Read/Watched/Listened Log, May 2024 - December 2024
31-Dec-2024: Charli XCX
"Brat", the "Remixes", the 2024 Boiler Room set in preparation for the release of Brat, and a select few tracks on "How I'm Feeling Now" all stand out to me as some truly phenomenal music, and I have to recommend all of these albums - and chastise myself for not familiariing myself with her music earlier. The intertextual relationships between the songs on Brat and the industry-spanning collaborations in the Remixes are spectacular, and I definitely need to spend more time listening to all of the differences between them. Charli XCX's early albums - even the more epochal pop singles - along with "Charli" and "Crash" never seemed to achieve anything significant to me, or at least they no longer hold water. I've still yet to listen to her debut album, or explore the full list of features and live performances. I'm particularly keen on listening to more of AG Cook's projects - his section in the Boiler Room set was otherworldly!
26-Dec-2024: Nosferatu (2024) - Eggers
I didn't like it. Sonically exhausting (full-blast bass notes without any sense of rhythm, momentum, or proportion). Thematically muddled (in the end, isn't it basically just committed to some notion of true love against carnal sensuality?). Visually, it could be very interesting: some of the allusions to Dutch golden age painting, some scenes with mixes of cool and warm tones, all of the center-shots and still shots could be pretty interesting. I did feel a genuine sense of fearful anticipation at a few vital scenes, but the film was still given to jump-scares more than cultivating any feeling of dreadful fear. Nosferatu in the first half was a really tremendous character, but he loses something as it goes on. Dafoe was good, Depp was mechanical. Some of the erotic scenes were really gruesome and cool, but they were often overwhelmed by the bracingly loud sounds and poor pacing. Don't recommend.
16-Dec-2024: Solaris (2002) - Soderbergh
Schlock! Didn't finish. Don't recommend.
16-Dec-2024: Solaris - Lem
tr. Fine. A really great story, but I think my unknown translator may have screwed things up at a few points. Would recommend.
27-Nov-2024: Segu, Maryse Conde
tr. Barbara Bray. Read this for a class and it took me forever. An interesting, complex novel, without much stylistic invention. I felt a lot of parallels between this and Ge Fei's Peach Blossom Paradise: both are about the futility and difficulty with which people operate in a world totally confusing to them, and their enslavement to their desires and their ignorance; and both, too, very much about the oppression of women. I suppose I recommend it.
17-Nov-2024: Solaris (1972) - Tarkovsky
The way aural phenomenon recall and then transform into familiar, repetitive sounds is such a spectacular experience (and something similar is accomplished visually, too). A really beautiful movie. I basically felt that it was about the mutual transformation and integration of autonomous nature/life with humanity, or the same dynamic playing out between human beings; and how this constant transformation makes stable identity impossible. The only unique contribution I can make to this analysis is to offer identification of some of the plants we see in the opening scenes: Cirsium spp., Arctium spp., wild oats, and Salix spp. All these disturbance-loving plants indicate extensive human impacts on the landscape: this isn't so much a depicition of a lush, safe, natural world, but one already complexly intertwined with human life and civilization. Recommend!
15-Nov-2024: Planet of Storms (1962) - Klushantsev
Watched for a class. A really fun film, with all of the early special effects. You get the sense that the discussions around the evolution of society, the place of mankind in the universe, had more significance when there was at least a nominal opposition to the capitalist world order. Recommend!
14-Nov-2024: China's Motor - Hill Gates
A really fantastic text! This has really come to shape my perspective and understanding of what a mode of production actually is, and given me what I hope is a useful and incisive critical lens with which to understand China's history. Definitely recommend.
12-Nov-2024: Amphibian Man (1961) - Chebotaryov and Kazanksy
A great theatrical performance. A pretty fun movie to watch for class, but not a wholehearted recommendation.
10-Nov-2024: R.U.R. - Karel Capek
tr. P. Selver. A great, very humorous litle play. The total bewildering incompetence and disinterest of the crew of main characters is bitter, seeing the uselessness of religion, science, music, and so on. Puzzling over the religious tone of the ending. Would recommend it.
