With no corner of the arts escaping his sharp eye and acerbic wit The Hall of Uselessness forms the most complete collection yet of Leys’ fascinating essays from Quixotism to China from the sea to literatureLeys feuds with Christopher Hitchens ponders the popularity of Victor Hugo and analyses the posthumous publication of Nabokov’s unfinished novel He offers valuable insights into Mao’s Cultural Rev.
hall mobile uselessness book The Hall pdf The Hall of Uselessness PDFWith no corner of the arts escaping his sharp eye and acerbic wit The Hall of Uselessness forms the most complete collection yet of Leys’ fascinating essays from Quixotism to China from the sea to literatureLeys feuds with Christopher Hitchens ponders the popularity of Victor Hugo and analyses the posthumous publication of Nabokov’s unfinished novel He offers valuable insights into Mao’s Cultural Rev.
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFCritical RealityTwo approximate descriptions of the indescribable Simon Leys Harold Bloom without the arrogance or the Shakespearean idolatry or Terry Eagleton with an understanding of Asian as well as continental culture With the wit erudition and style of both The unique can't be categorised And Leys is certainly that a unique literary and social criticFiction in fact all writing for Leys is depiction of reality as opposed to the expression of truth which is an entirely different matter science is after all fiction of a particular genre Poetry as the apotheosis of fiction is the grasping of reality the naming of what actually is Literary
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFI read this last year and wrote a short essay about it that I then failed to have published anywhere I'd forgotten about it Well here are my thoughts about Leys and 'World Literature' and a few other things I haven't edited it When I was a teaching assistant for a class on world literature we had our students define the subject in a short paper One freshman argued or less that “world literature was invented by Goethe to exclude literature from outside Western Europe” Precocious but this really happened “World literature makes it impossible for Eastern European African and Asian writers to gain the audience they deserve The concept must be destroyed” Pierre Ryckmans the sinologist novelist and essayist who publishes as Simon Leys would have been a
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFSimon Leys is a carefully kept secret by anyone who loves contradictory people people who are averse to fashionable or politically correct thinking just go their own way and are not ashamed to row against the tide This Belgian writer with his real name Pierre Ryckmans 1935 2014 was an eminent sinologist one of the best connoisseurs of China in the 20th century He was among the first to uncover and denounce the cruel excesses of Mao's ideological campaigns but he was not taken seriously by the predominant especially Sartre controlled omertà of the sixties and seventies That he was a professing Catholic probably didn't help either His analyses of China and Chinese culture were not appreciated until the 1980s but his influence always stayed limited partly due to a form of charming unworldlinessThis bundle of essays naturally includes several excellent articles on China and Chinese culture but the main emphasis is nevertheless on his literary criticism Because it appears that Leys was
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFWay back in 1978 I got entangled in an argument with a hysterical seminary student I'd made some withering remark about the current chic fascination with Chairman Mao and my fellow student exploded that I had no right to judge to refer to freedom and civilization when people were starving I replied that even if this were true in China millions had starved precisely as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward I was dismissedI recalled this incident when I picked up Simon Leys' new book of essays because my Comments of 1978 had been inspired by Leys' Chinese Shadows which I'd discovered through a review by Jonathan Spence in the NYRB Leys had pointed out the dar
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFI bought this book on a whim knowing nothing about Simon Leys not knowing for instance that Simon Leys was the pen name of a man actually named Pierre Ryckmans Now I feel like I know Leys very well for several weeks he has been a constant endearing companion in my lifeThis collection covers a wide range of topics but is unified by Leys' own voice and personality w
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFTowards the end of this book of essays Simon Leys quotes the following from a forgotten source Past a certain age we read nothing perchance I must be of a certain age for I picked up this book just at a time when I was falling into despair at the ignorance and stupidity that prevails in our time Simon Leys is one writer who is possessed of intelligence wide learning facility for the written word and a clear minded logic that cuts throu
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFI read Leys’s collection of essays which though among the whole are well above average still turned into a drag before segueing into the promised segment about ChinaLeys the person seems to be intellectually clear headed but at the same time very much unapologetic and somewhat cantankerous This is a man who is an unabashed Catholic Belgian smoker relativist and elitist Those are the kind of sharp edges that used to be rare and these days are nearly impossible to find in a public person The shift in perspective they offer makes this collection of essays worth readingStill because of the timespan we are covering every essay
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFBrilliant an excellent introduction to the thinking and writings of this rare polymath and genuine renaissance man It may seem a contentious thing to say in this day and age but you don't need to agree with all of Simon Leys' political or religious positions to appreciate and celebrate the brilliance of his mind and contribution to intellectual life
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFWith the witty and humble title of the book The Hall of Uselessness fun intelligence great writing and entertainment are sure to ensue However you wouldn't think that after reading the second part of the title collected essays jesus collected essays sounds boring than textbook at first glance this of course stirs up feelings of academic complacency With this conflicting dilemma of being
PDFEPUB Simon Leys #209; PDFEPUB The Hall of Uselessness PDFEPUB #10003; The Hall PDF or #209; ramalantogelco hall mobile, uselessness book, The Hall pdf, The Hall of Uselessness PDFI am of the opinion that Simon Leys was the greatest essayist of the second half of the twentieth century I have had this book for two years and still open it up when I need a respite from the drudgery and obscurity of the world I believe I have read every essay by now some surely than twenty timesSimon Leys is especially famous for being the first scholar to recognize the terrors of Maoism this recognition of the truth required he writes a great foolishness But Simon Leys is no fool he merely understands what he does not knowThat said the depth of Mr Leys's knowledge is very satisfying the breadth is astonishing He was extraordinarily well versed in English Chinese and French language and culture and writes on all of them extremely persuasively and humbly Mr Leys's style is a delig