(no subject)

[proximoception]

I received two each of a couple books from my birthday list, and it's been over a month since their purchase so I assume amazon won't be thrilled to take them back. One's Chekhov's complete plays, the new Norton hardcover. The other a few of you might be interested in, it's an expensive, bizarre four-paperback boxed set called Wonderwater. Anne Carson wrote one, is the thing (the other three are by Helene Cixous (!), John Waters (!!) and some sculptor named Louise Bourgeois); each paperback annotates drawings, or titles of drawings, by someone named Roni Horn. Anne's centers on Holderlin rather than Horn, in a characteristic series of quotations, poems, mini-essays and indescribables. I'll send the volume and/or set to the interested person (drop a comment if you are) who wants it most and/or is cheapest to send to. Carson shouldn't moulder on my shelf or in a warehouse. And this doesn't sound like it will make it to many libraries.

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Fuck yes. I could even send postage or something your way.

[biberkopf-bear.livejournal.com]

I had to look this up on Amazon.com right away. John Waters next to Helene Cixous (! ! ! ! !)? WTF? Sounds like a fascinating collaboration!

[princenarcissus.livejournal.com]

!
?Why have I never heard of this Carson project?
!

[agoraphiliac.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting; I put in on my wish list.

I like the sculptor Louise Bourgeois. I only know her sculptures, but apparently she's also done some writing, an autobiography I think.

[sweet-nothing.livejournal.com]

Wait, are you offering the Chekhov too? Because I'll take that if no one else has requested it or if it was not implied in nightspore's fuck yes (I too will reimburse for postage and whatnot).

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

They don't work together, just parallel. I kind of wonder if this artist just solicited all possible prestigious art people and these are the four who devil-may-care said yes?

You need to read Philip Roth's Anatomy Lesson, by the looks of your journal. Also we must talk about the pile of naked people in Alexanderplatz sometime.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

I'm telling you, man, "Sort By Publication Date".

Your hat in the ring, or?

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it too. Interested in Crowley's exquisite, unfindable Aegypt as well? My father has a copy of mine and I'm meeting up with him in LA in a week or so, where he's being honored by a historical society. I can send you the Chekhov now or both volumes when I get back home. (The Chekhov's a beautiful book but I can't vouch for the translator, he's new to me; the acid test is if he made The Proposal and The Bear AKA Boor funny...I'll let you know.)

Send a mailing address to smb2@sfu.ca either way. And don't sweat it about postage.

[sweet-nothing.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would love to have the Crowley--thanks very much!

I've only ever read Chekhov, well just the amazing Cherry Orchard, in the Constance Garnett translation, and she is widely reviled, so this guy is probably an improvement. By googling I found a radio interview with the translator here (http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2005/12/20051215_b_main.asp) and plan to listen to it later as I clean the apartment.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Garnett's great for the stories, actually. She made mistakes, and later translators justify their own versions by listing them, but it's what people do right that matters. Never tried or heard anything about her dramatic versions though.

[sweet-nothing.livejournal.com]

Well I listened to the radio show and they brought in Garnett for the usual roughing-up. You cannot hear Chekhov's delicate sensibility in the straitjacket of her nineteenth-century English is what the translator said. In my experience, that's going a little far for her versions of Chekhov, and of Tolstoy. For Dostoevsky though, you need another translator.

[biberkopf-bear.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the literary suggestion! And regarding the pile of naked people, check out Maria Tatar's book "Lustmord."

[princenarcissus.livejournal.com]

My hat is certainly in the ring! The combination of Cixous, Waters, Carson, and Bourgeois (all of whom I adore) is such a bizarre and intriguing juxtaposition that it almost reminds me of something Carson herself would write about . . . TV Men: The Sequel?

By the way, ever read any fiction by Cixious? There's much more to her than the always-anthologized "Laugh of the Medusa" . . .

p.s.

[princenarcissus.livejournal.com]

I just read in another comment that you'll be in LA shortly (assuming you mean Los Angeles and not Louisiana) . . . any chance you'll have spare time to meet for coffee or a drink and chat about books? Apart from my partner and about two close friends, I've been STARVING for a healthy dose of intellectual conversation ever since we moved here . . .

My Email: delphic78@yahoo.com

And let me know if you need used bookstore recommendations while you're down here . . .

Re: p.s.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

We're going to be in and out, I think, since my Dad wants to be taken to Tucson to look at manuscripts. I'll let you know by email if that changes, and hope we can raincheck if it doesn't. I guess I'll flip a coin for the Carson, heads you, tails nightspore.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

A coinflip was won by princenarcissus, one of her most devoted worshippers, if that's a consolation. And bribery attempt noted. Can I send you something else? Would make for less to move.

Carson put too much work into "Answer Scars" for it to not make it into a future collection.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

The straitjacket of her five-times-our-vocabulary, seven-times-our-dictive-alternatives? Pfft.

I do Edmonds (Penguin translator) for Tolstoy though; Garnett's kind of annoying with dialogue and the Maudes are a bit flat. They say the Pevears communicate Dostoevskyan baldness well.

[sweet-nothing.livejournal.com]

Yes, have to have Pevear for Dostoevsky. He's also good on Tolstoy, but the difference between him and Garnett wasn't all that striking to me. I suspect it matters a little less with Tolstoy; the power is going to come through no matter what. (Though I hear the new translation of War and Peace sports dialogue full of British slang.)

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

I hate when they do that. No American would have the gall.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

And it was heads! Email a mailing address and I'll try not to procrastinate. Though I guess I can deliver it in person if some time frees up.

All I've read through of Cixous' is her Dora/Freud play, which was rather moving.