Bottom's Dream discussion
Press, Appearances and General Media HYPE
Should you find yourself in Texas at just about the right time, John E Woods will be at University of Houston-Victoria Nov. 3 ::https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...
Well, BD has made someone's booklist:https://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2016/...
I've always felt like the sheer physical mass of BD was part of its lore, but it now occurs to me that many folks are going to be shocked when they actually see the thing. Saying that it's "almost as big as Robert Musil’s Man Without Qualities" suggests they're only taking page number into account rather than actual size. BD, I think, has something like 400,000 more words than MWQ!
Pretty sure I'm going to head down to Houston in November to catch Woods speaking. Any one else in the area planning on going?
I posted this in another "string" too. Yesterday I was interviewed by the "Wall Street Journal" about ZT, why I bought it, how do I plan on reading it, where will it fit in my bookshelf, etc etc. They are planning an article on release day 23 September. Keep your eyes peeled.
Tonymess wrote: "I posted this in another "string" too. Yesterday I was interviewed by the "Wall Street Journal" about ZT, why I bought it, how do I plan on reading it, where will it fit in my bookshelf, etc etc. T..."This dropped today. Tony made it in.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-seaso...
Very chuffed to have made the cut. I was surprised that only 2,000 copies have been printed, we're in rare territory indeed.
I was pretty surprised by the print run as well. I know Dalkey is pretty good about keeping stuff in print, but I have to think this is an expensive book to print, and wonder if how much effort they'll put into additional runs of it.
Tonymess wrote: "Very chuffed to have made the cut. I was surprised that only 2,000 copies have been printed, we're in rare territory indeed."Nicely done! Thanks!
I guess I'm the only one who thought the print run was far less than 2,000. My estimate was 1,000 or less. I'd be shocked if they kept it in print after the 2,000 run out.
Just got a dispatch notice so this beast should arrive for me at work tomorrow!
Anyone have a pdf of that wsj piece?? Can't get around the paywall
If you google search the headline and click the link, you get around it.
also, the comments are very silly on that article!Aside from that, knowing that the printing is only 2000, it makes me want to buy another copy and leave it in its shrinkwrap in the closet as a backup plan to the copy I have been reading through.
Comments in the article infuriated me & enforced my long held belief that the world is full of narcissistic twats. "I wouldn't Google I'd take notes & go back later", "why would anyone want to read this" (why would anyone want to read your drivel more like it) and on and on. Made my enjoyment of the book being celebrated quickly dissipate as these are presumably educated people. I don't hold out much hope for the human species.
It's just people with a very limited understanding of "reading"—holding tight to the idea that they are able to fully understand and engage with ANY text. For them it is about mastery (which is a myth) and not about enjoyment.
haha, thank you if that was a genuine statement. I can't really take credit, though—got my head in deep reading Delany's Silent Interviews: On Language, Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics--A Collection of Written Interviews, so his brilliant discourse on the process of reading and navigating texts is close at hand. Just funny how applicable it seems to people becoming upset at books that they have never even tried to read, and yet harbor so much hostility towards!
Considering that the hoi-polloi have been trained to cliff-notes/soundbites/cutting & pasting facebook posts...oh and Etablets... READING (books were made from paper, daddy?) a physical book is slowly becoming extinct.As for the comment about 'hostility towards books never read'...yeah I've seen it as well...they feel beaten before trying...and rage ensues.
Book: 1
Pinhead: 0
...and the battle goes on.
And if you're in San Fransisco area, Woods'll be at Green Apple Books on the 29th ::http://hoodline.com/events/green-appl...
I see this has already been mentioned a couple times, but I must reiterate: John Woods will be at my neighborhood bookstore next Saturday to discuss Bottom's Dream. Green Apple on the Park (also sometimes known as the new Green Apple or the other Green Apple), 6 pm, October 29. I'm planning to go. Maybe I'll see some of you there?https://www.sfarts.org/event.cfm?Even...
David wrote: "I see this has already been mentioned a couple times, but I must reiterate: John Woods will be at my neighborhood bookstore next Saturday to discuss Bottom's Dream. Green Apple on the Park (also so..."This bears reiteration.
btw, you notice that when you open the link you linked right there ; the browser=tab reads "SF/ARTS". BD is sf/art?
Well, you know San Francisco takes a bottom's dreams seriously - ads for PrEP at every bus stop, etc
(maybe the homo-scatological pun would work better in German?)
"For at least three years, I have received emails from Schmidt's fans, who became more and more anxious about the publication," [Dalkey pub'er Sir John] O'Brien said. "Given the book's intimidating size and content, the pre-publication has been rather astounding, which suggests that there is a hardcore body of readers out there who are deeply engaged in challenging literature. Many of these readers are young people."In other words, you've been heard! [and I mean to hope this puts a little fire under a new issue of Evening=Edged in Go(l)d]
If you're in the Texas area Nov 3 (Thors'day) you can hear John O'Brien (sub'ing for a Woods who couldn't make it) talking about Bottom's Dream and its pub(l)i=cation.
http://americanbookreview.org/upcomin...
