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derp posted:finally finished 2666. what a wild ride. I'm getting a lol out of all the goodreads reviewers calling it 'clearly unfinished' i guess because it was published posthumously and doesn't have 'the end' written on the last page after a description of how everyone lived happily ever after. I finished this book today at work and it slaps. Loved all of it, Part 5 prob most of all, going back and reading thru the Academics section afterwards is very funny. I don’t usually get hung up on small plot details b/c I am mentally deficient but (part 5 spoilers (do people even care about “spoilers” in this thread)): is it implied that Hans drowns his wife
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Jun 2, 2020 20:51
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I don't remember almost anything about it anymore except the killings part, but I enjoyed reading it
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Jun 2, 2020 21:26
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Does anyone have a suggestion on a reading order for 2666 and Savage Detectives? I have both in my to-read pile.
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Jun 2, 2020 21:55
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Antivehicular posted:Does anyone have a suggestion on a reading order for 2666 and Savage Detectives? I have both in my to-read pile. either way works. there are characters/bits in 2666 that you will recognize if you've read savage detectives first, and savage detectives might also be a less depressing book for this particular historical moment, but both are wonderful
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Jun 2, 2020 22:03
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Thanks for suggesting The Phantom Tollbooth in the children’s literature chat a few pages back. The six year old I’m reading it to loves it. The nonsense sentences like “some of the creatures looked more like the others than they did like themselves” is entirely new to him. Might do Alice next
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Jun 3, 2020 13:19
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism I just sped through Waiting for Godot this afternoon and I did not initially connect it to absurdism, despite the recent refresher above. In hindsight, I'm kicking myself for not realizing the play is basically Myth of Sisyphus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsxkEs6G-9s
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Jun 3, 2020 21:49
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Like a third through Middlesex and yeah it’s horny, but I’m feeling pretty blah about it. Sadly my SO is super interested in sex and gender studies so now we’re mini book clubbing it so I can’t abandon. It’s fun but it just feels like a pretty bland family history. I didn’t know much about the Nation of Islam so that part was fun to read.
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Jun 3, 2020 22:09
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I'm reading Michael Kohlhaas and maybe it's the simpleton's take to cheer him on when he starts loving poo poo up but it is really cool and I'm sure there will be no consequences to his vengeance
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Jun 3, 2020 22:25
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Okay, since there's been some talk about it and the friendly lit therad seems to be more for people recommending the stuff they read I'm going to try fishing for a rec here. I'm mostly a genre reader so I'd like to branch into something less bound by convention; I prefer having a bit of mystery and wonder in the book but the real catch preventing me from just going in blindly is that it can't be horny; graphic sex is a no-no and romance is ideally kept to a minimum. Some (possibly?) lit I've tried and liked: Borges, Eco (minor horny bits vastly overshadowed by the story), Moby Dick (ditto - I think it's only got one homoerotic moment?), Hugo (a possible exception to the romance rule, but I really enjoyed The Hunchback, Les Misérables and The Laughing Man). Modern would be preferable but I suspect the closer to the present you go, the hornier it gets due to shifting conventions. Any tips?
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Jun 3, 2020 22:47
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A list of famously non-horny authors would include Kafka and Gogol at least, and both have plenty of mystery. Borges would've been my starting point but I can't think of a non-horny Borgesian author
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Jun 3, 2020 22:53
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Pale Fire by Nabokov. It's the least horny of his books with only some light, implied homoeroticism. It's hard to recommend something with minimal romantic interactions - just curious, what about it is unappealing? Are you okay with nonsexual romance stories? Are you okay with sex if it's tastefully written, or if it's not embellished? As in, perhaps the sex involves some degree of clumsiness rather than just being pornographic the way a lot of genre sex tends to be? I'm thinking of something like Mishima's Spring Snow, where the main character is about to have sex with the girl he's been love with and prematurely ejaculates. It's romantic but it's the kind of first sex a virgin might have, awkward and unembellished but not unrealistic, I suppose.
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Jun 3, 2020 22:59
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Ras Het posted:A list of famously non-horny authors would include Kafka and Gogol at least, and both have plenty of mystery. Borges would've been my starting point but I can't think of a non-horny Borgesian author Heath posted:Pale Fire by Nabokov. It's the least horny of his books with only some light, implied homoeroticism. As for the reasoning - I'm a sad lonely goon and reading about sex'n'love of believable characters (hence genre mostly getting a pass) depresses me. That's it, really. The spoiler sounds like it would disqualify Spring Snow, though. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 23:09
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Pale fire is the funniest book i've ever read. it's been years and i still chuckle to myself sometimes when thinking of it
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Jun 3, 2020 23:10
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If your authors are not horny they are trash
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Jun 3, 2020 23:17
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Embrace the literary horn. Also read The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, that's non-horny, funny and has the best mood in any book
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Jun 3, 2020 23:28
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I once recommended 100 years of solitude to a friend and he gave it back and said he didnt like it because there was too much sex and I stopped being his friend Meanwhile, Peter Nadas remains unique in being the only author who is too horny for me
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Jun 3, 2020 23:35
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Ras Het posted:A list of famously non-horny authors would include Kafka and Gogol at least, and both have plenty of mystery. Borges would've been my starting point but I can't think of a non-horny Borgesian author Now I'm thinking of The Castle where K dances with the barmaid and how the dancing, to me, was definitely a signifier of sex-ambitions (and he continues to want her, even if his want is a displacement of other things) and there's prostitutes/wenches. And generally there is definitely a horniness in The Castle because there's horniness in every part of life. So I think The Trial might be a better example of a less-horny Kafka, where it's not as to-the-surface as in The Castle.
