Michel Houellebecq — On his love of nature

Michel Houellebecq, jovial as usual, shares with us his love of nature. Because poems are always better in their original language I added the french version in italics for my french readers.

I have no time for those pompous imbeciles

Je ne jalouse pas ces pompeux imbéciles 

Who go into ecstasies before bunnies’ burrows

Qui s'extasient devant le terrier d'un lapin

Because nature is ugly, tedious and hostile;

Car la nature est laide, ennuyeuse et hostile;

It has no message to transmit to humans.

Elle n’a aucun message à transmettre aux humains. 

How pleasant, at the wheel of a powerful Mercedes,

Il est doux, au volant d'une puissante Mercedes,

To drive through solitary and grandiose places;

De traverser des lieux solitaires et grandioses;

Subtly manipulating the gearstick

Manoeuvrant subtilement le levier de vitesses

You dominate the hills, the rivers, and all things.

On domine les monts, les rivières et les choses.

The forests, so close, glitter in the sun

Les forêts toutes proches glissent sous le soleil 

And seem to reflect ancient knowledges;

Et semblent refléter d'anciennes connaissances;

In the depths of their valleys must lie such marvels,

Au fond de leurs vallées on pressent des merveilles,

After a few hours you are taken in;

Au bout de quelques heures on est mis en confiance;

Leaving the car, the irritations begin;

On descend de voiture et les ennuis commencent.

You stumble into the middle of a repugnant mess,

On trébuche au milieu d'un fouillis répugnant,

An abject universe, deprived of all meaning

D'un univers abject et dépourvu de sens

Made of stones and brambles, flies and snakes.

Fait de pierres et de ronces, de mouches et de serpents.

You miss the parking-lots and the smell of petrol,

On regrette les parkings et les vapeurs d'essence,

The serene, gentle glint of the nickel counters;

L'éclat serein et doux des comptoirs de nickel;

It’s too late. It’s too cold. The night begins.

Il est trop tard. Il fait trop froid. La nuit commence.

The forest enfolds you in its cruel dream.

La forêt vous étreint dans son rêve cruel.

This poem can be found on La Poursuite du bonheur

Photographs by Sabine Delcour

Charles Bukowski — Quote of the day

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” 

Philip K. Dick — Library of America

I already talked about how I loved the Library of America edition of the books of H.P. Lovecraft. For the 30th anniversary of Philip K. Dicks departure (see post before) it seems a good moment to suggest readers have a look at this beautiful edition, in three tomes of this great science-fiction writer's best novels.

The tomes are arranged in chronological order: Four Novels of the 1960's, Five Novels of the 1960's & 70s, Valis and Later Novels. Again the books are beautiful, with fine paper and page marker. I haven't finished the third tome but I'm really enjoying the authors crazy vision of the world, where reality is always different than what we expect. Essential reading for our paranoid 21st century.

Like tears in the rain

It is thirty years ago (on the 2nd of March 1982) that Philip K. Dick, science fiction writer passed away. He was the creator of strange, paranoid universes. His books have inspired many science fiction movies (the best being Bladerunner in my opinion).

Bret Easton Ellis — Lunar Park

Bret Easton Ellis is an author from Los Angeles, known mostly for the infamous American Psycho. If you read Ellis before, you are familiar with the themes of his books. It is essentially a critic of the wealthy and famous of the american society. It describes shallow people, leading shallow lives often with terrible consequences. The writing is direct, honest, disturbing, filled with dark humor and often downright violent.

So when I took Lunar Park and started to read, I was essentially expecting the same kind of story. And for some time, it was the typical Easton Ellis book. It seemed like an autobiographical description of the life of the author, his struggle with drugs, his broken marriage and his life in the suburbs of California. But most of all, it was a book about his difficulty being a father and the difficulty forgiving his own father for his lost childhood.

Until the book turns upside down and it literally transforms into a horror novel. The quiet suburb house progressively becomes an haunted house, the main character is haunted by his father's ghost. Suddenly I had the pleasure of reading a typical horror story. It could have been a Stephen King book for all I know.

Bret Easton Ellis usually has nothing to do with the world of horror literature but Lunar Park is a fun homage to the genre. And behind the horror, Lunar Park tells two stories. The story of a child abandoned by his father and the story of a father abandoning his child.

H.P. Lovecraft — Library of America

I have been an avid reader of H.P. Lovecraft since my teenage years. Only problem is I read all of his books in french (the french translation is great by the way). And so, for some time, I have been toying with the idea of re-reading Lovecraft in it's original english version.

If you read some of his short stories, you know it's pretty difficult to find a one-volume english compilation with an almost complete selection of his works. Not only that, I wanted to buy an edition with a hard cover, that is good looking.

I finally found out the Library of America have published a beautiful hardcover volume, that contains, in my opinion the best of H.P. Lovecraft. Here are included The Dunwich Horror, The Colour out of Space, At the Mountains of Madness. It's not complete and it would be great if Library of America published the rest of his work (including poetry and his letters to friends and writers). But it definitely is a beautifull edition, with lightweight paper, page markers and hardcover.

William S. Burroughs — Quote of the day

"A paranoid is someone who knows
a little of what's going on."