Best prose in spanish

Severo Sarduy anyone?

Galdós desu

Argentine critics consider him shit tier IIRC

OP here, I'll put them in spanish:

Casa tomada
Carta a una señorita en Paris
El perseguidor
Continuidad de los parques
Fin de etapa

And the thing in "Un tal lucas" about the golden fishes. I still have a lot to read about his short stories tough

OP. Borges is a great writer and ficciones is probably the best short stories book I have ever read, but he doesn't outstand for his prose.
I didn't read this one.
What's good prose for them?

La isla a Mediodia, La autopista del sur and Final del Juego are my favorites, i recommend you to read them if you haven't.
And i agree with OP, Cortázar was truly a genius of story telling.

who gives a shit about critics?

>La autopista del sur
>Carta a una señorita en Paris
>El perseguidor
>Continuidad de los parques

All very good, did not care much for Casa Tomada tho. I'm partial to Un Lugar Llamado Kindberg myself. Will read your recs tho

>he doesn't outstand for his prose
>he prefers pyrotechnics rather than precision

Fucking pleb. Borges is one of the best prose stylists of the Spanish language along with Alfonso Reyes. You probably haven't read much or have yet to develop a sense of what good prose actually is.

Lezama Lima desu
Also this, Borges prose is so clean

Cortazar is a genius of narrative, but his prose can get a little too flowerly for me sometimes

>Alfonso Reyes
Just read his prologue to Menéndez Pidal's Cantar and he didn't seem any good. Furthermore, his prose version of el Cantar is catastrophic.

Three words: Vision de Anáhuac.

How is Juan Rulfo in the original compared to the others mentioned here?

Honestly, it's clear that Borges was a very well read man, but his prose does fuck all for me, it's a mere vehicle to deliver great ideas. His strenght is in content and not in style

>mariachi pynchon

Have you been reading translations? His prose is great
"His" ideas arent the main point, you can find all that stuff in really old literature. The thing is that he put them all together and delivered them in such an clear, accute and elegant style. Get real

He has a really unique/weird style

pff, ¡por favor!

>Cortázar meme

Disgusting desu.

Onetti is 10/10

Rulfo's prose is one of the most unique in spanish due to being extremely regional and prosaic. It's soemthing that would influence all latin american writers. Borges tried to do something similar before in "El hombre de la esquina rosada", but he found it to be to artificial so he return to a more essay focused prose (which is amazing) to express clarity in really complex subjects as time and the nature of dreams. Borges idiolized Rulfo for being able to combine this prosaic regional language with the stylistic nature of literature.

I agree with this. I found tons of Umbral books in Mexico City some years ago and I was very happy, then some more at El rastro in Madrid, I thought i was going to read them all very quickly but I got tired of his style after five.

Delibes is amazing, such a pleasure to read him. I also like Rulfo, too bad we don't have much of him.

No one has mentioned a woman but Silvana Ocampo is pretty good, better than her husband.

Silvina*

No one gives a shit what the prose does for you. Try to give more arguments if you want to be taken seriously. You probably read him in translation anyway.

No, I'm Spanish
I don't agree with you, and obviously he draws from a lot of sources like everybody but he has plenty of original ideas, like Pierre Menard which is does in fiction what Barthes and Derrida would do in philosophy decades after.

I won't get into an argument about his prose because what I don't like about it is precisely what you seem to enjoy the most. Different strokes for different folk I guess. In any case I consider him a genius and very much like his work

Non Spanish speakers should leave this thread.

Wew lad, is everything alright at home?

OP.
Okey I'll do it. Cronopios y famas has some good pieces too, but now I only remember the instructions.

Well, what's your interpretation? If you think that story is about Peronism maybe it's normal to think it's a meh story. I think the interpretation that relates "casa tomada" with Adam and Eve it's pretty appealing. I construed that it's about an annoying roommate, and that you can't visit those parts of the house in fear of bumping into him. If you remember the story, at the end he throws the keys of the house in (maybe) some sewer. I think that symbolizes "Man, I hope nobody have the misfortune of living with you" or something like that. Again, despite all of this, I can't defend the story by itself.

Look , I can agree with , I have to reckon that his prose is clean and that's appreciable, but I have read Ficciones and Aleph and I can't point out one page that contains beautiful prose. My point is not >he prefers pyrotechnics rather than precision, it's , maybe you think it's the same, but I don't agree with the connotations of your word.