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Jun 3, 2020 23:37
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Does Steinbeck have horny? I read so long ago I dunno
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Jun 3, 2020 23:40
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J_RBG posted:Embrace the literary horn. Also read The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, that's non-horny, funny and has the best mood in any book if you remember The Third Policeman as non-horny then you need to go back and re-read the bit near the end about the bicycle quote:The bicycle itself seemed to have some peculiar quality of shape or personality which gave it distinction and importance far beyond that usually possessed by such machines. It was extremely well-kept with a pleasing lustre on its dark-green bars and oil-bath and a clean sparkle on the rustless spokes and rims. Resting before me like a tame domestic pony, it seemed unduly small and low in relation to the Sergeant yet when I measured its height against myself I found it was bigger than any other bicycle that I knew. This was possibly due to the perfect proportion of its parts which combined merely to create a thing of surpassing grace and elegance, transcending all standards of size and reality and existing only in the absolute validity of its own unexceptionable dimensions. Notwithstanding the sturdy cross-bar it seemed ineffably female and fastidious, posing there like a mannequin rather than leaning idly like a loafer against the wall, and resting on its prim flawless tyres with irreproachable precision, two tiny points of clean contact with the level floor. I passed my hand with unintended tenderness-sensuously, indeed – across the saddle. Inexplicably it reminded me of a human face, not by any simple resemblance of shape or feature but by some association of textures, some incomprehensible familiarity at the fingertips. The leather was dark with maturity, hard with a noble hardness and scored with all the sharp lines and finer wrinkles which the years with their tribulations had carved into my own countenance. It was a gentle saddle yet calm and courageous, unembittered by its confinement and bearing no mark upon it save that of honourable suffering and honest duty. I knew that I liked this bicycle more than I had ever liked any other bicycle, better even than I had liked some people with two legs. I liked her unassuming competence, her docility, the simple dignity of her quiet way. She now seemed to rest beneath my friendly eyes like a tame fowl which will crouch submissively, awaiting with out-hunched wings the caressing hand. Her saddle seemed to spread invitingly into the most enchanting of all seats while her two handlebars, floating finely with the wild grace of alighting wings, beckoned to me to lend my mastery for free and joyful journeyings, the lightest of light running in the company of the swift ground winds to safe havens far away, the whir of the true front wheel in my ear as it spun perfectly beneath my clear eye and the strong fine back wheel with unadmired industry raising gentle dust on the dry roads. How desirable her seat was, how charming the invitation of her slim encircling handle-arms, how unaccountably competent and reassuring her pump resting warmly against her rear thigh!
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Jun 3, 2020 23:41
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read Cosmicomics and The Cyberiad
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Jun 3, 2020 23:41
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apophenium posted:I'm reading Michael Kohlhaas and maybe it's the simpleton's take to cheer him on when he starts loving poo poo up but it is really cool and I'm sure there will be no consequences to his vengeance Are you going to follow it up with Ragtime, especially given the current zeitgeist?
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Jun 3, 2020 23:43
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Tree Goat posted:read Cosmicomics and The Cyberiad
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Jun 3, 2020 23:43
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alsoquote:'Very few of the people guess what is going on in this parish. There are other things I would rather not say too much about. A new lady teacher was here one time with a new bicycle. She was not very long here till Gilhaney went away into the lonely country on her female bicycle. Can you appreciate the immorality of that?’
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Jun 3, 2020 23:46
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drat gotta read this bicycle book
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Jun 3, 2020 23:47
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nut posted:drat gotta read this bicycle book hell yeah
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Jun 3, 2020 23:53
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That's just perfectly normal writing about bicycles
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Jun 3, 2020 23:54
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Mrenda posted:Now I'm thinking of The Castle where K dances with the barmaid and how the dancing, to me, was definitely a signifier of sex-ambitions (and he continues to want her, even if his want is a displacement of other things) and there's prostitutes/wenches. And generally there is definitely a horniness in The Castle because there's horniness in every part of life. So I think The Trial might be a better example of a less-horny Kafka, where it's not as to-the-surface as in The Castle. quote:Frieda turned off the electric light and joined K. under the bar. ‘My darling! My sweet darling!’ she whispered, but she did not touch K. She lay on her back as if swooning with desire, and spread her arms wide. Time must have seemed endless to her in her amorous bliss, and she sighed rather than sang a little song of some kind. Then she took alarm, for K. remained quiet, lost in thought, and she began tugging at him like a child. ‘Come on, I’m stifling down here.’ They embraced one another, her little body burned in K.’s hands, they rolled, in a semi-conscious state from which K. tried constantly but unsuccessfully to surface, a little way on, bumped into Klamm’s door with a hollow thud, then lay there in the puddles of beer and the rubbish covering the floor. Hours passed as they lay there, hours while they breathed together and their hearts beat in unison, hours in which K. kept feeling that he had lost himself, or was further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before, a distant country where even the air was unlike the air at home, where you were likely to stifle in the strangeness of it, yet such were its senseless lures that you could only go on, losing your way even more. Also, I would say The Trial is pretty drat famous for its sexual themes... almost every female character is lusting after Josef K. Kafka was deeply familiar with Freud's works, and has been described as a womanizer himself.
