Dirda on Books

Michael Dirda (The Washington Post)

Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda took your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.

Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or rediscovering some minor Victorian classic. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. He particularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts.

These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003) and his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland" (Norton, 2003). In the fall of 2004 Norton will bring out a new collection of his essays and reviews. He is currently working on several other book projects, all shrouded in the most complete secrecy.

Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio, and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Montaigne, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Ghost Story Society and The Wodehouse Society. He enjoys teaching and was once a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University of Central Florida, which he misses to this day.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Los Angeles, Calif.: A few weeks ago (in response to the question "Was Marlowe really the author of Shakespeare's plays?") you wrote, "No. Marlowe is Marlowe. I also believe Shakespeare is Shakespeare." It reminded me of a characteristic quote from Stanley Elkin, "I don't believe less is more. I believe that more is more. I believe that less is less, fat fat, thin thin and enough is enough."
Years ago I asked my father whether there were any serious people who believed Shakespeare was not the author of the plays. He gave me a wonderful answer: "Well, there are people who are otherwise serious who believe that."
Finally, since I am trying to slowly, erratically read through Balzac (in English, alas) my main books for 2005 are Robb's biography and the "biggies" Eugenie Grandet, Cousin Betty, Father Goriot, etc.

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! For those new to the program--and I trust regulars are spreading the word far and wide through this fair land--during the next hour we will talk about books, reading, publishing, what have you. I'll try to answer questions, and when possible allow follow up remarks to be posted with your reactions.
Today's program is coming to you from beautiful McDaniel College on a beautiful February day, with the hint of spring in the air--though there is talk of freezing rain tonight. Sigh. I just hope it's nice again when I drive back to DC.
In my classes we've been talking about Dante's Vita Nuova (in Love's Mysteries) and Joseph Mitchell's McSorley 's Wonderful Saloon (Literary Journalism). In between times I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft and about HPL in preparation for an essay about the writer. This Sunday I have a piece in Book World about French love, but after that will be on vacation for three weeks, while I work on a longer project.
And now that everyone has been brought up to date on my life, let's turn to the important part of the show--the questions.

Shakespeare: Even though I believe that the man from Stratford wrote the plays, there has been enough ongoing inquiry to convince me that I shouldn't treat those who feel otherwise as cranks. So be generous. But there's a long history to this sort of speculation--see S. Schoenbaum's great study, Shakespeare's Lives.
As for Balzac: I recommend starting with The Fatal Skin (La Peau de Chagrin)--it's wild, melodramatic, spooky and lots of fun, as well as the first of Balzac's mature masterpieces, if mature is the word I want here. Be careful of Eugnie Grandet, which is a bit leaden in its sentiment. I'd turn next to Goriot or Lost Illusions.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: One of the Library of America's new American Poets Project's releases is "American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse" introduced/edited by John Hollander. I'm really enjoying it. As a critic, how do you feel about light verse in general? Who are some of your favorite practitioners (worldwide)? I believe T.S. Eliot never considered his highly skilled cat poems a part of his real oeuvre. Would you have? Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: I admire light verse quite a bit. When compiling the essays for Bound to Please I nearly kept in a piece in which I compare the Year's Best American Poetry with the Light Year volume for the same period--to the latter's advantage. It's interesting, though, how many superb poets enjoy writing light verse or children's poetry: Auden, Eliot, Wilbur, Roethke, and many others. Tom Disch is a superb contemporary poet who excels at light verse.
I do think that Richard Armour--of the old Saturday Review fame--rather spoiled things for light versifiers: He overwhelmed the field with his rather very uneven work. Ogden Nash was much more fun. I do recommend looking though the quarterly Light Verse, (title?), the successor to the hard bound volumes of Light/Year.
Eliot kept the Cats poems out of his Complete Poems and Plays, but did include them in his Collected Poetry. At least I'm pretty sure he did.

