What post-modern literature is actually worth reading? I read

>>7605188
Enid Blyton

>>7605253
no need to be insulting. it's not my fault that Infinite Jest is simplistic and Pynchon is juvenile.

>>7605188
good taste senpai

try perec, gass, and schmidt

Barthleme and DeLillo

Borges and Eco

The Recognitions and The Tunnel

>>7605188
I recommend Gaddis, Gass, Hawkes, and Barth. They are top tier.
>>7605964
>>7605952
Also great choices.

>>7605986
Good recs.

>>7605988
OP here, and I have read Gaddis, one of the greatest of his time, without a doubt. Gass, i have not gotten around to, and Barth i felt was just as juvenile as pynchon, I grew disgusted with his work when I got to the Pirate rape fest in Sot-Weed factor. I had liked it very much until then. Hawkes, I will have to research. perec and schmidt, I will also have to research. Thank you all, I definitely have some hopeful books from this. If they're anything similar to Gaddis, then I will be greatly pleased.

>>7606009
If you like Joyce, you will definitely like Gass. Fun fact: Gass and Gaddis were best buddies.

Is this like a /lit/ parody thread?

>>7606024
the universe is a parof

>>7605952
Perec is trash.
Schmidt isn't postmodern

>>7606021
Unfortunately, it doesnt look like I'll be able to get the Tunnel any time soon, that's frustrating. I did look through the first pages, and I have to ask, as a sensitive boy, is there a lot of rape in it? I know rape is an essential topic in an epic scope, but is it rife with rape from your memory? It really breaks it for me, not that I'm a social justice warrior, but i feel it's artificially inserted by authors for shock value.

>>7606024
not that i know of, i really don't care for dfw nor pynchon, but really enjoy Joyce and Gaddis, and hoped that there were more matured geniuses who had realized their potential during their lifetimes.

>>7606032
I don't recall much rape at all, though he does talk about weenies fairly often.

>>7606032
>Unfortunately, it doesnt look like I'll be able to get the Tunnel any time soon, that's frustrating. I did look through the first pages, and I have to ask, as a sensitive boy, is there a lot of rape in it? I know rape is an essential topic in an epic scope, but is it rife with rape from your memory? It really breaks it for me, not that I'm a social justice warrior, but i feel it's artificially inserted by authors for shock value.
>I know rape is an essential topic in an epic scope
>rape is an essential topic

I-it is?

>>7606037
I don't remember any rape at all, though v it's been quite a while since I read it. Maybe anon is thinking of another book.

>>7606037
>I-it is?

33% of women are raped at least once in their lifetime, and that's now. Back in more patriarchal days like the 1950s, the number was probably higher than 100%.

>>7606037
>he hasn't read 2666

>>7606037
in an epic scope if you're trying to present humanity, i think it's somewhat essential to at least mention it. i cringe when it's added to a work, because even just its reference is enough to help someone understand a theme, i agree with you though, for the most part, i'd rather it not exist, and struggle to read books that revel in it. I try to approach it seriously and deal with it that way.

>>7606034
weenies? i can do that, not so much rape though :P

>>7606050
that's definitely one book i'm avoiding forever. to hell with artistic expression.

>>7606051
No one gives a shit you sensitive faggot

>>7605188

Consider the fact that postmodernism simply isn't for you.

It's mostly trash anyway.

At any rate, if you're hellbent, try DeLillo.

>>7606032

You really think rape can never be done properly? :^)

>>7606056
that's fine, i don't blame them. it's okay to discuss among like minds though, i think.

>>7606050
I have. Loved it too. But a great book with rape doesn't make rape essential to epic scope...does it?

>>7606051
Eh, there are a lot of things that are part of humanity, it's hard to portray -all- of them.Not sure what makes rape more universal/essential than any number of other things.

>>7606057
that's not at all what i mean. sure it can be a part of literature in an amazing way, i just don't always think that's how it's presented.

>>7606054
yeah, that's probably for the best. bolano is highly overrated.

>>7606067
Kill yourself. Go read DFW, faggot

>>7606051
Yeah, I don't know where you heard about the rape stuff, but there ain't much of that shit in The Tunnel. Kohler, the main character, does pay a small boy to jerk him off in a park, though.

