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/lit/ - Literature


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11692849 No.11692849 [Reply] [Original]

>Wild eyes were another sign. It is something I have seldom seen — the expression of an ecstatic state — though much is foolishly written of them, as if they grew like Jerusalem artichokes along the road. The eyes are black, right enough, whatever their normal color is; they are black because their perception is condensed to a coal, because the touch and taste and perfume of the lover, the outcry of a dirty word, a welcome river, have been reduced in the heat of passion to a black ash, and this unburnt residue of oxidation, this calyx, replaces the pupil so it no longer receives but sends, and every hair is on end, though perhaps only outspread on a pillow, and the nostrils are flared, mouth agape, cheeks sucked so the whole face seems as squeezed as a juiced fruit; I know, for once Lou went into that wildness while we were absorbing one another, trying to kiss, not merely forcefully, not the skull of our skeleton, but the skull and all the bones on which the essential self is hung, kiss so the shape of the soul is stirred too, that's what is called the ultimate French, the furtherest fuck, when a cock makes a concept cry out and climax; I know, for more than once, though not often, I shuddered into that other region, when a mouth drew me through its generosity into the realm of unravel, and every sensation lay extended as a lake, every tie was loosed, and the glue of things dissolved. I knew I wore the wild look then. The greatest gift you can give another human being is to let them warm you till, in passing beyond pleasure, your defenses fall, your ego surrenders, its structure melts, its towers topple, lies, fancies, vanities, blow away in no wind, and you return, not to the clay you came from — the unfired vessel — but to the original moment of inspiration, when you were the unabbreviated breath of God.

Why does noone talk about William Gass? He's fantastic.

>> No.11692876
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11692876

>The greatest gift you can give another human being is to let them warm you till, in passing beyond pleasure, your defenses fall, your ego surrenders, its structure melts, its towers topple, lies, fancies, vanities, blow away in no wind, and you return, not to the clay you came from — the unfired vessel — but to the original moment of inspiration, when you were the unabbreviated breath of God.

lel yeah bro I watched EoE too

>> No.11692914

>>11692849
I live in St. Louis, where Gass resided. I feel a huge regret that I didn't get a chance to meet him. My grandmother took a class from him, so I could have probably. It's just I hadn't read anything by him other than the introduction to At Swim-Two-Birds. Fuckin sigh. I'm so terrible. I mean he probably wouldn't have wanted to meet a punk shithead like me anyway.

>> No.11692948
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11692948

The real question is why dont you fuckers talk about Barth. This shit is probably some of the funniest stuff I've ever read.

>> No.11692984

No idea. Reading The Tunnel right now and finding it very enjoyable.

He might be under-read because his novels have a reputation of being "difficult" without being seen as the towering achievements that other thick American novels from the time are.

>> No.11693054

>>11692984
plus the main characters of his novels, aside from Middle C maybe, are aggressively awful people. spending any amount of time inside Furber's or Kohler's minds is unpleasant no matter how beautiful the prose was.

>> No.11693121

>>11692948
Sot-Weed or Giles Goat Boy ?

>> No.11693169

>>11693121
On Sot Weed right now. Deffo wanna read more though.

>> No.11694246

>>11692914
I met the Gassman briefly at an interdisciplinary conference, about 4 or 5 years ago. After saying hello and shaking our hands he wandered away from the crowd and over to the snacks and started eating from a small bowl of olives for a few minutes.

>> No.11694281

>>11694246
He probably had bad gass and wanted to put some space between him and other people.

>> No.11694310

He's another pre-boomer boomer like Pynchon who more or less squandered his talent by creating iconoclastic work either devoid of any positive message, degenerate and grotesque, or in the case of the Tunnel just horribly dark and negative. It was a failed generation of writers whose mistakes and lack of meaning we should try to learn from.

>> No.11694322

>>11692849
I guess you could say that we pass on Gass.

>> No.11694335

>>11694310
American lit simply has never, and will never be good.
>But...but m-muh Melville!
Sorry, bitch.

>> No.11694336

>>11694310
I've never read him but I will now for all the reasons you say I shouldn't. You're not better than anybody your own damn self. You sound like a lonely golem. I hate people like you but I don't hate you so just get real for once in your life, prick.

>> No.11694353

>>11694336
I was an angry and edgy ZOG-brained 17 year old too once, chap. Read away, no one's stopping you, twerp.

