Current Booklist
Weird and Wondrous
Fall Quarter 2002

As we order more of the books, we'll send announcements to the e-mail list and post the new titles here...

  • Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders (Reading for the first week.)
  • Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature: 1150 - 1750
  • Matsuo Basho, Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings - trans. Sam Hamill
  • Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions
  • Jonathan Foer, A Convergence of Birds
  • Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger
  • Katherine Dunn, Geek Love

 Note on Basho translations -

There are a number of other translations that would do too.

The Essential Basho ($25 in hardcover, is a bigger collection of Hamill's translations, including what's in the paperback we're ordering. If you've got the money, and would rather have a well-made book that you can live with and keep reading for years and years, get this.)

Any of the following four would also do if you find one second hand at a good price and don't mind talking on the basis of a somewhat different version when you get to seminar.

Back Roads to Far Towns (trans Corman - a condensed elliptical translation by another poet; some people's favorite, but harder to read than Hamill.)
The Narrow Road to Oku (trans. Keene - striking illustrations, but $25 list).
Basho's Narrow Road... (trans. Sato)
A Haiku Journey (trans. Britton)

Do not get the Yuasa translation (Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches - Penguin).