Actual Literature discussion in this folder?

[nl5xsk1 0]

I should preface my statement with the admission that I don't frequent this folder all that often, but when I do, all I ever see being discussed are comic books. Does anyone ever talk about non-comic literature?

 

I'm truly not knocking or mocking comics, I just don't read them and was wondering if the threads ever dealt with anything other than comics and graphic novels.

[Kaertos 0]

I've seen (and participated) in a few, but they usually die a swift death. Which is unfortunate.

 

Personally, I would love to participate in a nice, intelligent thread about some real literature.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I don't think you'll find too many people interested in offering their takes on Mrs. Dalloway, but some popular books get a 10-post thread or so.

 

I'm on a Hemingway kick lately, but again, I doubt anyone's particularly interested in hearing about it.

[starvenger 0]

I should preface my statement with the admission that I don't frequent this folder all that often,

That would pretty much describe the problem. Not enough people look over here, period.

 

but when I do, all I ever see being discussed are comic books.  Does anyone ever talk about non-comic literature? 

Sure, but as a medium, I think that the literary world is so diverse that any discussion on any topic is likely to turn into a two person thread. The only ones that seem to get more input are Sci-Fi or Fantasy books, which isn't surprising since that's what the bulk of today's comics are.

 

Also, I tend to think that the word "literature" scares people. "Comics and Books" might be a better description for the folder. Not that I think that more people will look around because of that, but it's a better title.

 

(edit) and for the record, I'm probably about 10 years removed from reading anything that could be considered "classic" literature, although I'm considering rereading "The Iliad" as a refresher before seeing "Troy".

Edited February 16, 2004 by starvenger

[Guest EQ]

One of you guys should just start a thread about whatever book/genre you want and see if people reply. Personally, I hate reading so you probably won't see me in any of the threads. I wouldn't be surprised if you do get a good discussion going, though.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

There was a nice discussion of the Bond books a litlle while back. But yeah, I doubt anyone wants to hear what I think of the Jurrasic Park books and whatnot(which I only recently read)

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

There was a nice discussion of the Bond books a litlle while back. But yeah, I doubt anyone wants to hear what I think of the Jurrasic Park books and whatnot(which I only recently read)

That's because the Bond books get more people interested then those who've read them. Naturally people who like the films are gonna want to see how close the books are.

[nl5xsk1 0]

But yeah, I doubt anyone wants to hear what I think of the Jurrasic Park books and whatnot(which I only recently read)

Actually, you might be surprised. There are definitely some people on this board that could persuade me to read a book or author by talking about it. (similarly, there are people that could dissuade me from reading a book or author by promoting it). I remember one of the last literature discussions that I participated on this board was from like April or May of last year and it was just people discussing which authors they'd been digging lately.

[thuganomics 0]

I'm a little surprised I've never seen a Kavalier & Clay thread here. Hell, it's a pulitzer prize winning novel based on comic creators.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I'm on a Hemingway kick lately, but again, I doubt anyone's particularly interested in hearing about it.

 

I'll talk about Hemingway! Granted, all I've read is The Sun Also Rises, but I loved it.

[Kaertos 0]

I've also read "The Sun Also Rises" and thematically, I liked it. But I disliked the wrting if that makes any sense. Hemingway, at least to me, is a little too stream of conciousness to maintain a narrative and my interest.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I haven't read Sun Also Rises, but I did read Farewell to Arms. There are some authors that you just need to read, regardless of your appreciation for literature or not, and I think that Hemingway is one of them - even though, as Grand Slam implied, his style of writing is not for everyone. Did I love FtA? No, not at all ... liked it but didn't love it. But I'll read more Hemingway when I'm looking to read a new book (I'm in the middle of one now and have 2 others waiting on deck already).

[godthedog 0]

i've read some hemingway short fiction & i generally like it, but i see WAY too many young writers nowadays try to write like him, with their tight little sentences and their 2 or 3 laboriously chosen words that try to paint an entire picture. everything i read starts to feel the same.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I usually pimp horror writer Bentley Little, but that's about it

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I read Nicholson Baker & Daniel Quinn... and various other things that I just pick up out of boredom... especially books dealing with music or Disney.

[Vyce 0]

I usually pimp horror writer Bentley Little, but that's about it

I really think that Little and Douglas Clegg have emerged (in the past few years) as two of the most powerful voices of modern horror.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I read mostly nonfiction.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I'm about 9/10 of the way finished with Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It's extremely wordy and majorly fucked up. I'm not sure what to think of it yet. I'll let it sink in for a while once I finish it.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I keep meaning to start a Clegg book but it just never happens. With horror I got way burnt out on King, Saul, and Koontz. I work part time in a used bookstore and picked up "The University" and got hooked big time into Little. I've read all of his stuff since and a few by Laymon, who's pretty hit and miss.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

Stardust, American Gods, Neil Gaiman. That is all.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Vonnegut for a Nobel before he croaks!

