What are you reading?

[galia]

it's amazing

[BECOMING-INTENSE]

(1928)

[Majax]

Reading the Stranger right now but does anyone have recommendations for someone who likes to read Henry Miller?

Finished almost all of his books....was thinking of going for some Anais Nin but have not read anything by her and don't know where to start.

Maybe you should say a bit more about what you like in Miller's books. I'm not sure Anaïs is a good bet, I mean that they were close does not mean you'll find anything comparable to Miller in her books.

[sixledge]

Maybe you should say a bit more about what you like in Miller's books. I'm not sure Anaïs is a good bet, I mean that they were close does not mean you'll find anything comparable to Miller in her books.

I like his mixed writing style and how raw he comes off.

I just finished Siddhartha last night.

Now looking again for something new.

[Majax]

I like his mixed writing style and how raw he comes off.

I just finished Siddhartha last night.

Now looking again for something new.

If I try to connect "raw" and style I would think about (nothing original) John Fante (especially The road to LA), Bukowski and (what you may like more) the novels of Jack Kerouac (like Vanity of Duluoz).


I'm realizing there is some kind of evident connection between Miller and Kerouac (I won't try to name it).



Now you named Hesse and as for Miller, I guess you can find some kind of "existential reflexion" in his books, that are not present at this point in other authors.


If you look for something "different" in style, I can tell you what was different for me :


Barthelme (short stories) ; Thomas Bernhard (Wittgenstein Nephew being a good one) ; Osamu Dazai (The Setting Sun : you may like it much considering what you mentionned, well it's just a bet ; No Longer Human) ; Beckett (the novels : any of them, some quite different in style from others) (maybe you'd like much Bernhard, a more risky bet though).

I was also striked by the litterary style of a thinker in a precise book (not difficult to read), Dialogue, Gilles Deleuze (there is something "raw" in a way), maybe you'd like it.


By the way, if someone can get an idea of why I like to read and advice me a good author I may not know, maybe because very contemporary etc. ; something like "different" in the writing style (or the atmosphere, etc.). I don't know who would be the good (to me, if there are some) contemporary Germans, for example (I know Hanke, also Frisch for the German-speakers).

(also in poetry in know quite nothing contemporary ; what I know and like is Bukowski, Burroughs, Cummings)

Hope it may help to find something that works for you !

[Faust]

I like his mixed writing style and how raw he comes off.

I just finished Siddhartha last night.

Now looking again for something new.

Heh, I can't think of two more disparate writers than Miller and Hesse.

[BeauIXI]

Barelling through this one...



Wish I could read German. Masse Und Mact sounds so much cooler.

[sixledge]

If I try to connect "raw" and style I would think about (nothing original) John Fante (especially The road to LA), Bukowski and (what you may like more) the novels of Jack Kerouac (like Vanity of Duluoz).


I'm realizing there is some kind of evident connection between Miller and Kerouac (I won't try to name it).



Now you named Hesse and as for Miller, I guess you can find some kind of "existential reflexion" in his books, that are not present at this point in other authors.


If you look for something "different" in style, I can tell you what was different for me :


Barthelme (short stories) ; Thomas Bernhard (Wittgenstein Nephew being a good one) ; Osamu Dazai (The Setting Sun : you may like it much considering what you mentionned, well it's just a bet ; No Longer Human) ; Beckett (the novels : any of them, some quite different in style from others) (maybe you'd like much Bernhard, a more risky bet though).

I was also striked by the litterary style of a thinker in a precise book (not difficult to read), Dialogue, Gilles Deleuze (there is something "raw" in a way), maybe you'd like it.


By the way, if someone can get an idea of why I like to read and advice me a good author I may not know, maybe because very contemporary etc. ; something like "different" in the writing style (or the atmosphere, etc.). I don't know who would be the good (to me, if there are some) contemporary Germans, for example (I know Hanke, also Frisch for the German-speakers).

(also in poetry in know quite nothing contemporary ; what I know and like is Bukowski, Burroughs, Cummings)

Hope it may help to find something that works for you !

Great reply, thanks for the info. I'm going to do some poking around tonight based on what you provided.

I actually have been intrigued by Kerouac as well...

[sixledge]

Heh, I can't think of two more disparate writers than Miller and Hesse.

Yeah...for sure, which is what has me digging for something more Miller esque now that I am finished.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't combine these two posts....how do you quote more than one person in a single reply?

[Faust]

Barelling through this one...


Wish I could read German. Masse Und Mact sounds so much cooler.

Barreling? I tried to drag my brain through it kicking and screaming and gave up.

[Macro]

Majax, read Hubert Selby Jr.

[MJRH]

Heh, I can't think of two more disparate writers than Miller and Hesse.

heh, that made me chuckle because Hesse was the first recommendation i thought of when i read sixledge's request for Milleresque fiction. both writers are concerned with overcoming ego, shattering inner obstacles, reeling through life looking for direction before realising life has no direction, the nature of identity, etc. in particular, the ending of Steppenwolf, with the shattering of the mirrors, recounts numerous passages in Miller. but as for respective temperaments... no, you really couldn't get any further apart!

By the way, if someone can get an idea of why I like to read and advice me a good author I may not know, maybe because very contemporary etc. ; something like "different" in the writing style (or the atmosphere, etc.). I don't know who would be the good (to me, if there are some) contemporary Germans, for example (I know Hanke, also Frisch for the German-speakers).

i don't know whether you're already familiar with it, but Barthelme's reading recommendations, about a hundred of 'em, are available here. lots of zany goodness in there, which i myself dip into occasionally.

PS, both Majax and sixledge- both Miller and Hesse were heavily influenced by the East. read the Tao Te Ching if ya ain't already.

[sixledge]

heh, that made me chuckle because Hesse was the first recommendation i thought of when i read sixledge's request for Milleresque fiction. both writers are concerned with overcoming ego, shattering inner obstacles, reeling through life looking for direction before realising life has no direction, the nature of identity, etc. in particular, the ending of Steppenwolf, with the shattering of the mirrors, recounts numerous passages in Miller. but as for respective temperaments... no, you really couldn't get any further apart!



i don't know whether you're already familiar with it, but Barthelme's reading recommendations, about a hundred of 'em, are available here. lots of zany goodness in there, which i myself dip into occasionally.

PS, both Majax and sixledge- both Miller and Hesse were heavily influenced by the East. read the Tao Te Ching if ya ain't already.

Ha...just picked up Tao Te Ching last night, hopefully dive into it later today.

It is interesting, the contrasting difference between Miller and Hesse. They are very different but there is something in both of them that I relate to in a similar way.

[BeauIXI]

Barreling? I tried to drag my brain through it kicking and screaming and gave up.

Heh, well I'm big on Deleuze and Guattari, and Canetti wasn't quite as troubling as reading chapters like The Geology of Morals, the thesis of which is that "God is a lobster."

[Faust]

heh, that made me chuckle because Hesse was the first recommendation i thought of when i read sixledge's request for Milleresque fiction. both writers are concerned with overcoming ego, shattering inner obstacles, reeling through life looking for direction before realising life has no direction, the nature of identity, etc. in particular, the ending of Steppenwolf, with the shattering of the mirrors, recounts numerous passages in Miller. but as for respective temperaments... no, you really couldn't get any further apart!

PS, both Majax and sixledge- both Miller and Hesse were heavily influenced by the East. read the Tao Te Ching if ya ain't already.

I can only go by The Tropic of Cancer and it was all nihilism and muck and darkness, whereas Hesse is all about enlightenment.