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Silver Spring, Md.: A few years ago I had a debate with a English professor about one of my favorite poems, Tennyson's "Ulysses". She said that the poem was ironic and Tennyson was explicitly undermining the Hero concept in literature. I argued that you can read the poem in a very heroic way, and that, even if there is some irony, overall, the poem is lauding the Hero and heroic acts. I think the professor's reading was influenced by the fact that in the poem, Ulysses is leaving his long-suffering wife to go back to sea. I read the poem as more metaphorical, as an exhortation that we should all strive toward in the face of challenges and not despair. I have to admit that even though I like the poem I have never read much about what Tennyson was trying to say in it. At the same time, once written, do not poems achieve some kind of independence from their authors, leading to various interpretations?

Michael Dirda: Yes, the poem must stand on its own at this point.
I do think you're more right than your teacher. Certainly the final lines "Come, my friends, tis not too late to seek a newer world" are among the most inspiring ever written about the need to stay engaged with life, "though we are not that which in old days moved earth and heaven."
The poem to me is the great anthem of the restless, in mind and spirit.

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Beltsville, Md.: A recent posting to an alternate history Web site:

Historical Figures We Unfairly Mock:
PM Bertram Wooster
It is a fact that when one thinks of Liberal ninnies, the late PM Wooster is almost certainly the person who forms the basis for the image that comes to mind. I believe that Wooster has been underestimated by history and that while his personal manner might have been unfortunate, the results he got speak for themselves.
Of course, the details of how Wooster, a mere backbencher who appears to have entered politics to avoid an unwanted marriage -1], came to lead HMG shortly after the War are so well known as to not bear repeating here. The British Empire he inherited was nearly broke, Europe had been flattened and the Soviet Union gave every sign of being a bigger threat than the Nazis had been. By the time he left office, he had been re-elected twice (each time by a hair, thanks to a last minute save on his part), the Empire had made a graceful segue into the Commonwealth we know and love and the Soviets were, of course, consigned to the trash heap of history. Unfortunately, he gets very little credit for this, since he gave every impression of being a simple minded idiot, and yet he always came up with the correct solution at the last moment. I would suggest that his apparent idiocy was but a ruse, to get his opponents off-guard and that behind those watery blue eyes lurked a mind equal to an Edison or Churchill.
1: The young lady's father having a low opinion of politicians in general and Liberals in particular.

Michael Dirda: Only part of this came through, but obviously Bertie was rushing into the Gent's just before the important votes or decisions were being made, and there consulting with Jeeves on what to do. Certainly, there was no stauncher supporter of the old ways of the British Empire than the greatest mind this side of Spinoza.

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Washington, D.C.: A friend of mine is moving out of the country and I'd like to send him off with farewell gifts of books on or about classical music. (We're both fans.)

I am looking for biographies/memoirs of composers or analyses of compositions from the Classical or Romantic periods. Biographies of instrumentalists or singers will work, too.

He's a pretty knowledgable listener, so books of the "Classical Music 101" ilk are out. And if it's available in paperback, that would be helpful, too, for ease of traveling.

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Well, the obvious books are Charles Rosen two books on Classical and Romantic music. Both now come with CDs in their latest editions.
For a figure like Mozart, the great authority is H.Robbins Landon, who has authored several fine illustrated books about these masters.
The most delightful book on Rossini is that by Stendhal, though it's highly unreliable. Francis Toye is the old standard.
Berlioz has generated a lot of superb scholarship: Jacques Barzun's two volume life and times and David Cairn's recent and authoritative two volume biography. Berlioz's autobiography is also a masterpiece of romantic French literature.
Christopher Hogwood--the conductor--has written a fine book on Handel.
There's a three volume biography of Liszt by Alan Walker that has been much acclaimed.
Etc etc.
You might, for more detailed information, check in with my colleague Tim Page, the Post music critic, who conducts his own weekly chat on musical matters.

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Shockville, Ky.: Could you, in a nutshell, explain what I missed in The Man Who Was Thursday? I feel like somebody told a joke and I didn't get it.

And then, how about a Trollope recommendation. Have never read him and wonder how he holds up.

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: There's lots of speculation about the ending of the book, and there is no single theory that accounts for it to everyone's taste. The nature of Thursday is like the nature of God--mysterious and shadowy. But the book is still wonderful
Trollope: Three recommendations--The Autobiography is delightful, one of the best books about the writing life, and gives you the author's own views of his novels. My favorite is The Way We Live Now, but it is rather UnTrollopian. Probably your best bet is to read The Warden, then Barchester Towers.

