New rabble.ca book club? Who's interested, and who's in?

I wouldn't mind sifting through something by Deleuze, or perhaps Guattari, Derrida, or even Agamben.  Maybe we could eventually get around to discussing authorship itself.

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I have moved onto DFW Consider the Lobster, but that can be a hard one to track down! I'll through out a Can Lit suggestion that I have wanted to read: The Girls- Lori Lansens (also a suggestion for you for historical fiction is definitely the Man Game, it's historical fiction about Vancouver!)

I'm reading DFW's Consider the Lobster right now too, Kaitlin. I'm not a big fan of his fiction, but his non-fiction is among the very best.

Two (humble) suggestions of new Canadian fiction: Keven Chong's  Beauty Plus Pity and Claire Tacon's In the Field.

If there's to be a list, and if at least two people take on a book between them, there should be no need to "get in ahead," Sj. :)

But there SHOULD be 2 people at least declaring an intention to read a book by a certain date. And if they are not necessarily NEW books, pairing would be expedited.

Hee. I was being an ass. As you know.

I know.  But that's ok.  I'm battling with a wonderful addiction as we speak. :)

People still read books?

I'd like to read Catch-22 again....

Hello?

Gaian, Kaitlin is very busy and can't check the site every day. I'm sure she'll get back to us soon enough. The first deadline isn't til January, so we gots lots o' time.

Ha! Unless I include myself in that inference, consider it accidental. I meant Kaitlin is busy with her other intern duties on the rest of rabble.ca, and can't check babble every day.

And don't work that lazy mind too hard, SJ. We'll need it for the book club.

I'm in.

Great! My partner has a copy (although I've never read it). I'll see if I can rip through 'er by 15 Jan!

A friend advises that I'm in for heavy lifting. But the favourite author of a people who fell in love with Anne of Green Gables might provide just the door needed to enter their literary world for the first time.

Looks like I'll have to track down anther copy! I can't find mine. But there should be plenty of cheap copies here in Vancouver (as Kaitlin has already found, it appears). If anyone wants to partcipate but can't find the book, I can snail mail it to you. PM me with your address if you like!

I know we're not doing this book, but I just came across this quote from Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, which has been mentioned above. In "Up, Simba," an article DFW wrote for Rolling Stone about John McCain's Republican presedential nominee bid, I came across this gem; which is not also beautifully written, but aligns with my personal research:

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It’s hard to get good answers to why Young Voters are so uninterested in politics. This is probably because it’s next to impossible to get someone to think hard about why he’s not interested in something. The boredom itself preempts inquiry; the fact of the feeling’s enough....Think back to the sort of kids in high school who are drawn to the political process...now consider some of 2000’s adult versions of these very same kids....Men who aren’t enough like human beings even to hate—what one feels when they loom into view is just an overwhelming lack of interest, the sort of deep disengagement that is often a defence against pain. Against sadness. In fact, the likeliest reason why so many of us care so little about politics is that modern politicians make us sad, hurt us deep down in ways that are hard even to name, much less talk about. (186-7)

It reminded me of this refrain from the Chicago Feel Tank (as opposed to think tank), an activist group of artists and critical thinkers who were trying to show connections between the malaise of the Western political scene and our collective psychological conditions:

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Depressed? It might be political.

It's a bit muddy (for me) as to which book/article Kaitlin is referring to.

I see that in contrast to Wallace, Margaret Atwood wrote a "very positive" review (Wikipedia) of Updike's novel.

Gosh. Another Updike novel I WON'T be reading. lol.

The joys of a reading a good reviewer include never having to read some of the shite that they did. Life is short. Read good stuff only.

All of that generation of American writers, Phillip Roth, Norman Mailer, John Updike and to some extent Saul Bellow (not to mention lesser authors like Richard Yates, , certainly performed  a productive function, but they havent aged well--DFW coined the delightful moniker "Great Male Narcissists" (GFN) for them, but he could have added white and heterosexual, so much of a caricature they've come to form of the virtuoso, dominating authorial voice telling people how to liberate themselves (particularly women via sex with men). They are the voice of American liberalism, and so carry with it all the failures of that ideology the last few decades have exposed. The whole suburban malaise is part and parcel with the liberal project, and its mandatory depression was actually essential to its success. The GFNs celebrated one part of "the American Dream" (USian exceptionalism, consumerism, white supremacy, etc.) but didn't want to saddle its attendant malaise and lacked the political vision to do so.

What I do delight in Updike, especially (and certainly Bellow--not so much with Mailer and Roth) is the incredible craftsmanship of his prose. Doesn't DFW comment on this as well? It's not my preferred style, but god! Does he ever do it perfectly. This is how you write a sentence, he says. And this is how you do it again. Most of the novel prose from that era I find unbearable now (as a matter of taste) but I am still in awe of Updike in his prime (expect when he writes about sex. Ew.)

Ha! Your satire runneth too deep, Gaian. :)