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/lit/ - Literature

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13558980 No.13558980 [Reply] [Original]

What are some "cabinet of curiosities" books? You know, short stories (or novels organized in somewhat independent segments), usually focusing on one curious concept at a time, lots of references to weird historical things, objects that don't really exist but should and ones that shouldn't exist but do, and so on.
Almost everything by Borges and Calvino fit very well in this "category". They also use lists (Calvino sometimes without any separation between their elements), which is also a very "cabinet" thing.

>> No.13559020

>>13558980
Ficciones - Borges

>> No.13559063

>>13558980
Italo Calvino's work seems to match what you're looking for, OP. I discovered him via a recommendation on here and am reading Cosmotechnics after Invisible Cities

>> No.13559758
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13559758

Can't think of fiction ATM, but you could read:

Oliver Sacks' books
James Burke's "Connections" articles
The Size of Thoughts by Nicholson Baker
Why Things Are by Joel Achenbach

>> No.13559897

>>13558980

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Ligotti fits this to an extent, but be warned it's not very good

>> No.13559983
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13559983

athenaeus - deipnosophists
is like symposium by other writers, but its closer to /x/, /his/ and /fit/ threads

>> No.13560097

>>13558980
Kis, Borges, and Cortazar come to mind.

>> No.13560486
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13560486

>>13558980
exactly what you're describing