a beating.
I am working my way forward. Currently reading books that hit me like a storm and cause me stress. Don't rush me. I am a slow reader.
Just another bombastic, blustering blowhard from Mitteleuropa.
"Anyone here ever read “American Tabloid” by James Ellroy?"
Oh my, yes. Someone loaned it to me. I'm always reading at least 5 books, so I didn't really need another one, but I felt like I had to try it, hoping I could just put it down after a few pages, but no, really good writing and riveting material. I liked Don Dellilo's Libra, as well, which is a somewhat different take on the same story.
I suppose Althouse is right, that most people don't read books without effort, but I'm with George Plimpton: “I never understood people who don't have bookshelves.”
In fact the short story where Kafka’s narrator wakes up as a large bug (ah “Metamorphosis” isn’t it?) didn’t bite or sting me either, but I liked it and learned from it.
I'm trying to think of an animal that can bite us, sting us, and shake us awake like a blow to the skull. I'm going with some sort of large, poisonous lizard. A komodo dragon?
Hah! Some quick Googling tells me that Ellroy says reading Libra is what inspired him to write American Tabloid.
Very easily could have framed that message only about his approach to reading and what he likes to read. The norm of making your opinion what everyone should agree to is dumbing people down.
Kafka is selling that old school trope "no pain, no gain". I just got a Kindle. Any suggestions for free painful downloads?
I'm a pretty eclectic reader. I read for a number of reasons but never to get hit on the head.
I read light books like westlake and his dort under series over and over again. I read heavier books such as history of 1984 and hour of fate about tr vs morgan(reading both at the moment)
I read books tha I like, books that I ind interesting. I do not read boring books no matter how IMPORTANT! (tm) they are.
I am constantly looking for reading ideas and probably have 100 kindle samples at the moment.
Including American Tabloid which I'd never heard of before but I generally take a look at any recommendations by commenters.
John Henry
it's a bit on the long side, I actually bought the cold six hundred
Iman said...
Anyone here ever read “American Tabloid” by James Ellroy?
I found that book fascinating, hard to put down and thoroughly enjoyable
No, but I've read his "LA Quartet". You have to be careful with Ellroy. Reading a book of his here and there is fine, but once you start on a series the characters (and Ellroy) become repulsive very fast.
Any suggestions for free painful downloads?
Thucydides is painful. Herodotus was jolly in comparison. Conquest of New Spain was worth the slog.
That's an excellent start Wild Chick, thanks.
I've read Kafka.
Yeah......I'm not taking any reading suggestions from Franz. That fucker was NUTS!!
Any suggestions for free painful downloads?
Have you tried 9mm?
I read Kafka's "In a Penal Colony" in January, and it's one of the very few stories I've stopped reading to look up before continuing. "If this is going in *that* direction, I'm out." It wasn't, so I finished it. Great story, and yes, a bit like a blow to the head!
“We ought to only_______”
Red flags flapping in the wind.
Why confine this only to the books we read?
If you feel you NEED to be slapped awake The Bible is a free download.
I was introduced to herodotus, through the english patient, but I actually bought it after I saw 300, it was a faithful representation of what he wrote, gary corby has written a series of somewhat detective tales starring socrates brother, one of the last reference herodotus,
Howard, there are lots of out of copyright books available on kindle for free or for 1.99 or less probably pretty much everything ever published.
I always keep collected works of Conrad and of trollope on both phone and tablet for when I can't think of anything else to read. There are lots of these collections available.
John Henry
I remember where books are, even those in piles on tables.
I have a Kafka shelf section about 8 inches long (paperbacks).
She's right. Every time I read another finger-wagging article by Ms Kolbert (take out your lawn and put in concrete) it IS like a blow to the skull.
There are some authors who write very well — they write Literature — but their works don’t do it for me.
Philip Roth and John Updike, for example.
Then there are authors like Faulkner who wrote 3-4 very strong books but the rest is crap.
I get what Kafka is saying.
I gave up on Red Cavalry by Babel. It's about various atrocities committed by the Cossacks during their campaign in Poland. Ugly people doing ugly things to each other. It's a slap in the head, but it serves no useful purpose. Bear baiting used to be a popular sport. There is literature that appeals to this audience....I switched over to a bio of Samuel Johnson. Johnson had a life that was sufficiently squalid and beleagured, but there's some uplift to his tale. His hard times and his extensive reading seems to have made him a kinder person. That doesn't happen very often. It certainly didn't happen to Babel.....According to the foreward, Babel didn't really have an affair with the wife or sister of the secret police director. That was disinformation put out by the secret police after his arrest. As disinformation goes, it was counterproductive. It added to Babel's legend. Maybe this is disinformation about the disinformation. It's the kind of world that only Kafka could find the handle on.
