I am very interested in some politics of language Since I was very young I will sound insane I kind of need a favour from everyone concerning linguistics, geography, accents, translations, archeology of documents and geopolitical racism And others. This is why it's so important for us socialism. I need all of your brilliant minds to change the world
I finally found a channel where i can hear about the literature that is literature, and not about the commercial one. Thanks for talking about authors that created a major impact on culture. You create a bond between all nations through their greatest stories. Greetings from Ecuador
Well said. Not that the new books out there are necessarily bad, but some of the old ones have an everlasting impact, and we can't deny that. There's more than just the plot-it's the symbols, the meaning, the cultural context, the satyr, the thinking, the social commentary, the imagination, the unprecedented. No matter how good, the new stuff just doesn't have the same depth. It can be really good, but hardly on par with the older stuff.
I'm reading Silvina's tales and I'm amazed. If you like her stories, you totally shoud read "Things We Lost in the Fire" by Mariana Enríquez. Mariana is like Poe+Córtazar+Silvina
Ocampo's work is just like you said. I read recently for my book club and found myself floating away into her dark and mysterious world. btw, just found your channel (loved it) and I'm so happy to see Clarice Lispector review here.
Food for the soul, is what this is - this just feels like the right kind of comfy book talk to enjoy with a glass of pinot blanc despite everything that's going on. Thank you.
Hey Cliff, thanks for this great discussion. Always enjoy getting turned on (or off) to an author I was unaware of. I really like where you are going with this channel. I had some critical comments a while back (whatever), but I'm impressed with your ongoing encounters with challenging literature, and with your embrace of "the strangeness" we find in so many of the books that really matter. Great work. I think your channel is very unique, very intelligent, and in the deepest sense of the word, very humane. Why? Because you are willing to honestly take on dark and complex books. This is important, more so now than ever. Respect. Stay safe. Keep digging.
To talk with the dead you have to choose words they can recognize as easily as their hands recognized their dog's fur in the darkness. Words clear and calm as the water of the torrent tamed in a cup or the chairs rearranged by a mother after all the guests have gone. Words that night welcomes as swamps welcome will-o'-the-wisps. To talk with the dead you have to know how to wait; they are fearful as the first steps of a child. But if we have patience one day they will answer us with a poplar leaf trapped in a broken mirror, with a flame that suddenly flares in the fireplace with a dark return of birds before the glance of a girl who waits motionless on the threshold.
I absolutely could not agree more. It’s almost as if it was written precisely with the intention of being reviewed here! Ferocious, brutal, relentless, but surprisingly accessible.
Keep up the great work, you're the reason why I started my channel in the first place. Today is a good day for two reasons: I got my first subscriber + you uploaded a video!
Glad you're reviewing Silvina at last! I live at a walking distance from Villa Ocampo. The irony of this city is that it feels out of a fairytale and has mad literary history, but only has one bookstore (used books only, not even new ones, but it's a nice store - that's where I got "Faust" after watching your review). Anyway, I don't know if you've read "Mad Toy" by Roberto Arlt, but I totally recommend it if you like Argentinian literature.
@@luciano9755 Nope, bookstore. There are a couple other bookstores and one library in the "municipality" (I believe it's the word) that includes our city, but not in the city itself.
I’ve not read Ocampo but that’s changing, and quite soon. These stories sound exquisite and just fucked-up enough to get my attention. Thanks for the rec. I’m pretty new to your channel and can only curse myself for not finding it sooner. Houellebecq’s Serotonin is astounding, by the way. Absolutely loving it. His decency as a human being is really speaking to me right now.
Hey there, love the channel. I subscribed to you ever since you talked about Bolaño's work, of which I am a huge fan and have tried voraciously to absorb. Thanks for the recommendations!
Thanks for bringing people's attention to Silvina Ocampo's writing. I love Borges and Bioy Casares's novel The Invention of Morel is stunning. I haven't read anything by Ocampo yet, but I'm going to correct that oversight soon!
Hi! I discovered your channel some days ago and have been savoring one recommendation a day. I really appreciate your take on the works you read and your sense of humor. Having been a bookworm all my life most of the authors I already know but today I did not so looking forward to dig in. Also, not a bad pronunciation of foreign names and terms. Take good care and keep up the great (review) work. You won a fan and a supporter. Peace.
