|
I like how being silly, giddy, emotional, and interested in dressing up are all feminine interests. Take that patriarchy!
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 15:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 08:38 |
|
|
Proust led to a thread going to poo poo. I never thought I'd see the day.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 16:10
|
|
|
Cloks posted:I read fifty more pages and I take this back, Skippy Dies is emotionally devastating, especially right before Skippy dies. It's somehow both really fun and incredibly heartbreaking. drat good book. Also, Gravity's Rainbow is difficult to read, not so much for the prose as for the lack of a clear plot - especially near the end, where it gets so much more scattered. That said it is a great book. I should reread it one of these days.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 16:25
|
|
|
blue squares posted:
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 16:31
|
|
|
Ok bad site good concept. My bad
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 16:53
|
|
|
Paradox gentleman, ask the thread a question, please
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 17:48
|
|
|
Clearly I need to come back in here and fix this thread for you fuckers Jesus can't a man retire to some football talk in peace
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 18:24
|
|
|
I'm just trying to make the world a better place one of the only two ways I know how, and I'm all out of bullets
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 18:49
|
|
|
I finally finished Underworld (overrated in my opinion, loved White Noise and thought it was going to be awesome from the reviews) and just started on the first Ferrante novel. It's a great book so far and I find myself turning pages quickly! In between I read When Breath Becomes Air. It's a good book.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 19:19
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:Clearly I need to come back in here and fix this thread for you fuckers Jesus can't a man retire to some football talk in peace Did you like The Coldplays?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 19:29
|
|
|
Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:I finally finished Underworld (overrated in my opinion, loved White Noise and thought it was going to be awesome from the reviews) Got that impression before the bat hit the baseball, so I got out ahead of the game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 19:46
|
|
|
I hated Underworld. White Noise is a terrible introduction to DeLillo because it fools you into thinking he is funny and writes madcap stories like the Airborne Toxic Event. Then you read any of his other books and they are humorless and annoying. I really dislike all the DeLillo I have read outside of White Noise, which I loved.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 19:48
|
|
|
Falling Man is my worst book rack purchase.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 19:57
|
|
|
White Noise is DeLillo's contribution to the Gaddis--Pynchon--Wallace chain.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 20:02
|
|
|
blue squares posted:I hated Underworld. White Noise is a terrible introduction to DeLillo because it fools you into thinking he is funny and writes madcap stories like the Airborne Toxic Event. Then you read any of his other books and they are humorless and annoying. I really dislike all the DeLillo I have read outside of White Noise, which I loved. Mao II and End Zone were pretty good. Looking forward to reading Libra one day also. I agree re: Underworld though, too much going on without any sort of coherence. Bo-ring.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 20:16
|
|
|
Okay to clarify I read The Names and barely finished it and regretted the time spent. Mao II didn't work for me. I was reading Libra and thought it wasn't too bad, though pretty much a standard genre spy novel, and eventually just stopped reading it and never came back to it for whatever reason
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 20:20
|
|
|
blue squares posted:White Noise is DeLillo's contribution to the Gaddis--Pynchon--Wallace chain. Underworld is too though? And Ratners Star (book that actually influenced Wallace AND it's funny) Mao Ii kind of too, although it feels bit dated unlike Gaddis,Pynchon and Wallace. The minimlist stuff he has written in 2000' is pretty different though mallamp fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Feb 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 21:10
|
|
|
I don't know. I found Underworld, aside from the fantastic opening, to be too narrowly-focused to merit being grouped amongst those three. Though if I'm being honest I should leave out Gaddis since I only know about him second-hand. Underworld is long, but it felt like it had very little to say. It just said that very little over and over again. Whereas Pynchon and Wallace are all about capturing the enormity of experience
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 21:27
|
|
|
I'm reading The Golden Notebook now (finished City on Fire)
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 21:47
|
|
|
I loved Underworld because it was like Tolstoy+Pynchon. Maybe less deep as a result, but much more readable Sometimes it's awkward when DeLillo tries to be hip, you can see that he was over 60 when he wrote it, luckily he stopped trying after Underworld and just created some weird alternate universe of his own where everything happens as in theater stages with real world as background. It's pretty cool that Pynchon is still up to date with technology and stuff (Bleeding Edge) mallamp fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Feb 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 21:48
|
|
|
blue squares posted:Whereas Pynchon and Wallace are all about capturing the enormity of experience
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 22:18
|
|
|
