New to this forum! What should I read first??

[dfw]

I currently have Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, Train Dreams, Lolita, Naked Lunch, Suttree, Omensetter's Luck (DFW-recommended), Reader's Block (DFW raved about Wittgenstein's Mistress, but it was checked out), Ulysses, The Corrections, Middlesex, and Joseph Andrews (mainly because I always see Tom Jones being used for lit exams). I still need to finish Infinite Jest, but had to return it to the library with 200 pages to go. I'm 17, a senior in high school, and I really love lyrical and difficult prose. I attempted the first few pages of Suttree, but it was so incredibly difficult to read. Maybe that was because I read the italicized opening. I'm the type to look up every single word I come accross with which I am not familiar. There must've been 20 words per page of that opening of Suttree that I didn't know.
Words like (at random) "pinchbeck," "dogwhelk," "bolos," "murenger." I love this type of writing though. I was absolutely wowed by Nabokov's prose in Lolita (reading it again).

bumpss

[Cleft]

If you really do like lyrical and difficult prose, and don't have any serious problem with homosexuality (if you enjoyed Naked Lunch you should be ok), I strongly recommend reading the works of Jean Genet. His books are easily the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. Every sentence is well crafted and is combined perfectly with the others (if English was my first language, I would have been able to supply a more accurate and appealing description). It is important to note, that the lyricsness (is there such word?) of Genet, is very different than the lyricalness in all of the books you've mentioned and I have read (Naked Lunch, Lolita and Suttree).

Besides that, if you ever think about death, in any kind of way, you should also try "Past Perfect" by Yaakov Shabtai. It is the most touching and disturbing record on the subject I have ever read. Yeah, these two are probably my favourite authors, usually I don't use "the most" so frequently.

P.S. If you do read Genet, I suggest to begin with Querelle of Brest. You should also see his sole movie (it's on youtube) - Un Chant D'amour.

[dfw]

^ok thanks!
I'll check Genet out.

I haven't actually read all of those books in my original post.
Those are books I have not yet read (except Lolita).

[Cleft]

Oops. So what have you read? I mean, seems like your taste is similar to mine, and I could use a recommendation.

[dfw]

tbh, i haven't read much thus far in my life


i've read lolita, almost all of infinite jest
other stuff for school, but nothing that appealed to me as much as the 2 above

i've also read some of martin amis' stuff (his nonfiction and part of his novel Money)
he's a fantastic stylist (a self-proclaimed follower of Nabokov w/r/t to style)

[Cleft]

I see. I guess I will just ask you again in two month, maybe three. And... I think you will also enjoy reading Kafka (I would start with a collection of of short stories) and Woolf (To the lighthouse is my favourite).

[dfw]

i really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice as well

something that really "rings my cherries" (as DFW would say) is prose that combines highbrow and slangy, more modern speech (something that DFW is known for)
the combination of anal attention to grammatical rules, obscure, little known vocabulary, and extreme technical facility with colloquialisms, slangy speech, and sometimes vulgarity in David Foster Wallace's prose
really appeals to me

and i haven't really ever read much poetry (aside from at school)

but i guess poetry would a place to look for beautiful, lyrical language

[Desolation]

Welcome aboard...Good to see another fan of sort of "avant-garde" literature here.

From your list, I'd recommend giving Naked Lunch a try, since you're 17 and the Beats are good ground to cover while you're still in high school. Markson and Gass are brilliant, and Joyce is my favorite writer (though, I'd suggest putting Ulysses aside for a while, try Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first).

You also might want to look into Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and Don DeLillo's White Noise. Happy reading.

[Der Wegwerfer]

I'm 17, a senior in high school, and I really love lyrical and difficult prose.


how about Hemingway? :)

how about , perhaps, Faulkner, he hasn't been mentioned and might fit the bill for something different.

[tonywalt]

There's quite a few DFW fans on here!-well, at least me.

[dfw]

thanks for the responses

apparently, pynchon is someone i should check out
i have attempted his gravity's rainbow before giving up and reading infinite jest
GR was pretty incomprehensible to me

i read a bit of don delillo's underworld, but stopped because at the time i was looking for a really impressive prose style like Nabokov's and his just wasn't doing it for me

hemingway?? that was a joke, right??


how about poets
who are the kings of lyricism
i really like writers who use a lot of "big" words, as dumb as that sounds (like nabokov, wallace)

[tonywalt]

Bukowski uses small words, but I like him.

Gaddis's JR (1975) is good too, close to dfw style - maybe the closest.

[dfw]

^ok, thanks

just read james wood's review of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
it won the pulitzer prize or something and wow, it seems really beautiful despite the simplicity of its prose

it's only like 80 pages, so i'll probably read it tonight


who's the nabokov of poetry, though?
there are so many poets whose names i'm familiar with, but who's the best

random names springing to mind are coleridge, lord byron, whitman, stevens, blake,

so what about this sam lipsyte

[namenlose]

If you are interested in delving into the universe of poetry, I would suggest the reading of a broad compilation before anything. It seems you are not very acquainted with any poet, so it could serve as a good starting point, as well as a way of discovering who are the authors whose styles resonate the most with you.

I'm not very sure what would be a Nabokov of poetry, since the characteristic you mentioned — the richness of style — is something every major poet presents in his own way. However, among the ones you cited, Blake was the first who came to my mind. Perhaps the reason is his exuberant use of imagery, or perhaps it's his attempt to map human desire and imagination in his own mythological and poetical system, but I'm not sure. Try reading Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Thel and his prose work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. If you like them, you may look for his longer poems.

I don't see Whitman as a similar author to Nabokov, but I would recommend him nonetheless. I suggest you read some of his major poems before attempting to read Leaves of Grass in its entirety, though. In my opinion When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, Song of Myself, The Sleepers, As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry are representative of Whitman at his best.

However, if you want to read a more central poet, you should look for Milton. He certainly fits your demand for beautiful, lyrical language, as well as for "big words", although he may be difficult for someone who is only beginning to read poetry.

[dfw]

^ thanks very much
let's keep the responses coming

currently reading this
http://nplusonemag.com/the-theory-generation

[Alexander III]

Call me a rebel, but I say avoid Homer's examples; and begin at the beginning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_literature

[dfw]

^not what i'm looking for

[Alexander III]

^not what i'm looking for

Why?

Because greek literature depicts a world you are not accustomed to, and you have no inclination to explore the unknown?

Because the stylistic techniques are just as different as the world they depicts, and once again you have no inclination to explore the unknown?

Because you have already read the poetry , the histories, the plays; and consider your self already knowledgeable?

Because greek literature is where everything that you thought new and inventive about the recent past; reveals itself to be old and already and amply discussed and explored?

[dfw]

^mainly 1 and 2

[dfw]

Desolation, what else?

[Alexander III]

8459

......

[Desolation]

Desolation, what else?

Lately, I've been using this for recommendations. It's an alternative look at the top 100 English-language books of the 20th Century...You might like it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century%E2%80%99s_Greatest_Hits:_100_English-Language_Books_of_Fiction

In particular, as a fan of Wallace (who I myself am only just starting to get acquainted with), you might like:
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
At Swim - Two - Birds by Flann O'Brien
60 Stories by Donald Barthelme
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (it's much shorter than GR, and has been cited as the book that inspired Wallace to start writing seriously)

[dfw]

^wow, that is an interesting list

who are your favorite poets?

[Desolation]

Walt Whitman, Arthur Rimbaud, T.S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Charles Baudelaire. I'm afraid I know pretty much next to nothing about poetry, though.

[Ceile]

If you're looking for a challenge and like books with words you don't know, I would suggest Finnegan's Wake; though I might warm up with something else by Joyce first...

[dfw]

^k
bumps