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Guy A. Person posted:Non-fiction is really cool, I have been trying to read more this year. Since I am a big dumb baby who needs facts spoon fed in the form of easily digestible narratives, here are some of the authors I have read multiple books from and liked: Hah, cool - I'll be sure to check out some of their work once I finish Winesburg.
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Dec 21, 2014 15:18
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One of my favorites, and definitely a suggestion that's less obvious here, is Dutch writer Frank Westerman. He is very well received in Dutch, and has written some very nice books, usually connecting a specific object (a statue of a taxidermied black man for example, or Mt. Ararat) and through its history and current state elaborates on themes like race and ecology. Apparently some of his books are available in English and are reasonably prices (his last one about the Lippizaner horse, which I definitely recommend, as well as Engineers of the Soul about Stalinist propaganda. The last one I haven't read but I've heard good things about it)
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Dec 21, 2014 15:41
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ObscureThought posted:Hah, cool - I'll be sure to check out some of their work once I finish Winesburg. Instead of reading Jared Diamond, read Charles C. Mann instead
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Dec 21, 2014 19:32
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Falstaff Infection posted:Also, I don't wanna dredge up this old argument, but it's really not. There's so much underage loving because it is, primarily, a series about the horrors of patriarchy. This is also why there's so much castration. Additionally, one thing that GRRM does better than any author I can think of is get you all psyched for righteous war and then pull the rug out from under you by showing how squalid and absurd it all really is. It's a great trick to pull on the reader. When you're reading your typical anti-war novel like, say, Johnny got his Gun, you know the war is terrible and a waste from the get-go because a) you've heard of the book before and b) you've heard of world war one. In ASOIAF, however, the tricks is that you think it's awesome fun fantasy bloodshed where badass vengeance is wreaked, but then the horrors are exposed and you feel ashamed. So, in a way, you're being put through the same process of disillusionment (minus the actual trauma and terror, of course) as, say, an eager young WWI volunteer. No, my friend, it is not capital L literature according to some arbitrary standard, hence, it is a bad book, for the pretension of the thread must be maintained. People with anime avatars always have good, and correct opinions.
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Dec 21, 2014 22:58
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Dystram posted:No, my friend, it is not capital L literature according to some arbitrary standard, hence, it is a bad book, for the pretension of the thread must be maintained. People with anime avatars always have good, and correct opinions. None of the reasons he gave for why he liked it sounded convincing though. Goofy genre fiction deconstructions are so commonplace. Why would you defend that stuff.
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Dec 21, 2014 23:16
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Dystram posted:No, my friend, it is not capital L literature according to some arbitrary standard, hence, it is a bad book, for the pretension of the thread must be maintained. People with anime avatars always have good, and correct opinions. Songs of Ices and Fires are bad because they are poorly written and not entertaining, op
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Dec 21, 2014 23:19
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Dystram posted:No, my friend, it is not capital L literature according to some arbitrary standard, hence, it is a bad book, for the pretension of the thread must be maintained. People with anime avatars always have good, and correct opinions. This passage is one of just many reasons why ASOIAF does not qualify as "capital L literature", as you put it quote:Sunset found her squatting in the grass, groaning. Every stool was looser than the one before, and smelled fouler. By the time the moon came up she was making GBS threads brown water. The more she drank, the more she shat, but the more she shat, the thirstier she grew, and her thirst sent her crawling to the stream to suck up more water.
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Dec 21, 2014 23:23
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saramago wrote several passages about people making GBS threads everywhere, and managed to do so without sounding like a perverted juvenile. but he is also contrary to GRRM a good author
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Dec 21, 2014 23:26
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Just wanted to say there are a lot of reasons why a song of ice and fire isn't high literature and pedophilia or whatever isn't it.
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Dec 21, 2014 23:30
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ulvir posted:This passage is one of just many reasons why ASOIAF does not qualify as "capital L literature", as you put it lol i never said it should be classified as literature. i don't like ASOIAF but i don't mock people for liking it. reading literature isn't the only reason to read, and the huge tools in this thread seem to think it is or should be. people read genre fiction to escape from their lovely lives and lit, on the whole, being about lovely lives and the poo poo, shittiness of the world is why lots of folk's don't read lit, since, on the whole, it does not fulfill the purpose of reading for most folks. i love lit as much as the next english major (i was one) but the combative tone you retards use when referring to genre fiction is one of the reasons people find lit to be an impregnable fortress of pretension and up-your-own-rear end-ishness and why no one gives a gently caress what you think. GRRM's best is Tuf Voyaging, btw. hth
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Dec 21, 2014 23:54
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Smoking Crow posted:Songs of Ices and Fires are bad because they are poorly written and not entertaining, op like ur posts 
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Dec 21, 2014 23:56
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Dystram posted:but the combative tone you retards use 
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Dec 21, 2014 23:57
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somewhere between 90 and 100 percent of the madposts ITT are from people who misunderstood what the point of the thread was and got really upset about the title
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Dec 22, 2014 00:01
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lmao *get a load of this guy camera*
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Dec 22, 2014 00:05
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Dystram posted:people read genre fiction to escape from their lovely lives and lit, on the whole, being about lovely lives and the poo poo, shittiness of the world is why lots of folk's don't read lit, since, on the whole, it does not fulfill the purpose of reading for most folks. Why not? Misery loves company and finding some kind of aesthetic bliss out of lovely lives might help one cope with their own lovely lives.
