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Lumius posted: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. I was thinking of picking this up - http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Stefan-Zweig/dp/1782270035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419313301&sr=8-1&keywords=Stefan+Zweig I also have "The Other Side" by Alfred Kubin on my Kindle. Is it worth a read?
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Dec 23, 2014 06:44
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Dystram posted:I was thinking of picking this up - http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Stefan-Zweig/dp/1782270035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419313301&sr=8-1&keywords=Stefan+Zweig It's not the same collection as I read, thiis seems to be 22 short stories and "selected stories" was 4 novellas and 2 short (I think). I'd still recommend him but I should add im a huge fan of short stories. I havent read any Kubin so I can't comment. (sebald rules though)
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Dec 23, 2014 07:14
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WAY TO GO WAMPA!! posted:I really liked that one, did you recommend it in some thread a year ago or something? I heard about it around here from someone. I may well have... With regards to Zweig, I really enjoyed his autobiography The World of Yesterday. Just started Wolf Hall myself. Like it a lot from the first chapters. Antwan3K fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 08:58
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Dystram posted:Anyone ever read any Stefan Zweig? I read Chess Story when I was (briefly) into chess, back then I missed most of the allegory but still liked it
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Dec 23, 2014 11:14
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Antwan3K posted:Just started Wolf Hall myself. Like it a lot from the first chapters. I like Hilary Mantel a lot as well, although by favorite book of hers is actually A Place of Greater Safety, which is about the French Revolution and the Terror. The POV characters are Robespierre, Danton, and Desmoulins. Wolf Hall is good, too, although I must admit it's a bit confusing, what with every third character named Thomas.
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Dec 23, 2014 18:20
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QBAFCARSRL thread, what are your thoughts regarding the term "middlebrow literature"? Full disclosure: I'm probably midbrow in terms of taste in most things but respect the avant garde. I enjoy Cormac McCarthy, The Wire, Game of Thrones and There Will Be Blood. I tried to read Infinite Jest, but it was like stepping into the wrong lecture room in college mid-semester and trying to keep up. Currently reading Life of Pi. It's OK. Anyways, I come in peace, QBAFCARSRL thread. I plan on reading some Pynchon and Dostoevsky this year.
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Dec 23, 2014 21:49
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fozzy fosbourne posted:QBAFCARSRL thread, what are your thoughts regarding the term "middlebrow literature"? It's on a case by case basis I think that McCarthy is good
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Dec 23, 2014 21:55
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fozzy fosbourne posted:QBAFCARSRL thread, what are your thoughts regarding the term "middlebrow literature"? You seem to imply that highbrow is the same as convoluted postmodernism. Better writers than Pynchon and Foster Wallace exist whom you might like and who are not difficult to understand. 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 Yeah WF Hermans is good. I don't really like Mulisch much as far as Dutch writers go, but I love Nescio, Hermans, Voskuil and guilty pleasure Marten Toonder.
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Dec 23, 2014 22:53
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Shibawanko posted:You seem to imply that highbrow is the same as convoluted postmodernism. Better writers than Pynchon and Foster Wallace exist whom you might like and who are not difficult to understand. I think Pynchon gets a reputation as being "convoluted" due to Gravity's Rainbow, which can certainly be a challenge, but several of his other books are pretty straightforward and not at all hard to understand.
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Dec 23, 2014 22:57
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Earwicker posted:I think Pynchon gets a reputation as being "convoluted" due to Gravity's Rainbow, which can certainly be a challenge, but several of his other books are pretty straightforward and not at all hard to understand. I actually think V. was his best book and it got less good from there, V. is basically an interesting take on Hoffman's Der Sandmann with more likable characters, his political writing from that period was also more engaged with working class and anti racist struggle and it just seems less "postmodern" in the way we would understand it today, except in terms of style. The more straightforward, later books like Inherent Vice veer too much into Hunter S. Thompson hippie nostalgia territory for me, so I wouldn't recommend those for that reason.
