The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. — Jamal
The basic experience is of reading an 18th picaresque novel, not remotely like reading other books labelled as postmodern. If it's self-reflexively clever it's in the same way that, say, Don Quixote or Tristram Shandy are. — Jamal
How does it compare to M&D (aside from the differences with po-mo) in terms of entertainment and fun factor? — Manuel
I was born in Easton, Maryland and grew up on the Eastern Shore and in nearby Delaware. My grandfather's farm was on the Chesapeake Bay about six miles north of the mouth of the Choptank River near Cambridge. Looking south from the shore, I could see land in the location where Cooke's farm was located, although I didn't know it at the time. — T Clark
From Wighcocomoco to this place, all the coast is but low broken Isles of Moras, a myle or two in breadth, & tenne or twelve in length, & foule and stinking by reason of the stagnant waters therein. Add to wch, the aire is beclowded with vile meskitoes, that sucke at a mans bloud, as though they had never eate before. It is forsooth no countrie, for any save the Salvage...
“That picture doth apply to one place only,” laughed Burlingame, who had read the passage aloud. “Do you know it, Father?”
And the priest, his historical curiosity aroused despite his circumstances, nodded stiffly: “The Dorset marches.”
“Aye,” Burlingame confirmed. “The Hooper Islands, Bloodsworth Island, and South Marsh. Here is a morsel for your epic, Ebenezer: the first white man to set foot on Dorset County.”
“What price this laureateship! Here’s naught but scoundrels and perverts, hovels and brothels, corruption and poltroonery! What glory, to be singer of such a sewer!”
In some ways, TC Boyle's Water Music is that book for me. That said, there's little quesion that Barth is a genius. — Tom Storm
One quality about the "Joyous science" that differs from the other works is the sense of freedom to do something different. The works before and after picture change as a struggle with other views. This work is a claim for his land, unoccupied by others. — Paine
Reading the novel has prompted me to spend hours exploring the region in Google Maps. — Jamal
Choptank — Jamal
Just finished Konrad Lorenz's "Kant's Doctrine of the A Priori in the Light of Contemporary Biology." It knocked my socks off. I've been looking for something like this for a long time - a discussion of how our human nervous system and mind have evolved as a "negotiation" between Kant's things-as-they-are, the noumena, and our animal need to survive — T Clark
One of the reasons I like Kindle so much is that I can link directly to Wikipedia and GoogleEarth. It's become almost automatic. I often find myself going off on tangents. I love it. — T Clark
The Choptank and the Susquehanna are my two favorite rivers. We crossed the Choptank on the way from my childhood home in southern Delaware to my grandfather's farm. The house I grew up in is a couple of hundred feet from the Nanticoke River, which is still tidewater there, 30 miles from the bay. It was not unusual for me to lose my shoes or boots in the mudflats and there was always danger when we used our sleds because our favorite hill, the only thing even close to a hill in flat southern Delaware, there was always danger of missing the turn and ending up in the water. — T Clark
Martin Palmer and Elizabeth Breuilly translation. Penguin Classics version — Maw
Kazantzakis once said that if he were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, he would only accept it if he could share it with Sikelianos. — javi2541997
A noble soul. Rare nowadays, but being Greek it doesn't surprise me. — Lionino
Yesterday I indulged my nostalgia by watching clips of the Japanese TV series Monkey, which was on British TV, and apparently in Australia too, back in the 80s. — Jamal
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