A blow to the head = comatose
I reread books- I’ve read the Harry Potter series many times.
Good books are friends.
Althouse shakes me awake.
At sunrise.
Can anyone imagine having a young kid in your lap, and announcing to them, "Sweetheart, this book is going to bite and sting you."
Yeah, THAT'll create a life-long reader!
SNORT
For good reading, current enjoyment I recommend Trump’s letter resigning from SAG-AFTRA because it is a classic of good letter writing, a dying art. The PowerLine blog has a nice readable copy posted. It is pure Trump.
Oops. It was Sara on Instapundit that linked to Conservative Tree House where a copy of Yrump’s letter can be read (note how Apple has again been stumped by his name? Spellcheck just cannot even guess at what I was trying to spell. Of course, any word that starts off B-I and it tries to “help” by changing it to you-know-who (not my president) every time):
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2021/02/04/president-trump-responds-to-screen-actors-guild-ridiculous-investigation/
American Tabloid.
Good read.
Ellroy sick.
Good sick.
Like his Black Dahlia.
Can I instead ask Elizabeth Kolbert who she is and why I should care about her opinion?
I tend to agree with this. I avoid what I call "junk fiction" written by fiction mills like James Patterson or Janet Evanovich. I don't care if anyone else reads them, but I choose the books I listen to very carefully.
"We ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?"
Serious Question
wouldn't (SHOULDN'T?) a book that would bite and sting me need a Trigger Warning?
As a survivor, WHY should i be subjected to a horrible thing that would bite and sting?
Doesn't this go against EVERYTHING that Our Brave New World stands for?
Not the more famous Kafka quote?
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us”.
That and the blow to the skull are found in the same letter.
I suspect Kafka was talking about a certain stage of life. If kids are forever getting blows to the head they aren't likely to keep up with reading, nor are people who have to read to qualify for a career, but if you reach a point of crisis or uncertainty or numb inertia in your life, Kafka's opinion may have some validity.
I'm not a big fan of Ellroy. It seems like every chapter ends with somebody getting kicked in the teeth or kicked in the balls. He uses beatdowns like punctuation.
“When we read for information, we require facts. When we read to understand, we learn not only facts but their significance. Each kind of reading has its virtue, but it must be used in the right place. If a writer does not understand more than we do, or if in particular passage he makes no effort to explain, we can onlybe informed by him, not enlightened. But if an author has insights we do not possess and if, in addition, he has tried to convey them in what he has written, we are neglecting his gift to us if we do not read him differently from the way in which we read newspapers or magazines.
“The books we acknowledge to be great or good are usually those which deserve the better sort of reading. It is true, of course, that anything can be read for informational as well as understanding. One should be able to remember what the author said as well as know what he meant. In a sense, being informed is prerequisite to being enlightened. The point, however, is not to stop at being informed. It is as wasteful to read a great book solely for information as to use a fountain pen for digging worms.”
– How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler
vide: https://mathscinotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Adler-Mortimer-How-To-Read-A-Book.pdf
The Gutenberg Project is worth a browse for free downloads of wonderful literature.
Iman
I tried American Tabloid, because I admired Hollywood Confidential so much. But Ellroy's artificial staccato style is just too unreadable.
The value of lesuo
https://www.amazon.com/Untitled-Nonfiction-AB-Confirmed-Gallery/dp/1982151110
Howard
I’m your Huckleberry!
With literature in translation you may be better off with newer, non free, translations.
Your library might have Overdrive, which lends Kindle books.
Hammett is entering public domain, so should be free or cheap.
The Woman in White by Willkie Collins is great.
I assume you know the standards of English lit. If not your first stops should be Middlemarch and Tom Jones.
Speaking of painful books, I hear Hunter Biden's memoir is already ranked #1 in the "Chinese Biographies" section on Amazon. I don't know if it's an error or prank on the part of some mischievious Amazon Employee or if it's really real. If it's real, it seems like a fairly brazen way for China to launder money to the Biden's.
This was hilarious. The best accidental comedy video I have seen in a year.
Evidence you will be wearing masks from now on
Brown knows Paul has had and recovered from COVID.
https://michaeljlindell.com/ Claims Absolute Proof
Thats 'restraining order' brown, ask me why.
Ok, why?
Because his wife demanded one, she reconciled with him
Now I remember. The restraining order was a matter of public record, but Brown still claims the story was made up.
Any suggestions for free painful downloads?
I was recently introduced to the Honor Harrington series, for which the first two titles have a Kindle price of zero. I got hooked and have paid through book 6 (I think there are 14 or so).
Free, but actually not at all painful if you like military science fiction.
Blogger Ficta said...
