When I moved out of the German house, I roped a couple of the young men hanging about to help load my car. One of them after carrying out several boxes of books, said in tones more annoyed than admiring, "Boy you have a lot of books!"
"Well, I am a literature major," I retorted.
After some pause his expression changed, "I guess that makes sense then."
That was in 2003 when I had just graduated with my undergraduate degree. Four and half years, one degree and one husband later, my/our books are starting to take on the proportions of a small library (it didn't help that I married another literature major). We currently have six bookshelves filled, one devoted entirely to German and three noticeable sagging under the effects of double shelving. And I have more in Mesa and Logan.
I have a hard time walking past a used bookstore or a book sale, and often date night in our household is browsing the poetry section in some chain bookstore that smells of trendy coffee above the sounds of alternative acoustic ambiance (admittedly we are there in part because they're open late).
Usually I can restrain myself from buying many books, especially because new books - even paperbacks - just seem so expensive, and used bookstore also seem overpriced. One recalls a certain relation of mine, a linguist, who returns year after year to a prominent used bookstore in Mesa, only to see the same copy of Punjabi Irregular Verbs for fifty dollars. Ever year he contemplates it, and every year he decides not to buy it, sighing as he knows he's the only person ever to have contemplated buying it.
However, when a book is a dollar or less, I can hardly restrain myself. Such is the case when professors are getting rid of their books, and I think to myself, how can I turn down a free copy of Agatha Christie in German? Such was also the case yesterday at the famous library sale at the public library in our metropolis to the north.
My cousin and his family are experts in this sale and escorted us as it was our first time. Hardbacks were one dollar and paperbacks fifty cents. Being a fellow Germanist, my cousin took me first to the foreign language section, where I immediately found many books that made me realize my life had been a hollow and empty without them. We worked our way to the literature, music and history sections but this being the afternoon of the sale, most of them were picked over, but we found some more treasures. Then on the way to the cash register Matt found a few more classics of campy British spy novels.
We had to use a box to carry the thirty-some-odd books we purchased for sixteen dollars. Not bad. Among other things, Matt now has his own score of The Messiah and I have Das Nibelungenlied in the original as well as the middle high German pocket dictionary so I can read it! Now where to put them all . . .
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A Small Report and a Question of Aesthetics
A Brief Report on the most recent church goings ons. The book club was a mild success, in that two people came this time and we got the next two months assigned. In August we are reading a book about the languages of love (there are apparently five of them) and how to improve communication with our spouses. I suppose these languages will be French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and, um, Romanian? We will see.
Our talks went well. I finally finished reading the last book of a multi-volume fantasy series with overtly Christian themes (no, not the one with the lion, the one that also masquerades as a Bildungsroman , or better yet, the great British boarding school multi-part novel). Since I no longer had any excuses, I wrote my talk out on overcoming selfishness on Sunday morning. I managed to refer to said fantasy book, Lacan's mirror theory and Nietzsche, so although I forgot the Goethe quote I was going to put in, I called it a success. Matt prepared his talk on the same subject by doing our laundry, cleaning the bedroom and the kitchen. He spoke impromptu on the subject, weaving an allegory of unselfishness out of the 3rd Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele or the Messines Ridge, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. His only regret was not using the quote he thought up, that it is often said of the British army at the time were a bunch of lions led by asses, while he feels that one could say of us today that we are a bunch of asses led by lions. The comments I received afterward (mostly from women, being in primary and all) were either to express empathy with a German train story I told or to explain how their husbands were fascinated by the WWI battle and now wanted books on the subject. Not hard to blame them, since an explosion in Flanders that was heard in Dublin seems worth further reading.
A couple of months ago I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and thought it was a good book. I was interested in how it changed my point of view on '50s and '60s science fiction as a addressing WWII as well as the Cold War. I was sad recently, however, to read on a "intellectual" Mormon group blog that many of them thought that it was vulgar and pornographic. First reactions was (admittedly like others on that blog) "huh? where? when?" and as I read more of the posts I was reminded of some bad language, two extra-marital affairs (no graphic sex), a visit to a porn shop (again, no graphic detail) and a juvenile drawing of a woman's breasts (if you've been to junior high, you've undoubtedly seen something similar).
It reminded me that I have thicker skin than many when it comes to what I can stand when I read a book or a watch a movie. I find that I tend to separate the message from the medium/media. That is, I justify the use of violence in a movie, if its use is to promote the message that war is bad.
