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Sham bam bamina! posted:Ah, that would be early Gothic fiction. A really lurid one that's been on my to-read list for a while is Horrid Mysteries. If you want a specifically American recommendation, there's also Charles Brockden Brown. Sham bam thank you maam.
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Jan 28, 2021 23:08
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good snipe
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Jan 29, 2021 06:50
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cebrail posted:What's some good Russian literature from the 20th century? I haven't read anything newer than Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. A new translation of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad came out recently. Maybe Nadezhda Mandelstam who I haven't read but have heard good things about.
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Jan 29, 2021 08:49
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Burning Rain posted:What kind of stuff are you into? And does it have to be Russian or can it be Russian-language literature from other Soviet states (e.g., Chingiz Aytmatov)? I like social novels like most of Tolstoy, Bronte or Mann, but also post modern lit and almost everything else from the mid 20th century. And I honestly know nothing about the relation ship between literature from Russia and Russian-language literature from anywhere else, so yes, absolutely! I wasn't even thinking about that distinction. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
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Jan 29, 2021 08:52
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I'm reading the Epic of Gilgamesh and it's really cool especially the introduction (penguin classics edition) where it talks about all the work put into restoring tablets and filling in the blanks where possible
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Jan 29, 2021 21:26
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cebrail posted:What's some good Russian literature from the 20th century? I haven't read anything newer than Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. not sure if it's up your alley, but i'm reading dream in polar fog by yuri rytkheu, a chukchi author who wrote in both chukchi and russian. so far it rules. makes me feel cold, though
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Jan 31, 2021 04:26
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I just finished Ulysses and I really liked it, but I feel that I missed out on a good amount. (Hurray for the Goddamned idiot!) I mostly went in wanting to get drowned in it and enjoy the ride like Moby Dick and Gravity’s Rainbow. I remember there was a goon-recommended guide to it, but I can’t recall what it was. Any advice for a companion piece for a reread? I also recently read “Drive Your Plow...”, “Lincoln in the Bardo” and “Dictionary of the Khazars” and really enjoyed them. Thanks for the recommendations, thread. Edit: and Knausgaard. It was ‘fantastic!’ I thought that even the 400 page Hitler essay was insightful. I’d read a 50 page short story about him doing just about anything. Edit 2: I’ve read Davis’s translations of Proust and Madame Bovary. Is there a recommendation for a jumping off point for her work? I’d like to check out a solid publication of her writings. The North Tower fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Feb 3, 2021 |
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Feb 3, 2021 07:23
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Karenina posted:not sure if it's up your alley, but i'm reading dream in polar fog by yuri rytkheu, a chukchi author who wrote in both chukchi and russian. so far it rules. makes me feel cold, though That's not at all what I was looking for but it sounds fascinating, I'll definitely check it out
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Feb 3, 2021 11:24
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The North Tower posted:I just finished Ulysses and I really liked it, but I feel that I missed out on a good amount. (Hurray for the Goddamned idiot!) I mostly went in wanting to get drowned in it and enjoy the ride like Moby Dick and Gravity’s Rainbow. I remember there was a goon-recommended guide to it, but I can’t recall what it was. Any advice for a companion piece for a reread? There's a guide to it by his friend stuart gilbert that's quite readable. Alternatively there's the reader's guide by harry blamires, can't quite remember what that's called, or the book 'ulysses and us' by declan kiberd. If it's any consolation the reread is where everything really clicks, or at least it did for me, and I was just relying on wikipedia for both my first two go-rounds
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Feb 3, 2021 14:23
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The Blamires guide is The New Bloomsday Book. I read it ages ago but recall it being helpful.
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Feb 3, 2021 14:50
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For the real heads Gifford and Seidman's Ulysses Annotated is where you go for line-by-line exegesis but I don't know if you want to go that far
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Feb 3, 2021 14:54
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The North Tower posted:
i bought the complete collection of her short stories recently and the first few were very good.
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Feb 3, 2021 16:52
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cebrail posted:What's some good Russian literature from the 20th century? I haven't read anything newer than Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Loads of good recs already I'll just echo that Babel's short story collections are excellent. I also like both of the Mandelstams, although some of Osip Mandelstam's stuff can be pretty obtuse (ie The Egyptian Stamp). Tolstaya is good if you like short stories. Eugenia Ginsburg wrote a great novel called Into the Worldwind about her experiences in the gulags that I'd also recommend. But my personal favorite Russian work of the 20th century is Grossman's Life and Fate.
