But? There's always a but. When this is over, can we have a big 'but' moratorium?

Fred ,'Smile Time'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


sj - May 15, 2006 6:25:02 am PDT #451 of 28095
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Beloved is the only book I have read on that list either.


erikaj - May 15, 2006 6:28:29 am PDT #452 of 28095
Always Anti-fascist!

Will it mark me an irretrievable pervert if I say "Portnoy" changed my life? Because I think it did.


Sophia Brooks - May 15, 2006 6:35:23 am PDT #453 of 28095
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

I am not sure I am right, Corwood. All I really know is that all the "modern literary" peeps do nothing for me, personally, at all, but people who wrote "literature" earlier in time do. I am just, I guess, trying to find the reason. Maybe it is because I am really a lower-class educated person, rather than a middle class educated person? (not being snarky at all)


brenda m - May 15, 2006 6:36:01 am PDT #454 of 28095
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

Erika, I'm with you on The Bluest Eye.


lisah - May 15, 2006 6:42:06 am PDT #455 of 28095
Punishingly Intricate

Erika, I'm with you on The Bluest Eye.

My favorite has always been Song of Solomon.

Also, I want to point out that Housekeeping is a phenomenally good book, and Robinson is one of the best writers out there today. A Confederacy of Dunces is also a noble choice.

ITA

Also, I love DeLillo but I think I was exposed to him at exactly the right time and by the right person (senior year of college by a professor I liked who was super enthusiastic about him).

I honestly don't remember if I've read any Roth.


erikaj - May 15, 2006 6:45:39 am PDT #456 of 28095
Always Anti-fascist!

I think maybe because she was trying less hard to be a symbolic genius because she was much newer at it. Simpler stories work better on me, personally.(and you're thinking "please, Lord, don't let her bring up Tim picking up Mrs. Watson's cornflakes again!" so I'm not. Ish.) "Beloved" was great, but I did have to read it a few times to really get it


Hayden - May 15, 2006 6:54:24 am PDT #457 of 28095
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

I am not sure I am right, Corwood. All I really know is that all the "modern literary" peeps do nothing for me, personally, at all, but people who wrote "literature" earlier in time do. I am just, I guess, trying to find the reason. Maybe it is because I am really a lower-class educated person, rather than a middle class educated person? (not being snarky at all)

Ha! I bet that it has a lot to do with time weeding out the wheat from the chaff in earlier literature. You're right that the early theater, too, was meant for the masses, so there has definitely been a migrating audience in the last 400 years. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that you might really enjoy Marilynne Robinson's books. She has a lovely way with language and a stateliness that indicates (to me, natch) that her books will last.


DavidS - May 15, 2006 7:13:19 am PDT #458 of 28095
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I also think that the emergance of "literary fiction" has caused the demise of many novels which are actually enjoyable. I mean, Shakespeare and Dickens and even Hemingway, I think, were writing for an audience who wanted to enjoy their works in some way. I feel like Roth, DeLillo, Updike et als are writing to "create literature".

Crazy talk! Roth is totally fun to read. For me anyway. For Sophia, NSM.

I don't think you can really make the case that Roth and Updike have inaccessible styles - not only are they writing for the educated middle-class, they're writing about them. They're certainly not writing experimental or "difficult" fiction like Bartheleme or Gass or Hawkes.

Delillo is more closely associated with the meta-ficiton writers of the early 70s like Pynchon and Barth and Gaddis, but his stuff is still very readable (though maybe less enjoyable in the juicy Dickens way).

I was stunned by how many of the top choices were by novelists in their 70s.

A.O. Scott's essay addresses that, noting that the top five authors were all born within two years of each other. I think a little of that is what Douglas Coupland called "clique maintenance" referring to generational biases. I think a British list might have a few votes for Zadie Smith. Kavalier and The Corrections each got one vote.


Kate P. - May 15, 2006 7:13:53 am PDT #459 of 28095
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

I'm really pleased to see that Norman Rush's Mating made the list! That's one of my favorite books, but it seems like few people know of him.

From that list, I've only read Mating, Beloved, and White Noise (DeLillo). I really like what little DeLillo I've read; I should pick up a copy of Underworld or Libra sometime.


Hayden - May 15, 2006 7:17:51 am PDT #460 of 28095
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

Libra was a snooze. DeLillo's uneven.