Hyperglobalist
@hyperglobalist.bsky.social
Liked this essay a lot and its central claim of "iterative narrative" (where a single narrative assertion encompasses multiple repeated events of similar nature like going for a walk or sleepless nights) that structures Proust's text. Genette's structuralist criticism has a mathematical feel that I
November 4, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Liked this essay a lot and its central claim of "iterative narrative" (where a single narrative assertion encompasses multiple repeated events of similar nature like going for a walk or sleepless nights) that structures Proust's text. Genette's structuralist criticism has a mathematical feel that I
Today's mail. Jumped right into the Genette essay on Proust in the Essentials book & probably for the first time (in my limited reading of literary criticism) saw an efficacious use of mathematical notations. They distilled in a line what took a page to describe. I have quibbles still about the
November 2, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Today's mail. Jumped right into the Genette essay on Proust in the Essentials book & probably for the first time (in my limited reading of literary criticism) saw an efficacious use of mathematical notations. They distilled in a line what took a page to describe. I have quibbles still about the
Loved the first volume. Hence checked out the next in series.
October 17, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Loved the first volume. Hence checked out the next in series.
Today's mail. Looking forward to the Sarraute essay on the nouveau roman.
Since the spines do not show them, the subtitle for the Bucholz book is "Impossible Community and the Outsider's Monologue in German Experimental Fiction" and the one for Broch is "The European Imagination, 1860-1920".
Since the spines do not show them, the subtitle for the Bucholz book is "Impossible Community and the Outsider's Monologue in German Experimental Fiction" and the one for Broch is "The European Imagination, 1860-1920".
October 16, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Today's mail. Looking forward to the Sarraute essay on the nouveau roman.
Since the spines do not show them, the subtitle for the Bucholz book is "Impossible Community and the Outsider's Monologue in German Experimental Fiction" and the one for Broch is "The European Imagination, 1860-1920".
Since the spines do not show them, the subtitle for the Bucholz book is "Impossible Community and the Outsider's Monologue in German Experimental Fiction" and the one for Broch is "The European Imagination, 1860-1920".
Seeing if I can read this on my phone.
October 11, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Seeing if I can read this on my phone.
Really enjoyed this melancholic autofiction from Max Frisch which describes a brief affair that he had in his sixties with a far younger woman centering on a weekend they spent together in Montauk. I think I will read the three other books of his I own in short order. There is some thematic & tonal
October 10, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Really enjoyed this melancholic autofiction from Max Frisch which describes a brief affair that he had in his sixties with a far younger woman centering on a weekend they spent together in Montauk. I think I will read the three other books of his I own in short order. There is some thematic & tonal
Extremely enjoyable and absorbing. Every character no matter how mad, vain, or villainous have one redeeming feature in my eyes, which is that they all love to talk without sounding like a bore.
I am at the point in the novel where the question being debated is whether universal happiness is
I am at the point in the novel where the question being debated is whether universal happiness is
October 4, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Extremely enjoyable and absorbing. Every character no matter how mad, vain, or villainous have one redeeming feature in my eyes, which is that they all love to talk without sounding like a bore.
I am at the point in the novel where the question being debated is whether universal happiness is
I am at the point in the novel where the question being debated is whether universal happiness is
A finely balanced interior portrait of mental illness based on her own experience with it. There is tremendous anguish obviously but also moments of almost carefree pleasure-seeking. Liked it.
October 3, 2025 at 12:26 AM
A finely balanced interior portrait of mental illness based on her own experience with it. There is tremendous anguish obviously but also moments of almost carefree pleasure-seeking. Liked it.
intelligence from Europe and finesse from France that aids her planning and plotting.
September 21, 2025 at 9:24 PM
intelligence from Europe and finesse from France that aids her planning and plotting.
In the midst of a surrealist novel collection by Pinget with a foreward by Updike written in his usual knowing and shrewd manner. Surrealism is not my favorite genre since it forces me to stop every paragraph or so to orientate myself. Am ambivalent if the juice is worth the squeeze in most cases.
September 11, 2025 at 2:23 AM
In the midst of a surrealist novel collection by Pinget with a foreward by Updike written in his usual knowing and shrewd manner. Surrealism is not my favorite genre since it forces me to stop every paragraph or so to orientate myself. Am ambivalent if the juice is worth the squeeze in most cases.
Finished the Trollope. I have another novel of his from the Barsetshire series, but for a change of pace this one made it to my reading pile.
September 8, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Finished the Trollope. I have another novel of his from the Barsetshire series, but for a change of pace this one made it to my reading pile.
So I ended up liking Fiston Mwanza Mujila's "The Villain's Dance" quite a bit. One Congolese author leads to another. Luckily I had the Mabanckou on hand, who is mentioned Mujila's book as well.
September 1, 2025 at 2:27 AM
So I ended up liking Fiston Mwanza Mujila's "The Villain's Dance" quite a bit. One Congolese author leads to another. Luckily I had the Mabanckou on hand, who is mentioned Mujila's book as well.