Having discovered many fine books from this channel and its comments I would like to recommend a few books read whilst in quarantine in no particular order:- The Snow Leopard - Matthiessen Chess - Zweig Blue of Noon - Bataille Silence - Endo Laughter in the dark - Nabokov
Cliff you should check Juan rodolfo wilcock, some of those ghost That roamed Argentina writing. "the chaos" is an astounding short story collection. Borges favoured him on his collection of fantástic literature.
man, as an eighteen year old, I love your book recs. A lot of my peers are into YA and I just can't relate to it, somehow I burned out. Kind of got tired from reading the same adolescent crap over and over. Then I discovered Lispector, Bataille, McCarthy and a lot more through your channel. All I want to say is, thanks for showing young people that there is still good literature out there. I personally hope a lot of Gen Z kids read this kind of stuff to widen their perspective on things instead of insulting ideas/opinions simply because they're different, you know? Books really make you do that. Lispector became my personal deity after I read Água Viva tbh. I love her that much. p.s. I hope your channel continues to grow, Sir🙏
Damn, now I regret not buying this book at my favorite used bookstore in Denver. It sat on the shelf for months and I would pick it up out of curiosity and then put it back for something else. Now I live in a town with no "actual" bookstores. Argh!
I don’t know how big you are on video games, but I highly recommend you Disco Elysium, it’s an RPG game where you tailor your story through dialogue options, it’s steeped heavily into political ideologies and themes, and it has different aspects of your personality (such as logic, conceptualisation, rhetoric, drama,etc.) it’s beautifully written and created by this man called Robert Kurvitz (Who is also a renowned author in Estonia apparently, I’m awaiting the English translation of his book set in the same world as the game.) But yeah, do give it a try. I would really love to see your views and reactions on it
Hi Cliff, love the chanel ! You always promote good literature. If you don't mind, please read some works from EKA KURNIAWAN- Indonesia most prominent writer ! There are 3 novels of his works that have been translated into english : 1. Beauty is a Wound (Cantik itu Luka) 2. Man Tiger (Lelaki Harimau) 3. Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas) *Sorry for bad english
I'd be interested to hear your perspective on the current literary controversy of Red Dog by Willem Anker. As someone who has positively reviewed Lautreamonte, a staunch defender of plagiarism, what do you think of a South African writer taking characters, themes, and even slightly mutated passages from Blood Meridian, but in the setting of frontier colonialism in South Africa as opposed to Chihuahua? The idiosyncracies of McCarthy make such appropriations a feat of the literary form, in my perspective
Is there any possibility of you spilling your thoughts on Murakami? I’d love to hear your thoughts on something like Kafka on the Shore or Dance, Dance, Dance
Leaf by Leaf has a whole series of reviews on Murakami’s works. He’s been reading them in chronological order as a challenge. I find it refreshing to see how a well-read grown man with a wife and daughter views Murakami.
speaking of surreal writing...are you familiar with James Chapman? author of 'The Walls Collide As You Expand, Dwarf Maple", "Our Plague: A Film From New York", and " Daughter, I Forbid Your Recurring Dream"? i wonder what you would think of him.
If you like characters like Ocampo, you can't miss Macedonio Fernández, who was really an unique character: lawyer, philosopher, writer and anarchist. Borges really idolized him.
Anyone here read Wally Lamb’s ‘I Know This Much is True’? Reading it atm and enjoying it - similar recommendations would be appreciated! Many thanks for an awesome community, Cliff
dude, I loved that book when I was fifteen. It took me a several months to read it because some scenes were really hard for me to read at such a young and impressionable age. Have you read his other masterpiece "She's Come Undone"?
double o-seven I just finished the book today and wow, damn. Also just found out that it’s going to be a HBO mini series starting in May. Mark Ruffalo is going to be playing the Birdsey twins. That was my first Lamb novel, but I want to read more - would you recommend She’s Come Undone my man?
Mahmoud Darwish- in the presence of absence Check it and see if you like it! ( must be boring to have so many to read and always being advice to read more) anyways had to tell you Thanks for your videos!