>>7606069
u mad

bolano's a degenerate and his writing is trash. deal with it.

>>7606067
>bolano
>overrated

kek'd

>>7606070
that's a relief. I'll have to get a copy of it. It's probably true, i'm not a huge fan of post-modernism i guess. I like some of the works definitely, but i guess i'm more of an older literature type of person, more conventional literature. I think that's why Gaddis appeals, he definitely is rooted in those brilliant works from the past.

>>7606024
Someone asking for top tier writers is going to end in a /lit/ parody inevitably. Those books he didn't like are over hyped.

>>7606123
i guess so. yeah, i felt like those books had worthwhile stuff in them, but it was definitely underwhelming. i don't want to shit on anyone who likes pynchon or dfw, but i won't pretend like it was great art, not that i'm an ultimate judge of it, but it definitely doesnt wash over you like some of the old masters, they feel clunky and modern and i guess insincere and cynical. it's hard to explain why it wasnt compelling for me. i figured people would be able to talk about it in this thread.

DeLillo, Gaddis and Gass best books?

POSTMODERNISM DIED WITH BECKETT.

DON'T DWELL IN THE PAST. LIVE IN THE PRESENT.

READ JOHN GREEN AND MODERN

CHINESE LITERATURE.

>>7606143
:)

>>7606145
THANK YOU FOR

YOUR KIND COMMENT

>>7606140
Stylistically speaking, Agape Agape is Gaddis' best, and The Tunnel is Gass'. Can't say much about DeLillo.

>>7606123
By /lit/ maybe. Calling something overhyped makes you look mildly retarded.

the amount of people in this thread who define postmodernism on the basis of that one nine-panel comic is truly staggering.

>>7606160
I don't even know what you are talking about.

anyone have any input on Joseph MacElroy?

>>7606160
i also have no idea what you mean. please elaborate?

>>7606160

Do you happen to have that 9-panel comic?

I would like to be able to participate in the discussion in an edcated manner :^)

>>7606143
>chinese
>literature

pick one senpai

t. a chink

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>>7606029
>Perec is trash.

>>7606165
His writing is the hardest of any author I've read. At least you can parse Gaddis and Gass. With McElroy, because of his syntactical wizardry, I can't even recognize the sentence.

Example: "An unidentified arrival up there on the board other armed watchers see the diversity as this heavy out of nowhere, Asian or GI--how did he get in? through the ceiling painted with lyrebirds and Egyptian vultures, arabesques of paradise with magenta wings?--hailing from up there this witness his friend it seemed seeing me who aims a standard videogames automatically hurriedly from the hip, the chest, heart, history, keeping in my pocket in reserve the world's neatest mini able to take stills too.

>>7606138

They're good books by good writers in my opinion, but no more than that. When someone talks about top tier, we're talking Goethe and Tolstoy caliber. Now, I'm not saying a work has to be as important and beautiful as Faust to be considered top tier, but it definitely has to be good enough to stand aside and not be eclipsed by it.
Ulysses definitely is a great book who fits in the top tier category, but who can say that Infinite Jest does too? That's just plain ignorance.
This board is great for recommendations and discussions (sometimes), but there's plenty of kids here who started reading maybe two years ago and take this board's over hyped books as the real thing and even shit all over excellent literature like 1984 just because they consume the hate trend that people here gave it and that's it. It spreads like cancer.
It's all good with the start with the Greeks meme, but that recommendation that's half joke and half serious gets lost somewhere in the middle. Read your fucking classics, the same that the writer you like read when he found a passion in literature and not only are you going to find beauty where you didn't expect it, you're also going to understand the basics so you can form actual educated opinions and not look like a retarded cunt repeating what you saw in a /lit/ thread.
Anyway, I guess 4chan is full of hipsters.

Yes, I'm mad.

>>7606165
His writing is the hardest of any author I've read. At least you can parse Gaddis and Gass. With McElroy, because of his syntactical wizardry, I can't even recognize the sentence.

Example: "An unidentified arrival up there on the board other armed watchers see the diver as this heavy out of nowhere, Asian or GI--how did he get in? through the ceiling painted with lyrebirds and Egyptian vultures, arabesques of paradise with magenta wings?--hailing from up there this witness his friend it seemed seeing me who aims a standard videocam automatically hurriedly from the hip, the chest, heart, history, keeping in my pocket in reserve the world's neatest mini able to take stills too.