Hah! Some quick Googling tells me that Ellroy says reading Libra is what inspired him to write American Tabloid
Very interesting! Well, there’s one I’ll have to read. Appreciated the feedback from others. Ellroy is definitely a very strange cat, but a gifted writer. Other than LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia, and maybe Street Kings, his books have made for some fairly shitty movies.
But that Tabloid book... I just happened to pick it up in a grocery store book section when it came out in paperback in the mid-90s and the style, characters, era, all of it just blew my mind.
Blogger narciso said...
it's a bit on the long side, I actually bought the cold six hundred
You must’ve been very peeved when it ended up being the Cold Six Thousand, narciso 😀
Thanks for all the great suggestions
Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time. The English Proust. But anything but boring.
The restraining order was a matter of public record, but Brown still claims the story was made up.
It's history now. A sociopolitical myth, one of a diverse collection, on a forward-looking basis.
Kafka? Nowadays he'd binge watch Hallmark movies swearing he wasn't gonna cry this time.
Still working my way through Shakespeare, reading the plays in chronological order. I hesitated as I approached the tragedies - who needs more grief. But anyhow, finally went on and found that there are some "comedies" written just before the major tragedies - Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure - which bite and sting. I'm almost looking forward to the tragedies now to get away from meaningless snapping and snarling. I don't recommend these "comedies" but if you want a slap in the face by a great author, they're online, crouched and waiting.
There's this... https://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks
"If not your first stops should be Middlemarch and Tom Jones."
Middlemarch is one of my favorite books. The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite, and I like an old, free translation that other people say they hate.
Blogger Nonapod said...
Speaking of painful books, I hear Hunter Biden's memoir is already ranked #1 in the "Chinese Biographies" section on Amazon. I don't know if it's an error or prank on the part of some mischievious Amazon Employee or if it's really real. If it's real, it seems like a fairly brazen way for China to launder money to the Biden's.
You realize these books/book deal by politicians are just a money laundering schemes, don't you?
Hey, were did Hunter get all this money?
Why, he's a NYT #1 best selling author!
I tried getting through middlemarch, on recommendation from a friend, I got about 3/4 through,
"The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite"
I would have say it is mine as well. Have read it three times over the years, and thinking about reading it again now that you mention it.
In the world we now inhabit, I recommend Kafka's 'The Trial'.
After that, and after lifetimes of being taught to reject God, I recommend 'The New Testament'
Here is a mystical book, when read with an open heart. It focuses on where you are now and what you can discover about yourself.
Page after page will not be pertinent to you (at this time) ...and then...a verse or chapter grabs you.
It speaks to you, in no uncertain terms. It might be an Ah ha moment, or it might be one that angers you, and causes you to slam the book shut... for awhile.
If you would read the Bible... start with the New Testament.
"I tried getting through middlemarch, on recommendation from a friend, I got about 3/4 through"
I don't know how someone gets 3/4s of the way through a book and then stops. For me, if I am going to stop, I know it within the first 20 pages, after that I get stubborn.
Not Alook, an article on Trudeau. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-this-is-the-worst-canadian-government-ever-can-there-be-any-question?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1612558910
Even worse awaits you in Bidenharris perhaps.
For me, if I am going to stop, I know it within the first 20 pages, after that I get stubborn
I am like that but for me it is 30 pages. That being said I can't think of the last book I stopped reading, after getting 30 pages in.
Trumpsters read books?
We aren't like Democrats- we can read.
"I guess Kafka wasn't much of a reader.
Read it? I wrote it!
-- Kafka
Hercules, not that one though said...
Well put.
The Ethan Hawke novel is quite good. Turns out he has won two Oscar nominations for screenwriting and written like four other novels. I haven’t gotten that far, but if it keeps up this good, it’s going to be a good read.
"'Remember this next time you are complaining' my driver continued'No one wants to be hearing you!'”
So I think he gets it, and he wrote a novel anyway, and good for him. In the movie The Rewrite Hugh Grant goes through the same thing. Nobody want’s his screenplays because he is not twenty anymore. He doesn’t address the being white part directly, but we all know...
My Kafka comment is this, the critical theory people took it as a “how-to."
The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite, and I like an old, free translation'
I know who you mean. She did the Possessed too. That's my favorite Dos.
I think that acting is good training for a novelist. They are taught to show not tell and to really explore character inside and outside and exploring the purpose and drama of every scene they are in and the motivations of all of the characters also has to be very helpful
You want to know a good book? The Really Big Book of Dutch Humor.
Not only can Trumpsters read, they know how to fill out a voter registration form, know how to find their way to the polls, and they recognize voter fraud when they see it.
That old lady translator? Constance Garnett. Read lots of her books.
What is the favourite city of dutch rodents?
Hamsterdam.
Ann Althouse said...
“…When do you stop reading this and that on line and read a whole book?”
