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#MustRead: Knausgaard on Houellebecq

The resistance to starting a book by Houellebecq is too great. I’m not entirely sure where it comes from, though I do have a suspicion, because the same thing goes for the films of Lars von Trier: When “Antichrist” came out I couldn’t bring myself to see it, neither in the cinema nor at home on the DVD I eventually bought, which remains in its box unwatched. They’re simply too good. What prevents me from reading Houellebecq and watching von Trier is a kind of envy — not that I begrudge them success, but by reading the books and watching the films I would be reminded of how excellent a work of art can be, and of how far beneath that level my own work is. Such a reminder, which can be crushing, is something I shield myself from by ignoring Houellebecq’s books and von Trier’s films. That may sound strange, and yet it can hardly be unusual. If you’re a carpenter, for instance, and you keep hearing about the amazing work of another carpenter, you’re not necessarily going to seek it out, because what would be the good of having it confirmed that there is a level of excellence to which you may never aspire? Better to close your eyes and carry on with your own work, pretending the master carpenter doesn’t exist.

Read the full review of Soumission here.

#houellebecq #michel houellebecq #knausgaard #karl ove knausgaard #literature #literary #soumission #submission #islam #france #french #lit #review #book review #mustread

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Idiom Time: “soup-to-nuts”

U.S. American idiom meaning from the beginning to the end, i.e. from the beginning of a meal (the soup) to the final dessert (nuts). A similar phrase exists in Latin. In Horace’s Satire 1.3, the phrase “ab ovo usque ad mala,” i.e. from the egg to the apples, appears as follows:

All singers have the same fault, nothing will make them

Offer to sing for their friends when they’re asked,

Yet unasked they never stop. Sardinian Tigellius

Was like that. Even if Caesar, with all his power,

Had begged him to sing out of friendship to him

And his father, he’d have got nowhere: yet if he chose

He’d cry: ‘Hail Bacchus!’ at meals, from the egg to the fruit,

Now in a bass, now tenor, from tip to toe of the lyre.

There’s also a Laurel & Hardy movie from 1928 called From Soup to Nuts, a kind of slapstick comedy of manners.

If you manage to fit “soup to nuts” into a sentence this week, let me know.

#idiom #american english #english #etymology #words #vocabulary #horace #satire #egg #soup #satires #roman #latin #bacchus #laurel and hardy #copywriting #contentmarketing #marketing #web content

“Irish publishing has no V.I.P. room”

Lisa Coen (L) & Sarah Davis-Goff from Tramp Press on Ireland’s scrappy literary scene:

As Anne Enright said, there is no VIP room here. We – writers, readers, publishers, supporters, and all the paraphernalia required for a ringing, hopping, literary scene – are on the stage together.Our latest book, a collection of short stories on the theme of distance edited by Belinda McKeon, called A Kind of Compass, came out earlier this month, and I’m starting to think about a catchphrase: something simple, something true. Something’s afoot in contemporary Irish literature. We’re not here to take part, folks. We’re here to take over.”

Read full article in The Irish Times here.

#publishing #ireland #books #tramp press #independent publishers #dublin #literature #anne enright