/lit/ - Literature

Bump for interest.

^Copy that

also bump. I've been really trying to find an answer to this too, as a very recent spanish student.

Unamuno: uses fancy words but quite easy if you can go with them. Pretty good.

Cortázar: read his stories. Not the novels. Top-tiet in this.

Rulfo: never read, tbh. Seems good, tho.

And, one who is becoming very famous, Bolaño. Never read too.

Read some from Jorge Luis Borges

>>5880269
No, Borges is really great but not for a beginner.

I've been wanting to pick up a copy of Don Quixote in Spanish for a while but I don't know if I could get through it

>>5880279
You wont
He speaks in a bit of old spanish and is boring to read most of the timr (actually, at least)

>>5880290
Like Castillian?

>>5880303
castillian and spanish are synonyms

>>5880325
i thought castillian was a type of spanish from spain compared to the spanish of latin america

>>5880338
Not this guy, but modern Spanish is mostly based on castillian dialect, and probably that's why in some latinoamerican countries people tend to call it 'castellano', which mean ofc castillian.

Anf for OP question, I'd recommend Zafón for beginners. I know it's pop-literature (so our e/lit/ists will probably tell me to gtfo), but he has relatively simple vocabulary, and the books themselves are quite good.

Start with 'El Principe de la Niebla', and then go further. They get better and better, and 'Marina' is probably one of my favourite books.

Bump for more responses, would love to hear any other opinions or suggestions on this matter.

Maybe some Spanish translations of books you've read in English, or books in Spanish that you already read in translation. My first book in English was Brave New World, as I had already read the Spanish translation and had it with me at all times to compare.
Having said that, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Benedetti. His poems were written so they could be enjoyed by the working class, so they are beautiful in a really simple way. You shouldn't need more that a dictionary or Google Translate to understand them (just google Soneto Kitsch, Corazón Coraza or No the salves). His short stories had Hemingway's as model, so they are simple and "minimalistic". Not as good as his poems, tho. I've only read one novel by him, Gracias por el fuego, and it was a complicated experiment in stream if conciousness. I'd avoid it.
Ernesto Sabato also writes simply, but he has great characters and plots. Read a bilingual edition of Neruda's Twenty Love Poems. Some of his worst are there, and some are rather complicated, but it is easy to find and there are great simple poems there.
Just like a beginner English speaker shouldn't get near Faulkner, Joyce, Pynchon or Eliot, I advise you not to jump unto García Márquez, Rulfo, Javier Marías, Lezama Lima or the complicated stuff by Neruda. The same comparison goes between Shakespeare, Marlowe and Chaucer, and Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Góngora, Calderon de la Barca or the Mío Cid. Maybe you could read some sonnets by Garcilaso de la Vega, with some effort.
Castillan and what we know as "Spanish" are the same. One of the top hispanists in Yale said so, and I believe him.

>>5880269
You definitely have not read Borges in Spanish.

Don't read Borges OP.

>>5880159
Lif is a dream by ¨Pedro Calderón de la Barca

>>5880471
this, start with Marina

>learn mandarin
>become literate in over 5000 characters
>translate the great western works to bring patrician culture to the chinese serf
its like your stupid or something

>>5881904
You're*

>>5881909
[citation needed]

>>5881904
I don't get it. If you're critisizing my choice of language to learn, I've already had 4 years of Spanish in High School and can remember a little bit of it (hated the class at the time, so I barely scraped by). After a year or so with Spanish (and working in Spain for a month with relatives), i'll definitely start learning other languages. I'll probably get to Mandarin eventually.

>>5881918
"its like your stupid or something" (Dumbass 4chan Vol. 5881904)

Does the MLA format suffice?

>>5881924
>he'll get to mandarin eventually
hao ke ai

>>5881931
i dont play basketball

>>5881952
Are you sure?

>>5881936
>>5881952
>>5881918
>>5881904
I don't get it, why try to ruin this thread specifically? Do you at least have anything to contribute?

