What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Non-Fiction: The Making of the English Working Class by E.P Thompson. Needless to say I am interested in the views of one particular forummer this book. I´m about half way through

In what respect?

It's an extremely important work from a theoretical/historiographical point of view; Thompson's understanding of class was extraordinarily sophisticated and much of that side of things is still surprisingly 'fresh' now. Particularly amusing has been the way that his approach to class can be used to demolish the arguments of postmodernists and poststructuralists who entered into the ever-vicious world of working class history in order to... er... debunk Thompson's approach to class. That's basically why the book was important and is important, and was, more or less, the point of the book all along.

Other things to comment on might be (for example) Thompson's weird style; he never really wrote in an academic fashion, and his work tends to read like a cross between polemic and literature. I suspect that may be way certain people found it all too easy to misinterpret his thesis. On the other hand, while it's brilliant, it's also flawed, and often quite obviously so; he actually repeated the argument that Methodism led to political conservatism amongst the working class, despite that theory having been totally discredited by Hobsbawm in the late 50s.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Who said I was talking about you? ,)

The magical pixies, I think.

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Yeah, that's the other thing about Thompson.

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LOL

Actually the interesting thing about him on that subject is that his attitude is oddly contradictory; you have (of course) the over-the-top condemnation of the church leadership and various laughably inaccurate stuff on certain aspects of the religious practice, but then you have clear and obvious admiration for elements of it as a movement. Interesting, that is, as an example of how hard it presumably is to write about something that you have reacted against but which is, despite that, sort of fundamental to your worldview (whether you care to acknowledge it or not) as well.

One of the best little passages, btw, is his take on the ideology of the New Poor Law. It's a rant, but a brilliant one - and entirely justified and basically accurate.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

despite all the reactionary Catholic nonsense it contains at times.

Though the name 'G.K. Chesterton' on the cover presumably counts as a fair warning for that.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

GB84, by David Peace.
Yes, it inspired my current sig/username/map location. Why do you ask?

Like it?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes. Or a lot of it. Not an easy read though

Peace has an odd style, but it can be very effective.

Read any of his other stuff?

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Perhaps that's for the best; it's seriously depressing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I read 1974 quite recently; after reading a glowing review of the tv adaptation of the Red Riding series (which was shown at some ungodly hour on German tv. And which I didn't watch). It's the only part of it that the Frankfurt library system stocks... but they got three German copies (at different branches) and one English copy of that one. Go figure that one out. (If it weren't the first part, I wouldn't have bothered.) When I left for the Mosel a week ago, I looked through the English fiction section at a bookstore at the station. And found this other title by him, thought the subject matter interesting, and invested a tenner.

Swans.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Second volume of Somerset Maugham's short stories

Could you be more predictable in your reading habits, lol.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Capitalism and Social Cohesion: Essays on Exclusion and Integration (eds. Gough and Olofsson). For work, y'understand.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Strange Death of Liberal England - Dangerfield

What do you make of the general thesis?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

My point is that Gogol's satire is depressing and grotesque. (Unless you mean that your suggestion wasn't serious, and in that case, yes, I did miss it.)

Russia was a fairly depressing place at the time.  He lightened it by making fun of it.

That's a... novel... interpretation.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

but  Dostoyevski was kind of grim.

Heretic.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I recommend you start with Demons. It's great and also frequently hilarious.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I recommend you start with Demons. It's great and also frequently hilarious.

I usually hear Notes From Underground recommended to those beginning to read Dostoevsky. Admittedly, I've never finished Demons, but Notes is less intimidating at about 60 pages.

I wasn't being entirely serious; Demons is a very complicated book (multiple layers, multiple genres, the usual unreliable narrator...) and is probably not suitable as a gateway drug to Dostoyevsky. It is wonderful though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I saw the satire.

Yes... you see... it's not spotting that it's satire that is... um... novel.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And everyone who bought it would immediately regret having done so.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And everyone who bought it would immediately regret having done so.

I've only ever had to read a 9 page excerpt.

It's the equivalent of smashing a brick into your head.

Except that doing that would probably be more productive.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Border Country

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Very short book then?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No, it were a little (unfunny) joke. You mentioned two books dealing with the rise of Socialism in Flanders. Thus the joke.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Spoiler alert: Alyosha is the killer.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I got bored of Niall Ferguson

Ah, I see that you are a man of taste and distinction.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Border Country

Meant to add this a while ago: it's actually very, very good. My Nan's from that corner of the world as well, which gives a degree of added meaning or something.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Beyond terrible, really. Some bleak netherworld of antiliterature.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Or you could read something good.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

To be honest, though, there's really no excuse for reading Fuckuyama.