For the other people in general, I'm writting down the reccomendations. Has anyone read Mariano José Larra? He seems nice. Are you sure bolaño has good prose? Just asking.

Shit, I forgot Sábato, he seems nice too. And what about Suevedo? I haven't read him

I have only real "El Tunel" and while not being greatly touched by the plot and its significance (maybe I should have read it when I was younger) I admire the prose and style. What do you anons recommend?

Only read El Túnel aswell but the closing passage has stuck with me for a long time.
Bolaño has a very unique style, but I would not call it beautiful, at least in the traditional sense

Not him, but while dissagreeing I can "get on board" with this. I think that the "essayistic" nature of Borges's prose can be underwhelming or rathe unimpressive to some readers precisely because spanish prose tends to be flowery. But I can't agree with the other user saying that someone prefers "pyrothecnics to precission" precisely because of most good writers in spanish handle precission with style in an amazing matter.

Indeed, the closing passage is a mastery of prose. To be honest I was really desperate to finish it because I've read in one sitting but that closing passage made everything worth it.

You need to know some old mexican slangs to fully appreciate him. One of the most unique writers in spanish, would describe as a mix between Vargas Llosa prose and Vonnegut's humor.

I was implying Cortazar is mariachi pynchon. But to answer about Bolaño, there are some passages on 2666 where he really archives great prose. He always start by being very casual and then subtly he starts creating prose that has a really great balance between poetic prose and very prosaic prose, in a very unique, Bolaño-ish style. I didn't find this in TSD.

Bolaño's prose is simple and cautivating, I've love it in Los Detectives Salvajes and in Putas Asesinas. Though I have yet to read 2666. Has anyone here read El Espíritu de la Ciencia Ficción? Is it good?

Veeky Forums Is too pleb to discuss Paradisso.

I agree, to be honest.... The problem is that most Veeky Forums's users are english speaking people, so the most popular latin american books get to them. This thread has been very nice, though.

If I recall it correctly he wrote the story in one sitting after dreaming about it.
I have no interpretation of my own but of course Cortazar was into Surrealism and Freudian interpretation of dreams. I think it perfectly captures the fear he felt during the dream, a deep subconscious fear that is still there when you wake up, but can't quite put into words once the dream starts fading.

Putas Asesinas has some amazing bits of prose. He has a gift for achieving the sublime through the prosaic and profanity as pointed out. I recommend Una Novelita Lumpen if you are into that. Been also wondering about El Espíritu de la Ciencia Ficción as I've read almost everything Bolaño wrote in prose.

Great thred btw lads, keep it up

Yeah really comfy thread
Sadly, everytime a good thread starts getting these kind of comments it starts to die

Just about one week ago I was going to buy Una novelita lumpen in a local used bookstore and someone buy it. I'll look for it though, I've also read his chapter on written short stories in Entre Parentesis and it has influenced me a lot.

Anyone read this kino?
Post obscure south american literature, lads

I haven't checked out his essays yet, but judging from his interviews his non fiction must be pretty interesting
>Yo soy de los que creen que el ser humano está condenado de antemano a la derrota, a la derrota sin apelaciones, pero que hay que salir y dar la pelea y darla, además, de la mejor forma posible, de cara y limpiamente, sin pedir cuartel (porque además no te lo darán), e intentar caer como un valiente, y que eso es nuestra victoria.

Since we're on Bolaño and Borges, what are some pieces that show his Borgesian influence? La literatura Nazi en América and Sensini could have been written by the blind man himself

what is this

OP. "Sobre héroes y tumbas" has an amazing start but it gets boring afterwards. There are some bits I find amazing tough. Maybe you can read "Lo mejor de ernesto sábato", it's a selfmade antology, but I haven't read it. Maybe this summer I'll give him a shot. I'm from spain bro, but for whatever reason we don't pay america latina the attention it deserves.

>Maybe this summer I'll give him a shot.
Be warned, 2666 is NOT light summer reading. I would recommend TSD as a starting point, even though a lot of people here don't really favour it.

