This is an incredibly astute reading, and it's so nice to have the book seen in this way. I'm impressed you pulled out Malick as one of my interests/influences. Most importantly though: thank you for taking this time with the book and for situating it and seeing it so clearly (and for seeing things I myself hadn't seen).
Nice review, this book sounds good and the excerpts show it to be well written. I have to say I see a lot of Knausgaard here. The whole thing about the rising and falling of the sun, spring blooming, etc., and how that’s not what’s really happening, that’s just our description of it, is pure Knausgaard. His whole thing is how there are two worlds—the material world, and the human world of meaning. If we decide to live in the purely material world, which is in some sense a “truer” world, our lives become meaningless. We can’t do this. But this also isn’t a truer world, because that’s a world without humans and language, and these things make the world, too. The style as well, the long sentences with independent clauses linked by commas—Knausgaard. Thanks for bringing this book up, I’ll try to read it at some point.
I need to give Knausgaard another try. I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages of the first book in his memoir series because it felt repetitive to me. Maybe I missed the brilliance of it and need to revisit it.
I haven't read much Knausgaard, but he could have influenced me. Your comment makes me want to try him again. Writers who use long winding sentences who I have read a lot of: Nicholson Baker, DFW, Mary Gaitskill at times, Thomas Bernhard, and of course many of the modernists, Virginia Woolf in particular, who was a major interest for a long time. I love a different Norwegian writer - Dag Solstad. Anyway, I do remember this philosophical construction Knausgaard comes up with (sounds like a form of existentialism?). Is that in book one of My Struggle? That's the only one I've read... I respect it as a philosophical system, but I don't agree with it. In Zen, there's no purely human or purely material world - each are assembled, and thus subject to the four seals, which means each are impermanent and illusory, subject to causes and conditions, but we create the mistaken perception (avidya) that they are two solid/separate worlds, and so then have a misapprehension of "physical/material reality." Will be interesting to read Spring and see how all this lines up. Thanks for pointing this out.
Knausgaard mentions Bernhard and Solstad as two writers who have influenced him. As for his philosophical construction, it’s not really any sort of formal system, but just something that comes up again and again in his writing. I probably haven’t done it justice and it might in fact be more similar to what you’re describing--he has an obsession with angels (the book before My Struggle) and I think this is in part because they can go between the material world and the spiritual world, showing the boundary to be more porous than we think (to your point about Zen). Anyway, thanks for commenting on this--I look forward to reading your book!
Your point about "therapists-as-priests / as God" brings to my mind Eliot's "The Cocktail Party," where the psychiatrist is revealed to be an an angel. This is of course in very stark contrast to the treatment of therapists/psychiatrists as a malicious "part of the system" in counterculture literature and even many suburban Americana novels. It seems the reputation of mental health practitioners has ebbed and flowed.
This is an incredibly astute reading, and it's so nice to have the book seen in this way. I'm impressed you pulled out Malick as one of my interests/influences. Most importantly though: thank you for taking this time with the book and for situating it and seeing it so clearly (and for seeing things I myself hadn't seen).
Very glad you enjoyed the piece - and very much hope to see this book get the attention it deserves. Congrats on producing this beautiful work of art!
Nice review, this book sounds good and the excerpts show it to be well written. I have to say I see a lot of Knausgaard here. The whole thing about the rising and falling of the sun, spring blooming, etc., and how that’s not what’s really happening, that’s just our description of it, is pure Knausgaard. His whole thing is how there are two worlds—the material world, and the human world of meaning. If we decide to live in the purely material world, which is in some sense a “truer” world, our lives become meaningless. We can’t do this. But this also isn’t a truer world, because that’s a world without humans and language, and these things make the world, too. The style as well, the long sentences with independent clauses linked by commas—Knausgaard. Thanks for bringing this book up, I’ll try to read it at some point.
Thanks for the comment!
I need to give Knausgaard another try. I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages of the first book in his memoir series because it felt repetitive to me. Maybe I missed the brilliance of it and need to revisit it.
Try "Spring." He wrote it after My Struggle but honestly it's the same thing, only shorter. 200 pages, totally captivating.
Thanks!
I haven't read much Knausgaard, but he could have influenced me. Your comment makes me want to try him again. Writers who use long winding sentences who I have read a lot of: Nicholson Baker, DFW, Mary Gaitskill at times, Thomas Bernhard, and of course many of the modernists, Virginia Woolf in particular, who was a major interest for a long time. I love a different Norwegian writer - Dag Solstad. Anyway, I do remember this philosophical construction Knausgaard comes up with (sounds like a form of existentialism?). Is that in book one of My Struggle? That's the only one I've read... I respect it as a philosophical system, but I don't agree with it. In Zen, there's no purely human or purely material world - each are assembled, and thus subject to the four seals, which means each are impermanent and illusory, subject to causes and conditions, but we create the mistaken perception (avidya) that they are two solid/separate worlds, and so then have a misapprehension of "physical/material reality." Will be interesting to read Spring and see how all this lines up. Thanks for pointing this out.
Knausgaard mentions Bernhard and Solstad as two writers who have influenced him. As for his philosophical construction, it’s not really any sort of formal system, but just something that comes up again and again in his writing. I probably haven’t done it justice and it might in fact be more similar to what you’re describing--he has an obsession with angels (the book before My Struggle) and I think this is in part because they can go between the material world and the spiritual world, showing the boundary to be more porous than we think (to your point about Zen). Anyway, thanks for commenting on this--I look forward to reading your book!
The angel idea sounds interesting. Am curious to know why he's obsessed with them. Looking forward to checking out the seasons books - thanks again!
Your point about "therapists-as-priests / as God" brings to my mind Eliot's "The Cocktail Party," where the psychiatrist is revealed to be an an angel. This is of course in very stark contrast to the treatment of therapists/psychiatrists as a malicious "part of the system" in counterculture literature and even many suburban Americana novels. It seems the reputation of mental health practitioners has ebbed and flowed.
I think the tendency is to present them in binary terms, hence my original hesitation with the character. But in context I think it works.
Fantastic piece you did recently, by the way!
Are you into zen? Me too