|
Nanomashoes posted:Some guy on /lit/ was posting some pictures claiming they were Pynchon's letters from the UT Austin library. I can't guarantee their veracity, but they seem very Pynchon to me. Here's an archive of everything he posted. Here's the thread. I will inspect them and report back, as resident Pynchonologist.
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2016 00:23
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:07 |
|
|
blue squares posted:Whats your major? Vectors and Quaternions.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2016 00:11
|
|
|
blue squares posted:As I progress through The Goldfinch, which I'll finish either tonight or tomorrow morning, I have noticed that the pacing is almost perfect. I say almost because there have been a few times where I have just begun to get bored, but then within a few pages something happens that pulls me right back in. The supporting characters are all very good, too. Yes, I much prefer the Pynchonian style (not that this surprises anyone). Along those lines I think it's why the dialogue in Infinite Jest and The Instructions, just to name two examples, has always been so compelling to me. The kids in those books speak like highly-educated adults, and are somehow more real for it, not in the sense of modernist realism but in the sense that they much more truly express their natures, and therefore ours as well. Just started Knausgaard. The very first section is one of those passages that makes other writers applaud jealously; it knocked me on my rear end. If that's the bar he's setting for himself in the first three pages of 3,600...no wonder it's getting legitimate comparisons to Proust.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2016 03:32
|
|
|
I had a chance to get a signed first edition of Infinite Jest for just a cool thousand bucks at the local used store, this was a year or two after he died. Still regret not doing it, despite the fact I couldn't afford it then.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 30, 2016 16:13
|
|
|
blue squares posted:I just finished a novel and haven't started the next yet. I have an insane backlog but should I read Recognitions now yes/no? Yes but your backlog is getting pushed to 2Q 2016
|
|
#
¿
Jan 30, 2016 18:08
|
|
|
blue squares posted:The introduction by Gass is the best introduction I have ever read and the first 20 pages are great Yeah, it helps that Gass does a nice little breakdown of the passage about the "surgeon", and then the book opens with that set piece.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 31, 2016 00:22
|
|
|
I think a better and more reasonable way to say that is if you're writing a multi-dimensional character not of your own gender, you better take extra good care and also enlist the support of readers/editors who can tell you when you sound like a moron.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2016 20:47
|
|
|
Earwicker posted:The protagonist of every novel should be a struggling would-be author who doesn't know what to do with their life and then suddenly hits on a great book idea and surprise it's the book you're reading right now. poo poo, now what's the point in finishing Knausgaard?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2016 20:48
|
|
|
Nakar posted:I had to go to a college library to find a copy of The Recognitions since you people won't shut up about Gaddis and the thing is like 1000 pages and I can't check out from there. Just buy the drat thing. Dalkey Archive edition, so you get the great Gass intro. It's one of my favorite books and I've never even gotten halfway through it. For some reason, every time, I eventually feel like I'm not able to give it the close attention it deserves, and I lose momentum. Gravity's Rainbow did the same thing to me for years. Someday I'll actually take a vacation and it'll get my fullest, closest read.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2016 03:36
|
|
|
Also has anyone here read William Gass' The Tunnel? It's another one I haven't been able to claw my way into, and yet I always find myself wanting to give it another shot.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2016 03:47
|
|
|
blue squares posted:It's really hard to find good literary fiction that works in audiobook form. My attention tends to slip for a few moments and then I get confused. Blood Meridian's audiobook is excellent. The long run-on sentences are much clearer when spoken, and it's all very biblical.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2016 03:24
|
|
|
blue squares posted:Just listened to the sample. You're not kidding! the narrator is very good. If My Struggle Book 2 doesn't work w/audio then I'm going back to Ferrante or getting BM Yeah, it really lends itself well to the format, and the narrator is pitch-perfect. Along those lines, Lolita also has a good audiobook, with Jeremy Irons who is a perfect voice for poor, poor Humbert.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2016 03:38
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:played him in the movie too I squinted carefully at this post before I remembered that they did another Lolita in the 90s. For a moment I thought you meant Kubrick's film and I almost talked myself into remembering Irons in it imstead of Mason.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2016 04:59
