>Europeans don't care about Vollman, Gass, ,Pynchon, or McElroy.
Why?
>>7651643
Because europeans have taste, thats why.
>>7651643
The conservatives think they're too radical (or rather, don't think beyond the great realists).
The progressives think they're politically unsound and thus irrelevant.
How do we prove to Europeans we are cool with our dense post modern masterpieces?
sometimes i wish american literature generally was better-appreciated by my fellow yuropoors. faulkner and melville are two of my favourite authors.
>>7651648
They read a shitload of genre fiction, so apparently not.
Anyway Pynchon is big in Britain
>>7651643
Identity politics, a desire to keep the US out of their "culture" when they're already swimming in American movies and listening to American music, conservative critics on one side and a younger generation that only reads homegrown versions of the fault in our stars.
>>7651643
because there's no discernible talent
No translations.
And even if they are translations people just didn't care about stuff like Pynchon so for example there was only one edition of translated Gravity's Rainbow in Poland which is now very expensive (like 100$ for beat up book)
because they're shit?
>>7651643
Pynchon doesn't translate all too well desu
>reading translations
not me!
>>7651716
Don't be that rude to europeans. They're short, hairy and smelly, but it's not polite to call them "shit".
>>7651643
I don't know where you get the idea that Europeans don't like American literature.
Melville, Whitman etc are incredibly well respected here.
Even more contemporary writers like Pynchon, Mccarthy and Gaddis are studied here. At very least in the places I've been (British and Dutch universities).
The only one that I would say is completely ignored is DFW. I would never have heard of him if it weren't for US websites.
who the fuck reads english literature in translation
the only half legit reason to read translations is if it's into english
what the hell is your excuse for not being able to read in english?
>>7651890
>The only one that I would say is completely ignored is DFW.
I saw some literary students study Infinite Jest at the University of Copenhagen. May have been picked by them and not the teacher though.
>>7651643
They just mad that they don't dominate the literary scene anymore. Besides, Europe isn't desolate enough to spawn people like Gass--not anymore, anyway.
>>7651643
McElroy is a hack whose book should have remained out of print
>>7652064
>I am a hack who should have been aborted
FTFY. I want to say I'm sorry you are too stupid to understand how great McElroy is, but I'm not.
>>7652066
I'm sure you're too stupid to substantiate that claim -- let alone think for yourself.
>>7651890
>The only one that I would say is completely ignored is DFW.
There was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge campaign when Infinite Jest came out in German, and it was #1 on German best-seller lists for *months*
>>7652068
I'm not going substantiate shit until you do.
>>7652078
... which makes it especially significant that nobody's left who cares about it now
>>7652087
The defense of an idiot
>>7652127
You expect me to write an actual response to "McElroy is a hack whose book should have remained out of print"? Wow. Having autism must be hard.
>>7651643
I love them all
t. mancunian
>>7651643
Either a troll thread or a thread created by someone who has no concept of European culture.
These authors are appreciated over here, and probably in the same proportion that they are in the USA.
>>7651890
DFW is pretty popular here in the UK. Never seen him discussed in an academic environment though.
>>7651643
>,Pynchon,
>>7651643
>Americans don't care about Michon, Echenoz, Quignard, NDiaye or Cixous
Pourquoi ?
Do Americans read experimental British writers like BS Johnson, Anna Kavan, Ann Quin, Christine Brooke-Rose, Alan Burns, etc.?
>>7652366
I only ever get into discussions of literature within academic circles so I guess this could be true.
It's odd that I come across Franzen more often than I do Wallace, despite the fact that the most common depictions of their relationship sees Wallace as il miglior fabbro
As others said, most of people read English books in translation and reading those guys in translation is not very rewarding.
That being said, Pynchon is translated into Serbian and he's known to some extent. Delillo is somewhat popular. DFW's three short story collection are translated, but not so popular.
McElroy, Gass, Vollman and Gaddis are sometimes not in print even in US, so their lack of popularity in Europe is not surprising
>>7651643
here in serbia even the real popular american writers like steinbeck, harper lee, austen etc aren't covered in highschool. we covered loads of russian authors however, from dosto to tolstoy to sholokhov to bulgakov to gogol, etc.
>>7652830
>real popular american writers like steinbeck, harper lee, austen
>harper lee, austen
You are kidding, right?
What did you read by Sholokhov, Bulgakov and Gogol in HS? Were they required readings?
>>7654061
not that anon but did you actually think these were normally studied outside of the US, or are you reacting to them being called popular?
I've heard of them so I'd say they are indeed popular all over, but I was never asked to read a single american book at school.
I have recently bought a copy of Gravity's Rainbow.
I will start reading it and I might even finish it this year.
I'm eager to know about one of the most important works of american literature.
