Some suggested reading/watching

zoran rosko vacuum player: infraground literature, music, films and philosophy

[and this…]

Gyula Krúdy

[and finally this…]

Slow down and dig in. Krúdy’s style is built of imagery that halts you at sentence’s end to ponder what it reveals about the subject: “Her face was unapproachably severe, like a façade with shuttered windows, where no crimson-clad girls ever lean out over the windowsill.” Wait, one more: an old woman, dressed up in feathered hat and finery, “on parade like some superannuated circus steed that, come tomorrow, might be harnessed to a hearse.” The sheer richness is overwhelming. Krúdy’s trademark is the linked comparison – one extended simile or metaphor stacked upon another, with magical impossibilities sprinkled throughout [dg’s emphasis]: “The mirror’s reflection grows faint, or perhaps the face itself does, taking on an acrid, fastidious look like that of a cobwebbed old daguerreotype set by sentimental hands on a headstone. In the pupil of the eye tiny, swimming dots appear: they are rowboats steered by melancholy boatmen conveying luggage and traveler – departing life – from the shore to the vast old bark awaiting.” Such writing, grumps will say, “draws attention to itself.” But, grumps, that’s the point: the storyteller captivating you. Listen to him. His voice is as important as what happens to his characters. The imaginary people are introducing you to a real one.

—Arthur Phillip

dg