Happy holidays and a happy new year to the Clamor. I appreciate your continued attention.
Katexic Clippings will resume a regular publication schedule on January 12. Until then, you get what you get (or don’t)!
WORK
“If it is not beautiful for someone, it does not exist…”
—William Gaddis
—from The Recognitions
WORD(S)
pizzle /PI-zəl/. noun. An animal penis, most often a bull’s, or a whip made from the same. Likely from German pesel or Flemish pezel (sinew, bowstring).
“…as he entered and walked over toward the bull’s stall. —There! he said, swinging round, and the lantern with him, —There’s a masterful pizzle for you!” (William Gaddis)
“Oh you are an angel! You may sit, Dick. (Pause.) In a word, REDUCE the pressure instead of increasing it. (Lyrical.) Caress, fount of resipescence! (Calmer.) Dick, if you would. (Swish and thud of pizzle on flesh. Faint cry from FOX.) Careful, Miss.” (Samuel Beckett)
“The Vandiemenlander stood in the street opposite with his pizzle in one hand and the revolver in the other.” (Cormac McCarthy)
“You gutless popinjay! My dog has more valor in its pizzle than you possess in your entire body!” (Jasper Fforde)
WEB
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Addicted to Distraction. Complete the set with: Should the net be regulated like drugs or casinos?.
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Another twofer: Google Tour of the American Bookbinders Museum and the classic A manual of the art of bookbinding. Even if you’re not into bookbinding or book art, all readers and collectors (or accumulators) of books should enjoy some of the “Hints to Book Collectors” (p. 292).
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This story left me gobsmacked: The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield
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Don’t call it a comeback? In the age of Amazon, used bookstores are making an unlikely comeback
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Today in 1922, novelist William Gaddis is born. A two-time National Book Award winner, Gaddis’s work—particularly The Recognitions—are important as early postmodern novels and on their own dark, sardonic, erudite merits. Like Pynchon and DeLillo (Gaddis’s writing enough like the former that there was some speculation he and Pynchon were in fact the same person), Gaddis is an author whose success depends on significant attention and his readers’ willingness to swim—and sometimes sink—in a multi-layered ocean of allusion. Clamorites might further enjoy ► Gaddis in Conversation with Malcolm Bradbury.
WATCH/WITNESS
The rest of Cindy Chinn’s pencil carving includes more cars and a trestle bridge. Amazing..
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
Rebecca Solnit’s two pieces—Men Explain Lolita to Me and 80 Books No Woman Should Read—inspired and provoked reactions across the gamut, with people I greatly admire popping up from one end to the other. Personally, I think both ends of the spectrum protest too much. A sampling:
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“That ‘80 Books’ piece was fun, and harsh… I keep running into women who really, really hate Henry Miller. I’d like to research this and find out why, but am so deeply sick of the gender wars now, and I like Miller’s writing so much, that I resist the desire. Ah, I like Solnit very much, but these two pieces rankled.”
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“I can already hear the outpouring of offended men trying to explain Solnit’s articles to me and how they are wrong despite my living the experiences she describes. Please don’t.”
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“Rebecca Solnit femsplains every negative male stereotype ever posited with a venom indicative of a fully closed and cynical mind. Pullleeez, no more.”
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“I’m tired of articles like this [Solnit’s Lolita article]. I’m even more weary that the experiences she describes remain true and make such articles necessary. I’m exhausted in advance by those who complain that such opinions are unfair and one-sided and don’t take into account their support of women. Sure. And #alllivesmatter.”
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“Oh, yay. Oh, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.”
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“Solnit’s right. I doubt many will read closely enough to understand why or even that she’s making a nuanced argument. Whether from ignorance or weariness, I won’t hazard to guess.”
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“Why do so many men get so upset when someone describes the behaviors of some men to them? If they aren’t part of the group being described, why do they feel so personally attacked? Solnit takes pains to show she isn’t talking about all men and that there has been progress in the world she lives in and observes.”
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