{"id":14687,"date":"2011-04-15T14:32:59","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=14687"},"modified":"2011-04-15T14:44:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:44:25","slug":"outer-space-dad-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/15\/outer-space-dad-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Outer Space; Dad Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019m having trouble finding nature poems that deal with outer space (planets, galaxies, and weird phenomena like black holes, and so on). Has a true artist ever written on this theme? It would have to be someone with intellect and sensibility, not just a pop sci-fi writer. Thanks so much for any suggestions.<\/em> \u2014Alex<\/p>\n

The book you are looking for\u2014at least, one of them\u2014is The Cosmos Poems<\/a><\/em>, by Frederick Seidel. Weird phenomena abound.<\/p>\n

A sample:<\/p>\n

\n

It is the invisible
\n Dark matter we are not made of
\n That I am afraid of.
\n Most of the universe consists of this.<\/p>\n

I put a single normal ice cube
\n In my drink.
\n It weighs one hundred million tons.
\n It is a sample from the densest star.<\/p>\n

I read my way across
\n The awe I wrote
\n That you are reading now.
\n I can\u2019t believe that you are there<\/p>\n

Except you are …<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dear Mr. Stein,<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently my dear old dad has requested a \u201cgood book\u201d for his sixty-first birthday. In the past, as far as fiction is concerned, he\u2019s seemed especially drawn to the classics, such as <\/em>Ulysses, <\/em>Moby-Dick, the poetry of William Butler Yeats, and anything else one might read as an English-lit major. Understandably, he\u2019s now going through a bit of a literary midlife crisis and is looking for some excitement. What contemporary works would you suggest to reawaken his intellectual spirit and introduce him to the fiction of the twenty-first century? Best Wishes,<\/em> Jemima M.<\/p>\n

If we start with your father\u2019s predilection for Ulysses<\/em> and Moby-Dick<\/em>, and if by \u201cgood book\u201d we assume your father means a big, ambitious novel with what Alex calls \u201cintellect and sensibility\u201d\u2014and a real story to tell\u2014I suggest Hilary Mantel\u2019s Booker winner Wolf Hall<\/a><\/em>, a historical novel about the court of Henry VIII that makes brilliant use of old-fashioned modernist stream-of-consciousness and at the same time, in its handling of private life between the sexes, is very much of our century. I suspect your father might also like either of Jonathan Franzen\u2019s last two novels, The Corrections<\/a><\/em> or Freedom<\/a><\/em>. Or P\u00e9ter N\u00e1das\u2019s complex, tricky, very inward family saga of Hungarian intellectuals in the late twentieth century, A Book of Memories<\/a><\/em>. (My mother loved this one.)<\/p>\n

At the very top of the list I\u2019d put Norman Rush\u2019s Mortals<\/a><\/em>, the story of a middle-aged CIA agent, undercover as a Milton scholar at a university in Botswana, facing hard changes in his career and his marriage.<\/p>\n

Read a few pages of each; I bet one will have his name on it.<\/p>\n

Have a question for <\/em>The Paris Review? E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m having trouble finding nature poems that deal with outer space (planets, galaxies, and weird phenomena like black holes, and so on). Has a true artist ever written on this theme? It would have to be someone with intellect and sensibility, not just a pop sci-fi writer. Thanks so much for any suggestions. \u2014Alex The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[57,712,2153,456,2155,813,2154],"class_list":["post-14687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-advice","tag-frederick-seidel","tag-hilary-mantel","tag-lorin-stein","tag-mortals","tag-norman-rush","tag-wolf-hall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOuter Space; Dad Books by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 15, 2011 \u2013 I\u2019m having trouble finding nature poems that deal with outer space (planets, galaxies, and weird phenomena like black holes, and so on). 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