2666 is really easy to read, is just long

OP. I've been told that many times, I'll try to read 4 or 5 books before 2666 (when I find the right order). If you don't mind I would like to open a parenthesis. Don't you think that some writtings from Cortazar are just utter nonsense and bullshit? Read "no no y no" for example and PLEASE explain me that, maybe I don't understand it.

It's beautiful tough

We still have Nicanor Parra while you have Luna Miguel. How does it feel, user?

It's an unfinished novel with no cohesive plot and 300 pages about detailed descriptions of the bodies of multiple raped and murdered women. Yes, it's not difficult like Joyce or Woolf but it sure as shit is not easy either.

I couldn't really read Spanish and still managed to recognise Borges' prose in collections. You may say it's not flashy, but it certainly stands out to me in that way.

Whats difficult about it? Bolaño is really straight forward

>But for whatever reason we don't pay america latina the attention it deserves.
You're kidding right? Anybody who is into literature knows that Latin America's literary output in the last century puts ours to shame

>Bolaño is really straight forward
Bolaño's prose is really easy and matter of fact, but 2666 is anything but straight forward.

>Ctrl+F
>Piglia
>No results

Jesus H. Fuck, guys, go read some Piglia. Top tier Spanish prose, a real writer's writer. Everyone and their mothers have been raving about his diaries for the last year, and I can tell you if they're anywhere near as well-written as Respiración Artificial they should be some of the best diaries ever written in the language.

Onetti's a very strong candidate too. That paragraph in Los Adioses where he describes an athlete's befuddlement at slowly losing his physical solidity is one of my all time favorites.

I read Larra during a course. He was a good stylist for sure. Unamuno is also great if you can handle the archaic density.

This Spain-Latin America dynamic in the literary community is really interesting and complicated. On the one hand, yes, Latino writers have been dwarfing Spanish writers for at least 60 years now, but this "golden age" of sorts has failed to translate into the creation of a strong and independent publishing industry in LatAm.

Our writers win the awards, sure, but those awards are still handed in Spain, by Spanish publishers. The industry's still there, along with a perceived sense of centrality in the community.

You guys are willing to read our writing, but seemingly only when it is presented to you by your own cultural institutions: you don't seek us out by reading our newspapers and blogs the way we do with yours. I'm in Mexico and everyone here who is into literature reads El País weekly; do you read El Universal or Milenio in Spain? I bet you don't.

So in sum: yeah, Spain acknowledges its literature is stagnant compared to LatAm's, but it mostly bases that knowledge upon the consideration of the big names: Cortázar, GGM, Borges, Bolaño, Fuentes. Beyond those big names, who were made big through the actions of Spanish cultural institutions, Spain remains mostly ignorant about the Latin American literary community as it is lived and experienced day ro day.

>thread is mostly spanish native anons speaking in english fluently like if it was their native language
¿Se han dado cuenta que cuando los angloparlantes intentan postear en español nunca lo manejan decentemente? ¿Por qué los gringos son tan plebeyos?

Touché. I'm going to look up Respiración Artificial.

Also, where does /ñ/ recommend that I start with Vargas Llosa? He's the only big name of his generation that I've yet to read. And I really mean to, but every time I see his articles in El País he seems like a massive knob

English is lingua franca so they don't need to learn another language to communicate. They also have a strong cultural industry and a pants-on-head retarded educational system

Borges himself has very often written about the way people overrate prose. He sure as hell isn't the man with the best prose in Spanish. It's a clear and brilliant way of writing though.

>and everyone here who is into literature reads El País weekly
esto es verdad?. desde España esto me suena a como si alguien dijera que todo el que está en la música lee la Rolling Stone. de verdad tiene esa prominencia El País?. (me parece triste mas que nada)

No es amable dar diversion de nosotros :(

Es sólo banter, mi amigo yanqui

Ahora toca de acá, gringo

Sí, incluso ha empezado a circular una edición impresa durante el último año y se vende en todos los barrios de moda.

Tampoco me malentiendas: no es que todos leamos El País religiosamente y atendamos lo que dice. Muchos de nosotros, de hecho, lo leemos para quejarnos de él y por extensión de las actitudes paternales y coloniales que todavía permanecen en el discurso cultural español. Pero el caso es que lo leemos.

I guess the best way to put it is that Borges' prose was not excellent because it didn't need to be. It's almost a testament to the power of his ideas and storytelling.

