I would love to read Antkind by Charlie Kaufman with you guys. It's one of the funniest and most unique books I've read from the past couple of years. I can't convince a single friend to read it and I've heard very little talk of it.
I’d love to read Gravity’s Rainbow with this group. I think Lolita could also be a good one. And sorry I’ve been MIA for the past two meetings - my schedule should free up starting this weekend.
Burma Jones is my favorite and how he was always messing with the woman who owned the nightclub Night of Joy. It is one of my favorite novels and certainly one of the greatest comedy novels ever written.
Anything Borges, Julio Cortazar- ”Rayuela”, Bruno Schulz - ”The Cinnamon shops”, Philip K Dick - ”Valis”, Thomas Ligotti - ”Teatro Grotesco”, Tarjei Vesaas - ”The Birds”, Anything Clarice Lispector.
I was thinking Europe Central would be a good shout. The other one I thought of was Poor People. The multi media aspect is a novel element for the book club
I read Kafka by the shore, and Norwegian wood so far. But I found Colorless Tsukuru in a thrift store and was surprised by how I hadn't heard of it sooner.
My favourite work of English literature, after Infinite Jest, is The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. This masterpiece has been largely overlooked by the literary mainstream because of its genre trappings, but it's every bit as complex and rich and allusive as anything I've ever read.
Not going to get to Wolfe this round, but he's in my mind for sometime in 2024. Want to talk about more genre stuff on the channel, and that should be a good exploration.
I'm busy rereading IJ, and it occurs to me that BotNS has a similarly elliptical, looping (dare I say, annular?) structure that leaves scores of unanswered questions in its wake. The difference is that Wolfe's publisher strong-armed him into writing a followup to "explain" everything (hah!). One wonders what Wallace's analogue to Urth of the New Sun might have looked like if he were placed in a similar inimical position?
I would love to read Antkind by Charlie Kaufman with you guys. It's one of the funniest and most unique books I've read from the past couple of years. I can't convince a single friend to read it and I've heard very little talk of it.
Alright, let's do it!
I’d be interested. I love everything that Kaufman has does. Synecdoche New York blew my mind
Synecdoche is such a great movie. I love everything Kaufman does. Poor guy can't get out of his own head.
I can’t believe there haven’t been any AI memes of Trump singing Girl From Ipenima yet
I’d love to read Gravity’s Rainbow with this group. I think Lolita could also be a good one. And sorry I’ve been MIA for the past two meetings - my schedule should free up starting this weekend.
GRainbow is a good shout
Yeah, we will do GR. I will schedue it so Aussies can make it too. Have you read it Alastair?
Nah never. I decided to read Infinite Jest before Gravities Rainbow this year. So I’m keen to start
Did you finish IJ?
Yeh I did. I’ve dog eared my copy for interesting pages.
A Confederacy of Dunces🤡
Funniest book ever maybe toppled by Alfred Jarry!
Such an incredible work of fiction. I have never read such wonderfully colorful characters than I did in Confederacy of Dunces.
Right! I love the relationship between Myra and Ignacious. Twitter politics in a nutshell
Burma Jones is my favorite and how he was always messing with the woman who owned the nightclub Night of Joy. It is one of my favorite novels and certainly one of the greatest comedy novels ever written.
Anything Borges, Julio Cortazar- ”Rayuela”, Bruno Schulz - ”The Cinnamon shops”, Philip K Dick - ”Valis”, Thomas Ligotti - ”Teatro Grotesco”, Tarjei Vesaas - ”The Birds”, Anything Clarice Lispector.
Oh I forgot Juan Rulfo’s - ”Pedro Paramo”. This is the quintessential magic realism/weird/desert ghost story!
Pale fire or Speak, Memory perhaps
Think we will do Pale fire!
Beauty
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
May come back to this after doing Europe Central for a more straightforward WW2 novel lmao
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry.
Love that book!
Not going to get to Berry this time, but he is on my shortlist!
Would be interested in Apes of God by Wyndam Lewis
Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov is a banger.
Something by Vollmann would be sweet
Something by Vollmann sounds good!
We are going to do Europe Central
I was thinking Europe Central would be a good shout. The other one I thought of was Poor People. The multi media aspect is a novel element for the book club
I LOVE "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage" my favorite Murikami so far.
Nice! Murakami will be a tenured author until we get through his bibliography. What other books of his have you read?
I read Kafka by the shore, and Norwegian wood so far. But I found Colorless Tsukuru in a thrift store and was surprised by how I hadn't heard of it sooner.
I've read*
My favourite work of English literature, after Infinite Jest, is The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. This masterpiece has been largely overlooked by the literary mainstream because of its genre trappings, but it's every bit as complex and rich and allusive as anything I've ever read.
I love that series!
Not going to get to Wolfe this round, but he's in my mind for sometime in 2024. Want to talk about more genre stuff on the channel, and that should be a good exploration.
I look forward to it.
I'm busy rereading IJ, and it occurs to me that BotNS has a similarly elliptical, looping (dare I say, annular?) structure that leaves scores of unanswered questions in its wake. The difference is that Wolfe's publisher strong-armed him into writing a followup to "explain" everything (hah!). One wonders what Wallace's analogue to Urth of the New Sun might have looked like if he were placed in a similar inimical position?
A truely underrated writer is John Cowper Powys. Porius may be the greatest English novel ever written
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller