August 4th, 2010 / 12:51 am
Roundup
Blake Butler
Roundup
Freaks Meeks 700 Sads
1. Excellent profile by Michael H. Miller on the excellent Meeks, by Julia Holmes, at the Observer.
2. This dude owns 700 copies of a book called Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana. What book do you own the most copies of? [via Electric Lit via Ron Silliman]
3. Brief but pleasant list of quality of Gary Lutz’s writing, blogged by Ryan Kamstra. “For all the self-referential wizardry and playfulness with the expectation of the sentence overpowering his work, his fiction is tempered by deep human concern. It is also very sad.”
Tags: gary lutz, Julia Holmes, Meeks, Richard Henry Dana
on note “two”:
of course i can move beyond his idiosyncrasy,
since we have trekkies,
people who watch teevee religiously,
all them jeezies and tiny-spoon-collectors.
but what about the book’s availability?
Thank goodness for libraries,
but sometimes we need our own personal copy.
ZZZZIPP HAS MULTIPLE COPIES OF MOBY DICK AND SOME OF BORGES.
this read like the start of a seriously clutch rap couplet.
Multiple copies of Leaves of Grass and Alice in Wonderland. Predictable, really. I liked Two Years Before the Mast– would never have occurred to me to collect copies.
on note “two”:
of course i can move beyond his idiosyncrasy,
since we have trekkies,
people who watch teevee religiously,
all them jeezies and tiny-spoon-collectors.
but what about the book’s availability?
Thank goodness for libraries,
but sometimes we need our own personal copy.
ZZZZIPP HAS MULTIPLE COPIES OF MOBY DICK AND SOME OF BORGES.
I’ve got multiple copies of “Only Revolutions” by Mark Z. Danielewski (including a signed copy). I also keep multiple copies of “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg because every time I loan out a copy, the recipient fails to return it for one reason or another (I’ve lost 3 copies that way).
I own 200 copies of the 1994 action hit Speed on VHS.
2 copies of Light Boxes–the PubGen ed. and the Penguin–wanting to eventually get around to a comparative reading to see what Penguin changed.
Two Years Before the Mast is really good. Dana was a friend and correspondent of Melville’s, unsurprisingly.
Meeks is an excellent book. Here’s my review.
I own a half-dozen copies of Ulysses and a couple copies of Two Years Before the Mast. It is very good. Without Dana, there’s no Melville.
No Dana, no Melville? That’s a pretty absurd claim.
I’ve got multiple copies of “Only Revolutions” by Mark Z. Danielewski (including a signed copy). I also keep multiple copies of “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg because every time I loan out a copy, the recipient fails to return it for one reason or another (I’ve lost 3 copies that way).
I own 200 copies of the 1994 action hit Speed on VHS.
2 copies of Light Boxes–the PubGen ed. and the Penguin–wanting to eventually get around to a comparative reading to see what Penguin changed.
Bold maybe, but not absurd. In Melville: His World and Work, Nicholas Delblanco discusses the connections between Dana and Melville and the influence the former had on the latter. (Though Dana was five years older, they shared the same birthday, which, incidentally, was last Sunday.)
The myth of Melville as misunderstood genius is compelling, but it shouldn’t obscure the fact he had a lot of famous friends who helped and encouraged him.
Two Years Before the Mast is really good. Dana was a friend and correspondent of Melville’s, unsurprisingly.
Meeks is an excellent book. Here’s my review.
I own a half-dozen copies of Ulysses and a couple copies of Two Years Before the Mast. It is very good. Without Dana, there’s no Melville.
No Dana, no Melville? That’s a pretty absurd claim.
Bold maybe, but not absurd. In Melville: His World and Work, Nicholas Delblanco discusses the connections between Dana and Melville and the influence the former had on the latter. (Though Dana was five years older, they shared the same birthday, which, incidentally, was last Sunday.)
The myth of Melville as misunderstood genius is compelling, but it shouldn’t obscure the fact he had a lot of famous friends who helped and encouraged him.
I’m flipping through my Delbanco and I don’t see any talk of Dana influencing Melville. Sure, Herman read Two Years Before the Mast. Jim, can you point to where Delbanco talks about this? Thanks.
I wish I had that little nub freak in the picture to snuggle with at night like an adult woobie. You think there’s a hole on him?
he has to shit somehow.
ZZZZIPP HAS MULTIPLE COPIES OF MOBY DICK AND SOME OF BORGES
YOU LIVE IN THE ALLEY BEHIND WENDY’S WANTIN’ MORE PAYS
YOU ARE INTELLECTUALLY AND MONETARILY BANKRUPT
(BORGES IS A HARD RHYME)
WITHOUT KING LEAR OR TRISTRAM SHANDY THERE WOULD BE NO MOBY DICK
WITHOUT PACIFIC ISLANDERS THERE WOULD BE NO MELVILLE AS WE KNOW HIM
WITHOUT MELVILLE’S MOM AND DAD THERE WOULD BE NO MELVILLE
IF MELVILLE NEVER LEARNED TO READ HE WOULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN ANYTHING
I’m flipping through my Delbanco and I don’t see any talk of Dana influencing Melville. Sure, Herman read Two Years Before the Mast. Jim, can you point to where Delbanco talks about this? Thanks.
