Eve Babitz – A Most Unreliable Narrator

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes for May 17, 2014

: Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.

Dear Internet,
You can now follow me on Pinterest on what I’m reading, watching, and listening.

Listening

I’ve been really into BBC Radio these last few weeks and below is some of my current favorites. I’m not going to lie, Benedict Cumberbatch figures prominently in two of the series, so there’s that.

Reading

Finished
deadintheir
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce #6) by Alan Bradley
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
At this point, there is not much more one can say about this series that has not said before, so I won’t regurgitate it all over again. I will say I’m not sure where this story is going is the right path. The twists of where Flavia is headed, the AHA moment Bradley springs upon us, and how Bradley neatly ties up some lingering questions seem kind of amateurish. But obviously I’m on the hook now for what happens, so bring on book #7!
sexandrage
Sex and Rage: Advice To Young Ladies Eager For A Good Time by Eve Babitz
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
Earlier I said,

I was introduced to Babitz recently via a recent article about her in Vanity Fair. The idea of an intellectual good-time girl intrigued me as it should, and I was dismayed to find that her work is not only largely unknown but also out of print. I was able to get a first edition copy ofSex and Rage via interlibrary loan to read and boy, am I ever glad I did. Babitz is glorious as a writer, the work hums with the fastness of the era, of the good time unapologetic choices that Jacaranda makes, doing so with such easy going nature you are desperate for the drugs she’s on.

Two of the books main characters are cities (LA and NYC), who are plumped up in their finery to show you what they are really like during their heights. Make no mistake, this is very much a roman à cléf of Babitz’s life and I don’t think this book would have been successful any other way. The only way to capture the essence of the era and the city would have been to live it as wildly and as fully as Babitz. Once you get past this is a thinly retelling of Babtiz’s life and realise her wordplay is punchy and clean, the book sails forward in all of its gloriousness.
Currently reading
cakesandale
Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
(Amazon | Worldcat | GoodReads)
This is supposed to be HILARIOUS. A laugh riot. Bawdy. A modern retelling of Twelfth Night. In reality? A trainwreck.
The premise of the story is a moderately successful writer is approached by the family of a recently deceased big to do writer to write his biography. But there is a catch! The biographer has to erase all mentions of the dead writer’s first wife, who was so bawdy and outlandish, she turned him bohemian. Craz-zee.
Except, the linear story is a hot mess. We’re introduced to a nameless (at first ) 1st person unreliable narrator, a writer, at the beginning of the story who is fretting over accepting the call of a slightly more successful writer friend. Maugham then spends nearly 20 pages on what Mr. moderately successful is and isn’t. Then as we start to get into the meat of the story, so-called Mr. moderately successful is then dropped from the story. I’ve spent the next 70 pages of the primary unreliable narrator basking in the glow of his youth, and where we find out he is the one who has met the dead writer when the dead writer was married to the bawdy first wife. While the crux of the story is to circle around the moderately successful writer writing the biography, I’m 1/3rd of the way through and Maugham is dragging this on.
Maugham is better known, and respected, for his short stories which are supposedly sublime. I keep thinking I have read Of Human Bondage, but I think my memory is faulty. So Cakes and Ale is meh.

Watching

Vikings
The Vikings ended a few weeks back and I’m curious to see where this goes. Historically, Ragnar Lodbrok doesn’t last long past what we’re at now in history on the show, and they have been tap dancing around the settlement of England (and yo. Dane law.). Where will this go and how much will the producers manipulate versus the truth?
Penny Dreadful
Gaslight retelling of various Romantic and Victorian nightmares (Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, Dracula) starting a James Bond, a Bond Girl, and a Companion. One episode in and it shows a lot of promise. I’m curious to how they will continue intertwining the various mythologies into a single story.
Louie
TheHusband is a big fan of Louie, so we’ve been watching this as it has been appearing. I find Louie’s comedy mostly great, but he always tends to have one or two jokes that fall flat with me.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Another new news show encompassing the weekly worth of events in half hour, but with a British spin.
Fargo
Starring Billy Bob Thorton and Martin Freeman, along with a host of other big actors, on a spin of the Cohen brother’s movie.
Eurovision
I cannot possibly encompass the gloriousness of Eurovision in a mere paragraph.
At Home With The Georgians
Originally aired in 2010, it was rebroadcast this past week to begin the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the first George of England. It stars one of my favorite academic/presenters Amanda Vickery. What is really interesting about this series is not just the historical view of the Georgian era, but how much we think is modern in terms of how we view homes and living actually is centuries old. DIY is not a novel or new concept.