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Dec 23, 2014 23:10
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Shibawanko posted:I actually think V. was his best book and it got less good from there, V. is basically an interesting take on Hoffman's Der Sandmann with more likable characters, his political writing from that period was also more engaged with working class and anti racist struggle and it just seems less "postmodern" in the way we would understand it today, except in terms of style. The more straightforward, later books like Inherent Vice veer too much into Hunter S. Thompson hippie nostalgia territory for me, so I wouldn't recommend those for that reason. I like Against the Day quite a lot, and it had a lot of interesting stuff about labor struggles and anarchists as well but I also enjoyed his take on pulp adventure stories. I have not read Inherent Vice yet and but I have heard from several other people that the hippie nostalgia thing is kind of irritating and sounds like he's "trying too hard". Crying of Lot 49 is also a fun read IMO and not at all hard to understand.
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Dec 23, 2014 23:13
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Yeah, I was going to start with V or maybe Crying of Lot 49 based on earlier discussion in this thread.quote:You seem to imply that highbrow is the same as convoluted postmodernism. Better writers than Pynchon and Foster Wallace exist whom you might like and who are not difficult to understand. Yeah, I've been reading essays about middlebrow literature, this thread, and capital L literature and I'm pretty confused to be honest. Sometimes Literature reminds me of squats and the weightlifting threads from a few years ago.  If I like the following and wanted to try to expand my horizons ever so slightly, what would you suggest: Cormac McCarthy Philip K Dick Steinbeck Solaris The Godfather 2001 Game of Thrones (first 3 novels) Dune Silence of the Lambs Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Paul Thomas Anderson movies I think I'm more interested in contemporary fiction.
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Dec 23, 2014 23:48
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Yeah, I was going to start with V or maybe Crying of Lot 49 based on earlier discussion in this thread. If you like Steinbeck, I recommend Pearl S. Buck's The Good China. If you like Philip K. Dick, read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Player Piano. If you like Frankenstein, read Dracula by Bram Stoker, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
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Dec 24, 2014 00:03
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I primarily read stuff that is intellectually pleasing, like DFWallace, Pynchon, DeLillo, etc. I'd like to look at something that is beautifully written (i love language) and emotionally centered. Something that will make me want to keep turning pages because I love the characters. I've never read Hemingway, for one, though I'm not sure how much I'm interested in reading something so minimalist. edit: modern is good, too. blue squares fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 00:05
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blue squares posted:I primarily read stuff that is intellectually pleasing, like DFWallace, Pynchon, DeLillo, etc. I'd like to look at something that is beautifully written (i love language) and emotionally centered. Something that will make me want to keep turning pages because I love the characters. I've never read Hemingway, for one, though I'm not sure how much I'm interested in reading something so minimalist. Same but my favorite writer is Raymond Carver
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Dec 24, 2014 00:07
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Has anybody read any of the "My Struggle" series by Karl Ove Knausgård? Been reading a bit about them and it seems right up my alley.
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Dec 24, 2014 00:22
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Earwicker posted:I have not read Inherent Vice yet and but I have heard from several other people that the hippie nostalgia thing is kind of irritating and sounds like he's "trying too hard". Inherent Vice has both noir and hippie-nostalgia aesthetics on the surface but uses them to kind of undermine both conventions IMO. It's not as simple a book as "I miss the sixties." Themes of people realizing the tackiness of hippie ideals, hippies being manipulated by G-men smarter than them, mainstream folks adopting elements of the hippie movement, stoners and cops forming strange fellowships, and traditional societal structures providing recovery and rebirth after drug abuse and self-neglect.
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Dec 24, 2014 00:26
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blue squares posted:I primarily read stuff that is intellectually pleasing, like DFWallace, Pynchon, DeLillo, etc. I'd like to look at something that is beautifully written (i love language) and emotionally centered. Something that will make me want to keep turning pages because I love the characters. I've never read Hemingway, for one, though I'm not sure how much I'm interested in reading something so minimalist. From what I've been reading lately: Sebald, Marias, Melville, Salter, Yourcenar, Gracq. E: & Coetzee, who people accuse of being distant and cerebral but I find to be very moving. Boatswain fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 00:32
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Smoking Crow posted:Same but my favorite writer is Raymond Carver All fiction books are for children, OP.
