What BOOK are you reading right now?

Here's the whole thread. I'll try to narrow down some comments on Cortazar.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46413&highlight=cortazar

Thanks Osso.....

Based on Hopscotch alone, which is totally unfair...

well why don't I comment on Hopscotch instead of generalize about Cortazaar.

It was first published in 1963, and reads like the lovechild of Kerouac and Sartre. Cortazaar is like the Argentine beatnik with this novel. At times absolutely brilliant, always brilliant sentences. My signature is an example of one I like in particular.

Another one is: "It was about that time I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses."

I should read up on the political climate of the time, I know Peron was in power. But Cortazar reads like a postwar American in that the plot is about a dude on a search--an artist trying to validate his existence. I've honestly had enough of that; that's where the book got tedious for me.

Otherwise, he renders elements of Paris you won't find in Hemmingway or Fitzgerald. The second half of the book is set in a mental hospital and Cortazaar proves he has a sense of humor.

I can't say I would recommend this book above other South American writers, though the only others I've read are Borges and Neruda. I'm curious to hear what Osso has to say about the short stories when he's through.

<osso's a she....>

embarrassed

Don't be! Anyway, I'll report back.

Just read Natural History magazine for this month and an article on orphaned adolescent female elephants, coming into estrus at almost half the age elephants normally do, becoming pregnant and giving birth alone at ages as young as 8 made me very sad.

I wouldn't be sad at that kiddo.It's the way of the world.It must be a process that serves the survival of the elephant species in some way.One might be joyful about it looked at that way.

So cheer up.

Joyful! Elephants are barely holding on! Same with the rest of the animals of Africa. There is a high infant mortality rate, in part due to the inexperience of these "teenaged" mothers.

Don't put words in my mouth.I was answering your previous post concerning what looked like a biological process.I was saying nothing about the plight of elephants in Africa.That is a bit similar to the plight of buffaloes in N America.
Adult female elephants protect young females from males generally but in the case of orphans it is obviously different.
If you are going to get "sad" about such things you had better prepare yourself for a life of sadness.Species that get in the way of humans get exterminated.A very large number of animals are killed or maimed when a field is ploughed or the foundations of building are dug.Why the concern over elephants?Because you read an article or saw a film eh?That isn't a good enough reason.

What's your view on rats?I heard somewhere that elephants were overgrown rats.

I think it is bad for a species to have sad members.

Spendius -- I'm sad about your response which includes a false statement and a lot of silliness.

pd:-

You will have to do a bit better than that to carry any weight with me.Do people actually let you get away with stuff like that?

Let's face it-it's meaningless.

Just finished The Sparrow. Interesting story about a trip to another planet in about 2027 by about 7 people. Haunting story from the beginning, with devastating ending. I'm having trouble getting this book out of my head. Unbelievable sadness, but at the end another trip to the planet Rakkhat was planned by the story's characters.

First book for this writer, who was formerly a anthropologist.

I'm not getting into LeGuin's The Dispossessed, so I started the Hitchhiker's Guide (finally).

I just read a couldn't-put-down book that may have been mentioned before, but I am not going to check.

I skimmed the last 30 or 40 pages just to see what happened then went back and read more carefully. The book by Andrew Klavan was "True Crime,' the story of a man on his last day on death row and a reporter (not a likeable character) assigned through circumstances at the last minute to do a brief interview. The reporter quickly decides the man is innocent and has the day to prove it.

Whew! What a ride!

I'm currently reading Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita", and it's so utterly disturbing, I absolutely love it.

Ah, then...

you might also be interested in Reading Lolita in Tehran...

not to push it on you.

I'm about 3/4ths of the way through Journey to the End of Night by Celine. I've never met a literary charachter who was so despicable, yet so easy to like as the main fellow .

I'm also muddling through a biography of Columbus.

Sun Tzu "The Art of War"

This book completely blows my mind, it's an unbelievable book. I want to find a version who translated all those Chinese manual scripts best into English.

I heard unfortunately these types of books translated into English don't get "deep" (peak of an emotion) as it is in it's original language. Yet, still if it's this good in English, it will just be an "uncontainable reaction" in Chinese.

Absolutely adorable!

I'm about to start reading (continuing reading) some articles by HPBlavatsky. I don't care what she was into, that woman could WRITE!!!