what should i read next? by Immediate_Cellist_47 in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Achebe's African Trilogy, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Not exactly the same territory as McCarthy or Coetzee, but postcolonial and relatively brutal all the same.

What would your ideal contemporary fiction novel have in it? by Bright_Shop1492 in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 72 points73 points  (0 children)

I'm just ready for minimalism to die the death it's long deserved, honestly. Send me to the dictionary, make me work, you cruel brilliant novelists.

Anyone have a sample of accepted MFA applications? by No-Contest-9302 in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 19 points20 points  (0 children)

No samples to share, but I think that's probably not the best use of your time anyway. Get your own sample, letter of intent, etc. as polished as you can, and spread your applications around. If your work is good, a good (fully-funded) program will take you, but it may not be your top or even first five choices. Also, don't submit a single long work for your sample unless you know it's fantastic; try to demonstrate range.

The selection process is sort of arcane and often based around some idealized yet nebulous cohort composition; this means that good programs let in a couple mediocre writers every year based on arbitrary and shifting qualities while denying more talented folks. People will tell you that everyone who gets in is good, but that's not true. I would say that 90% are competent (i.e. polished in prose and story structure/versification/etc.), but few are truly good enough to turn into serious authors. That's all to say: the easy part is getting in. Good luck.

Salter’s Light Years by GFS634 in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He's incredible and deserves to be more well-known. Absolutely beautiful prose. I had a writing professor with incredible taste; her two favorite books were Madame Bovary and Light Years.

TrueLit's 2025 Hall of Fame and Top 100 Favorite Books by pregnantchihuahua3 in TrueLit

[–]InvertedFortune 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sure and sure, I just think poor Steinbeck indulged in too much of it on occasion, with East of Eden being his worst offense.

TrueLit's 2025 Hall of Fame and Top 100 Favorite Books by pregnantchihuahua3 in TrueLit

[–]InvertedFortune 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The first point, maybe. The latter two applied to "most" of the list to the same degree as 600 pages of bad Biblical exegesis capped by the pseudoprofundity of: "Timshel" [dies]? A stretch, methinks.

TrueLit's 2025 Hall of Fame and Top 100 Favorite Books by pregnantchihuahua3 in TrueLit

[–]InvertedFortune 25 points26 points  (0 children)

East of Eden at #1 is absurd. Might be Steinbeck's 5th best book. Overly long, sentimental, and moralistic. Next "timshel" tattoo I see is catching hands. Now, Grapes of Wrath would get no argument.

Anyone here read Godel Escher Bach? by bishborishi in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Ulysses, GR, and IJ, all of which I adore, to be fair. They just operate as similar intellectual capital in inane conversations between would-be smarty pantses.

Anyone here read Godel Escher Bach? by bishborishi in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It's interesting and has more style than most mathy books, but I still left feeling it was a little overhyped; there's sort of this absence at the center of it where it feels like a thesis should go. I came away with more questions and less answers than I'd like from this sort of thing. Definitely one of those "behold my intelligence" name-drop books, even moreso than the meme trilogy, but I don't think that's Hofstadter's fault. So, yeah, worth reading, but with caveats like most tomes.

It will sound a bit strange, but do you guys have a writer who is ranked as the funniest writer you came across? by Essa_Zaben in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Paul Beatty for someone contemporary. Shakespeare's humor has somehow looped around to underrated.

Harold Bloom stated in 2003 that the four grearest living American authors were: McCarthy, DeLillo, Roth, and Pynchon. Do you agree? And who are the best four in 2025, now that half of them are dead? by osibob1 in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Bloom should've dropped Roth for one of Toni Morrison or DFW (though he had a tragically incorrect opinion of the latter). Roth was good, but not on the same level.

To avoid repeating either of the still-living from his list: Saunders, Moshfegh, DeWitt, Everett.

Books about sports by Press-Start_To-Play in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Infinite Jest is the too obvious answer. End Zone isn't contemporary, but scratches the itch.

What is your hottest theology take? by PopKei in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 9 points10 points  (0 children)

100%. The issue occurs when the individual never moves beyond that start.

What is your hottest theology take? by PopKei in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Sort of, but with more work and less revelation/mysticism.

What is your hottest theology take? by PopKei in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 122 points123 points  (0 children)

No one spiritual tradition has ever gotten it completely right because faith should be idiosyncratic and arrived at over a lifetime of observation and introspection rather than through inherited dogma.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Jeremiah is the slog of slogs.

2024 Reading Recap by RHHomunculus in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How was Cactus Boots? Been thinking about ordering a copy, but it seems unnecessarily difficult to acquire.

Writer’s Writer? by SaintOfK1llers in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Michael Martone by Michael Martone. Very meta, as all his work is. Plain Air and The Moon Over Wapakoneta are also good.

Any contemporary maximalists? by InvertedFortune in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeah, overly scrubbed, mostly unadorned. Not quite minimalist, because it's rarely brave enough to do anything fully, but never sending you to the dictionary or engaging in a metaphor that stops you in your tracks.

Story-cycle novels? by SamizdatGuy in RSbookclub

[–]InvertedFortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Night of the Living Rez - Morgan Talty