/lit/ - Literature

Ulysses no doubt. Finished it though.

One hell of a book.

On Love and Other Demons by G.G. Marquez it was so fucking horrible in every sense but I had to read it for school

Trainspotting pissed me off

It's not challenging but its hard to immerse yourself in the story with the phonetic writing, at least at first.

Critique of Pure Reason - Kant

Kant > Joyce

>>2133341

Try some Hegel.

I've just started The Sound and The Fury and the first chapter is confusing as fuck. I'm glad I looked online so I'm not totally lost.

Does it stay as hard?

>>2133336

Now try Finnegans Wake.

>>2133341
...wrong, Joyce is both better and more difficult than Kant. (yes I think it is appropriate to speak in objectives here)

>>2133344

Yes. But if it lasts longer than four hours go see a doctor.

>>2133377
Kant is from hundreds of years ago, wrote in german, was a philosopher, and was not particularly eloquent at writing.

>Comparing Joyce and Kant.

>>2133377
>>2133333
>>2133333
>>2133333
>>2133333
>>2133333
>>2133344
>>2133377

I really struggle with old books. So I'd say the combination of it being old and the fact that it has technical terminology; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

>>2133377
Um..you're trolling, right? Kant is a German philosopher who was writing a 100 years before Joyce. They are completely different types of things, you can't compare them except maybe on OP's paradigm of reading difficulty (even though a different type of thing is being extracted from either writer). For what it's worth I'd say Joyce is harder than Kant, simply because I find Kant a writer of clear (if dense) prose. Hegel on the other hand I'd say beats Joyce for difficulty. Seriously try and read some mother-fucking Hegel. Almost two hundred years later and the greatest minds on earth are still divided on if he was talking total nonsense or not.

I still haven't finished Canterbury Tales, having started it decades ago. Ye olde (middle) english just fucks with my brains grammar center.

Philosophical Investigations, Wittgestein. You don't so much learn any philosophy from it as absorb it. Any attempt to work out at any particular point what he is going on about will just give you a headache.

Work backwards then. Learn how to read Old English and then you'll find Middle English to be rather a breeze. Or at least, this worked for me.

>>2133430
Just say it out loud in a Jamaican or (better still) Geordie accent. Shit has rhythm, it's well esay.

glas

o_O

Foucault's Pendulum. I cross referenced everything while i read it.

Finnegans Wake

The Anatomy of Melancholy. That's a lot of words just to say, "reading about depression might help you understand and help remedy your affliction, but it could make you more depressed."

>>2133341
That's probably true, coming from who I've heard referenced as "the world's first basement-dweller."

>>2133451
Would you recommend reading it anyway? It's been on my list for a while now and I've heard pretty good things.

House of Leaves

I still don't know what the fuck was going on.

I read Metamorphosis by Kafka in German for school. I'd say I only understood about 20% - Kafka's prose is pretty dense (for me anyway).

As for in English, Malone Dies was confusing and a bit of a drag, albeit a beautifully written one. I was disappointed, because Molloy was gripping.

Asoiaf mannnn that shit was haard

I'm just getting back into reading for the first time since fifth grade, so Gravity's Rainbow.

I'm about 100 pages into Ulysses though, and I just bought Finnegans Wake today.

Capital, Karl Marx.

His other economic works were hardly difficult. Why he chose to write Capital in such an abstract manner is fucking beyond me.

The Sound and the Fury

there's a good story in there, hidden under all the literally retarded grammar and spelling.

>>2133442
this
and this: Of Grammatology

and everything written by derrida

>>2133333
quints! Finnegan's Wake. well, technically did not finish it, because i became convinced finishing it would cost my sanity, such as it is.

>>2133798

Agreed, but Derrida's thoroughly worth it!

>ctrl f
>No Riddley Walker
>mfw reading it

>>2133796

>literally retarded

Quints: Book 5, by Quinty Quinterson.

Waiting for Godot

Foucault History of Sexuality Vol.1. That was bloody tough to get through, don't think i managed to grasp it at all either, and I'm still half convinced he was talking bollocks, but i can't precisely say why.

>>2133790
i also read it and th first section is bloody tough going. I think he wrote it that way because he was trying to explain everything in such a way as to pre-empt criticism, so he was thorough in execution and

>>2133796

Heart of Darkness.
I didn't make it past page 2 because the language is so fucking dense. However, I tried reading it when I was 14, and I'm 22 now. Every now and then I think, "I should go back and try that again", but I never get around to it. Maybe someday...

Don Quijote - I'm still not sure if it's just shit or not.

Also Tristram Shandy - I'm still not sure if it's just shit or not.

Also Sprach Zarathustra

shit was cash

You guys should give it a try and if you're really couragous Nietzsche's other books are also quite challenging.

>>2133341

>>2133343

I personnaly recommand Nietzsche to end this argument.

>>2134039
He had me until he started talking about exchange value. At that point, I promptly put the book down, and cried.

I thought this was pretty heavy-going.

