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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, June 28, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT
This week's topic:
What are your favorite aphorisms?
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Dirda's name appears weekly in The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a fat literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be writing a lighthearted essay about the joys and burdens of living in a house filled with way too many books. Although he holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda is still smart enough to be an unabashed fan of "The Simpsons," noting that "the show's genius derives from its details." He also loves P.G. Wodehouse, intellectual history, children's books and locked-room mysteries just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished criticism.
These days, Dirda says he spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth and daydreaming ("my only real pastime"). Otherwise he just reads books and writes about them, with occasional visits to secondhand bookstores in search of treasures. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer working on his reviews and Readings columns. "Do not imagine that I regard my taste for literary artifacts as anything but shameless and vulgar," Dirda says, "I have sunk so low as to covet Edward Gorey coffee mugs. I yearn for a bust of Dante to place on a bookcase."
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books--aka the melancholic's home away from home. Now what made me say that? I must be in my surrealist automatic writing mode. In truth, it's a bright hot day here in Washington--though I am stuck inside, in an airless, windowless room, at a cubicle surrounded by postcards, photographs of authors, and a few favorite sayings ("This writing business, pencils and what-not. Overrated ifyou ask me"--Eeyore). I just had some spanakopita from the cafeteria--an unusual item on the menu--and it was great. Should have gotten two pieces. As for my present state of mind and spirit, a matter of breathless interest to almost no one, let me just say I'm vacillating as usual. One moment feeling pretty chipper, the next singing the blues. I did find a bit of solace yesterday by reading for a half hour in Boswell's Life of Johnson--such a comforting book. ANd fun. WEll, I could go on, but if you want to read me at length you should search out my reviews and essays. For the next hour, we'll answer questions instead, and maybe discuss a couple of matters at length. So let's see what fortune has brought us on this sunny Thursday. On with the show!
Winston-Salem, N.C.:
Did you decide on favorite aphorisms as the topic? If so would offer these 3:
When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in yourself than there was before.
-Clifton Fadiman, editor and critic (1904-1999)
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
-Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)
Would like to say I have collected them overtime, but alas they come ready-quoted with a Word a Day service provided at wordsmith.org. I particularly feel the sting of the Schopenhauer quote since my book eyes are often bigger than my reading stomach!
Michael Dirda: Nice maxims. I had forgotten, as is my wont, that we were going to talk aphorisms and apothegms and the like this week. In truth, I've sometimes wondered if there were distinctions among these words. Anybody feel like checking them out in their AMerican Heritage? I was disapointed to learn that your quotations didn't derive from a worn common-place book you carry everywhere but from an electronic word of the day site. Oh well. I don't have my commopnlace book here wiht me, but I can remember the first obsrevatoin I wrote in it, from Schlegel: "Happy beyond all others is the man who, in order to adjust himself to fate, is not required to cast away his entire previous life." I've often wondered why I started with that quote, but lately it's seemed more and more apposite to my own confused life. Ah, but enough of that. I"ve sworn off autobiography.
Washington, D.C.:
There is a "code red" (poor air quality) alert for Washington, D.C. today. The question is how many of your cohorts, Washington Post employees, are leveraging the "code red" to stay in their office?
Michael Dirda: Hard to know. There's not a lot of reason to go out,if you don't want to. ON rainy days the cafeteria is packed.
St. Louis, Mo.:
Have you read Palahniuk's most recent novel, Choke? What do you think of his other work? I've really enjoyed his previous stuff, and I can't wait until I can find time to read Choke.
Michael Dirda: Haven't read any of his books, though our review of the latest was mixed. More and more, it seems the world is publishing more than I can even think of keeping up with. Somebody once wrote that after 50 a man should only read for pleasure.
Connecticut:
Aphorisms:
That which makes us happy, makes us wise.