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Infinite Jest and GR are entry level American pomo. As other anon's mentioned, Gaddis is awesome. Hawkes is pretty great, and very influential (for example, he was Jeffrey Eugonides (sp) teacher).

Next level shit is Gass and McElroy, which is truly obscure and esoteric shit. McElroy is almost impossible to read, but he is worth the effort. Making it through Cannonball was almost life changing as a reader.

Not mentioned in this thread was Barthelme, who is also a must-read. Just pick up some short stories.

>>7606224
This guy gets it. It's sad, though: it's only a matter of time until contrarians start calling Gass or McElroy bad, which will kill me a little on the inside.

>>7606231
>only a matter of time

WHY WAIT?

gass and mcelroy are puffed up pseudointellectual drivel that pretentious hipsters read and display on their shelves to assert moral superiority over their social, cultural, and financial betters.

Benno von Archimboldi of course

>>7606241
You're killing me.

>>7605188

Infinite Jest isn't worth reading at all. Wallace basically sapped the content of DeLillo novels and the form of Baker and Pynchon novels. Foster Wallace is actually entirely skippable unless you want to date 21 year old college-age boys. In which case, you'll want something to talk about with them. IJ is a bad novel but it's written in a cute style I guess. It's not very hard on the brain.

Pynchon is alright, though I think V. -> Lot 49 -> done is an okay enough sampling. GR isn't an essential read. It really, REALLY isn't.

Gass WAS a fantastic short story/novel writer. Heart of the Heart of the Country -> Omensetter's Luck -> done. Don't read anything after those two. He lost his creativity in his 40s. The Tunnel is a disaster.

Gaddis: The Recognitions -> done. None of his other novels had the originality of the first. JR is a neat concept but not a fun read and you're not going to get much out of it. Nobody should pretend otherwise. I haven't read his two novels after that but I suspect it's the same deal.

You should sample the French Nouveaux Romans. If you know french, they're easy in the original language for the most part. Most of them are pretty matter-of-fact with their language. Robbe-Grillet is one of the best.

Nabokov's "postmodern" novels aren't very good. Read Pale Fire once to say you have, read Brian Byrd Brownnosings so that you understand that the King isn't real and neither is the reader and that Nabokov is actually not a real person but a hidden entry in the index blah blah blah. It's an interesting but very dry novel. Ada is a poor novel that's occasionally charming in the second and fifth sections. Transparent Things is a fantastic novella and imo his best fiction period -- has the charm of Pnin and the wackiness of Pale Fire... and is better written than both of them. Charlatans! and whatever else after Transparent Things is just senile-material. His Russian novels are good but not "postmodern".

Barthelme's stories are good.

Coover is mostly kind-of-silly material but Public Burning is actually a really accessible, really funny novel. By accessible it's like a less crude, funnier version of South Park's comedy style. Hope that doesn't turn you off.

McElroy's early novels are very slow but conceptually some of the most interesting you'll find. Don't read Women and Men, it's a disaster. His novels after it suck too. Just stick with his stuff from the sixties and seventies.

Fowles is a very disappointing novelist. I think The Magus was a very fun traditional novel until about page 200ish. Then Fowles decides to play with the fact he's read Lacan and Jung and Freud, and pretend he has something to say. It's just sad, the first 200 pages of the book are worth reading.

Borges isn't a "postmodern" novelist. Don't buy that from anyone here.

Anyways most of it's garbage imitating the above authors and others I didn't mention and don't like: Barth, Hawkes, etc.

>>7606224
Where should I start with Hawkes?

>>7606231
>Gass or McElroy bad

But The Tunnel IS bad, and Women and Men IS awful.

Still love both of their other works.

>>7606270
I haven't read Women and Men, so I make no claims about it, but The Tunnel is certainly not bad.

>>7606258
Nice post anon. What about DeLillo?

>>7606258
i like your post but i'd guess you've only read about 75% of the things you namedropped

still puts you in the top percentile of /lit/ posters though

>>7606257
it's for your own good senpai

just preparing you for the future

>>7606258
The Pale King is worth a read. Mason & Dixon is worth a read. I haven't read The Tunnel or Women & Men yet, but I'll go out on a limb and say they're both worth reading.

