| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
To keep on the poetry theme....
| Quote: |
| She gave me her mud and I turned it into gold |
????? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
One more, this was voted/nominated as the "greatest novel of the 20th century". First line of the novel is ...."Mother died today."
??????????????? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Don Gately

Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Location: In a basement taking a severe beating
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: |
|
|
| ddeubel wrote: |
One more, this was voted/nominated as the "greatest novel of the 20th century". First line of the novel is ...."Mother died today."
??????????????? |
That must have been a French language paper doing the nominating, I don't think an English one would think so highly of Camus.
Hey, dd, how come you get to ask all the questions without answering any? I'm still waiting on someone else to figure out "In American lives there are no second acts." |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Location: Easy Street.
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
| IchiTK wrote: |
| "I am made out of water. You wouldn't know it, because I have it bound in. My friends are made out of water, too. All of them. The problem for us is that not only do we have to walk around without being absorbed by the ground but we also have to earn our livings." |
Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
That must have been a French language paper doing the nominating, I don't think an English one would think so highly of Camus.
Hey, dd, how come you get to ask all the questions without answering any? I'm still waiting on someone else to figure out "In American lives there are no second acts." |
DG,
Actually it was the Times literary review if I remember correctly. Those literary crit. always go for the existential stuff..........but Camus should be read these days, given our present climate, 9/11 and all that. Both The Rebel and The Plague speak to our times.....
I /ve been taking a shot at all the quotes but only got one!!!!! I do think some people are googling and I don't think that is fair. What can you do????? Missed your question. But it is so on the tip of my brain!!!! So familiar. I just haven't had my first coffee this morning . But must be an American writer, social commentator. The language is too "phrasal" for Hemingway. I'd say someone early like Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis ...... though it might be someone quippy like Fitzgerald or maybe even closer to our day Richard Ford???? Definitely not Faulkner!!!
That's the best I can do. Duhhhhhh sorry. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IchiTK

Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Location: on my way...
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Don Gately wrote: |
| "In American lives there are no second acts." |
I think it's from The Great Gatsby. I'm almost positive it's F. Scott Fitzgerald. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IchiTK

Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Location: on my way...
|
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Here's one:
| Quote: |
"You're extraordinary," I said, after catching my breath.
"I know," she said. "These are my ears in their unblocked state."
Several of the other customers were now turned our way, staring agape at her. The waiter who came over with more coffee couldn't pour properly. Not a soul uttered a word. Only the reels on the tape deck kept slowly spinning.
She retrieved a clove cigarette from her purse and put it to her lips. I hurriedly offered her a light with my lighter.
"I want to sleep with you," she said.
So we slept together.
|
Hint: This is a translation (I won't give the original language as it would probably be too much of a giveaway.) I think this is a pretty good example of the author's style, so even if you don't know the book you might guess the writer. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
That's a piss poor translation!!!!!
God! A definite rasberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry. -- gave her a light with my lighter???? Only the reels on the tape deck kept spinning slowly ??? (what else had stopped spinning???). This must have been sooooo hard to read in translation.
but must be French...."extraordinary" is the giveaway. Probably, Kundera and "Slowness"??? His attempt at writing in French???
Or something from the 20s...
DD |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
HapKi

Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," in the coffee shop of the hospital, after the doctor watches her swim in the pool.
| Quote: |
| I'm still waiting on someone else to figure out "In American lives there are no second acts." |
Waiting for confirmation on this, as well. I guessed The Great Gatsby on page 1, just to remind you all. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IchiTK

Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Location: on my way...
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Okay, the translation in from Japanese, and it's modern... |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
I don't think its from the Great Gatsby!!! I know that book well, have taught it. Doesn't ring a bell. I even love better, "tender is the night", really an under rated book. His name reminds me of a quote of his, that the writer should never write until his/her 40s , until they have LIVED. .....
But again, don't think it is from Gatsby.
If it is Kundera, it is a horrid and literal translation.....but does have his detached, "let's *beep*" attitude. Henry Miller without soul. ................
Nobody got my "she gave me her mud and I turned it into gold." It's Baudelaire, "Les fleurs du mal".
My last offering......
??????? From what book/novel????? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Don Gately

Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Location: In a basement taking a severe beating
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
| HapKi wrote: |
Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," in the coffee shop of the hospital, after the doctor watches her swim in the pool.
| Quote: |
| I'm still waiting on someone else to figure out "In American lives there are no second acts." |
Waiting for confirmation on this, as well. I guessed The Great Gatsby on page 1, just to remind you all. |
I didn't ask it originally so I didn't feel it was my place to give the answer.
It was "The Last Tycoon," so not Gatsby but definitely Fitzgerald. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IchiTK

Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Location: on my way...
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ddeubel wrote: |
My last offering......
??????? From what book/novel????? |
Too easy: Robet H. Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land." Loved that book, read it when I was 12. I think Heinlein had a profound influence on my thinking...not so sure now if that's a good think or a bad think...I should go back and re-read him now that i'm all growed up. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ddeubel

Joined: 20 Jul 2005
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Too easy: Robet H. Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land." Loved that book, read it when I was 12. I think Heinlein had a profound influence on my thinking...not so sure now if that's a good think or a bad think...I should go back and re-read him now that i'm all growed up. |
Yeah same here.....I belonged to a science fiction book club when I was 10/11. Every month a package of books would come to the farm and I was overjoyed to read Asimov, Heinlein, Lev, Bradbury.......was my first romance with literature. Also helped we didn't have TV and lived about 2 miles from the nearest human and 20 miles from the nearest store.......
I got to read that book again too. Maybe also learn to "grok".
DD |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IchiTK

Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Location: on my way...
|
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Boo Radley |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
|