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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:Might I recommend On the Road? American Gods
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Aug 15, 2016 17:31
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End Of Worlds posted:American Gods https://youtu.be/Cg-DWc9nPfQ
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Aug 15, 2016 17:33
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Ras Het posted:The Idiot is definitely Dostoyevskys best novel once you realise that the agenda that drives C&P, Karamazov and The Devils is extremely trivial idk i think the novels work as novels as well as philosophical/political polemic dostoyevsky is rare in his ability to make the polemic work for the novel rather than feeling tacked-on or straining, the only guy i can think of who pulls it off as well is hugo
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Aug 15, 2016 17:37
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V. Illych L. posted:idk i think the novels work as novels as well as philosophical/political polemic Sure, I can agree, but The Idiot does have a different sort of humanity to it
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Aug 15, 2016 17:47
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V. Illych L. posted:idk i think the novels work as novels as well as philosophical/political polemic No offense but I'd much rather read Hugo than Dostoyevsky. Like I get that Dostoyevsky is deeper and that a large part of my trouble with Russian Lit is just translation but I've tried Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Demons (or whatever title you give it). His work just seems so dense and I just get bored. Maybe it's just me?
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Aug 15, 2016 17:48
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I thoroughly enjoyed the Brothers K although I can't really tell you why. When it ended I felt like it was just getting started
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Aug 15, 2016 17:56
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I think Brothers K was originally sketched out as a Part 1.
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Aug 15, 2016 18:04
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Ras Het posted:Sure, I can agree, but The Idiot does have a different sort of humanity to it i think prince myshkin is a more complicated character than most of D's usual cast - he is normally very happy to just introduce a bunch of basically one-note archetypes and let them talk it out. the prince, in particular in his interactions with rogozhin and the mad love story going on, is much more complicated and that makes it easier to identify with him imo Twerkteam Pizza posted:No offense but I'd much rather read Hugo than Dostoyevsky. Like I get that Dostoyevsky is deeper and that a large part of my trouble with Russian Lit is just translation but I've tried Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Demons (or whatever title you give it). His work just seems so dense and I just get bored. dostoyevsky is vast, like russian steppe. we must always come back to russian steppe, and to the pointlessness of lives without the god we killed
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Aug 15, 2016 18:22
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mind i read the idiot in french for Reasons and that's a language i really don't master so my reading will have suffered a lot
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Aug 15, 2016 18:25
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V. Illych L. posted:dostoyevsky is vast, like russian steppe. we must always come back to russian steppe, and to the pointlessness of lives without the god we killed Oh good I'm confused again
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Aug 15, 2016 18:32
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:Got If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Calvino. Really liked invisible cities I'm gonna go against the grain and say that that book is really fun and kicks rear end. Please enjoy
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Aug 15, 2016 18:53
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david crosby posted:I'm gonna go against the grain and say that that book is really fun and kicks rear end. Please enjoy Good enough for me
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Aug 15, 2016 19:06
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:No offense but I'd much rather read Hugo than Dostoyevsky. Like I get that Dostoyevsky is deeper and that a large part of my trouble with Russian Lit is just translation but I've tried Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Demons (or whatever title you give it). His work just seems so dense and I just get bored. I got way more bored with wordy Hugo spending an entire quarter of Les Mis to describe the minute details of the battle of waterloo than I ever have reading C&P, which I'm doing now. Parts of it feels so positively modern, like the dream sequence, or even in the beginning before it's clear what Raskolnikov's plan is. The morality/ethics do seem more tacked on though, where the action suspends so that characters can go on talking academically in a way that parallels the situation really obviously. I'm going to read the idiot soon but I have to finish chekov's stories first-- I'm reading A Dreary Story right now which is incredible.
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Aug 15, 2016 19:19
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david crosby posted:I'm gonna go against the grain and say that that book is really fun and kicks rear end. Please enjoy imo it's a really funny and interesting novel that you will enjoy immensely if you don't think of it as split into main narrative and incipits, and instead think of it as one cohesive whole which is constantly reordering and reconfiguring itself according to the particular demands and impact of each chronotope. also pay attention to what ludmilla is asking for.
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Aug 15, 2016 20:31
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I've probably said this before but Dostoyevsky is absolutely not dense to me, he's chaotic and often a mess, but that's different. Those books are enduringly popular for a reason, they're not just Thick Classics read Chekhov doe
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Aug 15, 2016 20:52
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I think that all you Fedya Fans might enjoy Hjalmar Söderberg's Doktor Glas. Just sayin
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Aug 15, 2016 21:14
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Ras Het posted:I've probably said this before but Dostoyevsky is absolutely not dense to me, he's chaotic and often a mess, but that's different. This makes total sense, yeah.
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Aug 15, 2016 21:36
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Zesty Mordant posted:I'm reading A Dreary Story right now which is incredible. Yeah, this one's a real gutpunch. It was the story that really made me love Chekhov. The narrator's analogy between lecturing and taming a hydra still stands out to me. Also, Chekhov's ability to draw complete portraits of even minor characters is just amazing--the college doorman, for example.
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Aug 16, 2016 00:20
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the_homemaster posted:So I'm going to Tulsa, New York and Boston. Unfortunately no fiction is permitted within any of these places by law
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Aug 16, 2016 02:00
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Burning Rain posted:I think that all you Fedya Fans might enjoy Hjalmar Söderberg's Doktor Glas. Just sayin Doktor Glas owns so hard Also read August Strindberg
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Aug 16, 2016 15:15
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Strindberg is funny because after his marriage with Sigrid went tits up, he turned into an utter goon
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Aug 16, 2016 15:19
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Just finished the first part of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Does this book get exciting at some point? I think it's a great book so far, and I like the depth of the characters, but it certainly hasn't been a page turner.
