I have mixed feelings about his work. To say he's depressing is an understatement, but I have a hard time putting his books down once I start them (for some reason I haven't quite figured out).
I can't decide how much of him is pretention and how much is substance. Bit of both I figure, which is maybe why someone like Harold Bloom could admire him (or was his admiration purely aesthetic?) Being a Canadian, maybe I think im getting some creative insight into the darker elements of the American soul through him. Who knows.
Anyway, in the novel there's a character who is a brilliant physicist, but she suffers from schizophrenic hallucinations. She is frequently visited by some odd looking fellow. When she tries to query him about the nature of reality and afterlife (if I'm remembering right) he often sighs before basically deflecting the question. She is not scared of him, but she, like your relative and his companion Death, does not really like him.
Thanks for responding. Very interesting to get even your brief take on CM. I'm young (ish) and quite separated (by culture, education, etc.) from a lot of the artists, novelists, etc, you write about. Would love it if someday you'd share your thoughts on Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen ( if you have much to say about them).
Did your geat-uncle happen to mention in his diaries that the stranger was an excellent chess player with a penchant for cheating?
He did mention that Death looked a little Swedish.
In his defense, it *is* very hard to remember how the little horses move.
Death may be good at chess, but he's terrible at gin rummy, at least according to Woody Allen.
Tiddly-Winks is where he shines.
Death reminds me a lot of a certain mysterious character in Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger...
Have you read it?
No. I am not one of CM’s admirers.
I have mixed feelings about his work. To say he's depressing is an understatement, but I have a hard time putting his books down once I start them (for some reason I haven't quite figured out).
The adolescent personal philosophy is annoying to me, but the prose (in all three periods) and the lousy characterization annoy me more.
I can't decide how much of him is pretention and how much is substance. Bit of both I figure, which is maybe why someone like Harold Bloom could admire him (or was his admiration purely aesthetic?) Being a Canadian, maybe I think im getting some creative insight into the darker elements of the American soul through him. Who knows.
Anyway, in the novel there's a character who is a brilliant physicist, but she suffers from schizophrenic hallucinations. She is frequently visited by some odd looking fellow. When she tries to query him about the nature of reality and afterlife (if I'm remembering right) he often sighs before basically deflecting the question. She is not scared of him, but she, like your relative and his companion Death, does not really like him.
Thanks for responding. Very interesting to get even your brief take on CM. I'm young (ish) and quite separated (by culture, education, etc.) from a lot of the artists, novelists, etc, you write about. Would love it if someday you'd share your thoughts on Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen ( if you have much to say about them).
And yet it seems to me that in courting death there may arise a healthy asceticism.
Thanks again for mirth and insight,
By my calculation:
GGrandfather - 1st cousin
Grandfather - 1st cousin, once removed
Father - 1st cousin, twice removed
David - 1st cousin, three time removed
I think that is the way it works.
It is. I actually do know, but it seems more amusing this way.