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Finished Ulysses again today, and maybe it's my own personal biases, but I really enjoyed picking up on the medievalness of it. I know it's a minor-ish theme compared to Irishness or Jewishness but it's there, and it's fun tracking it through the book. By the end of it I was swimming in jousts, crusades, dialectic, circles of heaven, knights, mystics and whatever else. Moors and Middle English. Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Lots of Dante. Not even close to the major themes in the book, still a delight to read through that lens. That's how good that book is.
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Mar 31, 2016 15:33
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blue squares posted:What side should I be on? TFF survivor First we vote out Rice, and then we vote out Marino
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Mar 31, 2016 15:40
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I prefer Umberto Ecos medievalness. Pop culture semiotics > giant book penis
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Mar 31, 2016 15:46
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Mel Mudkiper posted:TFF survivor Sorry Mel but I've only been watching NFL for long enough to know like a third of the dudes in that thread so I'm gonna stick to the sideliens
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Mar 31, 2016 16:17
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Looking to read The Odyssey for the first time (probably The Iliad and the Aeneid too), what's a good poetic translation? I have the Rieu translation but it's in prose, so that's not exactly what I want.
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Mar 31, 2016 16:17
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thehoodie posted:Looking to read The Odyssey for the first time (probably The Iliad and the Aeneid too), what's a good poetic translation? I have the Rieu translation but it's in prose, so that's not exactly what I want. Lattimore's Iliad is stunning, his Odyssey is less good but still absolutely fine, I've heard the FItzgerald is a good Odyssey but haven't read it myself.
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Mar 31, 2016 16:36
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CestMoi posted:I'm reading the Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe a man is trapped in a hole in the sand and the sand is annoying him. It might be a metaphor for marriage. Anyway, if you can stomach that, The Box Man is quite good. Choice quote that I liked enough to write it down (just to lose the note and having to google it): Paralysis of the heart's sense of direction is the box man's chronic complaint.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:28
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Besson posted:The cool thing about Delillo is that if you like his narration you are in for a treat because all of his characters sound like the narrator! Because of this, all the characters lack any sort of presence and all feel the same. This isn't helped by the long back and forths that happen frequently where everyone is on the exact same page on a philosophical/social idea. These can be mistaken for narratorial digression if it weren't for the quotations marks bookending the block of text. gently caress you idiot.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:31
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mallamp posted:I prefer Umberto Ecos medievalness. Eco bloody loved Joyce's medievalism e: like he wrote a book on it. Jrbg fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 17:33
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true.spoon posted:I've only watched the movie (which, like everyone said, you should as well) but from what I remember it was more about higher ambitions and coping with not being able to fulfill them. I also agree with david crosby that The Box Man is interesting as well. Though in my opinion the ending suffers from fizzling out into a breakdown of the narrative like other modern works that play with unstable perspectives (The Republic of Wine comes to mind). I get that this might be the point but it always feels a bit cheap, especially if you compare it to something like at At Swim-Two-Birds. I am sure that if the latter was written today, the characters from the student's book would start invading his reality in the end... I've got Ark Sakura and The Box Man here cos I downloaded a lot of surreal/absurd books and now I'm trying to work my way through them so I will probably read those at some point cos Woman in the Dunes is Japanese Sand Kafka and that is a good thing. At Swim Two Birds ends really well not just in terms of the ending being a really good ending to a book but the last sentence is also just a great sentence in and of itself goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:45
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CestMoi posted:Japanese Sand Kafka You have my attention
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Mar 31, 2016 17:57
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n/m, moving this to the recommendations thread...
tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 18:47
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When I first read it I knew The Ark Sakura would be a good book because within the first chapter it talks about a bug that lives by sitting in the same spot all day and slowly spinning around, eating its own feces
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Mar 31, 2016 19:18
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I just finished the third Ferrante book and my copy of A Little Life just came off hold at the library, so I fully expect to be all out of tears by this weekend.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:34
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i thought i'd love the wmoan in dunes, but then i read it and was like, eh, i've seen more interesting women
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Mar 31, 2016 20:23
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a good book cover: (could be a cool book if you're intersted in gay lit, i dunno)
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Mar 31, 2016 20:27
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I'm glad I waited, I wanted it to be special.
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Mar 31, 2016 21:33
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Zeris posted:http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/spring-2016/phillip-lopate-celebrates-personal-essay?page=0,1 It makes a lot of sense that foster wallace fans are the same kind of people who would describe kurt cobain as a brilliant eccentric
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Apr 1, 2016 00:31
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Carmant posted:gently caress you idiot. Sorry!