Reading Silvina Ocampo you know she's a tour de force. In Spanish, her style is really, really, really hard to describe. If you're an aspiring author: incredible resource. Borges feels like its own dream-logic made by a dude with 300iq. Ocampo, as you said is on her own level, is more... Lynchian? Like the smiles in Twin Peaks. It's super reductive, but how can we approximate it? Boom authors are insanely good.
![GEEK TIMË [OFFICIAL AUDIO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ry-6RvkH880/mqdefault.jpg)
This channel has the BEST recommendations.
Indeed... plus you have a good taste in books yourself
Uhum
I am very interested in some politics of language
Since I was very young
I will sound insane
I kind of need a favour from everyone concerning linguistics, geography, accents, translations, archeology of documents and geopolitical racism
And others.
This is why it's so important for us socialism.
I need all of your brilliant minds to change the world
This channel is really becoming better than food. Every recommendation is a masterpiece.
I finally found a channel where i can hear about the literature that is literature, and not about the commercial one. Thanks for talking about authors that created a major impact on culture. You create a bond between all nations through their greatest stories. Greetings from Ecuador
Well said. Not that the new books out there are necessarily bad, but some of the old ones have an everlasting impact, and we can't deny that. There's more than just the plot-it's the symbols, the meaning, the cultural context, the satyr, the thinking, the social commentary, the imagination, the unprecedented. No matter how good, the new stuff just doesn't have the same depth. It can be really good, but hardly on par with the older stuff.
I'm reading Silvina's tales and I'm amazed. If you like her stories, you totally shoud read "Things We Lost in the Fire" by Mariana Enríquez. Mariana is like Poe+Córtazar+Silvina
Ocampo's work is just like you said. I read recently for my book club and found myself floating away into her dark and mysterious world. btw, just found your channel (loved it) and I'm so happy to see Clarice Lispector review here.
Curious fact: the book cover is by Remedios Varo, a brutal Mexican artist, very obscure and a surrealist.
See? Changing the world will take airplanes
Food for the soul, is what this is - this just feels like the right kind of comfy book talk to enjoy with a glass of pinot blanc despite everything that's going on. Thank you.
Hi! I recommend La hermana menor, a great work of Silvina's life by Mariana Enriquez, another dark and highly recommended Argentinean writer.
Hey Cliff, thanks for this great discussion. Always enjoy getting turned on (or off) to an author I was unaware of. I really like where you are going with this channel. I had some critical comments a while back (whatever), but I'm impressed with your ongoing encounters with challenging literature, and with your embrace of "the strangeness" we find in so many of the books that really matter. Great work. I think your channel is very unique, very intelligent, and in the deepest sense of the word, very humane. Why? Because you are willing to honestly take on dark and complex books. This is important, more so now than ever. Respect. Stay safe. Keep digging.
To talk with the dead
you have to choose words
they can recognize as easily
as their hands recognized
their dog's fur in the darkness.
Words clear and calm
as the water of the torrent tamed in a cup
or the chairs rearranged by a mother
after all the guests have gone.
Words that night welcomes
as swamps welcome will-o'-the-wisps.
To talk with the dead
you have to know how to wait;
they are fearful
as the first steps of a child.
But if we have patience
one day they will answer us
with a poplar leaf trapped in a broken mirror,
with a flame that suddenly flares in the fireplace
with a dark return of birds
before the glance of a girl
who waits motionless on the threshold.
Read “HURRICANE SEASON” by Fernanda Melchor, you’ll love it!!!
I absolutely could not agree more. It’s almost as if it was written precisely with the intention of being reviewed here! Ferocious, brutal, relentless, but surprisingly accessible.
Keep up the great work, you're the reason why I started my channel in the first place. Today is a good day for two reasons: I got my first subscriber + you uploaded a video!
Glad you're reviewing Silvina at last! I live at a walking distance from Villa Ocampo. The irony of this city is that it feels out of a fairytale and has mad literary history, but only has one bookstore (used books only, not even new ones, but it's a nice store - that's where I got "Faust" after watching your review). Anyway, I don't know if you've read "Mad Toy" by Roberto Arlt, but I totally recommend it if you like Argentinian literature.
Only one bookstore? You mean 'library", right?
@@luciano9755 Nope, bookstore. There are a couple other bookstores and one library in the "municipality" (I believe it's the word) that includes our city, but not in the city itself.
Your channel saves my sanity with each new episode. Thank you!
I’ve not read Ocampo but that’s changing, and quite soon. These stories sound exquisite and just fucked-up enough to get my attention. Thanks for the rec. I’m pretty new to your channel and can only curse myself for not finding it sooner.
Houellebecq’s Serotonin is astounding, by the way. Absolutely loving it. His decency as a human being is really speaking to me right now.
Me encanta oír a este pelado hablar de literatura latinoamericana.. Kudos wey¡
Hey there, love the channel. I subscribed to you ever since you talked about Bolaño's work, of which I am a huge fan and have tried voraciously to absorb. Thanks for the recommendations!
Thanks for bringing people's attention to Silvina Ocampo's writing. I love Borges and Bioy Casares's novel The Invention of Morel is stunning. I haven't read anything by Ocampo yet, but I'm going to correct that oversight soon!
La Liebre Dorada. Great short story
as an argentinian, i highly enjoy this
Hi! I discovered your channel some days ago and have been savoring one recommendation a day. I really appreciate your take on the works you read and your sense of humor. Having been a bookworm all my life most of the authors I already know but today I did not so looking forward to dig in. Also, not a bad pronunciation of foreign names and terms. Take good care and keep up the great (review) work. You won a fan and a supporter. Peace.
Best birthday gifts ever! I sent my details on patreon. Can't wait to read the book and brew some coffee!
Having discovered many fine books from this channel and its comments I would like to recommend a few books read whilst in quarantine in no particular order:-
The Snow Leopard - Matthiessen
Chess - Zweig
Blue of Noon - Bataille
Silence - Endo
Laughter in the dark - Nabokov
once again, outstanding review. the show gets better with every entry. and one more entry into my library. Thank you Clifford
Cliff you should check Juan rodolfo wilcock, some of those ghost That roamed Argentina writing. "the chaos" is an astounding short story collection. Borges favoured him on his collection of fantástic literature.
I’m so fuckin excited to read this collection!!!!
man, as an eighteen year old, I love your book recs. A lot of my peers are into YA and I just can't relate to it, somehow I burned out. Kind of got tired from reading the same adolescent crap over and over. Then I discovered Lispector, Bataille, McCarthy and a lot more through your channel.
All I want to say is, thanks for showing young people that there is still good literature out there. I personally hope a lot of Gen Z kids read this kind of stuff to widen their perspective on things instead of insulting ideas/opinions simply because they're different, you know? Books really make you do that. Lispector became my personal deity after I read Água Viva tbh. I love her that much.
p.s. I hope your channel continues to grow, Sir🙏
What's YA ?
@@spokoynayanoch8204 Young Adult. You know, the post-apocalyptic fodder and goth-fueled characters they market these days.
I love your channel! It's one of the very few here that review and recommend the kind of books that I have or might enjoy reading.
Your videos help so much during lock down. Thanks so much for your work.
Thanks to you I discovered Clarice Lispector (one of the best writers ever) who rocked my world . Thank you for that and all your recommendations.
Damn, now I regret not buying this book at my favorite used bookstore in Denver. It sat on the shelf for months and I would pick it up out of curiosity and then put it back for something else. Now I live in a town with no "actual" bookstores. Argh!
The Tenant by Topor is available right now at The Book Depository for $38,
Listening to this, I think you may dig JG Ballard. Especially the early stuff, "Crash" for example.
You should review other stuff from Machado de Assis and Nelson Rodrigues.
Can you do another of these "What am I into" videos? I'd like to hear your opinion on Tom Waits
I don’t know how big you are on video games, but I highly recommend you Disco Elysium, it’s an RPG game where you tailor your story through dialogue options, it’s steeped heavily into political ideologies and themes, and it has different aspects of your personality (such as logic, conceptualisation, rhetoric, drama,etc.) it’s beautifully written and created by this man called Robert Kurvitz (Who is also a renowned author in Estonia apparently, I’m awaiting the English translation of his book set in the same world as the game.)