Matt and I got into a long argument/discussion about this over started by Hemingway. I haven't read much Hemingway, but what I have I didn't like, but Matt's been reading him for his current class. What started as a discussion about the merits of reading Hemingway (or not) boiled down to a debate on how much the message or the medium has to do with whether a text is "good" or "art" or even just appreciated.
While my academic views are nearly all inclusive, by personal taste and views on the subject are not as inclusive. In my academic research I've been less interested in form and message than pure content, although in my greater study I am aware of the roles form and medium play. In my personal reading, I find that there is a more delicate balance of medium and message in what I like and don't like. For example, I hate many family-oriented films simply because they are cliché ridden. On the other hand, I loved the film V for Vendetta because it was unusual in story and action, even though the moral of that story might as well be anarchy.
So, dear readers, to take cue from Heidi's blog, where do you draw the line? When does the medium justify the message (eg war movies)? When does the message justify the medium (eg Mormon art)? Or do you believe (like Sergei Eisenstein) that the medium is the message (eg early Soviet film)?
Our talks went well. I finally finished reading the last book of a multi-volume fantasy series with overtly Christian themes (no, not the one with the lion, the one that also masquerades as a Bildungsroman , or better yet, the great British boarding school multi-part novel). Since I no longer had any excuses, I wrote my talk out on overcoming selfishness on Sunday morning. I managed to refer to said fantasy book, Lacan's mirror theory and Nietzsche, so although I forgot the Goethe quote I was going to put in, I called it a success. Matt prepared his talk on the same subject by doing our laundry, cleaning the bedroom and the kitchen. He spoke impromptu on the subject, weaving an allegory of unselfishness out of the 3rd Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele or the Messines Ridge, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. His only regret was not using the quote he thought up, that it is often said of the British army at the time were a bunch of lions led by asses, while he feels that one could say of us today that we are a bunch of asses led by lions. The comments I received afterward (mostly from women, being in primary and all) were either to express empathy with a German train story I told or to explain how their husbands were fascinated by the WWI battle and now wanted books on the subject. Not hard to blame them, since an explosion in Flanders that was heard in Dublin seems worth further reading.
A couple of months ago I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and thought it was a good book. I was interested in how it changed my point of view on '50s and '60s science fiction as a addressing WWII as well as the Cold War. I was sad recently, however, to read on a "intellectual" Mormon group blog that many of them thought that it was vulgar and pornographic. First reactions was (admittedly like others on that blog) "huh? where? when?" and as I read more of the posts I was reminded of some bad language, two extra-marital affairs (no graphic sex), a visit to a porn shop (again, no graphic detail) and a juvenile drawing of a woman's breasts (if you've been to junior high, you've undoubtedly seen something similar).
It reminded me that I have thicker skin than many when it comes to what I can stand when I read a book or a watch a movie. I find that I tend to separate the message from the medium/media. That is, I justify the use of violence in a movie, if its use is to promote the message that war is bad.
Matt and I got into a long argument/discussion about this over started by Hemingway. I haven't read much Hemingway, but what I have I didn't like, but Matt's been reading him for his current class. What started as a discussion about the merits of reading Hemingway (or not) boiled down to a debate on how much the message or the medium has to do with whether a text is "good" or "art" or even just appreciated.
While my academic views are nearly all inclusive, by personal taste and views on the subject are not as inclusive. In my academic research I've been less interested in form and message than pure content, although in my greater study I am aware of the roles form and medium play. In my personal reading, I find that there is a more delicate balance of medium and message in what I like and don't like. For example, I hate many family-oriented films simply because they are cliché ridden. On the other hand, I loved the film V for Vendetta because it was unusual in story and action, even though the moral of that story might as well be anarchy.
So, dear readers, to take cue from Heidi's blog, where do you draw the line? When does the medium justify the message (eg war movies)? When does the message justify the medium (eg Mormon art)? Or do you believe (like Sergei Eisenstein) that the medium is the message (eg early Soviet film)?
Saturday, July 14, 2007
A List of . . . stuff?
Thanks to Aleatha, Thora, and all other bloggers who use lists, I've decided also to make a list of the books and other media that made the biggest impact on my career as a Germanist in something approaching chronological order. Since it is about German texts, the faint of heart should tread carefully.
1. Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther : Read it in 11th grade. Loved it, mostly for its melancholy self pity. And the fact that it inspired a rash of suicides in Europe - young men dressed in blue jackets and yellow pants offing themselves with pistols but making sure their copy of Emilie Galotti was close at hand.
