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Dennis and company - I spent an hour this morning writing a more formal, almost academic list and then realized that I was composing the sort of blog day I tend to scroll past en route to the p.s. and the comments section.
Henry James' novellas
The Beast in the Jungle
The Jolly Corner (double theme)
The Aspern Papers
The Figure in the Carpet (must reading for aspiring lit crit writers)
The Turn of the Screw
Daisy Miller
The Author of Beltraffio (James based this on a scrap of gossip about Greek love advocate John Addington Symonds and his wife)
other Vicwardians
Under The Hill - Aubrey Beardsley and John Glasco (somewhat twee erotic fantasy by the great decadent illustrator)
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Oscar Wilde
The Portrait of Mr. W.H. - Oscar Wilde (fiction in the guise of literary scholarship. Wilde "proves' that some of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a young man)
A Warning to the Curious - M.R. James (classic ghost stories)
English fiction 1900 - ?
Ronald Firbank - Five Novels (the reader is either enchanted or baffled by Firbank, whose dialogue effects presage the microphone technique of Robert Altman)
Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop
Christopher Isherwood - The Berlin Stories (if you've seen the BBC film of Christopher and His Kind, meet Sally Bowles and Arthur Norris, the fictional counterparts of Jean Ross and Gerald Hamilton)
Paul Bowles - Up Above The World (Bowles' fourth and last novel, a story of vengeance that works on a thriller level), The Delicate Prey and other stories (Bowles' real masterpieces are his short stories)
Tennessee Williams - One Arm, Hard Candy (Tennessee wrote stories when he got stuck writing a play, according to Gore Vidal. Death and the Black Masseur and Two On A Party are standouts)
John Cheever - Collected Stories (if you're not ready for Cheever's Big Book, see below)
--The Enormous Radio and other stories
--Some People, Places and Things That Will Not Appear In My Next Novel
--The World of Apples
Angus Wilson - A Bit Off The Map
--The Wrong Set
--Death Dance (collected short stories) (Wilson was a Brit but some of his short stories have a grotesque quality that's reminiscent of McCullers, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty)
Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Carson McCullers - Reflections in a Golden Eye (atypical Carson, its detached voice reminds me of Paul Bowles)
Muriel Spark - Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
--Memento Mori
--The Driver's Seat
--Not to Disturb
--The Takeover
--Aiding and Abetting (a speculation about What Really Happened to Lord Lucan)
Genre
Thomas Disch - Fun with Your New Head (ss)
The Dark Descent, ed. by David G. Hartwell (a gigantic horror anthology. Hartwell thinks that the short story is the classic horror form, making the horror novel an avant garde experoment.)
Robert Aickman - Cold Hand in Mine
--Painted Devils
Shirley Jackson - The Lottery or The Adventures of James Harris
Ramsey Campbell - Scared Stiff (erotic horror)
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p.s. Hey. If memory serves, this is the stellar writer and d.l. David's first turn at the wheel that drives this blog's front page, and his classy tips are yours to reckon with today, so please do and comment accordingly. Thank you kindly, David, and my thanks extend to all of you who make his post your business. ** Syreearmwellion, Whoa, wtf, amazing! The Spiderman catch. Thanks, man. Everyone, if you know or care even the tiniest bit about baseball, this is amazing, and it's thanks to our buddy Syreearmwellion. ** David Ehrenstein, One reason why Pena might have gotten name-checked and I didn't is because I play a character rather than doing a cameo. My character even has a name: Robin. But the indieWire thing did mention him (the radical art collector) and even quote him/me (that 'bad art, kitsch' thing), so at my least my little turn wasn't completely overlooked. ** Tonyoneill, Awesome, I was thinking and hoping you'd know Higgins and have seen him play. I totally agree about snooker and darts. During my Amsterdam period, I watched both as often as the TV coverage would allow, and if I had English TV as an option now, I still would. Yeah, really happy you got goodness from the post, man. Thanks a lot, T. ** Wolf, Hm. I don't see how the fact that Higgens occasioned six or seven ugly incidents in his life, was a fuck up, was fucked up, was not a paragon of virtue, negates the heroism that his brilliant artistry/ snooker playing inspires in me for instance. Back when I was particularly aware of him and watching him play a lot and mesmerized by his gifts, I had no idea what he was doing when he wasn't playing snooker, and now that I know he was a prick once in a while, that doesn't make his artistry seem any less powerful or admirable than it was when it was pure. So, tormented geniuses are only worthy of respect when they're able to sit on their hands, follow the rules, and behave like gentlemen? You think if someone doesn't tiptoe on the edge, he or she either isn't on the edge or is abusing its privileges? By that logic, a whole bunch of amazing musicians, writers, artists, etc. throughout history would just be assholes whose accomplishments were beside the point. I mean, Rimbaud was a prick to people, misbehaved at literary events, took a lot of drugs, and even shot his boyfriend. That makes him, what, a too much of a jerk to take seriously? I mean, to bring up a sore subject, you passionately defend Bertrand Cantat, and, even if his conviction was unfair, he certainly didn't treat his girlfriend like a model citizen in that situation. Obviously, hurting other people isn't admirable at all, but if you're saying artists or figures who make mistakes, even serious mistakes, in their personal lives for reasons we will never fully understand are automatically hateful pricks, period, then I totally disagree. Now my rant joins yours in being over, ha ha. ** Saint-Amand, Hey. Yeah, I find snooker really elegant too. I grew up with a pool table in my bedroom, and I was a pretty good pool player at one point, but snooker's complexity and grace makes it an even