The lively, compelling, rarely-updated Waggish
October 19, 2008 6:43 PM   Subscribe

Waggish would be one of the choicest blogs around if he updated more, but I suppose I can settle for what there is. If you've never read it, you'll know how good it is when I tell you about a few of the coolest posts: an inquest on "left-brained" literature, a short review of John Williams' Stoner, an appreciation of the great Shohei Imamura and three part coverage of the ultimate film, Béla Tarr's Sátántangó.
posted by colinmarshall (23 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
When you tire of driving white hot needles into your own eyeballs, and pounding nails into your head with your bare fists gets old, reading this blog is certainly an option.
posted by unSane at 6:48 PM on October 19, 2008


Um, wut.
posted by colinmarshall at 7:03 PM on October 19, 2008


I think unSane is subtley suggesting the audience who will share your view that this is lively and compelling might be smaller than you think.
posted by bystander at 7:17 PM on October 19, 2008


Admittedly, I did link to my personal favorite posts, so don't think they represent the entirety of the blog's scope.
posted by colinmarshall at 7:22 PM on October 19, 2008


There are very few other directors who deal with the world in such an all-encompassing totality, without the desire to tie it down into a preconceived structure.


I do like Shohei Imamura, but Roger Ebert, Waggish ain't.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:27 PM on October 19, 2008


Yet more compelling, Varieties of Unreligious Experience.
posted by RGD at 7:38 PM on October 19, 2008


That said, I do quite like Waggish. His Coetzee reviews inspired me to read nearly every novel by the man.
posted by RGD at 7:40 PM on October 19, 2008


Waggish is an excellent blog that has been linked here before, but only for the Proust posts; since the blogger is a member who commented in that thread, you might want to tone down the assholery, if you can bring yourself to such a superhuman level of restraint.
posted by languagehat at 7:52 PM on October 19, 2008 [2 favorites]


So this is one of them blogs I've been hearing so much about lately?
posted by mds35 at 8:11 PM on October 19, 2008


Nothing sends subliminal messages warning you to hit 'back' before it's too late like a sidebar headline that says "100 Most Recent Essays."
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 8:25 PM on October 19, 2008


Nothing sends subliminal messages warning you to hit 'back' before it's too late like a sidebar headline that says "100 Most Recent Essays."

True. In fact, when I hear that somebody's written an essay recently, I just sock 'im then and there. Gotta stay on the safe side.
posted by colinmarshall at 8:29 PM on October 19, 2008


True. In fact, when I hear that somebody's written an essay recently, I just sock 'im then and there. Gotta stay on the safe side.

Gaah, could you stop moderating your own thread?
posted by KokuRyu at 8:35 PM on October 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


All I'm saying is this: if we don't band together and shut down the essayists, who will? It's a classic collective action problem. If we can't stop global warming and we can't stop nuclear proliferation, we can at least stop essay proliferation. I know it's not much. But it's a start.
posted by colinmarshall at 8:48 PM on October 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


[NOT ESSAYIST-IST]
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 9:05 PM on October 19, 2008


Well, his capsule summaries of "left-brained" writers are not very compelling. Borges "not widely read"? Pavic "emotionally sterile"? Yeah, no.
posted by nasreddin at 9:15 PM on October 19, 2008


hey got a(n unopened) copy of 'almanac of fall' right beside me!

btw, it's like the end of 'the squid and the whale' :P

oh and i like his idea of placing air quotes 'over the earth', cf.
posted by kliuless at 9:36 PM on October 19, 2008


I'se a take on any one of yaz guys who knocks the Wagman. *flexes biceps, such as they are*

(I'm not sure what kind of funny accent I'm trying for here, but go with me on this.)
posted by jokeefe at 9:58 PM on October 19, 2008


Surely one of the most erudite and broad-thinking bloggers. One of my all-time favorites.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:18 AM on October 20, 2008


Waggish is an excellent blog. I really wish there were more blogs like this.
posted by vacapinta at 1:45 AM on October 20, 2008


Thought you were making a respectable try for Popeye, jokeefe, and I was interested by the implication that the old salt was a bit of an essay-lover on the side. There's a man whose take on Proust would be worth reading. De snows o' yesteryear am where dey am, Marcel.
posted by Phanx at 1:56 AM on October 20, 2008 [1 favorite]


I think he meant that Borges isn't widely read by the group of engineers he was observing, not by readers in general.
posted by harriet vane at 2:50 AM on October 20, 2008


I'm just posting in this thread because I wanted to use the word "erudicy". Flanked with ordinary sized quotation marks, of course.
posted by delmoi at 7:14 AM on October 20, 2008


The assholery is unwarranted.

Meanwhile, having worked in software for a decade, I'd really like to meet some engineers like Mr. Waggish's.
posted by cobra libre at 12:17 PM on October 20, 2008


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