Here is an excerpt to give a sense of its disjointed, hard and entropic prose. What an unusual combination of words
("sidereal and mercantile ubiquity of men and things") make up the title. Almost sub-John-Ashbery. Also humorous that "snitching" and "jacking beers" are equated to a balanced life.
("sidereal and mercantile ubiquity of men and things") make up the title. Almost sub-John-Ashbery. Also humorous that "snitching" and "jacking beers" are equated to a balanced life.
August 31, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Here is an excerpt to give a sense of its disjointed, hard and entropic prose. What an unusual combination of words
("sidereal and mercantile ubiquity of men and things") make up the title. Almost sub-John-Ashbery. Also humorous that "snitching" and "jacking beers" are equated to a balanced life.
("sidereal and mercantile ubiquity of men and things") make up the title. Almost sub-John-Ashbery. Also humorous that "snitching" and "jacking beers" are equated to a balanced life.
Trollope is quite addictive. These fun, sweet, gentle novels are a great source of distraction for me.
July 29, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Trollope is quite addictive. These fun, sweet, gentle novels are a great source of distraction for me.
Currently reading.
When one reads the early history of the all too human machinations to establish orthodoxy, I do not know how a faith in "one true message from God" can be sustained.
When one reads the early history of the all too human machinations to establish orthodoxy, I do not know how a faith in "one true message from God" can be sustained.
July 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Currently reading.
When one reads the early history of the all too human machinations to establish orthodoxy, I do not know how a faith in "one true message from God" can be sustained.
When one reads the early history of the all too human machinations to establish orthodoxy, I do not know how a faith in "one true message from God" can be sustained.
Picked up these three poetry books at my local bookstore. Not an expert reader of poetry. I do not know my iambs from my trochees, though these are mostly unrhymed and unmetred. Prévert does rhyme in the original. Ben Okri has an embarrassing poem devoted to Obama in this collection.
July 9, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Picked up these three poetry books at my local bookstore. Not an expert reader of poetry. I do not know my iambs from my trochees, though these are mostly unrhymed and unmetred. Prévert does rhyme in the original. Ben Okri has an embarrassing poem devoted to Obama in this collection.
My desks are too crowded. So I have moved to the only place my lazy self can work, the bed.
July 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
My desks are too crowded. So I have moved to the only place my lazy self can work, the bed.
Reading Zola for the first time. Really unprepared for the relentless eugenecist thinking in the middle of this expansive & liberal literary work. The ubiquitous presence of genetic overdetermination in this novel makes me wonder about the nature & causes for his intervention in the Dreyfus affair.
May 4, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reading Zola for the first time. Really unprepared for the relentless eugenecist thinking in the middle of this expansive & liberal literary work. The ubiquitous presence of genetic overdetermination in this novel makes me wonder about the nature & causes for his intervention in the Dreyfus affair.
In my bid to read Indian origin authors who write in French. She won the Neustadt Prize last year, which btw, has an excellent track record in choosing laureates. Assia Djebar, one of my favorite authors, was a winner.
March 26, 2025 at 10:06 PM
In my bid to read Indian origin authors who write in French. She won the Neustadt Prize last year, which btw, has an excellent track record in choosing laureates. Assia Djebar, one of my favorite authors, was a winner.
Part of my haul from the recent Harvard Bookstore Warehouse sale. Bought 10. These 4 would be on my current TBR pile, which of course keeps morphing.
March 25, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Part of my haul from the recent Harvard Bookstore Warehouse sale. Bought 10. These 4 would be on my current TBR pile, which of course keeps morphing.
Got the biography. I enjoyed Malaparte's Russia book and the review below sold it for me.
March 11, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Got the biography. I enjoyed Malaparte's Russia book and the review below sold it for me.
Made a list of authors, to follow-up on that I only came to know from Canetti's autobiography: Herbert Read, essayist, art critic and poet; Kathleen Raine, poet; Pierre Emmanuel, French poet. Ordered the last-mentioned's book on Baudelaire.
February 16, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Made a list of authors, to follow-up on that I only came to know from Canetti's autobiography: Herbert Read, essayist, art critic and poet; Kathleen Raine, poet; Pierre Emmanuel, French poet. Ordered the last-mentioned's book on Baudelaire.
Weekend afternoon reading. Canetti is mercilessly scabrous in his portrayal of the English. It starts with a short chapter on William Empson, the great literary scholar, who barely noticed Canetti and didn't care for anyone who couldn't match his intellect, and his beautiful wife Hetta with her many
February 16, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Weekend afternoon reading. Canetti is mercilessly scabrous in his portrayal of the English. It starts with a short chapter on William Empson, the great literary scholar, who barely noticed Canetti and didn't care for anyone who couldn't match his intellect, and his beautiful wife Hetta with her many
I came across Elizabeth von Arnim in this recently read novel, very much written in the shadow of Bolaño, which made me curious about her.
January 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I came across Elizabeth von Arnim in this recently read novel, very much written in the shadow of Bolaño, which made me curious about her.