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  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    Originally posted by genevieveryoko View Post
    ok, is this The Rise and Fall of... a real book? I'd like to read it, but googling it leads me nowhere...
    i want whatever you are smoking
    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

    Comment

    • Faust
      kitsch killer
      • Sep 2006
      • 37852

      Originally posted by LupinTheFourth View Post
      I think there's a cultural difference.

      The focus of things is a bit different here and the way of life differ from eg. French equivalents.
      Therefore, no room for the importance of a personal experience. <-For a self-centered person(like me) existentialism is a fine subject! among other things.

      You wanna name a few less-known authors? I'm interrested to know more.
      I am Russian but I don't feel that Dostoyevsky is horrible.

      Besides, existentialism (at least as I understand it) IS a fine subject. Most noble one, in fact. Anyway, I can't say I like Sartre all that much. But Camus is a different animal. How do you French say, "There is a man," or something like that?
      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

      Comment

      • theetruscan
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2008
        • 2270

        Papers, papers, papers, and more papers. ugh.
        Hobo: We all dress up. We all put on our armour before we walk out the door, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re trying to be someone else.

        Comment

        • Fuuma
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2006
          • 4050

          Originally posted by galia View Post
          Hells Angels is really fun to read, lots of funny anecdotes

          My favourite hunter is still Fear & Loathing on the campaign trail and the series of articles about his own election campaign. the muhammad ali one was cool too. and the derby one as well

          ok I like almost everything the guy wrote
          The derby one is so killer, I can't stand Wolfe when he does weird journalism (or anything else) but I like Hunter. + he wore a Pepsi Rolex without looking stupid.

          Can't say I agree about Camus, the way he expresses himself, of course being one and the same with his philosophy, is enjoyable even when you don't wanna learn about his thinking.

          I'm going to be boring and say I like Gide, Malraux and Céline. But I think I like Léo Malet and and Jean-Patrick Manchette more and they wrote polars.

          Note: Céline was an horrible anti-semite but he said this: "Je déteste la guerre, parce que guerre ça se passe toujours à la campagne et que la campagne ça m'enmerde"
          and that's one of the greatest things I've ever read.
          Last edited by Fuuma; 10-29-2009, 01:05 AM.
          Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
          http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

          Comment

          • Mail-Moth
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2009
            • 1448

            Originally posted by Faust View Post
            Besides, existentialism (at least as I understand it) IS a fine subject. Most noble one, in fact. Anyway, I can't say I like Sartre all that much. But Camus is a different animal. How do you French say, "There is a man," or something like that?
            Tssss... Reading La Nausée as an existentialist novel is not a good thing. It is never a good thing, by the way, to read a book as representative of this and that, unless, of course, you're preparing some degree in litterature. And books, for the most part, were not written for that kind of purpose.

            As far as I know, La Nausée tells the same story as Camus L'Etranger, as Georges Perec's Un Homme qui dort, or even Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. All those books are about seeing the world becoming distant, colder and meaningless. This is not about existentialism or what else : this is about acedia. The theme is at least as ancient as the seven sins.

            Besides, I agree with you, Faust : I feel something in Camus that I don't feel at all in Sartre. I feel a human being writing. That makes a great difference ; at least, that must be the reason why Sartre is boring me to death. Existentialism or not, to me Sartre is a poor writer.

            But I was much younger the last time I opened one of his books. Maybe I'd have a lesse severe opinion today.

            Names of some good french writers of the 50's ? Julien Gracq, Jean Grenier, Maurice Blanchot, Henri Michaux, Samuel Beckett (I don't want to hear you, he was writing in french !)... This is all that comes in my mind for the moment.
            I used to love Gracq, and I certainly still like it, but I curiously don't feel the need to reread it for the moment.
            Jean Grenier had Camus as a pupil ; his Les Iles is amongst my favourite books.
            Blanchot... Well, he is certainly important. Hard reading though.

            Don't have to say a word about the last two, I think. Just want to name two more : Noël Devaulx, one of the few french fantastic writers, desperately clinging to the nineteenth century, telling weird tales the way a provincial antiquarian would - and the almost unknown Paul Gadenne, just for a short story, Baleine : litterature for real in a few pages.
            Last edited by Mail-Moth; 10-29-2009, 04:00 AM.
            I can see a hat, I can see a cat,
            I can see a man with a baseball bat.

            Comment

            • galia
              Senior Member
              • Jun 2009
              • 1719

              I murdered Faust !

              Basically Mail-Moth gave most of the authors I was thinking of. I would like to add Roger Nimier, if only for Les Epées. I know he's very controversial, but his writing is superb, and I love the fundamental ambiguity of the character. Plus I've always had a soft spot for true dandies.

