tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post1289790715070737613..comments2024-03-25T22:38:46.822+08:00Comments on in lieu of a field guide: A broken grammarRisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-85618128955736785852014-11-19T06:20:34.680+08:002014-11-19T06:20:34.680+08:00Thanks, Jacqui! The philosophical mid-part is wher...Thanks, Jacqui! The philosophical mid-part is where César Aira most likely messes up with the reader. The ghosts are a great symbol or metaphor for something. So is the brilliant ending. But as W. G. Sebald said somewhere about how symbols work – they usually have multiple meanings if they are any good at all.<br /><br />I've read your post on it. The playful passage about the wine is a good Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-9089327340776365982014-11-18T17:58:45.341+08:002014-11-18T17:58:45.341+08:00Rise - Tom (Amateur Reader) pointed me in the dire...Rise - Tom (Amateur Reader) pointed me in the direction of your blog and this post in particular as I recently read and posted a few thoughts on Aira's Ghosts. My piece isn't a review as such (and it's different to my usual book reviews), but a passage on wine caught my eye, and I posted the quote along with a wine match. <br /><br />Ghosts was my first experience of Aria, and whilst JacquiWinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16220597283351925721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-89589029261283342192013-11-14T20:48:03.991+08:002013-11-14T20:48:03.991+08:00The Pessoa passage is a serendipitous find. I'...The Pessoa passage is a serendipitous find. I'm dipping in and out of The Book of Disquiet.<br /><br />He does recycle some images (another example: lightning), albeit in various flavoring. Each miniature story may be imperfect but it's always a pleasure to sample. Because one doesn't know if it's a pure flavor or a smoothie.<br /><br />And true, politics may be far from anyone&#Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-79317613507582480702013-11-13T04:34:41.300+08:002013-11-13T04:34:41.300+08:00Rise - Given Aira's sense of humor and his pro...Rise - Given Aira's sense of humor and his proliferation of inventive, entertaining conceits, it's easy to omit thinking about a political context to his novels, so it's great to have your post to orient them that way. The Pessoa quotation is a good one - and ingenious of you to use it in regard to Aira. <br /><br />That's at least twice that Aira has used ice cream in his work, seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-65970037097553657162013-11-11T20:40:39.205+08:002013-11-11T20:40:39.205+08:00The gender is a good prank too, yes, but a methodi...The gender is a good prank too, yes, but a methodical one. The writer is consistent about it. As for the other hilarious pranks, I suppose the contradictions and unreliability in narration are a direct result of the no-looking back writing method. <br /><br />I had a similar experience with a frozen yogurt. Yayks! Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-34010985198918061272013-11-11T20:19:53.554+08:002013-11-11T20:19:53.554+08:00Thanks, Miguel. The passage from Pessoa was arrest...Thanks, Miguel. The passage from Pessoa was arresting. A good advice to writers if they can take advantage of it. Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-60832991324331927632013-11-11T11:16:45.748+08:002013-11-11T11:16:45.748+08:00I took the gender confusion less as a weighty stat...I took the gender confusion less as a weighty statement about gender and more as a storyteller's prank the first time around, largely because so much of the book is devoted to Young Master César's propensity for lying (storytelling). However, your post reminds me of how simultaneously funny and horrifying the first parts of the book were--esp. the narrator's recollections of how Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-79546972171151061102013-11-11T03:29:55.821+08:002013-11-11T03:29:55.821+08:00This is a good write-up of Aira, and I like how yo...This is a good write-up of Aira, and I like how you connect him to Pessoa in the end. There are two books by Aira in Portuguese, but I'll try to read them in Spanish.LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.com