I'm looking for a bold, epic, difficult novel, for hardcore readers.
>>8266806
In what language, what genre and what length do you want?
>>8266814
English, please. What genre or length, I'm not sure. Just hit me with a big list of books, if you wouldn't mind.
Moby Dick
I reccomend 'It' by Stephen King.
Infinite Jest
>>8266861
This
or Gargantua and Pantagruel
or The Apes of God
or Ulysses
To Kill a Mockingbird is quite hardcore, especially the bit where you find out the guy is drinking coca cola instead of beer, really made me go hmmm
>>8266806
K's CPR.
> The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil
The novel is a "story of ideas", which takes place in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy's last days, and the plot often veers into allegorical dissections on a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. It has a particular concern with the values of truth and opinion and how society organizes ideas about life and society, though the book is well over a thousand pages long in its entirety, and so no one single theme dominates.
(source: Wikipedia.org)
qt3.14 optional
Joseph Heller - Something Happened
Style similar to that of Catch-22, but implemented in a far more sophisticated manner. Content similar to something like Babbitt by Sinclair if you've read that, essentially the tedium and soul-draining experience of average middle-class office life for an average middle-aged man with an average family. What makes it difficult to parse through at times is the syntax. He uses ridiculously long chapters, paragraphs, sentences, even parantheticals (I seem to remember one stretching well over a full page). This structure serves an important function in the work, however; it is not just another cheap, post-modern gimmick. Bleak, witty, insightful. Fantastic novel that everyone who either loved or hated Catch-22 should read.
>>8267391
Made me kek.
It really is a good choice for younger readers. It allows for excellent introductions to some common themes, sysmbolism, historical/literary/biblical allusions, irony, paradox, all sorts of techniques and devices that readers will need to understand. I also highly enjoy the characterization in that book (for example, the scene where we meet Dill and he tries to act like he's so mature and older than he is, only to crawl under the fence a moment later always stuck with me as a fantastic example of encapsulating a character quite thoroughly and yet succinctly, not to mention humorously). It's one of the few books ubiquitous to school curricula that I believe deserves its place there.
>>8266806
Petersburg by Andrei Bely
I consider it Russian Ulysses. There's also that really, difficult German novel which is meant to be more complex than Finnegan's Wake I've heard and it's never so much as been translated into English.
>>8266806
J R
The Recognitions
Gravity's Rainbow
Mason & Dixon
Ada, or Ardor
Devils (Dostoevsky)
probably In Search Of Lost Time (haven't yet read it)
>>8267393
>you
>not a pseud
>>8267407
Gud choice my dood
>>8267407
Dis nigga knows.
>>8267459
https://www.amazon.com/Bottoms-Dream-German-Literature-Schmidt/dp/1628971592/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468280868&sr=8-1&keywords=bottom%27s+dream
You mean this one?
>>8267414
>qt3.14 optional
it's not really optional if you read the bits that aren't about poe
The Glass Bead Game
Clarissa
Ulysses
Infinite Jest
Moby Dick
The Bard's complete works and the Bible alone should keep you busy for a lifetime desu
>>8266806
The Beetle Leg
I guarantee you that most people here could read it from cover to cover and not have any idea what they just read.
>>8267812
>glass bead game
tell me about that one familia.
>>8267824
read it for yourself, its a masterpiece.
The Man Without Qualities
You Bright and Risen Angels ['Europe Central' gets discussed a bit here but this one doesn't, which is a shame because it's similar to V. and Infinite Jest and other /lit/ staples but also profoundly unique]
Your Face Tomorrow [when read together in one go]
The Don novels [when read together in one go]
this is the one time that this recommendation actually works
>>8267407
>reads Musil
>doesn't realize Hermann Broch wrote half the amount Musil did and still managed to be more of an incisive writer/thinker
>mfw
>>8267871
Somehow, people fall for the doorstop meme a lot even when they should know better. It's like there's something instinctive that makes people think every giant-ass book is automatically a masterpiece.
