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/lit/ - Literature

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4021492 No.4021492 [Reply] [Original]

Well, I finished Stoner this morning. I enjoyed it. Can you guys reccomend me some similar literature? That is, a kind of dark, heavy realism.

Thanks

Also Stoner general discussion

>> No.4021511

Has anyone else read this book?

>> No.4021517

You may enjoy the works of William S. Burroughs if you're into dark, heavy realism.

>> No.4021519

I just started it, chapter II.

>> No.4021538

>>4021517
>dark, heavy realism.

Lel. Where might you suggest I begin with Burroughs?

>> No.4021550

>>4021492
my favourite novel

>> No.4021557
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4021557

>>4021511
yes

>> No.4021558

>>4021550
tfw Stoner gradually deteriorates and finally dies whilst holding his book which served as his gift to the world, which nevertheless went unappreciated ;_;

>> No.4021567
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4021567

>>4021558

>> No.4021570

5/5 would read again

>> No.4021575

>>4021567
tfw Stoner asks Gordon where Dave Masters is whilst laying on his soon-to-be death bed. Tfw his daughter falls into the grips of alcoholism, likely as result of Edith's ignorance... ;_;[/spoilers]

Fuck me, that was a great novel.

>> No.4021584

>>4021575
that fucking scene where he's laughing with his daughter and his wife busts into the room and takes his daughter away from him (forever)

>> No.4021595

>>4021584
Str8 raged. How about Lomax defending that cunt kid? Williams? Fuck that guy. Or at long last when dying Stoner is leaving his retirement dinner and Lomax still won't even bother to look at him...

>> No.4021603

>>4021595
I fucking hate Lomax, that whole scene with the university literature board and that snotty brat, Stoner completely wrecking him, but it didn't even matter because the kid had someone with power backing him up

There were so many instances where I was enraged at how poorly the man was treated.

>> No.4021605

>>4021595
Walker! Mr. Walker that fucking crippled piece of shit.

>> No.4021619

>>4021603
I think that one of the key tensions in the novel is not so much what happens to Stoner, but just how impotent he seems at times. I'm sure I thought to myself 'Jesus Christ...' more than once as I imagined his life unfold. I still have a vivid memory if his time with Katherine Driscoll too; I felt that this served as some of Stoner's redemption- a kind of middle finger to the world of which ultimately abused him. And the death scene at the end I felt likely prepared me for it better than anything else.

>> No.4021617
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4021617

tfw stoner opens up the book Katherine wrote and finds out it was dedicated to him

>> No.4021628

>>4021617
Jesus fucking Christ, I know.

>>4021619
I was literally going to use that word too, but I didn't feel like writing anymore. And I know exactly what you mean by prepared, after the affair with driscoll got fucked up, I knew it was all downhill from there.

>> No.4022532

Raymond Carver

How come Stoner all of a sudden has 103 amazon reviews? When I bought it a year ago it wasn't even in stock on the site. Did Oprah mention it or something?

>> No.4022594

>>4022532
Some Literary Critic called it the best novel of all time or somesuch.

>> No.4022641
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4022641

>> No.4022655

SPOILER

I thought Stoner's choice to stay with his nutcase wife and not going away with the love of his life was completely stupid on Stoners part . If I remember correctly he did it a bit for his daughter yet his daughter quickly left after anyway. His wife was a complete nutter and a bitch to Stoner. It seems that Stoner could have lived a much happier and longer life with the girl he loved. He probably could have lived decades longer(unless he had a problem with him that nothing could change when he would die)

I think Stoner's choice was forced from the author and not a logical/natural decision(if you get what I mean)

I also think his wife was a bitch on her part, even though her up bringing wasn't very good at all.

What does everyone else think?

>> No.4022657

>>4022594
He must not have read many novels..

>> No.4022678
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4022678

>>4022532
The only celebrity mention I know of was Bret Easton Ellis on twitter.

>>4022655
>It seems that Stoner could have lived a much happier and longer life with the girl he loved
>I also think his wife was a bitch on her part, even though her up bringing wasn't very good at all.
Well, yeah, that's the point. He could have, but what would be the point? He's just going to wither away anyway.

>> No.4022699

>>4022678
>Well, yeah, that's the point. He could have, but what would be the point? He's just going to wither away anyway.

Wot? That's ridiculous? Why keep eating and going to work right now? you're just going to die anyway.

He could have had a happy life with the love of his life but yeah might as well chose to stay in a depressing terrible situation for no reason but stubbornness because decades down the track he will wither away...

>> No.4022703

>>4022532
It was #1 on the bestseller list in the Netherlands for a while fore some reason. No idea how it gained this much popularity recently.

>> No.4022708

>>4022703
Word of mouth, youtube videos, literature forums.

>> No.4022714

>>4022532
I've been slowly spamming it on /lit/ for over two years now and it seems it's getting the recognition it deserves.

>> No.4022716

>>4022708
It is a great book, so it's not that surprising.

