He's beautiful, poor thing. I'm going to kiss him, Cyril. Shall I?

[Kinbote]

Yellow was Fiona's color, as in the case of the almond tissue-thin suede coat which, in her stretching efforts to reach the skull of the child, was now lifted high above the tight skin behind her knees. And for more than eighteen years she had been most obviously true to character and to her color yellow in the act of kissing, and had spent those years kissing each letter she wrote, each book she enjoyed, kissing flowers, shadows, dead birds, dogs, old ladies, attractive men, as if only by touching the world with her open lips could she make it real and bring herself to life. So even while I was grunting my approval and pleasure, which was the only way to reply to any of Fiona's questions about kissing, she had already found the small white skull with her eager mouth, and I could only smile still more broadly at the sight of Fiona lavishing one of her brief floods of compassion on the tiny cold features of a grinning relic. It was like Fiona to leave her jasmine scent perfuming the mere skeleton of some unknown infant embedded along with thick-lettered unreadable injunctions against frivolity and sex in their unfrequented altar. To her, no expenditure of her own affection was ever wasted.

[Intern Kate]

i'm curious...

[Kinbote]

The Blood Oranges

Copyright (c) 1970, 1971 by John Hawkes

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 74-152516
(ISBN: 0-8112-0061-2)

"Rich, evocative, highly original piece of fiction. It gilds contemporary American literature with real, not synthetic, gold." -- Anthony Burgess

"The sixth...novel by, feasibly, our best writer...The book's principal attribute is its relentless originality." -- Thomas McGuane, The New York Times Book Review

"John Hawkes here has written the mature work of a great artist. An artist finally accessible, whose language, images, and sounds present an astonishing vision." -- Jacques Cabau, L'Express

[Intern Kate]

ah, yes.

gee, thanks.

and, i read some interview with Anthony Burgess and found him mildly irritating.

and, i no longer work 50-60 hours a week, i can actually enjoy reading! after i get new expensively fashionable glasses. but only then.

[Kinbote]

I'm being given money for not working at all and while it sounds like it ought to be fun it's actually incredibly goddamned boring!

But I'm sure it beats the hell out of working 50-60 hours. Good lord.

And by all means, read some John Hawkes: nobody else seems to.

[Kinbote]

Actually, Kate, you know what book you ought to read, that I suspect you would enjoy? Edwin Mullhouse, by Steven Millhauser; look into it and shit!

[Peter]

Today all I read was an article in the new york times about how there were gaps in military intelligence around the beginning of The Holocaust.

no shit, huh?

[Kinbote]

Oh, please. We knew all about it all along but didn't care, as FDR was a communist stooge who hated Jews.

[Intern Kate]

i am going to the library tomorrow, as a matter of fact. i might make it Barnes and Noble instead though, because i really shouldn't spend money on pleasure books, so will indeed do so. i will look into both Ted, thank you!

i am also finally going to get around to switching my checking account to Bank of America. or should i make it Citizen's Bank? what should i do??

[Kinbote]

Splendid! Both are well worth it.

I bank with Bank of America. One, because I like their on-line banking stuff. And two, because their local branch is the shortest walk of any bank from my house.

[Kinbote]

Kate!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557046581/ref=lpr_g_1/002-7535079-9008061?v=glance&s=books

[Divine]

too much for me :(

[milpool]

fuck fuck FUCK these threads are so boring and dumb FUCK

[Divine]

Originally posted by milpool
fuck fuck FUCK these threads are so boring and dumb FUCK

i feel bonded now that you've said that. i never know why they're posted, yet i do make stupid threads/posts also. :(

[Intern Kate]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Kate!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557046581/ref=lpr_g_1/002-7535079-9008061?v=glance&s=books

i just got flushed with excitement!

also, i bought Edwin Mullhouse among other things. i've enjoyed "The Early Years" very much.

[Kinbote]

I'm sorely tempted to just break down and order the stupid thing. I probably will, given another couple of days.

Yeah, Edwin Mullhouse is a terrific book. As are most of Steven Millhauser's other books. He seems underrecognized, despite his Pulitzer. But I think "Edwin" is his best. It's so conceptually neat.

[Peter]

I'm reading For Whom The Bell Tolls...very easy, simple, light reading for the summer.

that and i hear it's a classic or something.

[Kinbote]

Hemingway mostly sucks, except for "The Old Man and the Sea" and some stories.

[motorcyclemptiness]

Hey Ted, do you like Turgenev?

[Kinbote]

He's one of those fellows I acknowledge as being good, but do not particularly like.

[Peter]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Hemingway mostly sucks, except for "The Old Man and the Sea" and some stories.

You're a lit snob and I'm not inclined to listen to your opinions on the subject. So yeah. :yes:

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by Peter
You're a lit snob and I'm not inclined to listen to your opinions on the subject. So yeah. :yes:

Then why on earth mention it in my thread?

[Peter]

Originally posted by UncleLester
Then why on earth mention it in my thread?

Clearly, to infuriate you, Ted. Duh. :rolleyes:

[Kinbote]

You're a bastard. But at least you're not reading Faulkner.

[motorcyclemptiness]

I think Turgenev was pretty brilliant with his simplicity. Yet at times, boring and repetitive with his themes. But, I really enjoy his stories. More than some of those other Ruskies.

[Kinbote]

Yes. Tolstoy is tedious, Dostoevsky is complete fucking shit. Chekhov is sometimes good. I've never looked at any Gogol. Who have I neglected?

Nabokov's Russian novels are of course the best Russian novels of this century, and maybe also the previous century. I suppose my saying so is predictable, but I do mean it.

[Kelly Kapowski]

i loathe hemingway, but some of his short stories i've read were very good.


THAT IS ALL.

[Kinbote]

Bless you, Bailey, for your possession of an opinion matching mine. I encourage strongly such behavior!

[gangsta puffin]

the old man and the sea was one of my biggest wastes of time in history

[Kinbote]

Originally posted by gangsta puffin
the old man and the sea was one of my biggest wastes of time in history

Was not.