tags
autobiography
Jun 24, 2023 The Snow LeopardReading this brought to mind Susan Sontag's On Photography, or at least what I remember of it/what I imagine it as saying, having read it a number of years ago. Not to say that they have anything in common or anything, but. What I imagine Sontag saying is something about the act of photography causing an incision between the realities of the viewer and the viewee. The photographer becomes the camera and the subject an object. What occurred to me reading this is that the same logic can apply just as well to writing about the act of photography - in examining photography, you loose the ability to do photography. This is a bit of a silly criticism of Sontag, but I think it points its finger towards ideas around non-fiction as a whole - writing about an experience, and especially planning to write about an experience, will color that experience, make it less Authentic. Jun 24, 2023 WaldenI listened to Walden while walking through the woods around Walden, and I gotta say - the words still ring true. Yes, he was a few hours walk from Boston, yes his mom probably did his laundry for him and the whole experience is a bit silly on the face of it. But there is a pleasant earnestness and optimism to Thoreau's years in "the woods" that I can't help but admire. Jul 18, 2023 The JourneyI mean, a personal predilection for just a little bit of pretension, for the fluency with literature and the literati, definitely does have an impact on my opinion of Sergio Pitol - lists of names and works and influences and times that are not known to me make me a bit jealous and admiring. I think without a little bit of that, you could get a bit fed up with this book and likely the whole of his Trilogy of Memory - although how you have gotten past The Art of Flight to this sequel is a bit beyond me. Mar 15, 2024 Long Walk To FreedomMay 20, 2024 Miles