That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
Apart from being the name of a British post punk band and a line of poetry in Milton’s Samson Agonistes, Eyeless in Gaza is a 1936 novel by Aldous Huxley .
In the most notorious passage of Huxley’s novel a live dog is dropped from an airplane and hits the flat rooftop where Anthony and his partner Helen are lying naked in the sun. It bursts spraying them with its blood. –Cedric Watts via 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006) – Peter Dr Boxall
Absalom, Absalom! (1936) – William Faulkner [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
For multiple and unreliable narrators, see:
The Rashomon effect is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.
It is named for Akira Kurosawa‘s film Rashomon, in which a crime witnessed by four individuals is described in four mutually contradictory ways. The film is based on two short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
Does anyone know who did the cover illustration of Faulkner’s novel?
Original post deleted, see surrealist lit.
Paul Bowles was one of the most accomplished literary translators of the twentieth century. His early interest in the work of European and Latin American surrealist authors led Bowles to produce translations, believing that English-speaking readers should have access to their work. His initial published translations included poems and stories of Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Ferry, Paul Magritte, and Ramón Sender. His translation of the work of Jorge Luis Borges represents one of the Argentine author’s first appearances in English.
In 1945 Bowles edited a special “Tropical Americana” issue of View which introduced the work of a variety of Latin American authors and genres to American readers. Bowles’s translation of Jean Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos, which he titled No Exit, was the first English-language version of this important play and remains one of the most widely-used adaptations. –via http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/bowles/translat.htm
see also: American literature
Well I’m a free man, i’m a free man and talkin’ ’bout it!
Are you free mister? Are you free, are you free, if you ain’t don’t be jivin’ with me.
from South Shore Commission’s 1975 proto-disco classic Free Man.
Just saw V for Vendetta.
It seemed as if nobody smoked cigarettes in the film, but this review says otherwise.
I enjoyed the film a lot. It reminded me of Complicity (1993) by Iain Banks.
The most memorable line was “Violence can be used for good” uttered by master kriminal V. It struck me in its Dutch translation “Geweld kan ook zinvol zijn.” Currently Flemish media are full of news on zinloos geweld (gratuitous violence). So I am always wondering about its opposite: zinvol geweld (necessary or useful violence). V says violence can be good for justice.
Most memorable songs are Cry me a river and Street Fighting Man.
Rating: psychological realism 3/10, cult value 6/10, feelgood factor 9/10
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Features Tchaikovsky’s piece the 1812 Overture.
For full analyses of the film see K-punk and Steven Shaviro.