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Aug 16, 2016 23:26
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a_young_doctor posted:Just finished the first part of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Does this book get exciting at some point? I think it's a great book so far, and I like the depth of the characters, but it certainly hasn't been a page turner. The Dark Wraiths show up in part 3
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Aug 17, 2016 01:13
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Zesty Mordant posted:I got way more bored with wordy Hugo spending an entire quarter of Les Mis to describe the minute details of the battle of waterloo than I ever have reading C&P, which I'm doing now. Parts of it feels so positively modern, like the dream sequence, or even in the beginning before it's clear what Raskolnikov's plan is. The morality/ethics do seem more tacked on though, where the action suspends so that characters can go on talking academically in a way that parallels the situation really obviously. I'm going to read the idiot soon but I have to finish chekov's stories first-- I'm reading A Dreary Story right now which is incredible. i entirely disagree that the ethics are tacked on, the ethical conflict is the core conflict driving the novel - the philosophy is necessary, because without a philosophic rationalisation a man like raskolnikov would never become a murderer
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Aug 17, 2016 01:43
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V. Illych L. posted:i entirely disagree that the ethics are tacked on, the ethical conflict is the core conflict driving the novel - the philosophy is necessary, because without a philosophic rationalisation a man like raskolnikov would never become a murderer I'll step back a bit on that, I was thinking mostly of the time where Luzhin grills raskolnikov on some essay he wrote, and the conflict is kinda laid out for you. Rodia's reaction to being grilled about it though, and all the other times he has a personal crisis about it (that dream/memory with the horse he relates early on is brutal) is very integral.
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Aug 17, 2016 01:50
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a_young_doctor posted:Just finished the first part of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Does this book get exciting at some point? I think it's a great book so far, and I like the depth of the characters, but it certainly hasn't been a page turner. I didn't really like the book much though I love Russian literature from that time. About the only part I really loved was the description of the harvest - it was a great passage.
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Aug 17, 2016 14:18
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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:I didn't really like the book much though I love Russian literature from that time. About the only part I really loved was the description of the harvest - it was a great passage. That steeplechase tho...
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Aug 17, 2016 16:43
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Thread's opinion on Will Self? A friend of mine was giving away some stuff before he moves tomorrow and I got a copy of Umbrella. It looks really dense and I can barely find any spaces to stop in it.
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Aug 17, 2016 16:52
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:Got If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Calvino. Really liked invisible cities I like that book a lot. There are some very funny moments in there, and some wonderful writing. It's one of those books where I can't quite tell if the overarching structure doesn't work or if I don't understand it. I think I like Invisible Cities more. Mr Palomar is my absolute #1 top favorite Calvino, though.
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Aug 18, 2016 02:29
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I have lots of brick-like books in my backlog but the other day, unwisely, I decided on a whim to pick up 2666 cos I still hadn't read it and I thought I should actually read something from the 21st century. Finished the first chapter yesterday. It's pretty good. I would have thought I would dislike a story about academics and their love triangles featuring long dream sequences, but it's surprised me so far. I don't like when the dialogue gets overtly literary though.
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Aug 18, 2016 10:27
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As I've probably mentioned before (because I keep talking about the same books), the first part of 2666 is a weird cover version of Savage Detectives and makes most sense within a bolaņistic universe Correct ranking of the parts: 5 > 1 > 4 > 2 > 3 Twerkteam Pizza posted:Thread's opinion on Will Self? I've seen him on TV and I've read his articles and I'm absolutely not gonna read any of his books
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Aug 18, 2016 10:49
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Ras Het posted:the first part of 2666 is a weird cover version of Savage Detectives and makes most sense within a bolaņistic universe I was going to ask if it was at all emblematic of his work. Guess I'll be digging out some more of his stuff at some point
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Aug 18, 2016 12:09
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I finally finished My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Very good book, though over-written in certain parts. Very dense with art history that went over my head, but the story-telling, constant shifts in perspective/narration between the distinct characters, and playfulness with the Whodunnit format really make this book shine.
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Aug 18, 2016 12:20
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Overwriting is cool
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Aug 18, 2016 12:53
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Ras Het posted:As I've probably mentioned before (because I keep talking about the same books), the first part of 2666 is a weird cover version of Savage Detectives and makes most sense within a bolaņistic universe 4 > 5 > 1 > 3 > 2
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Aug 18, 2016 12:59
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3 > 5 > 1 > Peace Walker > 2 > 4
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Aug 18, 2016 13:01
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I liked Amalfitano's eerie derangement a lot more but otoh I don't think I really got what the Fate part was parodying
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Aug 18, 2016 13:02
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Ras Het posted:I liked Amalfitano's eerie derangement a lot more but otoh I don't think I really got what the Fate part was parodying The Amalfitano part is really good, it's just so short that I don't think it builds to anything crazy or obscene like the rest of the parts do.
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Aug 18, 2016 14:01
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a_young_doctor posted:Just finished the first part of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Does this book get exciting at some point? I think it's a great book so far, and I like the depth of the characters, but it certainly hasn't been a page turner. It never quite becomes a page-turner, but I feel like Anna's last scene is one of the best-written and most memorable passages of all literature. Oh by the way, I got Aquarium from the library and just started it, so Vann strikes again.
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Aug 18, 2016 15:05
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I finished By Night in Chile a while back and while I still don't think I understand it fully, there were parts especially towards the middle/end with the author and her house parties that were interesting. At some point I'll pick up Savage Detectives but I'm putting off 2666 for now.
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Aug 18, 2016 18:43
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