Your caveat above about the danger of being turned into a "paranoid weirdo" reminds me that back when I was a grad student , one of my friends recommended that I should read "V", which led to my being hooked on Pynchon for life. I had a friend in the English department who shared my enthusiasm; when I mentioned to her that I was planning to start on "The Crying of Lot 49", she shook her head and said, "that's the book that drove Y_____ insane" ...(Y____ being a mutual acquaintance who was convinced that government agents or extraterrestrials were tormenting him by transmitting threatening messages to him via his dental fillings).
As someone who was really sucked into the New Age movement in my late teens and early twenties, The Crying of Lot 49 really spoke to me. Nothing else really gives you that paradoxical feeling of knowing more than you have ever known while also finding out you're more in the dark about important aspects of the conspiracies you believe in. .....quiting weed helped me come to my senses
Kurt Vonnegut. Yes. He answers the big questions with humor and ease and is never condescending. I wrote him a fan letter once and got a postcard in reply that he designed. Write to living authors. They love it! I also got letters from John Irving and Jack Williamson.
+Fleur Bandito I sometimes think about it and realize that possibly no one else in, like, human history combined enjoyability and irony and emotion and wits so brilliantly as Vonnegut. Except for fucking Shakespeare, always spoiling my exaggerations
I am intrigued how post modern fiction later influenced movies. Pulp Fiction is certain a post modern film, but my favorite is PT Anderson's Magnolia. As a matter of fact, David Foster Wallace was Anderson's English lit professor for a short time. I can see a huge influence on Anderson's work.
I love Paul Thomas Anderson, but I think Charlie Kaufman's films are my favorite in the genre ("Synecdoche, New York" being the most deeply postmodern example). He also recently wrote a postmodern novel (Antkind) which may very well be my favorite book of all time. It was without a doubt the funniest book I've ever read.
When I think of the most postmodern movies made in America, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Punch-Drunk Love, and Alien all come to mind. If you like foreign films I’d recommend checking out the movies of Jean-Luc Godard like Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Pierrot Le Fou, and Weekend or the movie of Wong-Kar Wai like Chungking Express and Fallen Angels (though his films arguably fit as well or better into post-postmodernism). It’s tricky because film as a medium’s origin is modernist, and much of common film criticism and theory is neomodernist, so postmodernism in film (if that’s even a thing) looks/feels very different than in other mediums
Just to add to the list of great post-modernist films, id say works that fit the bill perfectly are like Persona, Satantango, Post tenebras lux, Sleep has her house, Norte the end of history, Uncle Boonmee/ Cemetary of splendor (i highly recommend to anyone interested in magical realism in film), Costa (horse money, vitalina varela), Ruiz (city of pirates, mysteries of Lisbon) as well as mentioned above the french new wave, but also the czech new wave and japanese new wave, bonus for the french new extremity.
I’d like to recommend “The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor,” by John Barth, to anyone who would like to sample post-modern literature. It’s a delightful read, not too difficult (once you get used to the narrative style), and not very long. It’s no like anything I’ve ever read, and I loved it. 💕
Spot on selection! If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino is one of my favorites. I would also add At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (okay, maybe not really post-modern, but) to me it is a clear inspiration or influence (okay, maybe not really, but I cannot help myself thinking otherwise) on such books: V. by Thomas Pynchon, (the mentioned) If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (another one of my favorites); so if you like At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien there is a good chance you will like those as well, hence it is a bridge to post-modernism. Maybe it is a roundabout way of reasoning (but I cannot help myself thinking otherwise).
I’ve only started reading books a year ago, and by watching this I’ve just realized that I’m somehow unknowingly keep on picking up post-modernist books. Love Vonnegut to bits, am reading Midnight’s Children, and One Hundred years of Solitude is on my shopping cart waiting to be checked out. Will definitely have a look on your recommendations! Thank you for this video!
My situation exactly! I started reading in November 2020 at the ripe old age of 29, and now I can't stop reading these postmodern books! I remember watching my mother reading thillers and I would tell her "I'd love to start reading, but not thrillers" and she would reply "what else is there to read then, fantasy books?". I've always been into niche music and movie genres, I should have suspected that books worked the same way.
Probably not the best of choices, but Gravity's Rainbow was my first taste of pm fiction. I don't think I got more than a quarter of the way through on the first attempt. Months later, when I finally came back to it, I just accepted that I won't always understand what is happening or why and let my imagination live in the moment page by page. I finished it and really enjoyed it.