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Feb 4, 2021 05:46
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Mr. Kurtz posted:Loads of good recs already I'll just echo that Babel's short story collections are excellent. I also like both of the Mandelstams, although some of Osip Mandelstam's stuff can be pretty obtuse (ie The Egyptian Stamp). Another vote for Babel. Red Cavalry (connected short stories/kind of novel I suppose) is phenom. Last year I read the Penguin edition of Red Cavalry and Other Stories, McDuff's the translator, it's got Babel's famous Odessa tales in it too - if you get it, I'd read Red Cavalry first and then go to the other stuff. McDuff did a stellar job translating Red Cavalry but the Odessa tales loose some oomph in translation, too stuffy and literal I reckon, but still funny. Sergei Dovlatov is a good one for emigre fiction. Pushkin Hills got a good translation recently though I prefer The Suitcase. Short satirical novels. Out of all the excellent recommendations in this thread, Venedikt Yerofeev's Moscow-Petushki (has like 5 different translations with slightly different titles but its the same book) is my favourite, genius work and hilarious.
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Feb 4, 2021 08:56
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Morning Bell posted:Another vote for Babel. Red Cavalry (connected short stories/kind of novel I suppose) is phenom. Last year I read the Penguin edition of Red Cavalry and Other Stories, McDuff's the translator, it's got Babel's famous Odessa tales in it too - if you get it, I'd read Red Cavalry first and then go to the other stuff. McDuff did a stellar job translating Red Cavalry but the Odessa tales loose some oomph in translation, too stuffy and literal I reckon, but still funny. I really enjoyed the Red Calvary Stories but I think I still prefer the Odessa tales. The short story Karl Yankel is one of my favorite stories ever. Did a little digging through my old short story collections and found one of my favorites from 20th century Russia: A Week Like Any Other by Natalya Baranskaya. Highly recommend. I didn't really know anything about Soviet domestic life and this story offers a heartbreaking description of the hypocrisies facing Soviet women during the Cold War Soviet Union.
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Feb 4, 2021 19:45
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Anyone into Ottessa Moshfegh? I found her work through a short story on The Paris Review podcast and got sucked in from there. I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation this time last year--now painfully relevant--and Eileen is next up on my list. She's a huge fan of Gary Lutz; I think that's in large part where the grotesqueness, and the invention of new ways of thinking/writing/narrating in order to escape the disgusting world, comes from. A choice quote from an interview with her in Harper's Bazaar:quote:I'm a snob when it comes to reading. It's very depressing to read lovely books. And worse are books that don't know that they're lovely—they're praised and awarded and puffed up. They lower the standard for excellence for us all. It's terrorism. Not that everything has to be a masterpiece—that's impossible. I like Anne Tyler—I read almost all her novels within a few months last year after I stumbled across two of her early novels, A Slipping Down Life and Earthly Possessions. Those were fantastic and so different. I fell in love. I made a little study of her development and discovered something therapeutic in her work. She writes really banal, domestic novels and I feel safe in her hands. She's not going to try to wow me. That's what I hate the most when I read. A lot of people confuse desperation and bloated ego for genius. It's embarrassing to read. I can kind of sense those books in a physical way. I stay away from them in the bookstore.
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Feb 5, 2021 18:10
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i really liked death in her hands
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Feb 5, 2021 18:37
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Great Moshfegh interview that one. I her interviews she's almost never dull. Only read Homesick for Another World it's my favourite short story collection recommendation to 30-somethings who don't read short stories. It's good.
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Feb 5, 2021 23:32
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snailshell posted:Anyone into Ottessa Moshfegh? I found her work through a short story on The Paris Review podcast and got sucked in from there. I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation this time last year--now painfully relevant--and Eileen is next up on my list. She's a huge fan of Gary Lutz; I think that's in large part where the grotesqueness, and the invention of new ways of thinking/writing/narrating in order to escape the disgusting world, comes from. A choice quote from an interview with her in Harper's Bazaar: Never read her but this quote makes me want to. Also, obligatory gently caress Ben Lerner.
