Many xps
I teach Priestley (An Inspector Calls) and have tried a few bits of late. English Journey is a decent, angry trawl around England of the 1930s (Owen Hatherley cited it as the main inspiration for A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, FWIW). Margin Released is a decent writing memoir, where he spends a good deal of time NOT writing about his WWI experiences (while writing really well about his WWI experiences). And Bright Day, which, the further I get away from, I'm convinced is a damn fine novel.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 29 September 2022 18:53 (one year ago) link
I'll be interested to see what happens to Ballard over the next 20 years or so.
Anyone still reading Lewis Grassic Gibbon?
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 29 September 2022 18:54 (one year ago) link
Does anyone read Joaquin Miller anymore? Mostly a poet, but wrote some novels too.
Miller was championed, although not enthusiastically, by Bret Harte and Ambrose Bierce. In his time, Miller was known for his dishonesty and womanizing. Bierce, his friend and contemporary, said of him, "In impugning Mr. Miller's veracity, or rather, in plainly declaring that he has none, I should be sorry to be understood as attributing a graver moral delinquency than he really has. He cannot, or will not, tell the truth, but he never tells a malicious or thrifty falsehood." Miller's response was, "I always wondered why God made Bierce."
― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Thursday, 29 September 2022 19:11 (one year ago) link
Joaquin Miller's literary works seem to have been locked into a cabinet of Victorian era curios around 1920 and largely forgotten since. He wasn't a very good poet or novelist, but he was one hell of a character with a talent for self-promotion.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 29 September 2022 19:17 (one year ago) link
I'm mentally going back through my college-era faves and realizing I haven't heard much about Margaret Drabble lately.
I hope she's still being read in the UK at least.
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 29 September 2022 19:50 (one year ago) link
I enjoyed reading the beginning of some Margaret Drabble book recently but couldn't keep up the momentum, but that is more my problem than hers, haven't been able to read a novel in quite a while. Being an empty nester might change that though. *fingers crossed*
― Ride On Proserpina (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 29 September 2022 20:28 (one year ago) link
heh, I read The Ice Age after Lester Bangs mentioned it somewhere (do people still read him?)
― jmm, Thursday, 29 September 2022 20:38 (one year ago) link
Greil Marcus mentioned it, I think.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 September 2022 20:39 (one year ago) link
Is Gore Vidal much read? He enjoyed a renaissnce during the Iraq War. But since his death -- nope.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 29, 2022
Our book club just read Julian
― Dan S, Thursday, 29 September 2022 22:40 (one year ago) link
I think hardest novel I ever actually made it all of the way through was Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. It was assigned to our book club on my recommendation and I was the only one who finished it
― Dan S, Thursday, 29 September 2022 22:44 (one year ago) link
Yup, I'd say Gore Vidal's lease on literary life hasn't expired, yet.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 29 September 2022 22:48 (one year ago) link
Drabble > Byatt
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 29 September 2022 22:50 (one year ago) link
I've got a modern translation of The Magic Mountain, looks like all the French is translated too, and it's promising to skim. I should dig it up and dig in, considering that even H.T. Porter-Lowe's old Britishy roast beef version was intriguing enough.Ice Age and the other two Drabble novels I read in the 70s and 80s had some good bits but ran out of steam. The first was, "Yes, we are in the 70s, and the 70s are fucked, ah yes, ah yes," which was what Bangs and Marcus seemed to like about it.
― dow, Friday, 30 September 2022 02:21 (one year ago) link
Lawrence Durrell is a good answer. Robertson Davies too?
Some favourite Gissings:
New Grub StreetThe Odd WomenBorn in ExileThe Private Papers of Henry RyecroftThe House of Cobwebs and Other StoriesBy The Ionian Sea (poor George having a miserable time in southern Italy but good fun anyway)
Some favourite Bennetts:
Anna of the Five TownsRiceyman StepsOld Wives TaleBuried Alive (a Borges recommendation)The Card Clayhanger
― gravalicious, Friday, 30 September 2022 09:34 (one year ago) link
(why late in the week in the uk does mark s get all pynchoned out: Thomas Pynchon )
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 10:00 (one year ago) link
Dunno if this Magic Mountain stuff is just a tangent but I can't imagine Thomas Mann not being widely read in German speaking countries still at least.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 30 September 2022 10:25 (one year ago) link
martin amis lol.
― Fizzles, Friday, 30 September 2022 17:14 (one year ago) link
Heh. But Money might still be good, or is that challops at this point?
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 17:18 (one year ago) link
well i was discussing this with an intermittent ilxor the other day and the answer was a tentative yes. but more the point was just how much he isn’t part of *anything* these days. “he hasn’t even been cancelled” was an observation.
― Fizzles, Friday, 30 September 2022 19:02 (one year ago) link
Hah!
