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/lit/ - Literature

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23247089 No.23247089 [Reply] [Original]

>John Barth, who, believing that the old literary conventions were exhausted, extended the limits of storytelling with imaginative and intricately woven novels like “The Sot-Weed Factor” and “Giles Goat-Boy,” died on Tuesday. He was 93.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/books/john-barth-dead.html

It's truly over.

>> No.23247105

>>23247089
RIP.
Wonderful stylist and very funny writer.

>> No.23247130

>>23247089

F

I've wanted to read Barth for years but his books are pretty hard to find. Think they will become more accessible now that he is gone?

>> No.23247133

>>23247089
RIP

Sticky when?

>> No.23247136

>>23247130
>his books are pretty hard to find.
where do you live? they're easy to find here

>> No.23247173

RIP

One of the greats

>> No.23247178

pynchon is next

>> No.23247210

>>23247130
A lot of his stuff is very easy to find online. Even Letters.

>> No.23247232

>>23247178
McCarthy is next

>> No.23247274

>>23247178
>Card mysteriously appears on Barth’s tomb after Pynchon dies
>”Been there, done that”

>> No.23247288

>>23247089
Just yesterday I was thinking "damn it's crazy how he's still alive."
RIP

>> No.23247304

>>23247089
RIP! We miss you King. Thanks for your playfulness. You were the thinking man's Pynchon.

>> No.23247312

>>23247089
I never read Sot-Weed Factor because I heard it has a lot of rape and cuck jokes (which I am not fond of). Should I reconsider?

>> No.23247314

>>23247232
Anon, I...

>> No.23247316

>>23247089
RIP, Sotweed was some of the funniest shit I've ever read.

>> No.23247344
File: 126 KB, 800x556, pomo.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23247344

Coover's the only one left

>> No.23247754

Barth bump

>> No.23247826

>>23247178
>Pynch outlived Barth

>> No.23247973

>>23247089
RIP, just got into his work last year -- read the two early novels and Giles. I enjoyed End of the Road very much. I think this is the first time I've experienced an author who I read while alive die (unfortunately didn't get into McCarthy much except for The Road). But it seems that death of an author is not really sad because they can always live on through their work. I was making my way languidly through Sot Weed, but I'll return to it with more attention now.

>> No.23247976

>>23247826
He's younger, why wouldn't he.

>> No.23248032

Fuck it's real. RIP to the goat(boy).
Jannies sticky

>> No.23248181

>>23247178
Don DeLillo is slightly older.

>> No.23248183

Was beginning to think him immortal. RIP to a phenomenal writer.

>> No.23248194

RIP, I'm studying his "Floating Opera" for an exam. Not the first time an author dies right after I finished one of his main works

>> No.23248437

>>23247344
>that photo
What's the modern day equivalent?

>> No.23248515

We'd better get a sticky for this legend.

>>23247130
>his books are pretty hard to find
IME used bookstores very often have first-edition Barths for cheap. I think they printed too many of them. Good news for us.

>>23247210
>Even Letters
How is that one? I picked up a copy and might get to it this year.

>> No.23248677

>>23247344
Can anyone ID the guy to the left of Vonnegut and the guy with the eyepatch? Are all the women just wives?

>> No.23248690

>>23248677
John Hawkes, Walter Abish.

>> No.23248799

where is the sticky

>> No.23248831

>>23247178
Pynchon is already dead or incapacitated, that's the only explanation I can come up with for why his papers have already been donated to an institution

>> No.23248854

>still not stickied
The absolute state of /lit/'s moderation team. This is pathetic. Who do I call or complain to about this? John Barth is a legend of 20th century American fiction. He is one of the most playful and dedicated storytellers in American fiction. His short story collection Lost in the Funhouse is amazing. The Sot-Weed Factor is one of the greatest picaresque novels ever written, and THE best Don Quixote rewrite. And have you read Chimera? It's a beautiful triptych of story-telling and again exhibits Barth's playfulness. Let us also not forget The Seven Voyages of Nobody the Sailor. A great homage to The Thousand Nights and a Night and Scheherazade. And of course, who can forget Barth's Cold-War era campus novel, the estimable Giles Goat-Boy? I don't what the fuck is wrong with Jannies and Mods, but they need to get their shit together.

>> No.23248857

>>23248677
Yes, all the women are just wives, though some of them were artists (not specifically writers) themselves.

