November 2011

I'm continuing my rescue mission for forgotten posts, featuring a writer who's actually famous—won the Nobel Prize in 2003, even—but remains difficult to crack: John Maxwell Coetzee. South African. Born 1940. The kind of writer who doesn't hold your hand.

Days ago I mentioned three major writers who shaped me but get zero press. My friend Sylvie said she'd never heard of any of them. Fine. I'm recycling posts then—republishing old reviews of books that deserve attention. Starting with this existential nightmare from Japan.

While everyone rushed to see Intouchables—that implausible but politically correct modern fable—I went to catch Guédiguian's latest. He's a social filmmaker who actually talks about real life. Real people. Real problems. Not the sanitized version.

"I think, therefore I am" — René Descartes. "Sometimes I think and sometimes I am" — Paul Valéry. "Where I think, I am not; where I am, I do not think" — Jacques Lacan. Philosophy eating itself alive, one quote at a time.

Amazon's been pushing hard lately to sell their Kindle at 99 euros. Tempting, right? That's four or five hardcovers, maybe ten paperbacks. For someone who reads constantly, the math looks good. But is it actually worth it? That's the real question.