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Ian Pace
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« Reply #255 on: 09:50:45, 25-03-2008 » |
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Pretty much anything of Kafka is also very good for those looking for manageable German books to read, and are recommended by some of the German language books I have. Hoffmann is very difficult, as is most everything else written in elaborate 19th-century Romantic prose.
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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increpatio
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« Reply #256 on: 10:08:40, 25-03-2008 » |
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Pretty much anything of Kafka is also very good for those looking for manageable German books to read, and are recommended by some of the German language books I have. Hoffmann is very difficult, as is most everything else written in elaborate 19th-century Romantic prose.
Verily! So, once my finances get going again, Kafka and Hesse it will be, all the way (and happily!) (In the interim I *will* continuing struggling with Hoffmann, if only because I committed to working to page 20 before giving up, and I'm already on page 7, and, insurmountable comprehension issues aside, it's not an entirely unsatisfying experience). oooooooh: (I know, I know!) (I haven't forgotten the Boll suggestion either, but K&H are two authors I have a definite liking for). |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #257 on: 10:36:15, 25-03-2008 » |
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Lady Bracknell: French songs I cannot possibly allow. People always seem to think that they are improper, and either look shocked, which is vulgar, or laugh, which is worse. But German sounds a thoroughly respectable language and indeed I believe it is so...
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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pim_derks
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« Reply #258 on: 12:16:33, 25-03-2008 » |
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Isn't Heinrich Boll usually the top recommendation for readers wishing to learn German? What's the title again of that wonderful Böll story about a man who quits his job at a soap company? It's hilarious. I feel a bit ashamed about the fact that I don't remember the title of this story.  |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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thompson1780
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« Reply #259 on: 12:59:41, 25-03-2008 » |
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 I've just finished "An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin" by Rohan Kriwaczek. I don't care whether it is a hoax or not - it's a fascinating read. Either it's fascinating that this actually happened, or it's fascinating that someone has the imagination to come up with this. And it makes you think differently - about attitude to death, about values... Tonight, I'll have a go at some of the scores printed in the back. Tommo |
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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martle
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« Reply #260 on: 13:54:47, 25-03-2008 » |
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Tommo, it is most definitely a 'hoax' (or, as Mr. Kriwaczek prefers, a 'work of art'), and that goes for the scores and most of the illustrations as well. (I have this from the, ahem, horse's mouth.)  |
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Green. Always green.
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pim_derks
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« Reply #261 on: 14:23:32, 25-03-2008 » |
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Tommo, it is most definitely a 'hoax' (or, as Mr. Kriwaczek prefers, a 'work of art'), and that goes for the scores and most of the illustrations as well. Really? This book has been translated into German and I read a few very positive reviews about it in German newspapers. What a creative joke! I think I'm going to buy this book. By the way: did the recent Antoine de Saint Exupéry hoax receive any coverage in the British media? |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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thompson1780
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« Reply #262 on: 14:26:17, 25-03-2008 » |
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Mart,
Cheers. From reading it, it was pretty obviously a hoax. The turns of phrase used in apparently old quotations just didn't seem contemporary. And some of the photos looked a bit tampered with.
Kriwaczek seems like a fascinating person. I may check out some of his other works.
Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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time_is_now
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« Reply #263 on: 15:01:32, 25-03-2008 » |
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To go back to the previous subject, this is also a good thing to read in German - funny and deep, well characterised, and I think you'd get enough of the overall sense to be able to go back later and understand any individual words you'd missed:  |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Evan Johnson
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« Reply #264 on: 15:37:17, 25-03-2008 » |
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Vielleicht hofft er, dass ein Genitiv im Titel keine Genitiven(?) im Buch bedeutet!
(ho ho ho) I also recommend for this purpose Hesse's Siddhartha.
srsly? srsly. I got through the whole thing, slowly but surely, at a time when my German was even worse than it is now (my training therein consists of one year of introductory classes in college and a few short forays into the nation itself). |
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increpatio
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« Reply #265 on: 22:59:13, 25-03-2008 » |
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srsly?
srsly. I got through the whole thing, slowly but surely, at a time when my German was even worse than it is now (my training therein consists of one year of introductory classes in college and a few short forays into the nation itself). Ah, cool. Also: I eat my words. I popped my head into my local foreign-language bookshop, to find the only German author I recognised being Boll. So I bought a small 2500-word story by him  |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #266 on: 23:59:37, 25-03-2008 » |
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On the other hand it doesn't all have to be serious...  This is a beauty I reckon. A lot of it is classic stuff which at least in the circles I move in is as well known as the cheese shop or dead parrot are for us... |
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pim_derks
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« Reply #267 on: 09:10:17, 26-03-2008 » |
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Hello readers! Remember this little girl?  I had to think of her when I saw this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP5h3-hz4tc |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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thompson1780
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« Reply #268 on: 10:38:07, 26-03-2008 » |
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On the other hand it doesn't all have to be serious...
I believe this was originally written in German - Die 13½ Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär  but whether or not it was it's still really fun! Tommo |
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #269 on: 12:22:34, 26-03-2008 » |
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Just begun Gravity's Rainbow but it was only a small chunk last night.
A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before but nothing compares it to now ...Let me know how you get on! Completely surreal experience yesterday on the train, reading the first 70 pages of the 2nd chapter, plugged into Nørgård's second symphony, suddenly I had no idea who I was or what I was doing. Totally bizarre. Maybe someone slipped something into my egg mayonnaise sandwich... |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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