Reading log 2009

Submitted by Vallinder on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 05:17
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  1. [Meh] Johan Jönson: Restaktivitet (2007) One of the foremost Swedish poets of his generation, in this book Jönson presents a fragmented stream of consciousness-like monologue, at times interrupted by the questions of a female character. The style is manic, desperate and anguished, as Jönson describes his experiences as a sanitary worker and as a nurse. Agressive, pseudopolitical rants coexist with the occasional description of the sublime. Powerful, but overlong and repetitive.
  2. [Liked] August Strindberg: The Father (1887) A naturalistic tragedy about a captain with intellectual interests driven into insecurity, insanity and ultimately, a heart attack by his opportunistic wife, who manages to convince him that he is not the father of their daughter. She manages to convince a doctor and a pastor that the atheistic captain is mentally unstable and, with their help, manages to put a strait jacket on him, shortly after which he dies. A wonderful play on masculine heroism versus feminine deceit, brilliantly and intensely written.
  3. [Loved] August Strindberg: Miss Julie (1888) A brilliant battle of love between a young woman and her servant. Many themes echo from The Father, but this is perhaps an even better play.
  4. [Liked] Göran Sonnevi: Klangernas bok (1998) Released between his two epic visions Mozart's Third Brain and The Ocean, Klangernas bok is a brief (for Sonnevi) collection of unrhymed sonnets. It is a very personal collection, as Sonnevi doesn't rely on his characteristic political speculations, but rather chooses to focus on his own life. His abstract meditations on life, death and love combine well with this, as the poet describes his mother's death of cancer. Using minimal punctuation, Sonnevi creates an impressive flow.
  5. [Loved] Thomas Nagel: The View from Nowhere (1987) A wonderful book by a brilliant philosophers. Few philosophers can make the link between philosophy of mind, metaphysics and ethics seem as clear as Nagel.
  6. [Loved] W.G. Sebald: The Rings of Saturn (1995) Woah. Part travelouge, part novel, part essay, this prose work by Sebald solidifies his position as, in my eyes, one of the foremost writers of his generation. The narrator (Sebald?) writes down his thoughts as he walks through villages on the British seaside. All too often his mind drifts away and he finds himself contemplating art, literature and history. As with The Emigrants, which I'd previously read, The Rings of Saturn is a profound meditation on time and humanity. Even in Sebald, quite a complex writer, one can identify that urgent need to tell a story, to remember, which is at the heart of writing. In a sense, Sebald's writings constitute an unlikely marriage between two of the last century's greatest writers: Marcel Proust and Jorge Luis Borges.
  7. [Liked] W.G. Sebald: Vertigo (1990) Written very much in the same way as The Rings of Saturn, this time Sebald travels through Italy and Germany, and describes events in the lives of Stendhal and Kafka. Not quite as good as that other work, but still profound.
  8. [Liked] René Descartes: Meditations Good thinking. The edition I read had good introductions by Bernard Williams and John Cottingham, as well as a nice selection from the comments and responses.
  9. [Liked] Michael O'Shea - The Brain: A Very Short Introduction (2005) A good introduction to basic neuroscience.
  10. [Liked] W.G. Sebald: Austerlitz (2001) A powerful tale of memory and loss as we find out about the strange, pan-European story of Jacques Austerlitz. My obsession with Sebald has now come to a sad end, as I've read all his novels.