What are good books with mediocre to bad prose? (i.e. books that have good ideas but aren't all that impressive on an aesthetic level)
>pic somewhat related
>>7454374
but the prose is good
did you read it in german?
>>7454374
You didn't read it in German did you? You read a shitty translation, you twat.
And anything by Huxely.
McCarthy, Pynchon, etc.
>>7454374
>monolingual shitter detected
I bet you subvocalize as well.
>>7454387
Do all works by Huxley really follow the same pattern? Good ideas, sloppy presentation?
I know BNW is kind of a mess. It was written and then rewriten in a hurry.
>>7454391
>pynchon
>bad prose
kek
>>7454374
I don't think Kafka's prose in the Trial is bad by any means. In fact, I would say that Kafka's prose is exceptional for what it's pushing for. He wasn't trying to capture some sublime essence through his prose, nor was he trying to present any sharply defined ideas, he was reaching for something far more dark and subtle. The excellency of his prose lies in what he doesn't say. He presents absurd situations without acknowledging the absurdity of them, and presents them in a way that makes them completely truthful. At the same time, Kafka makes these truthful absurdities completely alien and unknown to the reader. By doing this, Kafka keeps the reader from reason and sense, making them feel the same alienation and isolation as the protagonists.
>>7454374
>The Trial
>Bad Prose
>>7454432
Depends, Pynchon writes some paragraphs beautifully, and then throw badly constructed sentences on purpose, to create the unsettling structure he seems to look for.
His first stories in Slow Learner are not very good in plot nor in style.
Comin' through
>>7454432
He can't construct a sentence for the life of him. I feel sorry that his autism prevents him from being able to write.
>>7454374
Tom Wolfe is the king of good books that make me roll my eyes at the prose. He picks fascinating subject matter and comveys so much, but he tends to use similes that just don't quite cole together.
"Permeated the bowels like a black gas"
What household-name black gas permeates your bowels, or resembles in any way the smell of a burned corpse, which is what that's supposed to describe?
Ulysses.
OP is right about every English translation I've tried. It's fucking Ambien