verbminx ([personal profile] verbminx) wrote2005-11-17 03:11 pm
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that had to hurt.

Anthropodermic bibliopegy. That's books bound in human skin, for the unaware. Interesting article from Harvard Law School's newspaper, The Record. Reminded me instantly of a movie, both beautiful and disgusting, but I won't tell you which one; you'll know if you've seen it and it's a major spoiler if you haven't. (Hint: calligraphy.)

The good news is that apparently Ilse Koch, the Bitch/Beast of Buchenwald, probably did not have a lampshade made of human skin, as previously believed. (What she did have is bad enough, and there are disturbing pics at those links. Fair warning. The Koch family's reign at Buchenwald was considered bad even by Nazi standards.)

And, I'm trying to read The Crying of Lot 49. About halfway through. "The Courier's Tragedy" is brilliant and hilarious. I've never read Pynchon (!) but have been meaning to because of a commentary on Mason & Dixon in, um, must have been Michael Dirda's Bound to Please. I am late on this bus, but you know, while everyone else was reading that, I was tracking down OOP Angela Carter... way before all the U.S. rereleases....

/snob

Here is a fun Lot 49 Site at Pomona College.

Now, I must, at some point, drag myself out into the cold to go to the library.

[identity profile] verbminx.livejournal.com 2005-11-17 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
There were a lot of gorgeous, gorgeous shots in that movie - the historical sequences and the frame-in-frame bits. But I can't watch it because of where it goes. I think I've seen it once or twice all the way through and then I've seen bits of it. Refer to my comments below about how I used to be attracted to stories with extremes of emotional cruelty in them. I liked that movie and its director during that phase.

There are some good online guides to Pynchon (checkie the linkses!) that I plan to use if/when I attack V and/or GR.

[identity profile] audesapere.livejournal.com 2005-11-17 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah! I used the online guide to GR when I read it...I just got so anal that I ended up highlighting, researching, stopping to look up references on Wikipedia...taking notes...I think that's just how i read when I get really into something though. HIGHLY recommedn that book. I have it here; if you want to read it anytime before June maybe we could do an online reading discussion thing.