>> No.23248909

Of all the “postmoderns” he was the one I liked the most because his books actually had likeable characters and page-turning plots, as well as being even more structurally formal than the work other Pomo writers. All the chapter structures and stories-in-stories. It must have taken enormous chops to do that because it’s easy to write a plot-and-character novel without any meta stuff, and it’s easy to write a bunch of formless chaos or a self aware structure without characters or plot that matter, but Barth took everything to the next level. Barth also seemed to be having enormous fun writing and it showed in the writing. He was the best.

>> No.23248940

I'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while now but I'm still tearing up. An institution of American letters (not to mention LETTERS) and easily the most joyously experimental of the postmodernists. He always struck me as a kind, avuncular figure and while his later works mostly rehashed his life story in various ways, I never tired of the way he did it. "Every Third Thought" was a really poignant reflection on aging and the anxiety of facing death. His publishing career spanned 66 years! May we all be granted such time.

"And thence retire me to my Milan, where
Every third thought shall be my grave."

>>23247274
Goddamn you, you glorious fucker, I snickered.

>> No.23248986
File: 216 KB, 850x1232, second skin john hawkes.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23248986

>>23248677
Hawkes, probably the most talented man in the picture. Try this one if you can find a copy, it'll rock your world.
He never got popular because his books are challenging but short and unassuming, so pomo fans don't get to feel like a big man.

>> No.23249036

>>23248986
Hawkes never got popular because he is a prose stylist. It's the same reason Gass never got popular.

>> No.23249139

>>23249036
I like how that usually turns around well after the fact. It's slow right now, but there's been a renewed interest in these authors, and I expect a new look at the 70s next.

>> No.23249177

>>23247089
>John Barth
RIP

>> No.23250036

Horrible news, I feel gutted. RIP to one of the last of the greats.

>> No.23250746

>>23247089
F

>> No.23250752

>>23247089
I'm currently reading sot-weed factor for 6 months. I been putting off for other projects and books, but at the news of his death I shall place it front and center and complete it. im at around 100 pages into the book, just as they about to leave to Maryland. even before I got into the 'real' part of the story, I've been having fun reading it. compare to other post modernist works, this doesn't feel like a confusing soapbox lecture but an enriching adventure; new England can claim Ebenezer cooke as their Don Quixote. there is a part in the early pages of sotweed factor, a small crumb of dialogue, said by Charles Calvert. it caught my eye and so I feel like I should end my post with it:
>Life's a battle that scars us all, victor and vanquished alike

>> No.23251032

>>23250752
>compare to other post modernist works, this doesn't feel like a confusing soapbox lecture but an enriching adventure
which post-modern novels would you say feel like a soapbox lecture? Not looking to argue or anything I'm just curious

>> No.23251047

>>23248437
The picture of F. Gardner and Waldun together

>> No.23252097

If this had occurred a decade ago, old /lit/ would've kept it on the first page for a week straight. Now it gets barely 50 posts before reaching page 10 (and needing a shameless bump such as this).

RIP

>> No.23252295

>>23247089
He sounds like a literal who despite all that so called acclaim. I've never heard him as a an author nor as influence. In fact, in the last four months, he was mentioned less than 24 times on /lit/. I guess we are now going to be flooded by people pretending to like him for a week until everyone forgets him.

>> No.23252300

>>23251032
I was thinking of Pynchon when I wrote it. he's a fun guy but he tends to get on his high horse midst of poop jokes and talking dogs

>> No.23252378

>>23247312
Yes it is very funny. Goat-boy overstays its welcome in my opinion.

>> No.23253259

I knew it was bad around here but /lit/ is actually dead. Worse than /mu/ maybe.

>> No.23253311

RIP

I love all of his first three novels, but the Sot-Weed Factor is one of the greatest novels ever written. For me its up there with Gravitys Rainbow, Ulysses, In Search of lost time, Brothers Karamazov etc.

as sad as it is hopefully this will get more people to his stuff

>> No.23253316

>>23252295
i never post on lit because i have an actual life and girlfriend, but just an FYI barth was actually an amazing author and you are doing yourself a disservice but not at least giving his early work a look

>> No.23253326

>>23252295
Embarrassing

>> No.23253690

>>23253259
Not even. It's still bad but I had to crawl over endless sot-weed recommendations while looking for something completely unrelated in the archives a few months ago. Most of them recent. So much that I have it in my backlog where I'll read it after I read the Sot-weed Factor.