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Apr 1, 2016 03:48
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To me, not liking Delillo is the smart thing, and liking him is a thing that idiots do.
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Apr 1, 2016 13:04
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Same. except white noise, which is funny
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Apr 1, 2016 14:14
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Same except Delillo owns
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Apr 1, 2016 14:30
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When I think "pretentious literature" I think DeLillo.
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Apr 1, 2016 14:35
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Popular Human posted:I just finished the third Ferrante book and my copy of A Little Life just came off hold at the library, so I fully expect to be all out of tears by this weekend. I just finished the fourth book a few minutes ago and my mind is awhirl. It's been a long time since a set of books has affected me so much -- they made me want to write about them, about life, about everything. I also just want to go back and reread them right away even though I never do that. I'm going to need to seek out essays and criticisms of them because there is just so much to them.
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Apr 1, 2016 14:38
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blue squares posted:When I think "pretentious literature" I think DeLillo. this but DFW
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Apr 1, 2016 14:40
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End Of Worlds posted:this but Calvino
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Apr 1, 2016 14:50
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I dislike Calvino more than I dislike some bestseller fantasy authors When I think of pretentious literature I think of Joshua Cohen though
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Apr 1, 2016 14:52
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Wallace's stuff isn't pretentious. It's too silly for that. Some of it, sure, but overall his work has a wackiness to it that doesn't fit that stereotype. Especially his nonfiction. Let's figure out who is the most pretentious. It would be a productive debate imo
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Apr 1, 2016 15:01
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blue squares posted:Wallace's stuff isn't pretentious. It's too silly for that. Some of it, sure, but overall his work has a wackiness to it that doesn't fit that stereotype. Especially his nonfiction. Beryl Markham Sorry Ernest, she's not that great
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Apr 1, 2016 15:04
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I want to disagree but I can't, really
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Apr 1, 2016 15:13
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mallamp posted:I dislike Calvino more than I dislike some bestseller fantasy authors gently caress mallamp agrees with me brb going to go soul searching
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Apr 1, 2016 15:19
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End Of Worlds posted:I want to disagree but I can't, really Yes you can.
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Apr 1, 2016 15:26
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I've only read White Noise but it felt like a book that was probably a lot funnier in 1999 than it is now.
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Apr 1, 2016 15:27
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Most pretentious? Has anyone read or interacted with a fan of Alexander Theroux? I think there are legit criticisms about DFW's overwriting and pseudo-scenice but my god Theroux is DFW on purple crack.
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Apr 1, 2016 15:44
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Mel Mudkiper posted:gently caress mallamp agrees with me brb going to go soul searching im chortling irl
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Apr 1, 2016 16:06
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Dellilo's good but the characterization of his dialogue is right on. I liked Libra, Mao II, White Noise, and End Zone. Running Dog is probably his least "pretentious" book, except the very first thing maybe cuz there's a distinct point of view decision early on. Point Omega is his best book I've read, and I've read a lot of his. I also read Pale King, that got mentioned on the last page. Its unweildly but there's a chapter I really liked with short declaritive sentences arranged in two columns depicting the activity in the office. Last thing I read was Gravity's Rainbow a really long time ago and I can't bring myself to crack a book since. I got overhwlemed by the combination of style mastery and amount of content. Can't say I enjoyed it. ok Im done posting about Delillo again, glad I could slam GR this time. Im an utter dummy who read prose masterpiece Gravitys Rainbow, only stopping to enjoy myself when there was a song about dicks, and I can admit it. Bundt Cake fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Apr 1, 2016 |
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Apr 1, 2016 17:57
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Anyone here read Adichie? I'm at a BLM lecture and this lecture about the "immigrant Canon" makes me want to tell more people about her. Americanah is so good
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Apr 1, 2016 18:53
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Adichie is hype and Nigerian literature is fantastic right now. Check out Teju Cole and Helen Oyeyemi.
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Apr 1, 2016 18:58
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:Anyone here read Adichie? I'm at a BLM lecture and this lecture about the "immigrant Canon" makes me want to tell more people about her. I read Half a Yellow Sun and an essay she adapted from a TED talk or something and both were really good. Going to read Americanah sometime soonish.
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Apr 1, 2016 19:02
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Bundt Cake posted:
I've read like 20 Philip Roth novels for dicks
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Apr 1, 2016 20:42
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