2. Kaestner's Emil und die Detektive : Emil and the Detectives, the first book I read in German, and still one of my favorites. Emil is sent to visit his grandma in Berlin, but on the train ride all of his money is stolen and he enlists a gang of children (led by Gustav mit der Hupe) to help him catch the thief. Interesting filmings also.
3. Goethe's Faust : Who wrote Faust? The opera? the play? the epic poem? the ballet? It's not a joke - I read Goethe's Faust in 12th grade. I read an ancient English translation from my parents shelves that had good illustrations as I remember. I was particularly taken with Mephisto at the time - still my favorite character in the series. And now I've even eaten at Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig just like he and Faust!
4. Selected Kafka short stories: First thing we read in my first college German class. Intense, yet very satisfying. I highly recommend "The Country Doctor" - that story could sum up my entire roommate experience.
5. Strauss/Hofmannsthal's Der Rosenkavalier : Sublime music, subtle text - what more could you want in an opera? Hofmannsthal had an interesting relationship to religion, particularly Catholicism, and hinted at eternal marriage in his writing. It makes the love duets more poignant, even if one could make the crass comparison to a prominent Mormon musical.
6. Heinrich Boell's Short Stories : The war and reconstruction from the German point of view. Very interesting and refreshing.
7. Buechner's Woycek : It's a disturbing play - and then you realize that it was written long before disturbing plays were supposed to have been written. Woycek is a part of a military medical experiment in which he only eats peas - which I immediately took note of at my first reading since I had eaten peas for dinner a number of days in a row. Didn't help that I had already just read Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili which ends with cracking babies' heads open against the wall of the cathedral.
8. Any film by Werner Herzog : Aguirre, Fata Morgana, Woycek, Nosferatu, they're all brilliant. I would be amiss not at attribute that in part to Klaus Kinski, but even the non-Kinski ones are great. Terrific use of music particularly in the murder scene in Woycek and the mountain scenes in Nosferatu.
9. Brecht's Three-penny Opera : I must have been incredibly desensitized when I was in this play, because somehow it didn't faze me at all that I was cast as a prostitute and as an angry beggar. Two Brecht classes later I had been fazed by Brecht (I don't suggest Baal unless you really, really have to) but I thought this one was a big romp in the park. That could have something to do with performing a Marxist play in the business building when the power had gone off and driving cars onto the sidewalk to use the headlights to light an impromptu stage when the sun went down. Maybe also because I'd already read Die Marquise von O and its famous dash.
10. Weimar Film : I liked old movies and I liked the prof who taught it, so it was a match made in heaven. I'm doing them a disservice grouping them all together, since it could be its own post. If there was only one film you watched from this period, I would recommend M and if you have time for a second, then The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Those two pretty well sum up the time period, if they aren't in fact the same story.
11. Paul Celan's Poetry: My favorite Holocaust writer, even if you need an encyclopedia to understand him. It was also my first time really studying the impossibility of language to convey meaning and it was fascinating.
12. Borchert's Draussen vor der Tuer : Somehow I missed this one as an undergrad even though it's usually something they make you read at the intermediate level. Still, it's a brilliant little radio play, complete with an anthropomorphic Elbe that "scheisses" on the main character's suicide.
13. Kleist's Das Kaetchen von Heilbronn : I went to a production of this in Berlin without knowing much about it, but I absolutely loved the play and the production. Very Mormon-culture, with questions about religion and marriage, predestination and the lot.
14. Wedekind's Fruehlings Erwachen : Matt and his friends may joke about unlawful congress with a melon, but I've actually seen it on stage! This play explores the theme of teenage sexuality and the associated social mores. Not knowing really anything about the play except that it was famous before I went, I was surprised at its frank (if not a bit dramatic) tale for being from the late 19th century.
15. German art : Ok, early on I fell in love with Viennese Secession art - from Klimt to Schiele - but it wasn't until I was a grad student that I really studied other German artists, and gained a better appreciation for Duerer, Grosz, Dix, Heartfield, and Kollwitz. And it wasn't until my most recent trip that I gained an appreciation for the German romantics, like Schinkel and Friedrich.
Probably this list only makes sense to my sister, but there it is. Some notable things are missing, such as German music and the texts for my thesis. Music deserves its own list, and my thesis's texts are their own list and somewhat obscure. I'm still trying to decide what this might reveal about me. Hmmm.
1. Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther : Read it in 11th grade. Loved it, mostly for its melancholy self pity. And the fact that it inspired a rash of suicides in Europe - young men dressed in blue jackets and yellow pants offing themselves with pistols but making sure their copy of Emilie Galotti was close at hand.
