Is anyone else thinking that we could profitably up the pace on these novels. I am finding one a month a little slow - and I keep forgetting who people are. As we have done a full season, surely now is the time to start knocking them off quicker.
I would have thought two a month would be fine. That would leave us in good shape in finish in April as we did with Proust (well, not all of us, but close). Always best to clear the summer for other stuff.
Alternatively, we could do a season in two months, which would mean June.
Thursday 27 November 2008
Thursday 20 November 2008
Well, firstly huge apologies for my lack of posting: down to indolence rather than anything else I'm afraid.
As for The Acceptance World I enjoyed it much more than book two and less so than book one. It's a relief that Things Seem To Be Happening now. A bit of plot never did anyone any harm after al. But I'm consistently dismayed as to how much of it all seems driven by conincidence and bumping into people rather than any sort of agency from any of the characters. That statue at the Albert memorial must have been a rather busier pedestrian interchange than it is nowadays.
I'd agree with Will that Widmerpool is turning out to be the most interesting character, though on reflection I think there's not much ambiguity in how Powell feels about him. He's a grasping, slightly stupid, thick-voiced man who still lives with his mother and has no understanding of social context whilst imagining himself to be the most socially adept person in any given circumstance. I think it's interesting that I only half want him to come a cropper, perhaps it's a side effect of the narrator's own inability to condemn Widmerpool.
I'm also waiting for a solidly believable female character to appear rather than the current roster of volatile femmes fatale/whores (Yes, there's an obvious joke to be made here but I'm not going to).
Perhaps it's a limitation of the narrator's world view, though I'm thinking it's more likely to be a deficiency in Powell's writing. Proust managed to create believable women who had a vividly depicted internal life, even if the narrator's frequently bizarre interpretation of that life was often foisted on the reader. At least they stuck in the mind, which is not something I could say about any of Powell's women.
Overall I have to say I'm finding this to be something of a Peter F Hamilton of novel sequences: lots of words but light on characters. And actually it's doing PFH a bit of a disservice, at least his plots are driven on by more than random chance.
Hmm. Time to order Summer from Amazon I think.
As for The Acceptance World I enjoyed it much more than book two and less so than book one. It's a relief that Things Seem To Be Happening now. A bit of plot never did anyone any harm after al. But I'm consistently dismayed as to how much of it all seems driven by conincidence and bumping into people rather than any sort of agency from any of the characters. That statue at the Albert memorial must have been a rather busier pedestrian interchange than it is nowadays.
I'd agree with Will that Widmerpool is turning out to be the most interesting character, though on reflection I think there's not much ambiguity in how Powell feels about him. He's a grasping, slightly stupid, thick-voiced man who still lives with his mother and has no understanding of social context whilst imagining himself to be the most socially adept person in any given circumstance. I think it's interesting that I only half want him to come a cropper, perhaps it's a side effect of the narrator's own inability to condemn Widmerpool.
I'm also waiting for a solidly believable female character to appear rather than the current roster of volatile femmes fatale/whores (Yes, there's an obvious joke to be made here but I'm not going to).
Perhaps it's a limitation of the narrator's world view, though I'm thinking it's more likely to be a deficiency in Powell's writing. Proust managed to create believable women who had a vividly depicted internal life, even if the narrator's frequently bizarre interpretation of that life was often foisted on the reader. At least they stuck in the mind, which is not something I could say about any of Powell's women.
Overall I have to say I'm finding this to be something of a Peter F Hamilton of novel sequences: lots of words but light on characters. And actually it's doing PFH a bit of a disservice, at least his plots are driven on by more than random chance.
Hmm. Time to order Summer from Amazon I think.
Sunday 16 November 2008
Accepted!
I'm done now. I found this the best of the three too, with the beginnings of a point emerging. I've had a quick chat with E about this though, and it's very unclear what the point is. And - in a real blast of proper (maybe not) reader - reception theory and other twaddle, I'm not sure the point I'm taking is what Powell meant, but, as with the French revolution, it may be too soon to say.