But yeah, do give it a try. I would really love to see your views and reactions on it
Hi Cliff, love the chanel ! You always promote good literature. If you don't mind, please read some works from EKA KURNIAWAN- Indonesia most prominent writer ! There are 3 novels of his works that have been translated into english :
1. Beauty is a Wound (Cantik itu Luka)
2. Man Tiger (Lelaki Harimau)
3. Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas)
*Sorry for bad english
I'd be interested to hear your perspective on the current literary controversy of Red Dog by Willem Anker. As someone who has positively reviewed Lautreamonte, a staunch defender of plagiarism, what do you think of a South African writer taking characters, themes, and even slightly mutated passages from Blood Meridian, but in the setting of frontier colonialism in South Africa as opposed to Chihuahua? The idiosyncracies of McCarthy make such appropriations a feat of the literary form, in my perspective
I’m very sad, I CANT find this book in its original spanish. Does anyone know where to buy it in spanish?
Is there any possibility of you spilling your thoughts on Murakami? I’d love to hear your thoughts on something like Kafka on the Shore or Dance, Dance, Dance
He isn't too crazy about him, he got pissed after spending alot of time reading one of Murakami books that was boring to him.
The videos on patreon I think, I don't think it's public
Leaf by Leaf has a whole series of reviews on Murakami’s works. He’s been reading them in chronological order as a challenge. I find it refreshing to see how a well-read grown man with a wife and daughter views Murakami.
speaking of surreal writing...are you familiar with James Chapman? author of 'The Walls Collide As You Expand, Dwarf Maple", "Our Plague: A Film From New York", and " Daughter, I Forbid Your Recurring Dream"? i wonder what you would think of him.
he has written more than that but those are the novels of his that i actually have so those are the ones i chose to mention.
¡Sí!
You should read Inés Arredondo and Francisco Tario as well.
I hope this finds you well Mr Sargent, would really love to see what you think about Arundhuti Roy, and her book Ministry of Utmost Happiness
If you like characters like Ocampo, you can't miss Macedonio Fernández, who was really an unique character: lawyer, philosopher, writer and anarchist. Borges really idolized him.
Your look is so steady, you would be a great actor
Glad to see you read spanish literature.... Read some Octavio Paz Essays... They are relieving.
Topor’s the tenant is currently on eBay - not sure if the price is reasonable?
Has Cliff ever detailed his setup (camera, lightening etc) ?
Have you read María Luisa Bombal?
Bro, where did you get that blazer?? lol
Can we still send you some books that we love? Does somebody know?
When you were describing how cruel her stories are, I thought of Flannery O’Connor, and then you mentioned her!
*demasiado crueles* HAHAHAHAH love it
Hell yeah
Anyone here read Wally Lamb’s ‘I Know This Much is True’? Reading it atm and enjoying it - similar recommendations would be appreciated! Many thanks for an awesome community, Cliff
dude, I loved that book when I was fifteen. It took me a several months to read it because some scenes were really hard for me to read at such a young and impressionable age. Have you read his other masterpiece "She's Come Undone"?
double o-seven I just finished the book today and wow, damn. Also just found out that it’s going to be a HBO mini series starting in May. Mark Ruffalo is going to be playing the Birdsey twins. That was my first Lamb novel, but I want to read more - would you recommend She’s Come Undone my man?
Mahmoud Darwish- in the presence of absence
Check it and see if you like it!
( must be boring to have so many to read and always being advice to read more) anyways had to tell you
Thanks for your videos!
You should read "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pahmuk
Reading Silvina Ocampo you know she's a tour de force. In Spanish, her style is really, really, really hard to describe. If you're an aspiring author: incredible resource.
Borges feels like its own dream-logic made by a dude with 300iq. Ocampo, as you said is on her own level, is more... Lynchian? Like the smiles in Twin Peaks. It's super reductive, but how can we approximate it?
Boom authors are insanely good.
You would love Saramago's The cave
One on Nabokov pls pls pls
The Lost Domain Alain Fournier be a nice book to review?!
“You Got it" how do you know?
didi you ever read machen stories?
I'm just here to recommend Sanction by Roman McClay.
You're welcome.
Check out Judas by Amos Oz
I read her poetry in English and the poetry is too good. It was released in english by same publisher.
Intrigued AF.
Ever read any Clarice Lispector? Truly hypnotize.
How long before he gets to the fucking book?!? Jesus I’ve been subscribed for years, but these intros keep getting longer
Why don't you read an excerpt? Just about anything is better than food.
This channel is a parody of the book club
What does that mean