>> No.23253811

>>23253690
Your post is unintelligible. We are not you. We do not know what these vague references you are making are supposed to be.

>> No.23253863

>>23253811
>>worse than /mu maybe
>Not even.
That should clarify it all. You sure you read postmodern lit?

>> No.23253909
File: 15 KB, 474x266, th-2646796050.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23253909

Rest in piss to another postmodern communist coward corruptor of the youth, one less blackguard ne'erdoweller befouling the befuddled minds of bedazzled babes

>> No.23253970

>>23253311
Yes, The Floating Opera is rarely mentioned, but it's truly a magnificent novel. Crazy to think that he lived for seventy more years after writing that

>> No.23253974

>>23247089
>the old literary conventions were exhausted
isn't this cope? Feels like Shakespeare's form is still great, just no one can pull it off anymore

>> No.23253992

>>23253974
When you have a Shakespeare or a Michael Jackson or fringe weirdo who does a thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Y1R0ePMPY like this, you don't have to. Attempting to do the same thing becomes derivative once the core of it is 'solved' and you have to go to new fringes.

>> No.23254123

>>23248940
>His publishing career spanned 66 years! May we all be granted such time.
amen
>>23247089
never heard of him but even a description that short made me convinced I must read at least something from him
and maybe that's what it is all about
requiescat in pace

>> No.23254207

>>23252295
Man, nu-/lit/ is truly horrible. As >>23252097 said, Barth's death would have been a big deal here 10 years ago, but now we have all these zoomies who don't read and haven't even heard of him.

>> No.23254268

>>23253974
I agree, even though I like Barth. I don't like sweeping generalizations like "x is overdone" or "you can't do x anymore." Anything is acceptable as long as you do it well.

>> No.23254440

>>23253863
>It's still bad but I had to crawl over endless sot-weed recommendations while looking for something completely unrelated in the archives a few months ago. Most of them recent. So much that I have it in my backlog where I'll read it after I read the Sot-weed Factor.
This is unintelligible. We are not you. We do not knkw what this "it" is that you had to seach tirelessly for and plan to read after The Sot-Weed Factor. Seek help for your autism.

>> No.23254466

>>23254440
Something else is irrelevant and I plan to read the Sot-Weed Factor after finishing the Sot-Weed Factor. Bumping a thread through trolling does not have the effect you want it to, unless you're a troll.

>> No.23255156

>>23247089
I have literally never heard of this man mentioned once on this board and i've been here about a decade.

>> No.23255291

>>23255156
I found out about him from this board but it was ages ago. He's great. Well, he was, but his writing still is. RIP to a real one.

>> No.23255496

>>23255156
I have a hard time believing this; people talk about Sot-Weed all the time. I prefer the GOAT boy but I get why it's less popular.

>> No.23255606

>>23255156
So your ignorance is MY fault?

>> No.23255668
File: 55 KB, 894x894, eat man.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23255668

>>23255606
Yes. You claim to respect the man only once he's passed. When he was alive? Nothing.

>> No.23255673

>>23255668
Nah I've posted about Sot-Weed multiple times, usually comparing amd contrasting it with Mason & Dixon.

>> No.23256070

>>23247130
Bizarre. I have a rule of never buying books online, and I found his book more easily than I found any of his contemporaries (that includes Pynchon, Hawkes, DeLillo, Gass, etc - I STILL can't find a copy of tThe Tunnel).

>> No.23256154

Barth, Gaddis, Wainhouse, Hawkes — these were the American writers of the finest hour.

>> No.23256184

>>23256070
Good lord, I can't believe how much The Tunnel is going for right now. I heard theres a repress coming so hopefully that drops prices for ya.
>>23256154
Any recs for Wainhouse and Hawkes? I havent read either and I'm looking to check em out.

>> No.23256189

>>23255156
You don’t lurk enough.

>> No.23256646

>>23256184
Hedyphagetica and The Cannibal respectively (they were classmates at Harvard)

>> No.23256745

>>23248854
Hopefully they’re just a bit slow in getting to it, but maybe they’re just really that shitty. I forgot the last time they stickied a thread for a “major literary event” (usually a well-known author dying, basically), I think there was a similar fuss about how they didn’t give William Gass that respect when he kicked the bucket a while ago, or maybe I forget and they eventually did do it.

