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What I've recently finished since my last post:
I got nothin'.
What I'm reading now:
The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction from Tor.com. This ... will take a while, even with liberal skipping. Assuming I keep with it.
Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (Rose) -- finished canto 44. Once the main invasion plot has been disposed of and the titular Orlando's wits have been restored, the only business left is romantic shenanigans (in both the medieval and modern senses of "romance") between the legendary ancestors of Ariosto's patron -- stuff important to his immediate audience, but rather thin compared to, yanno, Charlemagne expelling Moorish invaders from Europe. I always forget how anticlimactic the last few cantos are. Two more!
The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch -- have less than 10% to go, and keep stumbling over interesting pieces of cultural jetsam. The most entertaining part is the third quarter, covering roughly everyone between the Rossettis and the Decadents exclusive (the selection for Christina Rossetti is particularly annoying), though there's some odd choices in that range even so -- such as the Hopkins' only selection being one of his lesser efforts. One poem, in particular, made me put the collection down for quite some time -- I should probably put a trigger warning on the link as while the narrative claims to be seduction symbolism, the emotional effect is the exoneration of a rapist. Also, the collection as a whole has rather a lot of Christian devotional verse, and while I can't say how well they work as devotional verse, as poetry they all too often feel lacking. The last quarter is, in general, a good object lesson in just why the modernists felt the need to react against their predecessors. OTOH, this is not your typical mid-Victorian topic. I am looking forward to seeing how The English Poets handles the period.
Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson translated by W.S. Merwin and Takako Lento. Halfway through winter, so nearly done. Also, more scattered samplings from the Shinkokinshu and from the Bashô's haiku. And tables of counters, in another attempt to memorize more of them.
What I might read next:
Here's where I do my impression of an owlet and blink at you gormlessly.
---L.
I got nothin'.
What I'm reading now:
The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction from Tor.com. This ... will take a while, even with liberal skipping. Assuming I keep with it.
Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (Rose) -- finished canto 44. Once the main invasion plot has been disposed of and the titular Orlando's wits have been restored, the only business left is romantic shenanigans (in both the medieval and modern senses of "romance") between the legendary ancestors of Ariosto's patron -- stuff important to his immediate audience, but rather thin compared to, yanno, Charlemagne expelling Moorish invaders from Europe. I always forget how anticlimactic the last few cantos are. Two more!
The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch -- have less than 10% to go, and keep stumbling over interesting pieces of cultural jetsam. The most entertaining part is the third quarter, covering roughly everyone between the Rossettis and the Decadents exclusive (the selection for Christina Rossetti is particularly annoying), though there's some odd choices in that range even so -- such as the Hopkins' only selection being one of his lesser efforts. One poem, in particular, made me put the collection down for quite some time -- I should probably put a trigger warning on the link as while the narrative claims to be seduction symbolism, the emotional effect is the exoneration of a rapist. Also, the collection as a whole has rather a lot of Christian devotional verse, and while I can't say how well they work as devotional verse, as poetry they all too often feel lacking. The last quarter is, in general, a good object lesson in just why the modernists felt the need to react against their predecessors. OTOH, this is not your typical mid-Victorian topic. I am looking forward to seeing how The English Poets handles the period.
Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson translated by W.S. Merwin and Takako Lento. Halfway through winter, so nearly done. Also, more scattered samplings from the Shinkokinshu and from the Bashô's haiku. And tables of counters, in another attempt to memorize more of them.
What I might read next:
Here's where I do my impression of an owlet and blink at you gormlessly.
---L.