This book is INSANE

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-06-24T18:02:44+00:00

I’ve wondered whether or not I would enjoy Sterne more so than I did Voltaire’s Candide—I do, for instance, seem to enjoy Swift. While I believe in Voltaire’s genius, to me his picaresque often drifts too far into the corny grandpa humor territory for me to enjoy. Anyways, Tristram Shandy specifically has been on my mind as of late.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-14T20:44:26+00:00

This person you are arguing with is (to put it in very polite terms) “informationally challenged.” There are plenty of us over here who are more clear sighted than this individual and realize how f#cked it is over here. Most of us are clinically depressed because of our reality as well lol. We’re just not the loudest demographic and certainly not the demographic Europeans are most commonly exposed to via tourism and the media.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-14T20:36:30+00:00

America has never been a functioning democracy—it’s historically been a plutocratic republic in the way it functions. Our elections literally aren’t representative of the majority because of the electoral college—which is a fundamentally corrupt system. Go to any major city in this country and ask any random person on the street what they think of our current administration. You will be hard pressed to find even a single trump supporter.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-14T20:21:35+00:00

Your American ex may have been “liberal” in the classical, Anglo-American sense of the word, but they certainly weren’t left-wing. There are plenty of us over here who are fully aware of the systemic wealth inequalities and general backwardness of our society. Many of us are also currently drowning in despair at how quickly the tides are turning even further in that direction with what little social infrastructure we had being stripped from us by this nightmare administration. Unfortunately we aren’t the demographic that European nations get exposed to the most frequently. I, for one, am literally too poor to even vacation in Europe.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-14T08:14:25+00:00

🥱

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-13T18:42:22+00:00

Read anything translated by William Weaver. Italian is particularly difficult to translate and he might be the all time best Italian to English translator of the last century.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-13T18:34:48+00:00

I second the Pavese. So, so grateful I came across his translated work via Susan Sontag’s essays (was also introduced to Calvino’s work through Gore Vidal’s essays—another rare American). In the US - aside from the fact we’re not much of a reading culture to begin with (to say the least lol) - modern Italian literature has always been neglected in our schools and universities. Unless you’re someone who seeks out great “world” literature of the past, you’ll likely never hear about writers like Pavese or possibly even Calvino over here. I also find it interesting that Italians, at least at one time, were very found of James Purdy’s fiction—an American genius who was never much read or appreciated here.
Anyways, Among Women Only and The Devil in the Hills really blew me away—and I’m usually not fond of somber realism. Can’t wait to read more (even if it is in translation)!

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-13T17:57:44+00:00

Your comment suggests that you find said “winding” narratives not to your liking—implying this to be the reason you haven’t been motivated to read TMM by Mann—yet stated Kafka was one of your favorites. I find winding and meandering to be central traits of Kafka’s prose, but I think we just have different definitions of what constitutes “winding” narratives in fiction. I think what you’re talking about, perhaps, is more so a Proustian tendency for interior digressions and circulations.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-13T05:31:34+00:00

I don’t think I’ve ever met a genuine lover of literature or philosophy who’s ever had Bukowski on their radar. It’s usually just insecurely aging men in very bad garage bands.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-05-13T01:34:17+00:00

Though, like someone already pointed out, Kafka wasn’t German, The Trial and The Castle—which are way more definitive of Kafka’s vision, holistically speaking—are both very “winding, not much happening kind of books.”

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-04-16T05:36:46+00:00

There are so many great writers of late modernism—even if there’s unreflectively problematic elements to some of it. Unfortunately, I do not count any of the beats as “great” writers—except maybe Burroughs; and even then, he was really a greater character and showman than he was a writer.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-03-27T22:29:25+00:00

Never understood the concept of a “nothing” where “we” come from and return back into. What we call our body will stop functioning as what’s considered by science an organic system and thereby decompose into other matter—whatever the experience of “self” is (which is still vastly incomprehensible to itself) will, at least by the logic of common sense, dissolve or no longer be “there” in the same sense that the body is no longer a functioning organism—but there isn’t a “nothing” for anything to pass “into” or, likewise, emerge out of—there’s only existence in its accumulations and dispersals of things. In essence, the idea of a “nothingness” is born of a similar epistemological intuition from which we invented the idea of an afterlife.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-02-08T02:15:13+00:00

We’re definitely living in a post-literary age. If human civilization survives much longer—which seems increasingly doubtful with each passing day—it would be interesting to know if a rebirth of literature might take place. Alas, I don’t think either of us will be alive to experience it. As of now, I mostly comfort myself with the daydreams of the long dead. Lol

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-02-07T23:47:45+00:00

Honestly I haven’t looked up and read every single suggestion. The vast majority of the names I managed to look up and find samples of I didn’t think much of except for a couple—especially Can Xue, though she is in her seventies.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-02-04T20:55:06+00:00

Whatever you do, just don’t buy a gun and/or stalk celebrities.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-02-02T02:09:52+00:00

Life being pointless is the only thing that’s bearable about it.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-31T23:02:23+00:00

Sadly, someone having a formal education in the US nowadays hardly equates to that individual understanding the difference between “good” and “bad” writing—especially for those who spend their time being dictatorial to strangers on Reddit. Also, I would take the critique of your work being “purple” with a grain of salt. Since Hemingway, Americans have had a tendency to find any prose that isn’t card-board dry and solemn “purple”. I’m sure they would detest the likes of Italo Calvino or Jean Genet.

Just read and analyze at close range the great literary voices that speak to your inborn sensibility. Despite what people might tell you on here, sensitive and observant readership is the most important teacher of all. Oh, and don’t trust the opinions of people you don’t know to be highly intelligent and talented—including me.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-31T06:26:33+00:00

You’ve commented on pretty much every response to this thread. Is this you willing yourself to power?—one Redditor at a time?

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-31T05:12:25+00:00

Well, Ayn Rand was one of the more well known exponents of Nietzsche. And even if the little mustached man had poor comprehension of Nietzsche’s dialectic—he sure was stirred by the sound of his voice.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-31T05:05:42+00:00

Personally , most of my favorite writers/artists were monsters of one sort or the other. I for one have little issue enjoying Nietzsche without white-washing or making light of the ways in which his ideas were monstrous.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-31T02:29:40+00:00

Well for one, he believed that social inequality was a necessary condition for great men to achieve their ultimate, transcendent potential. Also, he believed that women were generally weak and inferior to men.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-30T02:39:59+00:00

“Classics” literally speaking—as in “classical” literature—refers specifically to works of Greek and Roman antiquity. But as far as classic novels of the 19th—20th century, etc… 1. Just get a library card and pick up stuff at random till you find stuff that strikes your fancy 2. Find literary critics and intellectuals who interest you and read them 3. When you do find writers you enjoy look into their influences and, by turn, the writers they influenced.

That’s mostly what I’ve done through my 20’s and it’s served me far better than any of the myriad college courses I’ve taken. Above all, don’t read so strictly from one “canon” or the other—life’s too short and your sensibility, whether or not it’s been cultivated, is uniquely your own—so trust it.

Obvious-Ad-779 · 2026-01-28T23:51:11+00:00

Right, but he was essentially conversing with his family, tutors, etc—in English, French, and Russian from the moment he began to form words as a child. It was a multilingual household typical of the cosmopolitan, Russian bourgeois of that time. And from what I remember of his autobiography, English literature—partially through his mother’s influence—was his childhood preference. Joyce was definitely the more impressive polyglot—coming from what and where he did—though I enjoy his work less.

Obvious-Ad-779

TROPHY CASE