Lady Cordelia #CBR5 Review #69: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
I tried to give everyone I knew a copy of this book over a decade ago. It’s incredible–The Diamond Age may be better. And then of course, there are die hard Baroque Cycle fans. But Snow Crash is certainly the most accessible of his works.
Snow Crash is one of the best books I have ever read. I feel like buying a copy for every single one of my friends, forcing them to read it while I sit and watch their faces. THAT’S how much I loved this book. Yes, I was the annoying person on the train during the morning commute laughing out loud, and if any of those poor bastards had dared make eye contact with me, I would have probably insisted on reading entire sections out loud.
I didn’t initially think it was going to be for me. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, particularly futuristic technological stuff, but this story is all about people. Okay sure, a lot of the story was set in the virtual reality Metaverse, but I actually understood what was going on. And why isn’t more sci-fi funny like this? Stephenson obviously loves a good pun and…
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RIP Seamus Heaney
RIP Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013
“Funeral Rites”
I shouldered a kind of manhood
stepping in to lift the coffins
of dead relations.
They had been laid out
in tainted rooms,
their eyelids glistening,
their dough-white hands
shackled in rosary beads.
Their puffed knuckles
had unwrinkled, the nails
were darkened, the wrists
obediently sloped.
The dulse-brown shroud,
the quilted satin cribs:
I knelt courteously
admiting it all
as wax melted down
and veined the candles,
the flames hovering
to the women hovering
behind me.
And always, in a corner,
the coffin lid,
its nail-heads dressed
with little gleaming crosses.
Dear soapstone masks,
kissing their igloo brows
had to suffice
before the nails were sunk
and the black glacier
of each funeral
pushed away.
II
Now as news comes in
of each neighbourly murder
we pine for ceremony,
customary rhythms:
the temperate footsteps
of a cortège, winding past
each blinded home.
I would…
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Oxford American features Charles Portis film adaptation
Today, August 26, 2013, the Oxford American website features the world premiere of a film adapatation of Charles Portis’ “I Don’t Talk Service No More.”
In addition to the film, the website features an interview of the filmmaker Katrina Whalen. Jay Jennings, who edited Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany chats with Ms. Whalen about Portis and the process of making films.
Whalen worked in production for directors Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich; Adaptation; Synecdoche, New York) and Julie Taymor (Titus; Frida; Broadway’s The Lion King) after her undergrad education at Yale. She then enrolled in graduate school at New York University.
Jennings is a freelance writer whose journalism, book reviews, and humor have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, and many other newspapers and magazines.
To see the film, which…
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The Enlightenment: A Graphic Guide – Lloyd Spencer, Andrzej Krauze
This might be something to look at for my World Lit. II students.
I didn’t know much about this historical period of new intellectual dawn. You could say I was in the dark about it. But this puts the spotlight on many of its major players. In fact, it really illuminated my understanding of these bright sparks and what they did, such as leading light Voltaire. It uses the graphic novel style which has appeared throughout this series of books. Some might say that treats its complex subject material in too light a manner, but the ability to do so effectively can be quite dazzling to see. And despite the short amount of time spent on each contributor, many of them are given their moment in the sun, and the authors’ understanding of the wider issues shines through. They seem really switched on. In some ways, [light-related pun]. Because of this, [wordplay on bulbs as light fittings/bulbs in gardening – too complex maybe??]
Capote: A Biography, by Gerald Clarke (2010, e-book 2013)
(nb: I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss)
After he published “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote was the most famous writer in America, if not the world. Its novelesque telling of a true story received widespread critical acclaim, intrigued the countless readers who bought the book, and was turned into a successful Hollywood film.
This was also the apex of Truman Capote’s life. He’d been successful as a writer, and he’d made friends with his “swans,” a group of incredibly wealthy and powerful women. “In Cold Blood” blew everything into the stratosphere. Capote had made it to the top of the mountain. All that was left was the incredible, ugly fall.
Gerald Clarke’s “Capote: A Biography” is widely considered the definitive story of the tiny acerbic writer who captivated readers.
Clarke spent well over a decade researching his biography, interviewing dozens of Capote’s…
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Readers’ Corner: The English Major
Many will disagree with Mark Edmundson’s popular essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Ideal English Major.” Edmundson, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, argues that college students should choose the English major over the pecuniary rewards of degrees in econ or business.
In a weak job market, where the crushing burden of student debt makes attending college an increasingly fraught choice, it’s welcome to see somebody beating the drum for the English degree as path towards becoming an educated person.
There may, however, only be so much one can take of Edmundson’s soaring, hard-to-choke-down conclusion:
To me an English major is someone who has decided, against all kinds of pious, prudent advice and all kinds of fears and resistances, to major, quite simply, in becoming a person. Once you’ve passed that particular course of study—or at least made some significant progress on your way—then…
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Amber Nicole Brooks 