Hey Everybody!
Much is being written on the cutting edge publications happening right now, but I’d like to produce a series of posts here that addresses texts from the past that I feel have been either lost or forgotten or ignored. My hope is that by resurrecting them they might inspire the contemporary generation.
Obviously, there will be those of us who are familiar with some of these recovery projects. I anticipate comments like “How is Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) a recovery project? – everybody knows that book” or “Who hasn’t read Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764)? My goal is not to uncover unpublished manuscripts; my goal is to bring books from the past back into contemporary conversation.
Those two examples above are from centuries ago, but I also want to revive more recent books that seem to have somehow went under the radar. For instance, I can imagine doing a Recovery Project post on John Hawkes. It always saddens me to hear that so few people have read his work.
Anyway, I’m thinking this might be an interesting addition to Big Other. (I will, of course, contribute other posts on other things, too, but this project seems particularly interesting to me right now.) Any suggestions you might have for potential recovery projects would be greatly appreciated…the more that can be brought back to life the better!
This is such a great idea. What is old is new again. Thanks Chris! From what I remember of Erewhon, it was/is a Swiftian satire on Victorian ideas of Utopia. I also remember its prose resisted the affect of conventional fantasies to create a world.
I don’t know of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. Yet.
And yes, yes, yes, on John Hawkes’
I haven’t read any of those writers, so I really be intrigued to read this series and start adding titles to my wish list!
Great idea Christopher.
I haven’t read john hawkes but he is in my queue to read very soon. I would love to see that post. I like this idea alot.