Critique of Pure Reason, Heidegger's History of the Concept of Time, or Aristotle's Metaphysics Zeta were all very tough as far as philosophy goes. I'm having trouble with Philosophical Investigations right now too, but I think that's because I'm not that into it anymore (philosophy that is). As far as literature Naked Lunch was pretty hard, but I think it gets a pass because some of it is actually randomly generated nonsense. I also read Nova Express in one day while on adderall and remember nothing from it except that it was just as incoherent as Naked Lunch. Never read any Joyce, but Finnegan's Wake has the reputation for being the most difficult novel in the English language.

>>2134111
Holy shit, go back and read it as soon as you get the chance. I think you'll find it's not at all a difficult read- lots of stuff is harder when you are 14. It's a great book and one you'll be able to sit down and finish in one or two sittings.
>That feel when you finish a great piece of literature

>>2134039

foucault does this thing esp in history of sexuality where he's all, "i'm arguing a thing apparently in earnest.... sounds pretty reasonable, right? haaaaaa psych i'm actually arguing the exact opposite"

it's really cool and irritating

>>2134116
Yeah, there's none other quite like it. It has mad categorization but Burton is kind of funny at times (this is basically where the whole "all funny/creative people are inwardly tortured" idea started). To be honest I read it in a pretty fractured manner -there are parts that are simply (and the Introduction even admits) unreadable.
>>2133451
I'm reading Tristram Shandy, I'm confused to say the least.

Pride and Prejudice. I had to read it in high school, and although it wasn't out of my comprehension, it was just extremely dry and it's probably the only book I didn't read for class. I got to the 5th chapter then watched the movie.

I should pick it up again... I might like it now.

>>2134111
do it

heart of darkness is a book that made me feel supremely uneasy with what my fellow men could be capable of

or what I would be capable of in the wrong circumstances...

on another note joseph conrad has some mean grasp of the english language considering that he learned it only months before writing the book....

The Bone People

>>2133333
horey shit you got quints

Patterns of Democracy by Arend Lijphart

better titled "My OPINIONS Are FACTS: The Textbook"

seriously, you can only read the last chapter of the book and be as equally informed as if you read the whole thing

reading it right now: The singularity is near - ray kurzweil

Nitschze, beyond good and evil.

I only read half, it was just too dense to read for pleasure.

I feel like all these people saying Nietzsche was hard to read have a bad translation or something. Nietzsche, unlike many philosophers, is a really great writer and I find him not to be too difficult. He is heavy, that much is for sure. Being heavy slows down the process because it makes you spend more time thinking, but this doesn't make gathering the meaning more difficult. I'll grant that he's challenging, because he challenges you personally and as a person with certain philosophical assumptions, but he's also thrilling and a captivating writer.

>>2133571
I came in this thread to post this, but you beat me to it. I've been reading it lately and haven't finished it, but man, that fucking structure: footnotes that could be whole chapters by themselves, sidebars running across several pages listing what I'm fairly sure could be every architectural term in existence, footnotes that have footnotes that refer to inset boxes which reveal to have mirrored text on the next page...

That's on top of it being about a guy who discovered an analysis of a documentary filmed by and based on a man who doesn't exist. So many layers of WTF.

>>2134402
>I love, love, LOVE gimmicky horseshit!

>>2134402
house of leaves isn't a very difficult book to read at all, i blew through it in no time. great book but easy to read

>>2134416
>I love, love, LOVE disliking what other people like!

I know you're probably here looking for help with your school's required reading, but I'm sorry, we don't have CliffsNotes for the Outsiders.

>>2134436
>HoL fan
>not really all that discerning

Sounds right.

>>2134466
I probably like a ton of other stuff you don't like too. How does that make you feel? Irritated enough to reply as you did before?

Anything by Peter Carey, especially Oscar & Lucinda.

Just read up to the Wandering Rocks in Ulysses...probably the most difficult to take in all at once. I mean, even with the Bloomsday book it's just massive. I can't see finishing it being a chore, however. Most difficult to finish probably goes to trying to read through Ivanhoe in middle school, or more recently, Congreve's Way of the World. Not a 'book' but my reaction was pretty much along the lines of "Fuck this shit" and the Norton flying across the room.

Iliad. Halfway through when I realized I still had no idea who anyone was. Keeps throwing names and places at you.

Without looking at a single response i predict that most responses in this thread will be sarcastic or rude to OP for his question. Lets see

>>2133338
Wow, and people pick on Blindness.

Thread seems to agree philosophy in general is most difficult. I agree.

>>2134857

When you were born your penis touched your mother's vagina.

>people thinking kafka is dense

nope
especially not metamorphosis

>>2134881
why does this arouse me so?

>>2134895

>>2134881
Is lit the place where alpha chics are born?

Burroughs - Nova Express.

Runner-up: anything by Faulkner.

Scarlett letter. I hate that fuckin book.

>>2134881
Not in my case. Caesarean section, biatch.

>>2133333
Probably Lord of the Rings. Not because it was particularly hard to read or understand, but because of how fucking boring it was. Pale Fire and Ulysses were both easier reads than that piece of shit.