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Re: light verse: John Updike is also a current writer of light verse -- I don't know of a lot of his poems, but his "Upon Learning That a Town Exists Called Upperville" is quite hilarious -- wish I could find a link to it, but here's a taste: "High hamlet, ho, my mind's eye see / thy ruddy uplands, lofty trees ... sweet Upperville I want to go / to where the cattle never lo ..."

Michael Dirda: Updike is a master of everything he turns his hand to.

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Light Verse, D.C.: I agree about the mastery of Nash compared with the more pedestrian Armour, but the following by the latter has always been a guilty pleasure of mine:

"Shake and shake the ketchup bottle.
None will come, and then a lot'll."

Michael Dirda: I didn't know that was Armour--I thought that was Anon. But it is an imperishable classic.

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Mildred Pierce: Michael,
I love "Mildred Pierce". It is an exceptional novel with a pulpy exterior and a heart of gold inside. Have you read many of Cain's novellas and short stories? What do you think of his work versus Woolrich or his other contemporaries?

Michael Dirda: I've never read Mildren Pierce, alas. I've read Postman and Double Indemnity and have always meant to read others. What I liked about Postman was the neat ambiguity he establishes over how responsible or not the hero is for the death of Cora. It's a far richer and problematic book than I think it's usually taken to be.
Woolrich seems to me a far darker, more compelling, and slightly pulpier writer. Cain is a fever-dream; Woolrich is a descent into nightmare.

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Atlanta, Ga.: Some would say Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Gunter Grass would be the greatest living writer. Others might choose Bellow, Solzhenitsyn, Lessing, Gordimer, Fuentes, Naipaul, Pynchon, Mailer or Atwood. Your view?

Michael Dirda: These are all fine writers, he said, dodging the question. But none feel to me as unquestionably great as the writers who were still alive when I started reviewing: Beckett, Borges, Malraux, Nabokov, and Auden, for example. Garcia Marquez would probably get my vote--Solitude is just irresistible--and Mailer has been such a force of nature for fifty years. But this is really not a game worth playing--find the writers that speak to you and don't worry about their ranking in the roulette game of fame.

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Montclair, Va.: Regarding light verse, and light reading in general -- I think people forget the sheer fun of reading. I have sometimes encountered the deepest insights into the human condition from a goofy short novel by Richard Brautigan or from the hellish point of view of Flan O'Brien.

One new thing to recommend, my favorite of the year is "Return of the Bunny Suicides", Volume 2, in a series of lovely little comic pieces about, well, bunny suicides.

Michael Dirda: I missed volume 1, but obviously my life is incomplete until I search out these volumes.
I revere Flann O'Brien, especially the Myles columns.

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Pentagon: I recently read Islam Unveiled by Robert Spencer. It is a compelling read; but, I am having trouble determining whether this is a "right- wing agenda" book a la Ann Coulter, et al. All the reivews and commentary seem to be from conservative sources, maybe a clue. The question is how a reader decides how much to believe when a book is written by a new or more obscure author or publishing company and there is not much mainstream press to help put the book in perspective? Do you have any tips?

Michael Dirda: THis is tricky. You do need to study the blurbs carefully--are the names on the back cover those of scholars or of celebrities? Of the obviously partisan, one way or another? And what are the author's credentials? Then read a bit and try to sense whether you feel that here is a work of impartial inquiry or a polemic with a secret or not so secret agenda. You can also look online at comments about the book, or ask your friends who may a bit about the field what they think.

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Munich, Germany: After abandoning dreams of studying Asian languages in western Australia many years ago, a mild interest in Japan has remained and I have books by Banana Yoshimoto and Nobuko Albery. I'd be interested in finding out who the Japanese Xingjian Gao's and Ha Jin's are at the moment. What would you recommend?

Michael Dirda: I suspect that poking around in Arts and Letters Daily or reading the TLS would eventually lead you to some good writers. You might also look to see if the Japan Times--written in English--has a web-site. That could also be a source for information.
And, of course, you can always go to a good library and ask for help.

