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/lit/ - Literature

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1561667 No.1561667 [Reply] [Original]

NO DEAD PEOPLE, NO PENGUIN CLASSICS, REAL ONGOING CONTEMPORARY LIT DISCUSSION FOR REAL G'S ONLY

MODS, PLEASE PIN

>> No.1561671

Is this picture a joke
If not any shred of respect I had for that author is gone.

>> No.1561690
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1561690

Max Barry is a cool guy.

>> No.1561695

Franzen is a clumsy and mediocre writer.

Sorry that the board would rather talk about good writing than hackwork, OP.

>> No.1561698

>>1561671

>durr he was paid for an appearance on something popular television show and that makes him BAD

Grow up.

>> No.1561707
File: 27 KB, 203x300, the_Diving_Pool.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1561707

Yoko Ogawa's books/stories are pretty interesting, The Diving Pool especially. The veiled malice and bits of suspense are great.

>> No.1561713

I dislike Franzen, he just annoys me. That's not to say I don't like mediocre "contemporary" writers. I liked Everything is illuminated by Safran Foer.

Currently my favourite "not dead, penguin classic, ongoing" writer is Haruki Murakami. However I still prefer older works. That said pre-1920's literature isn't my thing sans a few like Hugo, Dumas and Caroll.

>> No.1561716

>>1561698
I think you completely misunderstood the meaning of my post.

>> No.1561723
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1561723

literally a Chinese Murakami

and by that i mean i fucking love him

>> No.1561730

I really wanted to enjoy Freedom. I simply did not believe the characters. They felt like the result of a focus group trying to create the most medicore family in America

>> No.1561741

>/lit/ pretends to hate tao lin
>still havent OCR'd his books yet and upped to mediafire

>> No.1561750

>>1561741

why you so averse to buying his books?

you want to outsmart him and not be a victim of his savvy /lit/ marketing?

>> No.1561755

The fuck? People like contemporary Japanese literature... Isn't that liking contemporary Russian literature?

>> No.1561766
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1561766

>>1561755
how can you like something that doesn't exist

>> No.1561762 [DELETED] 

>>1561755

No, it's like contemporary Japanese literature.

>> No.1561771

>>1561755
No, /lit/ doesn't like contempory jap writers. Only po-mo pretentious japanese writers.

>> No.1561775

>>1561750
nope just i dont like wasting money and using amazon/waiting for delivery might not even be worth it.

>> No.1561782

>>1561730
he's a pretty bad case of a not-untalented writer who makes most of his characters sound like him

>> No.1561788

>>1561775
It's not worth it at all.

Lin writes like a high schooler.
An extract from Shoplifting from American Apparel

"The strange man made noises behind me. I looked at him. He asked to see my shirt. "Do you work there?" I asked. He said he did.

>> No.1561789
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1561789

>>1561671
It's like the N'Sync episode for people who listen to Fresh Air

Having said that, /lit/ is happy to shit on three out of four of these guys, but you can't fuck with Gore Vidal (as a personality, at least)

>> No.1561790

>>1561755
How is that like liking Russian contemporary literature?

>> No.1561795

>>1561771
Yoko Ogawa isn't really post modern. Though I'm probably the only person on /lit/ to like her.

>> No.1561806
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1561806

>faggots that read most of their novels translated and possibly contemporary

>> No.1561814

is this thread meant to be a dramatic re-enactment of the tao lin troll comic or did it just happen that way

>> No.1561816

Does David Markson count? He's dead, but it was recent.

>> No.1561819

>>1561790

"Nice past, shame about present," sorta thing.

>> No.1561853

>>1561816
I say he counts because I've honestly always wondered why he's not a big /lit/ darling (other than the obvious "not assigned for 11th-grade English" factor. He'd make a good board book club pick imo

>> No.1561904
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1561904

I read this contemporary novel a while ago and it was pretty good. I don't know if anyone outside of Canada knows of this guy, but he's a poet and his first novel got a bit of attention here when it came out a few years back. A lot of readers described it as poetically portentous, and I think that's a fitting description. Sort of like Faulkner but on meth. The novels first line seems to illustrate this quite nicely: "It didn't take him long to bury me". And so on. Overall a pretty good read. I recommend to /lit/ because it has the grand scheming and prose often found in "the classics" that are so popular on here.

