wednesday/books
8 March 2023 22:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
landofnowhereEither/Or, Elif Batuman. The sequel to The Idiot, and I think I liked it better -- I was generally charmed by Selin's voice. Interestingly I found the setting more recognizably Harvard than in The Idiot, I'm not sure if it's because there was more name-dropping or it was locations I knew better. These books do this interesting thing where the first 2/3 are "Selin spends a year at college" and then the last 1/3 is "Selin travels abroad over the summer", and that's kind of a disorienting arc to have. (And I came out of this book legit concerned about Selin, and happy to learn afterwards that Elif Batuman is now in a happy and stable lesbian relationship -- it's suggested that these novels are very autobiographical.)
Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. Play-readaloud -- I volunteered to organize this one, without realizing that there are actually two substantially different versions of the text out there -- the 1604 "A text" and the 1616 "B text" (note that Marlowe died in 1593! but the question of which version is less corupt is a matter of scholarly debate. After reading both texts I decided to go with the B text, because it's longer and I thought our group would enjoy the stupid practical jokes, but I suspect the A text works better dramatically, pacing-wise.
Anyway, I hadn't read this since college, and it was fun to do as a group and had some good lines! (It's also occurred to me that I should maybe add Goethe's Faust to my to-read list. Anyone have any recommendations re: translations?)
Ink and Steel, Elizabeth Bear. Recommended by Maya as good fiction about Christopher Marlowe inspired by Doctor Faustus-- also has William Shakespeare, and faeries. I picked this up once before and didn't get far into it, am giving it another try.
Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. Play-readaloud -- I volunteered to organize this one, without realizing that there are actually two substantially different versions of the text out there -- the 1604 "A text" and the 1616 "B text" (note that Marlowe died in 1593! but the question of which version is less corupt is a matter of scholarly debate. After reading both texts I decided to go with the B text, because it's longer and I thought our group would enjoy the stupid practical jokes, but I suspect the A text works better dramatically, pacing-wise.
Anyway, I hadn't read this since college, and it was fun to do as a group and had some good lines! (It's also occurred to me that I should maybe add Goethe's Faust to my to-read list. Anyone have any recommendations re: translations?)
Ink and Steel, Elizabeth Bear. Recommended by Maya as good fiction about Christopher Marlowe inspired by Doctor Faustus-- also has William Shakespeare, and faeries. I picked this up once before and didn't get far into it, am giving it another try.