2. Kaestner's Emil und die Detektive : Emil and the Detectives, the first book I read in German, and still one of my favorites. Emil is sent to visit his grandma in Berlin, but on the train ride all of his money is stolen and he enlists a gang of children (led by Gustav mit der Hupe) to help him catch the thief. Interesting filmings also.
3. Goethe's Faust : Who wrote Faust? The opera? the play? the epic poem? the ballet? It's not a joke - I read Goethe's Faust in 12th grade. I read an ancient English translation from my parents shelves that had good illustrations as I remember. I was particularly taken with Mephisto at the time - still my favorite character in the series. And now I've even eaten at Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig just like he and Faust!
4. Selected Kafka short stories: First thing we read in my first college German class. Intense, yet very satisfying. I highly recommend "The Country Doctor" - that story could sum up my entire roommate experience.
5. Strauss/Hofmannsthal's Der Rosenkavalier : Sublime music, subtle text - what more could you want in an opera? Hofmannsthal had an interesting relationship to religion, particularly Catholicism, and hinted at eternal marriage in his writing. It makes the love duets more poignant, even if one could make the crass comparison to a prominent Mormon musical.
6. Heinrich Boell's Short Stories : The war and reconstruction from the German point of view. Very interesting and refreshing.
7. Buechner's Woycek : It's a disturbing play - and then you realize that it was written long before disturbing plays were supposed to have been written. Woycek is a part of a military medical experiment in which he only eats peas - which I immediately took note of at my first reading since I had eaten peas for dinner a number of days in a row. Didn't help that I had already just read Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili which ends with cracking babies' heads open against the wall of the cathedral.
8. Any film by Werner Herzog : Aguirre, Fata Morgana, Woycek, Nosferatu, they're all brilliant. I would be amiss not at attribute that in part to Klaus Kinski, but even the non-Kinski ones are great. Terrific use of music particularly in the murder scene in Woycek and the mountain scenes in Nosferatu.
9. Brecht's Three-penny Opera : I must have been incredibly desensitized when I was in this play, because somehow it didn't faze me at all that I was cast as a prostitute and as an angry beggar. Two Brecht classes later I had been fazed by Brecht (I don't suggest Baal unless you really, really have to) but I thought this one was a big romp in the park. That could have something to do with performing a Marxist play in the business building when the power had gone off and driving cars onto the sidewalk to use the headlights to light an impromptu stage when the sun went down. Maybe also because I'd already read Die Marquise von O and its famous dash.
10. Weimar Film : I liked old movies and I liked the prof who taught it, so it was a match made in heaven. I'm doing them a disservice grouping them all together, since it could be its own post. If there was only one film you watched from this period, I would recommend M and if you have time for a second, then The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Those two pretty well sum up the time period, if they aren't in fact the same story.
11. Paul Celan's Poetry: My favorite Holocaust writer, even if you need an encyclopedia to understand him. It was also my first time really studying the impossibility of language to convey meaning and it was fascinating.
12. Borchert's Draussen vor der Tuer : Somehow I missed this one as an undergrad even though it's usually something they make you read at the intermediate level. Still, it's a brilliant little radio play, complete with an anthropomorphic Elbe that "scheisses" on the main character's suicide.
13. Kleist's Das Kaetchen von Heilbronn : I went to a production of this in Berlin without knowing much about it, but I absolutely loved the play and the production. Very Mormon-culture, with questions about religion and marriage, predestination and the lot.
14. Wedekind's Fruehlings Erwachen : Matt and his friends may joke about unlawful congress with a melon, but I've actually seen it on stage! This play explores the theme of teenage sexuality and the associated social mores. Not knowing really anything about the play except that it was famous before I went, I was surprised at its frank (if not a bit dramatic) tale for being from the late 19th century.
15. German art : Ok, early on I fell in love with Viennese Secession art - from Klimt to Schiele - but it wasn't until I was a grad student that I really studied other German artists, and gained a better appreciation for Duerer, Grosz, Dix, Heartfield, and Kollwitz. And it wasn't until my most recent trip that I gained an appreciation for the German romantics, like Schinkel and Friedrich.
Probably this list only makes sense to my sister, but there it is. Some notable things are missing, such as German music and the texts for my thesis. Music deserves its own list, and my thesis's texts are their own list and somewhat obscure. I'm still trying to decide what this might reveal about me. Hmmm.
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