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Solyaris

Solyaris

has 110 followers and is following 113 people

I wish I had a library exactly like the one of the Stalker in Tarkovski's masterpiece, as huge and beautifully untidy as that one.

"Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader.
[...]
Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To... more »
  • Bucharest, Romania
  • member since November 9, 2007

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Solyaris’s last login was Wednesday, October 6, 2010.

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Public Notes

  • Jason R.

    Jason R. says

    Hi! You were dearly missed...how have you been? I ended 2010 with 90 books read for the year. I have an ongoing pile of about 40 books to read so far this year. I am currently reading "The Portable '60's Reader" an in depth cultural and political history of the U.S. in the 1960's. I noticed that you haven't logged on in a while, but I hope to hear from you when you do. Your friend, Jason R.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    Hmm...wait a second...your back? ;) ;)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jassafari

    Jassafari says

    Hey, Solyaris,

    I have missed you, my friend....I would, so deeply appreciate an email, simply letting me know, that all is well with you.

    JASS!

    What are you reading?

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Andrea D

    Andrea D says

    Hello there :)
    Thank you for the add... and for the lovely note!

    Concerning the Divina Comedia... i guess it's not easy at all, for it would be difficoult even for a non expert italian mothertongue.
    Language is ancient... very precise and symbolism is strong. I studied archaeology in Ravenna (the city in wich Dante, once exiled, wrote the grand part of the Comedia and in which his body rests), and of course i had to work hard on the Comedia for we have a strong tradition of literary studies on it. Should you need some help with the translation do not hesitate to ask ... I hope i can help you.

    By the way i added you for i noticed we have some books in common and you like Tarkovski ... guess i'm goin' to ask you to suggest me many books to read in the near future :)
    C u neighbour :)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    I definitely will read 'Book of Disquiet', my friend...I already have a great deal of enthusiasm for it knowing your standards of quality and how we largely 'click' with our likes.

    As for Jung and Tarot, I regrettably must say that Jung is a gaping hole in my psychology readings--about all I've read of him was excerpts from "Man and His Symbols" in college (perhaps it is there). I looked it up now and there are a number of books on this topic, the most trustworthy that looks to me is "The Jungian Tarot and Its Archetypal Imagery" by Robert Wang (1988).

    Et merci pour le baiser emoticonique :)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    I don't know if he (yes, it is he) ever read Pessoa, though I would not be surprised. Another quote of his along these lines of the sanctuary of sleep is this:

    "Autrefois au moment de me metter au lit, l'idée d'une mort temporaire au sein du sommeil me rassérénait, aujourd'hui je m'endors pour vivre quelques heures."

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    "Si la vie pouvait n'être que du sommeil désappointé...." :)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • phil m

    phil m says

    Hello Solyaria. I have never known anyone from Romania. I guess Vlad gave the place such a bad rap that Americans are afraid to go there :)
    I'd love to know more about Romania and Romanians....and not from google or wikipedia! (Smile)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Stas Sajin

    Stas Sajin says

    da, it's ok now.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Stas Sajin

    Stas Sajin says

    ]:D[ ;

    nu ma intreba cu ce ocazie. Cind ma simt aiurea nu prea-mi pasa de consecinte

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Olga

    Olga says

    Hi Salyaris! I am glad to hear from you! I am well, thank you for asking! Oh I am in the work, children, doggy, writing and reading all the time. I mainly read now a book about religions and history of religions such as an apocryphal works of 1-2 century, Leo Tolstoy's 'The confession' and 'What is my faith?'. Now I am reading Washington Irwing's Life of Mohammed.
    They seems to be my idee fixe! ;) ;)
    What about you? How is your student life? What books do you choose to read?

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Stas Sajin

    Stas Sajin says

    nu stiu

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    Seriously, I would like to continue my exploration of Nishida & the 'Kyoto School' of philosophy--this time, reading his late-period work. I was curious today and looked at a book of his successor, Hajimi Tanabe, in the library...looks to be quite heady stuff, but it was a bit too lengthy, so maybe for another time. I checked out a few of the books mentioned in "Curtain": "Pornografia" by Gombrowicz and "The Harp and the Shadow" by Carpentier.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    Yes, I have bought my goth mascara and I am not afraid to use it!!! :D

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Jason R.

    Jason R. says

    Hi Iulia- I just wanted to drop in and say hello. I am currently reading a Stephen King book "Lisey's Story" and reading poetry by the American Carl Sandburg in addition to the journal "Poetry". I contributed to my local library today by purchasing 5 volumes from their "Friends of the Library" sale. We are having an upcoming fundraiser booksale in March in my town- I am looking forward to it- I will soon have 1,000 books in my apartment which is a nirvana of sort for me. I am listening to music and I feel great-- I hope to hear from you soon, Iulia- you are a great literary correspondent and friend. Jason

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • noel m

    noel m says

    Aww, don't play coy. You should know by now: literary critics often do not confine themselves to literature. Barthes, Deleuze, Foucault and many others would cross over to other disciplines in order to apply their theories more universally. Consider reviewing different aspects of popular culture simultaneously. e.g. film, music, art, and of course literature (an opportunity to demonstrate the universality and applicability of your own theories. :P) I say, start a review journal/blog today.

    Cavafy, ah yes, I learned about him from a Filipino poet I admire. Cavafy can teach an aspiring poet about compactness and succinctness, almost like a Greek haiku: much of his poetry are shortish poems, and yet each one packs strong emotive power. This is hidden in disarming prosaic phraseology. His work is, for the most part, prose poetry, in a good way. His style is deceptively simple, not too preciously lyrical, stripped of florid language and embraces modern forms. He was very modern even in the obvious terms: I haven't read a Cavafy poem with archaic language or rhyme schemes.

    Cavafy wrote a lot about Hellenistic and mythological themes and subjects (a little like Friedrich Holderlin). He also wrote about his homosexuality (a little like Walt Whitman) , nostalgia for youth, the ideal of youth, and therefore its elegies. I only wish he wrote more about frivolous things like Pessoa and his alter egos/heteronyms side by side with his more serious work, although his seemingly more settled temperament might have precluded it. He often did not write directly about himself, but his poetry is ultimately quite personal (autobiographical even) as it is plain to see that he projects himself a lot into the personalities/subjects of his poems.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    Yes! I look forward to telling you what I think! Though I feel like I haven't gotten to talk as much as I would have liked about "Testaments Betrayed"...

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • noel m

    noel m says

    Great stuff, Solyaris! You should think about reviewing films too. (Can you be my ghost writer?)

    Whoa, what barbed literary allusions! Huysmans, Voltaire, and Goethe (?). Spoken like a true bibliophile.

    I didn't respond to Philantrophy in the same manner that you did for many reasons, which I can only condense to the fact of the movie's predictabiliy, its being full of cliches, from characters to plot to stylistic considerations.

    I'll just defer to what you say: Humor doesn't travel well. It is very cultural and I'm obviously no expert in your culture.

    Let's leave it at that.

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • noel m

    noel m says

    I liked Philantrophy, with a few reservations. I see it as a stylish, well-made comedic movie, but little else.

    Predictable in parts (the plot: you know who will end up with whom), clever in other parts (e.g. everyone it turns out is a confidence man/woman, in particular the Philantrophy Foundation's head honcho, who hires out his services as a writer for syndicates and mendicants, but a kind of deus-ex-machina in the end), it is nevertheless entertaining in its mix of styles and genres.

    Full-on entertainment, it is. I imagine you could see Philantrophy lapped up and applauded in regular commercial theaters. Maybe it can appeal to high brow audiences too, since the main character is an aspiring writer who must struggle to get by. That the film is partly set in the academe and partly among writers certainly helps in that regard. (Was this its come-on to you?)

    It's a genre film, but an effortless, hybrid one: part romantic comedy, part scam film, part noir farce (just for the presence of the femme fatale character). No one really dies, but someone gets gypped in quasi-femme fatale fashion. That's part of the film's charm: all of its characters turn out to be untrustworthy types, but they are almost equally sympathetic characters. In the end, you watch how, against a backdrop of cynicism, a world full of scam artists, Caranfil privileges love. Philantrophy, despite its undercurrent of deception and cynicism, is light-hearted and winsome all throughout.

    Liked it. :P

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )
  • noel m

    noel m says

    Hi Solyaris,

    My affinity for cinema is not so much fondness as something more passionate I think. As pabulum (is that the right word?), perhaps. I try to watch a film every day, like a form of sustenance.

    It's good to know about your vocation in life. I'm nodding my head. We share something similar (not identical but similar, I must stress), I'm also a budding critic, a would-be film critic. But it's nothing close to the academic kind of film criticism. Maybe a lot nearer to the reader-response critic in literary criticism. I run a little film blog where my cousin and I post filim reviews and write-ups about goings-on in Philippine independent cinema. Check it out if you have the time: http://cinefilipinas.blogspot.com/ I'm the fellow who goes by the name of Northern Portrait. Our reviews get picked up by different sites from time to time. The thing about it is that literary criticism feeds into it. What little of literary criticism I learned in school has proven useful in film reviewing. Just recently I referred to Louis Althusser in a review. But our reviews are really less academic than that.

    Question: How do you assume naivete once you've lost it? I'd like to know that. To some extent I agree with your view that learning literary criticism may bring about a loss of innocence, the end of childhood, as it were. Gone is the sense of wonder, gone is the sense of mystery. Structuralism, deconstruction, New Criticism, psychoanalysis, Marxism form many of your prejudices as you read a text. But maybe it's the time to challenge yourself and go on to more serious literature. For some reason, while studying cinema, I've had an experience in reverse. I've realized in my studies the complexity inherent in a film, it's life cycle, the production, distribution and exhibition. As for the film itself, it is always a form of symphony, an orchestra, a collaboration of so many artists -- writer, director, cinematographer, various artistic directors down to the continuity person. And I haven't talked about the content of the film itself. (That makes for another paragraph, to say the least.)

    Nae Caranfil and Poromboiu are familiar by name to me. I have access to their films, and I will be able to watch Philantrhopy tomorrow. Be prepared for my review. I also have access to other Pinitilie films including An Unforgettable Summer, a film that might make a double bill with Philanthropy. Ah so many films, so little time.

    By Cioran, I own his The Temptation to Exist and Tears & Saints. I'm sure you have read them, and know -- and quote -- them by heart. Which one should I read first?

    So you are still in school. I graduated a long time ago, with a degree in English Studies, and yes, I took up a few Comparative Literature (Literary Criticism) subjects along the way, but I've retained only the basics. Don't go quizing me on the subject. That will be the death of the author, as it were. (Barthes?)

    Well, that's quite a mouthful from me. So I must say, Cut!

    posted 2 years ago. ( send a note )