VALIS by PKD is explicitly more postmodern since it attacks the nature of reality way more closely (partially because it's based on PKD's hallucinations that made him question reality). The trade off is that it's also extremely bizarre and at times over the top, but that's part of the fun.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster was my introduction to postmodern fiction. I didn't know postmodern fiction existed, but by stumbling onto that book, there I was, reading it, and enjoying it. The New York Trilogy is a collection of three short novels, so it won't take much time investment, and if one doesn't like the the first story (City of Glass), then there is no reason to read the next two, and their postmodern experiment can be over in a couple of hours. City of Glass has all the postmodern staples, but is straight forward in prose, so it's one of the easier postmodern books to read. My enjoyment of that book eventually got me to Auster's more famous friend, Don Delillo, where I agree, his White Noise is another fantastic starter, and probably my favorite book in the genre. White Noise says everything that needs to be said about the last fifty years in America, which is striking because thirty years have passed since it was written, and it covered that too.
+The_Bookchemist Auster has said in a few interviews that he's bigger in Europe than the U.S., and he has attributed it to his simpler prose being easier to translate into other languages. I imagine you read Auster in Italian, so you're the perfect person for me to ask, do you find this to be true? Also how much affect do translations have in the success of books in Italy? Do some books die there due to bad translations?
+ExLionTamer13 It IS true that Auster is rather popular here in Italy, and widely studied too. I did read him in Italian (I read his works a few years ago, and back then I still did not read all of my English books in the original) but I can't tell you much about it, mostly because I'd need to read them in English too to give you an idea about that. As for translations, that's a tricky topic: if you ask people in the academia, they'll tell you all translations suck massively, each and every one. Seriously - I still have to find a Foreign Languages student or professor who says something like "yeah, the translator did a good job here." I work as a freelance translator myself and I can understand why a job so precarious as translation and a means so sacred as literature always result in shitstorms when they collide. ... So yeah, if you ask people they'll tell you that literary translations all suck, but again, I believe they are mostly exaggerating. As for the books themselves, they don't die at all because of that - most people knew too little English to understand while they're reading whether something's off with the translation or not. Which troubles me a bit, but what can you do? It is true that some American authors are way more famous than others here in Italy for whatever reason (like, Philip Roth is super-famous, Mordecai Richler is too, but I don't think anybody knew who Foster Wallace was until his death). I don't know why that's so; it must also be said that here in Italy American literature is largely unknown and goes largely un-studied, even in universities. Really, I have heard more than once people (stupid people of course, but still) ask me "why, do Americans have a literature too?"
+The_Bookchemist That is all is very interesting. Language itself is a difficult enough obstacle to translate, so getting point-of-view across too, must be close to impossible. I can see Foster Wallace's voice coming across as almost aggressively American. So embedded in American pop culture, and American academia, fucking Tennis, I could see many Italians having little interest in any of it. Whereas Roth and Richler, so driven by Jewish suffering, might seem more universal a point of view, as we all suffer, and then you throw in Jewish guilt too -- Having seen a few Fellini films -- The religious guilt runs strong in Italy too. That would be my completely uninformed speculation of their respective success in a country I've never been to (although my grandparents came from Napoli!). You re-reading City of Glass in English, might be an interesting experiment.
Great to see this video in my subscribers feed, I was one of the people asking for it. Read some of those, but I love you setting them in the genre. Looking forward to read the rest.
The more I get to know it, the more I am convinced that Latin-American Literature is full of marvellous and portentous post-modernist novels - Bolaño, Vargas Llosa, and still many others to discover. I do think that Latin-American Literature "is the future"!
a lot of lterary latinamerican trends (mainly in the literar boom of the sixties and seventies) could very well be considered proto-postmodernism and I think the reason it gets over looked it's cause latinamerican politics aren't as well documented as American or European politics , this trend has kinda faded away, with all literary trends over here sadly, but you're goddamn right there are a lot of latinamerican classics and a lot of them are post-modern too
Thank you so much for this video and all your content. Having recently finished House of Leaves, I was looking for my next post-modern read and landed on Slaughterhouse Five to start based on this video. You’re right, it is a perfect novel. It was so thought provoking and a real call to action, or call to peace more specifically. It is one of my favourite books too now! Thank you again. I’ll be working my way through your other recommendations now!
I'm so glad you're doing these videos! I'm reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and watched your video on it which I thought was superbly balanced and insightful. I'd add John Barth's novel The Sotweed Factor (1960) to your list - it's a hugely enjoyable, playful game of a book.
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry by B.S. Johnson I KNOW you'll enjoy this short little postmodern masterpiece. And it's comedic and not dense at all, I recommend it as the first novel anyone should read to get into Postmodernism because of how accessible it is whilst still being a great example.
I love your stuff, your enthousiasm, thanxx a lot, I only just discovered you yesterday, Bookchemist! Personally I should love to add 'The Hitchhikers guide into the Galaxy' the omnibus of 5 parts, of Douglas Adams. Hilarious, and touching and weird and uplifting and ceashing, wow...!
