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ive read 3 PARKER richard stark written novels. youve encouraged me to search out more. TRAVIS Mc GEE read all 21 books. Best series ever written. ROSS MaCDONALD with detective LEw ARCHER ( adapted to film in HARPER w tail newman are must read series )

Wonderful video! We actually call her Leyli in Persian not Layla so I don’t think it was just a choice by the translator to make it rhyme with tree

I'm reading Satantango his first book in the series, but it's nice to know that the next book is good. Thanks for a fine analysis.

The Tunnel is one of my favorite novels; I'm planning to reread it soon. The Pedersen kid is also one of my favorite short stories. I think it has a great combination of beautiful writing, intense character study, and narrative symbolism. The last sentence is particularly haunting. One of my favorite details is how the final word in the story is "joy," implying that it's a happy ending despite all the terrible things that happened.

Libra is his magnum opus

It was interesting to compare it to Kafka's stories. I only read the one where the character turns into a giant insect.

Just finished the broom of the system, so naturally I ran to RUclips to find some analysis videos. This one was fantastic, thank you

I recently finished this book and instantly felt the urge to re-read it, but since I can't right now I decided to search for reviews. I'm really happy I found your video, because you pointed out a lot of the things I keep ruminating about. Thank you!

Great video, glad you do the excerpts. Love conspiratorial novels like this since we see so many people become engrossed in conspiracy to try to make sense of the world around them

I have a miniature poodle, and for the past 1,493 days whenever I walk into the kitchen, open the refrigerator door, grab some food, shut the door, and turn around, he is behind me, staring at me. I’m kinda starting to think it’s more than coincidence.

I found the connection of the alternate mailing system with the disaffected, the ignored so very moving. Yes some of these individuals were loathsome, but unlike so many other characters in the book, they saw Oedipa Maas.

I will always be envious of your engaging perspective-widening thoughts on literature and the fact you are a high school maths teacher... your eminence in contrasting fields is so rare

Great discussion and review. I haven’t read this one.

nabokov's manipulation of linguistics to evoke a sense of empathy for the unreliable narrator is unequivocally outstanding, his dreamy prose style with the most unique vocabulary mesmerised me to continue with the novel and acknowledge his greatness.

Danny the Champion of the World is a fantastic book. Perhaps the warmest and gentlest story Dahl ever wrote, but never trite or sentimental. Essential reading for sparky parents.

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The great things about plays is they are mostly dialogue you really don't ever have to SEE them Brand was meant as a read RADIO play (you can read aloud any stage descriptions and not really miss anything) never to be staged!!!

I just picked this up, thanks for the review

Why not start with what interests you? Plato is so complex and diverse that most people won't be attracted to this type of reading. So for those who are, why limit their entry point? I did my senior seminar on Plato in undergrad and we focused on just paragraphs and sentences for weeks. You couldn't get through more than four dialogues in a semester if you tried--at least were I studied.

I remember Lolita primarily as a road novel, at least as far as the plot goes. But what attracts me to the book is the world building and the narrative technique. I love getting lost in what many might describe as pointless details. Hardly a sentence goes by that I don't find myself on Google referencing a novel mentioned or maybe a brand name, sentences far more detailed than those describing what many would assume was the main attraction of the novel. Definitely seeing comparisons to my limited experience with Proust. Looking forward to Pale Fire, Stoner, Sterne, and other comparable / contrastable works.

How would you compare loki odinson and satan and make them positive?

One of the more subtle clues that it was a dream was when he kept using the term "Old Chap' which for me did not belong in St Petersburg but aristocratic London, just my two cents though , greetings from Ireland btw.

I think this gentlemen might like Penguin books.

The Siberian Tiger,knew a lot about A.Pushkin (D.Hvorotovsky) 2:15

Kind of confused why Ellroy has written two Freddy Otash books SINCE PUBLISHING THIS STORM classified as Freddy Otash books while in a interview he said The Enchanters is the third book in The Second L.A. QUINTENT now (maybe Widespread Panic a standalone book) really interested in his CRIME books have no time in my life to read alternate fictionalized history would start at the bottom (Ellroy's top ha,ha,) where I started White Jazz!!!

