ITT: Books that we have a love-hate relationship with.
Pic related. Some parts are vastly enjoyable and entertaining whereas others are downright painful and obnoxious. I have a feeling that Pynchon wrote the book with the deliberate intention of taking the reader on a roller coaster ride: from moments of great enjoyment to times when one just wants to throw the book into the trash. I have 150 pages left until the end and truly hope that he's decent enough to culminate the book on an upswing.
>from moments of great enjoyment to times when one just wants to throw the book into the trash.
Just like... the trajectory of a V2!
>>7441910
What bugs me about Pynchon are his characters. He doesn't have any outside of Mason & Dixon and maybe Inherent Vice.
They're all cartoonish and I have a super hard time following what they're doing and it gets annoying because characters are what I really love to read. Not prose, ideas, verse, just good characters and dialogue.
Which is what I love so much about Delillo. I guess some people feel cheated because he's not more experimental and obviously difficult but I don't see it.
Libra and Underworld are as good as anything by Pynchon imo. Similar themes but more character.
Infinite Jest, DFW in general
He was very important to me when I was 16, but I've come to be extremely annoyed by him as time has gone on. IJ is waaaay too long, with far too many superfluous parts gunking up the works.
The fact that he killed himself, when he was at a point in his life that all Authors dream of getting at, is indicative of his terrible character. He knew that if he killed himself, he could become immortal, which is certainly easier than writing a good followup novel. The Pale King could have been amazing, but instead, he took the red carpet to fame, off of his chair, into the noose.
What a loser.
How important is it for you to know about the writer? Writers these days seem willing to bend over backwards to have their faces on every book sleeve and Twitter handle. Does it mean that much to you about who the person is compared to the quality and frequency of their art? Would prefer that the writer be reclusive or reject any exposure past their work getting out? Sub question: Does pycheon's reclusiveness entice or disappoint?
Authors should be unknown. Literature should stand alone. If an author is an "e-celeb", it's an assurance that their work is bad hackery. Author statements almost always damage the experience of art.
>>7441808
I agree. I honestly think 4chan is one of the greatest cultural inventions of the 21st century.
What if the author goes the Shirow Masamune route and makes public appearances but is behind a screen? Would just be a gimmick to wear a mask? Every cellphone has a camera? How would an author circumvent this?
Why is this considered so good?
>>7441641
Because it's entertaining to read while also having incredible depth.
What's the best English translation I can get for this book? I'm thinking of buying it since everyone on /lit/ seems to praise it so much.
>>7441812
just read garnett. shit's fantastic. fuck all the haters, she's the real OG. but yeah, it's good because it deals with many viewpoints, the characters have real emotion, the world seems open ended and you can swear when you finish it that it keeps on going somewhere in your head, if not on the pages themselves when the book is closed.
This is the greatest American novel.
thats not a novel, you turkey
>>7441338
I agree.
>>7441338
Why?
Alright I finished the Greeks, what next?
>>7441296
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/pub
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ME_Gallery.htm
By Greeks I mean Aristotle and Plato, are there any others?
Reading this book makes my blood boil and I’ll tell you why: it was written by a college professor.
I respect college professor as felling human beings, but as teachers, they’re pretentious fucks.
We write to convey thoughts, so our fellow human beings can understand. To write in an easy to understand manner is to stay humble.
College professors, on the other hand, write like diarrhea is coming out of their mouths; they use big words and long sentences to convey simple ideas.
Here’s an example from the book.
Neil Postman wrote:
“I believe, a wise and particularly relevant supposition that the media of communication available to a culture are a dominant influence on the formation of the culture’s intellectual and social preoccuptions”
He could had simply wrote:
“TV can influence how people think.”
Reading this book is like having shit flung into my eyes.
College professors have big egos because there’s nobody to tell them:
“Listen, you pussy lickers, your writings suck. Stop using flowery, big words and write in a simple manner so people can understand. Express your ideas simply, you fuck nuts. Also, stop jerking each other off in the office, it smells like semen.”
Same reason why I don’t read business books by college professors because the book is 1,200 page – YET – the college professor never opened or ran a successful business.
>
Same reason why I don’t read business books by college professors because the book is 1,200 page – YET – the college professor never opened or ran a successful business.
But that's decidedly not the same reason.
>>7441273
> I believe
assuming a posture of subjectivity to avoid passing unsupported thesis as fact too early
>a wise and particularly relevant supposition
emphasizing both the aptness and relevance of his postulation
>the media available to a culture
Not just tv, any artificial entertainment materials that a person may come across
>are a dominant influence on the formation
explaining the degree which media informs culture
>intellectual and social preoccupations
draws attention to the fact that media can encourage an antiintellectual sentiment in the culture it effects (something that is a widely documented problem by now)
Your suggested stand in doesn't convey nearly as much and is at best the engine in an inevitable freight-train iteration of the above
>>7441273
>implying complex language isn't a presupposition for complex reasoning
As an aspiring author, how do I deal with having nothing to say?
