Read Some Real Literature: Anyway hail satantango

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cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Earwicker posted:

Heinlein is also responsible for every time some annoying nerd says "grok".

i'm from the future, earwicker, and you are going to love the news i have to share

# ¿ Nov 5, 2023 06:00

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 18:13

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

mann i love Stoner this book's cool. i like this poo poo. i also love The Idiot which i read in spring, i like characters just up and dumping philosophical arguments on each other. and The Man Who Was Thursday is my fave of all. what's a good book for me when imm done Stonin'

# ¿ Dec 3, 2023 06:41

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

personally i dont lose my marbles over simple comparisons, i also dont throw myself in front of the classical peoples like the fanfiction sedan's going to run them down

# ¿ Dec 6, 2023 21:57

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

i'm glad we have your permission

i think i'm about 2 chapters away from finishing Stoner. someone here earlier described it reductively as misery porn and i dont agree. the last couple chapters have been beautiful. the expiration date of the affair has always loomed since near the start but that only adds to arriving at this point

# ¿ Dec 7, 2023 17:25

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

finished Stoner. my goodness. is his Butcher's Crossing as fine?

# ¿ Dec 9, 2023 19:43

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

well that was the recommendation i was waiting for. i'll see if i can dig up Butcher's Crossing from a library somewhere. enjoy getting Stoned

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 20:20

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

dropping Murakami's Norwegian Wood, this sucks lol. i don't know if this is his fault or jay rubin's but the prose is weak rear end poo poo. regardless the story's not really much a standout coming of age one. protagonist is a cool guy babe magnet who has sex with lots of girls but knows it's meaningless. he doesn't really have anything interesting to say when he isn't fuckin

# ¿ Dec 16, 2023 17:14

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

a post once described him as the 'reddit of literature' and i am now inclined to believe it

# ¿ Dec 16, 2023 17:28

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

reading The Stranger and it's very enjoyable, i wish i could read more protagonists written like this. such a dumb frank rear end in a top hat, funny guy

# ¿ Dec 19, 2023 18:02

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

finished L'entranger, i wish it went on for 1000 pages because i really did adore the narration. gonna check out some more of this "Camus" guy, top shelf stuff. also trying japanese lit again with Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, i'm interested so far

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 04:10

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

McSpankWich posted:

I just finished The Stranger and I thought it was a total waste of time. I read it in college and hated it, then decided to give the audiobook another shot a month or so ago and it was totally meh. I mean yeah he's an apathetic rear end in a top hat with severe detachment, etc.... I just guess I wish there was some kind of character arc.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

i didn't want to respond until i finished reading to better understand you, but it seems in the end i'm only more confused :kiddo:

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 04:16

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

grabbed V from the library cuz i've no experience with Pynchon and this thread convinced me to read this over Crying of Lot #. hefty drat book. i'm finding it hard to keep up with him sometimes but worth it if i take the time to reread and follow where his ideas are going. the set piece with spotlighting pig porking that guy's wife was mint

Gaius Marius posted:

Let us know how you liked it in the end, I've been eyeing it for a minute. Trying to get into some other Japanese lit that isn't Kawabata or Mishima

ive finished Kokoro, it was excellent. im really impressed with the overall structure, it's not something i've come across before although i'm pretty new to reading as a hobby still. probably a pro-read for anyone who likes narrow casts, but then again it's probably a pro-read for anyone, i couldn't fall asleep properly last night because i wanted to keep thinking about it

# ¿ Jan 6, 2024 18:14

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

still navigating my way through V, it's become very captivating with how it tells its story. how many narratives set out to achieve what Pynchon does here, bouncing from viewpoint to viewpoint while still telling a coherent tale? between this and Kokoro, i feel i've been seriously treated and made aware of all sorts of creative ways to weave plots together.

but in contrast i read through The Great Gatsby since it takes up space on my shelf, not having done so since high school, craving a novella, any at all. fitzgerald sucks

# ¿ Jan 13, 2024 03:24

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

fridge corn posted:

I've not read V yet so not sure if it's comparable but My Name is Red also does the shifting from viewpoint to viewpoint and is generally a really good book anyway. Was on my mind as well cuz I just recommended it to a mate the other day

ill stick that onto my reading list thank you

Lobster Henry posted:

I�m not here for this �Gatsby is bad actually� revisionism. Maybe it�s cos I read it as a teenager, but that book rules. I think it�s still a great entry point into Literature. Never got on much with the rest of Fitzgerald, though.

at the heart of The Great Gatsby is a Great story about american dreams and american realities and it's told quite quickly which i also like, but it's how he tells it that comes across as ugly and disjointed. Fitz chews the scenery purple and sometimes it works, most times it's wack. the only instance i thought he wrote a really good passage was as he described "wet light".

