DDR: Nobel Prize 2025 in Literature: László Krasznahorkai and the Power of Art in an Uncertain World by Gary C. Mansfield

 

How's that for an awkward book title? This is a pretty slight (120 pages) thing, and it looks kind of semi-professional, but hopefully a nice little canter.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,285) November 2, 2026

Read to page 30. A quick read...and a good one. In fact, it has me itching to re-read Krasznahorkai.

Early on, Mansfield mentioned that Imre Kertesz was the first Hungarian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature..."for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history."  The Louisville Free Public Library has several of his books, so I put in a request for one of them. So it continues.

"...Sátántangó becomes a story about faith and deception. It shows how easily people trapped in despair will believe any message of hope, even if it leads them to ruin." (29) Well. That kind of sums up the whole MAGA thing, doesn't it?

And if it doesn't, try this: "This novel [The Melancholy of Resistance] explores how crowds behave when they lose faith in order. Rumors spread, fear grows, and reason disappears. The people look for someone to lead them, but those who rise to power are guided by selfishness and cruelty. The story becomes a study of manipulation, showing how chaos can be used to gain control." (31) O, my prophetic soul! 

ADDENDUM: Here's a pretty intelligent summation of Krasznahorkai's work: "...Krasnahorkai's entire body of work is a long medication on how to stay awake in a world that keeps falling asleep." (40-41)

Also, "Each of his books becomes a meditation on how to live with awareness when chaos surrounds us." (58)

Again an explanation for Trump's rise to power: "When a man named Irimiás returns and claims he can rebuild everything, they cling to his promise. His lies destroy them, but for a moment, they feel alive again. The story shows how easily communities, when desperate, trade truth for illusion." (58-60)

And...read to page 60. Pretty interesting book, actually. I could probably finish today, and might well do that. Meanwhile, I'm thinking maybe Seiobo There Below...which I just happen to have from the library...should be my next DDR book. 

DDR: Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr.

 

I'm not sure how long I've had this book--not TOO long--but here's how old it is:

And another clear sign of age:

(Sewn binding. From a time when we gave a shit about quality.)

279 pages. 

Day 1 (DDRD 3,277) October 25, 2026

Read to page 17.

As for that scalping business?

Day 2 (DDRD 3,278) October 26, 2026

Read to page 50. The history of the Indian nations and the U.S. government is pretty straightforward: make a treaty, break a treaty. Rinse and repeat. It is so shameful.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,279) October 27, 2026

Read to page 80.

From page 76

The Truth hurts.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,280) October 28, 2026

Read to page 124. So a little bit extra today. In part due to the fact that I was sitting in the waiting room of my cardiologist's office for a bit, but also because this book is starting to pull me in. Deloria is a good writer...sarcastic and funny and personable. 

"Several years ago an anthropologist stated that over a period of some twenty years he had spent, from all sources, close to ten million dollars studying a tribe of less than a thousand people! Imagine what that amount of money would have meant to that group of people had it been invested in buildings and businesses. There would have been no problems to study!" (93)

And Mr. Deloria really uses the scalpel here:

"Farb's basic assumption is that somehow Indians have risen to civilized heights by being the victims of four centuries a systematic genocide. Under these assumptions the European Jews should be the most civilized people on earth from their graduate course in gas ovens given by Eichmann." (97) 

That's pretty fuckin' intense. Maybe even over the line...and if not, no more than a toenail's width away. Does make the point, though.

And now this:

Public Domain

"Giving, in the modern Christian sense, is simply a method of shearing the sheep, not of tending them." (131)

Addendum: Speaking of Mr. Deloria's writing, whilst perusing a list of his other books I found one which looked extremely interesting: C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions: Dreams, Visions, Nature and the Primitive. I've just started going out with a woman who is a big fan of Jung,  so this caused a special little twinge in my heart. The bad news is, however, that it seems to be completely unavailable. I tried all of my usual places and found nothing. I tried World Cat and they showed no listings for it anywhere. In the WORLD. Looks like I won't be reading this next.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,281) October 29, 2026

Read to page 161.

The way things work:

I've been thinking about that Sewn binding. Four white threads with a red one in the middle. It's not common to have different colors of thread in a sewn binding. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen it before. 

So we must be doing a metaphor, right? Which is kinda corny, kinda cool.

"Laughter encompasses the limits of the soul." (146) If I had it in me to write another novel, I think it'd be called The Limits of the Soul.  Mmm-hmmm.

Vine mentioned that Custer Died For Your Sins had been a bumper sticker. I went looking for it and found this instead:

Yep. 💅on🤕.

Couldn't find the Custer bumper sticker, though.

Day 6 (DDRD 3,282) October 30, 2026

Read to page 196. A mere 84 pages to go now. 

Thanks to the internet ninja skills of Brother D., C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions: Dreams, Visions, Nature and the Primitive is niw heading my way, and I didnt have to pay the $175 that AbeBooks wanted for it...nor the $225 that Biblio was asking. If it makes it here fast enough, it'll be my next DDR.

Here's a troubling paragraph: "The white man adopted two basic approaches in handling blacks and Indians. He systematically excluded blacks from all programs, policies, social events, and economic schemes. He could not allow blacks to rise from their position because it would mean that the evolutionary scheme had superseded the Christian scheme and that man had perhaps truly descended from the ape." (172) Umm...what? Is Vine equating black people with apes? It's not clear to me, but I find this more than a little disturbing.

Another interpretation, please?

Day 7 (DDRD 3,283) 🎃👻October 31, 2026👻🎃

Read to page 230. 

There has been no mention of Leonard Peltier —  at least so far — but I thought this paragraph explained why he had been relentlessly pursued and railroaded into prison:

"After the war chiefs had been killed or rendered harmless, Indians seemed to drift into a timeless mist. There appeared to be no leaders with which the general public could identify. The status of the Indian became a nebulous question which seemed familiar and important but for which there was apparently no answer." (199)

Leonard could have been that modern-day leader. So he had to be taken off the table.

Waitaminute...Will Rogers was Cherokee??? The things they don't teach you.

Day 8 (DDRD 3,284) November 1, 2026

Read to page 260. Probably going to finish this off today, but first I've got a movie with my #1🌞 (Wildwood), a football game on tv with little sister (Bills vs. Ravens), and a strong hankering for some Delta 9 gummy.

Hmmm...

I read a few issues if this when it came out (in 2007--almost twenty years ago!), and I've thought about it now and then since. Might could happen, as hoopla has the entire run.

P.S. I forgot about the whole falling back for daylight savings time. Read to page 279, The End. 

Off to the movies!

The Dark Tower

 

Thomas Ligotti

"If one is defective, as are we all in some way, being uniquely defective is something of a consolation in the absence of a cure."

Thomas Ligotti

"Metaphysical Morum"

Luke Russert

 

I don't know much of anything about Luke Russert. I know he had a famous guy for a father....who I think was known as a nice guy. I know that he became a part of MS NOW's the weeknight...a show I'm familiar with, not a fan of, and check in regularly on.

The main reason I'm not a fan of the show is Luke Russert.

Maybe he's a great guy.

Maybe he's sweet and cool and a master of self-abnegation.

Maybe he's a student of great literature and is fluent in seven languages. 

I dunno.

I only know that when he comes on the screen and starts holding forth, I change the channel.

Because to me he seems arrogant and bombastic and narcissistic and...just a pain in the ass Rich Boy.

I hope I'm wrong.

As Godot's dear Lucky said (so hopefully), "Time will tell."