Write about having nothing to say
You put the cart before the horse.
First, you have something to say. Then, you write/be an author. Until you're in the right order, you'll always be a joke calling himself an "aspiring author".
Be reassured that some of the very best had nothing to say.
I just need one good history book about the Middle East.
Not about Islam, not about terrorism, just one good, comprehensive book about the history of the Middle East. Preferably not written by a Jew or an American either. Does such a thing exist?
>>7441159
>one good, comprehensive book about the history of the Middle East
there is no such thing. the region is gigantic and a lot has happened. specify a time period and possibly a specific nation and we can help.
>>7441159
Shouldnt this be posted on /his/?I fear what may begin with this mere utterance
Mansfield's A History of the Middle East
What is /lit/'s opinion on Twilight? Should I start with the first book or is there a better starting point?
>>7441047
Start with The Complete Manual of Suicide.
Hide this thread. Sage if you do post.
>>7441047
Still a better love story than Twilight.
>>7441050
Singles checked
What is his best book? I've never read any Dickens and want to read something by him.
The great train robbery
>>7441012
Bleak House, David Copperfield, or Pickwick Papers
I really like all his stuff regardless. Got me into reading. :)
Activate greentext: Reading moralistic books for kids
Does /lit/ have a chart for exploring nihilism?
yeah pic related
yes, it's called /tv/
just look out your window man...
I can speak Russian because I was raised in a Russian speaking house but I can't read the alphabet and my vocabulary is pretty limited
Will I ever be able to read Dostoevsky in Russian? Or do I have to stick to translations
just practice the language with more focus on the alphabet with reading.
Why try? Just give up, now.
>>7440920
Alphabets are easy and since you have an inherent knowledge of the grammar you should be able to skip through the books with ease so long as you keep a thesaurus about. Really, half an hour at most to get to grip with the alphabet and a dictionary whilst you read. You might be a bit slow at first but you'll be fine.
What are some good novels set in feudal Japan? Preferably written by a Japanese person, since I've tried reading white folks writing in that setting and it just sounds forced. Though I've heard Shogun is very good. Any recommendations? And yes, I know "feudal Japan" covers 2000 years and about a dozen different actual time periods, but you know what I mean. Pre-Meiji, basically. Can certainly have fantasy elements, since I'm looking for something with a folktale quality to it, something timeless.
Also, is Musashi any good?
Just bumping with some Japanese fox porn.
Tales of the Otori by Liam Hearn
>>7440928
I tried so hard with the first book, I just could not get into it. One of the very few times I returned a book from where I bought it.
Is it possible, in your experiences? What sort of rules or guidelines to be established in order for a relationship of 3 or more people to work? And is there any reading material you would recommend on the subject?
this isn't a love column.
>And is there any reading material you would recommend on the subject?
the berlin stories by isherwood.
had an exgf into it.
it never works out because of feels. someone always loves someone more, same as a standard relationship. love is never even.
>>7440766
Maybe I should have asked about the moral implications of a polyamory.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-love-dick-is-one-of-the-most-important-books-about-being-a-woman-no-wonder-it-s-being-dismissed-a6721336.html
>It’s hard to explain exactly what I Love Dick is: autofiction; an epistolary novel; fantasy; or, according to early critics, a gossipy invasion of a feted art critic’s privacy. But how it is categorised is less important than the reaction to the book.
>Ferrante, in a recent Vanity Fair interview said: “Often that which we are unable to tell ourselves coincides with that which we do not want to tell, and if a book offers us a portrait of those things, we feel annoyed, or resentful, because… reading about them disturbs us.”
>The same sense of being disturbed afflicts critics of Kraus’s book - many of whom refuse to read it at all, denying it is art and dismissing it as gossip.
>Women can be as destructive, possessive and prone to rage as men, it turns out: but discovering that is what terrifies them, while exhilarating women.
/lit/ misogynists BTFO. I bet you shitlords haven't even read this stunning and brave work of modern fiction yet. It's not gossip, it's art--and men are just scared.
>>7440528
everybody trust this man's informed opinion
>>7440518
>Chris Kraus
I can't tell what would be worse: that being a pen name, or that being a real name
>>7440539
"Eh..yes...KLOWS...Mr. KLOWS"
![Dickens_Gurney_head[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/5YnJFLg.jpg "Dickens Gurney head[1]")