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Dec 24, 2014 01:15
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Boatswain posted:From what I've been reading lately: Sebald, Marias, Melville, Salter, Yourcenar, Gracq. Yeah I agree about Coetzee, he only writes that way because most of his protagonists are cerebral cynics who come to experience some kind of ethical moment through suffering. Disgrace is very moving and the scene where he's interrogated by the school committee is pure joy, you get so much of infuriating contemporary ideology condensed in a few short conversations and there are a few moments in the prose where you suddenly feel anger and irritation coming through. It's only cerebral so that the shell can occasionally be poked through.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:18
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Actually I just realized that the last book I've read that fits that description is Freedom by Jonothan Franzen. What are some good family dramas like that? I've heard of the Wapshot Chronicle by Cheever. But I would prefer something written somewhat recently.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:27
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Shibawanko posted:Yeah I agree about Coetzee, he only writes that way because most of his protagonists are cerebral cynics who come to experience some kind of ethical moment through suffering. Disgrace is very moving and the scene where he's interrogated by the school committee is pure joy, you get so much of infuriating contemporary ideology condensed in a few short conversations and there are a few moments in the prose where you suddenly feel anger and irritation coming through. It's only cerebral so that the shell can occasionally be poked through. Well I think he writes that way because he is a cerebral cynic and found that he needs to keep himself at an emotional distance to write well. Sometimes he collapses the distance, when any emotion is most truly felt; c.f. Dostoevsky grieving his son, the Magistrate contemplating the treatment of the barbarians or his own torture, or Elizabeth Costello (or Coetzee himself in his nobel speech) speaking out on our treatment of animals. His autobiographies are also affected in some way, he writes about himself more or less as a character in one of his novels. e: James Salter isn't as interesting or good as Coetzee, but he writes very well in a very American way. His memoir Burning the Days was incredible.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:33
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Actually I bought Middlesex just now so I hope it's good!
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Dec 24, 2014 04:02
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Lumius posted:It's not the same collection as I read, thiis seems to be 22 short stories and "selected stories" was 4 novellas and 2 short (I think). I'd still recommend him but I should add im a huge fan of short stories. I havent read any Kubin so I can't comment. (sebald rules though) Good to know. I enjoy short stories quite a bit, especially when starting out with a new author. I'll pick up that collection I found on AZ.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:50
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fozzy fosbourne posted:If I like the following and wanted to try to expand my horizons ever so slightly, what would you suggest: Glendon Swarthout's The Shootist
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Dec 24, 2014 06:30
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blue squares posted:Actually I bought Middlesex just now so I hope it's good! It is not, it is completely average with annoying characters.
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Dec 24, 2014 12:04
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blue squares posted:Actually I just realized that the last book I've read that fits that description is Freedom by Jonothan Franzen. What are some good family dramas like that? I've heard of the Wapshot Chronicle by Cheever. But I would prefer something written somewhat recently. james Purdy wrote a lot about difficult family dynamics. I'd reccomend, say, The Nephew. Or house of the solitary Maggot if you're up for reading a book where someone gets crucified for their big dick.
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Dec 24, 2014 13:49
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Boatswain posted:It is not, it is completely average with annoying characters. I'm on page 75 and I love it.
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Dec 25, 2014 04:02
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blue squares posted:I'm on page 75 and I love it. Good for you, tell me how you feel on page 500 still reading the same poo poo 
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Dec 25, 2014 13:13
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While I don't think the book hung together very well, the section titled "The Obscure Object of Desire" is really, really good.
