i have learned in the last year that a lot of authors attempt ot be GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ MEETS UMBERTO ECO MEETS JORGE LUIS BORGES FOR A SPRAWLING MAGIC SHOW but they're mostly overwrought
i overuse the term (mentally) but can't think of another description: they try to be absurd scholars but it feels ungenuine, and the metafiction comes across as obviously non-obvious
i have learned in the last year that a lot of authors attempt ot be GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ MEETS UMBERTO ECO MEETS JORGE LUIS BORGES FOR A SPRAWLING MAGIC SHOW but they're mostly overwrought
i overuse the term (mentally) but can't think of another description: they try to be absurd scholars but it feels ungenuine, and the metafiction comes across as obviously non-obvious
Like who?
the allcaps is a blurb for The Shadow of the Wind, which I've stopped reading because it's too damn clever
the one i was thinking of was Dictionary of the Khazars, which I just finished. i'm not sure where to start. it's largely constructed from people speaking in discombobulated anecdotes, which I guess is okay if you read it in a mythic way rather than a modern novel way, but still kind of annoying as there is no psychological realism. the central point of events, a bet with devils about the power of the church 293 years after the Great Turkish War, is okay but hidden incompetently; the ending with a devil scrawling the date was unnecessary. the central point of events, the behavior of people reconstructing the projected Adam Kadmon from dreams, is okay but I've seen it too many times perhaps. The central point of events, the supposition that Serbs are an absurd people trying to destroy their culture in favor of those of foreigners, is just asininely nationalist
honestly The Shadow Of The Wind struck me as more dickensian (in terms of the arc of the plot in which everything ties back into and resolves itself very neatly) than anything else
"the central point of events, the behavior of people reconstructing the projected Adam Kadmon from dreams, is okay but I've seen it too many times perhaps"
I did rather like The Shadow Of The Wind, but more in a "Fun Light Afternoon Reading" sort of way than as the "Big Serious Artsy Novel" that it wants to see itself as, if that makes any sense.
yeah that's what i meant exactly! like if you want to write a novel that's just fun to read fucking do it, you don't need to also act like you're the second coming of blind argentinians.
and when i read borges/whoever i never get a feeling of the book saying "LOOK HOW METAFICTIONAL I AM", it just kind of is
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
Society is weird sometimes
We never dwell on airports, half the time when food comes up it's not in a literal sense (e.g. The Men Who Would Be King referring to Steven Spielberg as an "Oreo cookie-lover", as it had earlier called him a "man-child")
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
He just acts like it...the book has an account of him playing with the wires on a piece of machinery while someone else was giving a speech on the same platform.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I like how we're just The Powepuff Girls having a conversation
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Comments
the one i was thinking of was Dictionary of the Khazars, which I just finished. i'm not sure where to start. it's largely constructed from people speaking in discombobulated anecdotes, which I guess is okay if you read it in a mythic way rather than a modern novel way, but still kind of annoying as there is no psychological realism. the central point of events, a bet with devils about the power of the church 293 years after the Great Turkish War, is okay but hidden incompetently; the ending with a devil scrawling the date was unnecessary. the central point of events, the behavior of people reconstructing the projected Adam Kadmon from dreams, is okay but I've seen it too many times perhaps. The central point of events, the supposition that Serbs are an absurd people trying to destroy their culture in favor of those of foreigners, is just asininely nationalist
i'm just annoyed at this stupid thing about a stupid horny boy and his stupid pens, probably
admittedly, this is a WAY overused plot
and when i read borges/whoever i never get a feeling of the book saying "LOOK HOW METAFICTIONAL I AM", it just kind of is it's weird to explain but i ddi have something in mind there beyond my joke
perhaps one should just write what one naturally wants to write
I guess...
It is pretty good.
YNTKT
Adult life.
Where are the cheat codes
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
the fascist regime
that made you a moron
Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, all you guys can go home now