Well well well gass poster. I finally found a copy of your fucking book...

well well well gass poster. I finally found a copy of your fucking book. I'll be starting it after I finish the recognitions. got 200 pages to go. you better not let me down. anyone else wanna start this bad boy with me kek.

enjoy the carver, trips.

I'll join you, OP, as soon as you burn that Vineland

why the hate for Vineland. it's a first edition :D. I probably won't read it for a while. still have to read against the day and inherent vice first.

>it's a first edition

Really? I have the same copy I got for 10 cents at a used bookstore

as long as it's a hardcover good find

Amazon says you can get it for $0.01 + $3.99 S&H

Also, The Tunnel isn't that great. I would recommend reading it as fast as you can because it's an awful book.

What didn't you like about The Tunnel?

sick everyone should get one

Why, are you Gassposter?

Nope, I just really liked The Tunnel and was curious why you didn't, that's all.

>Also, The Tunnel isn't that great.

Can't be worse than Omensetter's Luck. Wait, it's longer. It can be.

It was 600+ pages of flowery descriptions of beige walls. There was nothing to be learned from it and it wasn't entertaining in the slightest.

It sounds like you never actually read the novel at all to be honest.

sure

I mean you basically ignored half the book from the sounds of it but whatever, you're entitled to your own opinion. At least you're not that other idiot motherfucker that thinks Omensetter's Luck was bad.

is that a first edition unconsoled?

this

I'm sorry you didn't like it, user. Maybe you'd like In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, which, though not my favorite by him, is probably his best.

>At least you're not that other idiot motherfucker that thinks Omensetter's Luck was bad.

PL is entirely boring and pointless. Some might be pleased enough to have endured it to believe otherwise.

What excellent critiques

I'm not reading any Gass after Cartesian Sonata. That was by far the worst book I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

I pushed through 450 pages of this and got to a scene today where Willy describes in detail how he shits and wipes his ass for two pages. While I could, with some effort and time, finish the rest of the book in a few days, reading this scene made me reconsider my entire life, basically, and why I am so obsessed with reading.

Or are you the worst reader it's ever been read by? In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the representation of the mind and body, and how Gass chose to illustrate their conflict.

>What excellent critiques

Well, it's an honest one. It's the interminable interior life of an uninteresting character, the superficial exterior life of an interesting one, in a narrative so abstruse that many who read it think they've done something impressive, so the book MUST be great.

I smiled when I saw it next to every Gaddis book (expect JR, the only one I was fucking looking for) at the union square Barnes&Noble, but I ended up buying an NYRB edition of In the Heart of the Heart of the Country instead so no. I'm also reading The Recognitions now, funnily enough, though I'm on the last 56 pages.

Why is Gass so polarizing? Is it just because of gassposter's spamming of him, or is his writing really that divisive?

I could understand it being thought of as divisive, since it's obviously very rhythmical and technically accomplished, but also excessively detail-obsessed and concerned with totally mundane, bullshit, boring things.

He's a writer that few people will find to their tastes (he is demanding and meandering, have no doubt about it), but if you like him, like I do, he is without peer.
t. the dude that uploaded The Tunnel but, surprisingly, is not Gassposter

I don't get the last part of your comment in black

if I like mason and Dixon will I like the tunnel.

Probably not. Manson & Nixon is mostly just a bunch of wacky characters hanging out for several hundred pages with the occasional metaphysical reverie and feels. The Tunnel is supposed to be this really edgy plodding obsessive thing that comes from a place of pure vitriol for the world and everything in it.

Thank you for that, user. I've shared it with a few people here who may not have had the chance to read it otherwise.
Well, it depends what you liked about Mason & Dixon, which, thematically, I have compared The Tunnel to several times. If, for example, you liked one of its main themes--the subjective nature of history--than you may like The Tunnel, since it is also about history (though more about its inside and its underbelly than its subjectivity); but that is pretty much the full extent of their similarities. I really wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a fun, entertaining, happy read,

Not him, but if I find misanthropy to be fun do you think I'd enjoy it? Is it anything like My Twisted World? That was a barrel of laughs imo.

Yes, then. I don't think any author has, or has had, as much spit as Gass.

Cool. I'll pick up a copy sometime after I read the In The Heart of The Heart of The County I have lying around somewhere.

...

Gassposter is a Veeky Forums regular who posts about The Tunnel all the time. The guy you're responding to is apparently the man scanned all the pages of The Tunnel because no PDF or ePub version of it previously existed (thanks for that btw, even though I didn't end up liking the book).

My first Gassterpiece was the introduction to The Recognitions, which I only read after finishing the book.

Other than him falling for the usual intro disease of doing things like giving away the ending (which I'd already read by that point) and even quoting the last line from JR, it was a good introduction for something I'd just read.

I nust finished the whole collection of ItHotHotC and mostly enjoyed it, especially pedersen kid and mrs mean and parts of the title story and parts of icicles. However I feel that it could be boring and self serving at times, and maybe too smart for me even though it hurts to say it. Are the novels even better? Does he perfect the experimentation shown in the collection?

I live really close to gass. I didn't know it until after I'd read the Tunnel and found out he taught at the school down the street. then I used to ghost into his philosophy lectures pretending to be a student. good times.

>Are the novels even better?
It depends what you like, honestly, though, in my opinion, everything he wrote is great, including his nonfiction. I suggest you move on to Omensetter's Luck and, after that, his later novels, which are noticeably different stylistically.

That would be really cool if it was true.

I wasn't asking user. I already have In The Heart of The Heart of The Country and I was always going to pick up Omensetter's Luck and The Tunnel at some point.

Oh, well, I guess I misinterpreted.

How were the classes?