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hog fat posted:in all seriousness, though, I wish we'd stop deviating from the true purpose of this thread: the discussion of dead white men and their literature to the exclusion of all else I've been reading Voltaire, Zola and Maupassant
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Nov 3, 2016 15:07
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some recs for cobweb heart: ferdydurke as mentioned before (no joke the funniest book i have ever read) terra nostra the obscene bird of night maldoror (not a fan but others love it)
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Nov 3, 2016 15:09
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hog fat posted:in all seriousness, though, I wish we'd stop deviating from the true purpose of this thread: the discussion of dead white men and their literature to the exclusion of all else I've been reading In Cold Blood by Capote, and it's very good. I prefer the sections on the town's grief and growing paranoia towards each other from the murders more than the history of the murderers, but there hasn't been a slow section. I like Capote's prose, it's dense but flows by very quickly.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:24
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I read Flaubert's Parrot recently, and it was surprisingly bearable given I really didn't like The Sense of an Ending and I've never read Flaubert. It's good if you like the whole metafiction thing and find Julian Barnes good e: Cobweb Heart posted:That's precisely what I like, thank you! I've already got the first two and the last on my to-read but the rest are news to me. Is there anything I should know about Irish literature before going into At Swim-Two-Birds? I really don't know jack poo poo. I would guess that's not crippling to the experience, but if it would be improved by my having a familiarity with [Non Joyce Irelander]. I'd say it's not too bad, old stuff is mentioned but it's very readable even if you don't know that sort of thing. Finn MacCool is a character from Irish legend but you might already know that Jrbg fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 15:42
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Burning Rain posted:why'd you miss the opportunity to suggest babyfucker by urs allemann? I made that post just as I was leaving for work and then thought of it on the stairs and I've been thinking about it all day how I should have said it.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:45
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Franchescanado posted:What translation of The Blind Owl is the one to look out for? I think I checked out the Costello translation but here was Stravinsky's rec back when he was pushing the Blind Owl repeatedly a little over a year ago (RIP in peace): Stravinsky posted:For people asking what translation of the Blind Owl I would recommend: D.P. Costello's or Iraj Bashiri's. I am not so big on Law's translation and Naveed Noori's I have not read. Good news on the Bashiri translation is that it is available for free here so if you are ok with a screen instead of physical book its there to go.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:47
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Cobweb Heart posted:That's precisely what I like, thank you! I've already got the first two and the last on my to-read but the rest are news to me. Is there anything I should know about Irish literature before going into At Swim-Two-Birds? I really don't know jack poo poo. I would guess that's not crippling to the experience, but if it would be improved by my having a familiarity with [Non Joyce Irelander]. It's all tied in to Irish myth so a passing knowledge of that is cool but it's just weird little jokes you won't get if you don't know anything. It's still really great and easily stands on it's own, tho you should read Irish myth at some point cos it's good. Babyfucker is a surprisingly well written book and a cool experiment in how far you can take a terrible idea. Read Cesar Aira too and I'll probably keep coming back to this thread and adding onto the list of the good surrealist stuff, because this thread has far too many books about Americans with depression and not enough books about people walking down normal streets.
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Nov 3, 2016 16:01
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Stravinsky have you ever read Cosmos by Gombrowicz? I was just browsing through the surrealism torrent I downloaded last year and have read maybe 1% of and that's in there and there's a character called Fuks, so I think it's priobably good. The intro calls it "onanistic" and has this quote Gombrowicz said, “Cosmos for me, is black, first and foremost black, something like a black churning current full of whirls, stoppages, flood waters, a black water carrying lots of refuse, and there is man gazing at it—gazing at it and swept up by it—trying to decipher, to understand and to bind it into some kind of a whole . . . ” CestMoi fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 16:06
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some fun new academic books out recently, including a super goth biography of shirley jackson, an ecocritical take on 'zombiescapes', and a book about how ayn rand destroyed the world
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Nov 3, 2016 16:15
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Cobweb Heart posted:My favorite book is Naked Lunch My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist
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Nov 3, 2016 16:15
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That Ayn Rand destroyed the world book is great because with Rand it would be so easy to go for the low hanging fruit, of which there is a lot, but he goes right to the sources of her actual influences (as opposed to the ones she cites as part of her cult) and starts from there as to why everything she ever did was wrong.
