Inglourious Snarkers

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I'm impressed. Vonnegut is a freaking genius. Poe and Heller, as well. Frankly you're already far, far ahead of most Americans when it comes to 19th/20th century American literature.

You may want to check out some Melville when you have time... but it's pretty dense.

I confess that I know absolutely nothing about Dutch/Flemish literature :o

I struggled through translations of "Les Miserables" and "War and Peace" in high school, because my AP Lit teacher at the time gave me extra credit to do so... but I didn't retain much of it. I smoked his curriculum in the first three weeks, so he took that as a challenge... I mostly faked my way through it because he gave me a pass to not show up for class, in trade for turning in my reports. I spent most of that time smoking weed, listening to rock'n'roll and chasing girls :D
 
Thank you! if i cant find the book i will read it there, but honestly i really prefer reading actual books. I want to hold it, and flip the pages.

I got a regular kindle a good while back and only had it 3 days before i traded a guy at a library for his book collection. once i finished his books i donated them. Never regretted that trade.
 
james terrio said:
I'm impressed. Vonnegut is a freaking genius. Poe and Heller, as well. Frankly you're already far, far ahead of most Americans when it comes to 19th/20th century American literature.

You may want to check out some Melville when you have time... but it's pretty dense.

I confess that I know absolutely nothing about Dutch/Flemish literature :o

I struggled through translations of "Les Miserables" and "War and Peace" in high school, because my AP Lit teacher at the time gave me extra credit to do so... but I didn't retain much of it. I mostly faked my way through it because he gave me a pass to not show up for class, in trade for turning in my reports. I spent most of that time smoking weed, listening to rock'n'roll and chasing girls :D
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Thanks for the tip and compliments. I don't blame you on not knowing our local writers. The most important ones wrote about fictional heroism from local history. Some of them were quite similar in Zeitgeist and content in comparison to what I'm reading from Twain now. For example "Pallieter" by Felix Timmermans or "De Witte" from Ernest Claes. Both are about little boys that like being outdoors in our typical local environment than being in school.

Anyway, I had similar experiences in highschool. Got tired of reading fast because I was more interested in girls and beer. Not the drugs though ;)

I've got "War and Peace" on the shelf as well. Mostly I just look at it and go: Meh, maybe when I'm retired. I just don't feel like starting to read a book that big.
 
worldwood said:
Thank you! if i cant find the book i will read it there, but honestly i really prefer reading actual books. I want to hold it, and flip the pages.

I got a regular kindle a good while back and only had it 3 days before i traded a guy at a library for his book collection. once i finished his books i donated them. Never regretted that trade.
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Same sentiments here. I stumble upon many of the books in my collection at yard sales or second hand stores. Got most of them for cheap. Don't mind that they have been read and read again. It adds character. New books smell anyway.
 
My wife and MIL have Kindles, and love 'em.

I do a ridiculous amount of non-fiction/technical reading on the PC, but when it comes to fiction I'd much rather curl up with an actual book.
 
Galeocerdoshark said:
On top of that, the level of English used in them is a bit higher than, say Poe or Twain adding quite a few difficulties for non-native speakers.
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You don't need Poe, you've got Baudelaire.

Poe is a self-cutting 14yr old girl whose dreadful babblings sound like that from the notebook of any depressed teenager.

Far, far too over rated.
 
stvpourciau said:
You don't need Poe, you've got Baudelaire.

Poe is a self-cutting 14yr old girl whose dreadful babblings sound like that from the notebook of any depressed teenager.

Far, far too over rated.
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I must confess that I haven't read anything from Baudelaire yet. When it comes to poems (I don't really read much poetry though) I tend to like Goethe from time to time. Again, I don't read poems that much because I really believe they're best read in the language they've been writtin in. My French is quite OK, but poets are often known for their technicality and specialized vocabulary and loose usage of grammatic rules (or the absence of them) which makes them often difficult for non-native speakers to read in the original language. Translations often don't catch the spirit, imo. From Poe I've read a few poems but I tend to remind the pit and the pendulum the most. Short stories, up to around 5-600 pages is my thing.
 
Also, good on you for reading Im the mother tongue of the authors. I think you'll find , as I do in*French, that the grand majority of "translations" are just "interpretations" only carrying the "gist" of what the author was talking about, rather than diligently preserving the sense in which was said.
 
Galeocerdoshark said:
I've got "War and Peace" on the shelf as well. Mostly I just look at it and go: Meh, maybe when I'm retired. I just don't feel like starting to read a book that big.
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Yeah, it's a whole lot of... "look there, the wall is grey and boring"... "Hmmm, it's cold in here, and the food is awful"... "That girl I love doesn't love me... or does she?"... "Boy, this sucks"... "Gosh, I'm depressed... I sure wish something would happen"... "All these people are crass and venal, and I really don't like any of them"... "Should I kill myself or just mope around for another three hundred pages?"

Dostoyevsky is very similar, just more condensed. "Holy shit, I went bonkers, murdered someone, and really feel terrible about it" all in 100 pages or so. :D
 
stvpourciau said:
Also, good on you for reading Im the mother tongue of the authors. I think you'll find , as I do in*French, that the grand majority of "translations" are just "interpretations" only carrying the "gist" of what the author was talking about, rather than diligently preserving the sense in which was said.
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I agree, as I said in my post above. I do think I'll just read Tolstoj, Nabukov or Nietzsche in a good translation, lol.
 
james terrio said:
Yeah, it's a whole lot of... "look there, the wall is grey and boring"... "Hmmm, it's cold in here, and the food is awful"... "That girl I love doesn't love me... or does she?"... "Boy, this sucks"... "Gosh, I'm depressed... I sure wish something would happen"... "All these people are crass and venal, and I really don't like any of them"... "Should I kill myself or just mope around for another three hundred pages?"

Dostoyevsky is very similar, just more condensed. "Holy shit, I went bonkers, murdered someone, and really feel terrible about it" all in 100 pages or so. :D
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I did enjoy what I read from Dostoyevsky though. But the style of those Russians is something completely different and unfamiliar if you're used to Western writers, even though there's such a wide diversity between British, German, French, Belgian, Dutch or American writers. Those Russian guys are often on a whole different level, lol. I blame the Wodka and the cold.
 
Poetry SUCKS, period.

Poets are pretentious nitwits who can't write songs.
 
Galeocerdoshark said:
I must confess that I haven't read anything from Baudelaire yet. When it comes to poems (I don't really read much poetry though) I tend to like Goethe from time to time. Again, I don't read it that much. From Poe I've read a few poems but I tend to remind the pit and the pendulum the most. Short stories, up to around 5-600 pages is my thing.
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O.O !!!!

Vous me fait chier encore et encore!!!! o.O ( in a friendly way of course)

You should have no trouble picking up a copy of "Les Fluers du Mal" in Belgium.

Do you read in French as well as in that Germanic speak or just that God forsaken Dutch?
 
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