I wish I had that little nub freak in the picture to snuggle with at night like an adult woobie. You think there’s a hole on him?
he has to shit somehow.
Certainly absurd. And that fine work is by Andrew Delbanco, by the way, not Nicholas. It is of course true that Melville read and enjoyed Dana’s book, and often recommended it to those wishing to gain an accurate understanding of life at sea. But your claim is absurd on its face. There’s just no evidence to support your assertion that without Dana there is no Melville. If there is I’d like to see it, and maybe you ought as well bring it to the attention of Hershel Parker, Andrew Delbanco, Harrison Hayford, the ghost of Newton Arvin et al.
I have before me a copy of Melville’s letter to Dana, dated 1 May 1850, and in it there is nothing to suggest the kind of influence you claim. Melville writes to Dana of a “sort of Siamese link of affectionate sympathy” he feels toward him, but if you think that’s strong you ought to read what he wrote to Hawthorne, or perhaps his now famous review of Mosses from an Old Manse. It can’t even be said that Dana’s book influenced Melville to take to the sea.
No, a bold claim would be along the lines of, No Hawthorne, no Melville; your claim is categorically absurd.
ZZZZIPP HAS MULTIPLE COPIES OF MOBY DICK AND SOME OF BORGES
YOU LIVE IN THE ALLEY BEHIND WENDY’S WANTIN’ MORE PAYS
YOU ARE INTELLECTUALLY AND MONETARILY BANKRUPT
(BORGES IS A HARD RHYME)
WITHOUT KING LEAR OR TRISTRAM SHANDY THERE WOULD BE NO MOBY DICK
WITHOUT PACIFIC ISLANDERS THERE WOULD BE NO MELVILLE AS WE KNOW HIM
WITHOUT MELVILLE’S MOM AND DAD THERE WOULD BE NO MELVILLE
IF MELVILLE NEVER LEARNED TO READ HE WOULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN ANYTHING
Certainly absurd. And that fine work is by Andrew Delbanco, by the way, not Nicholas. It is of course true that Melville read and enjoyed Dana’s book, and often recommended it to those wishing to gain an accurate understanding of life at sea. But your claim is absurd on its face. There’s just no evidence to support your assertion that without Dana there is no Melville. If there is I’d like to see it, and maybe you ought as well bring it to the attention of Hershel Parker, Andrew Delbanco, Harrison Hayford, the ghost of Newton Arvin et al.
I have before me a copy of Melville’s letter to Dana, dated 1 May 1850, and in it there is nothing to suggest the kind of influence you claim. Melville writes to Dana of a “sort of Siamese link of affectionate sympathy” he feels toward him, but if you think that’s strong you ought to read what he wrote to Hawthorne, or perhaps his now famous review of Mosses from an Old Manse. It can’t even be said that Dana’s book influenced Melville to take to the sea.
No, a bold claim would be along the lines of, No Hawthorne, no Melville; your claim is categorically absurd.
I don’t have it with me, but I’ll do so this evening.
Oh lord call it categorically absurd then. (I’m in advertising; overgeneralizing is my bread and butter.)
If it will help unkink the wad in your knickers I’ll back down from no dana, no melville, but isn’t insisting that Dana didn’t have an influence on Melville’s literary career the same thing in the other direction?
I’d love to see that letter btw. Maybe we could continue this conversation offline?
Sorry — being more more than a little obsessed with Melville and his work, and literary nautical history in general, I may have overreacted.
Whatever Dana’s influence upon Melville’s work, I think it rather slight.
If you’re interested in reading that short letter I’m sure it can be found online, and I know it’s been published in a few books, including the Norton critical edition of Moby-Dick (2nd ed.) and Vol. XIV of Northwestern-Newberry’s series of Melville’s collected writings.
Morningstar,
Well if you can’t get obsessive on the Internet, where can you? I’m a sucker for nautical stories as well. Since I hated every minute of my stint in the Navy and then promptly romanticized the experience, I assume other sailors scribblers did, too. (Think Conrad.) Dana, a man of extraordinary integrity, did not. Melville I’m not so sure…
Thanks for the leads. I’ll have to check out the Norton when I get home.
I don’t have it with me, but I’ll do so this evening.
Oh lord call it categorically absurd then. (I’m in advertising; overgeneralizing is my bread and butter.)
If it will help unkink the wad in your knickers I’ll back down from no dana, no melville, but isn’t insisting that Dana didn’t have an influence on Melville’s literary career the same thing in the other direction?
I’d love to see that letter btw. Maybe we could continue this conversation offline?
Sorry — being more more than a little obsessed with Melville and his work, and literary nautical history in general, I may have overreacted.
Whatever Dana’s influence upon Melville’s work, I think it rather slight.
If you’re interested in reading that short letter I’m sure it can be found online, and I know it’s been published in a few books, including the Norton critical edition of Moby-Dick (2nd ed.) and Vol. XIV of Northwestern-Newberry’s series of Melville’s collected writings.
Morningstar,
Well if you can’t get obsessive on the Internet, where can you? I’m a sucker for nautical stories as well. Since I hated every minute of my stint in the Navy and then promptly romanticized the experience, I assume other sailors scribblers did, too. (Think Conrad.) Dana, a man of extraordinary integrity, did not. Melville I’m not so sure…
Thanks for the leads. I’ll have to check out the Norton when I get home.