Greetings!
I thought I would devote today’s issue to, mainly, a heads-up about some of the books I’ve received for review. But first, in my post Midweek musings #3 I mentioned leaping on the slowest train to Oxford imaginable – and then forgot to include the illustration I’d commissioned (from myself as it happens, but it still counts!). So, belatedly, here it is:
But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.
Terry
ToC
The Penguin Book of the International Short Story
How I discovered the Oulipo
In just over two weeks’ time I will be teaching a course called Creative Writing Using Constraints, which is based on the work of the Oulipo. That is a French writing movement whose initials stand for the Workshop of Potential Literature. It’s very playful, and some of the work produced using their techniques is very entertaining.
For example:
“Philosophers at the Gödel Institute für Logik have definitively proved that in order to erect a sign in the middle of a lawn that says no walking on the lawn, someone has to walk on the lawn.”
Another example:
Paul Braffort’s “Imaginary libraries”, with its classification of libraries into imaginary real libraries, real imaginary libraries, and others. For example, the geographic library, containing works such as All Quiet on the Western Front.
The way I discovered this rich seam of unmined (by me at least) literature was that I was browsing in the Brick Lane Bookshop in London and espied The Penguin Book of Oulipo1. Until then I had never heard of it, but I was gripped straight away.
If you would like to know more, I wrote about it in Three Collections of Oulipo Writing. That’s behind a paywall now, but I believe that you can unlock it for free if you haven’t used that option before, or you can sign up for a seven day free trial.
If you’re interested in the course I’m teaching, which will be aimed at writers rather than readers, you can download the plan for the day by clicking here:
A selection of books received
It’s not long since I received these, so what follows is very much a quick look for now. I hope you find something here you might wish to pursue further. I’ve only included three because otherwise this missive will be more like War and Peace as far as length is concerned.
The Penguin Book of the International Short Story
I love the idea of this. I very much enjoy reading short stories from cultures other than my own English one, and this fits the bill. It contains stories from Portugal, Japan, Spain, France, Norway and elsewhere. War of the Clowns, by Mia Couto, has been translated from the Portugese and seems to me to be very much a parable for our times.
The story by Lana Bastašić, On the Occasion of Our Fourth Divorce Anniversary is both different (the title should confirm that!) and poignant.
I was looking forward to reading my first ever story by Murakami, who everyone seems to rave about, and found it hugely disappointing. If you will allow me to indulge myself in some advanced literary criticism, I thought it was the biggest load of rubbish I’ve read in a long time. That’s my personal opinion, of course. I’m sure it’s brilliant and that I am simply unable to appreciate it.
And while I am being disappointed, let me mention the introduction. Unlike many other Penguin collections’ introductions, it just seems a bit lightweight. But to be fair, I’m reading an Advance Reading Copy, so the intro may have been changed by now. And besides, the main thing is the contents, and the editors have done a great job of providing the reader with not only examples of stories from many countries around the world, but of different writing styles too.
The Penguin Book of the International Short Story
Peace Makers: Shaping the modern world: the men and women of the Foreign Office in WWII
One of the things I’m interested in, and always have been, is the history that is made by the people who are not kings, queens, presidents and so on. It’s why I enjoyed studying Economic and Social History. The stuff that gets done under the radar comes into this category, which is why this book caught my eye. It’s about the people who worked in and for the Foreign Office in Britain. I’ve already discovered, for example, that the collaboration between Stalin and Churchill might have come to an untimely end had not the British ambassador to Russia told Churchill to get back in his pram. Apparently, one of the reasons that the ambassador got on well with Stalin was their mutual liking for dirty jokes. And that interests me because in 1945 Murray Leinster had published a short science fiction story called First Contact, in which the Earth’s representative concluded that the aliens could be trusted because he’d spent the last two hours exchanging dirty jokes. I wondedr if Leinster knew something that others didn’t.
Peace Makers: Shaping the modern world: the men and women of the Foreign Office in WWII
Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape
I’m one of those people who don’t know much about art but I know what I like, so I’m hoping that this book will enlighten me to some extent. I’m also not a lover of Turner’s paintings, with a few exceptions, but I really like Constable’s work. Again, I remain open to having my mind changed about Turner.
The author, Nicola Moorby, writes in a very engaging way, and placing Turner and Constable side by side is starting to be quite an eye-opener in terms of the economic circumstances into which they were born.
Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape
Here are the books I’ve mentioned:
There’s hope yet
Yesterday I attended a talk by one the survivors of October 7th. She spoke with a quiet dignity, and stood while she recalled the names of the friends she had lost that day. She ended by imploring us all to go out and live life. We all lined up to give her a hug afterwards.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter, and that the books I’ve written about are interesting to you.
All book links are Amazon affiliate links.
Good stuff again, Terry.
The International Short Story sounds like something I might enjoy reading.
Peace Makers too. I'm a lifelong admirer of Winston Churchill.
There's Hope Yet- October 7th was an abomination. Hugs are good.
An interesting collection! Enjoy!