[!@#$%!]

i don't like pynchon much. but i think severian and/or evollove are fans.

having said that, gravity's rainbow is his most celebrated thick and heavy tome.

there's really no way around that. so i've avoided it. i mean, i tried--and tossed it

sorry

nevertheless, he's important

--

ETA: oh, i'll post you something to read. RIGHT HERE.

one moment...

here you go:

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/...spresent/tense

[evollove]

Not me.

I like Crying well enough and re-read it now and then, but that's the only one I can get through. Made it 90 pages into V and less into Gravity's. I hear Mason and Dixon is good, but it's also a doorstopper.

[Rob Instigator]

Finished Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-First Century

http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2017/0...tter-than.html

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

 

Fucking grim. It's the account of a guy who spent years in a Russian gulag back in the 40's. Reading it the question always pops up for me of "how are humans able to carry on no matter how grim the outlook?". Knowing that whilst you might have a ten year sentence often the prisoner would be told at the end of it "we're adding another ten years, and there's nothing you can do". Where do people find the energy to carry on? It reminds me of that line in Samuel Beckett's story 'The Unnamable' "you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.".

There have been more famous boks about guags released "One day in the life..." etc. but why this one isn't more well know I'll never know.

That sounds good. I will add to my ever-expanding list

[Rob Instigator]

Pynchon is boring AF. so is Salinger.

I have tried asnd tried with thopse wto but life is too short.

Re: Vonnegut, I think people mistake simplicity with being juvenile/underdeveloped, when the hardest thing in the fucking world is conveying an idea in the simplest possible way so that it is undiluted. Vonnegut appeals to the cynics, the depressed, the ones who see everything we are supposed to take part in while living (church, politics, war, etc.) as fucking BULLSHIT, and who suffer because of this ambivalence towards what everyone else thinks is important. He was not the greatest prose stylist, but so what? There is more than one way to pluck a guitar string.

His books are funnier, and more of a FUCK YOU to the status quo we all live in, while still maintaining that essential goodness of man that Freethinkers and Unitarians cling to.

[!@#$%!]

crying of lot 49 put me to sleep but i persisted. no prize at the end. still, it was a short book, so i managed.

these days i'm way more ruthless. with death approaching, there's no time to waste trying to prove something to a bunch of strangers.

i toss books a lot.

i'm a big tosser, lolololol

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Pynchon is boring AF. so is Salinger.

I have tried asnd tried with thopse wto but life is too short.

Re: Vonnegut, I think people mistake simplicity with being juvenile/underdeveloped, when the hardest thing in the fucking world is conveying an idea in the simplest possible way so that it is undiluted. Vonnegut appeals to the cynics, the depressed, the ones who see everything we are supposed to take part in while living (church, politics, war, etc.) as fucking BULLSHIT, and who suffer because of this ambivalence towards what everyone else thinks is important. He was not the greatest prose stylist, but so what? There is more than one way to pluck a guitar string.

His books are funnier, and more of a FUCK YOU to the status quo we all live in, while still maintaining that essential goodness of man that Freethinkers and Unitarians cling to.

I get this. Sure. Cool.

Again, it's from an SF fan's perspective that I have beef with KVJ. I don't like seeing Slaughterhouse Five on best SF lists, above PKD or Wolfe or Bradbury.

But I like "Long Walk to Forever," so... fuck. The guy did simple well, and it's very true that writing simply and with any degree of eloquence is one of ge great challenges writers face.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

crying of lot 49 put me to sleep but i persisted. no prize at the end. still, it was a short book, so i managed.

these days i'm way more ruthless. with death approaching, there's no time to waste trying to prove something to a bunch of strangers.

i toss books a lot.

i'm a big tosser, lolololol

Well, yah. Don't do that shit. That's reading for sport, and we've all done it, but it is absolutely a waste of time.

As for Pynchon... I Fucking LOVE Inherent Vice. Hate the movie pretty much. Love the novel. The only other thing I've read is Gravity's Rainbow, long ago. I think it's a great book, but if I hadn't read it in my early 20s, I think I would have missed the moment a bit.

[ilduclo]

Mason & Dixon was really fun. I'd read all of his earlier output years ago, but then went 10+ years & didn't miss and/or need anything more from him. So, with a lack of something to read & seeing a used MnD for like 3 whole dollars, I gave it a try. Worth every cent...then, having enjoyed that as much as I did, I tried Against the Day. Wow, what a fucking zero that one was...so back to my no Pynchon input needed life....

[Severian]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

Mason & Dixon was really fun. I'd read all of his earlier output years ago, but then went 10+ years & didn't miss and/or need anything more from him. So, with a lack of something to read & seeing a used MnD for like 3 whole dollars, I gave it a try. Worth every cent...then, having enjoyed that as much as I did, I tried Against the Day. Wow, what a fucking zero that one was...so back to my no Pynchon input needed life....

I haven't read Mason & Dixon, but maybe I'll give it a go after reading this. I saw a copy of it at Goodwill last week. Guessing it's still there.