>> No.11694364

>>11694310
Correct
>>11694335
Correct
>>11694336
Cringe and kinda retarded

>> No.11694470

>>11692849
What do you Gass fans think of Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife? It seems like a cool book to own and have in your library, kinda gimmicky and sexy and unique.

https://youtu.be/sY2z2oZJkTE

>> No.11694504

>>11694310
>muh morale of the story
>muh message
>muh disney black and white morality
Back to ledd*t

>> No.11694512

>>11694310
>The Tunnel just horribly dark and negative
This is how you sell a book not how to shit on a book. Added to my amazon wish list lol

>> No.11694542

>>11694512
That's because you're a mad at the world teen pseud. Gass is cool in a lot of ways, but that he spent 27 years or whatever the fuck writing such a twisted piece of garbage like the Tunnel is pathetic and sad and a good representation of how boomer-era lit failed and arguably caused more harm than good.

>> No.11694559

>>11694542
I'm not mad at the world, but seriously who genuinely wants to read about utterly happy people without problems? The whole point of drama is conflict, and the best kind of conflicts are the dark and negative ones.

>> No.11694582

>>11694310
>degenerate
there's that word again

>> No.11694612

>>11694559
You misunderstand. Read the Tunnel. Shit is twisted, disgusting, and pathetic, especially considering the effort that went into it. But it's indicative of something larger. It's not a simple happy vs sad binary; it's about this generation of white male writers being zogged iconoclasts that spent all this time writing books about intentionally grotesque stuff and failing to provide any vision, higher ideal, or spiritual message. It is the failure of our elders at a cultural level and it has led to the increased degree of grotesqueness we see today as western countries get turned into third world dumping grounds and our culture becomes LCD filth produced by jews.

Gass (and Pynchon et al) personifies the failure of white boomer male, whose high literary culture went out with taking shits in people's mouths and "when a cock makes a concept cry"-tier verbal diarea.

>> No.11694683

>>11694582
That is true.

>> No.11694750

>>11694612
You're projecting a lot and this makes you sound below the age of 24.

I don't think you've ever read literature for its craft and you should be ashamed.

>> No.11694793

>>11694750
It's true and you know it.

>> No.11694856

>>11694793
Not really. You're below 20 then or simply racist, because you put Thomas Bernhard, Saul Bellow, and Salman Rushdie in that group.

You just haven't read or experienced the world and your blaming it on kikes just shows you have no interest in bettering yourself either. Uneducated white trash.

>> No.11694866

>>11694793
Give me an explanation as to how Javier Maria's, Isaac Singer, Phillip K. Dick, Alexander Theroux, Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, Barry Hannah, and William Gaddis' The Recognitions "failed to provide a higher vision."

You do not read. You have been caught talking about things you have no idea about. You should not live a fake to yourself. Read and learn about the world. You will be caught as a fake and only grow more unhappy if you continue this path.

>> No.11695035

>>11694542
>twisted piece of garbage like the Tunnel
>degenerate unironically
>dark and negative

You need to kill your self asap, I usually write only kys but you deserve it full. Shitstained white thrash mindnigger.

>> No.11695058

>>11694612
Where does turd like you spawn and where do you spend your life festering? Things are much worse than we think when scum like this roam this board.

White thrash has lost it's security which was nothing but their bigotry and stupidity made universal, unquestionable and transcendental, but we can still hear their screeching. It's disgusting when underage scum like this hide and protect behind 'vision, higher ideal, or spiritual message', it's utterly unbelievable that this type of turd can every time kidnap these ideal.

>> No.11695239
File: 114 KB, 824x544, 1529861541421.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11695239

>>11694612
love this board

>> No.11695256

>>11694612
It's obviously apparent to me that you haven't read Gravity's Rainbow. Plenty of "vision" and "higher ideal" in that book, and of course, you're talking about the shit eating scene that lasts two pages out of 700+.

>> No.11695571

>>11694310
Such an embarrassing post.
>whose mistakes we should try to learn from
Yeah sure thing, kid. We both know you'll never write anything of value.

>> No.11695580

>>11695058
Nice racism bro

>> No.11695621

>>11695580
If black's can sit in the first row in the bus, western civilization is falling - White Thrash.

>> No.11695888

>>11694750
>>11694856
>>11694866
>>11695035
>>11695058
>>11695571
Jesus. Look at this extreme butthurt. The posts that generated it are spot on, which is why underread losers spew so much anger like this; they're immature, incapable of coming to terms with the truth, and are probably jewish given the anti-white sentiments included. Jews have very sick minds, which is a large reason why twisted and vapid boomer literature was promoted and encouraged, because it's bad for our culture.

>> No.11695939

>>11695888
VERY bitter post

>> No.11695958

>>11695939
LOL did you even read the tagged posts? THOSE are bitter posts, bud.

>> No.11696153

Tense looking but really very loose type or writing.

>> No.11696162

>>11694856
I'm not white and I agree with OP's post for the most part

>> No.11696167
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11696167

Still upset the mods didn't give him a sticky

>> No.11696228

>>11696167
god, why doesnt this nigga die already