 

(pickets)

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I'm about 9/10 of the way finished with Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It's extremely wordy and majorly fucked up. I'm not sure what to think of it yet. I'll let it sink in for a while once I finish it.

Fantastic book. I'm about to start Nabokov's Pale Fire.

[Vyce 0]

I keep meaning to start a Clegg book but it just never happens. With horror I got way burnt out on King, Saul, and Koontz. I work part time in a used bookstore and picked up "The University" and got hooked big time into Little. I've read all of his stuff since and a few by Laymon, who's pretty hit and miss.

King's a fine writer, but his best *horror* work is years behind him. Saul I haven't read too much of, I agree about Laymon, and Koontz I don't consider a horror writer at all - he mainly writes cheap, simplistic "suspense" novels (often with a supernatural flair) that are made into awful tv movies.

 

But I digress - Clegg's pretty damn good. Start with "The Halloween Man" and work your way through his stuff from there.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I'm about 9/10 of the way finished with Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.  It's extremely wordy and majorly fucked up.  I'm not sure what to think of it yet.  I'll let it sink in for a while once I finish it.

Fantastic book. I'm about to start Nabokov's Pale Fire.

I enjoy Lolita, although about thirty percent of the jokes/metaphors/references/whatever went right over my head. I need to pick up the annotated version some time.

[Guest red_file]

i've read some hemingway short fiction & i generally like it, but i see WAY too many young writers nowadays try to write like him, with their tight little sentences and their 2 or 3 laboriously chosen words that try to paint an entire picture. everything i read starts to feel the same.

Actually, what you're seeing is less a Hemingway influence than a Carver influence. Carver was the father of the minimalism movement in literature (which is to say that he was of it without actually being in it), and the success he had with the style is what led to all of the imitators in the latter half of the century. This imitation could also be seen in the choice of subject matter.

 

It's odd, though, that you'd be seeing a lot of young writers these days writing in a minimal type style as I've been seeing a growing movement of the opposite since the mid-to-late 90s. Young authors following the examples set by David Foster Wallace, Nicholson Baker and William Vollman, and in the tradition of DeLillo and Pynchon. Longer, encyclopedic type works, using complex sentences and paragraphs and descriptions that stretch on for pages.

 

I'll agree with the aforementioned opinion that actual literary discussion is neigh impossible because of the breadth of literature out there and the time and energy it requires to consume. I mean, the amount of music produced in a year dwarfs the amount of books published, but one doesn't really have to work hard to consume and form an opinion on a piece of music; you put the disk in, listen to it for it's playing length (preferrably many times) and then you've got your opinion. With literature, you've actually gotta read it, dissect it, and think about it before you can determine what the author's goals were, if s/he succeeded in them, and how it contributes to the literary world. Most people simply don't want to do that amount of work. Or, if they do, they confine that work to a specific genre (horror or sci-fi or "literary," for example), which means that they miss out on the great works of all the other genres.

 

Really, how many books do you read in a year? What're the odds that a dozen other people on these boards will have read those same books? What're the odds that those dozen will want to or have the ability to discuss those books?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I'm about 9/10 of the way finished with Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.  It's extremely wordy and majorly fucked up.  I'm not sure what to think of it yet.  I'll let it sink in for a while once I finish it.

Fantastic book. I'm about to start Nabokov's Pale Fire.

I enjoy Lolita, although about thirty percent of the jokes/metaphors/references/whatever went right over my head. I need to pick up the annotated version some time.

The stuff you'll get from annotations is interesting, but not essential. Rather than do that, I suggest you just pick up a collection of Nikolai Gogol's short stories - most collections have "The Overcoat" and "Diary of a Madman," which are probably his two most famous. He's a solid forbearer of Nabokov's and you'll see a lot of parallels between the two, stylistically and thematically. A lot of the references Nabokov makes are to Russian minutiae, i.e. one particular sentence in one particular obscure story by Dostoyevsky. So it's not really worth the effort to decode *everything*, I think.

 

If you liked the prose and wordplay of Lolita, read Invitation to a Beheading, which is probably his best translated work. If you liked the weird HH/Clare Quilty interactions and maddening stream-of-consciousness, try out Despair. And just read Pnin and Pale Fire regardless of what you think, because they're gorgeous, clever, and deliriously fun if you let yourself sink into them.