>>23248909
100%, except I’m only speaking on the basis of The Sot-Weed Factor, which I read a long time ago but loved, and am planning to reread. Not just an experimental author who pioneered postmodern literature and expanded the boundaries of fiction, but actually also an amazing consummate storyteller (shouldn’t novelists be good storytellers?) who made works as fun, comedic, and filled with heart as they were cerebral. At least in The Sot-Weed Factor, he didn’t take postmodern experimentation with fiction to mean “I don’t have to tell an interesting story or keep the reader engaged.” The best of both worlds, it’s a hyperbolic comparison perhaps, but in this book I think he’s there with Cervantes and Shakespeare in creating works not only erudite and beautiful but that also tell great stories. Don Quixote and the picaresque novels are of course a great comparison (obviously, because this is what he modeled the book off of, the picaresque novel).

R.I.P., you were a real one, John.

>> No.23256932

I read Chimera a few months ago on anon's recommendation. It was breddy cool. RIP big guy.

>> No.23256940

>>23256745
> I forgot the last time they stickied a thread for a “major literary event

the last time they stickied a thread was for McCarthy's passing. even then I think they only stickeied him because of that stupid 5 hour long essay that allows zoomies pretend to have read it
>so basically the judge is like really racist and is basically the devil
fucking ridiculous

>> No.23257789

>>23256940
I genuinely believe that 99% of "video essays" on youtube are made by people who have not written an essay since high school.

>> No.23257793

>>23247089
F

>> No.23257821

>>23248799
>>23248854
Where's the sticky indeed. Quality effortpost threads used to last for more than a month. Pruning question begging & coomer bait OPs isn't hard.

>> No.23257831

>>23252295
>He sounds like a literal who despite all that so called acclaim

Pynchon's Mason & Dickshit is solidly in the shadow of his Sotweed Factor. Of the big names of post-war Boomer novelists, he actually deserves the limelight.

>> No.23257844

>>23256646
>Wainehouse, de Sade translator

Color me surprised, been sleeping on it this whole time. Nice.

>> No.23258336

Are you serious!! No!
I am actually devastated!
Goddamn we lost Toriyama, McCarthy, Carl Weathers and now Barth??

What's next Larry David?

>> No.23258339

>>23256184
The Tunnel is such a good book! Any love for Gaddis?

>> No.23258356

>>23258336
Sarcasm?

>> No.23258364

>>23258356
No I just haven't slept in a couple of days so I am writing like Wolfe

>> No.23258372

>>23247089
vax status?

>> No.23258373

>>23247344
>so I told Bill to crouch and he actually did it the absolute madman

>> No.23258568

>>23258339
Gadds is the man, I've read everything he's done and loved all of it.

>> No.23258648

>>23248854
Really heartened to hear that I'm not the only one who enjoyed Barth (I'm old af but still 2 generations later). He was a legitimately hilarious and SOVLFVL writer, his deadly masterpieces hold up very well, and he fell out of fashion but his later novels were worthy as well.

Of course I'm sorry to hear of his passing but the posts are encouraging. I read his books because my parents had boxes of old paperbacks with the pages falling right out of the dessicated binding, and Sot Weed Factor had a good cover. Utterly hilarious and the same intelligence and humanity shows through in his more "serious" works as well. I don't think I've ever met anyone IRL who has even heard of him. At least a few people know.

F to the realest one. Jannies I hate to distract you from jerking off to Dragonlance novels but we need a sticky up in this bytch.

>> No.23259032

>>23258568
Even the Pile Fabric Primer?

>> No.23260710

had only just picked up a copy of sot-weed on the 1st. rest easy.

>> No.23260991

Not letting this thread get to page ten. At least not until I finish reading Lost In The Funhouse

>> No.23261007

>>23247089
>4 days later
>less than 100 posts

If browsing through /lit/ isn’t a sign that the current landscape is different then this is. I’ve seen the Gaddis, Barth, Gass, DFW, Pynchon, PoMo novelists as one of the main ingredients of /lit/ culture and interest. Unironically getting literally who? posts is a little shocking. The /lit/ zeitgeist has changed. It’s probably best to move on for good

>> No.23262095

>>23261007
Yeah I was dead sure he'd at least get a sticky. If /lit/ doesn't celebrate the life of a postmodernist then who will? Sad!