>>7606196

So idiocy passes for greatness with you meme loving fucks?

>>7606341
>I haven't read The Tunnel or Women & Men yet, but I'll go out on a limb and say they're both worth reading.
They most certainly are.

>>7606305

Underworld is written to the critics and academics. The early works are very fresh and original.

>>7606309

about 80 percent. I've read complete english works of Nabokov; as I admitted, only Gaddis' first two novels; a few McElroys, about 200 pages of WaM before I dropped it; most of Barthelme's stories; some Coover stories and small novels and ofc Public Burning; a few Robbe-Grillet novels, not much french n-r's other than that; Fowles I've only read The Magus and wished I didn't; I've read the first 100 pages of The Tunnel and laughed about how horribly academic it was. Read the other two Gass works listed a while ago, before this board seemed to like him; about 200 pages of IJ before I had to stop from reading garbage; Pynchon through GR, and some of Mason and Dixon; Sot-weed factor and Giles Goat Boy and Lost at the Funhouse, hated all three; Hawkes I read The Lime Twig.

I'm really not that well read in Prose, especially after about 1940 or so. I don't really like postmodern fiction at all, so I've read only the basics. I really prefer reading poetry, too, so I don't read novels much anymore. When it comes to POETRY I know for sure I'm the best-read on the board other than flowerposter. Which isn't a high bar, because only like 4 people here read poetry seriously.

>>7606224

Life-changing how?

>>7606203
well. that.. uh. okay.
>>7606199
yeah, that's about how i feel.
>>7606258
OP here, and i appreciate the time you took to offer your opinion. I think this sort of confirms my opinions on Post Modernism in general, in that it's a very sparse field of literature for quality. I think i'm going to go back to the russians i havent finished yet and fill in the gaps there along with a few brits and a fresh copy of Orlando Furioso i got recently before i decide to come back to Pomo. I just don't like feeling guilty for abandoning some part of literature's history because i simply don't enjoy it in any way. I think i'm coming to a point in my life where proving myself doesnt matter anymore, and I should just read what I like. When the only challenge is forcing yourself to read something in spite of boredom, then I can just move on. again, I appreciate your input, and the input of others on this thread!

>>7606199
>another faustfag

muh nigga, there arent enough of us

>>7606364
>I think i'm going to go back to the russians i havent finished yet and fill in the gaps there along with a few brits and a fresh copy of Orlando Furioso i got recently before i decide to come back to Pomo.

Oh yes, please do that instead (I'm the person with the long post) -- trust me, just go back to even the early 20th and you'll find a bigger wealth. The greatest poets and novelists of the 20th century were all born in the 19th, and came in a single, glorious wave. I personally don't like Russian novels all that much but Gogol and Tolstoy are far superior (and far less academic) than anything I listed.

>>7606362
It was the best prose I've ever read, and the breakdown of my own relationship with language and symbols within a novel was amazing. Seriously worth a read.

>>7606417
>It was the best prose I've ever read

man it is REALLY easy to tell if someone is a new reader around here

>>7606258
You know nothing about Gaddis, or Hawkes. I agree with you about Nabokov though.

JR is masterful, and Agape Agape is the culmination of his style and Bernard's influence.

Have you actually read the Beetle Leg or the Lime Twig? I doubt it.

>>7606424
It's not the best I've read, but McElroy is still goat. Give him some slack.

>>7606424
I've been reading for a couple decades, man. There isn't a way for me to prove it without seeming like a e-dick measuring contest, but I've read just about every book posted on this board. Seriously, nothing compares to McElroy.

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>>7606258
wow you're stupid and have no taste

>>7606425

>>7606359

I've read most of what you said I haven't. I said in my post above I haven't read past JR. It was a huge turnoff. neat concept, poorly executed novel. Something I would have liked in high school but doesn't impress me much now. The older I get the closer I get to only reading Shakespeare, Dante, Melville, etc. over and over again. There's just so much more there.

>>7606424
what's the best prose you've ever read anon?

>>7606456
Not him but why don't you show us what good taste and being intelligent looks like? So far you're no more than the average retard that posts here.

>>7606463
Fair enough man, sorry if I got offended. I'm just sick of people on this board shitting on stuff they haven't read.

JR had it's weaknesses. I would highly suggest finishing Gaddis's works though, there are only a couple more and it's well worth your time. His dialogue is almost flawless.

As for Hawkes, if you didn't like those he probably isn't for you. Maybe try the Blood Oranges, but it's pretty similar to the Lime Twig.

>>7606465

What the best piece of FICTION I've read, you mean?

I like Tolstoy, Melville, Hawthorne, Joyce, some aspects of Lawrence, and... that's about it. I mostly read poetry. Very few novels have captured my attention the same way Shakespeare can.

My favorite PROSE? Sorry, but I don't care about nice alliteration in a story. I read for the story. This is what most readers do. If I want formal experiments with language I'll read poetry. Novels are for the content.

>>7606488

> His dialogue is almost flawless.

Very much agree, I'll give you that. Though I'm mostly thinking about the parties in Recognitions. If he got anywhere near that later on, I'll read it.

Maybe I'll reread Hawkes in the far future but again, I mostly read poetry and rarely read novels much anymore.

>>7606498

(oh I also love Flaubert, Stendhal, and Kafka.)

>>7606029
Arno Schmidt you stupid Faggot
Talk to me when you've read Zettels Traum

>>7606513
we all will when the english translation comes out mi familia

>>7606516
Lernen Sie Deutsch Schwuchtel

>>7606513
>implying people who shitpost like he does read anything besides partial wikipedia summaries

>>7606513
No shit you Fucking retard.
He's not postmodern.
No Schmidt scholar that I have talked to considers him a postmodernist.

You're just a pleb that has just discovered him so you think you're cool

>>7606526
>implying
I read and speak fluent German

>>7606498
>Novels are for the content.
I disagree, but I can see why you think that.

>>7606503
The parties in The Recognitions were the defining point for me as well. Those were impeccably done.

assuming you're the same longposter, I think we share the same sentiment about a lot of stuff. the only thing is that in terms of older literature, I'm woefully underfulfilled. I think I pushed myself and read for challenge, fearing i'd be intellectually left behind in some grand race, and I lost sight of what brought me into literature in the first place, It's hard to break away from the sense that there's something newer and better on the horizon while reading old dusty books that most people have forgotten or don't care about. I'm going back. I'm going back and finding the roots of literature, I'm going back to where arms are wide open and welcoming me instead of mocking me as they do now. All but gaddis so far i've felt as so hollow, and maybe that's why gaddis was so potent, his recognitions was a statement of kinship with all of us who felt that hollowness. The Postmodernist movement can wait, while i go back and finish my proper literary education with the masters. I think they'll be lucky if i ever return.

>>7606529
There are many postmodern qualities in Zettels Traum. Read the actual novel before you make stupid claims based of these imaginary scholars you have talked to. Funny that somebody that doesnt know German happens to know multiple SChmidt scholars! FAGGOT

>>7606032
>Rape is more "shocking" than murder

Good little cuck

>>7606541
You're genuinely retarded

>>7606550
I really don't give a flying fuck what you think, mental midget.

>>7606551
Are you claiming to have read it yourself? I hope to God you are because I can ask you a simple question even a pea brained pleb like yoursekf would know from reading it

>>7606567
Embarrassing

>>7606580
>he thinks text aligned in 3 distinct and continuously changing columns isn't a postmodern quality
>he thinks 1000 pages of stream of consciousness isn't postmodern
sorry faggot ik you werent expecting to bet blown the fuck out by somebody who actually read it.. now all you got is baseless insults. english isnt even my first language and i can still develop a thought in it better than you!

>>7606592
>trying this hard
>doesn't know what he is talking about
It's like pottery

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>>7606606
>makes claims
>backs them up with personal insults instead of facts
>talked to multiple Schmidt scholars

>>7606618
I'm sure you can elaborate on how the 17 x 12.5 inches pages, where the photo-reproductions of Schmidt's typescripts that tell the story of two Poe translators and their corybantic daughter (center column) country visit to Scmidt's alter-ego Daniel Pagenstecher and the rumination of the day's activities (right column) and fragments of poet (left column) (which I doubt you knew) is indicative of postmodernism.

He defies classification, you colossal faggot.

>>7606140
Libra
Recognitions
The Tunnel

in my opinion ofc

>>7606630
Kek took that straight out of a wikipedia article.. And yes they prevent immersion into the text, which is a distinguishing quality of postmodern fiction.
But yeah, I agree it defies classification. But no more than someone like Joyce who we are all so quick to classify. I was just giving OP a suggestion m8. German is my first language. I could never read a book like FW in English, and wouldnt bother reading it in German.. Enjoy being let down when the translation drops in september

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>All these kids insulting each other and defending their tasteless, pretentious books

I'd love to see them reading the masterpieces that make literature one of the most beautiful creations of the human race and keep saying IJ is the shit

>>7606650
i dont even understand how ZT can be translated Tbh.

>>7606650
>Kek took that straight out of a wikipedia article.
all this damage control
find the wiki. i'll wait. I'm sure you haven't read everything by him.

>not contributing to the Arno Schmidt Stiftung
stay dilettante m8

>>7606633
Good opinion, friend.

>>7606652
>"They're arguing! Now's my time to show my disapproval and thereby prove that I'm superior!"

>>7606654
Look how beautiful it is friendo
https://vimeo.com/6422567

>>7606009
>Implying that Gaddis isn't just a /lit/ meme

>>7606665
kek
>>7606659
>actually contributing to Arno Schmidt Stiftung.
>not renouncing all wealth and living in poverty with your books

>>7606680
>implying that's an argument
>implying Gaddis--along with Gass, Hawkes, and McElroy--doesn't redeem the entirety of the postmodernism.

>>7606032
Jeez OP, I don't mind your opinion about any of the authors from the previous meme-trilogy, but being this edgy is just cringe.
You can't come here, saying that widely respected and acclaimed authors are too "juvenile" for you while not being able to handle rape in your literature.

Also you must be at least 18 to come here, so yeah, get out.

>>7606697
>Implying postmodernism had anything to redeem
>Implying we haven't had this argument 1000 times
Postmodernism is just genre fiction for edgy teens with self-confidence issues. There's no use, if you are still reading postmodernism unironically I genuinely feel bad for you.

>>7606665

>trying to be witty
>thinks they're arguing
>>7606069
>>7606086
>>7606205
>>7606456
>>7606513
>>7606529
>>7606558

Just laughing at the amount of stupidity this thread has to offer, pal

>>7606047
And rightfully so.

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>>7606722

>>7606051
>:P
I can't believe this is what /lit/ has become

>>7606725
Sorry Chili Choker, no hablo espanol, or whatever curry-lanugage that is

OP is a fucking jewlet

>>7605188
>Implying that Joyce is postmodern
I'm ashamed OP, this is beyond peasantry.

>>7606704
how is it juvenile for not enjoying it when rape is artificially placed into a novel? I specifically said it was fine if it's done in a way that is sincere and makes sense, but for example, the mass rape of an entire slave ship in sot-weed factor, in a book that is constantly called "hilarious" is not, in my opinion, anything more than juvenile and sexually degenerate. You can be angry that I think pynchon is juvenile and that dfw is juvenile, but it doesnt change that one of them has wheelchair assassins in their fucking tome, and the other, a fucking banana breakfast. it's not serious literature, man. it's a joke. you might laugh, and that's fine, but when i don't want a joke, i won't be chided when i call them out for what they are.

>>7606745
my mistake.
>>7606738
meaningless drivel from a worthless pissant. go fuck up someone else's thread.

>>7606751
Like you didn't fuck it up all by yourself.

>>7606759
actually, there was plenty of pleasant conversation between like minded individuals before you came along, as a loser offering no content.

>>7606746
I'm not sure you get the purpose of postmodernism at all. Asking for sincerity and seriousness in a postmodern novel and being triggered when it is quirky and inventive is hilarious in itself, but then arguing about it over the internet on a imageboard for japanese cartoons is just pure gold. This has to be a joke right?

>>7606764
I'm sure it was a pleasant conversation, but it was nonetheless undoubtedly meaningless and filled with incorrect information and edgy posts. I'm sure it was great though because of how pleasant it was.

>>7606786
ridicule will get you nowhere. i may be wrong in expecting sincerity from post-modernism, you're probably exactly right. not sure why you think a pirate ship mass rape is "quirky" or "inventive", but that shows how shallow your thoughts are. not my fault that i had hoped that this style of writing wasnt going to be hollow and altogether pointless.

>>7606799
yeah, not liking rape is really edgy. what a fucking moron.

>>7606804
Your view of postmodernism is delusional and you seem to be reading it for all the wrong reasons. The purpose was not to ridicule you, your comprehension of it all is just not there, playfulness and absurdity is everywhere and if you can't find the enjoyment in it then it simply isn't for you.

I just find your ignorance fascinating. It's just as if your point of view is so narrow-minded and exhausted that nothing else fits. It's not about your scene of mass rape on a pirate ship, its about you missing the point, as you are repeatedly doing.

Yes Wallace/Pynchon is a hit or a miss, just as many other postmodern authors. Personally I recognize their efforts and find some parts impressive, and other parts sparsely so.
My problem is, you are saying that it's bad literature and you have yet to be impressed, you want heavier stuff, the real guns. Well they are not bad at postmodernism, so you can impossibly want better postmodernism, only better literature.

>>7606810
Your effort of appearing as anything but cringey is failing.

>>7606870
once again, i never said they weren't good authors. i said i thought they were juvenile or simplistic. at this point we're essentially in agreement. I'm expecting too much out of post-modernism, and i've come to my own conclusions about my future reading as a result of this disappointment. I'm not triggered when a book is funny, or silly, instead, I was disappointed when I expected some kind of genius to shine through the gimmicks. It happened when I read certain modernist or post modernist works, a genius shone through the cynicism and the playfulness. You can call it ignorance, that's fine. I don't expect everything to fall into one category or another.

>>7606652
I started with this, and I think this is how i'll end. not out of superiority, but out of appreciation for a true work of art.

all in all, it's Dali vs. Rembrandt. i can appreciate Dali, but Rembrandt is in another realm that scratches a much more noticeable itch.

>>7606878
oh no. whatever shall i do?

Besides Against the Day, what are some pomo masterpieces of the 21st century?

>>7606900
Yeah I guess we are in agreement.

Whatever really, thing is you asked for better postmodernism and there are certainly better authors writing postmodernism, I'm just not sure they are writing better postmodernism.

I think postmodernism is often wonderful, mimicking our current reality of absurdity. Once you grasp the message whatever author is trying to communicate and you see it in everyday life it really is an experience.

>>7606900
>>7606926
Also, I think that rather than waiting for the genius to shine through the silliness, you should make an effort of really trying to depict the message.

Postmodernism really isn't patrician and lacks any kind of "fine art" vibe to it, but that doesn't stop it from being genius, it's just a matter of clicking or not.

>>7606940
i do make the effort, but when in some instances an author is almost perverse in their obfuscation, it's frustrating. It's like knowing you're being toyed with, and after going through the motions, not getting shit out of it. Feeling like it was more for the entertainment of the author than the reader. Which i can't blame them for.

>>7606032
>as a sensitive boy, is there a lot of rape in it?
bait

>>7606550
Tfw the rape scene in kite runner broke me more than the stoning one in his other book

>>7606359
>about 200 pages of IJ before I had to stop from reading garbage
>about 200 pages of WaM before I dropped it
>I've read the first 100 pages of The Tunnel
what a fucking idiot

>>7607132
well, if you want to be crude, i am a rape baby, and it bothers the shit out of me, buddy. first fuckin page of the tunnel has rape in it, and i was wondering if it was a prevalent topic throughout, and as reading is primarily a thing of enjoyment for me, I'd rather not read about it. It's not something that I feel is a question of maturity. I've read a few books that had scenes of rape, and have pushed through, and in the end, most of those weren't worth the time. I'm sorry I don't like rape, and i'm sorry that you do, here are your edgy updoots.

>>7606718
one of the worst posts ever made on /lit/

>>7606032
I wish I knew you in real life so that I could watch the world eat you.

>>7607162
Eh, it aint eaten me yet, bucko.

>>7606900
>i can appreciate Dali, but Rembrandt is in another realm that scratches a much more noticeable itch.
Funny, we have pretty much the opposite view on this, as well as on postmodernism. Ah, well.