Thanks for posting this.

We have the same copy of the complete Plato

Cosmic horror is a very underrated and untapped genre in literature, especially those who do it well. Which I definitely think this would. However, I’ve of course never read the book, and would very much like to. But I can’t help but feel it’s first-person narrative might hinder it a bit. Can I ask how you think it’s first-person structure might fit this novel? I really struggle to get into stories that are written in the first person.

As someone who values beauty and ingenuity of language most in assessing literary merit, it is the author's remarkable dexterity with language that makes this novel great and a personal favorite.

This was the book that got me into literature. The way you view this book changes over time. I first read this as a teenager and was enthralled by it. Nabokov is a once in a century writer and he made 19 year old me root for Humbert. I think we value this book because First, Nabokov is a genius. You mentioned the musical nature of his prose style and anyone who as read the first paragraph or so of Lolita won’t be able to disagree with his remarkable command of the English language. However, what stood out for me for years after reading this book for the first time was the last few sentences, “I’m thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge or art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita”. The theme of art is an integral part of the novel and all these years later, I still haven’t come across anything like this passage, connecting 40,000 years of tradition to a passion he feels for another person. Second, Nabokov takes the great novels he grew up on and pushes their central, taboo themes to extreme positions. In his Lectures on Literature and Lectures on Russian Literature respectively, Nabokov discuss “Madam Beavery” and “Anna Karenina” in typical detail, and atypical reverence. I sometimes wonder if he read Poe’s “How I Wrote the Raven” and mechanically thought about the next step after breaking the taboo of adultery. Perhaps he did this again with Pale Fire (homosexuality) Ada (incest). These themes captivated readers in Nabokov’s parent’s and grandparent’s generation and captivate readers today. Third, and I am repeating myself, he is skilled at making terrible people into sympathetic characters. You’ve recently read Paradise Lost so you’re familiar with this angle and I don’t need to go into detail about it. I will say Humbert Humber, for all his flaws is highly intelligent. The fact that we, the audience, find that compelling is an indictment on our value system. Fourth, and I think most importantly, is the confusion over the nature of love. I think Americans, for along time, have had the view that true love looks like the destructive limerence of the unexamined and popular conceptions of Romeo and Juliet. Part of us can forgive Humbert’s crimes because he “loves” Lolita. Never mind her extreme youth, his relationship with her mother, the bizarre and dehumanizing “nymphet” categorizing he imposes on her, he feels special emotions to her and thus he has no choice but to act on them, we tell ourselves. I think this may be a function of, and a criticism of American movies where two movie stars look at one another in certain camera angles and we understand the director wants us to understand they have a special, almost sacred, connection. Fifth, the Americana. As you mention the car culture, but also the “warn Levies and torn tee shirts” Finaly, the enduring impact. As you say, it’s on all the lists. My favorite throw away line of all time was the TV “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit “, where a character at a book club said “did you know Nabokov could be creepy in 3 languages?” All in all, at 36. I think Lolita is a great book, but one that I don’t really want to read again. A few years ago, I asked my teenage niece what her favorite book was and she said “Lolita”. My initial reaction was disturbance, and then understanding. I agree with you that Pale Fire is better. Enjoy Ada, there’s a lot more on the texture of time.

I recall the language and mockery of clueless mid century america being first rate. Then spending most of the book feeling in on HH's scathing snobbery' looking down on everyone and everything' and then by the end of it realizing he was the worst of all. This is a stretch, but I think in a course the book might pair well with the autobio of malcom x. Similarly where most of the book is him expertly criticizing america and racism, only to watch him later realize and reckon with the disrepute of his own black Muslim mentors/leaders, see poor white muslims in mecca, etc. Spend most of the books sneering one direction, grappling with genuine problems with the US culture, only to have mirror flipped on the narrator (and reader) near the end.