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Especially when the guy you've got on the job practically worships your work. Then again, I can quite seem Kafka wanting to destroy the papers but not being able to. That's the way I've always interpreted his request to Brod. He both did and didn't want to publish the work, and to relieve his anxiety over that tension, he offloaded the decision to someone else. Though it's clearly true that he didn't want to see what the result of that publication would be, if it were to happen.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2016 17:36
|
|
|
blue squares posted:I'm starting to stall out on Recognitions already. The tone of this book varies a lot from page to page. Yeah, been there. Maybe we should get a thread together and do a scheduled reading so we can all prop each other up when it gets tough.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2016 05:22
|
|
|
Lunchmeat Larry posted:I really didn't understand Crying of Lot 49 at all. maybe it was too American for me or something I think it's very much a product of its time, in a way that most Pynchon work is not. Maybe that's to be expected from an early work.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2016 17:42
|
|
|
Nakar posted:Well, don't hold out on us, who are the other three? I'm Thomas Pynchon. Ask me anything.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2016 21:10
|
|
|
mallamp posted:What are you wearing? A sweater with a collared shirt underneath, leather jacket and fedora.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2016 21:26
|
|
|
Foucault's three volumes on the history of sexuality, but I don't think your boner will benefit much. It's brilliant work though, naturally. Sade's 120 Days? That'll take your boner one way or the other, for sure.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2016 01:47
|
|
|
blue squares posted:Ever since I finished the last book I was reading (Everything I Never Told You), I've been bouncing from book to book and finding it very hard to stay interested in any one thing. Not sure why. I tried some more exciting things but they still didn't grab me. I just started Book 2 myself, and I'm hoping it's not too much to ask for it to rival the first one.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2016 23:59
|
|
|
DoctorG0nzo posted:I've been thinking about checking out O'Brien. His stuff is supposed to be pretty dense but if I read and mostly got Ulysses will I be fine? Also, what's a good spot to start with him? I've only heard much about At Swim-Two-Birds. Third Policeman, immediately.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2016 00:43
|
|
|
peanut- posted:I agree that most stuff that goes up for contemporary literature prizes is awful middle-class divorce genre fiction, but Wolf Hall is phenomenal. Enough people keep saying this that I'm thinking I might have to pick it up, despite the fact it really really doesn't seem to be the kind of book I'd like.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2016 15:39
|
|
|
blue squares posted:I really want to read The Dying Grass but it is an intimidating book. Long and difficult to understand. The Washington Post calls it the reading experience of a lifetime, but that may be because that's how long it takes to get through it I love Vollmann, but I read the first few vignettes and put it aside for a time in the future when I have no serious obligations for like a month. Which means I'll likely not pick it up again.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2016 16:41
|
|
|
mallamp posted:Guys we're loving up this thread,let's discuss adulso lit again Well I'm still muddling through the early parts of 2, although I've already bought 3 and 4 because I know I'll get there. It's too good not to keep going. ... ...Wait a minute, mallamp speaks Norwegian?!?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2016 02:10
|
|
|
A human heart posted:the 5th one is out in English bruh Yeah but I'm collecting the paperbacks. I should've just taken the plunge and gotten the hardcovers. Maybe someday. Mallamp, how is 6?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2016 04:46
|
|
|
blue squares posted:That's the thing. Second-hand descriptions of My Struggle always make it seem boring. But it has this quality... when you start reading it, you become entranced. Yeah, several of the cover blurbs are on point about this. Why would anybody bother to read this multi-volume behemoth of an autobiographical novel by a neurotic Norwegian? Because it's that loving good. Zadie Smith said it well when she noted that there shouldn't be anything remarkable about any of it, except for the fact that it immerses you completely. I've never been a fan of the Proustian genre, but Knausgaard somehow captures what it feels like to live and think in this world at this time in history. Yes, he's arrogant and insecure and a bit vain, but he's also Real Fuckin' Good at this. If this is what it felt like for his contemporaries to read Proust, I think I get it a little bit more now. Edit: this doesn't even get into the translation, which is so drat good it feels like it was written natively in English. Maybe Norwegian is easier to render in English than other languages? In any case it's a remarkable job. mdemone fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Apr 29, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2016 13:52
|
|
|
thomas pynchon posted:Man, I came in here to talk about ZERO K and then I realized everybody hates ZERO K. YOU GET THE HELL OUT AND DONT COME BACK UNTIL YOU SENT A DRAFT TO THE PUBLISHER
