User:Kiara/Books

Currently reading

La Maison des Feuilles (House of Leaves)

Mark Z. Danielewski
Monsieur Toussaint Louverture éd., 2023 (first published in 2000)
736 pages
Originally written in English, available in French
Genre: Novel, Metafiction

Summary: The novel begins with the introduction of Johnny Truant, a young man who discovers a manuscript written by a deceased elderly man named Zampanò. The manuscript, titled “The Navidson Record”, recounts the experiences of the Navidson family, who move into a seemingly ordinary house that starts to exhibit bizarre and supernatural phenomena. As they explore the house’s mysteries, they uncover a seemingly endless and constantly changing labyrinth within its walls. (source)

Additional info:

• Trigger warnings: unconventional writing and layout (mindfucking, see pictures), mention of dementia, (sexual) assault, death
• There is a person who developed a Doom II mod in 2022 to depict the house, its maze and organic structure, the video is 1h42 of pure madness and amazement. If the book seems too much, I definitely recommend this video (TW: closed spaces, fire, dark spaces -- there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the video)
  

#thriller #mystery #triggering #terrifying

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To read soon

À la poursuite du livre rêvé par Jean Giono & Maximilien Vox

Nicole Chosson, Maurice Darmon, Jean Garcia, Jean Giono, Frédéric Martin, Jacques Mény, Pierre Mréjen, Olivier Nineuil, Paule Palacios-Dalens, Alice Savoie, Emmanuël Souchier, Nicolas Taffin, Yoann Thommerel, Martin Violette, Maximilien Vox Centre Jean Giono & Les Rencontres de Lure, 2021
238 pages
French only
Genre: Archive, Research

Summary (in french obv): En 1954, l'écrivain Jean Giono et le typographe et éditeur Maximilien Vox rêvaient de fusionner toutes les potentialités expressives de la littérature et de la typographie dans un livre dont le titre aurait été Mort de Gutenberg.
Aujourd'hui les pistes de recherche ouvertes par ce projet non abouti, devenu texte d'archive, se prolongent à travers la parole de chercheurs, d'auteurs, de créateurs de caractères et d'éditeurs.
Qu'est-ce que l'image d'un texte ? Quelle est la place de la lettre dans le processus de lecture ? Quelle part revient à la création graphique en littérature ? Le numérique permet-il d'autres formes de collaborations créatives ?
Un livre qui en éclaire un autre. Un livre qui s'adresse tant aux amateurs de littérature qu'aux professionnels de l'édition. Un livre qui s'attache aux possibles de la typographie dans le champ littéraire.

#graphicDesign #typography #fonts

Copy this book

Author·s: Eric Schrijver
Published by: Onomatopee, 2018
Pages: 192
Language·s: English, French (maybe more...)
Genre: Guide

Summary: This book is an artist’s guide to copyright, written for makers. Both practical and critical, this book will guide you through the concepts underlying copyright and how they apply in your practice.
How do you get copyright? For what work? And for how long? How does copyright move across mediums, and how can you go about integrating the work of others? Because they get copyright too!
Copy this Book will detail the concepts of authorship and original creation that underlie our legal system. This way, it will equip you with the conceptual keys to participate in the debate on intellectual property today. (source)

#copyright #F/LOSS #art #design

<talismans pour celles qui ne savent pas de quoi ils parlent

Author·s: Lucile Olympe Haute
Published by: Self-published, 2023
Pages: 42
Language·s: French
Genre: Guide, Zine

Summary: It has to do with talismans (will give more info when I've read it). It is deeply linked to Lucile's art practice that revolves around witchcraft, tech, esoterism and magic in the cyberspace.
See her Cyberwitches Manifesto.

#witchcraft #magic #art #tech #code

Cyberwitches (d*sign week 2023)

Author·s: Lucile Olympe Haute
Published by: Self-published, 2023
Pages: 20
Language·s: English
Genre: Zine

Summary: One of the many Cyberwitches zine published by Lucile. She regularly does workshop in different places, about CSS-Print and the workshop material is linked with cyberwitches and feminism in tech. The result of these workshops are the various zines produced.
She writes it this way: This workshop proposes to circulate texts, words and images according to a slow temporality and materiality, and to a limited audience. The chosen vehicle is micro-edition. Participants produce the graphic layout of one of the texts gathered for the workshop (manifesto, open letter, short essay, fiction...) The corpus hinges on the triple intersection of political awareness, technological emancipation and spirituality. Participants also contribute with proposals. The method used to bring the texts together is appropriation through graphic design using open-source tools. Together we produce the new volume of the mini-anthology called 'Cybersorcières'. This workshop is an introduction to web-to-print, i;e graphic design for print using web tools and languages.

#witchcraft #magic #art #tech #CSS-Print #writing #manifesto

Read - with review

Give it to me!

La Rata
Flammarion, 2024
256 pages
Originally written in Spanish, available in French, don't know if it's already been translated to English
Genre: Essay, History, Culture

Summary: This is a counter history of popular music that gives pride of place to female artists. For women in the music industry, the usual narrative highlights loneliness, vulnerability, misfortune, and erotic power, leaving aside their courage, strength, and success. Time to rewrite their stories with a book focusing exclusively on female artists from blues legend Billie Holiday to Beyoncé, Riot Girls to gender-fluid artists. (source)

Review:
★★★☆

• Read the entire book in one day (a few hours), it's really interesting and fascinating.
• The whole book is really nice, with also personal insight from the author and really strong takes. A really good dose of feminine shot that I really needed to get -BUT- I feel like the end of the book seems a bit rushed to me, or at least would benefit a bit more of nuance and critical opinion. Would love to talk about it if you read it!
  

#music #feminist #punkCulture #avantgarde #counterCulture #underground

Random recommendations

Culture Numérique

Dominique Cardon, Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2022
432 pages, French
Genre: Essay
Summary (in french): L’entrée du numérique dans nos sociétés est souvent comparée aux grandes ruptures technologiques des révolutions industrielles. En réalité, c’est avec l’invention de l’imprimerie que la comparaison s’impose, car la révolu­tion digitale est avant tout d’ordre cognitif. Elle est venue insérer des connaissances et des informations dans tous les aspects de nos vies. Jusqu’aux machines, qu’elle est en train de rendre intelligentes. Si nous fabri­quons le numérique, il nous fabrique aussi. Voilà pourquoi il est indispensable que nous nous forgions une culture numérique. (source)
#tech #internet #digitalCulture

Une longue route

Fumiyo Kouno, Kana, 2001
220 pages, French, Japanese, probably English too
Genre: Manga
Summary: 54 short stories, each 3 pages-long about a (hetero)couple, their love life marked by softness and sometimes a bit of spite.
Additional info: I received it as a gift by my best friend when I left France and read it between two trains, it's very sweet and funny.
#manga #love #realistic

Ask the dust

John Fante, 1939
220 pages, English, French
Genre: Novel
Summary: Arturo Dominic Bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in Bunker Hill, a rundown section of Downtown Los Angeles. Living off oranges, he unconsciously creates a picture of Los Angeles as a modern dystopia during the Great Depression era. His published short story "The Little Dog Laughed" impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14-year-old girl, Judy. Destitute, he wanders into the Columbia Buffet where he meets Camilla Lopez, a waitress.
Additional info: Apparently there's a movie adaptation, haven't seen it.
#semiAutobiography #italian-american #identity #poverty