Regarding other Pynchon... yeah.. again, I loved Inherent Vice and I'm glad I read Gravity's Rainbow, but I don't feel any real desire to dig much deeper.

[TheDom]

Currently digging into some short stories lately.. Hemingway is of course the master for me but I'm hoping you folks here could recommend a collection or Anthology for me??

[ilduclo]

Short stories! Wow, so many good ones. American lit you can't go wrong w/Hawthorne and Melville. Flannery O'Conner, Wm Faulkner. Hmm, Kafka, FM Dostoevsky...

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by TheDom

Currently digging into some short stories lately.. Hemingway is of course the master for me but I'm hoping you folks here could recommend a collection or Anthology for me??

poe did it first id say check him out definitely

maupassant

chekhov was great tho a bit long winder per today's

oh, flannery fucking o'connor hell yeah hell yeah so good. she's just so great

BORGES, for jeeves sakes. it's all he wrote (and poems and essays). his pal bioy casares too. and his semi-disciple julio cortazar. argentina seems to have the top place in latin america when it comes to this genre. oh and roberto arlt. and their neighbor horacio quiroga. must we something in the water of the rio de la plata.

garcia marquez has some good ones too but he was better as a novelist. still, he's got a few classics.

personally i really like this mexican guy juan josé arreola. i read him too old for him to make a bigger impression unfortunately but he was very good. and another guy but hard to find--- jose revueltas ( his brother silvestre was a composer). if you can find "hegel and i"-- o man. oh and juan rulfo! hell yes.

oh, bolaño if you like him has short stories too.

jose maria arguedas has some really nice ones, sad ones if you can find him. also julio ramon ribeyro.

oh, and i really like william gibson's early short stories collected in burning chrome. guess im a fan.

and many many years ago jack vance blew my mind with his science fictions

what else hm.... ... tim obrien in the things they carried. really how he tells all by lists! genius

Duh! raymond carver of course! just saw shortcuts 2 weekends ago and spaced him. and thus drunkard john cheever. and updike

chekhov is really a master but might be a little long winded for our age. if you have the patience though...

who else...

tolstoy had some funny tales

oh, kafka of course! jeez. dat man. of course

soeaking of which people blow a lot of rockets for murakami but i dont find him original in the least. what can i say.

salinger is celebrated but he doesnt do it for me. sorry. but salinger i guess.

anotehr i cant get into is junot diaz, americas favorit his-panic. dont know, maybe some day

oh, joyce! dubliners is a lovely book. really great

okay gotta go zzzzzzz

[evollove]

Jesus fuck dude.

Just get an anthology. There are a fuckton. Easily available at libraries and used book places.

Or give me a few bucks for shipping and I'll hook you up. I have too many.

[!@#$%!]

who fucked jesus?

nah, anthologies often suck, unless you're talking about selected works from a great writer and even then selection is so often weirdly arbitrary

anthologies often lead to nowhere and present things in the wrong context.

here it becomes a matter of finding the right anthologist. often unsung heroes, the poor bastards. it's easier to hunt for a great writer than for a great anthologist.

best to look at complete books by great writers where you can really "get them"

to pare shit down, then i'd say start with fucking POE. that's the epicenter, in more ways than one. get the whole book of everything, with his essays and poems too, then peck around.

otherwise fast forward to FICCIONES which is where borges first found his best form.

[evollove]

???

Practically every short story anthology I can think of from the last twenty years includes at least one story by every writer you mentioned, except for the super specific ones.

Norton anthology of short fiction is great. There are a bunch of volumes to choose from, so if you want a bit more contemporary stuff get a more recent volume. But if you just want to feast on the form, any will do. (And lots of "context," if that's a concern.)

I see the latest is edited by Richard Bausch, who is a fine writer himself.

Honestly symbols, I don't know what you're talking about.

[!@#$%!]

ah, norton. if you wanna sell him the norton anthology just say so.

that's exactly the thing-- what's a good anthology and what's a shitty one.

an anthology of what

borges and bioy casares had this awesome anthology that blew my mind and got me off comics when i was around 12

ANTOLOGIA DE LA LITERATURA FANTASTICA

awesome book gathered fantastic tales from all around the planet and times in history

that's an anthology i'd recommend. chosen by a great and a good writer.

but there are all sort of regional or historical or thematic anthologies-- it all depends on the criterion used for them no?

richard bausch is a nice man.

[evollove]

Did/do you read Poe in a Spanish translation? Just wondering.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Did/do you read Poe in a Spanish translation? Just wondering.

first yes of course

later no, of course, reread him en inglés

why. you don't like his old timey sentences?

[evollove]

I appreciate his historical importance, but no. I don't enjoy reading him on a sentence level. And I think his stories are often idiotic. Isn't there a mystery story where the solution is an animal escaped from the zoo and killed the guy?

But it's been awhile.

And when I was a little kid my father read me "Tell-Tale Heart" and I had a nightmare about it.

So I dunno.