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Dec 25, 2014 16:18
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I finished Life of Pi and really enjoyed it, especially the ending. I found the pace to be a little pokey at times around the middle of the novel, probably trying to convey some of the experience of being alternately bored and terrified like a castaway, but it was mostly a breezy read. Some interesting ideas to chew on afterward that might make me think differently about story telling, rationalism, vegetarianism and civilized behavior. I went into this book cold and didn't really know what to expect. It ended up being much heavier, thematically, than I was expecting. There were some very grotesque scenes in the book as well. Going to read Crying of Lot 49 next.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:53
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Finished The Crying of Lot 49. I liked it! There were passages, especially at the outset, where I found the prose to be impenetrable and bewildering and it took effort to push on to the next scene, where Pynchon might be trying to establish a different mood or concept and the text would be gentler. It felt like much of the text was scattered puzzle pieces, and as you pieced them together it alternated between a parody of enlightenment and a jumble of different post-modern pieces that don't look like they come from the same puzzle but still fit together. But about halfway through it became mostly captivating and easy enough to read. I'm curious if a longer work like Gravity's Rainbow has even longer complex and slippery sections or if it has a similar pace to The Crying of Lot 49, just with more sections overall. I'm still meditating on the ideas and my interpretation of the text, but my early thoughts can be summed up with "  ". I'll probably read some critical analysis after swishing it around in my own head for a bit longer today.Edit: I feel like swerving back from Post-Modern Literature into something more "lit-fic" next, and I'd like to read something by a woman in either my next book or the following. I'll probably read either the The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Handmaiden's Tale, Alias Grace, or The Secret History. Edit2: these are actually probably genre-fiction now that I think about it. Maybe I'll check out The Accursed fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 29, 2014 21:02
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Nitevision posted:Inherent Vice has both noir and hippie-nostalgia aesthetics on the surface but uses them to kind of undermine both conventions IMO. It's not as simple a book as "I miss the sixties." Themes of people realizing the tackiness of hippie ideals, hippies being manipulated by G-men smarter than them, mainstream folks adopting elements of the hippie movement, stoners and cops forming strange fellowships, and traditional societal structures providing recovery and rebirth after drug abuse and self-neglect. I have to recommend both Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge. They're both pretty good books, though not as complex as Pynchon usually is. It works, though. Inherent Vice is deceptive in that it feels like a nostalgia trip, but is actually condemning the culture it's writing about more than it is praising it. Hippies and peaceniks were too busy getting high to accomplish what they truly wished to. Also, come on, that waterbed scene MAKES the book. I can't wait to see it in the film. ulvir posted:good luck enjoying anything that isn't sci-fi or fantasy written by neckbeards Nonsense! Dostoevsky's one of my favorites and he was captain of the Jesus Fan Club. Ras Het posted:For "a strong atheist" this sounds like a strangely evangelical protestant opinion. The Abrahamic religions are similar, but they're still mostly mutually exclusive. Pi sounded like the "spiritual not religious" type and that sort of thing drives me nuts. Smoking Crow posted:What if I told u that God and Allah were the same guy
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Dec 29, 2014 21:41
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UnoriginalMind posted:Pi sounded like the "spiritual not religious" type and that sort of thing drives me nuts. I haven't read Life of Pi, but what exactly "drives you nuts" about spirituality outside the confines of organized religion?
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Dec 29, 2014 21:45
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I would say that spirituality (and storytelling) left to be interpreted however one wishes is very much in character for Pi.
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Dec 29, 2014 21:59
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Earwicker posted:I haven't read Life of Pi, but what exactly "drives you nuts" about spirituality outside the confines of organized religion? Whatever drives people to spirituality, I don't have it. Spiritual themes do not engage me. Just doesn't work It's more the people I've met that've used the term "spiritual." I was in college at the time, for reference. They always seemed so self-serving. As if religion existed for them to cherry pick the parts they liked and divest them of their context. Pi sounded a lot like those people. Well, to me, anyway. fozzy fosbourne posted:I would say that spirituality (and storytelling) left to be interpreted however one wishes is very much in character for Pi. I agree, to a point. At the same time, religion is bigger than any one person's interpretation of it. Religion, in a lot of cases, is a community-based endeavor. I feel like suggesting that spiritual meaning lying entirely with the individual ignores that community aspect too much. UnoriginalMind fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 29, 2014 22:09
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UnoriginalMind posted:It's more the people I've met that've used the term "spiritual." I was in college at the time, for reference. They always seemed so self-serving. As if religion existed for them to cherry pick the parts they liked and divest them of their context. Pi sounded a lot like those people. Well, to me, anyway. I suspect your problem lies more with the mentality of college students than it does with spirituality itself. That said, in my experience "cherry picking the parts they liked" is just as common within organized religion as without. For example, there isn't exactly a shortage of diehard Christians for whom church is a center of their life and identity, while they ignore many of the teachings of Jesus, and this tendency can be found among the adherents of pretty much any major religion. Religious people who follow all of the teachings of their religion to the letter are quite rare. People are simply more complex and inconsistent than texts. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 29, 2014 22:17
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Earwicker posted:I suspect your problem lies more with the mentality of college students than it does with spirituality itself. I agree on both counts.
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Dec 29, 2014 22:54
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Earwicker posted:I suspect your problem lies more with the mentality of college students than it does with spirituality itself. Well put.
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Dec 30, 2014 14:28
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i read after dark by murakami recently and there were some obvious hints to greater things going on in the book. are they explored in any of his other books or are they not connected?
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Dec 30, 2014 18:24
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