"Next ABR Reading Series speaker thinks readers are up for challenge of 1.3-million-word book"
http://news.uhv.edu/release.aspx?id=2447
and the same again ::
"ABR speaker thinks readers can handle 1.3-million-word book "
https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...
Disappointing. Apparently Woods was not able to make it across the Ocean at all. Tonight at Green Apple Books in San Francisco will be Volker Max Langbehn author ofArno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis. So, not really 2nd=rate ::http://www.catranslation.org/events
Wait, what?? ... No disrespect to this other guy, but I felt like I was going to visit magic mountain tonight.
There was an Irish gentleman who came all the way from Dublin for our little San Francisco soirée . He said he's working on a review for the Times Literary Supplement. Keep your eyes peeled.
Mark wrote: "Piece in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t..."That's great! Thanks!
Mark wrote: "Piece in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t..."Not sure why she uses the pagination of the first edition :: "It is thirteen hundred and thirty-four pages long." (because she's in Woods apartment looking at it!)
"(Schmidt superfans buy lecterns to read it.)" --or build them!!
Overall a very nice piece. I hope to hear more from Woods about his choices etc. And I'd recommend for comparison, the work of Suzanne Jill Levine who translated the Schmidt=influenced Larva: A Midsummer Night's Babel. Her The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction describes some of what she faced when faced with linguistic entanglements similar to those Woods faced.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "If you're in the Texas area Nov 3 (Thors'day) you can hear John O'Brien (sub'ing for a Woods who couldn't make it) talking about Bottom's Dream and its pub(l)i=cation.http://americanbookreview.org/upcomin..."
A short follow up piece ::
https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Not sure why she uses the pagination of the first edition :: "It is thirteen hundred and thirty-four pages long." (because she's in Woods apartment looking at it!)"I believe she's still talking about ZT and not BD in the first paragraph. ZT's facsimile edition is indeed 1334 Zettels long.
Actually it's 1335, because there is Z273.A and Z273.B [Maybe there are more of this kind]
The TLS has a short piece ::"Arno Schmidt’s Modernist masterpiece" by Alan Crilly
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/pub...
Nice of that guy to write a short advertisement for the book, but I doubt he actually read it.
Don wrote: "Nice of that guy to write a short advertisement for the book, but I doubt he actually read it."That's fully to be expected. What I wasn't expecting is such broad silence in the notification area of major publications. The above=linkied kind of piece should've been running regularly months ago....
I agree with Nathan. No mention in the NY Times book review. Not even a blurb!
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "video=Interview mit John E. Woods (auf Deutsche) ::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWiZf..."
Thanks for sharing. A pleasant fellow Mr Woods is.
I could imagine reviewers getting the thing months ago and not having any idea what to say about it. My hope was Joshua Cohen would review somewhere, but I asked him and he said he had no plans to.
Still nothing in the English=Sprache presse. But here's another (German) video interview with The Woodster ::http://www.daserste.de/information/wi...
Don wrote: "I could imagine reviewers getting the thing months ago and not having any idea what to say about it. My hope was Joshua Cohen would review somewhere, but I asked him and he said he had no plans to."Not just that. Editors have not been seeking out reviewers. Steven Moore, for example, who edited the Dalkey volumes and occasionally reviews for The Washington Post and elsewhere, was not commissioned for a review. And to further stockpile to the conundrum, it's not even getting mentioned in year=end round ups. Like the thing landed with a thud and then was heard of no more....
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "And to further stockpile to the conundrum, it's not even getting mentioned in year=end round ups. Like the thing landed with a thud and then was heard of no more"Perlen vor die Säue.
Matt wrote: "Perlen vor die Säue. ."Totally.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Still nothing in the English=Sprache presse. But here's another (German) video interview with The Woodster ::http://www.daserste.de/information/wi......"
Don't watch this prior to reading BD 793, the page with the big
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They talking about a major spoiler there!
BTW the TV station's "Das Erste" former logo is incorporated into the text on BD 846 (there's nothing that's not in Bottom's Dream)
No mention of Schmidt/Woods/BD on World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2016http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/b...
Habn faschissn diese 'schlöcher ! Ein Leser weniger!
:)
Bottom's Dream
Books mentioned in this topic
Between Dog & Wolf (other topics)Larva: A Midsummer Night's Babel (other topics)
The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction (other topics)
Arno Schmidt's Zettel's Traum: An Analysis (other topics)
Silent Interviews: On Language, Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics―A Collection of Written Interviews (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Suzanne Jill Levine (other topics)Volker Max Langbehn (other topics)
http://www.greenapplebooks.com/event/...