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I just read Candide. It was funny. I will start on The Histories tonight. Welp that's my story Edit: thanks to The Histories I have learned that Candaulism is apparently a thing. mycophobia fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 02:27
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Someone asked if Knausgårds My Struggle was worth pouring over and I'd pick up the first, give it a whirl. The navel-gazing made me stop around one thirds into the third book, no idea about the rest. Regarding the discussion of female authors earlier in the thread, didn't see Marguerite Duras mentioned, read her Moderato Cantabile and The Lovers. First one I probably read at an too early age but the second I read a few years back and it's stuck. Hunger is a nice introduction to Hamsun like Lot 49 is to Pynchon, it's short and easier than some of his other stuff but doesn't really show what he's up to. If you feel the craving for more nazi-norwegians after Hunger though, I'd go for Pan or Mysteries before Growth of the Soil, if you're going there. While I'm on norwegian literature let me plug my favourite writer, Jens Bjørneboe. Did not like authorities, anarchist, saw himself as a nihilist and a romantic. Mostly remembered for publishing a pornographic book in 1966, unfortunately. What I would recommend are his novels, The Sharks and a trilogy he himself called The history of Bestiality, comprised of Moment of Freedom, Powderhouse and The Silence. Whether this is literature or Literature is still being debated to this day but those are some fine reads.
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Mar 4, 2015 09:29
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If we are plugging Norwegian literature: Read Jon Fosse (instead of Knausgård).
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Mar 4, 2015 17:49
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From what I've read of Jon Fosse, I completely agree. Apart from some of his plays and some of the older poetry I haven't read much, what should I pick up?
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Mar 4, 2015 18:15
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So I'm enjoying Salman Rushdie's The Jaguar Smile currently, and it's my first book of his. How representative is it of his other works? It's taken me a while to get around to him because I didn't know where to start. Thoughts?
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Mar 4, 2015 19:09
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Smoking Crow posted:What do you mean? It's always been like this. I am freaking out 
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Mar 4, 2015 21:25
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sepia posted:From what I've read of Jon Fosse, I completely agree. Apart from some of his plays and some of the older poetry I haven't read much, what should I pick up? I've only read Morgon og kveld (Morning and Evening), but I absolutely loved it. It's quite short, but highly recommended.
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Mar 4, 2015 21:39
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I've just started Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and it's the first book in a while that has grabbed me from page one. I keep getting into books and just not caring, but I think this one is going to be special.
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Mar 5, 2015 02:17
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sepia posted:From what I've read of Jon Fosse, I completely agree. Apart from some of his plays and some of the older poetry I haven't read much, what should I pick up? The first Melancholy book is hypnotic and very good.
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Mar 5, 2015 02:40
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I'm reading Brave New World and holy poo poo was the end of chapter 3 annoying. Other than that I'm enjoying it.
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Mar 5, 2015 19:25
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ulvir posted:I've only read Morgon og kveld (Morning and Evening), but I absolutely loved it. It's quite short, but highly recommended. Boatswain posted:The first Melancholy book is hypnotic and very good. Thank you and thank you, added to the list.
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Mar 5, 2015 20:43
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Someone make a 4chan styles rec chart for norwegian nazi lit. tia
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Mar 5, 2015 20:56
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It is literally just Hamsun and a guy who wrote second-rate crime stories, sorry to disappoint that guy who wrote those stories was minister of the police in the original quisling regime, though, so it has some historical interest
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Mar 5, 2015 20:59
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What's a good Bible paraphrase/abridged Bible for literary purposes?
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Mar 5, 2015 21:16
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mycophobia posted:What's a good Bible paraphrase/abridged Bible for literary purposes? If your going to read the bible for literary reasons do not get an abridged paraphrased version. Read king james
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Mar 5, 2015 21:27
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blue squares posted:I've just started Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and it's the first book in a while that has grabbed me from page one. I keep getting into books and just not caring, but I think this one is going to be special. There is a lot of weird disdain for that book in some critical circles but I really do think its incredible
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Mar 5, 2015 21:30
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V. Illych L. posted:It is literally just Hamsun and a guy who wrote second-rate crime stories, sorry to disappoint might find some biographies from people in NS and volunteers in SS at the Eastern Front as well.
