Another book thread.

[derek]

I'd take Sartre before Dostoevsky, because he is much more lucid.

 

[FretsAflame]

I'd take Sartre before Dostoevsky, because he is much more lucid.

Likewse

<3 no exit

 

[Reminiscence]

I stopped reading some time ago, spontaneously. (I studied literature and languages, so, excuse me, I'm overfed. plus, I prefer medicine, so...)

some favs: Patrick Süskind: Das Parfum
Günter Grass: Die Blechtrommel
Thomas Mann: Die Buddenbrooks, Das Zauberberg

and all time fav: Colleen McCollough: The Thorn Birds

Yeah right! I won't be able to read those German books until my German is very strong. I need to stick with Max Frisch for now. Shit, especially Magic Mountain...my grandfather said even the translation was very tedious, but great philosophically.

A Russian author who gets underlooked is Tugenov, does anyone have opinions about Fathers and Sons?

 

[perniciosa]

Sartre and Dostoevsky are both existentialists but have absolutly different styles, so i wouldn't even compare them, i enjoyed both very much.

Right now i'm obsessed with Bulgakov

 

[perniciosa]

Fathers and Sons is a very good book, but it is not my favorite from Turgenev
i like the short story about a deaf man an his dog called "Mumu"

 

[MajestikMøøse]

I studied literature and languages

h0tt

 

[Tee]

h0tt

sure, if at least there had been fun with it. :Smug:

amazing and challenging is Goethe's Faust in original. fuckin' trippin' without stimulanse.

 

[Tongue_Ring]

i have not yet [nor plan to] read any of the things that were mentioned
i'm reading Batman novels/graphic novels
anyone other than Dreaming Neon Darkspot like Batman?

 

[Ayr]

Tongue, maybe you should...
Right, back to topic. Read War and Peace while still at school. We had separate Russian, Latvian and English/American literature classes. And I feel especially grateful for the latter, as it improved my English
and made me move to London.
As to what has been mentoned before, Orwell, Wilde, Dostoevsky are among favourites. I would also recommend this to everyone. (not the best way to read book, but this website has got some transtated texts)

Dickens - Anything except Oliver Twist (it doesnt mean much to anyone anymore)

lol

 

[MajestikMøøse]

sure, if at least there had been fun with it. :Smug:

amazing and challenging is Goethe's Faust in original. fuckin' trippin' without stimulanse.

pardon me, I'm just a huge nerd. That's all.

 

[flying_whale]

i would recommend reading "we, the living" by ayn ryand (that is her name i guess) which i read in 4 nights (500pages), it was that good.
native son, i forgot the author's name.
great books
now i'm reading isabel allende's "the house of the spirits", ultra awsome book, but really dense action and it is great.
1984, animal farm by orwell are good books.
As poetry is concerned i really dig any lyrics on dead heart and tge, they are jus great poems. AS real poetry is concerned i like pablo neruda

 

[derek]

Well to be fair, I do think Oliver Twist has lost all meaning. Several of Shakespeares works have lost their relevance too, but the prose remains beautiful.

 

[Chromatose]

I am sucker for postmodernism.

 

[derek]

Post modernism bores me. My belief is that literature should paint a big picture even if it is about the little things. Post modernisms reluctance to absorb the metanarrative upsets me, although I suppose it can be occasionally refreshing under the right hand.

...

 

[FretsAflame]

Personally I just like a good story.

 

[Chromatose]

Post modernism bores me. My belief is that literature should paint a big picture even if it is about the little things. Post modernisms reluctance to absorb the metanarrative upsets me, although I suppose it can be occasionally refreshing under the right hand.

...

Bores?

While I will agree that this descriptive is a true for a majority of touted 'postmodern' works, like anything attributed to a genre, the true highlights are beyond the term's nominal scope.

The greatest postmodern-atrributed works imo are completely bloated in excess and paint on a canvas outside the realm of normalcy, stretching realism, but not breaking the mold.

And dare I say it, but I compare the work's of authors such as James Joyce or Thomas Pynchon to the nature of classic epic poetry, because, while being inherently subjectivist, weave the same epic tales in this inversely inner world.

In the end, it's all comes down to my sheer giddiness when being caught in the midst of guerilla ontology. Not all postmodernism works on these means, and this is when they can be boring as hell, and on the extreme of pointless.

And on the topic of metanarrative, I believe postmodernism espouses the metanarrative FAR more likely than it would ever admit, because this conflictive nature is the true action of being caught up in po-mo itself.