tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post453548235575609842..comments2024-02-15T17:04:14.226+01:00Comments on Jane Is The One: my 2011 booksjanestheonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17617250693471034197noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-26984756915423249452012-01-06T11:20:52.068+01:002012-01-06T11:20:52.068+01:00Unbearable Lightness of Being is a good book - and...Unbearable Lightness of Being is a good book - and a good film was made ot it in the 1980s with Daniel Day Lewis in the main role.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-43646551567540770762012-01-03T20:34:19.464+01:002012-01-03T20:34:19.464+01:00Mr Carp. Happy New Year to you too.
The way Beeth...Mr Carp. Happy New Year to you too.<br /><br />The way Beethoven's last quartet is written about in Milan Kundera's 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being' would, I think give the book about Howard a run for its money. (Though I admit I haven't read Mr Foster's classic.) In the words of Stanley Calms, well almost, I loved it so much I went out and bought the album. Thereby doubling my collection of classical albums as an addition to 'Peter and the Wolf.'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-30546430657236796262012-01-01T01:44:42.397+01:002012-01-01T01:44:42.397+01:00And Happy NY to you too AC! And many of them!
You...And Happy NY to you too AC! And many of them! <br />You can't analyse books using a Marxist or a feminist critique or anything like that and certainly not an 'Eagleton' approach.<br /><br />What you do is, you look at the words on the page and in the sentence and the next sentence. And think about why they have been put there in that way.<br /><br />Flaubert knew that...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-81620760675813471872011-12-31T19:25:25.376+01:002011-12-31T19:25:25.376+01:00Oh dear! I seem to have annoyed more than one per...Oh dear! I seem to have annoyed more than one person – sorry, but that really wasn’t my intention, I assure you. I had assumed that it was almost axiomatic that English novels written between 1800 and 1950 were all to do with money – that’s one of the things that makes them interesting. And please don’t confuse me with “Clever People who are Brainy At Stuff” – my highest academic qualification is an A Level in English, but as that was a Grade D I don’t suppose it amounts to much. Sorry if my contribution was not helpful; that’s for you to judge, but I really was not calling you stupid, neither then nor at regular intervals.<br />With regard to Anonymous 15:32, I agree wholeheartedly! I really enjoy Jane’s stuff on books – I even went and bought the David Bellos book on her recommendation, although I haven’t read it yet. I must say, though, that I thought that a left, Marxist or Marxian critique of literature was a valid and academically respectable approach, along with, say, a feminist critique. From her clearly stated views and honestly held beliefs, I would have expected Jane to have adopted such a “Leftist” approach, if only as one of the many tools in her critical armoury – if not, then so be it. Maybe it’s a bit passé nowadays, what with structuralism and the like.<br />As to the “best novels in any language are about the range of human emotions in their various forms”, yes, I agree completely, but have you noticed that it only tends to be the English novels which use money as the impetus to examine them? I don’t think that German, Russian or French novels are money based to the same extent, but I am willing to be persuaded otherwise.<br />And Anonymous 15:32, you are right about Blake – I have read little, and understood less. But I do remember Terry Eagleton’s closing lines from his Alternative National Anthem – “And Milton, Blake and Shelley, will smash the Ruling Class yet!”<br />Happy New Year to you all.<br />PS By the way, I reckon that the description of the Beethoven Symphony in Howard’s End is one of the best depictions of music ever committed to paper.Augustus Carpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-52815962604109298272011-12-31T15:09:11.175+01:002011-12-31T15:09:11.175+01:00Two of the women who were elected in 1997 as BBs a...Two of the women who were elected in 1997 as BBs also had breast cancer. As well as the sad case of Rachel Squires, Melanie Johnson had it; also, Debra Shipley.<br /><br />Debra was certainly treated in the most gross and abominable way by her Constituency Labour Party. This is why she did not stand in 2005. It should here be mentioned that the one person who really stood up for Debra and supported her bravely against all the abuse she endured at the hands of the CLP - especially after she had lost her husband to cancer - was the vilified Maragret Moran. <br />And Tess from Gloucester and Jenny from Wolverhampton stood down in 2011 because they hated the nasty and spiteful bullying meted out to women MPs. Julia from Swindon also decided that she had had enough in 2005.<br />Daria was bullied unmercifully by her CLP.<br /><br />All the women in the bad stuff,wasn't it? That is what Harriet and co should be investigating. It is not just getting the numebrs - it is how those women are treated and supported once they get there - and what systems are put in to deal with abuse when it occurs that matters. Sadly such support systems were all at hand when Oona King was persecuted and when Fiona Mactaggart suffered abuse. But this help was applied selectively. It was not availabel on an equal basis - or even at all to other women. This is unfair and must be addressed as of urgency.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-26093284293337538452011-12-30T15:32:48.352+01:002011-12-30T15:32:48.352+01:00Jane's posts on books are always interesting ...Jane's posts on books are always interesting because she is interested in books. Most people aren't. People who talk about 'the Left' in relation to literary appreciation don't know how to read. And - hey, Mr Gus! The best novels in any language are about the range of human emotions in their various forms. That's it really. Have you read Blake? Bet you don't understand him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-87051001320558382562011-12-30T13:53:36.787+01:002011-12-30T13:53:36.787+01:00How many of the Labour men elected in 1997 died? ...How many of the Labour men elected in 1997 died? I don't think any of them did. The ones who passed on were of an older generation. Of the true Babes (Labour women elected for the first time in 1997) two, Fiona and Rachel, are dead, and another one might be. I hope those responsible for hounding Fiona to her death get their comeuppance one day. Not holding my breath.janestheonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17617250693471034197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-74918282015207117182011-12-30T13:48:22.312+01:002011-12-30T13:48:22.312+01:00Gus, I'm sorry, but if you think my posts are ...Gus, I'm sorry, but if you think my posts are stupid you don't have to read any more of them. We can't all be Clever People who are Brainy At Stuff. I am well supplied with people prepared to call me stupid at regular intervals, so your contribution is not helpful. I have never claimed to be a person of letters, just a person who likes reading. Oh and what has being "on the Left" got to do with anything? Happy New Year.janestheonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17617250693471034197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-4597570036625397392011-12-30T11:36:17.806+01:002011-12-30T11:36:17.806+01:00Wha? You are on the political Left, have been rea...Wha? You are on the political Left, have been reading voraciously and widely for nigh on 50 years and you have only just realised that the best English novels are all about money? Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray, Austen, the "snobbery with violence" school of the 1920s, Fleming, Waugh, Captain WE Johns, the whole of English letters is about money. That's why some of us are compelled to read "foreign" stuff, just to get a break from it all.Augustus Carpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-85687393225771331792011-12-30T10:49:44.323+01:002011-12-30T10:49:44.323+01:00Bloody Hell! Five of us. I had forgotten Rachel Sq...Bloody Hell! Five of us. I had forgotten Rachel Squires who died of breast cancer.<br /><br />This picture is becoming a Memento Mori.<br /><br />How's your own health? I had a nasty touch of flu recently.........Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-47593155854358602452011-12-30T10:38:09.478+01:002011-12-30T10:38:09.478+01:00Yes - actually three wenches rather than the two, ...Yes - actually three wenches rather than the two, Fiona and Mo that I originally thought of.The late Audrey Wise is on that pic as well - oh and so is G Dunwoody - so four dead to date. <br /><br />Really pray that the one who is close to it ( a very nice woman) will pull through and find that there is more to life than that and the copnsequences of it.<br /><br />Apropos of the picture - how timely in a way. B Boothroyd is 'guest editing' The Today prog today ( not one of your fave people as I recall?) and she was wombling on about the fact that positive discrimination for women was disgusting and that women should 'get there on their own merits'. Yes,Betty - I agree. So lets have merit then and ban all the unfair advantages that some in that picture got even before they were elected by rags like The Filth saying they were goign to be the Labour woman PM/Chancellor ebfore they ahd even made a Maiden speech. Nuff said - but I will carry on saying that, so there!<br /><br />But - on another note- forgot to say in previous post that Greta Scacchi played the wonderful Diana Delves Broughton in the White Mischief film - and that her husband, Jock Delves Broughton was tried for the murder of her lover Errol because of the incriminating discovery of a pair of his 'checked stockings, splattered with blood'; found near to the corpse. All went on in Kenya. He was sensationally acquitted - but then, just as sensationally, killed himself in a hotel room some years later. Of course, Diana ahd left him by then and had married and left the John Hurt figure too. Oh and - guess what?! Isabella Blow who killed herself a couple of years ago by drinking weed killer after trying and failing to do it by jumping off a motorway bridge ( she just broke both her ankles on that attempt) was the great grandaughter of Jock Delves Broughton. So it goes on into another generation.<br /><br />Fascinating - and a world away from Betty! apart that Diana was a bit of a hoofer too, as far as I can see.<br /><br />If you do one thing in 2012, read White Mischief - also the biography of Lord Erroll. Oddly enough ( again), Frances Osbourne, wife of Boy Gideon, has written a not half bad biog of Joss Erroll's first wife, Lady Idina. It is called The Bolter and again I would recommend it.<br />And last of all, David James Smith who wrote the best and most sympathetic account of the way Fiona Jones in that picture was hounded to her death - also wrote a very good and sympathetic account of the life of Isabella Blow in The Sunday Times Magazine! And he had a brilliant biog of N Mandela's early days published last year caleld The Young Mandela. Again a good one to read! Degrees of separation and all that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-64293438666351304912011-12-30T10:08:12.940+01:002011-12-30T10:08:12.940+01:00Yes, I was in two minds whether to publish it (the...Yes, I was in two minds whether to publish it (the picture) but it is a piece of history we were part of, and enough time has gone by. "Besides, the wench is dead"...janestheonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17617250693471034197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2932765464128103640.post-78292389141981187672011-12-30T00:03:27.886+01:002011-12-30T00:03:27.886+01:00No he isn't that one. James Fox wrote White Mi...No he isn't that one. James Fox wrote White Mischief - probably the best book written about the murder of Lord Errol and Happy Valley. A film was made based on the book starring a ( then) beautiful Greta Scacchi with Charles Dance as male lead and John Hurt in a supporting role.<br /><br />The person whoo haunts the Richards book is Anita Pallenberg and the image of teh walls drenched in red wine is compelling. <br /><br />Grateful for the Somerset Maugham review -- Of Human Bondage is superb. Oddly enough, I have just finished reading The Moon and Sixpence.<br />I usally like Barnes but couldn't get on with Arthur and George; not inetrested in Conan Doyle. I have always preferred Barnes' very early novel Before She Met Me - and of the recent stuff, the short story colletcion published in 2011, Pulse is excellent ; also his autobiographical book about family and death published a couple of years ago: Nothing to be Afraid of.<br /><br />Just reading A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates. Definitely worth it. <br /><br />Oh - and the Jeanette Winterson: Why be happy when you could be normal?<br /><br />Well - yes, there is that. <br /><br />Best thing in this account of some of her life is when she gets irritated with her 'real' mother ( having found her) when the latter criticises Mrs Winterson.<br />Felt very odd seeing the dreaded picture again. I don't like it.<br />Some of us always felt uncomfortable about it. <br />A couple of us are now dead -- one of us is nearly dead. Some of us did not like that picture at the time and like it less as the years go by.<br /><br />It feels evry Miss Havisham.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com