Saturday, April 21, 2007

"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg." - Samuel Butler

Things I have had to go look up since starting The End of Mr Y fifty-four pages ago:

- luminiferous ether
- string theory
- Jacques Derrida and his theories on deconstructionism
- Samuel Butler, and his novel Erewhon
- The novel Flatland (turns out I actually own a copy, which I discovered from my database, those of you who make fun of mad cataloging librarians)

I did NOT have to look up Schroedinger’s Cat.
So, you know, I am not a total moron.

I do seem to have a thing for books about books; there are many others which I enjoyed but these are the smartest, the most complicated, the ones that make me wish I could write like that:

Possession – AS Byatt
Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
The Rebel Angels – Robertson Davies
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova

Apparently, I am a brain girl.
You can take your long legs and your tight butts and your pretty eyes; you can (not that you DO) resemble Quasimodo but if you‘re revoltingly smart, watch out.
I will fall madly in love and read everything you’ve written and clamor for more.

And look what I just requested from the library:



Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land, by John Crowley
Doesn’t it sound so cool? On deck after Mr Y.

10 comments:

Jess said...

Oh, Lord "Mad, bad and dangerous to know" Byron! I've got to get my hands on that. I adore my collected conversations of Byron. I never realized how sharp and funny he was until I spent a semester with him and Wordsworth (yawn).

Anonymous said...

I wrote a thesis about Byron about a million years ago.

Joke said...

Don't get me started on Derrida.

JUST.@#$%ING.DON'T.

-J.

Kathy said...

I took a class in utopian novels and we read Erewhon -- I liked it.

The Byron book looks really cool.

nutmeg said...

Lucky I read your blog before I put in my latest Book Depository order! That Byron novel looks fantastic.

Caro said...

I thought Erewhon was only the name of the cereal I buy. LOL

Suse said...

Well obviously I am a total moron. Although I do know what string theory is. Don't UNDERSTAND it mind you, but I know what it is.

Did you see the BBC drama on Byron a year or so ago?

I am LOVING The Historian. Mmmmm.

David said...

I read Flatland. Pretty good. Pretty sexist.

Sarah Louise said...

Still got a hundred zillion hard boiled eggs left? (the title quote?)

SL

Anonymous said...

I'm SO glad I've got so much Robertson Davies ahead of me, Pale Fire is on my Must read list, and I must finish The Name of the Rose, if I can remember where I put it. (Off to look up all of those things as I AM a total moron).
Loretta xx