Obscure books
The American Conservative asked readers to suggest obscure books (in the sense of not widely read). I recommended these:
Time and Western Man, by Wyndham Lewis. For the style, and the hilarious and devastating chapter on Joyce, not for its considerable amount of gobbledygook.
Journey to the Land of the Flies, by Aldo Buzzi. A combination of travel writing, literary criticism, food appreciation, and memoir. Buzzi died Oct. 9, at the age of 99.
Tetrasomy Two by Oscar Rossiter. An entertaining and original novel science fiction fans will like more than I did.
The Gray Cloth, Paul Scheerbart’s novel on glass architecture. It’s about flying around in a blimp and glass architecture.
Operette Morali, by Giacomo Leopardi. Brilliant and allusive little fictions, in the form of essays and dialogues, which have been obscured to an extent by the polymathic prodigy’s poetry.
Decadence, by C. E. M. Joad. Joad was an English philosopher and a celebrity in the 1940s. After fare dodging for years, in 1948 he was convicted of riding the Waterloo-Exeter train without a ticket. Many believe the humiliating episode led to his premature death in 1953.
The True History of the American Revolution, by Sidney George Fisher. Of all the books on this list the one most dangerous to your brain. A Moldbug discovery.
Time’s Children, by Chester Northmour. One of the best novels of the 1980’s. Arguably one of the best novels of the 20th century.
Time and Western Man, by Wyndham Lewis. For the style, and the hilarious and devastating chapter on Joyce, not for its considerable amount of gobbledygook.
Journey to the Land of the Flies, by Aldo Buzzi. A combination of travel writing, literary criticism, food appreciation, and memoir. Buzzi died Oct. 9, at the age of 99.
Tetrasomy Two by Oscar Rossiter. An entertaining and original novel science fiction fans will like more than I did.
The Gray Cloth, Paul Scheerbart’s novel on glass architecture. It’s about flying around in a blimp and glass architecture.
Operette Morali, by Giacomo Leopardi. Brilliant and allusive little fictions, in the form of essays and dialogues, which have been obscured to an extent by the polymathic prodigy’s poetry.
Decadence, by C. E. M. Joad. Joad was an English philosopher and a celebrity in the 1940s. After fare dodging for years, in 1948 he was convicted of riding the Waterloo-Exeter train without a ticket. Many believe the humiliating episode led to his premature death in 1953.
The True History of the American Revolution, by Sidney George Fisher. Of all the books on this list the one most dangerous to your brain. A Moldbug discovery.
Time’s Children, by Chester Northmour. One of the best novels of the 1980’s. Arguably one of the best novels of the 20th century.
poor Wyndham Lewis: proof that it is just too easy to get lost in the, er, vortex of your own intellectual anus. His "Blasting and Bombardeering," however, is surprisingly readable. Ditto sections of "Rotting Hill".
ReplyDeleteI should check those out. Most of Time and Western Man, unfortunately, consists of railing about now forgotten theories and people which at the time were considered extremely important.
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