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Nov 3, 2016 16:21
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CestMoi posted:. Read Cesar Aira too I read The Hare by him last year. Anything else you'd particularly recommend? If that's something in the right neighborhood for a recommendation, Confessions of a Lioness by Mia Couto reminded me a good bit of The Hare, just a somewhat different context. Though it's not particularly funny.
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Nov 3, 2016 18:48
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Ben Nevis posted:I read The Hare by him last year. Anything else you'd particularly recommend? I just read an episode in the life of a landscape painter like 2 days ago, it's pretty good + short. It wasn't particularly surrealistic, but there was some weird stuff about being badly injured and disfigured, plus trying to paint an Indian raid as its happening. I'd say it's relatively win.
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Nov 3, 2016 19:29
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J_RBG posted:I read Flaubert's Parrot recently, and it was surprisingly bearable given I really didn't like The Sense of an Ending and I've never read Flaubert. It's good if you like the whole metafiction thing and find Julian Barnes good I don't like Julian Barnes, but I wanna read his new book bcuz it's about Shostakovich
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Nov 3, 2016 19:31
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fantasy zone posted:the only good thing i have ever achieved on these forums was to get everyone to read an middle eastern addicts short story on death, obsession, addiction and what ever and im glad that it has become part of tbb and phiz book thread canon 
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Nov 3, 2016 21:26
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david crosby posted:I don't like Julian Barnes, but I wanna read his new book bcuz it's about Shostakovich I still dislike Barnes even when he's liking the same things I like
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Nov 3, 2016 23:55
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david crosby posted:I don't like Julian Barnes, but I wanna read his new book bcuz it's about Shostakovich He's surprisingly good at snatching little images of stuff from a biography of someone he cares about, so yeah go for it. But then he has an annoying tendency to turn it all into a bit like a textbook exercise. Stop Julian. You were doing so well.
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Nov 4, 2016 02:15
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Franchescanado posted:I wasn't trying to talk down to you, I legitimately thought you'd like bizarro fiction. It's not a very literary genre as a whole, because they are trying to be outlandish instead of thought provoking. That doesn't mean they are all like that, or that you're a loser for liking or reading them. I just thought you'd have fun with it. Oh, no, I was being sincere - I can easily see how my request could have included bizarro fiction in its scope and I highly appreciate your suggesting it. To my personal, very idiosyncratic taste, outlandish and thought provoking are two sides of the same coin. Thanks for those additional recs, I'll definitely check them out once I work my way through the enormous backlog I've suddenly developed!
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Nov 4, 2016 02:16
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Mr. Squishy posted:I still dislike Barnes even when he's liking the same things I like That's probably how I'll feel if i read it, but the carrot looks so damb juicy & crunchy.
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Nov 4, 2016 03:03
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Guy A. Person posted:I think I checked out the Costello translation but here was Stravinsky's rec back when he was pushing the Blind Owl repeatedly a little over a year ago (RIP in peace): yeah rip in peepee CestMoi posted:Stravinsky have you ever read Cosmos by Gombrowicz? yeah it's v. good and in the same kind of search for personal form and meaning that ferdydurke had while upping the paranoia of the characters so if you liked ferdy you'd like cosmos.
