A Reading Emergency
On the Calculation of Volume (Book One & Two)
As I was writing the year-end favorite book post last week, I realized I had a lot to say about Solvej Balle’s ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME, as translated by Barbara J Haveland.1 I’ve been meaning to write about these two books since I read them in October, but every time I thought of them I just kept thinking of them instead of writing anything.
The reason I’ve been thinking about these books instead of writing anything about them is because thinking about them is so pleasurable while trying to find a way to write about them in the traditional, critical way seems entirely besides the point. (I have this problem sometimes with blurbs, too; those pithy, marketable two sentences tend to feel pale and stupid next to the book itself.)
The experience of reading OTCOV was, for me, so pointed. You know that feeling that comes when you wake up from an intense dream that felt symbolically saturated, and now it seems you have this powerful clue about something or someone in your life? The sensati…