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Dec 22, 2014 00:19
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Dystram posted:No, my friend, it is not capital L literature according to some arbitrary standard, hence, it is a bad book, for the pretension of the thread must be maintained. People with anime avatars always have good, and correct opinions. The people with anime avatars don't make the decisions about what is and isn't literature, I do.
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Dec 22, 2014 00:24
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Dystram posted:i love lit as much as the next english major (i was one) Lol
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Dec 22, 2014 00:35
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*As Capt. Barbosa from my favorite Disney novel* You best start believing in English Majors... I was one!!
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Dec 22, 2014 00:47
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*As Capt. Barbosa, again* Do you know what is the first thing I'm going to do when I can feel again?? read a song of ice and fire
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Dec 22, 2014 00:50
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Jesus, folks, can we stop with all the cattiness and poo poo-talking? I'm sorry that I brought up ASOIAF, and while I actually do think it qualifies as "capital L literature," that GRRM is a good author and a decent stylist (P.S. Saramago is overrated), this thread is hardly the place for that debate. So I've just finished The Sound and the Fury, and drat, what a ride. It had been a while since I'd read something that difficult, and I'd forgotten how rewarding it can be to have a book just loving punish you and tax your powers of comprehension. I definitely am gonna have to go back and do a re-read, though, since I'm confident that like 50% of what was going on in Benjy and Quentin's sections went over my head. I also was surprised at how much I laughed out loud during the book, especially when Jason was a narrating. He's just SUCH an rear end in a top hat and SO impotent and bitter about everything that you can't help but chuckling at his constant bitching and passive-aggression. So I'm thinking of sticking with Faulkner for a while, or at least literature about the South. Any reccomendations? I've already read Light in August, maybe I should do Absalom Absalom next?
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Dec 22, 2014 01:30
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Falstaff Infection posted:Jesus, folks, can we stop with all the cattiness and poo poo-talking? I'm sorry that I brought up ASOIAF, and while I actually do think it qualifies as "capital L literature," that GRRM is a good author and a decent stylist (P.S. Saramago is overrated), this thread is hardly the place for that debate. Read As I Lay Dying
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Dec 22, 2014 02:03
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Falstaff Infection posted:while I actually do think it qualifies as "capital L literature," that GRRM is a good author and a decent stylist (P.S. Saramago is overrated), this thread is hardly the place for that debate. Nice Parthian shot, or as you kids call it, Dark Pedo Elf Dragon shot.
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Dec 22, 2014 09:51
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Butt Frosted Cake posted:Why not? Misery loves company and finding some kind of aesthetic bliss out of lovely lives might help one cope with their own lovely lives. Yeah, only reading about people/characters who have a much better life than you seems like a kind of unhealthy thing to do.
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Dec 22, 2014 11:39
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I just want to escape from my lovely life and that's why I read about the Game of THrones universe, where everyone dies for minor things that happen to them, people are constantly having sex with children, and the writing is really really bad.
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Dec 22, 2014 14:07
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I choose to read this instead of that depressing poo poo like INvisible Cities by Italo Calvino, a series of descriptions of impossible and fantastic cities in which no one dies, not a single child is had sex with, and the writing is serenely beautiful at times.
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Dec 22, 2014 14:13
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Everything set in the real world suggests that it's somehow due to my own spiritual failures that my life is bad. So I'm reading the book in which Batman beats up Albert Camus.
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Dec 22, 2014 14:32
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CestMoi posted:I choose to read this instead of that depressing poo poo like INvisible Cities by Italo Calvino, a series of descriptions of impossible and fantastic cities in which no one dies, not a single child is had sex with, and the writing is serenely beautiful at times.
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Dec 22, 2014 15:02
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mallamp posted:The thing is that unlike Calvino, Game of Thrones is written for 12-year-old mental level so manchildren who spend 10 hours a day updating Facebook and killing poo poo in virtual worlds are able to read it That's unfair, Invisible Cities has been quite popular among American readers.
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Dec 22, 2014 15:11
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but it wouldn't be a 'bestseller' if it it was released today..
