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/lit/ - Literature

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22041236 No.22041236 [Reply] [Original]

If someone wrote a novella even half as good as one written by Houellebecq but in English would it do well?

>> No.22041251

in order to be a success you need to cater to people who read, ie women and bourgeois. those people only care about sex orgies and a fake introspection once in a while

In english the only way this works is 50 shades of grey. Houelbecq works in french because the leftist bourgeois and women love to pretend they are smart, the american audience doesnt care munch about this, they just want the sex.

>> No.22041255

>>22041236
Novella? Didn't he write like one novella in his entire life? Or do you mean novel?

>> No.22041257

>>22041255
I don't think I have it in me yet to write a novel. The last thing I wrote was a short story in the style of, I think Knausgaard & Amis.

Right now I'm working on the first draft of what I think will become a novella in the style of Amis & Houellebecq but only half as well-written as the Houellebecq.

>> No.22041263

>>22041236
Who'd publish it? You'd be better off learning French and trying to get it published there, they're quite edgy still & there's much mingling between far right and far left types

>> No.22041269

It would never be published

>> No.22041275

The Testament of Mary and McGlue both did alright. Nominated for prizes, highly acclaimed by critics

>> No.22041280

>>22041275
So it wouldn't be anything for someone to write something of that variety, huh?

>> No.22041290

>>22041280
Not really. Novellas get written and published all the time. On Chesil Beach got nominated for the booker

>> No.22041297

>>22041290
But in which style was that written? Is the style of Martin Amis for instance enough to do reasonably well?

>> No.22041304

>>22041297
Given that Martin Amis is considered one of the greatest living prose stylists, I reckon it would

>> No.22041319

>>22041304
John Banville always appears on the blurb of Martin Amis... how exactly do you get his attention? Or will it just happen if you get the novella published?

>> No.22041337

>>22041319
If you are Martin Amis, you give him a call and ask for another cover quote. Or get your agent to do it.
If you aren't Martin Amis, you send it off to Banville with a polite letter asking him for one. How do you think any new author gets those quotes for the first edition?

>> No.22041342

>>22041337
Is John Banville the big writer to have on your blurb? I notice all the post-war fiction I read has either Anthony Burgess, Martin Amis, Will Self or John Banville on it's blurb.

>> No.22041349

>>22041342
Depends what you write. For a thriller I'd want Lee Child. For le quirky fantasy you'd want Gaiman
For literary fiction, yeah those guys, maybe Ian Mcewan.
No idea how easy it is, or whether it helps to have an agent put it a good word first. But as I understand it, there's a lot of cold approaching going on

>> No.22041400

>>22041349
How does one acquire an agent?

>> No.22041638

>>22041400
Same way you get a girlfriend

>> No.22041658

>>22041236
shit author with shit ideas and a shit philosophy

>> No.22041664

>>22041658
Which novelist do you prefer? Huysmans? Nabokov? Updike?

>> No.22041670

>>22041664
more recent ones Sebald otherwise Dostoevsky

>> No.22041710
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22041710

>>22041400