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2016 04:03
|
|
|
Nanomashoes posted:
Someone spent way too much time on that. But it does look about right, probably.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2016 16:01
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I like Catch-22 enough that I once bought a signed, slipcased limited edition of it for $200 while drunk in a used bookstore. That's not anything like a mistake. I would've done it sober as a judge. Echoing this book's status as beloved favorite. The end of the Dunbar chapter is right up there with Beckett in terms of the very best absurdist/nihilist dialogue in the language. quote:Do you know how long a year takes when it's going away?' Dunbar repeated to Clevinger. 'This long.' He snapped his fingers. 'A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you're an old man.' mdemone fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Jun 6, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2016 14:27
|
|
|
blue squares posted:Pynchon doesn't write characters that behave in a realistic way. He isn't interested in that. His characters are plot devices used to explore his ideas about fiction and conspiracies and whatnot, not to explore humanity. Yeah, I was going to say this to you but it's obvious you already knew it. I think if Pynchon could ever be convinced to speak about his writing (or, you know, anything at all), he would evince very interesting ideas about the purpose and methods of characterization.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2016 19:05
|
|
|
TheManFromFOXHOUND posted:Alright thread I'm doing it. I just finished 100 Years of Solitude (enjoyable, a little slow in the middle), ripped through I, Robot for a palate cleanser, and now I'm starting on Gravity's Rainbow. So far it seems to be about bananas. Yesssss ask me anything
|
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2016 18:20
|
|
|
Yanagihara is always suspicious to me because I was really enjoying The People in the Trees and then the ending happened and totally sucked away whatever positive impressions the novel had made until that point. I'm not inclined to trust her after that.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2016 04:09
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:Has anyone else ever read Richard Powers? He is one of my favorite authors and its interesting because his writing is probably the closest I have ever seen to the big red line between sci fi and literature. Have read, ah, Generosity, The Echo Maker, and I think one more but I can't remember which. It wasn't GBV though, I've been wanting to get that one for years. Big fan of Powers. I agree that he's writing sci-fi in the strictly-understood sense, and manages to sneak it by you without you noticing.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2016 01:48
|
|
|
Plowing The Dark! That's the one I forgot. It was very good too, but as Mel said, Echo Maker is better. It won the National Book Award, which is usually a solid award.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2016 15:23
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:Roger Mexico is one of my favorite characters, and I loved his arc (heh) in Gravity's Rainbow. Blicero is the most direct avatar of death in the novel. The complete absence of any reason for his existence is absolutely, thoroughly The Whole Point. To all whom GR interests: read Weisenburger, for the love of God. The level of detail put into the construction of the timeline will have almost entirely escaped you on the first read, and it will blow your loving mind.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2016 02:19
|
|
|
A human heart posted:I don't have a car mate I don't have a car, mate I don't, have a car mate I don't. Have a car? Mate.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2016 01:54
|
|
|
A human heart posted:He's not a Marxist(sadly..) but Ayi Kwei Armah has some good poo poo about history in Two Thousand Seasons, the book is subtitled 'a novel' but the tone is like some kind of afrocentric religious text only for initiates, and it's anti religion, anti monarchist, anti colonialist and he describes Arabs as 'predators' and Europeans as 'destroyers'. Africans who collaborate with colonialism are called 'zombies'. This sounds like my jam. Duly noted.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2016 20:10
|
|
|
End Of Worlds posted:wait what That's what I said. I never even noticed the names were different. Now I don't know what I've been reading.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2016 00:59
|
|
|
rest his guts posted:Generally speaking, what sorts of books do you like to take slow? I did that with Heart of Darkness recently and it made it much more enjoyable this time around. IIRC, she did the first volume of Proust for the Penguin Classics edition, and I thought it was really good compared to other Proust #1's I've seen. For what that's worth.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2016 22:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:07 |
|
|
blue squares posted:googled this. a George Saunders NOVEL? woooot Well that's gonna either be real good or a trainwreck. He's so good at the short form, and for some reason people like that so often take a crack at a novel and fall flat.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2016 16:34
|
|