Comments on: Winter Sunshine, Kim’s Canonical Texts… and Sin

By: Lefty Elitist

Lefty Elitist — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:49:16 +0000

Noosaville, Kim.

But the surrounds are splendid. Aaah, to be in Quinceland, now that winter’s here.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:04:24 +0000

How did you know about the polkadots, Irant?

Glad that there are some other Roth fans out there.

No great adventures to report - had a nice relaxing time. Sunshine was beautiful! What’s not to love about Noosa? (Well a few things actually, but anyway!).

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 10:54:32 +0000

Kimbo, ok, I’ll admit it, I am jealous.

I hope you realise you’ll be expected to provide a full report on your Noosa adventures (even if, as is unlikely, you spent your whole time reading various canonical authors on the beach) when you return.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 20:11:56 +0000

Speaking of English teachers, I liked this article in the Nation about Oprah’s book club which is taking on Faulkner. I have always liked Oprah and spoke up for her book club when the snootierthanthou snark about it. I might join her, its probably time revisit ol’ Bill.

By: meg

meg — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:14:55 +0000

*pulls soapbox out from it’s hiding place and climbs on*

‘Christmas in July’ is just wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Why is Christmas in December? Coz it slotted very nicely into the themes of the already existing Yule festival. And when is Yule? Winter Soltice.

And when is Yule/Winter Solstice in Australia? June people, JUNE.

Go ahead, have Christmas at Yule. But get the right goram month!

*goes to climb off soapbox.. and falls flat on her face*

By: Irant

Irant — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:56:53 +0000

Kim, is it an itsy bitsy teenie weenie purple polka-dot bikini?

By: Lefty Elitist

Lefty Elitist — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:43:30 +0000

Did somebody say Byron?

Rise from your slumber
in unvanquishable number!

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:12:19 +0000

He may have been, under his tie & plaid blazer (not kidding - just terrible, it was).

He used to call the hose “the green medicine”. A great lover of Joyce, Donne & Byron - I quite liked him, hose notwithstanding.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:09:26 +0000

My teacher was a hottie, Amanda. She used to have big chats to me after class about literature and kulcha.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:57:45 +0000

I think I had a crush on every English teach I ever had. Probably every teacher. I’m a sucka for petty authority.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:49:20 +0000

But was she wearing a purple bikini like Kim’s at the time, Tony?

I had a massive crush on my Grade 12 High School teacher - used to picture her as Bathsheba (yes, we did Hardy for Senior English).

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:44:10 +0000

My high school English teacher used to whack us with a length of green garden hose.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:12:56 +0000

Yes, I’d agree with that, Kate.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:07:15 +0000

I did… sort of. It was so bleak. But extremely well-written and powerful.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 09:25:07 +0000

Sorry Christos gave you nightmares, Kate - did you like the book though?

By: Peter Kemp

Peter Kemp — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:22:20 +0000

“I��m something of an enthusiast for all things Habsburg”

Mark, have you forgotten Milo Minderbender’s Catch 22 advice ”The Hapsburgs are shaky !” ie no credit, (and don’t forget the peas on the high seas)

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 02:58:06 +0000

Sometimes I feel so ill-educated after reading some of these posts!

Yet another book to add to my literary must-try list. Though the last book I read on the recommendation of anyone at LP (Christon Tsiolkas’ Dead Europe, thanks Mark) gave me terrible nightmares.

By: rex bellatore

rex bellatore — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 02:33:03 +0000

christmas in july, i think there was a festival up in katoomba or somewhere in the blue mountains that used to run with this name. as they have often or at least sometimes, have actual snow in winter.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:41:39 +0000

Kimbo, I’m jealous. The weather is indeed beautiful and I’m stuck at home writing a lecture.

Thanks for the link, Stephen. I’ve read Radetzky March - got interested when I saw the excellent German miniseries adaptation with Max von Sydow as Baron Franz von Trotta und Cipolje and the wonderful Charlotte Rampling as Valerie von Taussig.

Aside from the scene Kim’s quoted, the one with the Count in the asylum is yet another memorable one.

I’m something of an enthusiast for all things Habsburg and for Austrian/Bohemian culture, and couldn’t agree more about Musil, whose Man Without Qualities I still look forward to finding time to read in its entirety.

By: Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:33:19 +0000

Joseph Roth what a fine writer, one of the blessings of the last five years has been Granta’s reissures of Roth, which has provide much easier access to most of his catalogue and also his non-fiction - if you want to continue the tale of the Trottas you’ll have to read “The Emperor’s Tomb” after Radetsky. Also if anyone reading this was the fortunate bugger who found a copy of “Tarabas” on the Central train terminal I’d love to have it back.

This piece from the New Yorker is a pretty good introuduction to Joseph Roth for those interested

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?040119crbo_books

Have a whole host of Roth novels to read when I finish if only I could include non-English speaking writers for some of the examples in my thesis. If so I’d probably have a few Austrians (Schitzler, Broch, Musil) making an appearance.