Slighty OT - What to read next?

<< So, what modern fiction is everyone reading at the moment? >><BR><BR>

Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver." It has started to get interesting after the
first 300 pages or so...


--
"Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor
citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when
single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang."

--Benjamin Franklin
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Scot Kamins <kamins DeleteThis @dogeared.com> wrote in message news:<kamins-4E91F1.23255617012004 DeleteThis @corp.supernews.com>...
 > In article <bucego$t0o$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk>,
 > "Tom L-M" <sabran DeleteThis @lintern-mole.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
 >
  > > So, what modern fiction is everyone reading at the moment?

Starting reading John Dos Passos - "American Trilogy". Certainly an
American classic and a good example of changing tastes in reading and
collecting books. Once considered superior to Hemingway, now is
largely forgotton. His writing is excellent and a very good read.

Art Layton
Stamford CT<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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 > So, what modern fiction is everyone reading at the moment?
 >
 > Cheers,
 >
 > Tom L-M

Am reading Warlock by Wilbur Smith.
Any book by him is a winner.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Tom L-M wrote:

 > So now I have picked up Tartt's latest, The Little Friend, and The
 > Unconsoled by Ishiguro - but I want to save the best for the trip to
 > Washington in a fortnight's time, the question is, which?

I haven't read The Little Friend, but The Unconsoled nearly drove me round
the bend the first time I read it. I found it *terribly* frustrating! I
meant to say this when someone suggested it might become a classic
collectible a few weeks ago. I don't think it will ever have mass appeal
because it breaks the conventions of fiction and the expectations of readers
so completely. In that sense, it is in the same rarified class as, say,
Italo Calvino's If on a Winter Night a Traveller.

On the other hand, after I'd read it once, and realised it was never
actually going to "go" anywhere, in the way most books do, I was able to
pick it up a few months later and reread it and enjoy it thoroughly, and I'm
just getting into gear to read it a third time.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Modern Fiction? Cant say I read a lot of modern fiction -indeed as I look at
my self of unread books - I dont see any modern fiction....

I do see lots of non-fiction, some children's books, some genre (horror and
fantasy), one western, fair number of short story collections (one by Michael
Chabon - which i guess if it were a novel, might be "modern fiction") and a few
non-modern novels....

This checking sure tells me alot about me and my reading habbits.....

steven rowe
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"Steven Rowe" wrote...
 > ...fair number of short story collections (one by Michael
 > Chabon - which i guess if it were a novel, might be "modern fiction") and
a few
 > non-modern novels....

How is a collection of stories published in 1991 not "modern fiction"? Or
the horror, fantasy, and western books, for that matter? They're all
fiction, and the Modern period began about the turn of the previous century
(very roughly speaking--there are many definitions of the period). You seem
to be imputing a very narrow, and perhaps pejorative, meaning to "modern"
that not everyone shares. Perhaps you are thinking of "current" or
"contemporary"? Or "post-modern," in the sense of "not a proper story at
all, and no fun to read"? But what you must mean by "fiction," if short
stories don't count, I'm at a loss to explain.


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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johndeletethis.RemoveThis@rarebooksinjapan.com wrote:

 >On the other hand, after I'd read it once, and realised it was never
 >actually going to "go" anywhere, in the way most books do, I was able to
 >pick it up a few months later and reread it and enjoy it thoroughly, and I'm
 >just getting into gear to read it a third time.

Sounds a lot like _Tristram Shandy_ -- did you ever read that?

--Helen<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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"H Schinske" wrote...
 > johndeletethis DeleteThis @rarebooksinjapan.com wrote:
 >
  > >On the other hand, after I'd read it once, and realised it was never
  > >actually going to "go" anywhere, in the way most books do, I was able to
  > >pick it up a few months later and reread it and enjoy it thoroughly, and
I'm
  > >just getting into gear to read it a third time.
 >
 > Sounds a lot like _Tristram Shandy_ -- did you ever read that?

I've read, and enjoyed, both, but I wouldn't consider them much alike.
Sterne's novel achieves its effects through digression and relentless piling
on of detail and background, relevant or not. Ishiguro's book is more
Kafkaesque. The Unconsoled is about a musician, and Ishiguro has said that
he was trying to achieve a musical feeling in the flow of the book. A long
piece of music may have a theme or themes, with repetitions and variations
and movements, but it doesn't, as John noted about the novel, really "go"
anywhere. Music, that is, is not a narrative form, so a narrative written
in imitation of the structure of music will frustrate readers' conventional
expectations.


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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In article <400acc22.DeleteThis@bothawui.gtw.net>, "Jon Meyers" <cathnjonyour.DeleteThis@waygtw.net>
writes:

 >How is a collection of stories published in 1991 not "modern fiction"? Or
 >the horror, fantasy, and western books, for that matter? They're all
 >fiction, and the Modern period began about the turn of the previous century
 >(very roughly speaking--there are many definitions of the period). You seem
 >to be imputing a very narrow, and perhaps pejorative, meaning to "modern"
 >that not everyone shares. Perhaps you are thinking of "current" or
 >"contemporary"? Or "post-modern," in the sense of "not a proper story at
 >all, and no fun to read"? But what you must mean by "fiction," if short
 >stories don't count, I'm at a loss to explain.

well you are right, i hadnt had my caffene quota for the day, and was thinking
Modern Novels instead of Modern Fiction -

Modern Novels is (i thought) quite distict from current or contemporary novels
or fiction... and usually not considered to be one of the various types of
genre fiction --

And no, I have nothing against Modern Novels, Modern Fiction --
although i do find myself reading mostly genre short stories ---
and non-fiction....

