Tom Bensley > Recent Status Updates

i can't believe i still haven't finished this

Exhausting.

"The nut of the problem is that covering this presidential campaign is so fucking dull that it's just barely tolerable ... and the only thing worse than going out on the campaign trail and getting hauled around in a booze-frenzy from one speech to another is having to come back to Washington and write about it."

"mere reader" he may think himself to be, but Barthes's influence is palpable in modern essayists (David Foster Wallace much?), and his critical thought process is infectious.

well. it's taking me a while.

makes me wonder what happens to classics that aren't "Classics". what happens to the book that becomes a cult classic, i.e., not "highbrow" enough for the Penguin series, but still clearly worthy of endless reprintings and discussion?

had to get a new copy, switching from butler's stiff, outdated translation (with the gods under roman titles) to e.v. rieu's excellent translation in the penguin edition, with a great deal of extra information.

reading it for the letters, essays and for The Violent Bear it Away.

best read slowly.

was trying to think about how i feel about this, and came up with this:
"mixed feelings/thoughts"

i get it now. the simple, clear statements are endlessly helpful. so many headslapping moments, like "of course! how could i not've been doing that before!"

she's a master. it's a pleasure to read her, but admiring her expertise at her craft is just as rewarding. every deft characterisation and lucid sentence seems so effortless.

the title story was spectacular. munro sets herself apart as a short story writer because she creates lives. she doesn't just write stories.

am taking a short break. it's awesome, but exhausting. so much knausgaard.

i want to read this again. you know that weird thing, where, while you're reading a book, you're already thinking, i will read this again? like you're missing something or you just know that this kind of book benefits from multiple readings.

richard chiem writes beautifully. sometimes i'm not sure what about, but it's beautiful always.

love.

i have trouble with the modernist writers. maybe i just need some time, but i feel very disconnected from mansfield.

feel like, at the end of the last one, i'll be different somehow.

boule de suif. oh man. so late to the party, but like, this maupassant cat is pretty rockin'.