Usually when a new book in a series comes out by an author I like, and I’m collecting the series in hard copy. I’ve had to pare down my real book collection as it was getting absurd.
@Ken B: I second Overdrive, despite the app’s bugginess. I recently downloaded for free a series by a French author who is considered the forerunner of detective novels, much to Conan Doyle’s chagrin. Finding interesting books in the public domain is a treat.
@Howard: highly recommend Hammett – everything he wrote is worth reading.
Interesting- Hawke wrote the screenplay for both of the sequels to "Before Sunrise". I didn't know that, but then I haven't seen the two sequels.
My bad, he co-wrote the two sequels.
I couldn’t finish Notes From Underground, I wrapped it up in brown paper and sent it to my psychiatrist and told him to read it and tell me what is wrong with me.
I highly recommend the great Madison WI math professor Walter Rudin's book "Principles of Mathematical Analysis." In school I read it over and over for a whole semester. There is even a sequel. And yes sometimes it is like a blow to the skull, and often you feel like an axe has broken the ice over your encrusted mind. Rudin actually owned a F L Wright Usonian house in Madison.
One more idea for free books:
Baen Books offers some of its titles (mostly SciFi) for free:
https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/2012
I don't know how someone gets 3/4s of the way through a book and then stops.
I tried reading Don Quixote in high school and could only get halfway through. Again in college and got to about 80%. Tried again about ten years later and got within 50 pages before I had to put it down. Out of sheer perversity I tried it in my 50s. Got to thirty pages left and gave up. I've never read the last 30 pages, and never will unless I reread the whole thing. Character flaw of some sort.
But I did read the Cliff notes. Start to finish!
Louis L'Amour,. Read between the lines. Deep, dark delirious..
KellyM: “ @Howard: highly recommend Hammett – everything he wrote is worth reading.””
Kelly M
You are a superior human being.
When isolation started, I used the extra time to re-read The Iliad and The Odyssey which got me interested in the Bronze Age, which kind of lead me to the old testament. I have kind of a theory where the Sea People, who, according to the Israel Stele, included thousands from the nation of Israel, who tried to raid Egypt from their vast fleet of ships may have been the source of the Jewish captives mentioned in Exodus. These peoples were coevals with the Achaeans who sent a fleet of a thousand ships, as we all know, in order to raid and loot Troy. Homer at least thought that the Sea People were Greek as he mentions the battle in a sidebar story in The Odyssey, a story not part of the main plot, but rather it is a story told by Odysseus to entertain his host and which closely parallels the story from the Israel Stele, right down to Homer mentioning the skullcaps the Greeks wore, which were drawn on the Stele as part of the recounting of the battle.
Anyway, getting back to the Old Testament, there are a people mentioned as part of the Exodus, the Tribe of Dan, whose life as a nation very much centered on their ships and who seem to be related to the Greeks by way of the Phoenicians and who went their own way after the exodus.
Who knows? One thing I believe is that the story of the exodus was unlikely to have been made up of whole cloth even if details may have been fudged over time.
"Louis L'Amour,. Read between the lines. Deep, dark delirious..”
He’s great too, and another guy who wouldn’t read the competition. He said he didn’t want it to infect his work.
Earl Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason, simple instructions on destroying evidence and witness tampering. Not as useful in this age of DNA cell phone and video.
I couldn’t finish Notes From Underground, I wrapped it up in brown paper and sent it to my psychiatrist and told him to read it and tell me what is wrong with me.
A favorite passage:
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jims in this town
And all the politicians makin' crazy sounds
And everybody puttin' everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds
"Trumpsters read books?"
Really? Wasting pixels again.
I like reading books that are like a warm hand on my thigh. Sometimes.
In almost 30 (wait . . . yeah 30) years of Intertubing only one or two other people that I can recall have mentioned Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. He called Powell "a precious bore" as I recall; there's truth in that, but also some fine observation, and the character Widmerpool is a classic.
Most big name Euroscribblers that get flogged in these threads--Kafka, Dostoyevsky, u.s.w.-- I only know in translation and/or by cultural osmosis, so it's not proper for me to judge literary quality per se, but their obsessions and terrors outlined modernity's dilemmas pretty well, like them or not.
I find Nietzsche--again in translation only--more relatable. In part because he wasn't a novelist (spellcheck caught "navelist"!) and was probably smarter and of broader culture than those gloomy gusses. Proust sounds interesting, but that translation wall, and the reputation for boring . . .
Hey, Roughcoat! Do you know any Hans Delbrueck?
Narr
Strungk! I'm writing a food book. Do you think "Cheeses of the Netherlands and Gouda Edam" sounds like a good title?
PS RIP Plummer!
P.G. Wodehouse.
The defense rests.
Post a Comment