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Jun 4, 2020 00:00
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Tree Goat posted:read Cosmicomics and The Cyberiad doesn't cosmicimics have like entire horny planets penetrating into one another e: maybe I entirely misremembered Kafka's horny levels, it's been a few years
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Jun 4, 2020 00:10
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Ras Het posted:doesn't cosmicimics have like entire horny planets penetrating into one another Saturn is loving its own rings if you think about it
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Jun 4, 2020 00:12
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Ras Het posted:doesn't cosmicimics have like entire horny planets penetrating into one another i thought they were devouring each other in a sort of love/hate thing, it's been a while
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Jun 4, 2020 00:14
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Bandiet posted:They do a bit more than dance, if you remember: I thought the dance was hornier than the rest. It's the whole naked versus veiled, sexual versus erotic thing. I don't remember there being a part of the Trial where he gives into a sexuality though (unless its seen through death and/or other people.) But generally, Kafka is definitely horny, just varying degrees of circumspect about it.
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Jun 4, 2020 00:20
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Are you going to follow it up with Ragtime, especially given the current zeitgeist? I might! I'm unfamiliar with it and with E. L. Doctorow in general but it seems neat. I like historical fiction especially when it involves real events or people that are the quintessential "if it weren't real it'd be unbelievable" kinda thing. A General Theory of Oblivion was kinda like that for me.
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Jun 4, 2020 00:52
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anilEhilated posted:Okay, since there's been some talk about it and the friendly lit therad seems to be more for people recommending the stuff they read I'm going to try fishing for a rec here. stanislaw lem read one of the lesser known ones like fiasco or his master's voice Shibawanko fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 06:17
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Shibawanko posted:stanislaw lem Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
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Jun 4, 2020 07:15
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I've started reading The melancholy of resistance, and it's very good so far, I'm not sure if it will have anything to do with actual resistance but it seemed apropos for our current climate. Also I really loved satantango
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Jun 4, 2020 07:20
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derp posted:I've started reading The melancholy of resistance, and it's very good so far, I'm not sure if it will have anything to do with actual resistance but it seemed apropos for our current climate. Also I really loved satantango Life is resistance. Also László K is the best living author.
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Jun 4, 2020 07:26
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anilEhilated posted:Good idea, I've only read Cyberiad, Solaris and some of his (rather generic) short stories. I guess he didn't occur to me because of the genre trappings. the short stories vary in quality although i really enjoy all of them. some of the star diaries are very good. my favorite is the one where tichy goes to a place where the body has become infinitely malleable and it's just this nightmare world where fashion dictates how many heads you have and being tortured to death repeatedly is seen as entertainment. the best lem is probably his master's voice though, but read fiasco if you are up for a more adventurous sort of story
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Jun 4, 2020 07:58
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derp posted:I've started reading The melancholy of resistance, and it's very good so far, I'm not sure if it will have anything to do with actual resistance but it seemed apropos for our current climate. Also I really loved satantango I remember the train ride at the start being so funny the first time I read it
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Jun 4, 2020 11:26
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anilEhilated posted:Okay, since there's been some talk about it and the friendly lit therad seems to be more for people recommending the stuff they read I'm going to try fishing for a rec here. Svetislav Basara maybe, with the caveat that I've only read one of his books and it wasn't really horny at all but some of his other ones could be. I don't think Raymond Roussel was very horny although it's been a little while since I read Locus Solus.
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Jun 4, 2020 11:29
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anilEhilated posted:Some (possibly?) lit I've tried and liked: Borges, Eco (minor horny bits vastly overshadowed by the story), Moby Dick (ditto - I think it's only got one homoerotic moment?), Hugo (a possible exception to the romance rule, but I really enjoyed The Hunchback, Les Misérables and The Laughing Man). Modern would be preferable but I suspect the closer to the present you go, the hornier it gets due to shifting conventions. Any tips? Old-timey novels of ideas like Cyrano de Bergerac's A Voyage to the Moon, Cabell's Jurgen, Voltaire's Candide, Zadig, etc. might be up your alley, depending on how hung up you are on modernity. All very inventive, obviously foundational for later genre fiction and thoroughly unromantic.
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Jun 4, 2020 11:44
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