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/lit/ - Literature

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9062847 No.9062847 [Reply] [Original]

Are there ANY contemporary books worth reading these days?

Everything seems like irredeemable shit

>> No.9062859

>seems like

Based on what?

>> No.9062867

>>9062847
Junot Diaz; Zadie Smith

>> No.9062925

>>9062859
Based on reading contemporary pieces and the current climate of literature

>> No.9063018

>>9062847
Try The Republic by Plato.

>> No.9063029

>>9062847
i don't read contemporary fiction, but i flip through it at bookstores to remind myself that books are still being written, and i find this motivates me as a writer

>> No.9063040

Haruki Murakami, Junot Diaz

>> No.9063094

Laszlo krahznahorkai. Seibo There Below belongs in the Canon

>> No.9063200

>>9063029
Literally everything in the new releases section looks like and reads like pure shit

>a princess of a fantasy kingdom must go undercover with her rogueish assassin servant to kill an evil king and they eventually fall in love
Oh wow haven't heard that one before

>> No.9063406
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9063406

>>9062847
>Are there ANY contemporary books worth reading these days?
Nope.

>> No.9063411

>>9062847
>>9063406
Topic off-hand; love this bob-cut/round glasses aesthetic on girls

>> No.9063420

The book "A Little Life" touched me deeply, I'm kind of sentimental though

>> No.9063423

>>9062847
>Are there ANY contemporary books worth reading these days?
yes

>> No.9063424

>>9062847
a brief history of seven killings

>> No.9063450

Do Pynchon and DeLillo count as contemporary?

>> No.9063464

If the author hasn't been dead for more than ten years, it's shit.

>> No.9063494

>>9062847
OP sorry homie but you sound like such an ignorant tool. Ofcourse there's lots of great literature today. You just can't be so lazy about it as usual and rely on imageboards and well-appreciated social institutions to tell you what classics to read. Try some krasznahorkai

>> No.9063519

>>9063450
Not really

>>9063464
Also this

>> No.9063526

>>9062847
Anne Carson. Lázló Krasznahorkai

>> No.9063539

>>9062867
Junot Diaz is shit.

>> No.9063543

>>9063094
His books sound alright, how's his prose?

>> No.9063789

>Karl Ove Knausgård
Poor man's Proust, but nonetheless he captures the zeitgeist pretty well and is comfy af.
>Jon Fosse
Soon to get the Noble prize.
>Kjell Askildsen
Not really contemporary, but still alive. Minimalistic prose like Hemingway, but less bulls/balls/bells and more marital problems and cheeky incest.

>> No.9063804

>>9062847
William Logan

>> No.9063819

>>9063526
>>9063094
Came here to say this. War and War is great. Also Vladimir Sorokin or Milorad Pavic. Seems like you have to look to the Slavs and commies for good literature nowadays.

>> No.9063856

Paul Beatty's Booker prize winning 'the sellout' was pretty good.

>> No.9063858

>>9063543
oh man, it's like reading thomas bernhard but if he had a stroke. avoid. speaking of, thomas bernhard is good.

>> No.9063943

>>9063856
It was funny, but I feel it didnt pay off.

>>9062847
I hate these threads. Many of the people who post on here are college students who are reading at least 50% of what they were told is good by academics. Reading good contemporary literary fiction is quite difficult, because we are in a period where SO MUCH is being published, both independently and by publishing houses, that finding excellence is incredibly difficult.

It means you are reading journals, reading critiques, looking for discussions in liberal trash like the new yorker or the new criterion, judging books by their cover, creating lists out of the numerous national, international, and group by language book awards, keeping an eye on book releases by translators, etc. And even if you are doing this extensively as a hobby, you are still reading 5 shit books for 1 ok book, and 10 ok books for one really excellent one.

And I am still 100% missing the excellent works of this century that, like Moby Dick, Stoner, and Blood Meridian, will only be recognized for their excellence in 20-100 years. All the same, the /lit/ argument that "Everything seems like irredeemable shit" simply means that you are being a lazy reader in contemporary /lit/, which really isnt a criticism considering that one can read ones entire life and not fully take in the 19th century. All the same, lets not be extremists.

Best contemporary literal novel of last year for me was Laurus in translation.

>> No.9063951

>>9063943
>contemporary literal
contemporary literary, posting on phone

>> No.9065380

>>9063943
>one can read ones entire life and not fully take in the 19th century

Life not worth living

>> No.9065967

>>9062847
Tao Lin, KOOL AD, Spencer Madsen