>>5880883
Borges is not for begginers.
Garcia Marquez could be I think. His best books are OHYoS and Love in the Times of Cholera. Leafstorm is nice. (Annotated versions of these to help with slang would be good, as he includes some.)
Cortazar's Hopscotch is not for begginers, maybe try his short stories. (Carta a una Señorita en Paris is one I like.)
Quixote is not for begginers, its old spanish. Like Shakespeare for english.

Practice your spanish and then read Borges (The Aleph and Ficciones), Hopscotch, Jose Eustacio Rivera (La Voragine), and Jose Asuncion Silva (De Sobremesa).

>>5881999
I just reread Carta a una Señorita en Paris and I no longer think it's apt for begginers.

This is not lit related, but watch old episodes of Topo Gigio. It's a kids show about a stoner mouse from Italy/Mexico. Anyway, the humor on the show is set up in a way that illustrates a lot of odd nuances of the Spanish language, at least conversational Spanish. Anyway, this will help you advance quicker and hopefully be able to understand what you read better. Also, make sure to make some friends from at least a few different Spanish-speaking countries. There are a lot of nuances between regions, and it helps to spread yourself out a bit when learning it, then focus on one region if your goal is to sound native.

For instance, I use Iberian phonetic pronunciation, but my inflection is mildly Mexican. It comes off neutral and understandable to almost anyone. The only problem is that to most people, it is still obviously my second language. People from very rural Central America think I'm Spanish sometimes, but everyone else can tell.

Borges has really cool short stories.
El Arbol de la Ciencia was really influential on Hemmingway, but it is a bit whiny in its inquiries into Schopenhauer.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is pretty good, but Cien Años de Soledad isn't for everyone. Without familiarity of the background of Colombian history, it seems very fragmented. His short story El Hombre muy Viejo con las Alas Enormes is fantastic.

Vargas Llosa is really interesting, but I've only read all the way through Los Cachorros. It was a really neat book. The narrative experiments can turn people off, but thematically it works with the rest of the content. I might wait a little bit to read this though, because the narration jumps around ambiguously, and dialogue isn't really distinguished from the rest of the text. If you're still unfamiliar with the language, it might be too much.

Also, Spanish Golden Age plays aren't too bad. A lot of people are afraid of them in the same way that people are afraid of Shakespeare, but really, if you get an annotated version, they can be a breeze to go through. If that seems like too big of a jump, start with some 20th century plays like Lorca. Apart from his two surrealist plays, they're all pretty easy to follow.

>>5880265
Not OP but can vouch for Rulfo's Short stories.

Also Bolaño is one of my favorite authors. Most everyone who enjoys literature seems to enjoys him. I've never heard anything bad.

>>5880265
>Unamuno

Just read Angels and Demons translated into Spanish. It'll be better than any of the so-called Spanish masters.

>>5880471
uh spanish and castillian are the same language, even it's modern form :^)

>>5880159
Random author wont bite you. Get a dictionary and grammar. Watch something on TV. Learn Spanish before 2015.

Pío Baroja: El arbol de la ciencia
García Márquez: Relato de un naufrago
Ernesto Sábato: El túnel
Calderón de la Barca: La vida es sueño
Anónimo: Cantar de mío Cid
Anónimo: El lazarillo de Tormes
Cervantes: Quijote

These are classic school material, so you'd be learning the same as Spanish students.

where do i watch spanish tv shows? i found a few trackers but they seem totally devoid of content.

i know theres a bunch of soaps on jewtube but they look fucking awful

i want to watch the simpsons

>>5884619
I'm chilean and I find this good.
But those anónimos and Cervantes you'll need more than beginner Spanish.
Try not to read translations, as you will want to speak in Spanish, not to translate in your mind English to Spanish.
Bolaño is really good, but also not good for beginners.
Also be careful with Cortazar and Borges, Argentinian writers, while they not always use fancy words, are difficult to follow. A bit criptic writing.
Try and find books that are not context dependent, Hernán Rivera Letelier is a very good chilean writer, but to understand him you need some context on 'salitreras' in Chile and the saltpeter boom that ended c. 1930s, and the decline that came afterwards.

