Ferdydurke

Ferdydurke
by Witold Gombrowicz, 1937
translated by Eric Mosbacher
London [England] : M. Boyars, 1979
272pp

A parody of common literary forms in prewar Polish literature, in Ferdydurke a 30-year-old complacent narrator, Johnnie (who, like Gombrowicz, has also published a book called Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity), is dragged by an old, all-cultural imposing professor Pimko back to secondary school, where everyone believes him as another poseur juvenile, “inclined to pose in order to appear grown up”. Absurdism of pomposity, immaturity, posed masks, unapologetic mysogyny, with short stories about Philifor and Philimor Honeycombed with Childishness inserted in the middle, Gombrowicz presents a madcap comic parody with intense underlying analysis of the way the externals shape one’s (re)actions.

The Monkey’s Wrench

The Monkey’s Wrench
by Primo Levi
translated from the Italian by William Weaver
Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (July 1, 1995)

Narrative is contained within another narrative in this novel, as Faussone, an exuberant rigger, tells his stories of working to a chemist-writer narrator (no doubt Levi’s alter ego):his constructions, an adventurous monkey, a machine that caught stardust, a name gone wrong, overcoming the fear of water, from India, Russia to Alaska.

Under the Glacier

Under the Glacier
by Halldór Laxness
translated from the Icelandic by Magnus Magnusson
Vintage (March 8, 2005)

A young, unnamed emissary is dispatched by the Bishop of Iceland “to conduct the most important investigation at that world-famous mountain since the days of Jules Verne”, i.e. to investigate Kristinihald undir Jökli (the original title which literally translated means Christianity under the Glacier) and the strange going-ons in Snæffels glacier.

The Periodic Table

The Periodic Table
by Primo Levi
translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal
Schocken; Reissue edition (April 4, 1995)

One itty-bitty superfluous whine: back when I was assigned The Diary of Anne Frank as a compulsory reading in secondary school, with all due respect to Frank, I remember thinking, “Why can’t we be given The Periodic Table instead?!”

Moments of Reprieve

Moments of Reprieve
by Primo Levi
translated from the Italian by Ruth Feldman

Written unplanned at different times and on different ocassions, Moments of Reprieve is a collection of fifteen short stories, each centred on one character only. There was Eddy, a self-absorbed green-triangle juggler and a thief, Tischler, a carpenter who recounts the story of Lilith. Bandi, a mild Hungarian whose name was Endre Szántó (reinforcing in Levi “the vague impression that a halo seemed to encircle his shaved head” to which Bandi explained laughingly: “Szántó means plowman, or more generically, peasant”), whom Levi taught to steal and cheat.

Penis fencing

Ha. That got your attention. (Did it, did it?) Whatever. Something to keep you entertained on Valentine’s day, while you sneer on oh those poor, gullible folks, scrambling for long-stemmed roses, or chocolate bonbons, or lacy nighties, or strawberry champagne, or whatever those scams capitalists are ripping them off for. Yes, those whores of war, those losers. We’ll delight in exploding penises instead.

Anyway, back to the exploding and fencing penises: SBS has concluded the last part of Dr. Tatiana’s three-series (science musical) show. Instead of the book’s sassy sex advice columnist (who’d put whatsername of that Sex and the City to shame), Olivia Judson appears in the doco as a leggy, white-leather-clad Dr Tatiana the sexpert consultant, riding along in her Mustang for her research, consoling all-dancing, all-singing, hanky-panky creatures (“from frustrated fruit flies to lovelorn golden pottos”).

A Time for Machetes

A Time for Machetes: The Rwandan Genocide: The Killers Speak
by Jean Hatzfeld
translated from the French by Linda Coverdale
Serpents Tail (June 30, 2005)

Shying away from close analysis of the big picture, Hatzfeld instead focuses on the hands and foot of the genocide, i.e. common men and a few local leaders. The interviews are compiled into chapters, each focusing on specific aspects, interspersed with some overviews and notes by Hatzfeld.

Drug Use in Australia

Drug Use in Australia: A Harm Minimisation Approach
edited by Margaret Hamilton, Allan Kellehear, Greg Rumbold
Oxford University Press, Australia, 1998

An introductory book containing essays about drugs and drug use in Australia that challenge the “prevailing” (?) judgemental, often insufferably simplistic views about drugs and drug use, and discuss instead the current “harm minimisation” approach, aimed mainly for tertiary students, but readable for general public.

Conjugal Love

During (and a few decades after) the wars Moravia was probably the most widely-known Italian novelist in English-speaking countries. The Conformist and Contempt have been made into films by Bertolucci and Godard. Then there’s also the friendship with Pasolini (another Italian chap I regard with the same mix of repulsion & reverence). Yet these days one hardly heard of him, jostled by popular favourites such as Eco and Calvino. Perhaps all his realistic pessimism sealed him into old days’ obscurity? Perhaps.

So enter NYRB’s enthusiastic revival of ‘underappreciated’ authors. And a recent adaptation of Boredom, L’Ennui by Cedric Kahn. While! To the coquettish delights of my scanty collection of Moravias, a newly-acquired ‘vintage’: Conjugal Love.

Madness Explained

Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature
by Richard P. Bentall
Penguin Global; New edition (December 28, 2005)

The book is divided into four parts. Part one deals with the history of psychology: it sketches the simplifying effect that Kraepelin’s classification had on the theory and practice of psychiatry and its growth, the triumph of APA, centred around Euro/American-centric ideas, that doesn’t sufficiently take into account cross-cultural differences, and how the production of DSM was greatly influenced by political and economic agendas (particularly DSM-III) as it strove to create a global standard in psychosis and to synchronise with WHO’s ICD, each subsequent DSM growing more fine-grained yet still failing to improve its kappa value.