>> No.23262156

Bump for mods doing their jobs

>> No.23262322

>>23262156
I guarantee the mods are thinking, "Why sticky the thread? It will stay up for about a week anyways. /lit/ is a slow board, so there's no reason to sticky a thread." However the mods don't understand the sticky isn't about preventing the thread from being bumped off the catalog, it's about the prestige and respect that comes with a sticky.

>> No.23262349

>>23262322
They know, they just don't care.

>> No.23262401

There isn't anything of him on Libgen or maybe I'm retarded? Plz post link of his works plz.

>> No.23262690

>>23262401
https://annas-archive.org/search?q=john+barth

click an option under Slow downloads

>> No.23264067

>>23262690
Thanks bro.

>> No.23264137

>>23261007
couldn't agree more. i just popped back in to here and /tv/ just to see the current state of things and its pretty sad. although i think a lot of that is just that ive grown up. the idea of yelling into an empty void and having people who you have no way of knowing if they are complete pieces of shit or not has just lost its appeal to me

>> No.23264163

>>23264137
Anonymity is double edged sword and it’s at the point where I see it as more damaging. Nothing interesting is done with it, just politically incorrect BS and every anon seems like every other anon. I’d love to know which anons just aren’t worth reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a small amount of people who post the most and give /lit/ the appearance that it’s worse than it is and anons leave or cut back. Radical extremist posts are just boring anymore. Part of it is, like you said, growing up.

>> No.23265051

>>23247089
REMINDER WHO DIDENT GET A STICKY
>Charles Portis
>Gene Wolfe
>Larry McMurtry
>Anne Rice
>Mark Samuels
and now
>John Barth

>> No.23265060

>>23264137
You guys are just gay together, jacking each other off like homos

>> No.23265588

Where do I start with Barth?

>> No.23266924

>>23265588
The Floating Opera

>> No.23266932

>>23247089
so young

>> No.23266948

RIP to a great American writer.

Bump

>> No.23266950

>>23247089
Time to read Letters again

>> No.23266951

>>23248831
He realized he doesn't need papers anymore since he can save everything in a cloud drive and then forget the password like the fool he is

>> No.23266955
File: 296 KB, 1588x910, Cape Cod Tales.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23266955

You know who is alive though? Alexander Theroux. You know who has a new book out THIS MONTH? Alexander Theroux.
RIP John Barth tho

>> No.23266986

>>23256184
The Tunnel is getting a reprint as soon as August I think

>> No.23267532

>>23255496
Sot Weed Factor is a comic novel and pm pastiche of modest ambition (to make you lol) though great intelligence, and it succeeds completely; Giles Goat Boy is a semi-comic novel and deeply ambitious pm satire of ... existence and everything in it, basically, which is about 25% too long. Sot Weed is pure pleasure, but Giles Goat-Boy is a self-consciously Great book, and a pretty good one too.

>> No.23268236

The Floating Opera - kino
Lost In The Funhouse - KINO
Sot Weed Factor - KINO
Giles Goat-Boy - kino
All his books were kino, even after he fell out of fashion, and he was incredibly innovative and influential to a generation of writers who got much more famous doing everything he had already done, only not as well.

>> No.23268251
File: 98 KB, 238x209, EXgj7ysWkAUHRG1.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23268251

>>23248831
even worse, his son was the one who managed the donation
also, assuming this is actually him
>that head of hair at 82

>> No.23268746

>>23268251
Damn, he looks like a wise old owl or something

>> No.23268823
File: 79 KB, 640x840, joseph_mcelroy_headshot_medium.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23268823

Not a lot of them left now.

>> No.23270210

Bumpety boo, we haven't forgotten about you

>> No.23270237

>>23264163
You can always go to reddit, since you hate the main thing that attracts people to anonimity, the ability to not get banned immidately

>> No.23270267

>>23256070
>>23256184
I was looking for a copy of the Tunnel for years. My gf found one online for $15 in about 5 minutes. You need a woman’s shopping skills to get a copy.

I still have a preorder out for the next pressing. (Bought it April 23, not due to be delivered until July 25). I’ve only got about 50 pages left. Once I finish I’ll be giving the used copy to the used bookstore by me. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

>> No.23270280

>>23270267
Are they actually that hard to find? I found a practically brand new copy at my local used book store for $20.

