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· August 22, 2006 11:20 PM by Blogger Colleen Shirazi

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The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog
Culture Notes: Book Recommendations (8.18.06)


Posted by Dain, Tuesday, August 22, 2006 1:52 PM (Eastern)

Just some books that I am hankerin' to buy and read. In theory, a acquisitive habit as bad as with cosmetics, though books take a bit longer to digest.

The Elements of Style Illustrated, William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, and Maira Kalman (Illustrator): This has been a quiet classic for decades. It's a guide to good writing, and unlike most of those how-to-write books (which I shun), Strunk and White offer plain, sensible advice that anyone, from Nobel-Prize winner to high-school essayist, might benefit from. In short, it improves everyone's writing. And while I already own a copy, I can't resist the illustrated version. It's so stylish and charming.
The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood: I adore Ms. Atwood. The writing is beautiful, but so refined that you never notice its beauty, but rather it adds depth to the story. And she is a feminist. But not a Feminist. If you catch my drift. The problem with feminist literature is that it often has a tendency towards antagonism or self-pity, which is very reasonable if you are an intelligent female writer trying to make a name for herself in a male-dominated profession, BUT it does tend to alienate the reader unless he is of like mind. Atwood avoids those pitfalls: her characters show, but they do not politicize. And in a way, this only makes the feminist more potent. (At least, in the books I've read.)
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, Delmore Schwartz: I love short stories and essay collections, for the same reasons that most people like short stories: because they are manageable, because you may pick and choose, and because they give a more comprehensive taste of the writer's style than a novel might. If you've a friend who doesn't much read, or for bedtime-before-you-drop-off reading, a short story collection makes the perfect gift. I want these next. Delmore Schwartz is unfortunately not as well known as he ought to be, but in any case these stories (particularly the title work) are masterpieces: poignant and moving.

Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire: One of the great chefs-d'oeuvre in the Western canon. Alas, what can I say that has not already been said? It's the bulwark of the well read, an innovation in the history of poetic literature, a piece that extends its influence on everyone from T.S. Eliot to Mallarmé to Swinburne to Valery. It is so easy to bandy forth the word 'genius' without much consideration, but I dare say it applies here.


In Cold Blood, Truman Capote: I admit it, I am interested in this book because of the movie. The movie was excellent, albeit in a straining-for-an-Oscar kind of way. But such as it is, my interest in reading this book was piqued. Capote also wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's, a book of an entirely different stripe. An exercise in the theory that sometimes truth is as compelling as fiction, if you've seen the movie, you would know that Capote knew in his bones that this would be the greatest book of his career, and the experience of it affected him so much that he never published book in his lifetime. Strange to think that such a man of New York, flamboyantly gay and famously witty, could enter into the hearts and minds of a small town of Kansas. But then, truth is stranger than fiction.


Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie: I read The Satanic Verses for a class last year; it was really one of my favorite classes of all time, and Rushdie was one of my favorite things that we read. It is also interesting in a social and political context, so vast and vehement was the fury against Rushdie in the Islamic world that it was banned in India and earned a fatwah by the Ayatollah of Iran. Though I have heard that Rushdie is inconsistent in the brilliance of his work, a friend of mine insists that Midnight's Children is an even better read than The Satanic Verses, which leaves me an eager little reader, slavering to get my hands on the book.

The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene: This is a good list, not the least because it is diverse: there are short stories, epics, reference, poetry, novels, and here, nonfiction. Greene writes with style, a rarity in didactic book, making it suitable for both the layman and the astrophysicist both. A highly enjoyable (and readable) read, and highly educating, about string theory's implications in future endeavors in physics, one of the most important fields of study in science today.

Duino Elegies, Rainer Maria Rilke: People are always saying, "I don't like German. It is such an angry and ugly language." This infuriates me. What nonsense! Much of this has to do with residual anti-Nazism from World War II propaganda (fine, but don't take it out on the language!). It is ridiculous because English IS a Germanic language (and a bastard cousin at that), and not very different in sound or use to one who speaks neither. If anyone needs to be convinced otherwise, read the poetry of Rilke, which is simply and surpassingly—not surprisingly—beautiful.



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August 22, 2006 11:20 PM, Blogger Colleen Shirazi said...

:) But Truman Capote was, in a Southern way, a small town boy. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a big city Southerner; that is a contradiction in terms.

It's funny...it's hard for me to think of him as having passed on. He was such a publicity seeker back when he was alive, he was everywhere, with that funny little voice.

FWIW I liked his short stories best, not his longer works.

 

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