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Cloks posted:Ah. Well, I've read Updike's Falconer and a bunch of his story stories, like the enormous radio. is this a game? Enormous radio is Cheever.
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Aug 31, 2015 18:51
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Tree Goat posted:How new is the Penguin translation? Even the more recent editions still use the Denny translation iirc. It's fine. Wikipedia says 2013. But okay. I won't stress too much about editions for that one. I finished some Mishima. The librarian couldn't find me any titles in English except for a couple (the library website had a bunch though, so I'll check back another time), so I grabbed two at random. Sun and Steel and Patriotism. The covers made me a little self-conscious to read in public. Sun and Steel was about muscles. If you didn't know Mishima liked muscles from reading Confessions of a Mask, you'd figure it out from this book. I really didn't get anything else out of this book and didn't think it was very good. Patriotism had a bit better writing, though the characters seemed very two-dimensional. If anyone has any other Mishima to recommend, please do. The library seems to have a decent assortment, so I think I have an okay chance of finding it. Or if Confessions of a Mask is as good as it gets, just tell me now.
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Aug 31, 2015 21:52
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V. Illych L. posted:the trick of great children's literature is that it should be literature accessible to children but with actual substance - Lindgren legitimately does this, and has actual good reflections on the issues. the imagery and turns of phrase are all fairly straightforward, but it's no less present and no less powerful for that. jonatan's sacrifice is hardly explicable, but easily understood in the context of the novel. a complex, human situation is made approachable somehow. i don't know what more we want from our literature than that tbh I think that the main attraction and strength of Lindgren is her ability to make these explorations accessible to children. I don't remember getting bored or anything else but genuinely moved by the book when I was 8 or something - and that's an impressive achievement when writing about serious topics (death and dealing with it). In that sense it definitely is literature. I'm not sure if I would ever recommend to an adult friend however... although it might help them dealing with pain, especially if they aren't big readers. In a shop I would still shelf it under children's books, because that is the target audience, which is not (and shouldn't be) a reflection on the quality of writing in any way. I can't talk much about the books in a deeper way because I read them a very long time, however.
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Aug 31, 2015 21:52
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Caustic Chimera posted:Wikipedia says 2013. But okay. I won't stress too much about editions for that one. Temple of the Golden Pavilion and the Sea of Fertility tetralogy are his masterwork. Honestly, I feel as if you would have been better off reading those before getting into Patriotism and Sun&Steel.
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Aug 31, 2015 21:54
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Caustic Chimera posted:
Wow you picked two really unfortunate starting books. Sun and Steel and Patriotism are the ones where he abandons all pretext of literature and just goes full treatise. As Mira said, Temple of the Golden Pavilion and Spring Snow are the ways to go.
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Aug 31, 2015 22:14
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Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima
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Aug 31, 2015 22:26
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Smoking Crow posted:Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima Me.
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Aug 31, 2015 22:47
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Zesty Mordant posted:is this a game? Enormous radio is Cheever. Yeah, I'm just being dumb. I've read a few of Updike's novels but I wasn't a huge fan. It might be because I read them in high-school and couldn't really connect with a restless Rabbit.
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Aug 31, 2015 23:57
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The problem I have with everyman authors like Roth, Updike and Ford is that their vision of the everyman is a selfish narcissist shithead
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Sep 1, 2015 00:00
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I like Ford's collection Rock Springs a lot. What I remember though is that most of the main characters are these kinda Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces types but more sadsack or sullen, who are always writing bad checks or their dad wrote bad checks or something. They're shitheads sometimes but I didn't ever feel compelled to sympathize for them, either. I also liked his book Wildlife I think, nothing really happened in it. Ford definitely has a thing for moms though, it's kind of weird. All that said, I thought Frank Bascombe was really uninteresting and I can't imagine wanting to spend any more time with him but there are like four books about him?
doug fuckey fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Sep 1, 2015 |
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Sep 1, 2015 02:18
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Smoking Crow posted:Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima Douglas Pearce?
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Sep 1, 2015 02:20
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Mel Mudkiper posted:The problem I have with everyman authors like Roth, Updike and Ford is that their vision of the everyman is a selfish narcissist shithead I would say that is not an entirely unfair description of the average person. I don't mind Roth but I don't go out of my way to read him, really can't stand Updike (he's a poor man's Cheever with none of the charm), and I haven't read enough Ford to have an informed opinion on him one way or another. For some reason I just have a really hard time connecting with most 50s / 60s American lit.
