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Not to belabour the point but Bataille was an enormously literate and self-reflective writer whose explorations of transgression are a lot more purposeful and deliberate than the tawdry reputation of something like L'Histoire de l'oeil would have you believe, and he's absolutely worth reading
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Jun 25, 2022 11:15
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Recently I've decided to jump back into Shakespeare after enjoying some of his sonnets. I hate having to look at footnotes for definitions are there any other collections that go for the definitions in the margins instead of in the footnotes? Mostly looking for the plays individually. I know the Norton Shakespeare has the definitions in the margins, but I'm not so sure about buying such a thick
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Jun 27, 2022 22:49
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Hat Thoughts posted:mishima confessions of a mask made e think...if this guy was born in france he'd be a lot more chilled out I had basically the same thoughts, like if you subtracted the repression of the environment if he would've been nearly so miserable
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Jun 28, 2022 01:01
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Xeom posted:Recently I've decided to jump back into Shakespeare after enjoying some of his sonnets. I hate having to look at footnotes for definitions are there any other collections that go for the definitions in the margins instead of in the footnotes? Mostly looking for the plays individually. I know the Norton Shakespeare has the definitions in the margins, but I'm not so sure about buying such a thick the Folger Library editions are very cheap and easy to read. They have glosses on the opposite page, iirc.
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Jun 28, 2022 03:21
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Coffee stains everywhere though
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Jun 28, 2022 03:31
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Hat Thoughts posted:mishima confessions of a mask made e think...if this guy was born in france he'd be a lot more chilled out Two nukes at around 20 years old can’t have had a positive affect, either. I don’t know how you survive that and come away NOT obsessed with death.
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Jun 28, 2022 04:45
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Anyone read anything good from 2022
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Jul 3, 2022 16:52
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I haven't finished it yet but I got Otessa Moshfegh's latest and it's pretty nice. It's set in a village in the Middle Ages so Moshfegh, who is inclined to the grotesque, gets even grosser than normal, if that's your thing.
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Jul 5, 2022 14:32
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I'm reading Winesburg, Ohio right now and really enjoying it. My wife chastised me for not reading the author bio, because I never think they are interesting, but after reading half the book I'm wondering if I should go back
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Jul 9, 2022 23:07
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sephiRoth IRA posted:I'm reading Winesburg, Ohio right now and really enjoying it. My wife chastised me for not reading the author bio, because I never think they are interesting, but after reading half the book I'm wondering if I should go back That was the first book I read on advice of this thread, at least I think it was from this thread. Really liked it too.
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Jul 10, 2022 02:25
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sephiRoth IRA posted:I'm reading Winesburg, Ohio right now and really enjoying it. My wife chastised me for not reading the author bio, because I never think they are interesting, but after reading half the book I'm wondering if I should go back It's a great book and I'm a sucker for that kind of structure. And stories set in small towns.
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Jul 11, 2022 14:04
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im reading Aller tage abend by Jenny Erpenbeck, it’s pretty good
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Jul 18, 2022 08:26
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Finished Wineburg, Ohio. Really great. Reflecting back on the idea of a "grotesque", it's a really great book. Just a bunch of weird broken people. My next book is my fourth attempt at Gravity's Rainbow. My previous attempts derailed after the first section. I don't know if there's some sort of companion guide to help me parse the book better. I feel super dumb trying to read any pynchon- even lot 49 made my eyes just slide off the words 
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Jul 18, 2022 14:13
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Finished Wineburg, Ohio. Really great. Reflecting back on the idea of a "grotesque", it's a really great book. Just a bunch of weird broken people. Some Things That "Happen" (More or Less) In Gravity's Rainbow is a handy summary. Pynchon Wiki has annotations. Next time I read it, I'll probably use the Weisenburger Gravity's Rainbow Companion. With Pynchon, you just keep reading. Read it slower, read it with intention, and just keep reading. You can always go back and re-read a section for clarity later.
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Jul 18, 2022 14:40
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Franchescanado posted:Some Things That "Happen" (More or Less) In Gravity's Rainbow is a handy summary. Oh, these are wonderful, thank you!
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Jul 18, 2022 14:55
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ulvir posted:im reading Aller tage abend by Jenny Erpenbeck, it’s pretty good i’ve finished Aller tage abend by Jenny Erpenbeck, it was pretty good. the intermezzos started to feel repetitive after the third time though, but liked the premise and theme
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Jul 19, 2022 16:29
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I just finished Eimar McBride's A Child is a Half-Formed Thing and I think it definitely qualifies as it's absolutely miserable except that the prose is this visceral embodiment.
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Jul 20, 2022 04:09
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Segue posted:I just finished Eimar McBride's A Child is a Half-Formed Thing and I think it definitely qualifies as it's absolutely miserable except that the prose is this visceral embodiment. Probably my favorite book. Agree that it is heavy, though I personally wouldn’t say miserable. Something about sharing her stream of consciousness imparts an empathy and dignity she was repeatedly denied throughout her life. Basically only the reader listens to her. drat I’m due for a reread but I think I gave my copy away. Did you read it in translation? The title in English is “A Girl Is a Half-Formed thing.” Maybe just a typo, but fascinating if not.
