I had thought that Gravity's Rainbow was just another Veeky Forums meme, but I was surprised to find that Pynchon's writing is really, really excellent.
Anyway, Prose Praise General - talk about books whose writing is simply enjoyable to read (without taking into consideration plot, development, etc.)
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Not even memeing, I would read anything written by DFW, Pynchon, Gaddis, Barth, or McElroy.
Same except substitute Barth and McElroy for Gass and Hawkes.
Thomas Ligotti
Fair enough. I'd put Gass below them, but close. Hawkes is one I haven't gotten to you, but I'm thinking about reading Second Skin within the next few weeks. Have you read any Barth? I think he's a little more clever than Gass, but they're probably at the same level when it comes to rhythm. This is all Subjective and pointless, of course
In what world is DFW's prose even remotely close to the others on these lists?
Sorry man, it's my opinion. It reads like the thoughts on my head sound, and I connect with it. I think he words things on clever ways that make me giggle, and I've enjoyed everything he's written. What have you read by him?
Raymond Chandler is probably my favorite prose stylist. Also, I love James Elroy's choppy, fast paced narrative. Hermann Broch is another whose mastery of language can seldom be touched.
That's fine, i've only read IJ, but i found it to be stylistically underwhelming.
Especially compared to the others on your list who are literal prose gods.
Of those I've read lately, I'm going to say Artaud, Rodolfo Wilcock, Giorgio Manganelli and Alberto Savinio.
The last two can be considered Italian high prose surrealists (I recommend Hilarotragoedia and Achille Innamorato if you know the language), Wilcock is an amazing writer of satirical vignettes - you can read one of them here
harpers.org
taken from his most famous book, the Temple of Iconoclasts - and as for Artaud, all I can say it's that his books will be cherished by any reader of Cioran (who is, obviously, another essential prose stylist).
That's fair. In my opinion, he comes close, but he's definitely below them. Pynchon, Barth, McElroy/Gaddis, is the order is personally put them. I also really enjoyed Vollmann's prose, but there's a gap between them for sure.
Melville, Faulkner, McCarthy.
Melville, Joyce, Nabakov, and Faulkner are the big ones for me. Pynchon also has some very good passages, and so does Gass, though I haven't read that much of either of them.
This. So much this.
It's a crime how overlooked Bellow is here.
His (deliberate) similarities to those authors show through more clearly in his short stories, especially the ones in Brief Interviews. I wouldn't say he's quite on their level but he incorporated enough of their ideas and stylistic approaches to his writing to be readable enough.
The Pynch is gonna write another novel right?
Bleeding Edge was ok but we need another major work outta the guy before he shuffles off.
Virginia Woolf
Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial - Sir Thomas Browne
even though it's a translation, it's fucking amazing
it doesn't matter, when he dies they're gonna squeeze the Pynchon brand and publish everything he has, short stories and unfinished novels he probably doesn't want anyone to see
i hope he burns everything so his legacy remains intact
This. TCATHR may be bleak but it's a real pleasure to read.
>That casual Shakespeare allusion
Proust you idiots.
>really, really excellent
The Sea by John Banville
>Henry Miller
What a cunt
But also
What a cunt
this
I've yet to capture the feeling of reading The Waves for the first time
I have ADHD so I often find I have to push myself to get into a book when I'm starting it, but Gravity's Rainbow somehow always fucking drags me into its prose. The moment I read a few lines I feel like I have to read the next few lines, and the next few lines, and the next, etc. His prose alone is enough to keep me reading and I think that's just really impressive.
Gaddis is astounding. I just finished chapter 2 of The Recognitions and it blew my mind with how beautiful some of the prose was.
Woolf
Flaubert
Hamsun
Joyce
Bellow has the effortless quality in his work that makes it so easy to read and enjoy, which is entirely different from Joyce and Faulkner, but I think those three are my favorite prose authors in English. Woolf is up there, but I need to read more of her.
Melville is way better than Joyce though.
Personal top five:
1) Marilynne Robinson
2) Faulkner
3) DeLillo
4) William Maxwell
5) Pynchon
Cormac, Hemingway, Steinbeck, or anyone who writes in a direct and compressed yet vivid style
>Hemingway
Wat
John Williams too
Bernhard, Sebald, Krasznahorkai
Yes, yes, I know everyone hates Updike for being trite (I do too) but holy shit, in every prose thread no one EVER says Updike (except for me) and it blows my fucking mind
Updike blows almost every other stylist out of the water at his best, and even when he's at medium
Malcolm Gladwell
Pynchon
J. Grisham
Dean Koontz
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Updike is a toptier stylist, user--Nabokov without aristocratic snark. Did you enjoy Roger's Version?