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Dec 22, 2014 15:14
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I just meant that it's easier to comprehend than, say, my burns.
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Dec 22, 2014 15:15
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Hey, I dig Calvino and Gurm (although I like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler more than Invisible Cities), so I dunno what to tell ya. ANYHOW, yeah I guess I'll take your advice Smoking Crow and go with As I Lay Dying Next. I recently learned that James Franco made a film adaptation of that, and one of TSATF where he plays Benjy. I'm kinda morbidly curious. Apparently it got booed hardcore at Sundance. Also, in the midst of all the nerd-punching someone brought up Camus, and I was kinda wondering what people thought of existentialist lit. I honestly thought thought L'etranger was a bit lame (and if we're talking about adolescent poo poo, there you go. It reminded me of On the Road, which is another super overrated book that teenagers love. I think the only Beat worth a drat was Ginsberg.) Is it possible that I got a bad translation? Do you pretty much have to read it in French to get the full effect? I love Beckett, though, and he's generally considered part of the existentialist canon, right?
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Dec 22, 2014 17:18
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p.s. Dark Pedo Elf Dragon Shot is gonna be the name of my grindcore band. So I'll thank you not to abuse my intellectual property, thanks.
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Dec 22, 2014 17:20
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Falstaff Infection posted:Hey, I dig Calvino and Gurm (although I like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler more than Invisible Cities), so I dunno what to tell ya. ANYHOW, yeah I guess I'll take your advice Smoking Crow and go with As I Lay Dying Next. I recently learned that James Franco made a film adaptation of that, and one of TSATF where he plays Benjy. I'm kinda morbidly curious. Apparently it got booed hardcore at Sundance. Beckett is absurdist literature. I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone that's existentialist besides Camus and Sartre. I know some people consider Dostoyevsky existentialist, but I'm not so sure that's true Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Dec 22, 2014 |
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Dec 22, 2014 21:10
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Falstaff Infection posted:Hey, I dig Calvino and Gurm (although I like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler more than Invisible Cities), so I dunno what to tell ya. ANYHOW, yeah I guess I'll take your advice Smoking Crow and go with As I Lay Dying Next. I recently learned that James Franco made a film adaptation of that, and one of TSATF where he plays Benjy. I'm kinda morbidly curious. Apparently it got booed hardcore at Sundance. I'm gonna be that guy here and say that generally existentialism is a very loose term and category. The same with Absurdism, honestly. Camus more or less coined absurdism and never considered himself an existentialist but that's kinda my point: it's all a real loose label. If you thought the Stranger/Outsider was a bit lame I think it might help to read some literary criticism of it and try it again -- I know the first time I read it I thought, That Was Kinda Neat, but after realizing how much is going on under the surface of the novel, it's like... holy poo poo.
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Dec 22, 2014 23:10
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I am going to pimp yet another Dutch guy, WF Hermans for everyone who likes Camus (esp. The Darkroom of Damocles). If there is such a thing as existentialist literature, it's an emblematic example
Antwan3K fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 22, 2014 |
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Dec 22, 2014 23:15
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Jeep posted:I'm gonna be that guy here and say that generally existentialism is a very loose term and category. The same with Absurdism, honestly. Camus more or less coined absurdism and never considered himself an existentialist but that's kinda my point: it's all a real loose label. If you thought the Stranger/Outsider was a bit lame I think it might help to read some literary criticism of it and try it again -- I know the first time I read it I thought, That Was Kinda Neat, but after realizing how much is going on under the surface of the novel, it's like... holy poo poo. Antwan3K posted:I am going to pimp yet another Dutch guy, WF Hermans for everyone who likes Camus (esp. The Darkroom of Damocles). If there is such a thing as existentialist literature, it's an emblematic example
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Dec 23, 2014 01:00
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Falstaff Infection posted:
Don't you think there are weird parallels with Arrested Development? Or am I alone in that one? Also, seconding the As I Lay Dying recommendation. I'd venture it's even better.
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Dec 23, 2014 01:42
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J_RBG posted:Don't you think there are weird parallels with Arrested Development? Or am I alone in that one? Also, seconding the As I Lay Dying recommendation. I'd venture it's even better. Hmm. . . Michael as Jason, Lindsey as Caddy, Maeby as Miss Quentin? I can see it. The real question, though-- between GOB and Buster, which one is Quentin and which one is Benjy?
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Dec 23, 2014 04:30
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Anyone ever read any Stefan Zweig?
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Dec 23, 2014 06:10
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Dystram posted:Anyone ever read any Stefan Zweig? Yes, I've read a collection of his short stories. I really enjoyed them; a friend read the postgirl or whatever that one was and loved it. Definitely a 20th century writer, sort of reminded me of W G Sebald but less ethereal.
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Dec 23, 2014 06:32
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