>>5885560
try with these
http://www.bolsamania.com/noticias/tecnologia/las-9-alternativas-a-seriesly-y-seriespepito-para-ver-series-y-peliculas--630163.html
I haven't used them personally, and you'll find mostly american series, but you can also find them dubbed.
BTW, Latin America Spanish can be easier to understand than Spaniard Spanish.
I taught Spanish in the UK, and they liked my accent better (easier to pronounce/understand)

>>5885751
thank you very much!

yeah, i should have said 'spanish-language' tv shows. latin america definitely has better film and tv i think

Zafón if you want something simple like someone mentioned, and also García Marquez. Cien años de soledad is so great.

You just reminded me how much of a faggot i am OP. I really need to catch up with my country's lit.
I can recommend you García Marquez.
The poems of Borges is as patrician as it gets for the 20th century latin american poetry.
Leopoldo Lugones, nice short stories.
I liked "El recurso del método" by Alejo Carpentier
Horacio Quiroga has some sick short stories.

>>5885560
http://spainseries.lt

I use this. Just streams. Lots of dead links but if you just want to watch a random episode you're good

Carlos fuentes:

Primero: Aura *(es muuuuuy muy corta)*

después: la muerte de artemio cruz


Luego, la poesía de Lorca. Luego, "El aleph" de Borges.

¡Buena suerte!

>>5880269
Borges is quite complex tbh.

>>5881999
My favorite is "Crónica de una muerte anunciada".

>>5886705
>not loving cien años

you deserve cien anos

>>5886725
Cien anos de soltura

>>5886765
top kek

>>5886428
>http://spainseries.lt
site blocked

Bump for even more advice, good .

>>5880159
Mexican here, studying literature, this people are trying to bring the well know ones to your reading list, that's great, Cortazar, Borges, Bolaños, also Carlos Fuentes, but they main books are quite difficult.

I'll give you some new books, whit great power and by modern writers. Some master will be in the list too.

Alberto Chimal, great fiction writer, the master of the generation that realize fiction is a real gender too and not something less important.

Jorge Volpi, he's quite difficult, but very different from the great writers of the past.

Read Aura by Carlos Fuentes, short story, with a very simple language.

Try Valeria Luiselli...she's our future...in ten year she will be our star in the international panorama.

Wanna read some graphic novels? In Mexico graphic novels are very difficult to publish...Bernardo Fernandez, aka Bef is wonderful...he just published a graphic novel about Burrougs when he was in mexico and kill his wife...Isn't that awesome?!

Have a great time reading...hope to see you coming for more!

>>5888386
>fiction is a real gender too
pronouns: bookz, chicklit, novella

OP here, I'm incredibly thankful to all of you to have helped this thread so far! One question I have though, about the language itself, is regarding the pronunciation of the trilled R sound (not the other Spanish R, I think I have that one down). I keep trying to find advice, but so far nothing really works. Is it really just practicing and sounding like and idiot for 3 months and then suddenly waking up in the morning and being able to do it, or am I missing something big?

>>5888790
whats a trilled r
you mean like perro
its like saying strange like that r u seewhen u're tongue is on you're teeth and then it goes to top of you're paladar like that

>>5882121
>I use Iberian phonetic pronunciation
pero por que

>>5888790
>Is it really just practicing and sounding like and idiot for 3 months and then suddenly waking up in the morning and being able to do it, or am I missing something big?
More or less. Once you do it once, you'll probably be able to just do it.

Remember that the tongue is not the one doing the movement; the way the sound works is the same way the brrr sound people do when it's cold works. Try pronouncing an English r continuously while changing the stiffness of your tongue and the strength of the air you releaze.