Weekly watching: Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Americans, Survivor: Cagayan, Elementary
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2003

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes for April 19, 2014

: Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Reading

Finished
The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
Drugs. Cutting. Pedophilia. Prostitution. HIV/AIDS. Alcohol. Cunt. Fuck. Twat. Mental abuse. Death. Paranoia. Fights. Rape. Molestation. Zoophilia. Love. Human kindness. Hope. Survival.
15 year old Anais, 50 foster homes, three name changes, and a rap sheet taller than herself is here to give you a tour. A tour of the realities of the foster care system, of treatment against the mentally ill, of how once you’re locked into a system that is designed to spit you out and eat you alive, there is a shred of hope still alive for change. A world that while it may take place in Scotland, is not out of the ordinary here in the States. A reality in which only the strongest will survive, even if it means you have to become feral to do so.
Anais’ story is not pretty, it’s not easy to read, and is not for the weak stomached. But you will fall in with love her, even as she sniffs, sucks, snorts, and fights her way around her world. Anais is the mirror being held up to our world and while we may not be 15, we may not have a penchant for Dior lipsticks and pillbox hats, there are secrets within ourselves that help us cope with our day to day lives.
Think Charles Bukowski with a dash of Hunter S. Thompson with bits of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series mixed with Irvine Walsh, and you have The Panopticon.
This is a beautifully written and actualized story that while may be hard to swallow, needs to be said. Needs to be told. Needs to be read. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time.
Currently Reading
sexandrage Sex and Rage: Advice To Young Ladies Eager For A Good Time by Eve Babitz
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
I was introduced to Babitz recently via a recent article about her in Vanity Fair. The idea of an intellectual good-time girl intrigued me as it should, and I was dismayed to find that her work is not only largely unknown but also out of print. I was able to get a first edition copy of Sex and Rage via interlibrary loan to read and boy, am I ever glad I did. Babitz is glorious as a writer, the work hums with the fastness of the era, of the good time unapologetic choices that Jacaranda makes, doing so with such easy going nature you are desperate for the drugs she’s on.
beekepers
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (Mary Russell, #1) by Laurie R. King
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
One sentence review: Twee as fuck.
We meet precocious Mary Russell, who has a fairy tale background replete with wicked aunt, who happens one fine day in 1915 to stumble upon the now retired Sherlock Holmes in a random field near her home and bedazzles him with her skill of deduction. Much of the book is twinged with a bit of Mary Sue-isms (Mary goes on to Oxford to read theology, a nod to the author, but there was not one iota of set-up prior to this declaration of WHY she was studying theology, which makes the declaration much more Mary Sue). We meet the venerable Mrs. Hudson, Doctor Watson (Uncle John, natch), and so forth. We see Mary work with Sherlock on solving cases chapter by chapter that read like a crime report rather than a true whodunit.
While the series is turning 20 this year (and the earlier titles are being repubbed for the celebration), I can’t help but get the sense the Flavia de Luce series (which I adore) is much better handling the twee elements the Mary Russell series tries to emulate without being so sickeningly sweet. I have issues with tortured heroines who are completely unawares of their own folly and Russell is in that camp. Laurie R. King is a skilled and technically competent writer, but her characters development and building interest in wanting to like these worlds amateurish. Once I finish book 1, I may go on to book 2 to see if there is improvement but I don’t see myself making a huge investment in this series.

Watching

University Challenge
Another season is over and Jeremy Paxman has sold us with his glamour shots portrait that thumbnails the show and his snide commentary when contestants get it wrong. Trinity College, Cambridge has won — surprise!
Under the Gunn
Project Runway re-dux, but, with less tension and more drama. Nice filler, not too much of the stretch of the imagination to watch, and could be at times entertaining.
Nurse Jackie
Beginning of the sixth season and Jackie’s tricks haven’t changed, only the players in her game. Even with an almost new cast injection that has been happening for the last few years, the show is a one trick pony. SOmething has to change, Jackie has to change, if the show wants to continue but it’s pretty clear they are milking the storylines for all the same bag of tricks to keep the series going. The show is not moving enough forward to really warrant a seventh season, but yet Showtime went ahead and ordered one anyway. Will I stick with season 6? Stay tuned and find out.
Mad Men
My reactions via Twitter on the season opener: Mad Men is existential white people dude bro bullshit. It’s so tired, I can’t even summon up the anger for it anymore. And also, Don Draper’s “I have to go to work” is the Mad Men version of Patrick Bateman’s, “I have to return some video tapes.” Thank fuck this is the last fucking season. It’s pretty clear Don can’t handle the duopoly of his life and he is so worn down by the lying, scheming, and switching between selves, the ONLY redemption he will have is death by his own hand.

Weekly watching: Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, Dead Famous DNA, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Americans, Survivor: Cagayan, Vikings, Archer, Reign, Elementary
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2003, 1999

in like a lion

Medieval Oscar Party via Bodleian MS264, circa 14C.

Dear Internet,
Russia has invaded the Ukraine. Suddenly The Americans seem topical television show, not one steeped in history.
Tonight’s the Oscars and the only reason I can muster the will to watch is to make sure white people don’t overrun the awards with their sloppy circle jerking, but of course they will.
It’s a cold (19F/-7C) early Sunday afternoon and I’ve started listening to R.E.M’s entire catalog, starting with Murmur. According to Spotify, this exercise will take me 24 hours. Since I have nothing really planned for my spring break week, this seems fortuitous.
Though I will note my hot cocoa has cooled off and is like drinking a thicker version of chocolate milk, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Thick, barely warm chocolate milk is much preferable to the remnants of milk from my cereal I poured into my coffee this morning because I was too lazy to walk to the fridge. Lesson learned.
This morning, as I ignored the phone calls from my brother to go the gym, TheHusband asked what was on my plans for today. I said read and write. I need to start working on my fiction. I have an article due tomorrow which I’ve started and need to finish, I need to start making headway into my large to be read pile. I keep checking out titles from MPOW because we are given almost unlimited time for titles without consequences. Some titles I’ve had for over a year. Possibly longer.
But it’s hard when you keep finding authors who pique your interest. Recently discovered Clarice Lispector, a mid-century Brazilian Mary Maclane, who is getting new breath injected into her work via Penguin. Then this morning, I found Eve Babitz via an article I read in Vanity Fair.

Eve Babitz playing chess with Marcel Duchamp, 1973. © Julian Wasser. — Eve Babitz playing chess with Marcel Duchamp, 1963. © Julian Wasser

How could not become enamoured of a confident naked woman playing chess against Marcel Duchamp?
Babitz’s work, unlike Lispector’s, is out of print. I will be able to procure much of her work via interlibrary loan, but purchasing it? Not unless I get eagle-eyed on jaunts to used book stores. Used copies are fetching for hundreds on Amazon. Another important and critical voice burnished into obscurity.
It’s painful to consider how much is lost to the void. It has made me conscious of my own work, the never ending fucking battle of getting all of it back up online after nearly a decade of remove. But will it lay in the ether forever because once we’re dead, the lights of the site will go dim. Not that I’m going to die anytime in the near future, knock wood, but what would happen?
This July marks 16 years I’ve been writing online and right now the goal is to get as much of the back content up before then, to make the archives complete. The whole site is already indexed, but to make it even more available, I’ve started manually forcing the Wayback Machine to crawl it to archive the latest and greatest. It will always be available then, under different guises. Even if something happens to me, my work will live digitally on until the world dies.
I’ve added this thought to my project list this summer: Finally do something with the work other than getting it back up online. Edit it, clean it up, release it in volumes of something.
And then write some more.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2010, 2010, 2003