What are you reading now?

[Michael]

Sounds interesting! While I haven't really read anything by Kipling, I am certainly very much aware of his writings; I'll have to give his works a read.

Which reminds me of an old joke:

He: Do you like Kipling?
She: I don't know. I never kippled.

[Chaszz]

Sounds interesting! While I haven't really read anything by Kipling, I am certainly very much aware of his writings; I'll have to give his works a read.

Try to be selective, as his work is uneven. I recommend starting with the first Jungle Book. You may enjoy the two stories I noted, and others. It was meant for adults as well as children.

Kipling was immensely popular in his lifetime and fell out of favor for his jingoism, chauvinism and racism in the mid and later 20th century. In spite of being almost a caricature of the kind of man we try not be anymore, he can really write. His poems are very simple, but none other than TS Eliot thought he was a great poet and edited and introduced a book of his poems.

Maugham is another you might want to try if you don't know his work. Three famous novels, Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge, and The Moon and Sixpence are very fine. And I have rarely read a short story by him I haven't liked. The most famous is 'Rain.'

[Sorrano]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[Quijote]

Lovelock, Second Year Harmony, Chapter 7, pp. 47-54, "Secondary Sevenths". What fun, you might say (ironically). Ah yes, philistines, I would reply (with equal irony); for an application of such harmonic principles you need look only at Mozart String Quartet K590, 2nd movement, bars 29-31 between violin 1 and 'cello. Then again, is the passage merely suspensions, or really a sequence of secondary sevenths?
Whatever your view, it is a typical Mozart "fingerprint".

[Quijote]

And the above is an example of how harmony can be sexy!

[Peter]

And the above is an example of how harmony can be sexy!

I think you're taking the name 'Lovelock' too literally!

[Quijote]

It is true that 'Lovelock' has a certain 'cachet' compared to luminaries such as Walter Piston, Arnold Schoenberg, Kitson and Butterworth (whose treatises I have also ploughed through, for greater or lesser enlightenment). Lovelock I always found the most approachable. Besides, he was half Aussie. Well, he was exiled for a few years in Bonn1827's land. By the way, if Lovelock is sexy, what does that make of Warlock?

[Peter]

It is true that 'Lovelock' has a certain 'cachet' compared to luminaries such as Walter Piston, Arnold Schoenberg, Kitson and Butterworth (whose treatises I have also ploughed through, for greater or lesser enlightenment). Lovelock I always found the most approachable. Besides, he was half Aussie. Well, he was exiled for a few years in Bonn1827's land. By the way, if Lovelock is sexy, what does that make of Warlock?

Well I presume Lovelock had no say in the matter of his name, but Warlock chose his own destiny which ended tragically in a basement flat a few houses along from Oscar Wilde's 'house beautiful' in Tite street, Chelsea.

[Quijote]

Anybody ever read stuff by James Ellroy (Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, and so on...)? I used to be a bit sniffy about crime writing, but this guy put me right, no doubt about it. I first read him in Granta (a new writing periodical in the UK) where he was trumpeted as a sort of "jazz" writer, and it was certainly the case that his approach to syntax echoed that. I thought it was fascinating.

[Sorrano]

It is true that 'Lovelock' has a certain 'cachet' compared to luminaries such as Walter Piston, Arnold Schoenberg, Kitson and Butterworth (whose treatises I have also ploughed through, for greater or lesser enlightenment). Lovelock I always found the most approachable. Besides, he was half Aussie. Well, he was exiled for a few years in Bonn1827's land. By the way, if Lovelock is sexy, what does that make of Warlock?

Warlock must be one locky fella.

[Preston]

here it is Philip

[Quijote]

Miracle of miracles, this thread has reappeared. Here's a link to what I've read tonight (see after). Actually, it makes me weep (no onions this time). I knew I didn't care much for John Adam's music. This article confirms my low opinion of his "ideology", for want of a better term. If the USA needs a so-called "Composer Laureat", Steve Reich is the man.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010...w-peter-conrad

[Maurice Colgan]

J P Donleavy's "Wrong Information Is Being Given Out At Princeton", has me back with hilarious escapades of "The Ginger Man".

[Quijote]

Following on from Bonn's comments about James Ellroy and his opinion of Brahms (among others), here's a link worth checking out :

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainm...9;sarover.html

[Bonn1827]

Anybody ever read stuff by James Ellroy (Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, and so on...)? I used to be a bit sniffy about crime writing, but this guy put me right, no doubt about it. I first read him in Granta (a new writing periodical in the UK) where he was trumpeted as a sort of "jazz" writer, and it was certainly the case that his approach to syntax echoed that. I thought it was fascinating.

I think it's just great, Phil 2 Spain, that you even think about such things as syntax. I studied 1st year Linguistics and I think that's the last time anybody used that word meaningfully. I really dig your grammatical "literacy", old/young man.