20th century novelists |
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Logan
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Pynchon, very nice choice. Oh and being a sci-f buff, Heinlein, especially for Stranger in a Strange Land, but I also think that it's great literature. Lem is worth reading (Solaris is a classic). Just a funny note, the quite crazy, paranoid, anti-communist Philip K. Dick accused Lem of being a communist committee: https://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-a-communist-committee Quoted from thee above article:
It's partially Dick's sense of paranoia that makes his books so good for me. And maybe not in th same class as the more classic literary giants in this poll, but I love Arturo Pérez-Reverte (The Club Dumas) and José Saramago (Blindness) as well as Kazuo Ishiguro, especially for Never Let Me Go (though that's a 21st century novel). And Cormac mcCarthy's The Road is one of my modern favourites (and Margaret Atwood with Oryx and Crake), but this is an aside and not that relevant to the general topic. Edited by Logan - January 29 2019 at 10:37 |
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Snicolette
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Yes, to the first 3, not familiar with Lem. But also want to add Thomas Pynchon, esp for Gravity's Rainbow.
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Lewian
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Midnight's Children is an utter masterpiece, surely among the top five books I've ever read.
Edited by Lewian - January 29 2019 at 10:05 |
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Logan
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I've read work by the majority of these. Vonnegut, Kafka, Orwell, Borges, Burroughs, Beckett, Joyce, and Hesse rank amongst my favourites. And I'll give votes to Conrad (I did enjoy reading Heart of Darkness by him in college) and Faulkner too. As for Rushdie, I'm bigger on him as an individual and listening to him speak than as a writer, but then I've only read The Satanic Verses by him (well, not strictly true).
Some favourites not on the list include Aldous Huxley, Günter Grass, Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem. Edited by Logan - January 29 2019 at 08:54 |
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Lewian
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Musil - Borges - Rushdie - Calvino - Mann. Of those nominated in the discussion but not listed, Arundhati Roy's The Good of Small Things is second to none.
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jamesbaldwin
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For me?
For me Kafka, but I've never read Beckett and Celine. |
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Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
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jamesbaldwin
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For what I know.... Among those on the list, James Joyce Franz Kafka Luis F Celine Samule Beckett (maybe R. Musil) They are considered the greatest of the twentieth century by every european literary critic (with Proust and others). American? Maybe William Faulkner but... nobody put Faulkner on the same level... I don't say that it is right, I say what I know by reading a lot of European literary criticism. |
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Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
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jamesbaldwin
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From Italy: Italo Svevo - La coscienza di Zeno Luigi Pirandello - Il fu Mattia Pascal, Uno Nessuno Centomila Carlo Emilio Gadda - La cognizione del dolore, Quer pasticciaccio Italo Calvino is very famous but now in Italy critics now consider these three the most important 20th century novelists. The absolute masterpiece is La coscienza di Zeno.
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Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
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Snicolette
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And then there were three....There are probably more that aren't talking.
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Mascodagama
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Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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Snicolette
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I also love Joyce Carol Oates. Prolific and many fantastic novels of several genres.
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Snicolette
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Always up there in my obscure psych classics list
Edited by Snicolette - January 28 2019 at 15:21 |
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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The Dark Elf
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HP Lovecraft II is a lot of fun, particularly Electrallentando and Mobius Trip.
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The Dark Elf
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Agreed regarding Tolkien. Should definitely be on the list. I would venture to say that many millions more have read The Lord of the Rings than attempted Joyce's Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. That is no knock on stately, plump Buck Mulligan.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
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Snicolette
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Are you familiar with the psychedelic band, HP Lovecraft? Their eponymous first LP has a beautiful song, "The White Ship, on it...and the second (HP Lovecraft II), included a piece, "The Mountains of Madness." Very psych stuff.
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Snicolette
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Me, too. Read the Tolkien's trilogy many, many times in my life. Not all that is good is kept a secret. I have a beautiful book of poetry of Smith's, Ebony and Crystal, signed by the author (not to me, sadly). He was born and spent most of his life in Auburn, in Central CA, and I found it in an antique store there.
Edited by Snicolette - January 28 2019 at 14:59 |
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Raff
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This. Smith is really something else. Most of the authors Lovecraft mentioned in his essay Supernatural Horror in LIterature are also highly recommended - even though many of them wrote mostly short stories. I think JRR Tolkien also deserves a mention, no matter how overexposed his work may be. The Lord of the Rings will always be one of my favourite novels of all time, bar none.
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Snicolette
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Out of the list, I voted for Vonnegut, I've read many of these authors' works, however. I have even read the novelty novel, A Void (a novel written entirely without the letter E [with the exception of the author's name, of course, note how many E's there!], but I read it in the English translation, can you imagine translating that?) by Georges Perec, surprised to see his name here. I read a wide variety of fiction....For horror, yes to Lovecraft and also his contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith.
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"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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LAM-SGC
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Knut Hamsun, every day of the week. I read four of his in the 80s: Mysteries (1892), Hunger (1890), Pan (1894), Victoria (1898) - and I read them in that order. Mysteries is my favourite. There is a Swedish film of Hunger from the 60s. It is very good. The dialogue is in Swedish and Norwegian with English subtitles. |
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The.Crimson.King
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Voted Vonnegut...besides his other great works, Breakfast of Champions is a masterpiece. Lovecraft is my all time favorite writer, 20th century or not. His first story I read was At the Mountains of Madness and by the end of the first paragraph I knew I was home
My band Mutiny in Jonestown (added to the PA database last year) has adapted many Lovecraft stories to music. If anyone is curious, check out my latest album, "The Daemons Mock Me While I Sleep". It sets Dagon, Polaris, The Colour Out of Space, Despair & Astrophobos to music and is available for listening (lyrics included) and free download at Bandcamp: https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/album/the-daemons-mock-me-while-i-sleep
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