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Downtown D.C.: Hi Michael -- What do you think of Asimov's Foundation Trilogy? Whenever I read articles about science fiction, everything seems to be traced back to this. I've never read it -- the name sounds very daunting. Is it worth taking a look at? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: It's not daunting at all. In fact, it's pulpy entertainment, but a lot of fun. It's loosely based on the decline of the Roman Empire. Hari Seldon psychometrics can predict the future, and so during crises people consult the Foudation. But an anomaly occurs-- a mutant Genghis Khan like figure called the Mule--who conquers in spite of the Foundation. Ah, but what you don't know is that Seldon allowed for this possiblity and created--wait for it--a deeply secret Second Foundation.
Suspend any high-minded literary expectations and just enjoy the ride.

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Light verse Updike: Ah-ha! Here's the text:
UPON LEARNING THAT A TOWN EXISTS IN VIRGINIA CALLED UPPERVILLE

In Upperville, the upper crust
say "Bottoms Up!" from dawn to dusk
and "Ups-a-daisy, dear!" at will
I want to live in Upperville.

One-upmanship is there the rule,
and children learn, at school,
"The Rise of Silas Lapham" and
why gravitation has been banned.

High hamlet, but my mind's eye sees
Thy ruddy uplands, lofty trees,
Upsurging streams, and towering dogs,
There are no valleys, dumps or bogs.

Depression never dares intrude
upon their sweet upswinging mood;
Downcast, long-fallen, let me go
to where the cattle never low.

I've always known there was a town
just right for me; I'll settle down
and be uplifted all day long --
Fair Upperville, accept my song.

By John Updike (1961)

Michael Dirda: Wonderful. I trust it's in the Collectd Poems, which I have somewhere back in Silver Spring or in storage and must now retrieve.
But Updike can also break your heart: Just read without weeping, if you can, his two poems called, I think, "Dog's Death" and "Another Dog's Death."

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Washington, D.C.: You mentioned Updike -- I would place him on my personal "greatest living writer" list, after reading his "Rabbit" novels. What they spoke to me was, "You'll never write this well."!

Michael Dirda: None of us will ever write that well. But then there's more to literature than just writing well--and there we have to pause a little when we think about Updike.

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Boston, Mass.: I'm curious about Updike's wonderful reputation, as I have never been much of a fan. His writing feels dragging and and falsely profound (in other words, it seems like he's trying too hard). Though perhaps this is because of when I read Updike, or my own inability to separate him from the New Yorker. I would like to appreciate Updike, though at the moment I can't. Perhaps you could emphasize some laudable points that I can consider while reading that will help me seperate him from his Boswells.

Michael Dirda: Read his early stories, now collected in a huge fat volume. I also think the wistful late stories in Licks of Love quite wonderful. For the most fun, try the various books about Henry Bech. Or to sample his style and mind, read the nonfiction, of which there are four hefty volumes: I like Hugging the Shore best.

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Pacoima, Calif.: One of the things I appreciate about your chats, Michael, is how you treat all genres as potentially rich ones. It's a rarer point of view than one would imagine, which is a shame. Like Duke Ellington said, There's two kinds of music, good and bad.

So then, my question is: Any clues for finding the good amid the dreck? Mysteries, for instance, are so copiously produced that I think a lot of recent ones get overpraised just to keep the assembly line moving. I know there are good ones, but how do you find one when faced with two dozen new titles? (Besides reading them all, of course.)

Michael Dirda: For older mysteries you can consult guidebooks and histories--things like Julian Symons's Bloody Murder, the Winks-Corrigan volume on Crime Writers produced by Scribners, the various writings of scholars such as LeRoy Lad Panek and Doug Greene, as well as the various writings of Robin Winks. You can check out The Armchair Detective too, or subscribe to the newsletter of a mystery bookshop (eg. The Myhsterious Bookshop). You can even read its owner Otto Penzler's columns about mysteries in one of the New York papers--can't remember which.
But for current mysteries, you again need to exercise all your shrewdness: If you love James Crumley or Carl Hiaasen and they blurb a book enthusiastically, it's probably worth a look. Still, the best way is to read reviews or talk to friends who are true addicts and can tell you what they've particularly loved.

