[ 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: 92 KB, 2000x2500, 2013 visual book list online.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3335290 No.3335290 [Reply] [Original]

>Pinecone
>Damn Fine Writer
>Don DeLillo
>Danielewski
>Bolano

That's in no order, and without saying whether I've read them lots or a little (although long-term posters will know), but those are the pomo writers I like. Post your own, and some comments. Postmodernism 4 lyfe! Or something.

>> No.3335298

>"liking" post-modernism

>> No.3335308
File: 19 KB, 328x500, jlborgesel-hacedoredde-bolsillo_MLA-O-2869548467_072012.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3335308

>Jorge Luis Borges
>Oscar Wilde
>Alejandro Jodorowsky
>André Breton

What is your Book Challenge this year?
pic related, book I just read.

>> No.3335320

Well, you listed some of the best there.

My main man Pynchon, obviously. Delillo is good too - though I haven't read Underworld yet, which I'm led to believe is his magnum opus or whatever.

Some others I like:
E.L. Doctorow
Kathy Acker
William Gaddis
Tony Kushner
Philip Roth

I'm not sure if Nabokov is included in the movement, but I always saw Pale Fire as having a lot of postmodern qualities. Anyway, I like him.

>> No.3335332

>>3335320

Hehe, Underworld. For quality, it's good, and for impressiveness, it's very good.

>>3335308

No specific challenge this year, but as you can see from my picture, I've made a start on my reading. I'd like to read 52 books, but I dunno.

>> No.3335335

>>3335298
Care to expand on what you *dislike* about postmodernism? Might make for interesting discussion.

>> No.3335341

>>3335320
Tony Kushner was a boss back in the day. Shame he's left doing shitty screenplays for Spielberg now. You gotta give him one thing though, the guy is versatile. I mean, compare Angels in America to that new Abraham Lincoln movie and try to find the similarities. As a writer, Kushner's a fucking shape-shifter.

>> No.3335351

>>3335341
I'm not quite so harsh on him. I thought the screenplay for Munich was good. It's very taut, as they say. For an overtly political subject, the film itself is mostly apolitical. The story is reduced to a tense action thriller. I think this was for the best. Spielberg wouldn't know how to deal with anything more and Kushner's main problem has always been being too preachy at times.

>> No.3335363

>>3335335

I suppose the fact that post-modernism involves a lot of flashy literary tricks for their own sake.

I appreciate certain post-modern novels; but "like" them? That's something else.

>> No.3335372

>>3335363
It's naive to think that those tricks are just there for their own sakes, which is not to suggest that some authors aren't guilty of this. But there are plenty of maximalist writers who don't purely rely on dense artifice to get their message across, some are careful to make room for emotional commitment and depth alongside their stylistic wankery (e.g. Pinecone and DFW). It's a balancing act. You can't have too much of either.

>> No.3335391

>>3335363
Fair enough. I personally enjoy an artist being flashy, as long as they can back it up with substance. But yes, stylized prose without content can be annoying, unless of course the lack of content is the whole point (which it sometimes is - see The Crying of Lot 49).

May I ask what are some of the major postmodern works you've read? Which you appreciated, which you outright hated?

>> No.3335453

>>3335391

Well, for instance, I think highly of Gaddis and JR, whilst abhorring something like Wallce's Girl With Curious Hair (one of the worst offenders regarding showing off for the sake of it).

>> No.3335622

>>3335453
Anyone got an epub of JR? I've been looking...

>> No.3335631

>>3335372
This is why I like Nabokov, he plays with words an references but tells a story too. Not just noodling because he can.
I'm always looking for books similar to Ada, a sick love story alongside a lot of word play, Not easy to find, lots of Pinecone/DeLillo is about making the point of how detached we are and how their writing evokes that, it doesn't suck me in. Call me corny, I don't care.

>> No.3336175

John Hawkes
William S. Burroughs
Thomas Pynchon

>> No.3336201

Mason & Dixon aside, I haven't enjoyed any postmodern literature I've read. Although, I've yet to read anything by Gaddis, so I'll reserve my full judgement of the movement until I've done so.