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Feb 6, 2021 00:19
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thehoodie posted:Also, obligatory gently caress Ben Lerner. never read any of his stuff. is it because of the bad writing Moshfegh describes, or a different reason?
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Feb 6, 2021 00:43
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snailshell posted:Anyone into Ottessa Moshfegh? I found her work through a short story on The Paris Review podcast and got sucked in from there. I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation this time last year--now painfully relevant--and Eileen is next up on my list. She's a huge fan of Gary Lutz; I think that's in large part where the grotesqueness, and the invention of new ways of thinking/writing/narrating in order to escape the disgusting world, comes from. A choice quote from an interview with her in Harper's Bazaar: I haven't read anything by her but now I feel compelled to check her out. That whole interview was great, but I really liked what she had to say about Bukowski. His writing is filled with male rage and neediness and it's all about these totally pathetic depressed rear end in a top hat sexist losers, but, like her, what really stands out to me about him was how emotionally honest and tender he could be. Ham On Rye in particular, there's still parts of that I think about even though it's been at least 10 years since I've read it. Bukowski really appealed to me as a teenage girl, but it seems like I never hear about other female Bukowski fans so this was interesting to read. I also haven't read him in years, so I don't know if I would still appreciate him now or just find him obnoxious.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:07
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:never read any of his stuff. is it because of the bad writing Moshfegh describes, or a different reason?
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Feb 6, 2021 01:23
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You might have seen me sitting there on the bench that midnight, my hair matted down from the bandanna, eating an irresponsible quantity of unsulfured mango, and having, as I projected myself into the future, a mild lacrimal event.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:25
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The city had converted an elevated length of abandoned railway spur into an aerial greenway and the agent and I were walking south along it in the unseasonable warmth after an outrageously expensive celebratory meal in Chelsea that included baby octopuses the chef had literally massaged to death. We had ingested the impossibly tender things entire, the first intact head I had ever consumed, let alone of an animal that decorates its lair, has been observed at complicated play. We walked south among the dimly gleaming disused rails and carefully placed stands of sumac and smoke bush until we reached that part of the High Line where a cut has been made into the deck and wooden steps descend several layers below the structure; the lowest level is fitted with upright windows overlooking Tenth Avenue to form a kind of amphitheatre where you can sit and watch the traffic. We sat and watched the traffic and I am kidding and I am not kidding when I say that I intuited an alien intelligence, felt subject to a succession of images, sensations, memories, and affects that did not, properly speaking, belong to me: the ability to perceive polarized light; a conflation of taste and touch as salt was rubbed into the suction cups; a terror localized in my extremities, bypassing the brain completely. gently caress. you.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:28
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seriously gently caress you sham
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Feb 6, 2021 02:28
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that gave me a lacrimal event i tell you hwhat
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Feb 6, 2021 03:10
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Feb 6, 2021 03:39
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Im working on a novel. It's about a writer living in Manhattan and
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Feb 6, 2021 04:05
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what’s a ben lerner
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Feb 6, 2021 10:09
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The city had converted an elevated length of abandoned railway spur into an aerial greenway and the agent and I were walking south along it in the unseasonable warmth after an outrageously expensive celebratory meal in Chelsea that included baby octopuses the chef had literally massaged to death. We had ingested the impossibly tender things entire, the first intact head I had ever consumed, let alone of an animal that decorates its lair, has been observed at complicated play. We walked south among the dimly gleaming disused rails and carefully placed stands of sumac and smoke bush until we reached that part of the High Line where a cut has been made into the deck and wooden steps descend several layers below the structure; the lowest level is fitted with upright windows overlooking Tenth Avenue to form a kind of amphitheatre where you can sit and watch the traffic. We sat and watched the traffic and I am kidding and I am not kidding when I say that I intuited an alien intelligence, felt subject to a succession of images, sensations, memories, and affects that did not, properly speaking, belong to me: the ability to perceive polarized light; a conflation of taste and touch as salt was rubbed into the suction cups; a terror localized in my extremities, bypassing the brain completely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeeZ5eRZjlU&t=66s
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Feb 6, 2021 10:41
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Was looking for a classic lit thread. I think this might be it? Started reading War and Peace. I'm really enjoying it. On the side I've been reading and studying Shakespeare because I need something light in comparison to W&P.
