Re: After Reading 200+ Posts
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Thu, 09 Dec 1999 08:47:11 -0800
On Sunday, December 05, 1999, 5:09 PM, citycabn wrote:
>> 4. Re Jens Peter Jacobsen: Am most interested to hear how his short
>> stories turn out. About 25 lifetimes ago I came across a
>> copy of Jacobsen's
>> novel _Niels Lyhne_, beloved by RMR, but read it without Rilke's eyes.
On Monday, December 06, 1999, 10:06 PM, Cecilia Baader wrote:
>I've been working my way through _Mogens and Other Stories_. It's really
>beyond description, so I don't know what I can report, except that his
>writing reminds me of Kafka with a touch of the romance of Blake and the
>imagination of Poe. It's the kind of collection that I know that I will
>need to return to again and again in order to get a more coherent reading
of
>each of the stories.
>
>Layers upon layers, you understand. I found myself thinking about one of
the
>stories all day at work today. Jacobsen has a gift of seeing the mind of
>the troubled soul. Yes, I like it. A great deal. And it's interesting
>that you should say "read it without Rilke's eyes." Perhaps knowing that
>Rilke loved something would color what you think about it, so maybe your
>earlier reactions to _Niels Lyhne_ are truer than my own to _Mogens_.
>
>Would that then, make me an unreliable reader? Predisposed to like what I
>read? Possibly, but I think that Jacobsen stands true despite me.
citycabn now writes:
Cecilia,
Many thanks for the report on _Mogens_. I trust your (and his) eyes:
have added Jacobsen to my Hapworth-length reading list.
Regards,
Bruce.