Lisa > Recent Status Updates

Heerlijk om deze boeken opnieuw te “lezen” in de hoorspelversie!

Ik luister naar het hoorspel zodat ik de draad weer kan pakken bij boek 6, waar ik een jaar of drie geleden ben afgehaakt. Ook het hoorspel is verbluffend goed!

https://npo.nl/luister/podcasts/484-h...

I caved, I’m going to read the book with the most annoying title ever, because apparently it is very popular and supposedly very good as well.

Ik heb de hele tijd het gevoel dat ik te maken heb met een unreliable narrator

Naarmate het overzicht over de wereld groter wordt, wordt niet alleen de pijn die hij veroorzaakt minder, maar ook de zin ervan. De wereld begrijpen is hem op zekere afstand krijgen.

I’ve been reading this literary labyrinth, circumlocutory both in style and content, for the past few months. Despite its complexity I find it impossible to abandon, because I know this is a piece of art. It feels like I need to engage with it, it’s almost consuming me instead of the other way around, much like the actual theme of the book.

Fantastic book, but I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard to keep track and to understand what’s going on. The narrative style, as well as the vocabulary are challenging, to say the least.

Pfff wel een beetje zwaar op de hand, misschien nog wel somberder dan de Herinnerde Soldaat. Mooi geschreven, maar ik hoop dat het geen Dubliners vibe gaat krijgen.

Heerlijke niemendalletjes om de tijd mee te doden

For a leisurely read, Chapter 33 is exceptionally creative!

I love this book. Well written, great character development, a salacious story. What else could one want from a book?

[On severe depression]: “It’s like something horrible is about to happen, the most horrible thing you imagine – no, worse than you can imagine because there’s the feeling that there’s something you have to do right away to stop it but you don’t know what it is you have to do, and then it’s happening, too, the whole horrible time, it’s about to happen and also it’s happening, all at the same time.”

I switched from the Lombardo translation to the Fagles translation. It was more true to the Greek and it speaks to me better than the (simpler) Lombardo. I have also tried the Lattimore, Fitzgerald and Wilson’s translation. Wilson was terrible “He was a friendless man (1.19)”, Lattimore didn’t flow. Fitzgerald and Fagles went shoulder to shoulder but I preferred Fagles’ prose and footnotes.

The introduction alone is a good reason to start this translation. I haven’t started to actual epic yet, so I might switch to Emily Wilson’s later.

Ughhh Elias Brand, please stop writing in Latin, it is driving me mad!

"Strange to me that those charming fountains have not long exhausted... but she is a woman" Savage Lovelace!!

"Strange to me that those charming fountains have not long exhausted, but she is a woman" Savage Lovelace!!

Was ever such a wretch heard of!⁠ What a wicked schemer!

I asked ChatGPT to rephrase the poem at the end of letter 2 (Clarissa > Anne). Here's the result:

Men, stop being jerks. Don't diss us for being nice and then complain when we're tough. If you want honesty, start being real yourselves. Your hypocrisy and deceit force us to play along.

Quite progressive for a book written in 1748.

I asked ChatGPT to rephrase the poem at the end of letter 2 (Clarissa > Anne). Here's the result:

Men, stop being jerks. Don't diss us for being nice and then complain when we're tough. If you want honesty, start being real yourselves. Your hypocrisy and deceit force us to play along.<\i>

Quite progressive for a book written in 1748.

It's been over 20 years and I have still not seen the movies because I wanted to read the books first. My first attempt at age 14 was abandoned as soon as Frodo started his journey (grass, so much grass).
Now, almost 25 years later, I'm going to skip all the extra info (intro, prologue, maps, family trees, notes) and just finish the story. At least I hope I'm going to finish it, so I can finally watch the movies.

"Walter and the girl seemed to have snapped under the pressure of thinking in too much detail about the fuckedness of the world. They'd been seized by a notion and talked each other into believing in it. Had blown a bubble that had then broken free of reality and carried them away. They didn't seem to realize that they were dwelling in a world with a population of two."

I started reading this two months ago, put it down a week or two later, and now I can't seem to get in the mood to continu reading.
The guys in the story are super shallow, the language is a bit too simple and the tech lingo felt like a tactic to impress the reader.
This is just not for me.