I struggle with Vargas myself. And yes, he is a massive knob. I tried to get into him with La Ciudad y los Perros and came away thinking the man was trying way too hard to be Faulkner, and mostly failing. That said, my gf claims to have enjoyed Pantaleón y las Visitadoras, so you could either try that or maybe some of his late work, which seems a bit more accesible.

pero de verdad, El País es algo excesivamente oficial. es como escuchar las notificaciones oficiales de cualquier organización - empresa - grupo político. algo excesivamente limpio. quiero decir, si algo tiene bonito Latinoamérica es ese pequeño caos del que deberíamos aprender aquí. literariamente España es un yermo. o al menos eso me parece.
algo de lo que dinosaurios como El País también tiene culpa. quiero decir, que también tiene un influjo "colonial", como tú lo llamas, incluso aquí. aunque si te refieres a la condescendencia centralista no es exactamente eso. es mas bien un elitismo sutil.

peguense un corchazo salames de palermo
salu2

OP Gracias por ese post, tenía intuiciones que se adecuaban a tu exposición pero al no tener información de primera mano lo habría explicado mucho peor que tú. Yo también buscaré esta recomendación. Por cierto, si has leído más diarios de escritores buenos recomiéndalos, a mi me gustaron los de Pizarnik ¿Os habéis visto la entrevista a Cortázar en "entrevista a fondo"? Ahí comenta (enfadado) que L.A. siempre ha leído literatura europea/americana pero que nunca ha leído literatura nacional, pero se alegraba de que gracias al boom latinoamericano eso fuese a cambiar. Al final resulta que hemos vuelto a las andadas...

By the way, I don't mind if people that read translations post their opinion :)

páguense una puta virgencitos

should i buy some of his works?
Last Spanish book i read was soldados de salamina and i understood most of it.
I tried reading cien años de soledad but it kind of bored me.

What the fuck is wrong with that guy's face?

Cortázar's best work is his short fiction so I'd say he is appropriate for learners.
Have some good suggestions on where to start with him, most of the stories are just a couple pages long and m of them are available for free online

Who the fuck browses Veeky Forums without knowing who "that guy" is?
Fucking Veeky Forumstrionics.

Oh, I'm sorry that there are some obscure foreign authors I've never had the chance to hear of, but thank you for your criticism.

>Cortázar
>obscure foreign author I've never had the chance to hear of
I'm not defending the other guy but come on man, you just had to read the thumbnail

Good bait.

Guys
GUYS
This was a nice thread, please think before you post

OP. We have Irene X, beat that LAtm, (read her please, and then tell here the experience)

Quien sabe, pero sobre todo parecen tener problemas con los géneros y las conjugaciones. O al menos, eso es lo que he notado tanto con los que escriben aquí como con los que he hablado (hay muchos estudiantes de español que vienen de U.S.A. en mi ciudad).

>2017
>leyendo El País
>sin ni siquiera ser español

Como comenta , leer El País es casi como hojear el BOE de vez en cuando. Es sibilina y falsamente equidistante, condescendiente en vez de independiente, establishment en estado puro. Yo sólo lo leo para comprobar la versión "más oficial" de las noticias más que las noticias en sí, es más la crónica de una narrativa que la de unos sucesos. La opinión es un tumor adicional, pero henchido de la superioridad moral que otorga el nombre de la publicación. En cuanto al aspecto cultural, es blando y un cortijo para los escritores mimados del grupo Prisa y, por lo tanto, una herramienta más para construir esa hegemonía cultural: en clases de literatura contemporánea sólo tienen cabida autores cobijados por estos sellos, pues son ellos los que editan los manuales que se estudian. En resumen, El País es a la vez causa y síntoma de la decadencia cultural española. Como hispanoparlantes, deberíais huir de este tipo de prensa como de la peste.

