Still from Eric Rohmer's Claire's Knee, 1970
1. In one of those bits of happenstance, I had been watching the films of Eric Rohmer, only to find an insightful essay by Richard Brody on the very topic. Rohmer's films, at least his 6 Moral Tales, are about the analysis and regulation of desire, and that subject matter and approach can make for beautiful, polished, yet sleep inducing films. Brody discusses a film which is rarely seen and apparently hard to find, The Marquise of O, which I now want to seek out. Heinrich von Kleist's story is a tough one, but a story that I relish Rohmer taking on:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-film-where-eric-rohmer-let-desire-win
2. My copy of Jonathan Franzen's Purity arrives tomorrow, and I admit I love what may be called Franzen season, or those moments before and after a Franzen novel appears. I like it because people want to suddenly talk about books and Franzen's books have such reach that even those in my life with whom I rarely discuss books, now approach me to chat a while. Furthermore, I love Franzen season because Franzen seems to always be in trouble with some one or some group, a tribute to the fact that his ideas have an impact and cause debate. My season started with the following interview. I especially love the passage about censorship in the age of social media:
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/aug/21/jonathan-franzen-purity-interview?utm_content=buffer8b628&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
3. It is often the case when one does not know what to make of a review, it is best just to read the book. That is the case here, with Simon Winchester's review of The Incarnations by Susan Barker. From Winchester's description, it is a book about China whose style is inspired by the strange but extraordinary French writer Georges Perec. That is enough to peek my interest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/books/review/the-incarnations-by-susan-barker.html?smid=tw-nytbooks&smtyp=cur
4. "(Lucia) Berlin is not usually placed in the pantheon of short-story writers but deserves to be ranked alongside Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, and Anton Chekhov."
A writer who makes such a claim better be able to back it up, especially when he leaves out William Trevor and Peter Taylor. I am not entirely serious in saying that, especially in a society so prone to hyperbole and since I myself can be accused of exaggeration often and enthusiastically. I will say this, though: I am giving Lucia Berlin a read as soon as I can.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2015/08/20/book-review-manual-for-cleaning-women-selected-stories-lucia-berlin-edited-stephen-emerson/wSkHkftgs8QsUdwm0QsJsM/story.html
5. I should have wrote this piece when she was in Los Angeles. No excuses, I should have wrote this piece when she was in Los Angeles.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/moms-home
Video of the Week:
6. I watched The End of Tour over the weekend. I still don't know what to think of it. I certainly did not learn anything about David Foster Wallace that I did not already know (despite Jason Segel's really quite wonderful performance). However, I will take with me the long pans of icy, dirty snow that eventually find Wallace's house in the Bloomington, IL. I needed to see that snow. I needed to see Wallace in that snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBk1Mrb4RyM
Poem for the Week:
7. Thus, Zbigniew Herbert has to be my poet of the week, one of few poets who Wallace praised while he was alive. Herbert's poetry is by turns difficult, funny, alarming, and outright scary. This little poem seems to have it all, the full range of Herbert comedy and menace, though I must admit that it is one of his most accessible poems. There are so few poets that can really get into the details of contemporary experience and let you feel that experience along with them in words, and Herbert is one of them. That he is Polish only certifies him all the more: Poland is to poetry what France is to wine.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/189/4#!/25799629
One click deeper:
More Franzen, if the mood strikes you:
http://time.com/4003713/jonathan-franzens-new-novel-purity/
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/early-thoughts-on-purity-jonathan-franzen/