poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2007-04-19 10:20 am

Final Thoughts On Nightwood

It ends well. And left me with the feeling that, yes, I'd been dealing with real literature. 

Of course it's not really a novel- or rather, no more of a novel than Ulysses or the Waves- meaning it's about language more than it's about people or society or whatever. 

It's one long authorial monologue; The characters speak in the same voice as the omniscient narrator and are placed at such a distance from us- as if viewed through a reversed telescope- that we  hardly care for them. 

And is the story gripping? Do we strain to know what happens next? No, of course we don't.

I have brushed the surface. This is a rich, thick, deep, clotted text.  It invites study. 

[identity profile] creakiness.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm just curious, have you read any of Witold Gombrowicz's books?

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I haven't.

Do you reckon I'd like him?

[identity profile] creakiness.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Possibly, but I can never be sure. Lots of frenzied humor and wild surreal imagery. It's probably the most
intense and fluid writing I've read so far.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds good.

I think I'll have to give him a go....

[identity profile] saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I am 2/3 d's of the way through Foucault's Pendulum x Umberto Ecco and if you want to read a book that is intriguing,absorbing, brilliantly plotted and will leave you with the impression that you have been in the presence of 'real' literature - this will do it.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, yes- I've read it. Fascinating book. I won't tell you how it ends. :)

[identity profile] saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I have 3 days vacation in France at the end of May and I am already planning a trip to Provins. I saw the Pendulum on my last trip to Paris; it really is awe-inspiring.