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Mar 5, 2015 22:22
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Stravinsky posted:If your going to read the bible for literary reasons do not get an abridged paraphrased version. Read king james This is some reasonable advice. The King James Bible is terrible for academic study but it's goddamn poetry for literary study.
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Mar 5, 2015 22:35
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Ok, thanks.
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Mar 5, 2015 23:07
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Stravinsky posted:If your going to read the bible for literary reasons do not get an abridged paraphrased version. Read king james You should try and get a copy of the Septuagint, the Old Testament used by Catholics and Orthodox. The Old Testament scripture that Jesus quotes in the New Testament is Septuagint and it contains stories like Tobit and Raphael and the Hanukkah story. It's what people on the Continent quote when quoting the Old Testament usually
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Mar 5, 2015 23:25
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King James usually has the Apocrypha in the middle, so if you get King James you won't be missing out on any of the juicy extras the Catholics get
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Mar 5, 2015 23:46
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CestMoi posted:King James usually has the Apocrypha in the middle, so if you get King James you won't be missing out on any of the juicy extras the Catholics get My copy has Apocrypha cut out
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Mar 5, 2015 23:47
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Be sure to get an Ethiopian bible so you can read the book of jubilees
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Mar 5, 2015 23:55
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Smoking Crow posted:My copy has Apocrypha cut out Son of a bitch
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Mar 5, 2015 23:57
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corn in the bible posted:Be sure to get an Ethiopian bible so you can read the book of jubilees Jubilees is unimportant because it's just a summary of the Books of Moses, Enoch is a little more important now that Gnostic Gospels and Kabbalah are (semi) popular
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Mar 6, 2015 00:05
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Smoking Crow posted:Jubilees is unimportant because it's just a summary of the Books of Moses, Enoch is a little more important now that Gnostic Gospels and Kabbalah are (semi) popular yeah but the ethiopians also own the ark of the covenent so they're probably the go-to guys for religion imho
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Mar 6, 2015 00:10
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As a guy who has played as the Jewish Ethiopians in Crusader Kings 2 let me tell you, he's right.
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Mar 6, 2015 00:12
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CestMoi posted:Son of a bitch זה אני אוסטין
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Mar 6, 2015 00:16
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A question about foreign literature: how important is choice of translation? If I want to read Dost, for instance, could I pick a new copy up at a local bookstore and be fine, or am I risking reading a bad translation and should do some research on what translation is best instead?
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Mar 6, 2015 06:04
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I like to read excerpts from different translations of any foreign language material I want to buy.
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Mar 6, 2015 06:10
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Motto posted:A question about foreign literature: how important is choice of translation? If I want to read Dost, for instance, could I pick a new copy up at a local bookstore and be fine, or am I risking reading a bad translation and should do some research on what translation is best instead? For Russian classics it's super important. Most people's first exposure is through Constance Garnett who is not good, leaves out important bits, makes characters flat etc etc etc. However, she got there first so her translations tend to be the ones you find just lying around. I personally really love the PEvear and VOlkhonsky translations for Dostoevsky at least and I think they tend to be up there in people's rankings. I ngeneral a bad translation can make you hate really good books, which is why it's frankly much easier and less hassle to spend years of your life learning the language the book you want to read was originally written in.
