Of Human Bondage

[Johannes]

Am reading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Mawn recently, yo hasholes, and find it rather enjoyable. Rolls along nicely without pomposity and reads well. Have never read anything by Somerset Mawn and always thought him to be a rather stiff turd, don't even know why. But this is not bad.

Any Somerset Mawn fans around here? Other recommendations?

Next I will start on Tomas Carylillie.

 

[skiroomalum]

I've only read The Razor' s Edge, but I really enjoyed it. Don't think that makes me a fan, but would definitely recommend.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

Read ...Bondage, Of the Moon and Sixpence and Theatre. Like him just fine.

 

[Skygazer]

Am reading Of Human Bondage...
Next I will start on Tomas Carylillie.

Just in from work, great seeing this post! it's a great book Johannes, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hurl - (not so much laughing actually) I hope you enjoy it. I prefer Maugham to Joyce. Now at least I know someone else beside myself who has read it.

 

[Johannes]

Thank you all, will try!

 

[jordan]

it's funny, he has a reputation as a stuffy british guy, but most of his books are about people who don't conform to stuffy british stereotypes trying to exist in that society. there is a lot of social, economic, and sexual transgression that people don't recognize. he has some good anticolonialist short stories, too.

 

[Johannes]

I'm most impressed by his easy language. Flows along just telling it, without showing off.

 

[Skygazer]

it's funny, he has a reputation as a stuffy british guy, but most of his books are about people who don't conform to stuffy british stereotypes trying to exist in that society. there is a lot of social, economic, and sexual transgression that people don't recognize. he has some good anticolonialist short stories, too.

Agree with that, would also add and this is my own prejudice/preference; the writers in the first half of the 20th century wee the real revolutionaries, radicals and "subversives".The feted, hyped up beats reflected the cultural changes that happened around them yes ( thanks to the work of the writers before them I would argue) for me there is a shallow, phoney, lack of substance there.

I'm most impressed by his easy language. Flows along just telling it, without showing off.

It does, I mentioned this novel in a couple of threads last year, but Fante was influenced by it, for Ask the Dust and as much as I don't like him, Holden Caulfield apparently reads it in Catcher...
I just wish people would not dismiss and ignore these great novels (talking about British, European and American writers here) I read of one university where the students were asking for Orwell to be taken off the Syllabus because the language/writing was strange and irrelevant to today!
How impoverished and pre digested do they want it go? fair enough ditching the overblown, wordiness for it's own sake writing of the past, but who the hell wants to end up with the literary equivalent of a Big Mac every meal time.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I think his name turns some people off; W. Somerset Maugham reeks of pompous windbaggery. If he went by Bill on the other hand...

 

[zobraks]

Then again "Bill SM"/"SM Bill" sounds like a hero of a wacky porn movie (with lots of wanton violence).

 

[Skygazer]

I think his name turns some people off; W. Somerset Maugham reeks of pompous windbaggery. If he went by Bill on the other hand...

I like Somerset, it's the name of the detective played by the lovely Morgan Freeman in Seven; the Maugham bit - well that's a bit of tongue tangler:)
Rhymes with yawn a bit, rather than lohan...

Not half as bad as P.G.Wodehouse's full name:Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse - PG 's much better.
Not a fan of the books though.

 

[Johannes]

It does, I mentioned this novel in a couple of threads last year, but Fante was influenced by it, for Ask the Dust and as much as I don't like him, Holden Caulfield apparently reads it in Catcher...
I just wish people would not dismiss and ignore these great novels, I read of one university where the students were asking for Orwell to be taken off the Syllabus because the language/writing was strange and irrelevant to today!
How impoverished and pre digested do they want it go? fair enough ditching the overblown, wordiness for it's own sake writing of the past, but who the hell wants to end up with the literary equivalent of a Big Mac every meal time.

Ah, didn't know that it appears in Catcher, or rather forgot. Makes sense, yes. These coming of age novels were all the rage some hundred years ago and before. There's also a lot of them in German literature, some rather famous, most boring as shit, I'm afraid.