>> No.23270989

>>23270280
I've never seen a single William Gass book at a used bookstore, except once I saw Middle C, so I bought it. I've been going to that used bookstore for my whole life. It's housed in an old warehouse, so it has lots of books and lots of inventory turnover too.

>> No.23271069

Bump. This one hurts, he was a big part of my 20s and opened me up to a lot of new ideas and approaches, in a very funny and deceptively clever way. Erudite like a motherfucker, and not in any way a put on - he could only do the postmodern pastiche thing because he read and absorbed *everything*. Definitely abused ADD meds, but it agreed with him.

>> No.23271126

>>23252295
Congrats anon, you were right.

>> No.23272188

>>23271069
>Definitely abused ADD meds, but it agreed with him.
what makes you say that?

>> No.23272468

>>23247136
I live in Malaysia and I gotta import it from America for 5 times the price of a Penguin

>> No.23273387

>>23247344
QRD on pic?

>> No.23273399

>>23273387
Just some people out having a good time

>> No.23273417
File: 84 KB, 726x604, screenshot-2017-01-18-at-8-36-27-pm.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23273417

>>23273387
First and Last American Post-Modernist Meetup. Pynchon couldn't make it because he'd already left his last known address, and by the time the letter reached him it was months past the event. Pynchon sent an apology letter to Barthelme or Gass apologizing for missing the event. He promised to attend the next one should it ever happen. They never tried to have a meetup again.
https://biblioklept.org/2017/01/18/thomas-pynchon-sends-his-regrets-to-donald-barthelme-for-missing-the-postmodern-dinner/

>> No.23273422

>>23273417
>I'm feeling more and more these days like a one-shot flash-in-the-pan amateur
It's so strange to think of the old Pynchmeister as being insecure

>> No.23273438

>>23273422
Well there's a 17 year gap between Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland. This dinner took place during that gap. But I have to wonder what exactly did Pynchon do for work during those 17 years? His letter suggests his is a transient.

>> No.23273446

>>23273438
He published Slow Learner, which featured his foreword talking about how those stories came about, the most candid and open he's ever been in public.

>> No.23274157

>>23273417
Ah, thank you. Thought I spied Barthelme there. Appreciate the link too - any other good places to read about this meet up they had?

>> No.23274774

>>23274157
That same website has an article on it. It's the only source I know of.
https://biblioklept.org/2020/01/29/photograph-from-the-postmodernists-dinner-jill-krementz/
At the bottom there are links to other articles he wrote about the dinner: the pynchon letter, and Barth's own description of the dinner.

>> No.23274898

>>23273417
Cool find.
>>23273438
Apparently he wrote the liner notes for some record from a band nobody has ever heard of, but he was a NEET recluse for the most part.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody's_Cool

>> No.23276006

>>23274898
>he wrote the liner notes for some record from a band nobody has ever heard of
I wonder how something like that even happens.

>> No.23276135

So I freely admit that I've never read any John Barth, but Dalkey has these recent reprints of The Sot-Weed Factor and Chimera. Are these okay places to start?

>> No.23276470

This happened nine days ago and I can't believe I'm just finding out. I literally visited this board on a whim to check up on if any of my favorite authors had died recently. RIP Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor was probably the single most fun book I've ever read, and The Floating Opera, The End of the Road, and Giles Goat-Boy were all fantastic too.

>> No.23276474

>>23247344
If this photo was taken today people would accuse the women in it of being trans

>> No.23277363

>>23276135
i'd go with the anchor books paperback of sot-weed and files goat-boy over the dalkey reprints, mainly because I've seen some photos of the reprint having issues with typos.

>> No.23278695

>>23277363
How does that even happen

>> No.23279425

>>23278695
Who knows? Retyping the whole book by hand?

>> No.23279965

So anons:
Barth, Barthes, Barthelme, Barthelme, or Barthelme?

>> No.23279998

>>23279965
Instructions unclear, penis stuck in Goat-boy

>> No.23280336

>>23278695
>>23277363
John O'Brien died and whoever that deep vellum retard is is tanking each reissue with misprints, he nearly sunk Palol, the delayed essentials imprint looks like pure shit. the typos pullulate
>>23254207
most depressing thread I've read this year, for this reason. It would max a thread had he kicked it earlier. But /lit/ will not be rewritten and the quality of talk will only degrade

>> No.23280359

>>23280336
>>23254207
>>23252097
I never knew old /lit/. Speak to me of these days gone by when such authors as Barth would've been celebrated, old timers.

