Lacanoodle

joined 1 year ago
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[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Love more horror. Somehow I don't come across a lot of horror despite loving it

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 2 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Hate to say it but the new yorker genuinely deserves the respect it gets for their fiction work. Also their artwork. Bloody brilliant and absolutely consistent.

If you haven't check out their podcasts.

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't believe I hadn't posted this yet! Thanks for this

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Now this isn't smth I've ever heard of, looking forward to reading it

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yessss. Definitely check this out. Also do post any short story you like here!

 

Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantastic writer of speculative fiction and the author of the earthsea fantasy series.

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 5 points 5 months ago

Thanks for that, I'm gonna check that out!

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 7 points 5 months ago

Those tears were the soft rains then

 

Ray Bradbury is bloody brilliant (writrer of Fahrenheit 451)

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 4 points 5 months ago

Love that image

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Lots of good stuff! Thanks for all that

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 2 points 6 months ago

Always a good time to do so

[–] Lacanoodle@literature.cafe 1 points 6 months ago

So sorry I wasn't on Lemmy for a while, so didn't see this comment. Honestly I don't think anyone should force themselves to like an author or a style, that's what leads to people reading less. Read what you enjoy and occasionally venture further and try smth new.

As for why people love Joyce, the one important reason imo is how he essentially created stream of consciousness as a writing style which is an immersive way of writing and you get sucked into a characters mind. It can be taken for granted now since many have done it since and we got used to it, but it was as a revolutionart technique.

Then there's his precise lyrical prose. This could be subjective but most people do tend to enjoy the powerful prose he writes.

I wanna say symbolism too, but everyone does that. But you will definitely have a more rewarding experience if you remember Joyce purposefully uses symbolism, and uses it well.

If and that's a not if, you want to retry Joyce go for Araby or Eveline, smth short.

Both short, both powerful.

Summary: potential spoilers

Araby: ‘Araby’ is narrated by a young boy, who describes the Dublin street where he lives. As the story progresses, the narrator realises that he has feelings for his neighbour’s sister and watches her from his house, daydreaming about her, wondering if she will ever speak to him. When they eventually talk, she suggests that he visit a bazaar, Araby, on her behalf as she cannot go herself.

The boy plans to buy her a present while at Araby, but he arrives late to the bazaar and, disappointed to find that most of the stalls are packing up, ends up buying nothing.

Eveline: Eveline is a young woman living in Dublin with her father. Her mother is dead. Dreaming of a better life beyond the shores of Ireland, Eveline plans to elope with Frank, a sailor who is her secret lover (Eveline’s father having forbade Eveline to see Frank after the two men fell out), and start a new life in Argentina.

With her mother gone, Eveline is responsible for the day-to-day running of the household: her father is drunk and only reluctantly tips up his share of the weekly housekeeping money, and her brother Harry is busy working and is away a lot on business (another brother, Ernest, has died).

Eveline herself keeps down a job working in a shop. On Saturday nights, when she asks her father for some money, he tends to unleash a tirade of verbal abuse, and is often drunk. When he eventually hands over his housekeeping money, Eveline has to go to the shops and buy the food for the Sunday dinner at the last minute.

Eveline is tired of this life, and so she and Frank book onto a ship leaving for Argentina. But as she is just about to board the ship, Eveline suffers a failure of resolve, and cannot go through with it. She wordlessly turns round and goes home, leaving Frank to board the ship alone.

 

Maybe my favourite short story ever. Def top 5. The story on which the incredible Dennis Vellenuve movie Arrival is based. Which is also my favorite movie. Basically I couldnt recommend this story enough!

 

The narrative hinges on Borges's self-perception as a writer, underscoring the difference between the private self that cannot recognize his persona or public mask as a famous storyteller. The former insists that he has nothing to do with the task of writing, that only Borges alone imagines the stories and completes the work of setting them down on paper. His determined attempts to fight these claims are useless since he always loses to the celebrated author. Indeed, whatever he does to extricate himself from Borges becomes irrevocably tied to Borges. [Wikipedia]

  • Borges's story raises many philosophical questions of Self and epistemology. Viewed through the analytic lens of Russell's knowledge by description, the story explores the interesting concept of knowledge of Self by description (as opposed to the more expected knowledge by acquaintance). This is emphasized by the mention of receiving Borges's mail and reading about Borges in a book.

Also, the distinction between persona and Self can be interpreted as a distinction between author and writer. The author would be analogous to the persona and Borges. The writer would be the Self and "I". Theoretically, the writer could be anyone, it just happens to be Borges. With this interpretation Borges is seen to be commenting on the cognitive differences between processing third person information and first person information.[Wikipedia]

  • It implies that the author's creations may take on a life of their own, shaping literary traditions beyond Borges' original intentions or sense of self. I willingly admit that he has written a number of sound pages, but those pages will not save me, perhaps because the good in them no longer belongs to any individual, not even to that other man, but rather to language itself.

On a personal note: One reason this struck me was because at the point I first read this story I had come to a realisation that I had splintered my own identity. I grew up muslim in an extremist country. Here I'd be killed if I were to publicly confess I was an atheist, but I was bold enough to do so amongst friends early at college and received a death threat from an eavesdropper. Barring 10-15 people noone has ever known of my beliefs. As my identity grew beyond that point I split myself in 2. A politically correct public figure and my alternate identity.

I named this alternate identity Faust, Faust is an anarchist, Faust loves art and literature and philosophy. Faust may exist only in my head. Faust longs to escape.

I do not know where one identity ends and the other begins. I discover myself as I read and write and as I remain in solitude, my public self is no more than a facade which, despite being my nemesis manages to give me meaning. He's still friends with people who's beliefs I (faust) detest. My public persona is similarly vain.

Perhaps Spinoza was wrong, for I do not wish to be me. I wish to be Faust for once. For once in my life I want to experience being myself infront of a real human. For once I don't want to watch what I say and live in fear.

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