5-Nov-2024: We - Zamyatin
tr. Natasha Randall. Was supposed to read for a class but did not finish. Somewhat interesting prose but I found the class discussions totally exhausting and it soured me on the book. Maybe I'll come back to it some time. Wouldn't exactly recommend.
3-Nov-2024: Touki-Bouki (1973) - Djibril Diop Mambety
Really fantastic and memorable. The montage and replay of scenes is the most evocative use of the technique I've yet to see. I don't recall another movie made up of such subtle expression. Recommend immediately.
2-Nov-2024: Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa
What a film! My library copy was skipping a little bit, and I missed the entire scene early in the movie where the thief takes the child hostage and Kambei disguises himself as a monk. Looking forward to rewatching this one or a dozen more times. Definitely recommend it!
31-Oct-2024: Skinamarink (2022) - Kyle Edward Ball
It felt like a student project film. A couple of interesting techniques which never develop into anything significant, and constant use of tired collocations. I can understand how some people become totally immersed in the film, but such comical scenes as a toilet disappearing into thin air made it impossible for me. Would not particularly recommend - if you do, watch it on a big screen.
27-Oct-2024: Aelita (1924) - Yakov Protazanov
A great silent film. I'm surprised by the basic jollity of the film, despite the protagonist's gloomy disposition. Although basically a simple patriotic adventure movie, there's some subtlety in the gendered relationships, and in the advertising campaign surrounding and present within the movie. Would recommend.
23-Oct-2024: The Long Goodbye (1973) - Robert Altman
The only other film I've seen in this vein was "Chinatown", and they make an interesting pair. This one felt more subtle and shifty, more sudden in comparison. I would recommend it.
1-Sep-2024: The Invisibility Cloak - Ge Fei
tr. Canaan Morse. Rereading. A very humorous little novella and I'm not quite sure how to read it in comparison to his other novel. Is the conclusion more or less the same between the two of them? Strongly recommend.
31-Aug-2024: Peach Blossom Paradise - Ge Fei
tr. Canaan Morse. Rereading. A really spectacular book. Extremely painful and very sensatively written. There's a sense of total historical pessimsim and impossibility, and the moments of tenderness and tentative love emerging inbetween the crushing historical movements. I will be rereading "Invisibility Cloak" next. Strongly recommend.
26-Aug-2024: Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling
tr. John Minford. A really interesting collection. A lot of the shorter stories are quite funny, and I appreciate how multi-dimensional and complex the longer stories can be. I read these over a long time. I quite liked #101, Coral, and the stories with similar themes. What's strangest to me in all of these stories is how central a device sexual assault and enslavement is - unsure if this is simply a such a central aspect of the society of the time that it comes up so much. I recommend it.
22-Aug-2024: Notes of a Crocodile - Qiu Miaojin
I finished this about two weeks ago, actually. A really crushing novel - at the latter half, I think I felt the greater despair at the moments of brief happiness, knowing that they were going to prove to be so transient and so bitter in the end. Strongly recommend.
3-Jun-2024: The Last Samurai - Helen DeWitt
I read about half of this in two days, and finished it within a week. A really phenomenal good humor and a wonderful story. I strongly recommend it and am interested in her other works.
30-May-2024: Dungeon Meshi
I finished the manga at an incredibly fast pace. A really fantastic story. I look forward to watching the anime as it releases.
28-May-2024: The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
Unfinished. I was enjoying this book, but I've had it checked out for the last few months and haven't made any progress with it. I'll come back to the rest of his novels sometime.
14-May-2024: Nichijou
Me and my girlfriend have been watching the show, animated from the manga by Arawi Keiichi. A really great show, one I look forward to rewarching. I recommend.
8-May-2024: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom
Singularly the most incoherent, bizzare, and visually unappealing movie I have ever seen. Do not recommend.