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May 23, 2013, 11:59pm

Any Port in a Storm :: On the Plaza :: The Library :: Post Message

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Posted by casimira on Jan 14, 2012, 12:51pm

I've been pondering this for some time now.
We have a thread in the cinema section about actors who can't act. There are indeed writers whom I feel can't write but I'm not really qualified to espouse on that topic. I only know what writers are easier for me to read than others for whatever reason,whether it be their style,subject matter etc.
Some has to do with timing. There are writers I was able to read at one time or another with greater ease. Some,were I to try and read now I would have difficulty with. It definitely has to do with a current state of mind.
But,also,there are quite a few seemingly very good,highly acclaimed (by numerous accounts) writers whom I have "difficulty" reading.
We talked about Who Reads Proust? in another thread in here.
He would be one of the writers I would place very close if not at the top of my list.
Another,and I have tried many,many times to read,and will again I am sure (I own
quite a few of his books),is Vladimir Nabokov.
Aside from Lolita, I find his other works 'difficult'.
Also,way up there on my list is Thomas Wolfe,and Thomas Pynchon.
I know there are others but,I can't really think of them right now.
Maybe we could benefit from one another in discussing some of these writers and peg just what it is that some writers do for us and don't.
There are some I would like to learn how to read and enjoy if I could. Nabokov being one of them.

Posted by onlymark on Jan 14, 2012, 2:39pm

I always find it difficult when they format things wrongly.

Posted by bjd on Jan 14, 2012, 2:51pm

There are some authors I have had a hard time starting but eventually went back and read and even enjoyed the book. Proust is a case in point. I made several attempts and couldn't get past page 50 -- I had the impression it was all one sentence with nothing happening. But then, one day, I started again and read all 7 or 8 volumes of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. These days when I am away, I read some in the evenings just for the writing.

I have read some Pynchon, but admit I enjoyed it more when I was at university (several of us were reading Gravity's Rainbow at the same time). Now I can only get his books in French (don't want to buy them so get them from the library) and admit I gave up after a few pages of Mason-Dixon and recently read about 2/3 of his book about some detective in California.

Can't read Nabokov either -- it seems like simple writing but I just don't like it. Anothers on my can't read list is James Joyce. There are certainly more but their names escape me for the moment.

Posted by kerouac2 on Jan 14, 2012, 3:00pm

I was never able to penetrate Gravity's Rainbow. Every time I picked it up to try to continue, it repelled me.

Posted by casimira on Jan 14, 2012, 5:54pm

Jan 14, 2012, 2:39pm, onlymark wrote:

I always find it difficult when they format things wrongly.

I was banking on someone capitalizing on my stretched screen fiasco that I tried to remedy this a.m. only to make it worse until I finally had to leave it as is. My apologies good people.
My computer and my brain are not working properly today. :-/

Well,it's good to know that some of us have like minded difficulties with some of the same writers. Curious...

Joyce is on my list as well although, there have been moments where I could enjoy him. It's been a long time since I've attempted giving him a go and I don't believe I have him in my library.

Posted by bjd on Jan 14, 2012, 6:07pm

I dragged around a copy of Ulysses for years -- moving from Canada and through various moves in France. I finally got rid of it about 2 years ago, still unread.

Posted by kerouac2 on Jan 14, 2012, 6:13pm

Later works by Céline were a problem for me, but I persisted after reading one of the best novels ever -- Journey to the End of the Night.

Posted by bjd on Jan 14, 2012, 8:31pm

Is Céline considered difficult? I found him extremely "modern" given the time when he wrote that book, which I agree is extremely good. I too read a follow-up novel, but didn't like it as much.

Posted by onlymark on Jan 14, 2012, 8:41pm

I'm trying to remember that big heavy book thing that's quite popular the world over. It's in several sections, old, new and a prediction of the future, or something like that.
It's full of verses and disjointed stories, some far fetched, some absolutely unbelievable. There's some good epic chapters but taken as a whole it's the work of someone who hasn't got his feet on the ground at all.
I find it very difficult to read and as the author only wrote one book, I can see why.
I'm just trying to remember what it's called .......................................................................
..............................................................................
..........................................................................
...................................................................
.............................................................

Oh, yeah - The Bible.
Written by God (or at least he had a hand in it or dictated it or something)

A very difficult read.

Posted by kerouac2 on Jan 14, 2012, 8:43pm

His early novels were easily readable, but once he knew he was well considered, it appears that his later works no longer made any effort to be comprehensible.

(And of course later there were also his political leanings to make him even more undigestible.)

Posted by onlymark on Jan 14, 2012, 8:48pm

And as for the Koran...................
And that one 'written' (yeah, right) by Moses, the Torah.....................
And as for self instruction books, the Dhamma is just a minefield of misinterpretation. Can't get my head round that one at all.
Never mind these four - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. I think the translation could have been far better.

