To discuss and recommend authors and books from the 20th century in general.
A few great modern authors that come to mind and who’s works I’m quite familiarized are Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, F Scott Fitzgerald, Jorge Luis Borges and even though they are still alive and publishing Mario Vargas Llosa (his older works are fantastic) and Kazuo Ishiguro (haven’t read Ishiguro yet, but i have “never let me go” on my reading list)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I've been read a lot of charles Bukowski lately. Quite like post office and women
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_(Bukowski_novel)
lmao foids
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
All i know about him is the Modest Mouse song
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
He was an butthole. Man would cheat on a woman and then go tell her about how great it was
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I'm looking to get into some classic Russian lit. Should I read Tolstoy or Dostoevsky first?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
That’s 19th century lit, but great lit nevertheless. Both authors are very different. Tolstoy was an aristocratic “christian anarchist”, his books are all about the russian upper class. War and Peace for instance starts in 1805 and goes all the way to 1820, through the napoleonic wars and includes lots of romance and numerous characters. Dostoesvky was a reactionary russian conservative who wrote mainly about the plight of the common people mixed with his philosophical ideas, i joked along with another dramanaut on the last thread about him being "incelcore literature", he's great and better than Tolstoy imo, but some of his main characters do look and talk like 4chan users.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I was hoping no one would notice
Thanks for the food for thought though
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
The Neurodivergent is pretty great.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes from the underground?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Was referring to The Idiot, havent read that one
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
I personally love Dostoevksy and don't care much about Tolstoy.
The Idiot by Doestoevksy is probably the closest thing I have to a favorite book. As someone mentioned above, his dialogues are somewhat weird/unrealistic, but it's overall great nonetheless
I would heavily recommed both Crime & punishment and The Idiot
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Rodion from C&P comparing himself to Napoleon was peak delusional
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Chad Napoleon causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and everyone worship him
x virgin student who murders one old jewish woman and is plagued by guilt 
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Was she
? I remember she was a loan shark described as “rich as a jew”, but don’t recall if she was actually a member of the Tribe 
He was also kind of a c*nt to Razumikhin who was such a bro the entire book.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I don't remember tbh, it's been almost 10 years since I read it
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
I think I'm going to read The Idiot first once I figure out which translation is best
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I recently started going down this rabbit hole and from what I can tell people seem to recommend translations done by Pevear and Volokhonsky
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Pevear and Volokhonsky are pretty much the best quality you can get for the Russian authors.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
I'm reading The Idiot right now at its bretty good
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Do different translations make a huge difference?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Oh sorry can't tell you about that, I'm proficient in moon runes so I'm reading it in original language
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Also
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Я не знал, что ты умеешь читать по-русски. EDIT: God darn it way to bypass caps doesn't work for other alphabets
TRANS LIVES MATTER YOU BIGOTED CHUDS
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Дуде бусси лмао
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Supposedly yes, and the worst part is I have no idea how good the translations i have are, I read him years ago and downloaded some old free translation. I don’t speak russian, but apparently the idioms used by the author are kind of lost in translation. If it is anything like Moby Dic it’s kind of a problem as I can’t imagine reading a Moby Dic portuguese translation, like half of the book’s aesthetic is lost.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Hmm good to know. I'll have to research it then
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Use the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations, they've done all the majors works from Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (In addition to Gogol and Chekov)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
If you want to go with 19th cent lit, might as well start with Gogol
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Jorge Luis Borges is relatively obscure in the english speaking world. For those who don’t know him, he was a super based argentine author and poet. I speak spanish (quite similar to portuguese) and bought a few of his books in Buenos Aires. He never wrote any novel, his books are all tales, poems and essays. My favorite tale book was “el Aleph”.
In the 1970s he was almost awarded the Nobel, however due to his defense of Latin American military dictatorships, the swedish academy warned him that if he traveled to Pinochet’s Chile to receive an homage and being awarded and honoris causa he would not been given the Nobel. Borges told them he didn’t take bribes, and went to Chile regardless
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Is Borges obscure? I see him talked about fairly often (although almost all the conversation about literature I get is on Cambodian frog husbandry forums). Maybe he's just much, much more famous in the Spanish speaking world, but he definitely seem known to anglophones.
That is a cool story about the Nobel, though.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
He is super famous in spanish speaking countries, and maybe obscure is not the right word, but definitely overlooked in english speaking countries when compared to other LATAM writers like Garcia Marquez and Neruda. The details of the Nobel story come from his widow, and there is some discussion about that, however it seems like the motivation was indeed political. https://www.infobae.com/cultura/2020/10/07/historia-secreta-el-dia-que-borges-le-dijo-no-al-nobel/?outputType=amp-type
This is from an argentine news outlet.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Too real
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Art of the Deal
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead by Stoddard
Waiting for Godot by Beckett
Cannery Row by Steinbeck
Never Let me Go was good. I’d recommend. Something’s you think must happen just don’t and then they do
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as a high school senior right after reading Hamlet and enjoyed it immensely, I cannot recommend it enough.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I only read "Klara and the Sun" and really liked it. How does it rank compared to the others?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Ishiguro is great. NLMG is a classic.
Read Infinite Jest
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Sun Also Rises is real good
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky is a good one and describes day to day life of young men and partisan activity in nazi occupied Czechoslovakia.
It was banned postwar by the gommies because he dared to criticize them along the Nazis.
There’s one funny scene where a Czech is making out with a German girl and tells her he’s a mischling for a kek
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Try one of Haruki Murakami's books, they're best described as 'gentle'. I've read many and all are delightful. Start here, maybe: "Underground" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Tokyo-Attack-Japanese-Psyche/dp/0099461099/ - a lot of people would jump straight to the award-winning "Norwegian Wood" but, as Clive James once said, "the most accessible parts of things are not necessarily those at the edges"
If you want a more rollicking tale, try the exposé of Elizabeth Holmes Theranos empire "Bad Blood" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Blood-Secrets-Silicon-Startup-ebook/dp/B07BW911F7/ I found it riveting, the sheer breathtaking level of fraud.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Underground is quite good, though, being more of an investigative reporting book, it isn't terribly indicative of his writing style in his fiction works. I quite liked The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, though I'd be lying if I said I totally got it. Norwegian Wood is probably my favorite of Murakami's, though.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
DeLillo, Pynchon, ...
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Epic of Gilgamesh is kino
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Gene Wolfe, Haruki Murakami, Robert Silverberg
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
R.A. Lafferty
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
On the Origin of Time
https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Time-Thomas-Hertog-ebook/dp/B09N73FX8Q
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
You are not “anti-work” if you reproduce.
Why would you condemn your child to be a wage slave? Essentially, you are just contributing to the problem by creating more people to be exploited. Or even worse the future adult human has the money and power to exploit other people!
Please think logically and be realistic. Do not create more lives to gamble with.
Peace & love ❤️
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context