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derp posted:senses of humor vary widely. the descriptions of pynchon's wacky action and character names have left me with little interest in reading him. crying of lot 49 i did read, and it just confirmed that he's not to my taste. cant have everybody loving a thing, otherwise it wouldn't be good. "Descriptions" of the action and names? Somebody hold me back
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Nov 10, 2023 02:05
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 11:58 |
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I love every one of the Chums of Chance with all my heart, and doubly so for the talking dog
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Nov 10, 2023 02:08
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Get this derp guy outta here, take his coat
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Nov 10, 2023 02:09
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yeah yeah i also didnt think flann obrien was funny, and I dont really like hemingway, lets just get it all out in the open
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Nov 10, 2023 02:25
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It's ok Hemingway didn't like himself either
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Nov 10, 2023 03:34
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Flann O'Brien wasn't being funny, I think that was his point. Hemingway, eh, who cares. He will not last into whatever history of literature exists in the future.
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Nov 10, 2023 03:50
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I've only read The Sun Also Rises and wish I hadn't
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Nov 10, 2023 04:28
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Hemingway had a few nice set pieces, and a distinct style that was unusual at the time. The style that came after him was similarly curt, but had to also be ironic in response to the times. He's not unworthy of reading. But more like a "history of English lit" thing, based on his moment. He was very influential on a lot of genre fiction. With that said, "Old man and the sea", is Legit Good Must-Read
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Nov 10, 2023 04:41
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I read Lot 49 very very recently I thought it was fun, it did not feel like a particularly difficult novella. A parodic detective novel where questions of conspiratorial thinking are foregrounded much more than the conspiracy itself. The fun for me was definitely in the rapidity & inventiveness of all the directions in which the referential spirals out and turns in on itself, set upon a breezy genre plot that tours through the California west coast as endless highway/beach populated by vain pedophiles, and racist libertarians. Hell, I'll say it -- The Big Lebowski is also funny
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Nov 10, 2023 04:45
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I mean it was good, yeah, but there's so many good books I gotta love it not just like it to keep going on
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Nov 10, 2023 04:48
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Who in their right mind is saying Lebowski isn't funny?
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Nov 10, 2023 04:49
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Not me
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Nov 10, 2023 04:51
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That movie was heavily influenced by Pynchon, I think they've even said as much It's very Vineland
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Nov 10, 2023 04:55
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Yeah, the rumors that PTA is adapting Vineland have started up again too, starring Leo to boot. Weird how influential the mans worst novel is in cinema.
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Nov 10, 2023 05:06
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This is pretty woolly, but imo there is some basic warmth and humanism about The Big Lebowski that Pynchon for the most part lacks. Maybe it’s even just at the level of performances and production, but it is there. It’s not that Pynchon isn’t capable of moments of human resonance. Off the top of my head I can think of the banana breakfast at the very start of GR, or the vision of people praying in church all over England, or various moments of down-and-out paranoid desolation. But the other stuff distracts from it too much. It’s just… games, at great length. Hundreds of pages of Slothrop dodging custard pies and having sex with interchangeable teen-boy-fantasy women with hilarious names and, like, that poo poo is tedious to me. Anyway! I’m midway through Augustus and so far it’s a very enjoyable political thriller and examination of how power corrupts (have you heard?). I like Shakespeare’s Roman plays and I like high-level backstabbing so this is my sort of thing. It’s also fascinatingly different in style and subject matter from Butcher’s Crossing. I’d never have guessed it was the same writer.
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Nov 10, 2023 11:24
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Lobster Henry posted:This is pretty woolly, but imo there is some basic warmth and humanism about The Big Lebowski that Pynchon for the most part lacks. Maybe it’s even just at the level of performances and production, but it is there. If you want basic warmth and humanism from pynchon, then it's there in mason and dixon and against the day.