I have a weakness for road trip stories (On the Road is a massive gap for me), so that aspect of Lolita was something that fascinated me like it did you. The way the beauty of the language and HH’s charisma can almost make you forget that he’s a pedophile and start to relate to him was an interesting aspect of the novel as well. And then there is just the beautiful, musical writing. But like you, I also don’t find myself as wildly in love with the novel as some are.

I’ve never read it in its entirety, but when I read the first chunk in college (I would often get distracted and fail to finish books as an undergraduate), I was STUNNED by the beauty and playfulness of the prose itself. Like you, I’m a sub-vocalizer, and so the sentences made an undeniable music in my head, which was intensely pleasurable.

Mr Raconteur ive been waiting for this

HH is a wicked man but he is also human. There is beauty of his language and the brutality of his behavior. The novel would lose its power if one of the two elements were removed.

For me the achievement (value) of Lolita is the way Nabokov puts us in the head of a terrible person and creates sympathy (?) in the reader that forces you to constantly fight against the almost constant pressure to be charmed and drawn into HH’s pov. We spend so much time in his head (going through the mundanity of travel for instance) that we forget we should be rooting for him to get caught. We are encouraged to forget that he is a monster though Nabokov clearly shows us that he is. It is unsettling and subtle, awful and insidious. I can’t think of any other book that achieves that.

I don’t think most people do value it. It’s highly suspect and ick.

Interesting. The penguin version is essentially a reprint of a 70s book, but leaves out a third telling for some reason

That’s a very interesting theological question, almost euthyphroan. Is the “goodness” of having children good because it pleases God, or is it something external?

What is Marlovian hero or tragedy?

So happy you’re doing this, Jeff! I’ll watch all your Paradise Lost videos as soon as I find the time.

Love the recent reads! I’m going to pick this one up, it’s not cheap but you sold me on it

I just read this, it was very satisfying, and as always i was happy to find a thoughtful review from you to help digest it. The style drew me in right away, especially the long, evocative passages mixing beautiful description of the scenery and allusive digressions into philisophy, literature, astronomy, sailing, etc. And the symbolism and sense of crippled inaction in the shadow of ever impending doom kept me engaged almost all the way through (though there were some portions, particularly in the second half, that dragged). It was so dense in places, I expect to revisit eventually. Thanks as always.

Wanted to read Paradise Lost since my first encounter with it in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein! That specific portion of the novel had me form this emotional connection to a work that I really only know a bit about. This may be the catalyst I need to finally dive in. Happy autumn!

I like your contention that solutions exist, if at all, in subordination to the mysteries themselves in the tales of Borges. This is something a bit rambling on the topic from a recent tweet. “Borges’ “Tlön Orbis” is a detective tale, and the case is the act of detecting. “The mystery isn’t the meaning of “Mirrors and copulation are abominable, for they increase the numbers of men.” Beautiful in itself, it’s complete kitsch (edit: I no longer think this line is kitsch). “The real shit is the ambiguity behind that line. The ambiguity of the ending (spoiler) of fictional ‘hronir’ appearing in the real world both establishes that Borges shared some of Adorno’s sense that superficial appeal is repugnant and also that he himself is a master of creating compelling ambiguity-every bit as dissonant as Webern or Berg, two composers who inspired Adorno’s ‘Culture’ essay. “It’s thus superficial as well-and kitsch-to classify Borges as reactionary for his early, momentary praise of the Perons. “Tlön” like many Borges pieces evinces Adorno’s implicit critique of simplistic Marxism by sharing Adorno’s deeper Marxist take-one not as shallow as other Marxist views that dispense with postmodern harmony as ‘elite’ classism-but rather the “third face of power” later of Lukes. An authoritarian, as Borges has been labeled, would have no truck with such ambiguity. “Borges has the rare capacity to combine Whitman delectation with Kafka’s deep fantastic dissonance. “Borges’ unicorns do not shit only glitter.”

JuSt started with Esmeralda & other stories… he’s wonderfully OUTRAGEOUS…. ❤ him!!!!

Just discovered Di Lillo… W O W

It's crazy how Raymond Chandler only wrote 7 full novels and Ellroy took 6 novels to actually write a novel that could be compared on a level with the great predecessors of noir fiction.