Having a go at Dubliners by Joyce. A friend told me it "changed her life" so I thought it'd be worth a go!
I have to confess the style really threw me for a bit (post-modernism isn't simple) but I'm getting into it now
@Lemex; @Steerpike. Agreed. I too, am a fan. ETA: Still haven't worked up the momentum for Ulysses yet though. It's staring at me right now in fact, goading me. One for the summer holiday, I think.
I think you have to be selective with him. He wrote a lot of great stuff, but he was far too inclusive. He put out many editions of Leaves of Grass, adding poems each time. I don't think he ever took any out, and he probably should have. He needed an editor.
I can see that. I'm reading the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass right now, and to be honest - I thought he would be more universal than this. He can clearly write, he's clearly amazingly talented, but I find his attempt to recreate America as a living poem leaves a weird aftertaste too.
I think that's exactly it, to be honest. I am not who Whitman was writing for. He has some wonderful lines. He has some breathtaking moments. But unlike Frost, who aside from one or two poems doesn't seem to treat the fact he's American as very important (I never find it is in Frost anyway) with Whitman, it's part of his project. I'll try not to let it bother me so much, because I do want to like the guy, but he is blocking me out a bit.
I'm sorry to hear that, because he does have a lot to offer. Oddly, I haven't read any Frost at all, I think, except The Road Less Traveled. Is he worth getting into?
Whitman is definitely a very American poet. You pretty much have to be eating a hotdog, drinking Coke, and waving an American flag when reading him.
Yeah. I'll try to go further with Whitman. I think the just plain writing quality can help me get over the patriotism. I'm hoping so anyway, I've just started reading Whitman this week. He is, I'll fully admit, an excellent poet. Frost is perhaps my favourite poet at the moment. I'm writing my MA dissertation on why he's not seen as a 'Modernist' like guys like Ezra Pound and T.S Eliot, because I think he is. He's just not writing about Modernization from the city. He's writing about alienation, isolation, depression and urbanization (all the themes of Modernism) with representations of rural, working people - showing the New England countryside wild, being reclaimed by nature now man has moved on. Also, just in terms of technical powers he was a marvelous poet. He's just as difficult as guys like Eliot, but he's difficult in another way. Unlike the other Modernists he's not trying to get you to work out what on earth he's even talking about, he wants you to read him in a certain way while he's really saying something else - the difficulty is not understanding him, but understanding him, if that makes sense. 'The Road Less Traveled' is a perfect example. You can read that and see it as this grand statement about being an individual, following your own path. But when you read it closely, Frost seems to be almost sarcastic. He's actually saying your choices in life don't really matter, both roads in that poem are actually the same pretty much - there is no real difference between them, so what matters is your starting place and you can't go back to change your mistakes anyway.
Finished Leaves of Grass. It's a very interesting book, very very interesting indeed. I liked a lot of it. There are some beautiful lines - Whitman is a wonderful poet of quotes. And he is amazingly ahead of his time, I'm frankly astonished the first edition (which I read) came out in 1855! And I can already feel a future self telling me I'm wrong, but however much of a great poet I know he is I just don't find him a personal favourite. I just don't like his project, in short, nationalism always rubbed me the wrong way - and his attempt to mythologize the United States, making them into a series of living poems, leaves me as a foreigner somewhat excluded. This is very likely a personal failing, a problem with my quality as a reader, that I can't love ideas that are so alien to my own. Whitman's love for America breathes into his poetry, it's genuine - the love of a husband or wife, but it's not a love I can feel myself, so my appreciation for him does suffer because of this. Also, I must admit, while Walt Whitman's work is in no way bad, every single bad free verse that I've read is an imitation of Walt Whitman. Every single bad free verse poet wants to be Walt Whitman, especially if they don't even know it. It's his fault - all his fault.
One day, I'd love to write the way I don't care what other people thing or whether they understand what I'm saying. This is more acceptable in poetry than prose, I reckon, but still. I haven't yet reached the creative height of not giving a damn at some point, a quality I hold never-ceasing admiration for. It shows an individualist path, the strength to hold your ground against the multitude of opposing thought. There's something mystical behind it.
I mean, it's important to write with clarity in mind but from a certain stage on, one shouldn't trade his own self in exchange for clarity, readability or success.
I'm getting more and more into the first book of the Flank Hawk series, it's a pretty good read. I'm a little confused on certain bits of it, but overall I'm enjoying it.
We do, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding him. Probably busy writing the next entry in the Flank Hawk series. That is if that series is still going.
I'm reading Rats by James Herbert. The sheer 70s of it keeps smacking me in the face and I'm pretty sure I've started actually growling every time some casual sexism pops up but other than that I'm enjoying it. I can see why it got so popular so quickly but I would probably be enjoying it more if I'd read it when I was younger.
I'm reading a James Herbert novel as well. There is casual sexism, but it's written in the tight viewpoint and the main character has those sorts of attitudes, so I don't have a problem with it in terms of what the author is doing. He's not a likeable guy to begin with (the character).