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Sep 1, 2015 02:38
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So has anyone read Purity yet?
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Sep 1, 2015 05:23
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thehomemaster posted:So has anyone read Purity yet? I'm picking it up tomorrow afternoon.
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Sep 1, 2015 05:56
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quit loving a child and read nabokov's lolita
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Sep 1, 2015 06:38
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corn in the bible posted:quit loving a child and read nabokov's lolita Definitely do this. When you tell your friends about it they might give you weird looks tho About halfway through the Sound and the Fury. My first experience with Faulkner, and it's been interesting to say the least. I've read some Joyce, Pynchon, and Wallace, so Im pretty used to stream of consciousness stylings. Not necessarily the most fun book to read at times, at points it literally makes no sense, but definitely one that leaves me with a lot to chew on and is pretty rewarding on the whole. Ill definitely be reading more Faulkner in the future.
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Sep 1, 2015 07:14
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Any fans of Wallace Stegner? Just read an interesting article about him and now I'm looking to pick up Angle of Repose...haven't seen him mentioned though.
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Sep 1, 2015 14:16
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Sep 1, 2015 23:55
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phuqueyoo posted:I'd be interested in y'alls take on the graphic novel Asterios Polyp. In keeping with merit, the design and craft do contribute and run parallel with the story which offers some decent meditations. The architectonic influence is also impressive. I thought it was great but I don't have anything particularly insightful to say. Glad I could help
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Sep 1, 2015 23:57
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Sep 2, 2015 00:44
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Smoking Crow posted:Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima In terms of success, Adolf Hitler probably beat him out.
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Sep 2, 2015 07:14
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Smoking Crow posted:Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima obama
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Sep 2, 2015 07:56
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I guess fascism is basically socialism when you come down to it.
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Sep 2, 2015 10:18
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anyone read any books by Péter Esterházy? I picked up a copy of Not Art from the library on a whim because it seemed hella interesting.
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Sep 2, 2015 14:39
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I started reading Knausgard's My Struggle today, and it's living up to the hype so far. The language is very striking, even in translation.
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Sep 2, 2015 20:22
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Swagger Dagger posted:I started reading Knausgard's My Struggle today, and it's living up to the hype so far. The language is very striking, even in translation. yah it's good. some critics made it sound as if it's hundreds of pages of him eating cereals but it's not that at all
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Sep 2, 2015 20:36
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Starting the second book in the Struggle series really soon (Subtitled: A Man in Love). Oddly looking forward to the last two books being translated. Apparently in the final one, he goes off on this 400+ page screed about Hitler's life.
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Sep 2, 2015 20:38
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So Purity is getting pretty tepid reviews in the press. Its looking like my original antipathy towards it is justified.
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Sep 2, 2015 20:46
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I'm up to Book 3. Haven't started it.Mira posted:Starting the second book in the Struggle series really soon (Subtitled: A Man in Love). Oddly looking forward to the last two books being translated. Apparently in the final one, he goes off on this 400+ page screed about Hitler's life.
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Sep 2, 2015 20:49
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Finished The Black Snow. It's a wonderfully written book. Captures perfectly the Irish feeling of always looking backwards instead of forwards. "[The] smoke mapped the wind's movement so that the shape of it became visible, a calligraphy of violence that rewrote itself a capacity endless for its own pleasure."
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Sep 3, 2015 02:50
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My Struggle is amazing, and everyone reading that should check out Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, the final book in which just came out yesterday. Similar concept, different execution, equally amazing.
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Sep 3, 2015 03:32
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I'm going to.
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Sep 3, 2015 04:07
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Mel Mudkiper posted:So Purity is getting pretty tepid reviews in the press. Its looking like my original antipathy towards it is justified. Links, I've only seen good ones. And how much is Franzen hate?
