Acquisitions
It’s been two weeks, and quite a lot has arrived… I’ve read a good chunk of it, and I just cleared most of my pending reviews on LibraryThing, so I’ll be pretty brief here.
- Nobilis, R. Sean Borgstrom. This is an RPG (roleplaying game) but I ordered it for the backstory and world creation. Reviewed on LibraryThing. Funny/sad story: I spent an hour waiting for the package to arrive, after I’d already finished reading the book. It arrived on Saturday, and there was also a note in the mailbox saying “We tried to deliver a package but you weren’t home, we’ll try again next working day.” I somehow read the Dutch for “Monday through Saturday” as excluding Saturday, and got up early and expectant Monday morning; it took me an hour to get around to rereading the note and noticing the mistake.
- Ezra Pines, The Sense of Falling. A chapbook published by the Electric Velocipede folks, this has some seriously nice stuff. The Mr. Brain stories are fantastic wacky almost-but-not-quite-nonsense, and some of the more serious stuff is just fantastic (particularly “Djang” and “Antevellum”).
- Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow. Reviewed on LT.
- China Miéville, Looking For Jake and other stories. I loved Miéville’s New Crobuzon novels, now I’m loving his short stories as well. There’s a wild creativity at work that makes feral roads and a long-suffering corporate exorcist a necessary part of our existence. Reviewed on LT.
- Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. It’s a classic, and I can see why it’s a classic, but I was slightly disappointed. Short review on LT.
Those last three were the result of a shopping expedition to buy trousers. You’ll be glad to know (or my mother will be, and my students since they don’t have to suppress their giggles at the site of the rips in my old ones when I turn to write on the blackboard) that I did find trousers. I also went to a bookstore, which is always a bad idea. And bought books, which is always a good idea. (No wonder decision theory is so difficult…)
- Nescio, De Uitvreter/Titaantjes/Dichtertje/Mene Tekel. It’s four short stories, which I was loaned by Erik (with the possible exception of “Mene Tekel”?) and which together are pretty much responsible for Nescio’s reputation in Dutch literature. Looking forward to hitting them again. (Trivia from Wikipedia: ‘Nescio’ is of course a pseudonym, the man’s name was Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh. His father’s name was also Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh. You’d think they could have altered a middle initial or something, no?) English titles: The Sponger/Little Titans/Little Poet/Mene Tekel. (Yeah, the diminutive doesn’t translate well.)
- WF Hermans, Het Sadistische Universum and Van Wittgenstein tot Weinreb: Het Sadistische Universum 2. A two-volume collection of essays by my favourite Dutch author. I’ve no idea whatsoever how his non-fiction will pan out, but his novels are fantastic. (I read Nooit Meer Slapen before I was really Dutch-competent and would like to repeat it, was hit hard but impressed as all hell by In de Mist van het Schimmenrijk, enjoyed Onder Professoren enormously, and am now bogged down in Herinneringen van een Engelbewaarder because it’s so damn depressing…) The English titles are The Sadistic Universe and From Wittgenstein to Weinreb. (I’m told his essay style is rather acidic. I know he translated Wittgenstein –the Tractatus— I guess I’ll find out who Weinreb was and why he’s important eventually.)
The Nescio and Hermans are due to the Boekenmarkt Spui; I had already picked out the second Hermans volume, but the stallholder happened to have the first volume still unpriced as well. Sneaky bugger.
- Howard Waldrop, Heart of Whitenesse. This arrived today in the mail, a collection of short stories. I’m not sure quite what to expect, but it was highly recommended by Spontson australis, my alter ego in the southern hemisphere, so I should probably enjoy it. The title story conflates the historical Kit Marlowe (contemporary of Shakespeare), the Marlow of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Philip Marlowe, Ramond Chandler’s quintessential private investigator, and sends him up the Thames on an ice-yacht to assassinate Doctor Faustus. I’m not convinced by the style, but the content is marvellous.
- Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet issue 19. Packed with goodies. The Vukcevich (“Tubs”) is particularly lovely, as is Andrew Fort’s “Lady Perdita Espadrille Tells the Story”. Read in a terrible rush, I’ll have to go back through it slowly. Somehow I seem to have missed the “Dear Aunt Glenda” column!
Comments
An impressive crop! I should state that I've only read the Heart of Whitenesse short story rather than the whole book, so I hope the rest of it measures up. Yes, the style is perhaps a little overwrought and the changes in tone jar a little, but perhaps it's necessary to carry off quite such an audacious conceit. It would be a bit rich for anything longer than a short story, but there are beautifully turned phrases which persist even years after I last read it -- "a man making steaming water into a ditch with a great bull pizzle of an accoutrement" (hope I got that right).
My weekly acquisitions are a guitar and a cut-throat razor.
I have to say, the rest sadly *doesn't* really measure up. Most of it is nostalgia for 40's and 50's America and Golden Age science fiction, and I just don't identify. But "HoW" itself is wonderful, you were right. And your memory is pretty good -- I don't have it on hand now, but I certainly recall the phrase. It's followed by an exchange of winks, also beautifully described.
(Contra: I'll have to reread it, but at one point I remember having the impression that he was switching tenses something horrible. From the story notes I gather that he usually writes his stories over a very few days, and prefers not to edit them thereafter. Sometimes it shows, alas.)
Guitar: cool! Razor: I presume you're going to be *fighting* with it, not anything foolish like shaving.