- John Crowley, from Little, Big
Michael Dirda: Nice quote--though quite unlike the deeply melancholic Crowley. Even now I carry around a letter John wrote to me when I was first hit by the blues about a year ago. Cheers me to read it, knowing that others have felt some of what I do.
Also, sort of the opposite of Eccleisastes: He who stores up knowledge stores up grief.
EG, D.C.:
Michael, are you familiar with the work of Stephen Dixon, author of 20 novels and also a professor at Johns Hopkins U? I had not previously heard of him until I noticed his 30 Pieces of a Novel at a bookstore the other day. It looked interesting and I'm wondering whether to take a flier on that or something else by him.
Michael Dirda: I know of Dixon and hve assigned his books from time to time. But I've never read him. He's been fairly prolific. But why hesitate? If his stuff looks appealing, you'll be helping a worthy writer. And if you love his stuff, you'll be glad to have found it. SHould it prove a disappointment, you can pass the book on or trade it at a used bookstore for a nice new paperback of . . . anybody you choose.
Washington, D.C.:
Michael,
During my annual "summer slow-down," I've become fascinated by early attempts at sequential art in particular the early strips by Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland). What set me off on this was a lengthy article on Will Eisner's "the Spirit" in a recent New York Review of Books. Are you familiar with these early (yet very sophisticated) attempts at graphic fiction? Your thoughts?
Michael Dirda: I do have Little Nemo and admire the book a lot. But I can't say I'm particularly sophisticated in my approach to comics and graphic novels: I like the ones that make me laugh or show impossibly sexy women (sorry to be so honest). While I was in grad school--comp lit, emphasis on medieval literature--I used to read Conan the Barbarian comics assiduously--generally while my clothes were in the pay laundry--and sip coffee and munch on glazed donuts, as happy as I will ever be.
Oh yes, like most people I love Carl Barks (Uncle Scrooge), Don Martin, Barnaby, and Green Lantern.
New York, N.Y.:
I'm curious if you read the Reader's Manifesto piece in this month's Atlantic Monthly. I haven't, but I understand it's very critical of the state of modern American letters. And speaking of the AM, did you read the "new" Twain story?
Michael Dirda: I've been sent the Reader's Manifesto article, but have only skimmed it. Most of the writers the author goes after are, in fact, people I admire: Proulx, McCarthy, DeLillo, Auster. I'm told it's pretty well done, however. But then it seems to me that every decade or so we have an attack like this: Panic among the Philistines, by--was it--Bryan Guiness or something like that; Intellectual Sky-Writing, by PHilip Nobile; AMerican Plastic, by Gore VIdal. No one will remember this article in a year, but people will be reading Proulx, McCarthy et al. for a long, long time. But maybe I'll change my mind once I actually read the piece. I did notice in my quick scan that Myers criticizes Proulx as a writer of fine sentences: I read everything for the sentences. Plot, characterization, etc.--all those are important, but what really counts is the tone, the sound of the voice on the page. The sentences.
I was pleased, however, to see a recommendation for Appointment in Samarra and the Gormenghast trilogy. Myers does have taste.
New York City, N.Y.:
mmmmmmm, GLAZED DONUTS...
(with apologies to H. Simpson)
Michael Dirda: Yes, glazed donuts. Ever my downfall. I would live on Krispy Kremes if I could. THough of course no glazed donuts have compared to those at a certain bakery, now defunct, in my old hometown. Fortunately, the world's greatest pizza is still available--and strange to say it too can be found in the town where I grew up. Everything tasted better there.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
"If it were not for fear,
beggars would starve!"
Big Bad Fritz Nietzsche
Michael Dirda: Huh? That's a real Zen one.
St. Louis, Mo.:
Sometimes it seems like all of the really great modern writers, men like Joyce, Borges, and Nobokov, are dead. (Of course, Salinger is in seclusion) All we have today are pompous, overpretentious blowhards like John Irving and Updike. Do we really have any literary geniuses writing today?
Michael Dirda: Besides me?