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Sep 3, 2015 08:37
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thehomemaster posted:Links, I've only seen good ones. And how much is Franzen hate? From this review: quote:But Franzen's woman problem is merely his most obvious blind spot. From its epigraph in untranslated German to its deeply unnatural-sounding dialogue, Purity is a book that at no point lets you forget it's Important. It's a book that the novelist Roxane Gay has rightly described as "full of contempt for the reader," but it's also full of don't-you-love-me insecurity. There's a dissonance to this neediness: Jonathan Franzen, of all writers, has nothing to prove. He is loved. His reputation is sterling, seemingly un-killable, however polarizing he personally may be. And it is in this attention-seeking that Purity ultimately fails. It could well have been bold new territory for Franzen—the bones of something spare and more concentrated are here, but they're suffocated under pages of dense, numb text, and winking, self-serious turns of phrase. Under all this bloat, it collapses into a book that's interested in slick appearances, while taking none of the tangible risks required to make it anything more.
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Sep 4, 2015 00:42
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Flattened Spoon posted:Any fans of Wallace Stegner? Just read an interesting article about him and now I'm looking to pick up Angle of Repose...haven't seen him mentioned though. Yes! Wallace Stegner is probably my favorite American author. The settings of his books are western and he does generational novels really well, as so few authors seem to do. The prose isn't perfect, but his characters are. Fellwenner fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Sep 6, 2015 |
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Sep 6, 2015 01:35
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Smoking Crow posted:Poll: Is there a better gay fascist than Mishima If you mean for getting things done, then Ernst Roehm, his Putsch was a terrible failure too, but he managed to actual start one and survive it (and no one dared laugh at him). In terms of writing, well Roehm rambled and had some really mad ideas even for German fascists. Though it wasn't nearly as loony as Himmlers`Aryan means whatever the hell I say it means, now grab a spade and help me dig for giant bones` nuttery. Baka-nin fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Sep 7, 2015 |
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Sep 7, 2015 16:03
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Fellwenner posted:Yes! Wallace Stegner is probably my favorite American author. The settings of his books are western and he does generational novels really well, as so few authors seem to do. The prose isn't perfect, but his characters are. I once found Angle of Repose at a bar and took it home. It sits on my bookshelf unread. Perhaps this will give me the motivation to try it out. Didnt realize he was an author with any sort of prestige. On another note, has anyone made it through the new Ferrante novel? I'm about 2/3 in and it is utterly devastating. I've wanted to alternately scream and cry the entire way through. Here's hoping for some happy resolution (yeah right)
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Sep 7, 2015 18:29
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Fellwenner posted:Yes! Wallace Stegner is probably my favorite American author. The settings of his books are western and he does generational novels really well, as so few authors seem to do. The prose isn't perfect, but his characters are. Thanks! It's on my reading list/pile. thehoodie posted:On another note, has anyone made it through the new Ferrante novel? I'm about 2/3 in and it is utterly devastating. I've wanted to alternately scream and cry the entire way through. Here's hoping for some happy resolution (yeah right) I started reading the series about a week ago and I'm 1/4 of the way through the last one. This poo poo is insane and I love it. I think Lila is my favorite character ever.
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Sep 8, 2015 00:36
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Finished Aquarium about a month ago and it's a good rear end book. Not sure what spoiler policy is here so I'll avoid details but suffice to say the story was original ,engrossing, and really left an impression on me that may constructively alter the way I think of people. Plus, this poo poo was a page turner. That isn't a major virtue but it may have contributed to the way I was gripped in each scene, even in the quietest moment's Caitlin's anticipation and coping with the madness surrounding her is riveting stuff. I'm not a particularly quick reader but I flew through Aquarium in a few hours. Vann's capable of exploring emotionally and physically vulgar material while maintaining a focus on his characters and what they reveal of the world at large. There were a few moments that could have easily veered off into shocking event in service of it's own existence that were handled with enough care toward character and theme that they never felt anything other than part of the lives these people inhabit. Prose was fantastic. Explorations of poverty, redemption, human inability to communicate our true selves were all on point. One glaring issue though was Caitlin's fluctuating maturity level. She's twelve but behaves anywhere between 6-16 depending on what the plot needs from her to propel it forward. It never feels like a unique character trait or a young person growing into themselves so much as an entirely differently developed psyche depending on the character Vann needs her to be. Really interested to hear what anyone else thought, but I'm already sold on Vann. Excited to read Goat Mountain when I have the time.
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Sep 8, 2015 08:43
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Vann's been on my to read list ever since I listened to this interview with him a few months ago.
High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 09:25
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