>>2134116
I'm 100 pages into Tristram Shandy and I only have a vague idea of what's going on. It is entertaining, however.

>>2134923
after removing you from your mother's womb, the doctor grabbed your tiny penis and placed it gently against your mother's vagina

I just realized I haven't actually read anything to challenge myself.

I'm sure any mathematics would cut me down a few notches, but is there anything with literary value that's monumental and known for being difficult? Maybe a book on analytical philosophy or something?

most difficult book? The Recognitions by William Gaddis. Unlike Ulysses, there isn't a million articles guiding the reader through the allusions and whatnot. Going it alone, without any research or context, is fairly difficult. But once I got the hang of things, I made it through.

>>2136401
i love you>>2136313
>>2136314

>>2136401
There's williamgaddis.com

>>2136416
sorry it's actually williamgaddis.org, great website, very helpful.

>>2136419
Yeah, I wish I had known that when I read the book. It helped when I made my way through JR. Didn't really need it for A Frolic of One's Own (which is a fucking hilarious read, btw)

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

not even trolling. this is hard to read.

Any Russian book translated by Constance Garnett.

Holy crap, when I re-read Dostoevsky the other translators made the prose just flow, the story was more digestible. I'm re-reading Brothers Karamazov right now it's 100x better.

NEVER read a Constance Garnett translation ever!! It's great she took the time to translate all that Russian, just the other translators are sooooo much better.

The Art of Computer Programming Donald E. Knuth. At least Joyce didn't make me do any math.

Pride and Prejudice, only because I dont have a loaded gun to shoot myself with.

being and nothingness is proving to be a challenge.
ulysses is all i can say otherwise, ashamedly

Being and Nothingness doesn't seem as hard as Being and Time, at least so far.

i don't even want to think about it. 2-3 hours for 20-30 pages. i have to tackle being and time before any serious derrida though, so... shit. is it any more obscure than the phenomenology of spirit? i stopped reading after the first section lol. i will read it one day, but no day soon is for sure.

sound and the fury.
>pick it up, stop
>pick it up, stop
>pick, pick, pick
>pick, pick, pick
>be in lockup with 1 book (this part happens, that is book)
>finish sound and fury

>yfw every chapter after benjimyman is my eternal letdown at the human race; every chapter after benjimyman is my eternal sadface and never stomaching "once a bitch always a bitch 'swhat i say"

>>2134229
This this this! So many obscure references and ridiculous words, I have a pretty good vocabulary and usually get references but this bs was over my head. I did read it utilizing a dictionary when necessary, because I wanted to know what happened. Afterwords I read Foucault's Pendulum and had a much better time with it, there were not nearly as many church/ obscure religion references and it was funnier.

I found the Lord of the Rings hard to read, that pacing was just so fucking slow.

The Wake.

But I finished it, I fucking finished it, and now I know everything.

>>2134190
Kierkegaard > Nietzsche

>>2136859
K is musch more easy to read that Nietzsche, have you read thus spoke zarathustra

>>2136884

In terms of convolution, i'd have to agree.

But I'm of the opinion that K's concepts can be harder to grasp.

>>2133790

This, along with any other Marx-inspired book. What is it about being radically left-wing and being unable to write eloquently? Or, at the very least, comprehensibly?
Seriously, I tried reading The Liberal Virus by Samir Amin and had no idea what the fuck was going on... Its like these people have their own definitions for various words that they dont bother explaining to the reader.

The Silmarilian, still haven't finished it 6 years later. Also current reading project, Lovercraft's Necronomicon.

>>2136904
Nobody understands it. It's all a bunch of bunk so they obscure their writing so leftists think it must all be true since it's so deep.

First 250 pages of Infinite Jest. I can't have been the only one who struggled there.

>>2136906
Are you autistic by chance?

>>2136916

IJ is easy as fuck to read compared to pretty much anything else in this thread. You're lazy.

>>2136904
It's because of hegel.

>>2136921
Well yeah, the rest of the book is, but.. Some of the incoherent rant was awful.

The Divine Comedy, I had to look up sparknotes that help fill in a lot of the historical background that I had no clue about.

>>2136926

Fucking Hegel...

>>2136927

What incoherent rant are you talking about? Where Himself's Dad is talking to him?

>>2133790

Read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations before you read Das Capital or any of Marx's later works. The Early Marx merely requires you to read some Hegel, Bauer, and Feuerbach but that's another story.

>>2136960
>historical background that I had no clue about.

Boy, that's a really nice way to say "a bunch of obscure 13th century Italian politicians of no importance that nobody gives a shit about."

Pnin was pretty bad for me.

I just didn't know what the fuck was going on.

Parerga and Paralipomena.
or Bouvard et Pécuchet

>>2136972
hegel ...

auto-da-fe (canetti), but i probably just disliked it
illuminations (benjamin), liked it

>>2136904
Complex thoughts often lead to complex writing.

It's extremely difficult to simplify complex ideas. It's why Marx is remembered more clearly than Engels.