Did I leave anyone out?

Posted by onlymark on Jan 14, 2012, 8:49pm

I agree K2, his first attempt was probably the best he could do - a bit like Orson Wells.

Posted by bjd on Jan 15, 2012, 7:55am

You haven't understood, Mark. You aren't supposed to read the Bible/Koran/Torah/whatever from cover to cover as though it were a novel. You are supposed to cherry-pick the bits you want and then use those excerpts to criticize/blast to eternal damnation/kill anyone who disagrees with you.

It is still being done, so obviously these have been totally effective, even though their literary qualities may be questionable.

Posted by onlymark on Jan 15, 2012, 10:02am

Aha! I've been doing it all wrong then.

Posted by casimira on Jan 15, 2012, 1:21pm

I've never tried reading Celine. I may add to my library list and try.

Gunter Grass gives me some problems,or at least has in the distant past when I struggled through The Tin Drum,which I did end up loving.

Posted by bjd on Jan 15, 2012, 4:29pm

Ha, I had trouble starting The Tin Drum too, but finally managed and enjoyed it. However, I bought Grass's autobiography a couple of years ago and still haven't read it.

Posted by kerouac2 on Jan 15, 2012, 5:04pm

Jan 15, 2012, 1:21pm, casimira wrote:

I've never tried reading Celine. I may add to my library list and try.

If you read his masterwork, you will quickly see the debt that he owes to Joseph Conrad.

Posted by cheerypeabrain on Jan 15, 2012, 7:55pm

I struggled with Umberto Eco.

Whilst I had no problem with Evelyn Waugh, D H Lawrence, Auldus Huxley et al I always had difficulty with James Joyce. I found my eyes sliding off the page....

Posted by bjd on Jan 16, 2012, 7:13am

I didn't finish The Name of the Rose. I actually went to see the movie to see what I had missed and didn't regret not having read it all -- it was just not worth the struggle. And I've never been tempted to try anything else by him.

Posted by casimira on Jan 19, 2012, 2:44pm

I haven't read Umberto Eco either,I never really gave him a go.
Some of his nonfiction looks interesting,he is quite prolific.

Actually,I had thought him gone,but,read in the NYT Book Review recently that he has a new novel.

It's interesting and or curious that all the writers cited thus far are male.(unless the Koran and The Bible are attributed to women that is).
I cruised my library this morning to see if there were any women writers that fit this category.
Penelope Fitzgerald. I was gifted two separate novels of hers from( The Blue Flower, and, The Gate of Angels),friends who insisted I would like her. I haven't been able to thus far, get past a few pages.

Posted by mickthecactus on Jan 19, 2012, 4:02pm

I heard Joyce being read on the radio by somebody that appeared to understand it. It was very good.

I didn't know Celine Dion had written any books.

Posted by bjd on Jan 19, 2012, 4:28pm

I didn't know Celine Dion had written any books.

Write? I would be surprised that she can read.

Casi, I can't think of any "difficult" women writers either for the moment, although I'm sure there must be some. Perhaps women had to write better than men in order to be published, so couldn't get away with writing books that are so difficult to read.

Posted by mickthecactus on Jan 19, 2012, 4:39pm

bjd!

You know all the Canadians are going to be on to you now...

Posted by onlymark on Jan 19, 2012, 5:18pm

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir.

I thought it was about having quickies. Boy, was I disappointed.

Posted by bjd on Jan 19, 2012, 6:06pm

It was a misprint when it first came out: Ten Second Sex, about her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre.

Posted by onlymark on Jan 19, 2012, 7:49pm

Ten seconds?

I hope that includes foreplay.

Posted by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2012, 8:58am

I haven't finished one book by Dostoyevsky. Just can't.

Posted by casimira on Jan 21, 2012, 11:59am

Jan 21, 2012, 8:58am, hwinpp wrote:

I haven't finished one book by Dostoyevsky. Just can't.

I had a feeling that Dostoyevsky might be on some peoples list.
Personally, I enjoy him,The Idiot being on my top ten books.
I think for some, getting past all the Russian names both proper and otherwise poses an obstacle.

Posted by spindrift on Jan 21, 2012, 3:28pm

The Lord of the Rings by J RR Tolkein is my bete noir. How I loathe even the sight of the book.
Countless times I have picked it up and tried to read it only to fling it aside.

Posted by casimira on Jan 21, 2012, 5:46pm

Jan 21, 2012, 3:28pm, spindrift wrote:

The Lord of the Rings by J RR Tolkein is my bete noir. How I loathe even the sight of the book.
Countless times I have picked it up and tried to read it only to fling it aside.

I got through The Hobbit,barely, that's it. I could not do the trilogy. :-/


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