              Even in the "existentialist" bunch, I have always found Vian more fun than the other usual offenders. The worst is obviously Simone, who was a first class bore

              Comment

              • Faust
                kitsch killer
                • Sep 2006
                • 37852

                Originally posted by Mail-Moth View Post
                Tssss... Reading La Nausée as an existentialist novel is not a good thing. It is never a good thing, by the way, to read a book as representative of this and that, unless, of course, you're preparing some degree in litterature. And books, for the most part, were not written for that kind of purpose.

                As far as I know, La Nausée tells the same story as Camus L'Etranger, as Georges Perec's Un Homme qui dort, or even Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. All those books are about seeing the world becoming distant, colder and meaningless. This is not about existentialism or what else : this is about acedia. The theme is at least as ancient as the seven sins.

                Besides, I agree with you, Faust : I feel something in Camus that I don't feel at all in Sartre. I feel a human being writing. That makes a great difference ; at least, that must be the reason why Sartre is boring me to death. Existentialism or not, to me Sartre is a poor writer.
                Yes, nailed it exactly!!!

                Agree with the first paragraph as well - I suppose that's why Camus has always resisted the existentialist label.
                Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                Comment

                • LupinTheFourth
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2009
                  • 119

                  Then again...

                  If you're reading books only for the experience, does it matter which -ism it's representing? (and does it matter in anything?)
                  If it's for research-purposes, then it's a different story. If it's just for yourself and for your individual curiosity/purposes, also fine.
                  -> I don't read Sartre just because of his -ism, but I find it interresting.
                  I'd say I'm trying to build up a picture about the authors' minds that I'm reading.

                  I do like Sartre and I don't think he's boring, it's just his way.
                  It's heavy, but nothing wrong with that.
                  And yeah, I do have to read more books by his peers, not solely to compare but more for the experience.

                  Oh! Thank you for the names! Copypasted them to my memo, waiting for the next trip to the library.
                  modern man

                  Comment

                  • Mail-Moth
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2009
                    • 1448

                    I don't find Sartre especially heavy. I find him lifeless. This is different. There's no intensity, no jubilation, no anguish - no feeling of necessity in what he's writing. It's just an intellectual trying to demonstrate something through a novel.

                    There's a deep sensuality in Camus, somehing solar, and a real tenderness for mankind. There's a playful jubilation in Borges, a deep pain behind Kafka's farcesque - even Beckett seems to have some affective attachment for the moral ruins he's bringing to life. I don't feel anything tike that in Sartre. This is very subjective, I know.
                    I can see a hat, I can see a cat,
                    I can see a man with a baseball bat.

                    Comment

                    • genevieveryoko
                      Senior Member
                      • Sep 2009
                      • 868

                      Acedia... thanks Mail-Moth.

                      I have got to read more Cendrars...I have been telling myself this all along...the trip through the Amazon in the middle of Moravagine was priceless.
                      http://genevievelarson.tumblr.com/

                      Comment

                      • Faust
                        kitsch killer
                        • Sep 2006
                        • 37852

                        Originally posted by ledger
                        right I used to read books all the time but my reading hours seem to have dropped off,i think it might have something to do with the fact that i have no good reading materials.
                        Was just wodnering if anybody could recommend me any books to get on with.
                        Im into more factual based stuff as i like learning about new things (not really into full blown fiction as such, more of a non-fiction, actual events type of person.)
                        Like really deep things that make you think about shit,why stuffe exists,minimalism realism and the like.

                        Also if someone could hit me up with a link to the SZ Amazon Store would be good as, for some unknown reason, i cannot seem to find the banner or link anywhere.

                        Much appreciated
                        Someone sig this, pleeeeeaasse!

                        I think you should quit your job and read instead! Hobo, what do you think?

                        Link to SZ store here.
                        Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                        StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                        Comment

                        • Fade to Black
                          Senior Member
                          • Sep 2008
                          • 5340

                          just about done with Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ... a nice gossipy tome to breeze through.

                          then on to A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again which I'd been looking for for a while, finally tracked it down at the local library.
                          www.matthewhk.net

                          let me show you a few thangs

                          Comment

                          • Fuuma
                            Senior Member
                            • Sep 2006
                            • 4050

                            "Let's talk about love: a journey to the end of taste" from the 331/3 book series about music and, in this case, taste and aesthetics. It's like a pop cultural version of theories of taste, camp and aesthetics. A quick and fun read.
                            Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
                            http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

                            Comment

                            • galia
                              Senior Member
                              • Jun 2009
                              • 1719

                              I'm reading some short stories by Ingeborg Bachmann. Everything feels so suspended in her writing. I really wish I read german well enough to read the original text. Still, it really shoes how great a poet she is...

                              Comment

                              • Fuuma
                                Senior Member
                                • Sep 2006
                                • 4050

                                Anyone has the Toshio Shibata landscape books (1-2)?
                                Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
                                http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

                                Comment

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