Anyway, I'm beginning to find Widmerpool the most interesting of the lot. Quiggin and Members are too obviously archetypes of the main strands in 1930s literary society to be of interest, while Templer (and obviously our narrator) is pretty much a plot device. But I think what is interesting about Widmerpool is how his rise is reflected. I have a feel that Powell hated people like that, and creates this monster (not a horrifying one) to showcase just how awful he felt new men were and how mystifying their rise was to him, while his main protagonist flutters away publishing a mysterious (and presumably quite bad) novel doubtless backed up with some private income and a non-job, affecting this slightly tedious affectation of the world rushing past him. Stringham and - plot device notwithstanding - Templer are much more sympathetic - at least they do things (and fuck up badly). In some senses of course, I'm reacting to Jenkins because there is something of that aspiration in me - he is probably the best dinner option of the lot, but it's not a side to be proud of.
Oh, and Andrew, you're not a Quiggin. I suspect there are no bollocks 'ultra-modern' dialectical theories coming out of your work - I'm willing to bet there will be in his.
Anyway, I'm beginning to find Widmerpool the most interesting of the lot. Quiggin and Members are too obviously archetypes of the main strands in 1930s literary society to be of interest, while Templer (and obviously our narrator) is pretty much a plot device. But I think what is interesting about Widmerpool is how his rise is reflected. I have a feel that Powell hated people like that, and creates this monster (not a horrifying one) to showcase just how awful he felt new men were and how mystifying their rise was to him, while his main protagonist flutters away publishing a mysterious (and presumably quite bad) novel doubtless backed up with some private income and a non-job, affecting this slightly tedious affectation of the world rushing past him. Stringham and - plot device notwithstanding - Templer are much more sympathetic - at least they do things (and fuck up badly). In some senses of course, I'm reacting to Jenkins because there is something of that aspiration in me - he is probably the best dinner option of the lot, but it's not a side to be proud of.
Oh, and Andrew, you're not a Quiggin. I suspect there are no bollocks 'ultra-modern' dialectical theories coming out of your work - I'm willing to bet there will be in his.
Tuesday 11 November 2008
Entirely Acceptable
I've a sneaking suspicion that I may just have crept ahead of Will, which will hopefully annoy him a little.
Knocked off The Acceptance World in a few days, mostly over the weekend. It's pretty easy going stuff - not as fluffy as Volume 1, but with more momentum than Volume 2. Pleasingly, the character of Jenkins (Powell) is developed a lot more in this book. We also get our first hints of the decline of some characters - the artists Isbistor and St John Clarke, Le Bas, Stringham and even Peter Templer's powers begin to fail him. This is all accompanied by the inexorable rise of Widmerpool, and to a lesser extent Quiggin too.
I think I enjoyed this volume especially, because we are all, quite obviously, in the Acceptance World (not italicised) ourselves to a greater or lesser extent. At what point in our lives do we accept that the futures we have invested in may or may not give us the returns we'd expected. I certainly don't feel I've settled with my lot, but I've got younger friends who have and much older friends who haven't. Of course, the depressing thing, and I've spoken with Will about this, is that I am probably the equivalent of Quiggin - the overtly ambitious state school/Oxbridge alumnus who tries just a little too hard (thankfully not a Marxist though) - and it seems that whilst even Widmerpool is redeemable, nobody, it seems, loves a Quiggin.
Knocked off The Acceptance World in a few days, mostly over the weekend. It's pretty easy going stuff - not as fluffy as Volume 1, but with more momentum than Volume 2. Pleasingly, the character of Jenkins (Powell) is developed a lot more in this book. We also get our first hints of the decline of some characters - the artists Isbistor and St John Clarke, Le Bas, Stringham and even Peter Templer's powers begin to fail him. This is all accompanied by the inexorable rise of Widmerpool, and to a lesser extent Quiggin too.
I think I enjoyed this volume especially, because we are all, quite obviously, in the Acceptance World (not italicised) ourselves to a greater or lesser extent. At what point in our lives do we accept that the futures we have invested in may or may not give us the returns we'd expected. I certainly don't feel I've settled with my lot, but I've got younger friends who have and much older friends who haven't. Of course, the depressing thing, and I've spoken with Will about this, is that I am probably the equivalent of Quiggin - the overtly ambitious state school/Oxbridge alumnus who tries just a little too hard (thankfully not a Marxist though) - and it seems that whilst even Widmerpool is redeemable, nobody, it seems, loves a Quiggin.
Friday 7 November 2008
Off the market!
