[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 115 KB, 1000x750, b_s_johnson_-_nieszczesni.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12699123 No.12699123 [Reply] [Original]

what the fuck is this?
>postmodernism

>> No.12699130
File: 87 KB, 815x1094, nox.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12699130

>>12699123
that looks cool. the case reminds me of Nox which is awesome
pic-related is my copy of it

>> No.12699148

>>12699130
ugly shoes

>> No.12699149
File: 31 KB, 400x400, 1551450330850.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12699149

The Unfortunates is an experimental "book in a box" published in 1969 by English author B. S. Johnson and reissued in 2008 by New Directions.[1] The 27 sections are unbound, with a first and last chapter specified. The 25 sections in-between, ranging from a single paragraph to 12 pages in length, are designed to be read in any order.[1] The number of possible combinations the sections can be read in numbers 15 septillion.

>> No.12699249

>>12699148
they're boots u dilettante

>> No.12699259

>making reading a chore
yeah, i love taking my jigsaw box with me wherever i go

>> No.12699304

>>12699259
It seems like its fairly short. I was reading through some reviews though and one guy said he couldn't even pull the gimmick off and there are parts between the first and last chapter that do happen chronologically surrounding the soccer/football game

>> No.12700775

I heard about this book some time ago, meant to look into it, but forgot about it.
I'm really intrigued by the idea. I actually enjoy experimental and surreal literature, but part of me wonders how well executed the idea is.
Can anyone speak for this? Does reading the sections in a different order actually change the story or alter the mood at all? Or does it just read as any other book with a fractured timeline?

>> No.12700875

>>12699123
Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry is the superior BS Johnson novel, but The Unfortunates is pretty great too. Ergodic literature is always good

>>12700775
A lot of it is kind of a hauntological study of memory and the absent presence of ghosts, it was written as a eulogy for a friend after all. The chronology of the narrative isn't as important as the way past and future converge on the locus of the reading experience, sometimes in the wrong order, but always focused on the same thing

>> No.12701055

>>12700875
Hmm... That actually makes me more interested. I like explorations of memory and and how memories are experienced and sometimes distorted.

>> No.12701477

>>12700875
>The chronology of the narrative isn't as important
>sometimes in the wrong order
>>12699304
>he couldn't even pull the gimmick off and there are parts between the first and last chapter that do happen chronologically
lmao you guys are kidding right? This faggot went through the trouble of creating this and at less than 200 pages he still couldn't pull this stupid gimmick off? Should have never been republished holy fuck