/lit/ - Literature

Grendel

If read correctly, Grendel will completely attune the reader to the broader implications of philosophical discovery on both personal psychological development and the overall monolithic development of human cultural work. Reading and understanding Grendel's thematic and structural concepts is, for the uninitiated reader, a lot like waking up one day in a three-dimensional word where previously there were only two - a feeling that I'm sure more experienced and studied readers felt in greater magnitude from tackling larger works like Ulysses or Moby Dick.

I seriously cannot recommend Grendel enough to people who have just begun reading seriously, its a complete eye-opener.

>It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet. A hundred black faces turned round in their rows to peer; and beyond, a black Angel of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It was a negro church; and the preacher’s text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teethgnashing there. Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of ‘The Trap!’

What am I missing here is he just making a racist joke I don't get? Why is he talking about this?

Just started pic related. Pretty great

Gardner's layered metanarrative is a joy to read