# ¿ Jan 13, 2024 18:25

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

V is so cool, i love reading this poo poo. i wish more passages featured profane, maybe i'll get my wish. that entire sequence with him and Angel hunting down that alligator ending with lights out was... so cool. the way he told that sunburnt guy + crew's story earlier through all those varied lenses was fascinating, i couldn't keep up too well and had to re-read like mad but what a sweet sequence. i liked following around the burglar most, hope he shows up again too

stuck trying to pick another book to read alongside, thinking either The Fall by Camus or Atlas Shrugged, even. i'm just grabbing whatever's on my shelf until i run out of reading material. hell i had to get V from the library

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 00:00

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

fridge corn posted:

Trying to come up with a lit rec for a fantasy reader and coming up short I realised I don't really have a clue what itches the sprawling high fantasy epics scratch

these bitches need beowulf

# ¿ Jan 22, 2024 23:42

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

my life is stupid and terrible and you better believe i like confronting it

# ¿ Jan 30, 2024 19:20

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Heath posted:

Buddy I don't even want to read the Pudding scene again*

_{*for a third time}

is this worse than the plastic surgery scene from V

# ¿ Jan 30, 2024 20:25

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

mdemone posted:

It's basically the only constant in human historiography: "hey these young people are such babies, let me tell you what it was like"

the babies are actually here, right now, in this forum, and they love brandon sandon

# ¿ Feb 2, 2024 18:29

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

i still think on Stoner

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 15:27

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

and am still reading V, and i must say this pynchon fellow doesnt pull pynches.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 15:28

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3919633&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1#post503970925

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 20:33

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

ulvir posted:

now that i've finished it, this isn't really that. he is the sad professor, but he only ever has one single affair, and it's with a member of faculty

u liked?

# ¿ Feb 17, 2024 00:18

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Mrenda posted:

Do you think that breaking away from some established boundaries of a style of writing is a good indicator that something might be worthwhile? Adding something new, not being innovative rather challenging mores. And I don't mean in a straining way but an honest way?

did you ask this with something in mind?

# ¿ Feb 29, 2024 16:04

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

i was gonna read Virginia but there's only enough room for one title at a time that starts with V

# ¿ Feb 29, 2024 21:05

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

# ¿ Mar 2, 2024 20:09

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Blurred posted:

Absolutely, but I wonder where the line between "straining" and "honest" actually is. Case in point, I read Gertrude Stein's "Food" a couple of weeks ago, and the entire text is made up of "prose" like this:

Now, I'm always one to admit my own ignorance and shortcomings as a reader. Just because I don't "get" a book, I'm not going to reflexively dismiss it as "nonsense" or "trash": I'm always open to the possibility that I just lack the background knowledge to appreciate it. But with prose like this, I just cannot shake the feeling that there really is nothing here to "get", that the emperor really is walking around naked. If anyone can give me some indication of what I might be missing - some foothold in literary theory that would allow me to appreciate book in any way at all - then I'm all ears, of course, but otherwise it just reads as impenetrable nonsense that is intended to be impenetrable nonsense - in which case, what's the point? What is the reader supposed to take away from their engagement with a text like this?

To me the laziest form of art is art which seeks to challenge my preconceptions of what art is. I view it as lazy, because such approaches to art place all of the responsibility for meaning creation on the audience, and thereby shelter the artist from criticism, because negative reactions can simply be appropriated by the artist as an intentional product of the very "challenge" laid down by the piece in the first place. "Of course people are going to be angry or bewildered if I dump a load of dirt on the floor of an art gallery and call it art - these are exactly the sorts of prejudices that I'm seeking to confront and bring to light!". I view "Food" as the literary equivalent of that.

"But it doesn't make any sense!"
- Who says literature has to make sense? The world doesn't make sense, why should literature?

"But it's not remotely pleasant to read!"
- Oh, so now literature has to be pleasant to read? Is it not the artist's responsibility to bring the ugliness of the world to light where necessary?

"But it doesn't even mean anything!"
- Hmmm, yes. But what is "meaning"? Isn't all language ultimately just as arbitrary set of free-floating signs?

And so on, and so on. If it was Stein's intention to get me to confabulate these sorts of inner dialogues with myself then mission accomplished, I suppose, but otherwise I think there's a definite line - however blurry or ill-defined - between meritorious literary innovation and self-indulgent wank, and the author should always take care to make sure her own work falls on the right side of that line. We can debate where that line lies, of course, but I think it's important to acknowledge that the line really does exist.

it is one thing to dismiss weird prose like whatever i just read under "EGGS" but it is a whole different line of rear end showing to go on that tangent about challenging art. if you did not have these people doing what you dislike you would not know what the "line" is to begin with, no? you don't see any value from that alone?

# ¿ Mar 2, 2024 20:12

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

derp posted:

what is the most beautiful book?

captain underpants

# ¿ Mar 5, 2024 04:57

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

i like what Pynchon does with lengthy deviations from the narrative like the majistral confessions and mondaugen's story, spurs me to trying this in my own writing. does he do this in his other novels?

# ¿ Mar 17, 2024 22:13

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

man it's taken me months to work through V hahahaha. library probably enjoys the late fees i keep resetting and racking anew. and still not done...

# ¿ Mar 17, 2024 22:14

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

dope.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2024 22:28

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

praxis by reading

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 00:48

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Mrenda posted:

I read fascists... As... As you can see... To stare into the void.... Mmm... Yes!!!

poo poo up more fyad threads and less of these

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 15:18

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

i dumped some books off into one of those mailbox library things and took Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. guess i got my next reading locked in, very curious to see how 'faithful' the NES game is comparatively lol

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 15:20

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

Heath posted:

good news

The first page of the book lays out all its grievance in easily digestible morsels of the most barren high school prose you've ever seen

impressed at the boldness of a writer to publish without even a single pass after

# ¿ Mar 19, 2024 17:17

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

# ¿ Mar 19, 2024 17:20

cumpantry: Dec 18, 2020

reading the quote again, are they outright saying "right-wing" writings shouldn't be read at all versus having leftists present them? why? what is it that's making it more interesting to engage with an author's work in every way but reading? my god schoolchildren are less afraid of books

# ¿ Mar 19, 2024 21:09