more fascinating game to me. Sure, I'd love it if you want to compile a day on Jean Nouvel. I've never featured his work here, and that would be terrific and very kind of you. Thanks! ** Pilgarlic, Very interesting about the techno scene in Orlando. There was a very good, heady rave scene in LA in the early 90s. Even my minimal involvement in it, and in the concurrent scene in the UK, made for one of the best times of my life. I definitely miss it. ** Killer Luka, My membership of your site is in the bag, if that's any encouragement. No, oops, I do not have tickets for the Fever Ray show, but there might just be time enough to get one or two. Thanks for the reminder. Yikes. ** Sypha, Yes, I seem to have found the penis to be ripe for all kind of peculiar metaphors and things. It was all part of my dastardly plan, I assure you. It's interesting that Bruges continues to be an inspiration for a lot of very interesting fiction, movies, and so on. Bruno Dumont's fairly recent film 'In Bruges' springs to mind. ** Emily, I always found that if you can maintain a crash diet long enough, you get this weird, nice euphoria produced, I guess, by the effect of your body desperately seeking nourishment in its own nooks and crannies. ** Mark Gluth, I promise to do my best to make your drool count. ** Rigby, Hey, big R! Excellent to see you, my man, and thanks a lot for propping my Higgens props. You good? What's going on of late? Fill me in, no? ** Alan, Ha ha, that was exactly my first thought when I saw the BR question, ha ha. Busted. ** Steevee, I only had a coffee with Noe once, but we have a number of mutual friends, and Gisele is very close with his girlfriend, and I'm pretty sure he's straight. I'd guess his cameo in that scene/ setting was for fun. Anyway, how did the interview go? ** JW Veldhoen, The Banff residency thing is interesting. Do you think being sort of isolated in natural beauty with a laptop and camera(s), I'm guessing, would help you kick your own artistic ass or something? We should play a game of pool sometime. I haven't played pool in years. I used to be pretty hard to beat. ** Statictick, The self-destructive tendencies of the word 'thanks' are really odd, yeah. Dude, that's a lot of guns. Guns make me nervous, but if they have to be in someone's hands, I'm glad it's yours. Snail mail, ACT ... I ... well, I would say I don't think I got it, but this place is a mess, and Yury puts mail in places whose whereabouts are unknown to me, so let me check today and see if it's here but hiding under the radar. ** Laurabeth, Hey! Wow, cool, hi there, pal! I've missed you, no surprise, although I do my best to keep a bit of an eye on you via Facebook. In a sentence? 'TIHYWD': Something strange and inexplicable but hopefully charismatic happens in a forest in which three people who may or may not exist are seen. 'THEM': A recreation of a performance piece from the early 80s called 'Them' that was an exploration of how AIDS had turned sex into a kind of horror movie at that time. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about the breakup with Dan. I hope you're okay with that. I'm not sure if I'll be in NYC for the actual 'Them' performances or not. I probably won't be able to afford it. I'll be in NYC for a week, if I'm lucky, around October 15th because I'm doing a reading that night at the New Museum. Great if you can be there then, of course. I'll pass along details and stuff when I have them. Take care, my dear friend. ** _Black_Acrylic, Glad you liked the Higgins stuff, thanks. Oh, I guess I'll pass along your thing. Everyone, here's _Black_Acrylic aka Ben Robinson: 'Today I used my position on the Skinny to plug the AGK here. The deadline really is looming, but if anyone fancies making a quick karaoke video then you're more than welcome to enter.' ** Will Decker, Ha ha, wow, I have an IMBD page as an actor? That's hilarious and cool. Thank you for the alert. Trippy. I'm good. We've been having the mildest summer here, and, as you can appreciate, I'm sure, I appreciate it. Stay shaded and cool. ** Brendan, Hey, B. I own you an email, jeez, I'll send it today. I wonder if there would be even a tiny crowd at the LaBianca house on the anniversary at this point. I suppose so. Hm. Well, I'm sure you made the right choice 'cos you're a choicy guy, man. ** Misanthrope, Your birthday sounds like it wasn't too shabby. Better than my last one on which I did absolutely nothing to celebrate apart from checking my Facebook wall. Kyros what's-his-butt is finally on the market, fyi. I saw his ad. So will you once next escort post arrives. Oh, man, heavy finger crossing for your mom and you this morning. Hang tough, and let me know how everything goes, okay? ** Paul Joseph, Hey. Very interesting class you'll be teaching. I'm imagining the syllabus, and it's a greatest hits in my mind's eye. Your novel idea of course sounds most intriguing. You're still making the rounds with your novel? Are you submitting it yourself, or do you have an agent? What a horrible phase that is, but I hope you don't give up all hope. You know the stories about how many, many presses turned down how many amazing novels before they found the smart one. ** Bill, Hey, B. I really love what you ended up making with Paul's text. You absolutely avoided the pitfall you were concerned about, that's for sure. When do classes start? Great to see you, of course. ** Creative Massacre, Cool that the link helped get the band votes. Hm, I'll see if I can vote again using a different browser. Really glad you're starting to feel better. Hopefully, you'll hardly remember what nausea feels like very soon. ** Paul Curran, Welcome back from Heathrow. Now pull that novel out and get to work, you hear me? ** Postitbreakup, Hey. Yeah, absolutely, having gotten a job in this climate is something to savor. And it sounds like, job-wise, it could have been a lot worse. The movie I'm in? Oh, let me see if I can find the trailer again ... This is the movie. Keep your eyes open, and you'll even see a second of me in the trailer. Hope you got through your work day without too many nods. ** Okay, please read and talk to your guest-host David, if you will. See you tomorrow, duh.
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