Very relieved to be able to use a blog title that I came up with several weeks ago (can you tell?). I finished A Buyer's Market last night as the bus pulled up at my stop. The last hundred pages or so flew by actually, and I think I'm now getting to grips with the interconnected style of the books, which may have hampered my progress through BM initially.
The change of tone did for me at first - I miss the jolly japery of A Question of Upbringing, but that's right I think - don't we all miss our college days? I know I do, even though to some extent I still have them. The transition from volume 2 to 3 is less dramatic and I suspect we'll now see more gradual progressions through the Dance after a frantic opening movement.
Overall, this is definitely Jenkins' Budding Grove period, and the book is obviously littered with rites of passage - a wedding, an engagement, a funeral, even, we presume, Jenkins losing his virginity in a splendidly bathetic moment. We're also treated to his overly-earnest musings on love and which women might be suitable for/worthy of him, and did I detect a hint of jealousy when it's revealed that Widmerpool has got his end away before him? This theme, by the way, is picked up almost immediately in The Acceptance World, and I suspect, will continue at least until the end of the "spring movement".
The other comment I have is to semi-seriously (sorry!) note the Proust influence beginning to creep in. Not just the musings on time or the interminable salon scenes, but Jenkins pondering art and a career as a writer, the strange way in which people drop in and out of each other's lives (these people really need Facebook), and the emergence of Widmerpool as a Charlus-esque comic character. Perhaps Stringham is to become our Saint-Loup.
Finally, I had a good discussion about Powell (pronounced Pole apparently), with a Fellow of Kings a week or so ago. He read the books as they appeared, which must have been great fun to do, if a little confusing each time when trying to remember all of the characters after a break of a year. He concurs, by the way, with Mme Garrood that the middle volumes are a joy, but the final one a bit of a let down. I told him I'd get back to him with my thoughts next August.
The change of tone did for me at first - I miss the jolly japery of A Question of Upbringing, but that's right I think - don't we all miss our college days? I know I do, even though to some extent I still have them. The transition from volume 2 to 3 is less dramatic and I suspect we'll now see more gradual progressions through the Dance after a frantic opening movement.
Overall, this is definitely Jenkins' Budding Grove period, and the book is obviously littered with rites of passage - a wedding, an engagement, a funeral, even, we presume, Jenkins losing his virginity in a splendidly bathetic moment. We're also treated to his overly-earnest musings on love and which women might be suitable for/worthy of him, and did I detect a hint of jealousy when it's revealed that Widmerpool has got his end away before him? This theme, by the way, is picked up almost immediately in The Acceptance World, and I suspect, will continue at least until the end of the "spring movement".
The other comment I have is to semi-seriously (sorry!) note the Proust influence beginning to creep in. Not just the musings on time or the interminable salon scenes, but Jenkins pondering art and a career as a writer, the strange way in which people drop in and out of each other's lives (these people really need Facebook), and the emergence of Widmerpool as a Charlus-esque comic character. Perhaps Stringham is to become our Saint-Loup.
Finally, I had a good discussion about Powell (pronounced Pole apparently), with a Fellow of Kings a week or so ago. He read the books as they appeared, which must have been great fun to do, if a little confusing each time when trying to remember all of the characters after a break of a year. He concurs, by the way, with Mme Garrood that the middle volumes are a joy, but the final one a bit of a let down. I told him I'd get back to him with my thoughts next August.
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Not furnishing mine
I took delivery of the remaining volumes today - I now have all 12, and am beginning to regret not having gone down the 12 volume option. While my four are handsome enough, they lack the real impressiveness of the full run.
It is all a little academic anyway, they are in face lining my desk at work, rather than furnishing my rooms at home due to ongoing decoration needs. I'm now pursuing a slightly odd policy of reading books to bring them into work, and leaving them there - causing some concern there.
Nonetheless I will begin vol 3 imminently - in the meantime, I am mostly reading travel literature as it's one of the only categories that isn't in boxes or dumped on the spare bed.
It is all a little academic anyway, they are in face lining my desk at work, rather than furnishing my rooms at home due to ongoing decoration needs. I'm now pursuing a slightly odd policy of reading books to bring them into work, and leaving them there - causing some concern there.
Nonetheless I will begin vol 3 imminently - in the meantime, I am mostly reading travel literature as it's one of the only categories that isn't in boxes or dumped on the spare bed.
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