Music Banter - What are you reading right now?

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Presently reading John Higgs’ Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century. This is, I believe the first time I’ve teared up at a work of non-fiction.

The except I’ve just read describes the United States' reaction to the publication of Joyce's Ulysses in 1933:

Quote:

Joyce intended his work to be difficult. We can see this in his reaction to the obscenity trial that resulted from an attempt to publish Ulysses in Prohibition-era America.Ulysses was originally serialised in a New York magazine called the Little Review, alongside the poetry of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. The baroness’s poems may now seem more overtly sexual, but it was Joyce’s work which was singled out for obscenity.

A later trial, United States Vs. One Book Called Ulysses, in 1933, ultimately decided that the work did have serious intent and that it was not pornographic (for, as Judge John Woolsey pointed out, ‘In respect of the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of [Joyce’s] characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring.’) In order to argue for the serious nature of the work, however, Joyce was called on to explain it, and in particular the way its structure echoed the ancient Greek myth it was named after. Joyce was extremely unhappy with this prospect. As he said, ‘If I gave it all up [the explanations] immediately, I’d lose my immortality. I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of ensuring one’s immortality.’

Joyce wanted to be studied. As he said in an interview with Harper’s magazine, ‘The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.’ In this respect there is a touch of tragedy in his dying words: ‘Does nobody understand?’

How much does it have to suck to be that judge and be forced to read and interpret Ulysses without the benefit of a college-level English course holding his hand?

That book looks like its from the 70s.

currently reading a collection of Franz Kafka's short stories.
previously read Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden.

"The Bees" by Dan Chaon

Beautifully haunting, feverish, and creepy. There needs to be more prose like this (or I guess I need to find more). 150% recommended, and it's only 25 pages long.

By a sheer stroke of good fortune, I was reminded today of an article on the history of ambient house. Revisiting the feature I had the mind to cross-reference the bolded statements it presented which led me to David Toop's book, Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. I realized that I'd purchased the book but had left it only half-read. Retrieving it from my shelf I found my Stockhausen / Cluster & Eno bookmark 116 pages in, awaiting my return.

Sunday Times called it, 'A rare instance of a music book which is about music, but works.'

I'm bumping this back to the top of my reading list straight away!

http://images.gr-assets.com/books/13...77l/423977.jpg

UPDATE: The aforementioned bolded statements evidently were sourced from an info sheet distributed to the music press by The KLF in 1989 via fax. Here's a scan of the original info sheet, courtesy of MrJolly23 on Twitter:

Spoiler for [Large image hidden as a courtesy]:

Quite a piece of history!

i have to read the communist manifesto for class tomorrow. i've read quite a few excerpts from it in the past but this will be the first time i read it in it's entirety. if i come back tomorrow acting all marxist and agreeing with el please snap me out of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 1804531)

"The Bees" by Dan Chaon

Beautifully haunting, feverish, and creepy. There needs to be more prose like this (or I guess I need to find more). 150% recommended, and it's only 25 pages long.

Thank you for this; it's fantastic so far!

http://ocbookshoppe.com/wp/wp-conten...250-medium.jpg

On mechanics alone, Capote is probably my second-favourite writer, but I've yet to read his seminal work (mainly because it's always checked out of the library when I go). That's about to change.