Sí voy a mojarme e intentar rebatir lo de la perspectiva "colonial" con la que desde España se percibe la literatura hispanoamericana. Bien es cierto que el principal vehículo para entrar en ese circuito cultural español que tienen los puntas de lanza de vuestras letras es pasar por el aro de perversos y homogeneizadores conglomerados empresariales como Prisa o Planeta, pero es un caso similar al de cualquier escritor extranjero en cualquier país: al ser de fuera, no ha estado bajo los focos en ese territorio, por lo que la tarjeta de visita más común para ellos es la de literatos o editores ya establecidos que les den a conocer en sus círculos y, de ahí, aspirar a ser traducidos para llegar al gran público; la excepción en este caso es que a vuestros autores no nos hace falta traducirlos y que pueden relacionarse más fácilmente con los integrantes. No es que percibamos la literatura hispanoamericana a partir del reconocimiento que le da nuestra particular "intelligentsia": es que eso es lo que pasa en general con toda la literatura extranjera que se consume en España, y no es muy diferente de lo que pasa en el resto del mundo. Además, la literatura hispanoamericana contemporánea ya tiene más prestigio que la española dentro de España, tanto en la academia como entre el público general. Espero que me creas cuando te digo que no os leemos con una mueca de desdén; no hay atisbo de paternalismo o condescendencia más allá de lo que pueda dar a imaginar este circuito cultural del que forma parte El País. En serio, no leáis El País, coño.

Pero, concerniendo a la literatura española actual Goytisolo ha hecho un trabajo memorable. Hasta ahora acá en México es muy leído y ha influenciado a varios escritores jóvenes.

I recommend you check out Leonardo Padura. The guy's a beast. Especially El Hombre Que Amaba a los Perros.

Why make a conflict between spain and Latinamerica when we have been colaborating and influencing each other in literature endeavours since the early XX century at least?

OP. A ver, todo lo que dices es cierto, pero creo que nuestros compañeros más bien hablaban de cómo ciertos mecanismos económico-culturales imposibilitan una recepción plena de la literatura latinoamericana.

El pais considera a Vargas LLosa como un Dios. Eso demuestra su lamentable nivel cultural psh.

pero es que esos mecanismos económico-culturales imposibilitan una recepción plena de la literatura española también en españa. es algo de un estancamiento mayor que una negación a conocer la literatura latinoamericana.
de verdad, como dice... no leais El País, coño. ni penséis que las grandes editoriales son los voceros de la actualidad en lo mas mínimo.

Vargas Llosa es un Dios para El País por el contrato que tiene con Alfaguara. El Nobel es, más que un argumento de autoridad, un mero reclamo comercial dirigido a los neófitos, un cintillo para las novelas nuevas que vaya publicando.

hablen bien mogolicos

OP. Vale vale, está bien. Me pregunto si lo que pasa aquí con las instituciones y la literatura allí se traduce igual o de forma distinta...

Has anyone read Quevedo?

This guy

¿Qué revistas/suplementos culturales lees, por curiosidad? De acuerdo con la crítica a El País, pero mirando otras publicaciones...

>El Mundo
Quiere y no puede ser El País

>ABC
A veces entrevistan a autores jovenes, pero no creo que publiquen más de una o dos cosas interesantes al mes.

>eldiario.es
La sección de cultura es inexistente

>El Confidencial
Alberto Olmos lo intenta, y a veces recomienda cosas interesantes, pero sus análisis son muy infantiles. No ha superado que Bolaño le ganara el Herralde.

>XL Semanal
Buenas columnas de Juan Manuel de Prada y David Gistau, pero poco más.

>Zenda
Basurilla

>El Cultural
Todas sus reseñas de novelas son super amables. Sólo se escriben obras maestras.

¿Qué hacer?

>Wat do?
Stay away from drugs.

>Has anyone read Quevedo?
Yo me leí los Sueños y Discursos hace tiempo y me eché unas risas. Recuerdo que a veces la premisa era similar a la de La Divina Comedia, pero con Quevedo saldando cuentas con todo lo que se menea. Teniendo en cuenta lo "reaccionario" que era (un autoproclamado estoico con muchas frustraciones y muy mala baba), no deja títere con cabeza. Seguro que alguien ha escrito una tesis doctoral especulando con la posibilidad de que un boticario o un médico --dos de los oficios más denostados por Quevedo-- se follaran a su madre; la fijación con los adúlteros y cornudos refrendaría esta teoría. A Mahoma directamente le retrata como al peor ser que jamás ha existido --con el propio Quevedo como narrador protagonista diciéndoselo a la puta cara en el infierno. Con respecto a las mujeres, hace que /r9k/ parezca tumblr a su lado.

Muy divertido y te lo puedes leer en una tarde si estás acostumbrado a ese estilo barroco.