glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Smoke I mentioned in my last entry that I was rereading the book "American Smoke: Journeys To The End Of The Light" by Iain Sinclair. As I have been rereading this fascinating book I have been keeping notes on the progression of the book. Sinclair's style of writing is sometimes hard to follow, he tends to write where every his mind takes him. But there is a story line/narrative throughout the book/a journeys to the end of the light/enlightenment/reawakening. I have been thinking of doing a video for my BookTube channel of all the books/poets and writers mentioned in "American Smoke". We come to know about writers and poets by reading books where these artists are mentioned. One writer leads you to another writer/one book leads you to another book. I am always looking for new writers and poets to collect/to read. The book "American Smoke" opens up with Sinclair writing about the poet Charles Olson. Last year I read a biography on Olson titled, "Charles Olson: The Allegory of a Poet's Life" biography by Tom Clark. Tom Clark is a poet and has a blog I read every day. Black Mountain Poets The next writer mentioned in "American Smoke" was the Chilean writer Roberto Bolano. I have a couple of Bolano's books in our library but will just mention one titled, "The Savage Detectives". In writing about Charles Olson Sinclair mentions a disciple of Olson the Poet John Wieners. Recently I bought a book titled, "Stars Seen In Person" Selected Journals by John Wieners. Ed Sanders is mentioned in this section on Olson. I have Sander's book on the Charles Manson murders "The Family". Ed Sanders is a poet/I have a volume of Sander's As you read through the book after the material/recollections/memories of Charles Olson Sinclair writes about the Beats Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac were Poets/Kerouac also wrote novels and other things like "Some Of the Dharam". pages 148,149 Corso section read Jack Kerouac "On the Road" After the Gregory Corso Iain Sinclair shares his memories of the Beat writer William Burroughs. I have a large collection of Burroughs material but will show the novel "Queer"/biography by Barry Miles "William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible" in the upcoming video. As we read "American Smoke" after the material/memories on the Beats Sinclair writes about the writer Malcom Lowry who wrote the famous novel "Under The Volcano". "Pursued By Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry" by Gordon Bowker Next comes the writer William Gibson. In the video I could show Gibson's novels in our library- "Count Zero" a novel by William Gibson "Spook Country" a novel by William Gibson "Virtual Light" a novel by William Gibson "Pattern Recognition" a novel by William Gibson "Neuromancer" a novel by William Gibson "Idoru" a novel by William Gibson In the book "American Smoke" Sinclair writes meeting Gibson pages 196,197, 203, 204 More could be written but I need to read some more of "American Smoke". A wonderful and crazy read! 4:06 p.m. - 2016-05-09 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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