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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Dirda, I saw your panel on "Charlotte Simmons" at the IWF on C-SPAN. A couple of comments:

-Great program.
-As a conservative, I was heartened to see such a panel engage in respectful debate. I especially appreciated your more liberal perspective.
-You look much more boyish and less pretentious live.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I look less boyish and more pretentious dead? I've never thought I was pretentious at all--though I do remember dressing up for that program in a double breasted suit in honor of Wolfe.
I do know a lot about books, but I'm basically a reader who wants to pass on his enthusiasm for good books of all kinds, in all genres.
Though, I will confess to not knowing much about westerns, aside from Little Big Man and The Searchers.

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Games Worth Playing: The "who's the best" game and "who will last" game are fun! I think Bellow and Garcia Marquez are shoo-in's. What about the younger generation? I know it's not too original to say it, and he's gotten flak for being soooo popular, but Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" was pretty damn great.

Michael Dirda: It's way too early to judge Franzen. For all you know he'll be the Gil Orlovitz of his generation and Corrections will be as much read in 40 years as Milkbottle H. is now.
I suspect that writers like Guy Davenport and William Gass and Russell Hoban and John Crowley will continue to be read when the more celebrated best sellers of today have been forgotten.

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California: "But then there's more to literature than just writing well -- and there we have to pause a little when we think about Updike."
Not sure if I'm misinterpeting you here, but think I tend to agree with this. Don't you think that Updike's sentences might be better than anything (in fiction anyway) that he's written as a whole?

Michael Dirda: I think a lot of Updike's books are quite wonderful, in their way. But he lacks a single great masterpiece to anchor his oeuvre.

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Chamblee, Ga.: Your favorite Diana Krall number?

Michael Dirda: Hard to say, really. Maybe "Let's Face the Music and Dance'--at least in part because I like the message of the lyrics. I haven't heard the most recent CD, with the original songs and Elvis Costello, etc.

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Takoma Park, Md.: The ketchup bottle two-liner was written by Ogden Nash.

May Swenson also wrote some lovely light verse, notably the children's book, Poems to Solve.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Our previous poster is going to be writing back in.

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Poetry: Regarding light verse: Poetry magazine is putting together an issue on humor in poetry, and will feature not just light verse, but also poems that are funny in darker or more subtle ways. It should be out sometime this summer.

Michael Dirda: I'll look out for that. I love comic writing of all sorts, though the one time I reviewed a magazine devoted to humor--a special issue of Paris Review--it was anything but funny.

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Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.: My boyfriend is a graduate student getting his Ph.D. in political philosophy. Lately he's been reading a lot of Arendt and some very dense policy articles as he prepares for his thesis. I wanted to get him a "fun" book for Valentine's Day ... Any suggestions for my philosopher king?

Michael Dirda: Why not get him a collection of Auden's poetry? There used to be a volume, a paperback, of his lighter verse, and it would be swell for a gift. Plus, he'll enjoy it even more since Auden once proposed to Arendt. Now there's something to think about. Of course, he was formerly married to Thomas Mann's daughter Erika. A marriage of convenience, to get her out of Germany.

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Washington, D.C.: I have to register a dissent about Updike. I just feel that ultimately he is just kind of hollow. It's all subjective though: great style in lit isn't enough for me. Guess that's why I regard Nabokov as overrated, too. Sorry to offend partisans in both camps.

Michael Dirda: This isn't an unusual view, and I know what you mean. But, in my own case, I love stylish writing and can forgive a lot in exchange for it.

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Ashcroft, B.C.: Regarding light verse: Robert Service wrote that 'I'm not a poetry man, though I've written a lot of verse. Verse, not poetry, is what I was after -- something the man in the street would take notice of and the sweet old lady would paste in her album; something the schoolboy would spout and the fellow in the pub would quote.' Yet this sort of popular poetry is all too often (and unfairly) dismissed, on the grounds (I assume) that if it's popular enough for the man in the street to remember, it's not something that's worthy of serious consideration. In his last book, PRISONERS OF THE NORTH, Pierre Berton discusses Service at length, and speculates that much of his peripatetic career was spent trying to reconcile the fact that he was extremely popular with 'the masses' but scorned by those who judged what was 'proper' poetry and what wasn't; critic Arthur Phelps wrote of Service that 'no anthology of Canadian verse dare leave him out. No academic critic knows what to do with him'; a conundrum which faces any number of popular writers in various forms and genres (think of the Holmes stories, which are gradually, and somewhat grudgingly, being accepted as worthy of serious academic attention; and it only took a hundred years or so . . .).

