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/lit/ - Literature

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15021477 No.15021477 [Reply] [Original]

>writes one (1) good novel

>> No.15021494

>>15021477
t. read a single Melville novel

>> No.15021493

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34970/34970-h/34970-h.htm

>> No.15021542

>>15021477
It’s my favourite book but I can’t disagree from what I’ve read.
I’ve read his short stories, most of which are very good as well, especially the Piazza tales.
The confidence man wasn’t that good, Omoo and Typee were good but not great. I don’t know that I’d say Moby Dick is his only good novel but it’s certainly his only great novel, made all the more remarkable by the fact it is among the greatest books ever written, perhaps he simply put most of his best possibly effort into this one work. I have not read Clarel so I cannot comment, perhaps that is also great.

>> No.15021563 [DELETED] 

>>15021493
Cope. Pierre is awful.

>> No.15021577

>>15021493
Cope. Pierre is pretty mediocre.

>> No.15021581

>>15021563
t. Doesn't understand that it's suppossed to be a satire

>> No.15021588

>>15021477
>hasn't even read that (1) good novel

>> No.15021610

>>15021477
That's more than your favourite writer has ever done

>> No.15021657

>>15021477
>and one (1) epoch defining masterpiece

>> No.15021727

>>15021477
that’s all it takes bro, just look at Cervantes

>> No.15021729

>>15021657
Butterfly, stop posting things I agree with

>> No.15021788
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15021788

>>15021729

>> No.15021898

>>15021477
The Confidence-Man is literally better than Ulysses

>> No.15022405

>>15021727
Wrong

>> No.15022458

>>15021477
>>writes one (1) good novel
Pseuds just say that because Moby Dick was hard and want to excuse themselves from going further.

>>15021542
>Piazza tales.
Amazing

>The confidence man wasn’t that good
Disappointing to hear, I was looking forward to that and Pierre.

>Clarel
Probably amazing, but haven't read. His collection Battle Aspects was fantastic though.

>>15021727
Cervantes is just under-read by Americans. Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda is supposed to be fantastic. Not even sure if there's an english translation though.

>> No.15022466

The Confidence Man is great. In its own way it's every bit as accurate a portrayal of American society as Moby-Dick.

>> No.15023252
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15023252

What you must realize about Melville is that he hates the American Idea. Some people say that America has never produced a genuinely great writer. Other people respond to this by bringing up Melville, who IS genuinely great. But there is truth in both positions. Melville is great precisely because he rejects the central conceits of the United States. He rejects rule by the multitude. He rejects free enterprise and capitalism. He rejects the moral trappings of congregationalist Protestantism.

He rejects all of these, and sees them for the hollow deceptions they are. All of his great works--Moby-Dick, Bartleby the Scrivener, Billy Budd, The Confidence Man--are critiques and criticisms of America's core ideas. This is why Melville is America's greatest writer. Because, paradoxically, he is not American at all. Not in his heart.

>> No.15023640

>>15022458
>Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda
read that in my slavspeak
theres a fucking sailor who gives a half page monologue while drowning, unironically
very much mediocre prose romance

>> No.15024282

>>15023252

This is a reductionist view of art that deserves further consideration. The American Spirit is more complex than its socio-economic and political affiliations, but contains its own dynamic force which uniquely animates its hosts. Moby Dick is a through and through American novel, its prose is an elevated Hawthornian distinct to American aesthetics, the hubris of Ahab, his irrational nearly Faustian pursuits are characteristic of the arrogant determination of an American rebel. The multicultural cast, with all its caricatural elements, to me represents at least a liberal American soul. The unorthodox pacing of shifts between pseudo-encyclopedic knowledge and genuinely riveting plot, that break from norms is again, undoubtedly American. The work bleeds America to its very core, in fact, one might argue that your presumption of its Anti-American sentiment would enhance its definition as an American novel. We’re uncritical if we suggest the American essence is simply blind patriotism, I would rather name it the will to rebel and innovate, to whatever catastrophic ends, and it’s more than that of course. But it doesn’t sit right at all to hear someone says Melville is not an American emblem due to his political convictions. We discount a large bit of “American” writers if we start with your assessment.

>> No.15024291

>>15021477
cringe

>> No.15024618

>>15022458
>Disappointing to hear, I was looking forward to that and Pierre.
The confidence man is proto-ulysses with a but of chaucer thrown in, it's probably a harder read than moby dick