[ 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: 70 KB, 737x495, c93c6337-d46a-4dcb-bba6-915a56e42.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5636798 No.5636798 [Reply] [Original]

Any Dutch lit suggestions?

>> No.5636908

>>5636798
Are you Dutch?

The best Dutch writers (that are available in translation) are Nescio, Hermans, and Elsschot (he's Belgian actually, but he writes in Dutch). For Nescio and Elsschot you can pick up anything and with Hermans basically everything is good too, but the recommended starting point would be Nooit Meer Slapen (Beyond Sleep). There are other good Dutch writers ofcourse, but I'm not sure which are available in other languages, and most Dutch authors are good for being Dutch authors; they aren't worth your time when you have acces to the great works of the Russians and such.

When you read about Dutch literature you'll run into Max Havelaar by Multatuli a lot. The book has a lot of historical significance, but isn't really all that good.

The "big three" of Modern Dutch Lit are Gerard Reve, Mulisch, and the aforementioned Hermans. Reve has never been translated, as his subjects and emotions would be incomprehensible if you aren't Dutch, and his books haven't aged well. Mulisch was regarded as the greatest Dutch author since WW2, but this was something that was mainly perpetuated by Mulisch himself; he's not that talented, ripped off others, and was extremely arrogant. Mulisch was the definition of a hack (examples: every year he would get a television crew to come to his house to film him receive the Nobel Prize. He never won ofcourse, but that didn't stop him from sometimes saying that he did in interivews). Most of all, his novels are actually pretty fucking crappy. In the Netherlands, his "The Discovery of Heaven" is often named as the longest and most complicated novel of all time, but this is simply not true. Aside from being not that long, it's not complicated or clever or whatever AT ALL. In a more commonly spoken language that by that extent has a larger group of readers/writers he would be laughed at. It's interesting how since his recent death people have stopped talking about him completely.

>> No.5636919

wolkers and cremer are my favorites

>> No.5636925

>>5636908
Yes - a-are you a grill?

>> No.5636926

the only dutch lit i (afaik) ever read it was the legend of thyl ulenspiegel and lamme goedzak, and even then it was originally written in french and by a frenchman

>> No.5637061 [DELETED] 

>>5636908
ty for the effort, I'll definetly try out Nescio soon

My Dutch has really been suffering from all the English I've read recently

>> No.5637064

>>5636908
ty for the effort, I'll definetly try out Nescio soon

My Dutch has really been suffering from all the English I've read

>> No.5637399

>>5636919
Dutch literature is either about sex, ww2 of indonesia. nothing extraordinary really

>> No.5638506

Kader Abdolah - Het huis van de moskee
>them feels
That was a great book.

>> No.5638942

>>5638506
Read it in high school, I concur.
It was also translated into English, I believe.

I heard his Spijkerschrift is also pretty good, but that book's still on my to-read list.

>> No.5638958
File: 742 KB, 1360x2000, dutch lit.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5638958

>>5636798
from the wiki

>> No.5639001

>>5638958
Holy shit I got Camera Obscura by Hildebrand in the thriftshop for €1,- . It's a 1927 reprint and it's absolutely hilarious. Also really easy to read in short stints inbetween stuff.

>> No.5639046

Not literature, but kierkegaard.

>> No.5639061

>>5636798
NESCIO
E
S
C
I
O

>> No.5639062

>>5639046
Um.... wow. This post is completely wrong in every possible way.

>> No.5639063

>>5639046
what

>> No.5639081

>>5636908
Mulisch was such a cunt. I'm happy he's dead.

>>5639046
>kierkegaard
>not literature
>kieregaard
>not danish

Kek. For Dutch philosophers people should look towards Erasmus and Spinoza though.

>> No.5639333

>>5639081
>Mulisch was such a cunt. I'm happy he's dead
I'm generally not someone to make statements like that, but I agree. He was a blemish on literature. A quickly healed blemish, luckily, from where it seems to be going.

>>5638958
De Avonden a shit. Discovery of Heaven is crap too, like I said before. Rest of it seems pretty legit. Beyond Sleep is god tier, although I can't comment on how Hermans' prose translates.

>> No.5639717

>>5639333
What I got out of De Avonden:
>'Wow homosexuality must have been a really big taboo if it made this book worth reading'

>> No.5639833

>>5639333
Why do you dislike De Avonden?