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Nov 4, 2016 08:43
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i should probably read pornagrafia because from what others have said of it it's pretty different from his earlier work in that its an purely sadistic book about two intellectuals trying to force two kids to gently caress eachother and isn't as light and funny as say cosmos or ferdy can be
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Nov 4, 2016 08:50
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fantasy zone posted:i should probably read pornagrafia because from what others have said of it it's pretty different from his earlier work in that its an purely sadistic book about two intellectuals trying to force two kids to gently caress eachother and isn't as light and funny as say cosmos or ferdy can be That's the only Gombrowicz I've read. It's been several years, so I don't remember much about it. The concept was cool but I guess I didn't really like it that much, idk. Everyone seems 2 really like Ferdydurke, I guess I'll read that next & see
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Nov 4, 2016 12:50
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i like jeanette winterson
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Nov 4, 2016 16:27
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Just gonna gush more about Edith Grossman's Don Quixote translation again because it's one of the very few books to genuinely make me laugh out loud. She really managed to make the humour stand on it's own merits rather than rely on detailed explanations of why something is humorous. The entire segment from Rociante trying it on with the mares to Quixote getting his teeth knocked out was probably one of the most enjoyable things I've read, even past the likes of Wodehouse. I've only got the kindle edition so far, but it's so good I want to get a hard copy. I know people have probably read an older translation but I'd urge people to give the Grossman one a go, as it's almost an entirely new book.
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Nov 5, 2016 01:44
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Rush Limbo posted:Just gonna gush more about Edith Grossman's Don Quixote translation again because it's one of the very few books to genuinely make me laugh out loud. My library apparently has this, so I might check it out
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Nov 5, 2016 01:59
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I've been saving all the big Spanish language works for when my reading level can handle the original texts, but I'm kinda thinking I'm never really going to understand anything complicated anyway, being a second language speaker with 0 immersion, so I might as well read translations.
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Nov 5, 2016 07:36
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Reading is a type of immersion.
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Nov 5, 2016 13:04
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Ras Het posted:Reading is a type of immersion. I can learn on texts where I don't miss 80% of everything though. For example el gato en el sombrero
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Nov 5, 2016 15:52
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I guess Don Quixote was actually a major influence on how modern day Spanish is spoken, it was that big a deal, so it's probably a good learning tool just for that
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Nov 5, 2016 16:27
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Rush Limbo posted:I guess Don Quixote was actually a major influence on how modern day Spanish is spoken, it was that big a deal, so it's probably a good learning tool just for that Just like how the budding English speaker should read Shakespeare?
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Nov 5, 2016 16:38
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CestMoi posted:Just like how the budding English speaker should read Shakespeare? They should
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Nov 5, 2016 17:21
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THE PWNER posted:I can learn on texts where I don't miss 80% of everything though. For example el gato en el sombrero That's not how immersion works CestMoi posted:Just like how the budding English speaker should read Shakespeare? I read Shakespeare at like age 14 and understood gently caress all and haven't tried again since
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Nov 5, 2016 17:27
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 edit: whoops, wrong thread
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Nov 5, 2016 18:02
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Disagree. Right thread.
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Nov 5, 2016 20:03
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CestMoi posted:Just like how the budding English speaker should read Shakespeare? Pls, they should start at Chaucer.
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Nov 5, 2016 20:55
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Ras Het posted:I read Shakespeare at like age 14 and understood gently caress all and haven't tried again since Me too, high five!
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Nov 6, 2016 00:14
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jesus guys
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Nov 6, 2016 00:25
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i used to get paid to read shakespeare + run computer programs at shakespeare, so shakespeare is a-okay with me.
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Nov 6, 2016 00:26
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I don't have anything against Shakespeare, the timing just wasn't right and there's a lot of books in the world to read
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Nov 6, 2016 00:47
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You should read Hamlet. Hamlet is really good and a lot of other plays are good but Hamlet is really really good. It's funny, I've been planning on reading Don Quixote after I finish my current book. I started an old translation 20 years ago and the Grossman translation about five years ago and get quite a ways and love it but for some reason I stop reading it. But Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet should be read
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Nov 6, 2016 03:38
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