ULYSSES by James Joyce

There is plenty of humor is Dos' work. Even in Notes.

 

My fav writers of all time are Tom Robbins and Herman Hesse. I could disappear into their writings for days on end.
I love a good classic too though. They are classics for a reason. However, most were read when I was in middle and high school and dind't give a damn about anything except passing the test. All I did was mimick what the teach said in class.

 

Sort of off topic here, but Nick have you ever read anything by Chris Ware? Specifically the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan : The Smartest Kid On Earth?

 

I'll take your word for it. But is it humor of the bitter kind (a la Beckett) or of the light-hearted kind (Chekhov)?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8hLc_nqx8g

 

I have that book, it either should be here somewhere or it's in DR. I love it and it's even in English! So if I find it I'll give it to John so he can read it.

 

It's the only one I've read too, but not for any particular reason. Just because it's the only one I've bought by him

 

No, I haven't. Any good?

 

Really? I like Kafka. I even pointed him out to John at the bookstore. It is kinda depressing, but in a good way

 

I guess that would depend on your point of view. His characters are very real.

 

That's perfect. You leaving today?

 

yeap!

My flight leaves at 6:00pm, but I have to take my train to the airport at 3:19, because I gotta be there one hour earlier to check my bag.

 

Oh I like Kafka too, but its SO depressing. I just can't

 

Happy trails.

 

Mad good brah, he is probably the most original style I've ever seen in comics/graphic novels.
And it stays in line with the books suggested in this thread, very emotionally and intellectually
challenging, but really you just have to see it to understand. I just bought it again last night,
I read it last about 2 years ago.

 

The comic you posted up the other day with the tooth, was that part of it?

 

Maybe that's what it is. I feel a certain portentousness to Dosto that I don't see in Chekhov, Kafka, Brecht, Gogol, even Hamsun. Come to think of it, I guess realism is not my favorite kind of literature. I like a certain surreal mock quality to characters and a sense of alienation from them. (in movies too, that's why I liked Mullholland Dr. and I usually despise Shakespearean tragic acting)

Chekhov would write little "comedies" thinking his audience would laugh, and find it surprising when theater audiences would burst to tears during performances. And yet, his characters are always caricatures of the real- not unintentionally or because of poor writing. But because his writing doesn't take itself seriously.

I've always had a tendency to laugh in the parts of movies where everyone else cries or cringes: fights, accidents, death, love, etc.

Dosto said that his intention in writing Brothers Karamazov was "to defeat anarchism" Well, no shit.

My personal feeling, of course.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yalRn12UzSQ

 

I should read more of his shit. It'll channel my hatred of women productively. It's been years since I've read me some Bukowski.

 

Ulysses is great. "Finnegan's Wake" takes literature to another level, few, if any, have ever reached.