/lit/ - Literature

I only know Houellebecq, Le Clézio, Littell and Modiano. Quignard rings a bell but I've never read him.

>>6457555
>Michon
Funny name, that.
Never heard of any.

There is more of them, Pierre Guyotat for example. And basically any of those who are published by Minuit.

From those you've mentioned, they are bit different each, Toussaint and Echenoz are somewhat close to each other, sort of that nouveau nouveau roman thing. Haven't read much of them, but really liked The Bathroom by Toussaint.

In the case of Michon: everything, that man is genius and he didnt write that much anyway. Everything he has done is more like poetry, very condensed, where every sentence is like diamond. If you like prose poems of Baudelaire, or Rimbaud, if you like Flaubert, or even Faulkner (maybe sounds weird, but he wrote an essay about him). For a first book I'd recommend probably Vies Minuscule (Small lives in english I think).
Most of what he wrote is kinda like Imaginary lives by Schwob, or some short stories by Borges, but with much more poetry.

In the case of Quignard, if you like Blanchot and stuff like that, go on. Les ombres errantes are fantastic (sadly haven't read more from Dernier royaume), in english it is Roving shadows if I'm not mistaken. Another books: Vila Amalia, Terrase a Rome, etc.
Haven't read much of his essayes though.

/lit/ is primarily Anglo and Anglos don't know shit about non-Anglo stuff.

>>6457625
thanks for the helpful comment, moron

>>6457618
Thank you for your thoughts. Michon sounds very interesting.

>>6457635
No problem.
I will maybe put there some other names of french (or writing in french) writers I found interesting...
still living: Bernard Noël, Philippe Raymond-Thimonga, Antoine Volodine, Viel Tanguy, Phillippe Claudel (La rapporte de Brodeck!), Jean-Pierre Abraham, François Bon, Michel Tournier and much more, can't remember now though...

already dead, but maybe kinda forgotten: Robert Pinget, Agota Kristof, Julien Gracq, Raymond Roussel, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Albert Cossery, Gisèle Prassinos, Édouard Levé (Autoportrait and Suicide are must read stuff!) and so on

>>6457684
Wow, the only names I recognized were Claudel, Tournier, Pinget, Gracq, Roussel and Levé. Thanks again for the recommendations

Bump..

>>6458303
Fuck off. This board is slow, you dullard. This thread wasn't even halfway down in the catalog.

>>6458313
You fuck off, nouveau charmant jeune homme. A two hours bump is eager but nothing that warrants your shit.
There is also always a purpose to bumping a thread since, believe it or not, not everybody browses through the whole catalog.

>>6458333
Stop being retarded.

>>6458337
Here, OP can have another bump, just for you.

>>6458475
Hmm...I enjoy Yves Bonnefoy, Jacques Dupin, Roubaud, Ouellette, and Jean-Philippe Salabreuil

These are relatively minor authors.

Important and quality authors at this time are Metin Arditi, David Foenikos, Michel Houellebecq (duh), Emmanuel Carrère, and Frederic Beigbeder.

These are the ones you see when entering a library.

>>6458493
well, about poets
Phillippe Jaccottet, Guy Viarre, Cedric Demangeot, Jean Follain, Stanislas Rodanski, Victor Segalen, Gherasim Luca, Jacques Prevel, Gilberte H. Dallas, Gérald Neveu, Jean-Pierre Dupreye, Roger-Arnould Riviere, Francis Giauque, Maurice Blanchard and much more

>>6458533
Can we all agree that the Tel Quel poets were absolutely rubbish?

>>6458541
Sadly I have to admit that I don't know much about them, basically not much about Tel Quel in general.
Can you expand your statement?

>>6458568
I generally dislike the Tel Quel poets, for example Marcelin Pleynet, since one of their maxims is writing 'expresses' nothing, 'means' nothing. These words placed between inverted commas as if meaning had no meaning (similar to concrete poetry). They also fundamentally deny a connexion between experience and literature. But if this were so, why read?

>>6458517

What about Begag and Charef? Or Modiano?

>>6458517
>These are the ones you see when entering a library.
Yes
>Important and quality
No

Which comes as no surprise, one and the other. Seriously though, Beigbeder? Houellebecq? Ugh.

>no Richard Millet
You really need to step your game up.

Avoid Beigbeder like the plague.

>>6458620
oh yeah, this... I, don't know, disliked almost everthing about the concept of Tel Quel whenever I read about it.
This kinda confirms it.
Some stuff written by Sollers seems interesting though (earlier books I mean, like Le Parc).

Anyway, what do you think about L'Éphémère? Pretty great imo
And of course moriturus, and basically everything around Fissile éditions

>>6458671
I love edgy French intellectuals. I love how French media and society actually gives them (somewhat) fair coverage, too.

>>6458701
He has no coverage, he was interviewed on a handful of studios to talk about the 18 page essay on Breivik following an essay on literature at the time, and then was destroyed and erased from the media. I don't know if a couple of weeks of exposure can compete with 30 years of career.
People who get exposure are pricks like D'Ormesson, Le Clézio, Levy, Musso and other sillies.

>>6458701
No, they only ever give them coverage when they're shit-talking someone or saying something edgy.

>>6458661
Are you serious? Houellebecq is clearly God-tier, and the main voice of French lit in the last 20 years. I don't particularly like Frederic Beigbeder's stuff but he's clearly influential in many ways.

>>6458644
Modiano is old already, doesn't produce anything important anymore. Receiving a Nobel Prize means you have already a foot in the tomb. Look at Camus.

>>6458755
>Houellebecq is clearly God-tier, and the main voice of French lit in the last 20 years

>>6458313
I bumped it because I was going to sleep. Sorry.

>>6458517
I got the ones I did in the OP from comparing various lists of award winners

>>6458835
a lot of french readers seem to dislike houellebecq and think that they see through him or something. would you care to explain why this is? wouldn't you even acknowledge that he is influential?

OP here. I specifically made sure not to mention authors who are really famous internationally, especially ones /lit/ talks about all the time Houellebecq. Also explains why no Nobel winners.

>>6457555
Does Swiss French count?

>>6459800
French people dislike Houellebecq because he shits on their idols like the 68 generation and leftism in general.

>>6459884
Sure. I've actually heard about her, by the way.

barmp

>>6459904
>dislike

Yeah. It's not as if he's been the best selling author for the last 15 years, including winning the Prix Goncourt.

>>6459800
He's technically mediocre at best, and while it's nice that his ideas can run counter-current, his analysis consists in no more than a collection of armchair opinions. The sole reason for his influence is how heavily he's been marketed.

>>6459800

I fully aknowledge that he's influential, but his books are pretty boring all in all. It's always the story of some sexually frustrated dude who struggles in modern capitalism. Or the opposite of that.

Upon finishing Wellbeck, you're "meh. It was ok I guess".

Maybe not necessarily the best, but the funniest and the smartest of all

>>6458517
>Houellebecq and Beigbeder better than Eschenoz

>>6462108
>his analysis consists in no more than a collection of armchair opinions

I'd say that his hypothesis in The Extension of the Domain of Struggle is a rather compelling piece of pessimistic critique, actually. I've never seen it convincingly opposed head-on, only laughed off or talked around.

>>6463567
>>6463567
The official translation of the title is "Whatever"

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