Michael Dirda: In truth, there are great writers among us, but it may take us sometime to discover who they are. The very authors derided in this Atlantic piece have some claims to greatness. But it's possible that the notion of the Great ARtist or the idea of a high-modernist Artistic Vocation is now lost. Or regarded as kind of old-fashioned. We're too hip, too aware these days. Thomas Mann would be mocked as an uptight Teuton, too serious by half. We want laughter, preferably ironic. Still, Garcia Marquez, Eudora Welty, Muriel Spark, and a few others are Serious Writers, if any are. But among the under 40-it's impossible to tell. You should be out there promoting the ones you admire.
Washington, D.c.:
My favorite quotation: "God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me." (Genesis)
Michael Dirda: Nice. Why do you like it so?
Woodbridge, Va.:
What do you think of D.H. Lawrence? Has he gone out of fashion? When I was in college in the 60s he was considered important enough for Sons and Lovers to be one of the novels selected for my class in the English novel; now I never hear about him. Is he worth re-reading?
Michael Dirda: Yes, he is out of fashion. ANd of course he's worth re-reading: His short stories are wonderful, his criticism is still vital, his letters are terrific and three or four novels are still major. But no one reads him because he seems a little corny, not suitable for a pc era in various ways, a little shrill. It's always worth going back to the writers who were once judged great and rereading them. At the very least you'll learn something about the fickleness of literary fortunes.
Reston, Va.:
These two from Mark Twain are at the front of my commonplace book:
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
The first encourages me to read, and the second comforts me if I cannot read as much as some others - like you , Michael.
Michael Dirda: I remember quote that youre second example calls to mind: "For example is not proof."
I've read nothing compared to all that's worth reading. But I do have a pretty good memory.
Washington, D.C.:
The Love Artist, by Jane Alison. If you haven't read it, do.
Michael Dirda: Now, there's a message. And a title. Will I learn sexual secrets that will make me irresistible to women? Or is this just a lyrical novel about art or love or both? One always hopes for the former and ends up settling for the latter.
Arlington, Va.:
Picking up on the writer who questioned whether there are any writers of genius today: My sad quest for structure has me alternating a classic (now re-reading Moby Dick) with something new (just finished Helen Dunmore's With Your Crooked Heart). But now I don't know what new book to read next -- it's tough vetting what's out there. Any recommendations?
Michael Dirda: Read Book World. Visit your bookstore. Talk to librarians and friends. The world is full of books.
Washington, D.C.:
I've recently found myself on my first-ever "non-fiction for pleasure" kick. An account of the 1996 presidential campaign, a biography of Jefferson, a volume on chaos theory -- all marvelous books that have prompted me to think and reflect. At this rate I may not be going back to the made-up stuff!
Michael Dirda: Balance in all things, my friend, balance.
Washington, D.C.:
Before putting ink to paper or phalanges to a keyboard some writers have preliminary tools and methods to cultivate their writing. I read that Tolkien had sprawling maps of Middle Earth, Rowling had notebooks of characters, Dirda had/has...
Are they any bizarre or unique methods that you have read of?
Michael Dirda: I have no techniques. I just sit down in front of the monitor and pray that I won't make a fool of myself.
Hemingway used to sharpen pencils. FAulkner liked a little whisky. Chatwin needed special notebooks. Colette liked blue paper. THe list is endless. You can pick up some others by checking out the interviews in Paris Review, most collected in various volumes of Writers at Work.
Cleveland, Ohio:
"Outside of a dog man's best friend is a book; inside of a dog it's too dark to read." --Grouch Marx
Michael Dirda: A classic.
Austin, Texas:
Pizza? You must have grown up in New Haven, Conn., the world capital of the best pizza, ever. Modern Pizza on State St, yummmmm...
Michael Dirda: NO, Yala's Pizza in Lorain, Ohio, on Oberlin Avenue. A slice of mushroom pizza and an Orange Crush--quite likely my choice for a last meal. With a glazed donut for dessert.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
I think this aphorism is especially true
in time of war...