>>7652830
>austen
>american
what
>>7655222
>Gravity's Rainbow
>one of the most important works of american literature
What, besides /lit/, leads you to believe this work is "important", anon?
I guess that depends on your frame of reference for a novel's "importance"; as much as I enjoy GR, what makes it relevant? Let alone Americans?
Or even academics?
Compared to the "importance" of other works of American literature, that is.
>>7655259
It had that written on the back.
But honestly,it's just your fucking hype that made me buy it.
Teacher:
Have you bought any interesting books recently?
Me:
I bought Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
(smiles)Teacher:
Great!
I have never heard of it!
Me:
Haha!oh fug
>>7651648
shit taste that is
>>7654061
and quiet flows the don, dead souls. can't remember which bulgakov. all required.
not kidding. we did mostly our yugoslav stuff, loads of russian stuff, and some stuff from the rest of europe. no american authors whatsoever.
>>7655259
>>7655313
Really? I came to this board because of the love it gives to Pynchon (among other authors like him). My college had one of the most notable scholars on Pynchon and my friends (and sister) all love his early work.
I tried like 5 different forums and got sick of the taste in modern lit. I use the travel board on this website alot and clicked over to see what the general taste was.
Pynchon is not a /lit/-exclusive author by any means; I think Stirner and that book Stoner are much more exclusive to this board's taste. I didn't major in English and didn't take many lit classes but I'd guess he's pretty popular amongst academics in the US, or academics specializing in post-war american lit.
>>7655372
I am not a big "knower" of literature.
I just try to accumulate knowledge,to look smart.
Maybe if I can use words the common man doesn't understand,I can be win debates and arguments without effort.
>>7655394
What the fuck are you talking about/replying to?
>>7655397
Everything and nothing at the same time.
It's just shouting into the wind that hopefully takes my voice to the ears of someone listening.
>>7651643
Because this is better than all of those combined
>>7651643
Europe does not take too kindly to gass anymore.
My impression is that Europeans pay more attention to contemporary literature from outside of their country than Americans do. If you branched out a bit, perhaps these books would no longer seem so significant to you.
>>7656058
This should be a sticky
>>7655483
Is that the finnish Ulysses?
>>7651643
that pepe reminds me of a pixel hentai I saw on /d/
>>7656519
sticky dis shit
>>7651643
yes we do. American postmodernism gets endless amount of academic attention, whereas British one is just.. forgotten.
t: student of comparative literature in uni of Helsinki
>>7651643
Because they lack the essential element to great literature- universality. None of these books are as moving as your run of the mill Russian realism novel or popular south American authors like Borges or Marquez or for American authors Dick (he's been popular since the 80s here) or Poe and Hemingway.
>>7651643
I'm a britbong and I fucking love McElroy
>>7656608
Peasant
>>7655351
There is no 'yugoslav stuff' in the same sense that English and Australian lit aren't the same.
Why are you pretending that anyone should care about Vollman?
>>7651892
there are only translations in library, and im not gonna pay for books in foreign laguage because you said so, you cunt
Americans sometimes seem to assume that the American perspective is the default, universal perspective, but really your literature to an outsider seems just as provincial and quaint as would a random European book to you. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean it's not good or great, just that it doesn't carry the same significance for us as for you. A good book from one's own country will always trump a good book from another country. I can't imagine many Europeans being willing to read Vollmann's "Seven Dreams" series to completion, for example, unless they were really, really into American history. It may be well written, but it's ultimately like 5,000 pages of stuff that has no real pertinence to our lives. I enjoyed Mason & Dixon, but it didn't have nearly as much of an impact on me as the more cosmopolitan Gravity's Rainbow.
There are occasional exceptions in the cases of true, transcendental geniuses. Melville is the one American author I've read so far who would fall into that category. He makes Americanism universal.
>>7656616
>Being insulted by an American
How's living in a depraved carnivalesque whoreshow working out for you?
>>7656685
autist tier bantz
>>7651643
Nobody cares about old privileged white guys. Fucking shitlord.
>>7656677
What a load of nonsense, style is substance and only one who's easily seduced by cheap nonsense "social commentary" will prefer his own country's literature, or even judge by country instead of author.
>>7656306
yes
>>7656733
Style is just one facet of substance, and one that is particularly inaccessible to Europeans considering that most of us don't speak English fluently.
A work of art is conceived and gestated within a certain sociocultural environment, so its substance is contingent upon the place and time in which it was created.
>>7656819
>so its substance
When it comes to certain types of literature, style is worth. If you cannot appreciate the style of a prose poem, you cannot appreciate its worth. I can see how your criteria might apply to the novels of Austen or Tolstoy or Dickens, for the aesthetic content of their works is usually distributed between characters, ideas, and prose-poetry. But in something like Ulysses or Moby-Dick the weight of the "substance" favors the poetical aspects of the work. This, I think, is why the French tend to butcher Ulysses in their criticism.
