Bottom's Dream discussion

The mostly easily obtainable of Schmidt's four BIG books, published in 1972 ; said to consist of the ZT leftovers. But pretty damn'd good. The Woods'ing in 2001 from Green Integer.

"ISIS"?!

Anyway, my copy of this has arrived and it is truly a lovely thing to look at - really an exceptional piece of publishing. One can only hope that Dalkey follow a similar large-format approach.

I suspect that, for us englishers planning to ZT, this will be a good warming-up exercise. Nice intro from Wood too.

I'm about 50 pages away from completing this one, and I've certainly had some hearty laughs. I think it's reasonable to characterize the appearance of the "Big Book" here as a running gag, if not something of a minor character. (The weight of a double-package of BD is noted as being 40 pounds--true enough!)

It got me wondering if School for Atheists might not in some sense be a kind of sequel, very loosely speaking? I raise this mostly because in the embedded secondary narrative the characters make a distinct point of using etym theory, which of course could only be known from the great dialogue that is BD. Maybe not quite a sequel, but certainly a linking. Also, Schmidt cheekily inserts himself anagrammatically as Timon D'Arsch (Volker Max Langbehn dutifully notes in his analysis the possible relation to Shakespeare's Timon of Athens).

I'll also note that I found two apparent mistakes, but who really knows what's meant to be and what isn't. Act Four contains two scene sixes, and Act Five's scene eight has a subsection 1. but no 2. to follow. I checked against the German edition, and this is evidently true to Schmidt's original. Perhaps I'm missing something? Perhaps Schmidt himself missed something? Anyone have insight into this?

That's one of the many things I love about Schmidt(/Woods). As I'm reading, I'll occasionally wonder if I'm reading a editorial error, a Schmidtian error, a Woodsian error, some combination thereof, or something completely intentional. I like that, with Schmidt's style wherein each word can have several meanings, you sometimes genuinely can't tell what's intended and so you inject it with as much or as little meaning as you wish.

Absolutely! There's certainly a Joycean pleasure of "hides and hints and misses in prints," and I probably wouldn't have even bothered referencing the original had it not been a numbering issue. The numbers were a nice anchor for their consistency. . . until they weren't!

I know Woods has said he has not found Schmidt to be as rigorous as Schmidt himself insisted he was. I think that was primarily in reference to the "system" of punctuation, but I suppose it might just as well hold true elsewhere. I do think it says something, however, that throughout the various editions even the more apparently glaring mistakes, like this numbering issue, are kept intact.

In any case, the book is damned delightful, every bit of it!

There are few authors who are as much fun to read as Schmidt. The Wake is probably the only other book I've had more fun with.

And of course, there's the whole experience of Schmidt's big books. I can't recall if the Green Integer edition of this'n keeps all of the blocked out text like the translation of EEiG does, but that's another part of the fun of Schmidt. While reading the finished edition, you're also reading preceding drafts and the occasional stubborn mistakes which have hung around.

This is all the more reason I hope they keep the same typesetting in Bottom's Dream.

No, I'm afraid the Green Integer edition doesn't retain Schmidt's blackouts and such. The German edition I referenced it against didn't have the blocked out text, either (the Stiftung/Verlag edition, if that's correct? with the brown binding?). The GI edition matches that edition page-for-page (at a reduced size, however). So, I suppose I haven't actually seen one free of an editor's touch. Something to look into! I see my library has a copy of the S. Fischer edition at our repository, so I'll give it a whirl. What the heck, you can never have too many editions of Schmidt laying around!

So, School for Atheists: A Novella = Comedy in 6 Acts is quite $$$ at amazon and abe. BUT, publisher Green Integer still lists it in their catalog at US$16.95. If anyone wants to take a crack at ordering direct and reporting back how things go? I'm not certain that they've still got it in print.
http://www.greeninteger.com/book.cfm?...

[It's not half as daunting as ZT/BD ;; and it really is a blast to read]

We'll see what comes of this...
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Thanks for the suggestion Nathan. Green Integer has School for Atheists at list price. Apparently, mine is on the way. Folks just have to direct order from them. Its ranging from $50-206 on amazon right now. No listings on Abebooks.

I wonder if they just have a box of spares laying around and just ship a copy out as the infrequent orders occur.

James wrote: "Thanks for the suggestion Nathan. Green Integer has School for Atheists at list price. Apparently, mine is on the way. Folks just have to direct order from them. Its ranging from $50-206 on amazon ..."

This arrived in good order for you? I just wanna bump it cuz it's really the second best Deal of the Century right now. US$16.95 for Schmidt's 2nd/3rd best(?).
http://www.greeninteger.com/book.cfm?...

Thanks for the bump, N.R. - I just purchased a copy

Brian wrote: "Thanks for the bump, N.R. - I just purchased a copy"

Compared with BD/ZT, it's got much more story to it ; much less rambling on and on about translating Poe's etyms. [and I believe it was written in the wake of ZT ; using up the unused Zettels.]

It did. The owner was sick, so it took a little bit, but arrived in good shape. I was pretty happy to get this at list.

wow! ordered a copy myself! A little bit bummed to learn that Suicide Circus: Selected Poems, that I just bought off abe for $25 (thinking it was a good deal compared to the $50+ market rate on amazon) is also still available at list price from the distributor!