It's by Thomas Fuller, from Oxford Book
of Aphorims, edited by John Gross:
"Many would be cowards
if they had courage enough."
Michael Dirda: Nice. THe Gross compilation is one of my favorite bedside books.
Washington, D.C.:
Michael--
A few funny things I've seen on T-shirts lately:
Rehab is for quitters.
and
That was Zen,
This is Tao.
Michael Dirda: VEry cute, especially the second.
Washington, D.C.:
I'm heading to Peru next week -- any thoughts on Vargas Llosa? Could you recommend one of his to start with?
Michael Dirda: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.
Centreville, Va.:
A Puritan culture's conception of art is of something which will endorse its morality and flatter its patriotism. Lawrence Durrell, and it is from my worn commonplace book.
Michael Dirda: Nice. Durrell--another neglected and half fogotten writer.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
"A young man drinks wine to get drunk;
an old man drinks for the
drinking of the wine."
Isak Dinesen
Michael Dirda: THis reminds me of Kingsley Amis's idea for an advertising slogan for Guinness: Drink Guinness. It makes you drunk.
Arlington, Va.:
Mr. Dirda,
Thought this aphorism would be appropriate, from one melancholic to another--
"Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away."
-- Goethe
Michael Dirda: I ahve it in my own commonplace book.
Lancaster, Pa.:
Okay, here's a guy with too little to do today, right? An aphorism is a pithy observation which contains a general truth and an apothegm is a concise saying or maxim. The latter comes from the Greek to "speak out," while the former comes from the Greek for "definition." So, Nietzsche is an aphoristic writer and Jesus speaks in apothegms, I guess.
Michael Dirda: Thanks for checking, but the distinction remains pretty darn subtle.
Washington, D.C.:
Hello Michael -- There are many of us in windowless, airless cubicles today, unfortunately! That's why it's so fun to have this chat.
Two things: Can you recommend a couple of biographies or memoirs that might interest preteens? I've got some non-fiction lovers in my household this summer.
And, last week you were bemoaning the reality of your life vs. the stereotypical image of a book critic as a solitary soul who sips brandy in a booklined room. But many of us like the fact that your life is much like ours, and that you can still produce such wonderful reviews and essays. It gives us hope, and I think it may allow you to connect with your readers in a way that the stereotypical book reviewer wouldn't be able to. Just a thought.....
Michael Dirda: Kind of you to think the latter. I, of course, feel that I've failed miserably and that Edmund Wilson or Cyril Connolly would be sipping Tanqueray martinis in air-conditioned bars, while being idolized by gorgeous co-eds who record their every bon mot. I'd teach one class a semester for $150,000 a year and . . . Well, enough of that self-torment. Instead, I keep my books in boxes in a humid basement, my barbaric children ignore my pleas for quiet, and my wife. . . well, better stop while I"m ahead.
As for nonfictoin for pre-teens? Are we talking 10 or 12 year olds? I like the books of Rhoda Blumberg, Albert Marrin, Russell Freed--wonderful works of history. Almost any of them are good.
Washington, D.C.:
Any advice for becoming familiar with the adventures of Sherlock Holmes? I have a huge omnibus of all of Doyle's stories but it frankly intimidates the heck out of me. Is there a preferred tale with which to begin, or should I start at page 1 and go on to the end? All in a row or spaced out over time?
Michael Dirda: ONce you start, you won't be able to stop. There is, however, a book that gathers the 13 or so stories that members of the Baker Street Irregulars and Doyle himself thought his best. Can't remember the exact title. Frankly, I would read the Adventures and Memoirs entire, then The Hound--after that things get more uneven. The most admired storeis are +The REd-Headed League, Silver Blaze, A Scandal in Bohemia, and The Blue Carbuncle.