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Mar 6, 2015 13:50
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Motto posted:A question about foreign literature: how important is choice of translation? If I want to read Dost, for instance, could I pick a new copy up at a local bookstore and be fine, or am I risking reading a bad translation and should do some research on what translation is best instead? When it comes to older books you want to be careful since the translator usually was given more leeway. Most modern, literary publishers have decent to very good translators working for them so there isn't as much of a problem. Keeping an eye on translators you like is also a good way to find new stuff. Poetry is a different matter since you usually get either formally correct but linguistically loose translations, or more exact language but looser form. I usually try to get as many different translations as possible, and if the original work is in a language I'm familiar with I'll get that as well. You can usually triangulate your position from there.
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Mar 6, 2015 16:21
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I'd say the key thing with translations is that when you have one older than, say, 50, 60, 70 years, there's a good chance a lot of the tone of the original is lost to the modern reader. Like, if the earthly wisdom of the 19th century Russian muzhik is conveyed with Cockney chimey sweeper rhyming slang, at best it's inadvertently comic and at worst unreadable. As a policy I tend to avoid cheapo paperback English translations of classic works, because they always use these utterly awful late victorian translations whose copyright has expired.
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Mar 6, 2015 16:57
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Ras Het posted:I'd say the key thing with translations is that when you have one older than, say, 50, 60, 70 years, there's a good chance a lot of the tone of the original is lost to the modern reader. Like, if the earthly wisdom of the 19th century Russian muzhik is conveyed with Cockney chimey sweeper rhyming slang, at best it's inadvertently comic and at worst unreadable. As a policy I tend to avoid cheapo paperback English translations of classic works, because they always use these utterly awful late victorian translations whose copyright has expired. Victorian translators also tend to make lots of weird cuts and bowdlerizations, even in books where you might not expect it. For example, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and its sequel The Mysterious Island originally had some anti-british-imperialism content that got cut in contemporary English-language translations (Turns out, Captain Nemo was a displaced Indian Rajah!). Similarly just about every English language version of The Count of Monte Cristo prior to the 1990's cut out references to lesbianism and drug use. Literary merit of differing translations is another big issue but it's harder to resolve. I prefer the Mardrus and Mathers translation of the Arabian Nights, for example, even though I know it's less accurate than other versions. Really I think choice of translation is something that you can't make a general rule for, it's case-by-case. But yeah it's really important and you're usually best off researching translation options beforehand. When we pick a book in translation for the BOTM I always try to get good info on translation options first.
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Mar 6, 2015 17:59
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You might find this review of Maria Warner's work on the very diffuse idea of Arabian Nights the Book.
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Mar 6, 2015 19:01
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With poetry I tend to opt for closer to context than to style in terms of translations I think with, for example, Dante its more important to see what he was writing than to see someone mangle it so they can recreate the tercets.
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Mar 6, 2015 20:17
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Mel Mudkiper posted:With poetry I tend to opt for closer to context than to style in terms of translations Yes, but to be fair Dante is an extreme example. You'll have a difficult time carrying form over from a Romance language poem to a Germanic one because our language(s) aren't as easy to rhyme, often a lot of interesting nuance gets lost.
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Mar 6, 2015 21:32
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Boatswain posted:Yes, but to be fair Dante is an extreme example. You'll have a difficult time carrying form over from a Romance language poem to a Germanic one because our language(s) aren't as easy to rhyme, often a lot of interesting nuance gets lost. There are rhyming translations of Beowulf and they're just as bad as any of the Dante translations
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Mar 6, 2015 21:37
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Poetry is trash.
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Mar 6, 2015 21:39
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Smoking Crow posted:There are rhyming translations of Beowulf and they're just as bad as any of the Dante translations Well you wouldn't be focusing on rhyme there you'd be focusing on alliteration. Seamus Heaney's translation does a decent job of communicating the sound. Didn't a Tolkien translation get published recently? It's not *that* hard to read Beowulf in the original though, it just takes a week or two of study and some audio recordings to get the sound in your ear. What really pisses me off? "Translations" of Chaucer. Why not "Translate" Shakespeare while you're at it? Hell, Wordsworth? Walt Whitman?
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Mar 6, 2015 21:39
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