/lit/ - Literature

>>18082259
>Zadie Smith

>>18082235
Cormac McCarthy and Javier Marias are the two greatest living prose stylists.

>>17418710
>>17418799
Another example: Javier Marias. Just phenomenal from an aesthetic perspective. But literary aesthetics is its own entire field, and whether aesthetics are more important than story, or vice versa, is a topic of hot debate. Someone like Dostoevsky cares more about plot and characterisation than prose, turgenev was the stylist who cared about word choice and repetition, and Tolstoy mastered both to a certain extent for example. The modernists wrote about nothing in very beautiful prose, and before them Flaubert was supremely concerned with prose beauty. At the end of the day, I don't come down and say that either you or OP are correct, because it's to each their own, much like this anon says:
>>17416139


Ultimately. It looks like 75% of people loved that extract and 25% hated it. Every writer will have lovers and haters, because what people look for in books are different. Personally I loved the extract and would read a lot more in that sort of style, and choose books with prose I find beautiful over page turners with mediocre writing. But that's just me. Have a good day anon

>>17352832
... Or 'A Heart so White', by Javier Marias...