Pizza:
Yes, the best pizza is found in New Haven, Conn., but it's Pepe's who makes the best pie. Absolutely scrumptious. How about doing some sort of literary/food discussion next time? You can't do much better than combining food and literature.
Michael Dirda: What is this? a refuge for Yalies? WE'll have no more talk of New Haven pizza. But food and literature would make for a good topic--;let's do it, next week.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
"Your true love you'll miss
if you follow your bliss."
Ted "Blitz" Schultz
Milwaukee bartender with Ph.D. in lit
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. So if I leave my wife for my gorgeous girlfriend I'll have made a mistake? Is that what this means?
San Francisco, CA:
So true it's almost painful, and proving once again that Edward Gorey is truly great, from the Eclectic Abecedarium:
Beyond the Glass
We see life Pass.
A close second, though, is Homer Simpson's "It's funny because it's true!"
Michael Dirda: Nice. But they don't seem as powerful to me. I like Walter Mitty's "Things close in." Or--who was it, I cant quite remember, Walter Baghot, someone like that: "A man does his best work just before he is found out."
Out There:
My favorite aphorism of all time, coming froma damn TV show no less...
You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I
thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the
terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So,
now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the
universe.
Michael Dirda: Neat.
Alexandria, Va.:
When in the name of God is Eudora Welty going to be given the Nobel Prize? Who are the people who make these decisions? Do you know any of them? Can they be bribed or blackmailed? She is very old! There's not much time left!
Michael Dirda: I did make thsi same plea in my nonfiction summer reading column a week or so back. I fear that the feeble Eudora is unlikely to go to Stockholm and so they're not going to bother.
Washington, D.C.:
Over my desk at home hangs "I can stand almost anything except an endless succession of ordinary days." --Goethe
Michael Dirda: thanks
Arlington, Va.:
No, no, no, not Modern! The best pizza IS in
New Haven, but it's either Pepe's or Sally's.
Michael Dirda: Damn Yalies.
Vienna, Va.:
A couple of weeks ago you had a query as to the lack of blue-collar subject novels in recent American writing.
Here are a couple of good exceptions:
"Red Baker" by Robert Ward about laid-off Baltimore steelworkers in the mid-80s. The ending is kind of sappy but otherwise this is very good.
"World Without End, Amen" by Jimmy Breslin. Maybe the only recent American novel with a cop as the central character which is not a mystery/detective story. This is much better than "table money," Breslin's 80s novel with a similar theme. Why Breslin is not regarded as a significant novelist is beyond me.
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I recall that Ward used to do tv shows--does he still? I've only read Breslin's journalism.
Pakoma Tark, Md.:
Enjoyed your review of American Gods last Sunday. There are a lot of these "Gods in the present day" books, ranging from Coyote Blue through Thorne Smith's Twilight of the Gods to one by Tom Holt whose name I can't recall right now. I don't count Pratchett's Small Gods because it doesn't use Gods from any culture's mythology.
Is this a mini-genre? What do you think?
Michael Dirda: It is a mini-genre. Tom Holt's books always use gods or god-like beings as their premise: Expecting Someone Taller--the norse pantheon, for example.
Omaha, Neb.:
A friend really like Gilbert Sorrentino's book Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things. Since this was based on your recommendation, can you tell us if there are any other worthy Sorrentino works, or other books that work like Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things?
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Sorrentino is wonderful--imaginative adn very funny. It's long and its tedious in some places, but enormous fun: Mulligan Stew. A homage to Flann O'Brien in part. There's a just awful chapbook of poems included with it: The Sweat of Love. ANd some terrific sex scenes. ANd lists. And a play about baseball. In fact, Sorrentino includes a terrific baseball aphorism and we'll use it to round out this week's discussion: "Pitchers make such poor hitters because they think of the ball as their friend."
So till next week, when we'll talk about food and literature, keep reading! Sorry if I didn't get to all the questions. There were a lot and I can only type so fast.
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