“A book unwritten is more than a void. It accompanies the work one has done like an active shadow, both ironic and sorrowful. It is one of the lives we could have lived, one of the journeys we did not take.” George Steiner, 2006
I’ve read many of George Steiner’s twenty-seven published books, but I would also have liked read some of these unwritten books that Steiner never finished writing. Steiner devotes each chapter of My Unwritten Books (2008) to a writing project that was started, but never completed.
In the first chapter, “Chinoiserie,” Steiner is approached by noted literary critic and editor, Frank Kermode, to contribute to Kermode’s MODERN MASTERS series. Steiner suggested a polymath like himself, Joseph Needham. Needham was best known as a biologist and sinologist. But, when Steiner sat down with Needham, the two men did not get along. That was their one and only meeting. Steiner did contribute a volume to Kermode’s MODERN MASTERS series, but it was Martin Heidegger (1979).
“Invidia” is NOT about the incredible AI computer chip company. Steiner starts writing about Francesco degli Stabili (aka, Cecco d’Ascoli) a mostly forgotten Italian writer and runs out of gas.
“The Tongues of Eros” might have been too spicy for most publishers. The essay starts off this way: “What is the sexual life a a deaf-mute? To what incitements and cadence does he or she masturbate?” (p. 61). These are questions I had not considered before Steiner’s jarring beginning.
“Zion” is a brief essay on what it’s like to be a Jew. “I had hoped to hammer out these arguments in a full-scale work. I lacked the clarity of vision to do so.” (p. 122)
“School Terms” is a dated essay on the difference between English schools, European schools, and U.S. schools. Steiner had been a Visiting Professor at many colleges and universities over his long career. Based on his time teaching at various institutions, Steiner makes some observations that are now completely obsolete and defunct.
I’m not a pet person, but Steiner loves animals. “Of Man and Beast” concludes: “To write my ‘animal book’ would have required not only eminent psychological and narrative skills. It would have necessitated raw introspection. I did not have the guts.” (p. 182)
“Begging the Question” focuses on Steiner’s politics–where he begs the question of what his politics is.
Have you started a project and wished you had finished it? GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
AUTHOR’S NOTE………………..IX
CHINOISERIE………………..1
INVIDIA………………..33
THE TONGUES OF EROS………………..59
ZION………………..91
SCHOOL TERMS………………..123
OF MAN AND BEAST………………..161
BEGGING THE QUESTION………………..183
I have a vast library of books I’ve started and never finished, and if I say so myself, they’re all magnificent!
Bob, when I get to page 50 and decide not to continue reading a book, it usually goes to a New Home.
I was referring, of course, to books I haven’t written, not those I haven’t finished reading! My unwritten works are magnificent. Same with my unwritten songs! If a book I’m reading is bad, I usually plod on, unwilling to waste the time I spent getting as far as I did, and in the hope it will improve!
Bob, we’re all waiting for those books and songs you haven’t written yet!
There is one project i have started and hope to finish sometime in the far, far future. It is called Life.
Jerry, I’m working on the same project, too!
I’ve got to say, those unwritten books do not interest me.
Also, what Jerry said.
Still way too cold 🥶
Jeff, Western NY will hit 20 degrees today–the first time above the teens and single digits and minus-temps in 9 days!
So many unfinished projects.
Patti, my continuing project is this blog and I welcome all the help I can get!
There are two books I wish had been finished: Thomas Mann’s THE CONFESSIONS OF FELIX KRULL and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE LAST TYCOON. Both were unfinished at the time of their author’s death.
Deb, along with Charles Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Jane Austen’s Sanditon, the other unfinished book I’d like to see finished is George R. R. Martin’s GAME OF THRONES series.
Nearly every project incomplete here, including my blog. (Not that a blog gets to be complete till closure or quietus). Among the deaths made famous in Feb so far, the ones that sadden the most include not only Catherine O’Hara and James Sallis but X. J. Kennedy, another friend of friends as well as a fine artist in his own right (and a fannish sf guy back when, signing his work Joe Kennedy). Hate to think of those I haven’t yet heard about.
Raw introspection in regards pets is probably less dangerous to one’s comfort than into one’s more fraught relations. And I imagine a deaf person’s sexual life is at least as tactile and visual as that of those who have at least some access to the common senses…connon sense might suggest the body sets its own rhythms for such things.
I like my cats, even the more annoying ones, because they are trying their best to live decent lives, and choose to spend some of those lives interacting with the ape who cleans their litter for them.
Other animals are fine, too, mind you. I was surprised by how much personality my ex’s family’s pet rabbits had, though I shouldn’t’ve been. I’ve very much enjoyed the company of dogs, as well. And so on. (The same family’s dog Bumbry enjoyed enormously having the rabbits chase him aroond the years, and I suspect they enjoyed it as well).
A few years, at least, but the rabbits would chase the small dog around the yard, where the rabbits’ hutches were, and well-fenced. Rabbits will stamp there hind feet when irritated or frightened, and would regularly do the irritated stomp when chased up our of their grazing lawn to their elevated hutches for the night.
Todd, like the rabbits, I have been stomping my feet vigorously of late.
Understandably.
I haven’t owned a pet since my childhood dog died when I was a teenager, but I’ve been Aunt Mary to many friends dogs. My boyfriend had 2 adorable golden labs. Blondie, a shoenapper who thankfully didn’t chew shoes & her daughter Moon who Blondie didn’t allow to play with any of the big basket of toys. Moon passed away in October & I still miss her. Blondie gets all the attention now and loves it.
Maggie, I have too many allergies so…no pets.
Todd, thanks for the mention of James Sallis’s death, as I had missed that. I’m a big fan, have read most of his books.
RIP
So, our 5 year old car needs $5,000 worth of work to fix the air conditioning. Luckily, when we bought it two years ago we got the extended warranty, so it will only cost us the $100 deductible.
Whew.
Congratulations on the A/C warranty, and you’re welcome for the grim news. Sallis has at least two more books about to be released.
Jeff, that’s the reason Extended Warranties are so valuable in a time when poor quality (and repairs) are inevitable.
Todd, there’s a theory that nothing is complete. Certainly plenty of writers and poets revised their works after they were published like Henry James did.
And not James alone, indeed.
Who’s half asleep after lunch and furniture moving? Their feet, which are definitely there, till some preyer upon rabbits and the superstitious gets them.