Reading vlog: brilliant women & magic landscape on the French seaside

Despite grand plans (and large book piles), I haven’t been reading very much in June — this week I attempted to get back into the swing of things.

People:
@meekatui
@yenasung

Books:
Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (trans. Alison Entrekin) (1943)
My Brilliant Friend / L’amica geniale by Elena Ferrante (trans. Ann Goldstein) (2011)
Death by Landscape by Elvia Wilk (2022)
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter) (1924)

Socials:
StoryGraph: @sdelphis

[csp]

45 minutes of sophie, hot books, and france. Sign me the hell up

[litwithkat]

4:42 omg this is absolutely beautiful wowow also i’m laughing bc as i was typing this out, you also say this is absolutely beautiful 😂 and I AGREE LOL

[nathansnook]

loved loved loved your thoughts on the Lispector. totally agree. i don't think it's her strongest, but it's incredible to see how her thoughts on life, death, and eternity, and the male authorial voice takes shape at such a young age for her, and how, i think, it'll tie nicely once you get to finishing A Breath of Life, which deals with very much the same things as she, herself, was bed-ridden and dying in the process of writing the book. it comes around full circle, completely immense. but yes, not my favorite, but quite a heavy debut at such a young age with such an expansive mind~

also thank you so much for this vlog! it makes me miss le sud and i desperately need to go back!

[jameskatie]

such a gorgeous vlog!!!! beautiful nature, beautiful thoughts, beautiful sophie.

you talking lispector is always such a treat. loved your observation on motherhood within this book. its a theme that comes up often but to just describe motherhood as animal and not something under patriarchal constraints or expectations, YES.

i hear you on the writing lol.

[claaaaaara]

Sophie, I loved everything you said about Near The Wild Heart! I read this book during my second year at uni, for a course about Clarice, and it was so hard to talk about this novel, cause it's just so much. I decided to focus on how her writing change along the novel, like if Clarice herself is finding her style and her voice, moving past the modernists and creating something else. Listening to you talk about it reminded me of this feeling of reading someone become herself. I wrote on my copy "I'm not sure how, but this book changed me". And, idk, it feels like you'll get it.
Also, the thing about thinking about thoughts about thinking is an experience I have A LOT reading Clarice, and if you wanna break completely I do recommend reading The Passion According to GH. It's a very specific experience of thinking about thoughts you can't capture. It's my favourite book, but it took me, like, 3 months to read it lol

[heathergregg]

fabulous pictures right at the start and throughout - thanks for the visual treat. And for the crisp reviews.

[aleksismil]

What a delight this vlog was. Thank you. ❤

[RoisinsReading]

I’ve not read any Thomas Mann but definitely interested in it, you make it sound interesting. I’ve read The Magician by Colm Toibin about his life which I thought was really good, and Mann did spend a while up a mountain in a weird health spa

[thelefthandedreader]

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying The Magic Mtn. You’ve almost convinced me to read My Brilliant Friend! 😊. It’s my non-interest in childhood friend tales that’s getting me.

[DogEaredMusings]

I just finished reading the Neapolitan quartet and Days of Abandonment-I’m excited to hear about what you think of the rest of the series!

[estherlouisal]

May I ask which departement of Bretange you are in, I have just left the region and am missing it greatly and much of this landscape seems familiar. Enjoying reliving beautiful Breton memories so I thank you.

[erinh]

Enjoying so much sitting here with coffee and listening to you wax philosophical! Interesting question about how to pronounce "Goldstein" - this is from an Italian novel, but it's a German or Jewish name - in German it's pronounced Golt-shtine, 'ei' in German is always like 'long i' in English - but in English that name is usually pronounced Goldsteen. So, if this is a German name in an Italian novel translated and read in English... who knows which pronunciation is 'correct', LOL.
I can read fluently in Spanish and pretty well in Portuguese (I read Hour of the Star in Portuguese), can get by okay in French... I'm working on Italian but have yet to attempt a work of literature. You may be inspiring me to work harder and maybe try Brilliant Friend, if you say it's not too tough... 🤓
Speaking of waxing philosophical, there is much of that in Magic Mountain, which I finally got to a couple years ago and did quite enjoy. You can't be in a hurry with that one, as you say it's kind of suspended in time.

[csp]

I'm glad you liked my brilliant friend!!