>> No.1562064

>>1561723
>literally

anyway, would you recommend starting with that one? i keep meaning to check him out but then i just troll /lit/ instead

>> No.1562094

>>1561806
thomyorke.jpg

>> No.1562108
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1562108

Not fiction, but I have Bieber fever for Zadie Smith and I wish she would start blogging or something

>> No.1562112
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1562112

Whatever and Atomised were good. Platform and the subsequent novels less so. I have not read his latest (waiting for an English translation).

>> No.1562115

>>1561795
Nope, not alone. Read everything I could. There are many more of her work translated to french than to english I gather.

>> No.1562129

>>1562115
Yeah, I saw that! I know a moderate amount of French, so I'm thinking of possibly attempting to read a few that haven't been translated into English yet. Which of her works is your favorite? Mine was probably Pregnancy Diary.

>> No.1562150

Might be The Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain, though I liked The Museum of Silence quite a bit too.

>> No.1562170
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1562170

Granted it's the only thing I've read by her, but I really enjoyed it.

>> No.1562185

>>1562170
Yeah, you know, I was actually expecting to be totally annoyed by her writing but I think she's very good. I'd go back and forth forever with her any day

>> No.1562217
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1562217

>>1562185

Damn straight. I would too.

>> No.1562767

I'm between loving and hating Banana Yoshimoto. Her prose is nothing special, but I just love how she just runs with an idea from start to finish.

>> No.1562774

>>1562767
I really adore Banana Yoshimoto's books when I'm in a certain kind of mood. Otherwise she seems kind of bland.

>> No.1562784

>>1562774
Any work you like in particular?

>> No.1562789

>>1562767
>>1562774
I see a couple of muthafuckas who just like saying "banana yoshimoto".

>> No.1562797

>>1562784
I just read Hardboiled & Hard Luck by her, and I have to say Hard Luck was especially great. The feelings of loneliness and detachment, dealing with sorrow - she writes those things really well imo.

>> No.1562804

>>1562789
And I see a troll. But don't feel left out. Feel free to join.

>> No.1562801

>>1562789
lol

it would be a good name for the frontwoman in a punk band

>> No.1562831

>>1562797
It's a prevalent theme in her works, though not so much in Amrita. Coping with loss plays a much bigger role there.

>> No.1562858

>>1562804
Bro I wasn't trolling. It was a... *ahem*... joke?
>>1562801
Yes, it does.

Anyway I'll check this Yoshi bitch out.

>> No.1562864

>>1562831
I'm actually about to start up Asleep. Any thoughts on that one?

>> No.1562871

>>1562858
Silly tripfag. Your poor attempt at joking on the Internet is just too cute.

>> No.1562881
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1562881

Jonathon Lethem - I'm amazed he doesn't get bigger props on /lit/ - he's totally your asperger type.

And David Mitchell? The IRL literary world has a collective orgasm when you say his name, but here on /lit/ it's herp derp? salinger derp herp?

And nobody ever seems to have heard of Will Self.

What the fuck is wrong with you people? I'm not saying these authors are good, or bad, but what the fuck is wrong with the youth of today? Really? The fuck,dudes? Srsly, the fuck?

Pic unrelated, but my money's on the tiger

>> No.1562885

>>1562864
Asleep is pretty WTF worthy in terms of plot. Night & Night's Travelers gets interesting towards the end. Love Song is slightly /u/ worthy. Naturally, all three are about a loss one way or the other.

>> No.1562891

>>1562881
>David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas is great, though you're right in that /lit/ barely, if ever, mention him. I think it's got to do with the fact that he's a Britfag than anything.

>> No.1562897

>>1562871
I don't get where you're going with this.

>> No.1562902
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1562902

>>1561698
The Simpsons
hah

>> No.1562908

>>1562881
I mention Will Self when I'm on here regularly. I love all of the books I've read by him.

Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas I've seen mentioned on here a few times. Liked the former, haven't read the latter.

Lowboy by John Wray I think is a great new novel as well.

>> No.1562912

>>1562897
Why, P00F? Too deep for you?

>> No.1562913

I thought John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River was half greatests hits half My Life in France

picnotrelated

>> No.1562917

>>1562891
>>1562891

>I think it's got to do with the fact that he's a Britfag than anything.

That may explain why you never hear anything about Jim Crace on these boards. The Gift of Stones? Beig Dead? Quarantine? Arcadia? These things mean nothing to the average c/lit/, but I swear that man could write the smug grin off God's face.

Do yourself a favour and read his stuff.

And while we're ploughing the britfag groove, what in the fucking shit happened to Thomas Hardy? Twenty years ago, he was the aboloute don, now he's just a chief innit.

Read Hardy, not the novel - the poetry, he only wrote novels to pay for booze and the finncial independence to write poetry

>> No.1562918
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1562918

>>1562912
Yes.

>> No.1562927

>>1562918

How can I learn to be as cool as you, Virginia W00F?

>> No.1562940

>>1562927
There are a couple of ways:
1. You can do what I did, but this would mean you experience the same things I did or at least grow up in a similar environment with a similar disposition.
2. You can shadow me IRL. This is a full time job. There won't be any fees, but it WILL be UNpaid. I have a small guest bedroom you are welcome to use. You will be expected to make the occasional baozi or baijiu run and will act as a wingman from time to time on a night out. I reserve the right to include you as a team member in gangbangs and soccer matches.

>> No.1562948

Does anyone ITT read geographically

ex: live in N St. Paul and read F. Scott Fitzgerald

>> No.1562949

2-3 months solitary confinement in a chinese prison camp might do it too

>> No.1562955

>>1562917
>Crace
>write the smug grin off God's face
Hunting in #bookz now.
>Hardy.
Awesome mustache. I've read all of his novels but only A King's Soliloquy for his poems.

>> No.1562962

>>1562918
Go back to /soc/

>> No.1562965

>>1562948
>>1562948
I go in blocks by country. Usually 4 or 5 books. So read 5 American, then 5 Russian, etc.
>>1562949
Anything's possible.

>> No.1562982

>>1562962
I've uh... never been to /soc/

>> No.1563031

>>1562881
Yeah, I don't know whether it's an endearing quirk that /lit/ is seemingly unaware of or indifferent to the stuff that every other liberal arts-educated band of nerds on the internet reads, or if it's just another depressing sign that this is the house high school English class built

>> No.1563036

>>1562955

You won't regret it - start with Arcadia, then Quarantine, or the other way around, or whatever the fuck you want, because as far as I am aware, the man has never written a bad novel.

Do yourself a favour /lit/, read Jim Crace

>> No.1563289

>>1563036

I am in agreeemntwith Anon, but my redommend would be "The Gift of Stones" - this is very good book, very exciting.

>> No.1563401

Guys what good books are coming out this year? PALE KING DOESN'T COUNT FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS THREAD, MORE LIKE PALE COLD LITERARY ZOMBIE FLESH

>> No.1563407

Anyone read Lowboy?
It's much better on the second read through.

>> No.1563493

all of /lit/ in one thread.

Man, this is pretty pathetic

>> No.1563612

>>1563493
Nah. Just bad timing.

>> No.1563617
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1563617

>contemporary lit

>> No.1563619

>>1563617
Rot in the grave with your classics then, elitist.

>> No.1563632
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1563632

>>1563619

>> No.1563634

I like Dan Brown too.

>> No.1563636

>>1563632
>Reaction pics

>> No.1563650
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1563650

>>1563636

>> No.1563674

>>1563401

I can't wait for The Pale King. Can't wait.

>> No.1563689

>>1563632

>i love the movie in that pic

>> No.1563695

I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned Cormac McCarthy yet. His shit's good. Bleak, violent, and sometimes awful, but good nonetheless.

>> No.1563916

Some of the best books written are from the last 40 years. Older stuff is good too, though.