Let's talk about our favourite essay writers.
>Joan Didion
One of the most lucid and well written American authors I've had the pleasure to read, I think her essays showcase the "idiosyncratic objectivity" that'd become a staple of contemporary journalism - her self awareness (like in her Migraine/Anxiety piece) is equally inactual.
>Hunter Thompson
Unduly characterized as a "drugs lmao" hack, his insight on the American Dream in the "year of our lord 1972" is profound and descriptive (in opposition to normative), while also informed by modern philosophy. I'd recommend reading Fear and Trembling before Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His political journalism is equally, if not more, interesting.
>Elias Canetti
While I'm yet to finish Mass and Power, I feel confident in saying that his short form essays are more than worthwhile (and bleakily funny) - ie, his dissertation on Speer's diaries.
>William Burroughs
Great stylistic rendition of well, himself, since he's often the basis of his essays. Interesting when trying to expand and how an essay can be written.
I'd like to hear a few recs, this kind of writing is usually incredibly interesting.
There is one and only: Montaigne. Now you can close this thread.
>>8106478
Well, that's somewhat reductive - at least expand on the author.
By the way, I'll add
>Cora Diamond
Wrote mainly in relation with Wittgenstein, her main collection is "The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind"; she writes about what it means to be human and how immagination is the foundation of com-passion, or the basis of empathy - essentially that to fully realize another's humanity, you need to fully understand his/her capability to exist as that peculiar human, with his/her fundamental accidents.
I don't read essays, but you have good taste in music, op.
>>8106458
William Hazlitt
Max Beerbohm
Frank Kermode
Virginia Woolf
>>8106629
I've already seen several clips on youtube ("Zeichnungen" was incredible), but haven't watched it completely yet. Thanks for reminding me.
Have you listened to any recent Neubauten solo projects? I've bought "ASS", Arbeit's collaboration with Gunther Schickert and Schneider TM and liked it. I'll probably get Hacke's "Perseverantia" soon as well.
Walter Benjamin
Roland Barthes
Theodor W. Adorno
W. H. Auden
Jorge Luis Borges
Anthony Burgess
J. M. Coetzee
T.S. Eliot
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Benjamin, Borges and Emerson are my favorites though.
>>8106629
>Anything you'd particularly recommend by Kermode? Seems like the most interesting out of the four.
"The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction" (1967).
Available freely for download: http://www.davidlavery.net/Courses/Narratology/Kermode_Frank_The_Sense_of_an_Ending_2000.pdf
>>8106665
While you're at it, do watch Ishii's other movies (Burst City and Electric Dragon 80.000v, especially), you'll like them.
I haven't had the occasion to listen to them, I've only been at a concert in my town hall when Blixa was touring with Theo Teardo here in Italy.
>>8106683
Completely agree with you on Barthes and Coetzee - they were able to mesh great writing with an astounding depth. Benjamin's also on my reading list, since I'm doing a thesis on Aesthetics.
>>8106710
Much appreciated, I'd just found that title.
OP I think you should check out "The essay as form" by Adorno.
Montaigne
Hazlitt
Ruskin
DFW
Sigfried Krakauer
Susan Sontag
>>8106770
Literally this. His essay on the Book of Job is one of my favorites.
>>8106458
>his dissertation on Speer's diaries.
What did Canetti say about them?
>>8106813
Chesterton wrote hundreds of essays, so it's going to take a lot of time to go through all of them.
I'd recommend starting with The Defendant, which if I'm not mistaken was one of his first published collections of essays. All of them are vindications and defenses of different topics. The one on detective fiction was highly influential to the development of the genre, so you may like it if you are into crime fiction.
If you like his style, you should pick up "In Defense of Sanity", which is a recent collection of his essays. It has plenty of essays, some of them quite famous. After that, if you still crave more, then you'll have to check individual collections or essays he himself published during his life. Chesterton wrote so much that even now poems and essays of his authory are being discovered in newspapers.
>>8106841
He was very measured, tried to use them as a somewhat psychological analysis of Hitler via his architectural planning/preferences - didn't quite manage to do it properly (would have taken at least a couple hundred pages more) but he traced an interesting picture of the man, far more articulated than common stereotypes will give you.
>>8106891
Much appreciated - got to say, it's at least uncommon to find someone on this board with an actual knowledge of something. I'll admit I haven't had the occasion to read Chesterton at all (me being Italian and all) so I'd appreciate any indication you'd give about how to go about reading him, as I've seen his writing often referenced by a few of my favourite authors.
>>8106909
Well, Chesterton is quite straightforward. There are no tricky language or narrative techniques, but his prose is polished and lyrical. It is a pleasure to read him. His wit was extraordinary too. He was quite fond of paradoxes, and you will find many in his writings, all of them at least amusing and thought-provoking. I've seen many anons here dismiss him as simply "hurr durr X is Y, but Y is also X", but Chesterton did more than mere turns of phrases: he took the commonplace and turned it upside down by sheer common sense.
He also wrote fiction and longer non-fiction. Of the former you may like "The Man Who Was Thursday" or "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", or the Father Brown short stories, if you are fond of detective fiction with a religious twist; of the latter you may find "Heretics" and "Orthodoxy" interesting if you are a Catholic (and even if you are not, you may enjoy his prose and arguments). I haven't read much of his poetry or drama, so I can't comment on that, but I he wasn't a mediocre poet at all.
>>8106959
Again, much appreciated - I was looking for specific titles of his, which you more than amply provided. Thanks. Out of curiosity, how do you feel about Terry Pratchett? I know for a fact he cited Chesterton as the main stylistic/theoretic inspiration for his writings - his essay collection is clear about it.
>>8106976
I haven't read any Pratchett nor plan to do so anytime soon. But so much the better for you: now you can read Chesterton and then trace the connection between the two writers, and see how one influenced the other. I think that would be more rewarding than having some random faggot from /lit/ tell you.
>>8107056
Yeah, you're right. I'll do it for myself; for what's worth, I'll just say you (like, in my opinion, everyone) ought to give Pratchett a go, since it'll take you less than five hours and it's fairly good - but as you said, it's just the opinion of a random faggot on /lit/. Thanks for your effort in this thread
Pynchon's essays are great.
>>8108868
Any specific titles you would recommend?
>>8108899
His essay on Luddism and his essay on Sloth.
Both highly relevant to 4chan posters.
Joan Didion
Simon Leys
Roland Barthes