Still, I'm against spoon-feeding literature of any kind to moronic or, let's say, ignorant university-students. Or all people, for that matter. If they don't want to read, let them. Forcing something upon them always stinks like begging to me, like here is this great book, you have to read it! Who wants literature this way?

It's there for anybody who wants it. Who doesn't, too bad for them.

 

[Skygazer]

I agree Johannes, but it's depressing that there is this blind prejudice and assumption that pre 50's writing is stuffy and formal and irrelevant to today.
When modernism in literature started 1900 > l ( you could easily argue and cite plenty of work before then too). Language can't be static, modern novels would be ridiculous with the language of even 50yrs ago, but does that mean we have to dismiss them, because they read a bit strange and difficult.

But yes it is their loss.

 

[jordan]

You know, I wouldn't know of WSM if it weren't for a really fantastic English teacher I had in high school. I should read OHB again, since it's been 16 years since I read it in class. Thinking back on it, the character of Mildred could seem awfully reductive in an almost misogynist way... but then when you consider Maugham himself was a closeted gay man in a society unfortunately not that far removed from driving Oscar Wilde to suicide over homosexuality's criminalization, Mildred takes on a deeper significance as a representation of how the social pressures toward heterosexual marriage and fitting into society can psychically destroy someone (even though I don't think it's ever suggested that the main character is closeted). Of all his books, I remember Moon and Sixpence being my favorite.

 

[Skygazer]

I guess as to whether or not Mildred is really a man (but not in the novel, in his real life) is still debated, I tend to think yes, but regardless of his sexual orientation, as a coming of age novel, for me it's one of the best. As in most of them and there are certain parallels with Bukowski's Ham on Rye, alienation and misery feature large.
As he grows up, the realisation that life and love are imperfect, sometimes our dreams aren't realised not matter how hard we wish them to and that we fall in love with the wrong people however much we wish not to. It's a frustrating and bleak read at times, but very real and honest.

I hope Johannes doesn't read this before he finishes it.

On the subject of closeted homosexuals; started reading Painted Shadow by Carole Seymour Jones; Biography of Vivienne Eliot, first wife of T. S. Eliot.
Again hotly debated, but for me again it's a yes. Pretty tragic, unhappy life ends up quite soon after her marriage in an affair with Bertrand Russell (yes the little sexpot strikes again!). What a cover up her admission in a mental hospital seems to be (so far) between Eliot and her brother.

 

[Johannes]

Don't worry, I haven't finished it yet, but I am one of the (obviously) few people who don't have to watch out for spoilers. I mean that if I know what will happen in a story or book beforehand, I enjoy reading just the same when it's well written. Don't know why, that just never bothered me.

Thanks for your input.

 

[zobraks]

I just read this:

who is the worst writer you've ever read?

well, there are two of them.

who?

George Bernard Shaw and W. Somerset Maugham.

why are they so bad?

just bad for me, you understand.

but why?

just a gut reaction.

(from An Interview in Open All Night)

 

[Skygazer]

zobraks, purely in the interest of balance - not bias:wb: - Hemingway's reading list to a young fan, a bit heavy really:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/ernest_hemingways_reading_list_for_a_young_writer_1934

 

[Johannes]

Had to read some other things in between but finally finished it.

You were right, Mildred is painful. Less because of Mildreds character, but because of Philips slavish addiction to her. You just want to slap him around a couple of times to bring him to his senses.

Ending kind of sucks too, imho, but all in all a very good novel, I think. I like it, much.

 

[Skygazer]

You were right, Mildred is painful. Less because of Mildreds character, but because of Philips slavish addiction to her. You just want to slap him around a couple of times to bring him to his senses...
[... all in all a very good novel, I think. I like it, much.

You did find yourself shouting at him, what are you thinking, she's a horror. But it's the mark of a great story that you care that much.
The ending isn't great but again maybe reflects his compromises in real life. Given it was written in 1915 it's a lot more readable than some of his peers naming no names - James Joyce.:wb: