What are you currently reading?

[E.H. Ruddock]

if i wanted to read the literary equivalent of french new wave films, what would you guys recommend?

[lennytheweedwhacker]

if i wanted to read the literary equivalent of french new wave films, what would you guys recommend?

no

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

thanks, trag...have you read house of leaves? admittedly i'm intimidated by it

i read the stranger years ago, and still haven't read anything by dfw

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

thanks, trag...have you read house of leaves? admittedly i'm intimidated by it

i read the stranger years ago, and still haven't read anything by dfw

Yes, House of Leaves is fun. I'd call it a successful experiment. The prose won't leave an impression, but the format is so unique and really does create the story.

The only DFW I read was his essay collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Some other RMers have spoken very highly of Infinite Jest (I think ST maybe?).

The Stranger is terrific. I bet a lot of the other existentialist writers (Kafka, etc) would work, but I haven't read too much of their stuff outside of every major work by Camus.

i think i actually own a supposedly fun thing...i bought something of his at a used bookstore years ago and i know it wasn't a novel

the only kafka i've read is the metamorphosis so i do need to try something else by him

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[The Argonaut]

Oh wow, DFW and the French New Wave is a cool idea, trag. I endorse that parallel

[The Argonaut]

In a different way, Jonathan Lethem is a good choice. Pulp and B-Movie influences, elevated to a playful, literary place. That's early Godard and Truffaut exactly

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

In a different way, Jonathan Lethem is a good choice. Pulp and B-Movie influences, elevated to a playful, literary place. That's early Godard and Truffaut exactly

actually reading a gambler's anatomy is what spurred that thought in my mind

[Norah]

This:



And this:

[bune]

thanks, trag...have you read house of leaves? admittedly i'm intimidated by it

i read the stranger years ago, and still haven't read anything by dfw

The idea that there are several narratives going on at the same time can be confusing, but it's not too bad once you get started.

Oh wow, DFW and the French New Wave is a cool idea, trag. I endorse that parallel

I am both in awe and intimidated by DFW's brain. I watched the biopic and really enjoyed it, but still don't have a sense to what extent he had to work to write like that -- like, did he have to make a concerted effort to get those complex thoughts down on paper, or did it just come tumbling out because that's how his brain operated?

Yes. This is what I find daunting about thinking about my own writing after reading him and MZD.

Actually House of Leaves is what got me wanting to read S., the book I'm on right now. It takes the idea into another level and it's...not good? The idea is novel (lol) but the execution is lacking. You really really have to believe that what is happening in the book is actually happening and not that it's just a story you're reading. Otherwise, the entire narrative is blown to hell. For example, a footnote that reference's names that are 'made up' according to the characters writing in the book. Well no shit Sherlock, so are you! It's hard.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[dimejinky99]

Listening to Born to Run.

Bruce narrating his own story. It's cool.

[wease]

Just starting The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy. A patient from work let me borrow it. I hope I finish it before he comes back in.