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Nov 10, 2023 13:37
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im reading a man asleep by georges perec. another great 2nd person novel(la) by the by. but its also somewhat depressing
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Nov 10, 2023 16:01
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Vineland was kind of stupid unfortunately. I skimmed most of the songs in Gravity's Rainbow.  with that said, the man can write. I have Mason & Dixon. I read the first page some time ago and thought to myself, "This is absolutely incredible. Also I am going to procrastinate reading this thing for years". that sums up Pynchon for me
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Nov 10, 2023 22:18
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in other news I read that Margaret Atwood essay collection on the sci-fi genre (based on people talking about it many many pages ago in this thread) and it was fun. I forget why it made certain people mad, after all it was Le Guin who said the "literary ghetto" thing about sci-fi https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/29/margaret-atwood-year-of-flood
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Nov 10, 2023 22:24
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from memory, le guin made the case that "scifi isnt bad just because its scifi. its literature and theres good and bad works", whereas atwood's was more "scifi is by definition bad, so i prefer to call my books speculative fiction" but that memory is probably not accurate fwiw ive liked p much all their books (except, ironically, the year of the flood, i felt it made the world & story of oryx & crake too small)
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Nov 10, 2023 23:05
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Help I can't stop buying poetry. Just picked up Cesar Vallejo "the complete posthumous poetry"
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Nov 10, 2023 23:11
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thehoodie posted:Help I can't stop buying poetry. Just picked up Cesar Vallejo "the complete posthumous poetry" theres no shame in buying books, i wish i could buy more speaking of, ive been wanting to watch this since i heard about it but wow i dont like the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeIUY9EhZgI
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Nov 10, 2023 23:26
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Carthag Tuek posted:theres no shame in buying books, i wish i could buy more i need to feed my family
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Nov 10, 2023 23:36
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thehoodie posted:i need to feed my family well ok thats fair. having to feed them is one of the many reasons i dont have one
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Nov 11, 2023 00:22
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Just finished Auster's Leviathan and it's the longest 245 pages I've ever slogged through. Man can he bore me.
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Nov 11, 2023 14:25
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another example of why it seems like a good idea to ignore most american lit. unless proven otherwise  anyways, bought savage detectives and “de” by helle helle today. gonna start reading bolaño first
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Nov 11, 2023 18:30
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Savage Detectives is American literature.
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Nov 11, 2023 21:18
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thehoodie posted:i need to feed my family let them eat books
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Nov 11, 2023 23:01
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Savage Detectives is American literature. I use american as a shorthand for unitedstatesian
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Nov 11, 2023 23:40
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anyways, 55 pages in, savage Ds is good
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Nov 11, 2023 23:40
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i think the general rule is don't read fiction published first in english from at least the last 25 years. there are a few exceptions (ishiguro comes to mind) but its a pretty safe bet
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Nov 11, 2023 23:42
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ulvir posted:another example of why it seems like a good idea to ignore most american lit. unless proven otherwise I just finished Detectives and loved it. It's a similar beast to 2666 in that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, very vibey with a lot of different stories interacting and intersecting, going deep or just skimming. 2666's Archimboldi is referenced too, a whole Bolaño universe. Part of me keeps wanting to hate the shagginess of it, but it just sinks into my brain and lives there. It also helps the writing is hypnotizing.
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Nov 12, 2023 01:07
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this book is surprisingly horny
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Nov 12, 2023 14:06
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Hat Thoughts posted:I read Lot 49 very very recently I thought it was fun, it did not feel like a particularly difficult novella. A parodic detective novel where questions of conspiratorial thinking are foregrounded much more than the conspiracy itself. The fun for me was definitely in the rapidity & inventiveness of all the directions in which the referential spirals out and turns in on itself, set upon a breezy genre plot that tours through the California west coast as endless highway/beach populated by vain pedophiles, and racist libertarians. The first two chapters are the highlight of the book imo and really lays everything out bare. Also very sad. Edit: also been in several frankly baffling debates online recently with “certain scenes shouldn’t be in a movie/book because they “do nothing”” and “stories exist to be uplifting/be hopeful” insipidness. I 10000% blame YA
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Nov 12, 2023 16:19
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fez_machine posted:If you want basic warmth and humanism from pynchon, then it's there in mason and dixon and against the day. PTA’s adaptation of Inherent Vice
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Nov 12, 2023 16:22
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So many writers are horny. Is it because they write instead of fornicate?
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Nov 12, 2023 23:02
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And then... there's Robert Crumb...
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Nov 12, 2023 23:02
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I've finished the first long half of The Wolves of Eternity and I have to say it's completely entrancing. Knausgård somehow instills so much life in his prose and characters that I don't even care how mundane most of it is. And despite its length (400 or so pages just from this one character, a disaffected Norwegian teen coming off of a year in the service) there's an ebb and flow between the mundanity and the "bigger" moments, like a football match, or the first day at a new job, that makes it easy to just keep turning the page. It helps that The Morning Star trained me that Knausgård doesn't much care about spinning a tightly paced, plot-heavy affair. I'll gladly read a whole page and a half about melting butter in a skillet and frying up fish fingers and onions and say thank you I haven't read My Struggle, but who are some other authors you would compare to Knausgård, so I know where to go for more?
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Nov 13, 2023 21:31
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They're gonna tell you Proust but you don't have to listen to them
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Nov 13, 2023 21:44
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 11:58 |
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jon fosse was his teacher at what would be norway’s equivalent of MFA, so he’s a good next up, though they have really different styles. I would also recommend dag solstad.
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Nov 13, 2023 21:59
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