Helen

I don’t think the magic vs metaphoric-symbolic distinction is a fruitful one to try to rescue out of Garcia Marquez’s work tbh. but interesting!

of politeness) that he found the English translation by Rabassa even better than the original?

i find this sort of interesting, but I don’t like readings like this that feel like they’re trying to assuage the reader that there’s some interpretation that *makes sense of* this weird thing they just read. Also, how does this square with Garcia Marquez’s famous statement (likely exaggerated out

overpriced coffee from the good coffee shop

huh, that’s a perspective on English I haven’t heard before. Can you elaborate?

if you see this repost with your model of positive masculinity

Stop making sense my beloved

it’s much easier to achieve this if you transition ime

surreal or magical elements to explore themes like fear, repression, authoritarianism was really eye opening

“House Taken Over” was probably the most memorable because that’s the one I read that got me hooked. I read it early in college so I still had I think a fairly narrow understanding of literature. Compared with the political “art” of say, 1984, which just wants to be an essay, Cortázar’s use of

this book taught me the crucial lesson that 1984 sucks and Orwell just isn’t that good

S tier type of guy though

hmm this is starting to get out of hand, have i even *read* 61 books?

you have to read this.

allowing myself to immediately double dip on Shaw bc he’s actually been so formative for me. solid problematic fave status.

whereof one cannot speak, thereof one can always just make some shit up

in addition to having seen it and read it, there’s a radio production of it i’ve listened to like a dozen times.

i was sooooooo annoying in college after i read this, but then I got cured by meeting other math major Wittgenstein stans

ok is anyone surprised that i like Nietzsche?

while we’re on the subject of poetry, this slaps

just a beautiful poetry collection. "Black Cherries" especially is always on my mind.

the eponymous essay in this book definitely had a major effect on me, but they're all good

I've posted about this book before but it's really just an incredible work of art

I haven't read either of those! I definitely gravitate towards his more deranged stuff, like Portnoy or Sabbath's Theatre (featuring one of my favorite closing lines of any novel)

it probably helped that i was jewish, grew up in the northeast and had a let's say troubled relationship with my body

Lydia Davis really pushes the boundary of what you can do with a story. So many of her stories have had an effect on me, but this is a particular favorite of mine.

well in this book in particular he starts with an essay about the art of francis bacon in which he relates a story about talking to a woman and having the urge to rape her

Kundera's definitely a problematic fave of mine, and I've read this book a few times. It helped me learn to read more audaciously.

you should either read this or watch the incredible movie of it directed by Derek Jarman, where he really brings out the gay "subtext"

from jigging veins of rhyming mother wit,
and such conceits as clownage keeps in pay,
we'll lead you to the stately tents of war!

Marlowe's use of language in this is so good. He basically created the Elizabethan drama with the first of these plays.