Michael Dirda: It's interesting that three of my very favorite anthologies of poetry are devoted to poetry that is "popular" in every sense: Martin Gardner's Best Remembered Poems and another edited by him with a similar title, and The Faber Book of Popular Verse edited by Kingsley Amis. All three books reprint the sort of poetry that people would recite at Chautauqua's or that kids used to have to memorize in school: Casey at the Bat, The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck, Gray's Elegy, that sort of thing, as well as a goodly number of hymns. They're terrific books.
Was it Hazlitt who went on about the literature of power and the literature of finesse--it wasn't finesse but a word like that? (Oh, what a great mind is here o'er thrown.) What you have in popular literature tends to be great mythic or patterning works, creations that strike a deep chord in us, and somehow surmount the inherent limits of their genres. Whether they're literary or whether the style is polished or not somehow ceases to matter. H.P. Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick, for instance, both fell into excesses of one sort or another--but their visions are so powerful that they continue to influence writers and keep readers returning to their books, with no sign of stopping.

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To Person Looking For Japanese Lit:: Haruki Murakami is absolutely brilliant.

Michael Dirda: thanks

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Wilmington, Del.: What do you think of William Trevor?

Why does he not get more recognition?

Michael Dirda: I reviewed his last book of stories, said it was wonderful, and speculated that it was harder for a short-story writer to impress himself on the public than a novelist, who could come up with one big book that made his name. Trevor is wonderful, certainly the best living short story writer, along with Alice Munro and Updike.

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Jazzville, USA: I'm a Krall fan -- as well as all the classic singers -- but you can skip the new one. It's not bad at all, but the new songs sounds more like Costello being channeled through her than her alone. Maybe they'll get the balance right in the future, but this one didn't connect for me.

BUT if you love standards, a truly wonderful surprise is Nana Mouskouri in New York. Just released last year but recorded in the 50s -- it's dark, moody and lush. Really delicious. Get it, seriously. You'll love it.

Michael Dirda: Done. Can't wait.

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Charlottesville, Va.: Re: books on classical music. A good browsing book is one I've had for nearly 40 years -- Letters of Famous Composers. I don't know if it's still in print, but it has a selection of letters written by composers from the past 4 -5 centuries.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Naxos has a two CD set of Composer's Lettes in their audio line--surprisingly gripping.

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Shockville, Ky.: Thanks, Michael!

Also, I meant to include this deserved stroke to your ego: Terry Gross quoted your Gilead review last night on Fresh Air and my wife stopped and said, "Wow, that was beautiful."

Just thought you ought to know.

Michael Dirda: Gee, I guess I need to listen to the radio more often. Now if she'd only quote from Bound to Please.

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Bethesda, Md.: Re: Ketchup, when you shake it. Word of the day -- a fluid (like ketchup) that becomes less viscous when you shake it is 'thixotropic'. Other thixotropes are yogurt and paint.

Michael Dirda: Wonderful to know this. Thix a lot.

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Venus: Re: authorship of Shakespeare's plays. There are heated debates, quarrels, blow-ups, about this all over the world. So my question is: why should it matter whether the blue collar Shakespeare wrote all those plays or poetry or it was the uppercrust Oxford? The people who work themselves into a lather about the authorship of these profoundly beautiful works are missing out on that beauty. People, please! -- you only live once! Stop squabbling about it and just enjoy it.

Michael Dirda: Venus, you're being all too sensible. Go on this way and you'll have to change your name to that of Concordia or Harmonia or whatever the goddess of moderation is called.

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Washington, D.C.: Dr. Dirda, I admire the diversity, fluency and accomplishments of your work. Would you mind sharing your modus operandi managing simultaneously different literary projects? Or, given the constrictions of time and space in this forum, would you consider one day write details or perhaps recommend a course, book, or a particular proven system to help writers organize in computers their works-in-progress and relevant research?

Thank you.

Michael Dirda: I have no system. I work strictly by triage--ie. I work to deadline: One thing at a time, one thing after another, seemingly ad infinitum. A smarter man would choose his projects more carefully, but I retain the Faustian vigor of youth and want to know everything and then write about it, however ineptly.

