Thomas Babb > Recent Status Updates

Part 3 happened to me the past 3 months with a roughly 60% accuracy

I like that the novel is a bunch of loosely tied together writings that couldn’t quite cut it as songs.

Very glad I read a ton of his other stuff before this, familiarity is making reading much more manageable than it would’ve been

Two most famous passages I’ve read this year are clearly Proust’s Madeline in the tea and the poop scene from this one. Grisly stuff why did he write all that.

Don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited to read a book, decided the time was right

“I was the raskolnikov of jerking off”

Science as modern confession 🤯 he’s spittin

I am starting to understand why the Jewish side of my family left Ukraine during this period 😅

Don’t really ever read poetry so this is a change of pace but I really like it. First chapter about 50% of the poems were about raw sex w random women so that was kinda crazy but second chapter more about the inherent meaningless of life in the United States which I was able to connect with a little more. Obviously insanely talented with prose and kind of beautiful how that contrasts with the subject material.

Went directly from Venezuelan beans that don’t make you fart to paedophilia in the catholic church but it lowkey all came together when he linked it to US torture in the Middle East, dudes just unreally tapped in

He doesn’t even try to stay on theme; chapter one we’ve already diverged into how Hegel would feel about masturbating to online porn

Getting through about 1 page every five minutes, lots of reading out loud and rereading. Challenging but interesting.

Dagestan mentioned

dnf but read the photographers I’m familiar with and some others, definitely more interesting when he’s defining what early post modernism in the genre is as opposed to trying to apply it to all new work coming out

4 delicious meals a day, tons of naps, and walking through the alps, I would not be trying to leave either

If you’re wondering why leftism has failed the last 15 years this book will tell you exactly why, it’s so obvious after reading how weak an ideology the left worldwide was relying on after 2008 made it abundantly clear that leftist economic policy was never going to happen. Honestly anyone shocked today at the direction of the US should read this, zizek breaks it simply and in a fun way (kung fu panda references)

Was supposed to just be a slump buster but it’s excellent, super raw and real

Starting to think this guy had some deep rooted sexual issues but I’m not sure just yet

Trying the local literature, some very good some pretty bad but that’s what you get w a lit journal.

Calm little short story collection but I think his style works a lot better on something with more scope

You do not know how hard it was to track this damn book down

First read through was very good, I liked the kinda bohemian hanging out/metaphysic debate vibe and felt very deeply for oliveira and thought he’s a great character.

This is so good but it’s very funny how you can tell he was reading tons of lacan, very distinct way of dividing and analyzing concepts (in this case cinema)

What I’m understanding I’m enjoying, unfortunately not understanding a ton but it’s okay

Let’s do it. Imagining the whole volumes will take about 4/5 months but I think it’s a worthwhile undertaking in this transitory period of my
life.

Not really one you finish I’m figuring out, more a reference work

I’m one story in and he’s actually a genius they were not joking

Attempt 2 Thomas mann let’s tussle

It’s actually unreal how good this book is