Is there really Post-Modern Fiction now?
and can Faulkner, Norris, Steinbeck et al still be Modern?


steven rowe (maybe it will be time to re-read McTeague)
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While post-modernism more frequently refers to a method of literary
analysis, it is basically an approach to the world and as such can and
is embodied in the fiction of authors who understand it. The most
prominent aspect is a change in narrative style from the traditional
forms of first person narrative and third person (semi-)omniscient to
forms involving the following: (1) multiple narrators whose narratives
may work against each other, as in Puig, "Betrayed by Rita Hayworth" or
Allende, "The House of the Spirits"; (2) first person narratives that
deconstruct themselves as the narrator proves unreliable, as in
Ishiguro, "The Remains of the Day" or "An Artist of the Floating
World". Also included in this genre would be (1) narrations where the
role between narrator and character is undermined as in Donoso's "A
House in the Country", where one of the characters comes into the office
of the author to complain about his treatment in the story; (2)
unconventional forms of narrative as in O'Brien's "In the Lake of the
Woods". The role of the narrator is a key element to this type of
literature. And that role is often questioned by the text itself.


In so undermining narrative speech, post-modern writing more closely
mimics real speech, where narrators, whether self-aware or not, often
are betrayed by the words they choose, or otherwise prove unreliable.
Politicians are favorite targets for unreliable speech. But "Rashomon"
by Akutagawa demonstrates what all lawyers know, that narrative truth is
always limited by perspective and self-image.


Modernism was an era embodying a perspective that, in my opinion,
includes stream of consciousness narrative (Joyce) and unresolved
endings (Fowles) reflecting limited perspective on the world.


Traditional narratives have always existed while these eras came along.
Probably, in literature, no era really goes once it comes. It remains
another known device for narrative technique.


Francis A. Miniter


Steven Rowe wrote:

 >In article <400acc22.TakeThisOut@bothawui.gtw.net>, "Jon Meyers" <cathnjonyour.TakeThisOut@waygtw.net>
 >writes:
 >
 >
 >
  >>How is a collection of stories published in 1991 not "modern fiction"? Or
  >>the horror, fantasy, and western books, for that matter? They're all
  >>fiction, and the Modern period began about the turn of the previous century
  >>(very roughly speaking--there are many definitions of the period). You seem
  >>to be imputing a very narrow, and perhaps pejorative, meaning to "modern"
  >>that not everyone shares. Perhaps you are thinking of "current" or
  >>"contemporary"? Or "post-modern," in the sense of "not a proper story at
  >>all, and no fun to read"? But what you must mean by "fiction," if short
  >>stories don't count, I'm at a loss to explain.
  >>
  >>
 >
 >well you are right, i hadnt had my caffene quota for the day, and was thinking
 >Modern Novels instead of Modern Fiction -
 >
 > Modern Novels is (i thought) quite distict from current or contemporary novels
 >or fiction... and usually not considered to be one of the various types of
 >genre fiction --
 >
 >And no, I have nothing against Modern Novels, Modern Fiction --
 > although i do find myself reading mostly genre short stories ---
 >and non-fiction....
 >
 >Is there really Post-Modern Fiction now?
 > and can Faulkner, Norris, Steinbeck et al still be Modern?
 >
 >
 >steven rowe (maybe it will be time to re-read McTeague)
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 >
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 >
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"Steven Rowe" wrote...
 > "Jon Meyers" writes:
 >
  > >How is a collection of stories published in 1991 not "modern fiction"?
Or
  > >the horror, fantasy, and western books, for that matter?...
 >
 > well you are right, i hadnt had my caffene quota for the day, and was
thinking
 > Modern Novels instead of Modern Fiction -

Ah, the caffeine defense--accepted, without question, by me and by book
people everywhere. I've needed it myself a time or two. And, of course, I
did try to get your goat a bit by conflating "modern period" with "modern
technique," as Francis's post hints.

For your next purchase of modern fiction, try something from Coffee House
Press?


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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"Francis A. Miniter" wrote...
 > [snip] Traditional narratives have always existed while these eras came
along.
 > Probably, in literature, no era really goes once it comes. It remains
 > another known device for narrative technique.

David Carkeet's novel _I Been There Before_, about Mark Twain returning to
the land of the living for a few months in the mid-1980s, contains a very
funny chapter (in the form of a letter to William Dean Howells) concerning
Twain's discovery of modern narrative technique, particularly the interior
monologue. The Twain character first quotes several passages from his old
work, wherein characters reveal their thoughts in asides or by speaking to
themselves, and of which the modern Twain now writes, "What an embarrassing
load of groaning, creaking machinery." He then offers Howells an example of
this new style of writing that allows a character's interior state to be
revealed without all the muttering and talking to oneself. "Isn't it
fetching?" asks Twain.


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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One should concentrate on reading Hardy Boys stories.
If not Hardy Boys, then Tom Swift, Ted Scott, Don Sturdy or Rover Boys
stories are acceptable.

--
Bob Finnan
The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon
New & Out Of Print Books, Books-On-Tape, Videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs For Sale
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/hbsale.htm
To reply: replace nospam with fwdixon
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