Random Thoughts

Well, that prize doesn’t seem like a scam at all.

This issue (from 1965) has a pretty interesting interview with de Beauvoir.

And a portfolio of drawings for statues by Jean Tinguely.

Nice picture of the artist, but where’s OSHA!?

The longest piece in this issue is Jacksongrad by Harry Mathews, which is the first third of the Tlooth novel: “This novel begins in a Russian prison camp at a baseball game featuring the defective Baptists versus the Fideists”. It’s all quite amusing and all, but it feels a bit like sawed-off Pynchon. V was published two years before this, and I wonder whether Mathews read that and went “sure! I can do that!”. But can anybody?

On the other hand: I know nothing.

There’s a bizarre short story by Peter Ellis called A Cat in the Metro. It almost seems like an in-joke of sorts, or a pastiche, or a parody? The language just doesn’t jive. The author notes just go “Peter Ellis is a student at the University of Pennsylvania. This is his first published work.” I can’t find any subsequent work, or find out anything about him, really, but it’s not an uncommon name, and at least two other authors have that name.

The Paris Review #34 (1965) (buy new, buy used, 3.5 on Goodreads)

This is a collection of short stories and novellas — but I skipped the first one, Souls, because I’ve read that one before. (Winner of the 1983 Hugo Award — it’s good, and I remember it well.)

Souls is, by far, the most straightforward story here. There’s a variety of approaches here, but Russ mostly enjoys befuddling people by having the text not actually explain what’s really going on. I quite enjoy being confused, so that’s fine by me. But I’m not surprised by responses like this:

Extra(Ordinary) People (1984) by Joanna Russ (buy used, 3.73 on Goodreads)

I have zero interest in Lao Tzu, but I quite like Le Guin’s writing, so I bought this book in 1997. And didn’t read it until today.

It’s surprisingly enjoyable. The author seems like a fun guy, at least in Le Guin’s version. I liked reading the book.

And I didn’t know that Trump was a Taoist!

The book is unapologetically Le Guin’s very opinionated version of Tao Te Ching, which I like. And in addition, there’s more text in the “Notes” section than there is in the main section, which would normally be a chore, but it’s Le Guin, so of course the notes are also well-written and entertaining.

Tao Te Ching (1997) by Lao Tzu (buy used, 4.29 on Goodreads)