One of the reasons for not blogging too much is that I’ve been working on Sonic Acts XII The Cinematic Experience. The festival takes place from 21 – 24 February. Most of my time went into editing the book. Yesterday the book was delivered at the Sonic Acts office – I have not even seen it myself (will pick up a copy later today).

The book will be available during the festival, and can also already be ordered online at: http://www.sim-central.nl/detail.php?id=5757.

More info on the book and the festival at the Sonic Acts XII site: http://www.sonicacts.com/.

Two books I’ve read over the past few weeks I’d like to mention here:

J.G. Ballard: Miracles of Life, his autobiography, very concise, clear, and as I did not know too much about his background (not having read much on Ballard), very illuminating. He writes about his life – not his work. He does not interpret his own texts, nor does he take issue with criticisms. Yet exactly because of that it is illuminating. It gives background, it explains a life and a way of living.

Samuel R. Delany: About Writing. Without doubt the best book on writing that I’ve ever read. That is: the best book on writing fiction, and on writing as a craft. It’s a bunch of essays, a lot of tips and five interviews (only those are sometimes a bit long-winded), all informed by Delany’s wide experience as a writer and as a teacher of writing. I’d say: required reading on any ‘creative’ writing course. (And even when Delany’s might be wrong, or when you’d disagree with him, the disagreement will get you somewhere: further). Especially recommended for anyone who loves to blog and knows how important a good sentence is ;-)

Is the ‘quality’ of what you are doing reflected in the sites that Google sends you to, acting on your queries?

http://1010.co.uk/index.html
http://www.lfmc.org/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/index.html

“Uit die vertaaloefeningen heb ik lering getrokken: dat een leeservaring begint met het overwinnen van irritatie.” p. 16

“Literaire ervaring kwam niet alleen tot stand door het inzetten van je verbeeldingswereld, je fantasie, je dagdromen, maar ook door het lichaam, door het voelen van je ademhalingsritme, als je een tekst hardop las; of tactiel, door de schaatsbewegingen van je hand als je een tekst overschreef.” p. 16

“Eigenlijk zijn de schrijvers van mijn voorkeur allemaal vertalers. Hun boeken behoren tot de categorie die Calvino nog niet heeft genoemd: de boeken die je leest omdat je ze zou willen vertalen, om ze te begrijpen in wat je niet begrijpt van je eigen taal.” p. 75

Uit: Anthony Mertens, Lezen, man! Essays en kritieken, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 2006.

Such a pleasure to come across a good homepage. Here’s Douglas Kahn’s: http://www.douglaskahn.com. He is of course, the author of Noise, Water, Meat, probably one of the best books on sound in the arts.

He’s also editor now of an academic magazine on Sensory Studies: The Senses and Society, behind the academic firewall, but the first issue is available for free: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/tsas/numberandsomesessioninfo.

Haven’t read any of this yet, but I’ve collected the links:

The American NEA has published a study on reading: http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html.

Critiques from Matthew Kirschenbaum: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=fgprwfnh32l7d3thj18vh3jz79k9f6fw

And discussion on if:book: http://www.futureofthebook.org/archives/2007/11/the_neas_misreading_of_reading.html.

All this via Jill Walker: http://jilltxt.net/?p=2184.

Aankondiging:

Een vrolijke avond met Onno Kosters, Han van der Vegt, Arnoud van Adrichem, Joost Zwagerman, Fabian Stolk en Arie Altena

Waar: in Perdu, Kloveniersburgwal 86, 1012 CZ Amsterdam, 020 4220542
Hoe laat: 20.30 uur. Zaal open: 20.00 uur.
Datum: woensdag 21 november

We beleven opnieuw een bloeitijd in de Nederlandse epische poëzie. Er worden weer meeslepende verhalen verteld in een dichtvorm die zich uitstekend leent voor voordracht en commentaar. Vandaar deze avond, die door literair-cultureel tijdschrift De Gids wordt georganiseerd ter viering van het verschijnen van haar themanummer met en over epische gedichten.

Poëzie:
Onno Kosters leest Lonely Planet, een hellevaart op een soms ondraaglijk lichte toon.
Han van der Vegt draagt een halfuur voor uit zijn in Homerische versmaat geschreven, meeslepende epos De Paladijnen, dat integraal en verticaal is afgedrukt in De Gids.
Arnoud van Adrichem komt met een aantal gedichtencycli uit zijn debuutbundel Vis.

Commentaar:
Joost Zwagerman licht wat achtergronden toe bij Roeshoofd Hemelt, zijn eerste proeve van epiek.
Fabian Stolk legt uit waarom nu juist de epiek het zo goed doet in de Nederlandse poëzie.
Arie Altena plaatst de epische poëzie in het tijdperk van internet en andere communicatienetwerken.

U wordt door de avond geleid door Dirk van Weelden en Arjen Mulder, beide redacteuren van De Gids.

Het nummer van De Gids is inmiddels uit, en te koop “bij de betere boekhandel”.

Collaborative blog about 18th-century literature, with 2 excellent collaborative readings: http://long18th.wordpress.com/. The critical discussion of The Triumph of Augustan Poetics: English Literary Culture from Butler to Johnson, a book by Blanford Parke, made me almost buy the book immediately…

Reading / browsing books with lots of pictures is like, well, watching a good documentary on television. Or better?

These days I sometimes browse through Vic Gatrell’s City of Laughter, a very detailed account of the satirical prints published in London between 1760 and 1820: with lots of color-illustrations. The text is a bit too detailed for the level of my interest in 18th century London culture, but the prints are great. Review in the Guardian: http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,1933468,00.html.

Less academic – so closer to watching a documentary on tevee is The Seventy Great Journeys in History, published by Thames and Hudson. I love a book like this for the pleasurable way in which it fills gaps in my knowledge. And it’s nothing I have to know for any special reason.

I love clicking from one wikipedia-entry to another too as a way of discovering, filling in gaps and learning, but sometimes you just want to lie in a chair with a picture book.

Available in december in Dutch, and in spring 2008 also in an English translation: De Monografie, a complete overview of the works of Dutch avant-gardist, conceptualist, theatermaker, composer and pioneer of electronic music Dick Raaijmakers.

Arjen Mulder and Joke Brouwer of V2_ have worked by now almost three years on the book, and have gone through Dick Raaijmakers papers and other archived ‘stuff’ for it. (I’ve seen quite a few originals pass by here in the V2_ office…).

If you order the Dutch version now, you’ll get a discount. More info: http://www.dickraaijmakers.nl/