>> No.4022730

>>4022714
Well, the first time I ever saw it mentioned was by some old dude on worldliteratureforum, then shortly afterwards it gained some popularity on /lit/ (mainly due to its inclusion in the "Exit Level" and "/r9k/core" charts, I believe), but it remained fairly obscure in the real world. Most of its reviews on amazon.co.uk seem to have been written in the past week. It's almost as popular as bloody Dickens now. It must have received a shout out in the Guardian or something. No way /lit/ had anything to do with it.

>> No.4022778

I was in Waterstones last week and they had a huge pile of these on their own little table near the entrance.

>> No.4022788

>>4022778
i had to rescue the single battered copy that was stocked in waterstones about this time last year. weird.

>> No.4023704

>>4022655
[Spoiler]I wouldn't say that Stoners choice was forced by the author, because it's important to recall that ultimately Stoner grew into quite an apathy and depression. That is, besides his time immediately after the war when he was able to work with the vets who had returned home. I felt that the Author's writing of Stoner was accurate in depicting a broken down and hopeless man, but one of which still held faintly on to some hope that things may have ultimately worked out with Edith.[/spoiler]

>> No.4023706

>>4023704
oops

>> No.4023712

>>4022730
>No way /lit/ had anything to do with it.

well where in the hell else are people influenced to read somewhat obscure non-american literature? certainly ain't reddit.

>> No.4023718

>>4023712
like 12 people browse /lit/

>> No.4023727

>>4023712
>Anonymous
I know that I got it from the sticky. But I'm likely one of those twelve people who browse here as was mentioned above me.

>> No.4023729

>>4023718
survey threads indicate otherwise

>> No.4023733

this is actually pretty interesting. what DID cause the stoner boom?

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22john+williams%22+stoner#q=%22john%20williams%22%20stoner&cmpt=q

>> No.4023735

>>4023729
those are mostly full of wanderers from other boards. people who've come to /lit/ to ask if 1984 is worth reading. /lit/'s core user base (i.e. the people that are here almost every day) are probably fewer than a dozen in each major time zone.

>> No.4023736

>>4023733
this article
http://bryanappleyard.com/stoner-the-greatest-novel-you-have-never-read/

it was in the sunday times

>> No.4023741

>>4023736
well there you have it

>> No.4023744

Just finished Stoner over the weekend, so happy there's a thread on it! I think I might have a new favourite novel.

>>4022703

That's because it has been translated and published a month or two ago. Became a hit and somehow it blew over back to the States and UK.

>> No.4023751

>>4023744
>That's because it has been translated and published a month or two ago.

wut. its been on nyrb since 2006.

>> No.4023756

>>4023751
He means into Dutch. The novel did not need to be translated into English, it was written in English.

>> No.4023760

>>4023756
yeah i skipped over the translated bit for some reason and thought he was talking reissues. i havent slept properly in a bit.

>> No.4023798

>>4022699
It is ridiculous, but Stoner's entire upbringing/life told him that that is how you deal with things. Paralysis, contemplation, impotence, guilt: he's a man that never thought to be selfish. Literally his entire character is the naive selfless countryman who would never change anything because that may upset too many people. "Best not disturb the natural flow, everything is fine as it is... I shouldn't be selfish..."

>>4023718
lel

>>4023712
I bet there was some sort of cultural/social current of the 'Stoner' craze and /lit/ just happened to be sucked up into it.

>> No.4023802

>>4023798
I didn't mean that lel sarcastically either. This board is slow as balls.

>> No.4023899

>>4023802
Well it is 2013, man. Reading isn't exactly "in" anymore. Maybe if they had /lit/ back in the 1800's they would have had a better turn out.

>> No.4024292

>>4022730
I heard about it years ago from some amazon listmania list (a really good one, at that).

http://www.amazon.com/Art-that-Still-Affects-My-Life-Years-Later/lm/R1Y9IWWNIEXO9Q/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_1

I'm glad people are reading it now.

>> No.4024295

>>4023733
Good job, /lit/.

I also believe /fa/ provoked the hitler youth trend.

>> No.4024301

>>4024295

4chan wasn't responsible for the popularity of either one.

>> No.4024314

I read somewhere that Ian McEwan namedropped the book in a bbc radio show. Also that blog themillions has posted it dozens of times already

>> No.4024332

I saw Stoner on sale in a Belgian airport bookstore a few months ago, there was a big pile of it sitting there in their small English fiction section. It made me "wtf" heavily.

I read it when it was on the goodreads /lit/ bookclub, it was a really awesome book that I recommend to everyone if they ask.

>> No.4024870

>>4023704
I don't think he wanted it to work with Edith, wasn't he just doing it for his daughter? I'm pretty sure he knew Edit was a cunt and a lost cause.
>>4023798
>who would never change anything because that may upset too many people
Yet he had an affair knowing it could upset his wife and daughter greatly? I don't really by it, I still see it as just stupidity, I don't really buy his upbringing determining how he acted either, the same as I don't buy Edith was nuts because of her upbringing.

>> No.4025488

>>4024301
Yes it was.

>> No.4025508

>>4021492
>Stoner
Man, that is flagrant false advertising!