What are you reading?

[Real Real]

Not actually reading anything by him at the moment, but didn't want to jack the depressing-enough financial worries being aired in the "Important" thread.

Just wanted to say RIP for David Foster-Wallace. I was deeply moved by his writing, the whole tangled mess of it, and I'm sad to see him go. Really, truly bummed.

I'd like to think he's discussing diagonalization with G.F.P. Cantor out there somewhere...

What a crappy week this is starting off as.

Agreed.

This is worth a read - a transcript of a commencement speech DFW gave at Kenyon in 2005.

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

[mamaboy]

poetry of michel houllebeque ...of course in french...
...sophie calle "true stories"----so touching...

[jompa]

Anyone here who would care to give me an idea of good poetry I should read(and analyse)?

Would really appreciate it!

/John

[Faust]

Anyone here who would care to give me an idea of good poetry I should read(and analyse)?

Would really appreciate it!

/John

That's a very broad question. What are your interests? What do you like to read? Your favorite authors? What period are you interested in? You can always tart with The Wasteland, I suppose.

[Fuuma]

Anyone here who would care to give me an idea of good poetry I should read(and analyse)?

Would really appreciate it!

/John

Saint-John Perse. Not that I know if it would fit your taste or anything.

[LEWisMe]

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

[jompa]

To be honest with you I don't know of many poets at all, and i definitely don't have a favourite. I am open to everything :)

I do think that I would prefer modern poetry to old stuff like, for instance, robert burns which I read(or tried to to be more accurate) and did not quite "get". Musicwise however I have a lot of interest in, to me good lyrics. Nick Cave would be my favourite there, also i find the lyrics of modest mouse and the national interesting.

If I think about it think I would like a dark but yet romantic style, perhaps synical even.

Maybe that could help answer? if not, thanks anyway :)

and thanks fuuma for the tip!

and thanks Lewisme also, but I forgot to mention that, since this is for school, it will have to be a native english author. but perhaps i will read this anyway since I tend to like japanese writing.

[AKA*NYC]

Anyone here who would care to give me an idea of good poetry I should read(and analyse)?

Would really appreciate it!

/John

Friedrich Holderlin, Harry Crosby, Charles Bukowski

[Faust]

To be honest with you I don't know of many poets at all, and i definitely don't have a favourite. I am open to everything :)

I do think that I would prefer modern poetry to old stuff like, for instance, robert burns which I read(or tried to to be more accurate) and did not quite "get". Musicwise however I have a lot of interest in, to me good lyrics. Nick Cave would be my favourite there, also i find the lyrics of modest mouse and the national interesting.

If I think about it think I would like a dark but yet romantic style, perhaps synical even.

Maybe that could help answer? if not, thanks anyway :)

and thanks fuuma for the tip!

and thanks Lewisme also, but I forgot to mention that, since this is for school, it will have to be a native english author. but perhaps i will read this anyway since I tend to like japanese writing.

Flowers of Evil

Oh, wait, a native English author? Hmmm... T.S.Elliot still stands (for dark/romantic try The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock). How abut Auden? To be honest I don't know that much about English poetry. I know the romantics, but maybe they are not as dark as you need them to be? Byron, Shelley, Blake.

[jompa]

maybe a native english author is not necessary, but it will have to have been originally published in english anyway.
I'll check out the ones mentioned here and hopefully i will find something i like, thanks for the help!

[AKA*NYC]

^ Of course! How did I ever forget Baudelaire? And add a dash of Rimbaud to that mix while you're at it.

[Faust]

^ Of course! How did I ever forget Baudelaire? And add a dash of Rimbaud to that mix while you're at it.

Rimbaud is a dangerous manchild. Better keep him under wraps.

[Magician]

Rainer Maria Rilke is pretty timeless and manages to survive translation in to english.

Plus I feel it's a good fit for the SZ aesthetic.

[Real Real]

How about Browning? "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"? It even has "dark" in the name.

http://www.bartleby.com/246/654.html

Anyways, that's a classic and I think it's pretty good.

If you want someone modern, funny, English, and dark (but not in the SZ-playing-a-pipe-organ way), how about Philip Larkin. He's good (most of his poems are more serious than this one):

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

I like Wallace Stevens and AR Ammons too.

[Faust]

Thomas Mann - Doctor Faustus