Successful Failures Part 2: RGBIB 420

[@reaganwiles_art]

Got another copy of Bovary yesterday. Past the old widow's death, noticed some details that padded the shock, lol. Now I'm in for it.

[@Scottmbradfield]

OK so let us know how it goes! s

[@unstopitable]

I have that exact edition of The Mind Parasites. I love it, I hate it, then I love it again. It's so weird. It really does occupy its own space in the brain of anyone who reads it. Now I'm going to have to check out Animal Planet. I hope the price doesn't shoot up. I remember being so blown away by H. Miller. Such raw directness, so in-your-face. Cheers.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah it's too crazy not to love (sometimes.) Yeah please do check out ANIMAL PLANET, my favorite child. s

[@unstopitable]

@@Scottmbradfield Animal Planet (analog version) is already in the cart. Cheers, bro.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@unstopitable Good choice! s

[@donaldkelly3983]

These episodes reminded me of The Confidence Man by Melville. I picked it up because I enjoy con men in fiction and movies. But CM was boring, but it had people behaving horribly, so there's that.

[@Scottmbradfield]

I know, I can never get very far in a Melville novel, but PIERRE I'd like to try again... s

[@TomFazzini]

Great video, Scott! A few of these I'd like to explore. - thanks for featuring them. Unsuccessful Successes is another thing this minor bather/viewer has a particular penchant for.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Tom! Being a successful failure is something I know a little bit about... s

[@TomFazzini]

@@Scottmbradfield You're vids are always a winner, Scott - I always enjoy them - picking up new things from them or your interesting takes on those I might know a little about.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@TomFazzini thanks Tom! S

[@tectorgorch8698]

I loved The Mind Parasites and right now I'm halfway through Chevengur and loving it too. Cheers!

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@tectorgorch8698 yeah it’s a trip, and CHEVENGUR a different sort of trip… stay safe in the bathtub, Tector!

[@themojocorpse1290]

I enjoyed The philosophers stone by Wilson got space vampire and mind parasite also not got to them yet but definitely will.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@themojocorpse1290 Yeah PHILOSOPHER'S STONE probably the best of them but MIND PARASITES is so nuts you gotta love it. s

[@bluewordsme2]

i also love f I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (what Wild Palms was supposed to. be called)...one of my favorite titles of all americcan lits and like Go Down, Moses and The Vanquishe, a novel made of connected stories...even though Faulker gets critized for his prose, for me, with gaddis, his novels represent the height of american novel writing......actually know disch as a poet (ironic?), as i've read his later poetry and enjoy, and like and respect much more now that the 'I' soliloquies of "personal grief" that dominate contemporary am...erican poetry....anyway, what to say about yates...a personal history...and i will be ordinering that troubled overly-washed novelist Bradfield's Animal book...tonight...sounds absolutely delightful....happy bathing Scott...p.s. GO ENGLAND...bb

[@bluewordsme2]

just ordered Animal Planet Scott, from amazon...arrives tuesday....excited....after that, will order more....im supposed to start Solenoid as a buddy read with my friend the london novelist marc nash, so i need some levity before getting caught up in Cărtărescu novel...yes, he is Romanian, so you see what i mean....bb

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@bluewordsme2 yeah I read all those Faulkners many times over the years… good news from Paris! Stay safe, BBBB!

[@bluewordsme2]

@@Scottmbradfield yes, that was a major relief...thank goodness, after 15 years and lots of idiocy (Boris, Farange, Brexit etc) Englad did well in the ballot box...and god, i was quite frankly terrified by rd 1 in france.....and thank god, the left recovered in the 2nd round....and im serious, im excited to read Animal Planet...btw, my favorite Faulkner Absalom Absalom and Light in August, Go Down Moses, Sound and Fury and of course, every year i re-read As I lie Dying, which to me is one of the finest short novels in the english language....anyway, i'll write back when i receive Animal Planet....stay safe SB...BB

[@bluewordsme2]

@@Scottmbradfield "And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is. How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.”......those lines slay me every time...

[@larrycarr4562]

Scott this episode, sans Dodo was a failure because it was a great 🛁 success … here’s to the flaws of literature!

[@excelsiorathletic]

Useless info: Larry David dates Richard Yates' daughter, Monica, and the Seinfeld character, 'Elaine Benes,' was partly based on her. David met Yates and a season 2 episode features a grumpy author dad intimidating George and Jerry.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@excelsiorathletic yeah I know, it’s detailed in the great Yates bio by Blake Bailey…stay safe, Excelsior! S

[@tbwatch88]

big ups to Yates and to Flaubert's zany "dictionaryists"! hahaha.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@tbwatch88 keep safe, buddy. S

[@larrycarr4562]

Was Charles Portis influenced by Flaubert 🤔that thought in passing….

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@larrycarr4562 probably. Portis clearly read lots of good writers…

[@larrycarr4562]

Yeh, it was that comment on Flaubert’s 2 idiots that prompted the thought 💭 but I was out of the 🛁 at the time, so couldn’t be sure 😁

[@tectorgorch8698]

There's a connection I never would've made. I love love love Portis, especially Masters of Atlantis and Gringos.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@tectorgorch8698 I love those books too. I wouldn't say they were similar writers, but Portis, like Flaubert, likes a lovely sentence. s

[@larrycarr4562]

@@tectorgorch8698 I’ve read everything but True Grit, the narrator I’m told is 90 or so… been thinking I’d wait until I’m of age. I’ll probably sink 🛁

[@reaganwiles_art]

Ilike everything about Flaubert except that deus ex machina which has Madame Bovary the first suddenly die so Charles can marry Emma. Ruins that book for me. Ridiculous that such a gifted writer would entertain such a cockamamy peripety.

[@Scottmbradfield]

@@reaganwiles_art I can see that… tho the shift doesn’t bother me so much, it’s this weird quirk of fate that makes Charles so happy and then destroys him…makes me want to read MB all over again!