Nakar posted:Can you elaborate on this, and what distinguishes their work from the others you've mentioned? Underworld in particular seemed very focused on it's theme of trash/waste. It's been a few years since I read it, but it felt like everything came down to one thing. I think DeLillo was doing that deliberately, trying to say that in the end many things are equally pointless and indistinguishable. Whereas in Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest the themes to me are much broader. Rather than everything ending up the same, I think those books pointed out how wildly different things can be. Pynchon and Wallace seem to say that a summation of all things is impossible. Of course Mel is going to come in here and point out now I'm completely wrong. blue squares fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Feb 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2016 22:36
|
|
|
blue squares posted:Underworld in particular seemed very focused on it's theme of trash/waste. It's been a few years since I read it, but it felt like everything came down to one thing. I think DeLillo was doing that deliberately, trying to say that in the end many things are equally pointless and indistinguishable. Whereas in Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest the themes to me are much broader. Rather than everything ending up the same, I think those books pointed out how wildly different things can be. Pynchon and Wallace seem to say that a summation of all things is impossible. I havent read two of those three books so cannot really say
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2016 02:16
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:I havent read two of those three books so cannot really say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Lvej86sVY&t=46s
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2016 02:47
|
|
|
Post in my novella thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764069
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2016 15:33
|
|
|
Yw
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2016 15:43
|
|
|
Ras Het posted:Extremely hard pass I'm about a hundo pages in and confirmed good. I've never read any saramago but gd after reading wheel of time books and Terry pratchett for two years it's tougher to read than it should be. It's really good though. Once I finish this I think I can make the jump to tristram shandy, book of the century. Edit: but actually though are there any good shorter novels I should read? I'm thinking maybe The Stranger? I don't care about subject, I'm finally rediscovering what literature is and haven't read an actual novel in half a decade mbt fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Feb 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 19:56
|
|
|
Tristram Shandy is incredibly good and funny. If you want short stuff you should read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino or alternatively pick up some short stories for eg Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 20:47
|
|
|
The Fall is a lot better than the Stranger, I think.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 20:52
|
|
|
blue squares posted:The Fall is a lot better than the Stranger, I think. It's really good!
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 21:02
|
|
|
I think The Fall is more powerful and relevant, while The Stranger is kind of insincere in a way. Don't bother with the Plague though, it's utterly dull and I can't recall a single thing about it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 21:31
|
|
|
I read Tristram Shandy like Sterne wrote it, and one of these days I'll finish it, probably.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 21:43
|
|
|
Sentimental Journey, also by Sterne, is short. Has a lot of overlap with Tristram Shandy and is also p funny. Might even be an easier read than Tristram. Only thing is a character turns up at the end who you'd only recognise from Tristram Shandy. It's narrated by a character from Tristram Shandy too (and a pseudonym of Sterne himself).
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 21:48
|
|
|
BravestOfTheLamps posted:I think The Fall is more powerful and relevant, while The Stranger is kind of insincere in a way. The Plague is good. Not a lot happens, and it is good.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2016 22:07
|
|
|
Mortimer posted:Edit: but actually though are there any good shorter novels I should read? I'm thinking maybe The Stranger? I don't care about subject, I'm finally rediscovering what literature is and haven't read an actual novel in half a decade 100 years of solitude Dead souls If you want to read Camus as the above recommend, The Fall, The Plague and The Stranger are all good
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2016 04:03
|
|
|
Cien Anos de Soledad is not a short novel. Neither is Dead Souls.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2016 04:19
|
|
|
They're shorter than Balthasar & Blimunda. And I think in terms of what people think as Important Novel they're actually pretty brief. And there's gently caress all worth reading in terms of the word "novel" that's below 200-300 pages
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2016 04:24
|
|
|
are you trolling? some of my absolute favourite reads of the last couple of years have been <200 page novel(la)s: Season of Migration to the North, any Maqroll novella, The Successor, The Tartar Steppe, Doctor Glas & Christie Malry's Own Double Entry i mean, if you have a weird definition of the word novel that would exclude any and all of this, that's ok, but I don't that what majority of people would say
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2016 08:37
|
|
|
I did have some argument wrt the spirit of the novel that I wanted to pursue but then I slept on it and forgot what it was
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2016 13:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 08:38 |
|
|
Mortimer posted:I'm about a hundo pages in and confirmed good. I've never read any saramago but gd after reading wheel of time books and Terry pratchett for two years it's tougher to read than it should be. It's really good though. I just read The Vegetarian, Waiting for the Barbarians, and I'm just about to finish John Crow's Devil and they're all pretty great and just under 200 pages (JCD is slightly over at 218). Also The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea which I love and is like 180 pages as well.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2016 11:00
|
|
