• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Hard to read, the fiction.

shoreman1782

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
8,728
Reaction score
6,883
Originally Posted by tiger
I'm going to reread it after I descend into the pit of heroin addiction, revel there for a few years, alienate everyone who I love, an emerge a broken and empty shell of my former self. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to need to really understand the book.
^you haven't done that already? You need to get out more.
 

tiger02

Militarist
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
3
Originally Posted by shoreman1782
^you haven't done that already? You need to get out more.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to score opiates in Eastern Europe? I can get steroids out the wazoo and even a kilo of coke here and there, but even a minor heroin addiction just isn't worth the effort.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
5
Originally Posted by Manton
Moby Dick is hard...
beavisbutthead01junefl8.gif
 

eg1

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
5,570
Reaction score
29
Originally Posted by gvibes
Pynchon kills me (other than the Crying of Lot 49).


I loved Cryptonomicon.


Most Fantasy/sci-fi writing is horrible.

It's not fiction, but Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has stumped me about five times.


Perhaps you'd fare better with Hofstadter's I Am A Strange Loop, then.
 

prozach1576

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2006
Messages
850
Reaction score
68
Add me to the list of people who failed miserably at Gravity's Rainbow. I made it 70 pages in. The thing is that I was really enjoying it because his prose is so masterful but it was SO DENSE. I'm going to try it again this summer. V. is easily one of my top five favorite books. I tried and failed to read it about three times before I actually made it past the first 50 pages, but after that I absolutely loved it. "Mondaugan's Story" is one of the most amazing things I've ever read. The other book that I've failed at in recent memory is Gene Wolfe's Peace. It's incredibly dense and obtuse, almost as much as The Book of the New Sun (another top five work for me).
 

GQgeek

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 4, 2002
Messages
16,568
Reaction score
84
Originally Posted by Manton
I think Proust is not really meant to be read. It is meant to be had on the shelf, for when the beautiful no-make-up-ever wispy blond graduate student comes over, in jeans, t-shirt and lime green cardigan, and she hasn't read it either, but needs to pretend that she has over a bottle (or two) of wine, and you skillfully prevent the conversation from making absolutely obvious your joint igornance, and the rest you trust to luck, and the wine.

laugh.gif


I'm sure you'll have no trouble, but name the movie:

l still love whores.

lt's ideal. You pay them, and
they come to the house...

and you don't have to discuss
Proust or films or...

l don't know what's
happening to me.

l just have not grown up
and l feel...

l see other guys my age.

l think of ******* every woman l meet.

l meet awoman in the bank...

or on the bus...

l think: What's she look like naked?
Can l **** her?

This is crazy.

-----

Your post also reminds me of a girl I dated that was reading Anna Karenina. She was the pretentious intellectual type, but only superficially. I caught her telling someone else why she was reading the book, and essentially, she just wanted to be able to tell people that she had read the book.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
5
I hear Woody Allen's voice...

Deconstructing Harry?

At the risk of derailing, I saw Interiors for the first time recently. Very Bergman, but easily his best serious picture. Amazed it took me so long to get around to it.
 

GQgeek

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 4, 2002
Messages
16,568
Reaction score
84
Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife
I hear Woody Allen's voice...

Deconstructing Harry?

At the risk of derailing, I saw Interiors for the first time recently. Very Bergman, but easily his best serious picture. Amazed it took me so long to get around to it.


bigstar[1].gif


I'll have to rent it. I've seen just about every single one of his movies, but for whatever reason, not that one.
 

johnapril

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
5,600
Reaction score
11
Originally Posted by Manton
I think Proust is not really meant to be read. It is meant to be had on the shelf, for when the beautiful no-make-up-ever wispy blond graduate student comes over, in jeans, t-shirt and lime green cardigan, and she hasn't read it either, but needs to pretend that she has over a bottle (or two) of wine, and you skillfully prevent the conversation from making absolutely obvious your joint igornance, and the rest you trust to luck, and the wine.

Proust is infinitely readable.
 

johnapril

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
5,600
Reaction score
11
Originally Posted by EnglishGent
I tried reading War and Peace when I was about 10, made it to the end of chapter 1 and gave up. It's sitting on my shelf ever since and I keep telling myself to try it again.

Another easy one to read. Really. It is very straighforward prose and the structure is not complicated at all.
 

johnapril

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
5,600
Reaction score
11
Originally Posted by IDirector
Conrad has a terrible style and I got through it, but hated every moment of it.

Start with his short stories, then.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
5
Originally Posted by GQgeek
bigstar[1].gif
I'll have to rent it. I've seen just about every single one of his movies, but for whatever reason, not that one.

I have read (iirc in "Woody on Woody" interview book) that it his favorite of his own films.
 

johnapril

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
5,600
Reaction score
11
Originally Posted by Fade to Black
i'm reading William Burroughs' Naked Lunch now and based on how far i've gotten i'd say this is the quintessential 'hard to read' novel. The imagery and descriptive language he uses is nothing short of brilliant though.

It's hard to read because it's poorly written.
 

tiger02

Militarist
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
3
Originally Posted by johnapril
It's hard to read because it's poorly written.
I'd think that a word-artist would appreciate his style...
 

lawyerdad

Lying Dog-faced Pony Soldier
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
27,006
Reaction score
17,145
Originally Posted by romafan
What about Andrea Camilleri? On a Scottish note, I'm slowly working through to the end of the Rebus stories....


l:

Camilleri doesn't do it for me (only tried one or two). The dialogue is clunky to me, although that could be the translation.
Originally Posted by Manton
Moby Dick is hard, but so, so rewarding. I think it is my favorite "serious" novel. The amount of philosophical metaphor is just overwhelming.

You mean this as a compliment, I take it?
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 92 37.6%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 90 36.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 26 10.6%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 41 16.7%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 38 15.5%

Forum statistics

Threads
506,917
Messages
10,592,666
Members
224,336
Latest member
SightAustraliaRe
Top