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Feb 6, 2021 18:16
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After finishing Knausgaard and his examinations of a few books, I’ve been reading Moretti’s Signs Taken for Wonders, and it’s been interesting insight into ‘academic’ (not sure if the quotes are needed) literature critique. I haven’t read every book mentioned, but I thought the essay on Dracula as metaphor for capitalism/Frankenstein [‘s monster] as the proletariat was enlightening. It’s Marxist lit critique, but I was wondering if anyone has recommendations for what to read next? I read Bloom’s Western Canon (mostly bought it for the list) and Nabokov’s Lectures on Don Quixote (he sure doesn’t like it) and am finding out that I really like to read people’s thoughts on books (such as this wonderful thread), whether or not I agree with it. (Nabokov reminds me of my aunt who wouldn’t let me watch cartoons because they’re violent, so I disagree, but I get where he’s coming from)
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Feb 7, 2021 05:47
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moretti is a sex pest but you could read graphs, maps, trees if you're looking for more of the same
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Feb 7, 2021 06:36
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Nabokov got off on being a contrarian with respect to the Western canon, but he's also annoyingly right a lot of the time.
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Feb 7, 2021 16:24
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I struggle to trust the opinions of someone who calls Dostoyevsky a “cheap, clumsy and vulgar sensationalist” but JD Salinger “one of the finest artists”
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Feb 7, 2021 23:46
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Read Saramago’s Death with Interruptions, my first of his. I know it’s supposed to be one of his lesser books, but I really enjoyed it, especially the more meandering, discursive first part. Will have to read Blindness at some point. I’m curious if anyone has recommendations of authors from the Baltics?
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Feb 8, 2021 00:49
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The North Tower posted:After finishing Knausgaard and his examinations of a few books, I’ve been reading Moretti’s Signs Taken for Wonders, and it’s been interesting insight into ‘academic’ (not sure if the quotes are needed) literature critique. I haven’t read every book mentioned, but I thought the essay on Dracula as metaphor for capitalism/Frankenstein [‘s monster] as the proletariat was enlightening. It’s Marxist lit critique, but I was wondering if anyone has recommendations for what to read next? I read Bloom’s Western Canon (mostly bought it for the list) and Nabokov’s Lectures on Don Quixote (he sure doesn’t like it) and am finding out that I really like to read people’s thoughts on books (such as this wonderful thread), whether or not I agree with it. (Nabokov reminds me of my aunt who wouldn’t let me watch cartoons because they’re violent, so I disagree, but I get where he’s coming from) A lot of John Cowper Powys essays are just him getting really excited about old books he likes. I've read some of Wyndham Lewis' literary criticism and it's usually pretty cool because even if his conclusions are often bizarre or eccentric he was an extremely keen observer so you end up noticing new things about whatever he's talking about even if his opinion is completely different to yours.
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Feb 8, 2021 10:39
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ulvir posted:what’s a ben lerner Very carefully
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Feb 8, 2021 10:48
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smug n stuff posted:I’m curious if anyone has recommendations of authors from the Baltics? Alberts Bels
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Feb 8, 2021 10:58
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At the risk of sounding utterly pedantic: Reading War and Peace has satiated a deep hunger in me that has panged me for so long. Growing up I loved RPGs and deep stories with an entire roster of fascinating characters to note and keep track of. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden, Tactics Ogre, Fallout, Planescape, and Baldur's Gate would fill my proverbial stomach with the most delightful of tastes: philosophy, war, loyalty, legacy, morality. A big reason I've fallen away from video games is that I feel the higher the budget the less we likely we get these kinds of experiences. Today's games - and especially RPGs - are for wish fulfillment, not stating something important. The past decade I've solely read non-fiction works, far more interested in the mechanisms of this world than the ones of fantasy, yet all this time I've craved deep stories like those of my youth where I had to get out a notebook to make sense of the characters and world. As I read War and Peace, for the first time in the longest of time I feel full. Going through a story that makes me question my very being and every chapter makes me lick my fingers, as if finishing off a delightful meal. War and Peace has single-handedly reignited a love for literature and reading fiction again. I'm thinking of reading Crime and Punishment after. Reading Tolstoy has helped me accept how much I've grown out of video games yet still cherish the experiences I had when I was younger. I'll devote more time to literature instead of continuing to chase something that's not there anymore. Jupiter Jazz fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 18:07
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