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Jul 20, 2022 15:31
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Reading Revolutionary Road, as it’s been sitting in my bookshelf forever and I needed something breezy to read. Enjoying it more than I thought I would. If anyone has other Yates books they want to shoutout I would definitely be interested.
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Jul 21, 2022 01:26
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Just finished Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai. I grew to love the characters and their eccentricities. Just a beautiful, and weird story. Lightning Rods, from the same author, is incredible if anyone's looking for a satire right now.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:03
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sephiRoth IRA posted:Finished Wineburg, Ohio. Really great. Reflecting back on the idea of a "grotesque", it's a really great book. Just a bunch of weird broken people. If you can absolutely destroy your brain learning about post ww2 deep politics it makes reading Pynchon loving transcendent
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Jul 22, 2022 03:59
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Someone choose my next Dostoyevsky I’m undecided between Brothers K or Demons
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Jul 22, 2022 16:44
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read brothers k
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Jul 22, 2022 21:29
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La Chinoise is supposedly an adaption of Demons which is wild. I guarantee the novels better than that lovely movie, but Brothers is an incredibly good work so probably just read that.
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Jul 22, 2022 21:33
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Thirding Brothers K, it’s transcendent.
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Jul 23, 2022 14:13
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I did an reading of contemporary lit, The Netanyahus. it was pretty entertaining, not really groundbreaking in any way but the prose flowed well enough
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Jul 24, 2022 20:22
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Is there a particular translation one should aim for Brothers K?
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Jul 25, 2022 17:51
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Idaholy Roller posted:Is there a particular translation one should aim for Brothers K? Constance Garnett. Stay away from Pevear and Volonhsky.
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Jul 25, 2022 18:18
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mdemone posted:Constance Garnett. Stay away from Pevear and Volonhsky. Several russian speakers are typing..
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Jul 26, 2022 20:56
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Well that's fortunate, I've been reading a translation I just grabbed off Project Gutenberg and it turns out to be Garnett.
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Jul 27, 2022 16:05
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btw Standard Ebooks has nice looking epub versions of a bunch of Project Gutenberg, including the Garnett Brothers Karamazov: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/fyodor-dostoevsky/the-brothers-karamazov/constance-garnett
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Jul 27, 2022 19:29
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Garnett's fine. Maybe not the greatest attempt at trying to create a comparable prose style to Dostoyevsky since her own phrasing and rhythm is fairly distinctive across authors but there have been much worse Russian-to-English translations.
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Jul 27, 2022 20:22
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I've always assumed we're just not going to be able to access what is great about the Russian text, because Western-trained translators will sound stilted to Russian speakers, and vice versa. Lydia Davis is closer to French phrasing & tone in Proust, for example, than any native English speaker can probably get to Russian text. It's just not gonna happen, so just read Garnett and deal with your issues.
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Jul 27, 2022 22:15
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I’m reading Pevear and Volonhsky’s Crime and Punishment now. How’s it different from other translations?
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Jul 27, 2022 22:32
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lifg posted:I’m reading Pevear and Volonhsky’s Crime and Punishment now. How’s it different from other translations? This is a casual article with some examples of different translations vs P+V. The Pevearsion of Russian Literature
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Jul 27, 2022 22:36
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Maybe that’s why all three of my attempts to read War and Peace have never made it past the halfway mark
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Jul 27, 2022 23:30
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I read the p+v of The Idiot and Crime and Punishment and thought they were fine, for what it's worth. The Idiot was my first Dostoevsky and I thought it was incredible. Kinda curious to reread a different translation, especially now that I've read more translated books in general. It's interesting what a backlash their translations have received after their rise in popularity. They really aren't as dreadful as that article makes them seem, even if they are inferior versions.
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Jul 28, 2022 04:43
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has anyone read Jachym Topol? I recently heard of City Sister Silver (original title is Sestra) which sounded really interesting
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Jul 28, 2022 11:32
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Idaholy Roller posted:Is there a particular translation one should aim for Brothers K?
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Jul 28, 2022 20:28
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A lot of the time if there's a Constance Garnett translation of a book, one of the central complaints is the accuracy of the translation, but there's almost always a modern revised version that fixes any inaccuracies and still keep the advantages of Garnett's versions. Those aren't going to be the versions you find on Project Gutenberg or anything.apophenium posted:I read the p+v of The Idiot and Crime and Punishment and thought they were fine, for what it's worth. The Idiot was my first Dostoevsky and I thought it was incredible. Kinda curious to reread a different translation, especially now that I've read more translated books in general. It's interesting what a backlash their translations have received after their rise in popularity. They really aren't as dreadful as that article makes them seem, even if they are inferior versions. It is worth noting how loving ubiquitous P&V versions were for a bit around when that article dropped and how they were marketed as The Definitive English Version. A 2008-9 version of this conversation might've had people saying don't read anyone but them. Even if Morson was overcorrecting, he was certainly responding to what was a probably not-so-great literary trend.
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Jul 30, 2022 02:14
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