>> No.23281750

>>23280359
People actually discussed the novels and treated threads like discussion in literature classes. It was wild. People would actually quote and analyze passages.

>> No.23282158

>>23280359
You had anons who specialized in different authors and movements and other anons who were at least familiar with some of them. People read and you could join a discussion after you finished the book because the thread was still up. Shitpost threads and low quality posts were deleted quickly. Hell, you actually had to be pretty careful what you said and make a serious effortpost before calling someone a dumb gorilla nigger.

>> No.23282195

>>23280359
>lurk more

This phrase existed and was often obeyed. I know I lurked for a while before finally posting. This anon >>23282158
is right. There was an eclectic group of anons who had areas of expertise or even just what they enjoyed. You could recognize anons. Even though I didn’t like it at the time I’d much prefer the snobbish, snarky New Yorker larpers that frequented /lit/. It’s much better than the slack jaw yokels of today. This anon >>23281750 is also right. Not as many threads were made so threads lived a while. Every oldfag has a story of being banned by strict jannies which is the opposite today. Basically if you actually read books and wanted to discuss them, the board was much better. There were legitimately impressive anons, graduate level knowledge on certain writers.

>> No.23282316

>>23282195
One time we just started reading the modernists for the fuck of it. No organized campaign, just picking up some Updike and having a go at the Centaur. Then some asshole would chime in and tell you the stylists blow. You could tell that there were maybe 60 core anons, but today there's like 12, judging by stack threads. All the shitposting was intellectual and the memes were absolutely bizarre.

The graduate level discussion was pretty intense and kept plebs out, the ESLs and /v/ didn't have a foothold. I wouldn't even call it gatekeeping, it gatekept itself.

>> No.23282683

>>23281750
>>23282158
>>23282195
>>23282316
I wish I was smart and could contribute to the betterment of board culture

>> No.23283712
File: 1.53 MB, 1420x2048, pynch on a screen.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
23283712

>>23280359
In 2010-2015 /lit/ was much more serious about the "Postmodernists." If Barth died twelve years ago there would have been far more discussion. Idk if even the Pynch's passing would get a sticky nowadays, it's quite sad to see.

>> No.23284734

>>23247089
>>John Barth, who, believing that the old literary conventions were exhausted, extended the limits of storytelling with imaginative and intricately woven novels like “The Sot-Weed Factor” and “Giles Goat-Boy,” died on Tuesday. He was 93.
Never heard of this fella but he sounds cool
Need something to start right now, what's his best book?

>> No.23285075

>>23284734
The Sot-Weed Factor is his best but The Floating Opera and/or The End of the Road are probably better to start with

>> No.23285089

>>23282683
It’s too late. It takes more effort and time to effortpost than it does to shitpost or offtopicpost. When the effortposter are vastly outnumbered by those who don’t care it won’t matter

>> No.23286421

>>23279965
Karl Barth, or Karl Bartos?

>> No.23287249

>>23247089
Why does this nigga look like hes drunk as fuck in every photo I see of him. RIP tho I guess, sympathies to his family and all that.

>> No.23287683

Spite bump.

>> No.23287698

>>23287683
If you're going to bump, maybe discuss how he mined classic literature for ideas (Greek myths, Sinbad the Sailor)

>> No.23288919

>>23287698
No

>> No.23288979

>>23273438
He was working on what would become Mason and Dixon, Vineland, and probably Against the Day during those years. It was also back in the good ol' days where rent wasn't 50% of the average salary, so he could have feasibly lived off of royalties from his past catalogue and some advances here and there. That, and the funding from the CIA.

>> No.23290520

Owari da...

>> No.23290524

>>23287698
Go on, idk Barth very well but I want to hear about this

>> No.23290638

>>23290524
Looking at Chimera and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor specifically. Chimera is a triptych of three stories retelling older stories, but with a twist.
In Dunyazadiad (named after the younger sister of the bitch from 1001 nights) Barth himself (probably) finds himself talking to Scheherazade, who thinks he's a genie, and he's the one who gives her the idea for the format of the 1001 nights (which he himself got from her).
Kinda like that. Like, Barth is reading 1001 nights to her and she's then telling those stories forward, thus creating the story that he's reading. Is this complicated enough? Barth wrote himself into his stories a lot, his correspondence with his own characters is what Letters is all about.