>nobody's mentioned the wake yet
You people make me fucking sick
>>8267888
It just seems like such an obvious thing to mention in this kind of thread though. Like it should go without saying so no one says it.
>>8267888
thank you for your invaluable input, offering a novel that I believe has never been discussed or recommended on this forum before. thanks again, and best regards!
muh dick
JR
>>8267888
>kekk kekk kekk
>>8267939
It's not that difficult. The style just takes some getting used to.
>>8267896
>Like it should go without saying so no one says it.
That is the flaw of communities that sociologists have been whining about for the last forever
>>8267951
I'd say you're wrong in this case because Joyce's reputation is such that you're bound to hear about all of his books at one point or another if you have a sustained, more than passing interest in literature. I heard of him and Ulysses before I even cared about reading.
>>8267868
>novel
nope, try again next thread
Try the Iliad and Odyssey.
>>8266806
Los Sorias, by Alberto Laiseca.
Celia Se Pudre, by Héctor Rojas Herazo
Escolios A Un Texto Implícito, by Nicolás Gómez Dávalos
2666, by Roberto Bolaño (Personal favourite)
Shakespeare's complete works
Plato's complete works
In the Realms of the Unreal by Henry Darger
Infinite Jest by DFW
Essays by Montaigne
Complete works of William Gaddis
ISOLT by Proust
Complete works of Jorge Luis Borges
>>8267973
>Complete works of William Gaddis
Carpenter's Gothic is a very light read compared to everything else he wrote.
>>8267973
>Los Sorias
Seriously considering learning Spanish just to read this beast. My only hope in this world is that this someday gets translated into English.
>>8267973
>In the Realms of the Unreal by Henry Darger
Somehow I've never seen this mentioned here until now. You'd think it'd be more of a meme that no one's read along the lines of Women and Men.
>>8267702
Only a pseud would find Moby-Dick to be difficult in any meaningful sense.
Likewise, only a pseud would force themselves through Moby-Dick if the subject matter didn't appeal to them, which is the only way one could perceive it as "difficult".
>>8267504
This is the truth OP
>>8267504
Pynchons my fav writer for sure because my fav thing in books is goofs, gags, jokes and rambunctious behavior, and his books are full to the brim of it. Every novel is like one of those novelty snake cans, you open the book & POP you get a face fulla snakes and you fall back cackling. The mad mind, the crack genius, to do it! and then you think hmmm whats he gonna do next, this trickster, and you pick the book back up and BZZZZZZZZZZ you get a shock and Hahahahahah you've been pranked again by the old pynchmeister, that card. "Did that Pynch?" he says, laughing yukyukyukyuk. Watch him as he shoves a pair of plastic buck teeth right up into his mouth and displays em for you- left, right, center- "you like dese? Do i look handsome???" Pulls out a mirror. "Ah!" Hand to naughty mouth. And you're on your ass again laughing as he snaps his suspenders, exits stage right, and appears again hauling a huge golden gong.
>>8267372
That's gonna be too hard for this hardcore dood
>>8266806
War and Peace perhaps
>>8267817
its probably the Gregory Berrycone effect. The writer is such a hack that it's impossible to begin to fathom the authorial intent.
>>8268427
Delete this
>>8267881
>>8268688
>Hawkes
>a hack
Kill you are self cemya.
>>8267795
>September 23, 2016
>>8268427
cosigning dis
If you can read and fully comprehend Finnegan's Wake, you have won the game.
>>8267372
Eh, IT isn't that special. I'm obviously biased against it but it has too many problems for me to recommend.
>>8267407
Came here to post this. Very challenging, very rewarding too. Comparisons and metaphors in this book are among the best litterature has to offer.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Challenge: Remember each and every character, and be able to summarise who they were and what they did
>>8267423
I loved Babbitt. I have a copy of something happened.. maybe I'll be tackling it sooner than i thought
The Bible is pretty contested.
>>8270901
Always thought Dream of Red Chambers is more of a challenging read
>>8267944
Joyce was a genius.