>>7607155
i retract my post.

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>>7607176
i can respect that, i'm a fan of both, just one more than the other. actually, i had a dali print for a short time when i was selling stuff online that i'd find from local auctions. it was very neat to have it, it was loosely based on some of his art that depicted Don Quixote, i have a picture of it..

>>7607155
Sorry to hear that, anon. Fortunately for you, rape or any reference to it is rare in The Tunnel, which means you can enjoy the greatest novels of the 20th century!

>>7607147
>what a fucking idiot

why would anyone read 1000 pages novels if the first 200 pages are poorly written academic showcases

I can read 30 lines of Donne and get much more than reading 1000 pages of Wallace

fuck, I can read a stanza of Donne and get more than what I can out of Wallace

>>7607303
this anon speaks the truth

>>7606359
If you're so great at poetry, how do you feel about the current guides floating around on /lit/? Could you do better?

thank you

>>7608156
Not him but flowerposter is a hack and there aren't really any other charts

Alsp stop reading charts and just go read some . poems

>>7608163
No. I need to be dictated to.

>>7606359
I'm sure you have shit taste in poetry

At Swim-Two Birds

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>>7607155

>2016
>not devoting your life to the works and life of Marcel Proust

top zozzle

John Fowles! The Magus or The Collector are both great.

>>7608156
>Could you do better?

I'm just as biased if not more biased than flowerposter. I don't consider William Carlos Williams a poet. I don't like Milton much. I do not recommend reading a single poem in translation. I'm lukewarm on Eliot. I probably overrate a bunch of pre-Elizabethan English poetry. I underrate many of the Romantics. I live and die by the Metaphysicals. My favorite living poets are Jay Wright, Geoffrey Hill, and Ashbery. I am never impressed with "formal experimentalism" for the sake of it. I will call you retarded if you even mention the name Ben Lerner, prose OR "poetry". I do not consider Frank O'Hara worth reading. I do not consider Philip Larkin to be worth reading, nor any of the confessionals other than an occasional Berryman poem. Jay Wright and Hayden are the only two black poets I can name, that I've read and thought were actually good as poets, and not as just "black poets". There are no living good female poets. There were no good living female poets a week ago before CD Wright died. Emily Dickinson is in my top ten. My favorite form is the sonnet. I adore Walt Whitman. I consider Dante the best poet of all ages. Shakespeare is second.

I'm a bit too polarizing to make a "chart"

>>7605188
Read Flann O'brien. Can't believe it hasn't been recommended yet because he's one of the original post-modern writers.

I came back to /lit/ to see if this place has improved slightly, Judging by the state of this thread, apparently not. See ya.

>>7605947
Pynchon is juvenile because he appreciates humor being the only means to escape absurdity with your head still intact.

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>>7606258
>>7606224
>>7606143
>>7606140
>>7605947
>>7605188
>>7612573
>>7606940

How many levels of irony is this thread on?

Surely nobody can be this retarded

surely

>>7613922
>i have no opinions of my own so i'm just going to call everybody retarded

i'm amazed that this thread is still alive.

everyone is entitled to enjoy their dfw and pynchon. more power to em. i'm coasting on new waters now though, and i can happily say i'm not looking back.

>>7606140
Dellilo best:
The Names
Ratners Star
White Noise
Underworld
The Angel Esmeralda

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise

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>>7613942
Hey, you only get the level of rhetoric that you bring to the table.

>>7606089
Like what?

>>7605188
Donald Barthelme

>>7606180
dude you're missing some great literature just so you can fit in with /pol/
https://books.google.ca/books?id=U12rN5Y-CTQC&dq=gu+cheng&source=gbs_navlinks_s

>>7606199
I'd like to know what you people see in these top tier works, what makes them so special? So if someone could explain to me exactly what it is that gives these books depth I'd be very grateful.

>>7614725

>he hasn't read The Body Artist or Cosmopolis

>>7606047
you have to remember that rape is a social construct.
if the law said marriage equals consent then your wife didn't have a leg to stand on legally if you wanted to fuck and she didn't

>>7616186
Read them both, both not nearly his best. Though I should've also included Great Jones Street