20th Century American Literature

[restin]

I actually really enjoy some depth and philosophical works you can think about for days and not understand them for years, as Goethe, Nietzsche, Voltaire etc. but what recently (half year about) really interests me is the 20th century American literature. These are probably the first generations that really tie down all boundaries of language (Burgess !! but ok he was a Briton), style and content. If someone wants to discuss and post (but only books that are really really great and not "I just liked it somehow") some of these really great authors, there you go.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey This is the absolutely best book I ever read in my life and I read quite a lot of 'em. It is a must-read for everyone that is interested in literature. All plays in a psychiatry, where the occupants are confronted with a certain nurse and the "combine". Long long before "the Matrix" it already created a genious analysis of human society, its systems, the psyche etc. This novel also gave birth to the most fascinating character in literature's history - Chief Bromden. Ken Kesey himself travelled with the famous Merry Pranksters and was deeply confronted with LSD - he participated in Acid Tests and the infamous MKULTRA. His experience with psychiatrists, drugs, society were all digested in this famous novel. Read it!
On the Road - Jack Kerouac The most famous novel of the Beat Generation is all about free life. It is about the attempt to break out of the boundaries of society to live a free life - on the road. This book is very autobiographic. This novel is really really good, I absolutely enjoyed it. The beatniks were by the way the first ones to bring the cannabis/drug culture to the USA. Jack Kerouac was very interested in Zen and writes about it in his novels The Dharma Bums, Tristessa. I didn't read these two... yet. ety to live a free life - on the road. This book is very autobiographic. This novel is really really good, I absolutely enjoyed it. The beatniks were by the Dean Moriarty is by the way a really really interesting character.
Howl - Allen Ginsberg A poem written by Allen Ginsberg, partially dadaistic and no-future. It is very good although I am quite conservative when talking about poems... but definately something to read.
The Catcher in the Rye I am reading it now at full speed and am really fascinated. Maybe rather something for the younger ones (the protagonist is 17yo) but, yeah, fascinating. Funny is, that quite some villains were fans of this novel - Mark David Chapman, Charles Manson, John Hinckley, Jr., ...
The Beach - Alex Garland A quite recent work but I think it is very interesting. If you only watched the movie - you have no idea. This book is all about, if we humans can build up a paradise, an eden, if we are given the perfect environment therefore or if we will stumble over our humanity and fall. Cool book.

I am planning to read the Lord of the Flies and the Great Gatsby...

 

[Mr.Smith]

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[spice]

Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer should be on your list IMO, its totaly unlike any of his pop fiction, a work of genious

Yes. That is one of the greatest pieces of literature I have ever read. it is stupendous. A true psychonaut must.

Try it, you'll like it.

 

[restin]

thank you :wink:

 

[Forkbender]

Henry Miller's Sexus, Plexus, Nexus (the Rosy Crucifixion).

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 or some of his other books.

Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow

All essential.

 

[restin]

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 or some of his other books.

ah I thought about reading this one recently !

 

[Forkbender]

He's one of the funniest writers I know. Too bad he's dead.

 

[restin]

I am now reading Slaughterhouse 5. Could find neither Gravity Rainbow nor Ancient Evenings yet. It's a good book but I not as funny as e.g. Hitchhikers Guide, maybe I just have another humour.

 

[GOD]

Superman , batman and the silver surfer . Playboy and hustler .

 

[magickmumu]

Slautherhouse 5
Great book, Great writer. His other books are fine as well.
:thumbsup:

 

[restin]

He's one of the funniest writers I know.

Slaughterhouse 5 is everything else than funny...Fuck this is a very sad book and his black (blacker than black) humour and irony make it even sadder. It's about as sad as All Quiet at the Western Front...phew, hard stuff.

 

[Forkbender]

^I think you should try reading galapagos by him or one of his other later books. Slaughterhouse 5 is indeed pretty sad, although there is a lot of humour in it.

 

[IJesusChrist]

The illustrated man. - Hard to find maybe?

And yes, slaughterhouse 5...

The part where he describes watching a war in reverse was one of the most powerful things I have ever read in my entire life.

"Everyone was healing one another, taking bullets out, constructing buildings, coming back to life..."

I read that paragraph and stared in space for deep while.

 

[restin]

^I think you should try reading galapagos by him or one of his other later books. Slaughterhouse 5 is indeed pretty sad, although there is a lot of humour in it.

Oh, I didn't say it's bad. I really like it.

The part where he describes watching a war in reverse was one of the most powerful things I have ever read in my entire life.

"Everyone was healing one another, taking bullets out, constructing buildings, coming back to life..."

hehe yes, that one's great.

 

[magickmumu]

He's one of the funniest writers I know.

Slaughterhouse 5 is everything else than funny...Fuck this is a very sad book and his black (blacker than black) humour and irony make it even sadder. It's about as sad as All Quiet at the Western Front...phew, hard stuff.

I think it's the non judgemental view of the main charachter that makes this book so good.

Did you know they made a movie of slautherhouse 5 and of his other book Breakfast of champions.
I have watch that last one, but i haven't seen the first.

 

[magickmumu]

I also liked one flew over the cuckoo nest.
I remember not paying for the book.

I also like Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson.
I am not a fan of Pynchon..

 

[magickmumu]

Other books I would like to recommend are: Exquisite corps, and Satan wants me. Both by British Author Robert Graham Irwin.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/i/robert-irwin/

 

[restin]

I think it's the non judgemental view of the main charachter that makes this book so good.

Yes. And you also cannot decide if he is schizophrenic or can really travel in time... And the aliens are cool as well - did you realise it was you?

 

[Mr.Smith]

if you like sci-fi i recommend the 4 Hyperion books by Dan Simmons
for horror Song of Kali, also by Dan Simmons

 

[spice]

For sci-fiction, I recommend Roger Zelazny. Two in particular;

'Lord of Light'

'Creatures of Light and Darkness'

Later he did the Amber Chronicles, which were okay, but not as good as the earlier ones such as the two above.