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 19:02 (one year ago) link
He wasn't even the best curmudgeon in the Amises.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 19:54 (one year ago) link
yeah does anyone still read kingsley amis?
or john braine, alan sillitoe, john braine etc
all those dudes were still in the school library when i was at high school (end of the 70s) but i get the feeling i was in the last generation to read them
might be wrong
― lambert simnel (doo rag), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:06 (one year ago) link
Much easier to watch the films iirc.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:11 (one year ago) link
Because I’m out for a good time. All the rest…
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:19 (one year ago) link
no one reads either of the john braines any more
― mark s, Friday, 30 September 2022 20:20 (one year ago) link
The Man with Two Braines
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:22 (one year ago) link
lol oops
― lambert simnel (doo rag), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:23 (one year ago) link
the other john braine is john wain i guess
Figured that’s what you meant but didn’t want to call you on it as it was kind of funny.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:24 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJf7_5vH1WE
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
you read one angry young man you've read em all
― lambert simnel (doo rag), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
motherfuck him and John Braine
― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:29 (one year ago) link
Lol!(xp)Never noticed until now that that song has a sub-Police faux reggae groove.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 20:30 (one year ago) link
Insane in the Membraine
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 30 September 2022 22:21 (one year ago) link
― lambert simnel (doo rag)
hell does anyone read _martin_ amis lol
i read his book about pac-man i think
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 30 September 2022 22:46 (one year ago) link
Julian Barnes?
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 30 September 2022 22:59 (one year ago) link
Anybody seenMy old friend Kingsley Can you tell me Where he’s gone
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 23:04 (one year ago) link
Thought I saw him out walking Out over the hillWith John OsborneJohn BraineAnd John
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 23:13 (one year ago) link
DO U SEE?
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2022 23:27 (one year ago) link
Jilted John to #onethread!
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 00:24 (one year ago) link
Jeez, you're busy, man
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 1 October 2022 00:29 (one year ago) link
Sorry. Do you have a thread of your own you’d like to attend to?
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 00:35 (one year ago) link
(Thought I might have to help with homework tonight but kid is taking a break)
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 00:37 (one year ago) link
Again in truth I think this thread has undergone a, maybe inevitable, maybe somewhat productive, mission creep -- from genuinely listing people who are now very obscure (but maybe once weren't), to listing people who were once central and are now, necessarily, past, and recognised as important in an earlier generation but not current.
Anyone studying, say, England in the 1950s is likely to read Sillitoe (I've read SN&SM maybe 3 times, others here may have too - not to mention the LONELINESS book), and also the early Braine and Wain. (Wain btw was quite an interesting critic - a good essay on Orwell for one, as I recall.) I have actually been lining up HURRY ON DOWN and ROOM AT THE TOP to read for months myself.
These authors are not now extensively read as current authors (which they're not), but they are still read and part of the catalogue of cultural and literary history. In sum I don't think they are really good candidates for the thread.
I believe that people do still read Kingsley Amis, though clearly his stock has fallen since say 1995.
Martin Amis is I think a more specific and interesting case - he ought still to be, or could be, central and current in some way, but has faded away from that - as is correctly noted. I think that he made a number of particularly bad calls - the wayward statements on feminism and matrimony around PREGNANT WIDOW an example - in an attempt to maintain public profile. In that, indeed, it is hard to resist the obvious parallel with Morrissey - people vaguely know the controversial opinions, better than they know any of the later work.
MONEY I would say is (naturally?) as good and bad as it ever was. It was outrageous, extreme, nasty, brilliant, central. I still think it's his most impressive feat by far.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:38 (one year ago) link
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs)
That was a compliment.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:42 (one year ago) link
*raises hand*
The NYRB rereleased his only good books.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:43 (one year ago) link
So The Alteration then.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:49 (one year ago) link
And The Old Devils too, I think.
― If The Damned Are United (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:50 (one year ago) link
Sorry Alfred, I was a bit irritable last night for some reason.
pinefox speaks wisdom - honestly for me the mission creep is cool.
I mean, it might well be true that there aren't a lot of people reading (say) Elinor Glyn or John Galsworthy or James Branch Cabell. Fades like those are going to happen.
To me it's WAY more interesting to speculate when people will stop reading more recent authors, even (perhaps especially) ones who are still alive. Because a relatively modern writer going out of style quickly is a more dramatic development than the natural process of forgetting the distant past.
There's a line in my second-favorite novel (The Real Life of Sebastian Knight) about how hyper-modern art sometimes gets dated really fast, and I think it is accurate.
Has anybody here thought much about Douglas Coupland in this century? (pause for show of hands)
There will be a day when Bret Easton Ellis or Kathy Acker become a footnote, interesting only to specialists in a particular zeitgeist. Not sure when that will be, but I'm interested in finding out.
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 1 October 2022 13:54 (one year ago) link