tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post6758343399152282006..comments2024-03-25T22:38:46.822+08:00Comments on in lieu of a field guide: A lateral reading of W. G. Sebald's apocalypseRisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-50522476991369367732012-08-29T21:10:08.775+08:002012-08-29T21:10:08.775+08:00It sounds like a well-developed writing style, sco...It sounds like a well-developed writing style, scott. I like how you shifted your use of references from verisimilitude to something reflective of your fictional system.Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-41856243024802019992012-08-29T06:15:45.539+08:002012-08-29T06:15:45.539+08:00Sebald is doing something very different in his bo...Sebald is doing something very different in his books than I am in mine, I think. I'm not sure what he's doing at all, but I suppose he's using external texts to point at things within his text, and to point at ideas not explicit in his text. What I'm doing with references is generally pulling my texts apart at the seams, by which I guess I mean pointing away from my texts, tryingscott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-22940163551614078082012-08-29T01:17:59.561+08:002012-08-29T01:17:59.561+08:00Thanks, Tom. My first WGS encounter was also The E...Thanks, Tom. My first WGS encounter was also <i>The Emigrants</i>, arguably his finest.Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-84571424521304522882012-08-28T11:07:56.890+08:002012-08-28T11:07:56.890+08:00Gary, at one point, not pre-internet but when thin...Gary, at one point, not pre-internet but when things were not so easy, I looked up every single reference in <i>The Emigrants</i>. Every place, every painting, everything I noticed. I read a biography of the real-life shadow of the painter who appears late in the novel.<br /><br />So my point is, Sebald inspires crazy behavior. No, my point is, none of this is necessary, but it is rewarding, Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-80147799167825648092012-08-25T14:48:21.483+08:002012-08-25T14:48:21.483+08:00scott, glad you liked the post and your long views...scott, glad you liked the post and your long views are always welcome. Sebald is really fluent in English. He is founding director of the British Centre for Literary Translation in University of East Anglia. So he could translate Pepys alright.<br /><br />I'd like to believe that his target readers are active readers, or even more so "interactive readers" who are not averse to Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-69318317720987024142012-08-25T14:04:17.960+08:002012-08-25T14:04:17.960+08:00Gary, I pray it's the latter! Eager to see wha...Gary, I pray it's the latter! Eager to see what you make out of <i>Rings</i>. I'm maximizing my coverage of him as there's no more long fiction for me to read after this. But I'll follow Borges who thought that rereading is more important than reading.Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-32457736726900958772012-08-25T13:17:52.004+08:002012-08-25T13:17:52.004+08:00LOL. Let's agree that reading/writing/theorizi...LOL. Let's agree that reading/writing/theorizing about fiction is a healthy obsession for writers and book bloggers.Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-54939853280820370552012-08-25T06:45:32.266+08:002012-08-25T06:45:32.266+08:00I'm not sure if these recent posts of yours ar...I'm not sure if these recent posts of yours are scaring me away from Sebald or the opposite. will have to grapple with my copy of <i> The Rings of Saturn</i> and come to some conclusion on this matter.@parridhlanternhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12793548943992250238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-19700555305950070262012-08-25T05:53:29.383+08:002012-08-25T05:53:29.383+08:00I am struck by how easy it is to come across as a ...I am struck by how easy it is to come across as a real kook when talking about fiction this way.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-2493622823457489722012-08-25T05:31:18.155+08:002012-08-25T05:31:18.155+08:00I call this sort of reading "paratextual"...I call this sort of reading "paratextual" but only because that's the first term I came across that deals with it. "Lateral" is, as you say, less precise and so possibly more useful. Language is fun that way, isn't it? I like the idea of the translator sitting with the Sebald on the left, the Pepys on the right and the translation-in-progress between them. "Do I scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-22853345401016402152012-08-25T04:23:46.492+08:002012-08-25T04:23:46.492+08:00P.S. What further makes this aesthetic decisions o...P.S. What further makes this aesthetic decisions of Sebald interesting for me is the linguistic representation/transfer of reality. He wrote in German his version of the Pepys so he had to translate words from the source diary for the purpose. Now here comes the translator Hulse putting back the words into English. We can see from the vocabulary (ablaze, yonder) and the multiple commas and short,Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-70329683244018382642012-08-25T03:50:17.977+08:002012-08-25T03:50:17.977+08:00For the second part of your question, thanks for l...For the second part of your question, thanks for letting me clarify this because going back to the post I should have qualified what I meant by "real dramatic details". This should have been details from "already existing available nonfictional representations" like the eyewitness account of the Fire in the Pepys diary. Representations that contained "real" details Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-61795429539757764752012-08-25T03:33:08.264+08:002012-08-25T03:33:08.264+08:00Thanks for the interest, scott. Great questions.
...Thanks for the interest, scott. Great questions. <br /><br />I understand "lateral" reading can have many meanings. I used it because I like the word play and ambiguity behind it. Your suggested meaning is the direct one and the obvious valid definition given the side by side comparison. For me it's not only confined to referenced texts in the book but also to other art forms like Risehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17446964640160585194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3769714277850142841.post-31202439084846671872012-08-25T02:27:32.255+08:002012-08-25T02:27:32.255+08:00Can you say what you mean by "lateral" r...Can you say what you mean by "lateral" reading? Do you mean reading "across" literature, incorporating additional texts the way you're reading the Pepys beside Sebald here?<br /><br />And risking the appearance (or acutality) of Philistinism, I might tentatively suggest that a lot of novelists use their "creative license to select real dramatic details to represent scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com