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Smyrna, Del.: Hello Michael,

I would like to expand my reading to Russian authors. What novels are the best introduction to Russian lit?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Last week I gave a listing of classic 19th century Russian authors. Check out the DOB archives.

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Light Verse, D.C.: Please Google "richard armour ketchup" and you will retrieve many references to the authorship of the ketchup poem. It is certainly not Ogden Nash.

Michael Dirda: Hmm. I sense a literary controversy here that will make the authorship of Hamlet and Lear pale by comparison. Who is the real author of the immortal couplet? Perhaps it is in fact some corporate ad exec of Heinz or Hunt?

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Boston, Mass.: Michael,

Some suggestions for the reader who asked about science books last week:

1. "Big Bang" by Simon Singh. History of the big bang theory of cosmology. One of the finest science books for nonscientists that I have read.

2. "The Scientists" by John Gribbin. History of science over the past 500 years, told through the lives of individual scientists.

3. "The Questioners: Physicists and the Quantum Theory" by Barbara Cline. Great anecdotes about the physicists who developed quantum theory in the early 1900s. Out-of-print book, but worth searching out.

4. "The Measure of Reality" by Alfred Crosby. About the shift from a qualitative model of reality to a quantitative model during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe. Discusses the effects on painting, music, and bookkeeping as well as science. Fascinating book.

5. "The Discovery of Subatomic Particles" by Steven Weinberg. Well-written history of the exploration of the atom. Weinberg clearly explains the physical concepts that are necessary to understand the history. Great photographs of the scientists, their laboratories, and their experiments.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks.

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Oxford, U.K.: Mr Dirda,
I finally got around to re-reading Sherlock Holmes after being bored stiff by it five or six years ago. And while I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book and Holmes's eccentricities this time around, I did not particularly care for the books as "mysteries" -- the entire process revolves around Holmes seeing some clue or acquiring some information to which the audience is not privy, as opposed to the Poirot mysteries, which make available all the clues (despite Christie's tendency to direct our attention elsewhere, we still can see the clues if we look hard enough), and thus we have the option of being participants instead of just observers. I know you like both Christie and Doyle -- what's your take?

Michael Dirda: I think your judgment is pretty much on the mark. Fans tend to read Holmes for the atmosphere and the homey details of life with Watson and for the coloratura arias of improbable deduction. Christie is enjoyable because she has her standard marionettes and the every surprising solution. But in truth we turn to both for the period setting, for the escape into a simpler, better, cozier world.

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Washington, D.C.: Posters frequently ask you about reading French authors in English. So let's flip the question: Do you ever read non-French writers in French? I'm curious to know how stylists like Hemingway, Faulkner or Garcia Marquez come across in French.

Michael Dirda: No idea. I do have a number of classic American authors in Italian--I figure I could learn the language this way. I do know that Europeans often value authors quite differently: Not just Poe, who was revered by Baudelaire and Mallarme, but figures like James M. Cain and Charles Morgan and A.J. Cronin who have more ambivalent reputations here.

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Washington, D.C.: You've explained your reasons for shying away from volumes such as the Library of America. For the most part, I agree that these volumes tend to be forbidding and probably excessive. I would, however, like to recommend to you and your readers a handful of the Library of America volumes that I've come to cherish. They are the collected poetry volumes of Whitman, Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Robert Frost. For all of these poets, these volumes collect their full works, as well as fascinating prose pieces that are hard to find elsewhere. Together sitting on the shelf, they represent a huge chunk of the American poetic canon. Somehow the books themselves are inviting rather than forbidding, and are, quite simply (w/ the possible exception of Pound) part of my set of desert island books. Mr. Dirda, have you seen these volumes? If so, what do you think?

Michael Dirda: I own them all, except for the Stevens. Certainly the Pound and Frost volumes are the best collected editions now available (I'm not sure for Whitman). I'm for any series or set that encourages people to read such great writers. But I tend to believe that people buy the LOA volumes and let them decorate a wall of the living room or study.
That said, I'm very much enjoying their new volume of H.P. Lovecraft.

And that's all the time for this week's DOB. My fingers are tired. So till next Wednesday at 2--keep reading!

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