Gravity's Rainbow was the first book of postmodernism that I had ever read. But... my undergraduate degree is in postmodern and existential philosophy. My first question is immediately what your thoughts are on the New Sincerity "genre" if you will, I hate that word, too. I want to say the only book I would potentially add to this is DFW's The Broom of the System. It's not the best book in the world, but it's a fun read and is pretty funny at times. I usually tell people that if they are interested in Postmodern lit then The Crying of Lot 49, White Noise, or The Broom of the System are where to start. I think so much of Postmodernism is difficult that the first books should be moderately challenging. I've never thought Crying of Lot 49 was truly difficult, just something that you needed to be attentive towards. That's my best advice to anyone interested: that if you're going to read this stuff then you're going to have to really learn to be attentive to each word in your reading. If you're used to Modernism already then I think you're prepared (Joyce is harder than much of Postmodernism, imo.), but if you just want to make the leap into it, don't be discouraged if you don't understand something, and don't keep rereading and rereading until you get a paragraph. Some things you just won't and that is okay. Half of being attentive is realizing that. For instance, I just read DeLillo's Ratner's Star. I didn't understand a single Mathematical concept in the book, but I finished it and had my own thoughts about the novel anyway. Looking forward to your top ten list.
+Keith Witty I agree with the "don't stop just carry on" ethic, with some books it's the only sensible solution. I would perhaps not suggest The Broom of the System in a video like this one, mostly because to me that's already a work of late (post-?) postmodernism, one that engages with the authors coming before it... I wouldn't call it high postmodernis. (Moreover, being a hardcore Pynchonian, to me it's heresy to read Broom without having read Crying... which is the book Broom kinda rips off. I liked Broom, really, but I'd say that to me that's more or less a book just for Wallace completionists.) As for the New Sincerity business, I have studied it extensively in the last few years and the more I study the more I realize how much of a mess it is. I mean postmodernism already is slippery as fuck, let alone the people who react agianst it. You can draw connections here and there (the obvious ones, Wallace-Franzen-Eggers) but not many that make much sense or have any cultural value outside academic taxonomy. I'll hopefully try and offer some ideas about it all (or at least about a slice of the whole movement) if any college feels like funding my PhD research proposal. Thanks for the feedback as always, the top ten's coming in a few days - I already filmed it :)!
DFW claimed he hadn't read Crying of Lot 49 at the time he had written Broom. Always found that interesting. I think it is during an interview with Bookworm that he says it, he sounds defensive when he says it. Not sure what to think there. Good luck with your proposal, academia is hell, I got out of it while I felt I still had a chance to.
+Keith Witty I didn't know about that interview but I am 95% sure he was lying. I checked briefly and his biography denies the claim (you know, Every Ghost Story, p. 30); I also knew (the biography itself is pretty clear about it) that after Broom came out he had a small breakdown because not a single reviewer out there failed to see the debt he owed to Pynchon. But well, with these things you're never entiely sure, it's always such a mess. You probably did well with your choice, we'll see how it goes for me - the next couple of years should be quite interesting indeed.
Underrated writer: Roberto Bolaño. (The Savage Detectives, 2666, Nazi Literature in America) His books are probably an eclectic mix of modern and post-modern.
Vonnegut flows nice, tells many things and draws many pictures , with each page I turn I expect to be further down the road and I am still running in circles .At times I felt impatient following his story. But then again I haven't read enough of KV to be most objective of his work. On the other hand Orwell will fill your fuel tank to the rim . Better get ready for a bumpy road and make sure you won't be getting up early the next morning . Last year I picked up Homage To Catalonia and I could not put the book away .It is just such a brilliant story of real men who are filled with idealism to the rim , who love and hate with deepest passion , men who will kill without any hesitation anyone opposing their beliefs . I respect and admire George Orwell very much .God bless his soul.
I love a lot of postmodern drama. Waiting for Godot, or Six Characters in Search of an Author, anything by Pinter. Do you enjoy reading plays? Only read a few pm novels; Slaughterhouse Five (which I loved), and Camus' The Fall, (he counts, right?) but I've had my eye on 100 Years of Solitude for a long while now. Thanks for a great list!
+BooksandQuestions I do, though not extremely much - I'm not a huge theater buff, though I do enjoy watching a play every once in a while. I do like Pirandello's Six Characters a lot (to me that's a play that's good straight from the page, even if you don't get the chance of seeing it on stage). As for Camus, I wouldn't know - I still have to read his fiction! Thanks for the feedback :)
There is a brilliant filmed performance of Godot (by the Abbey in Dublin as far as I know) available on youtube somewhere. Something about the actors' Irish accents really brings the humour to life. It's flippin hilarious!
I'm not sure if someone has said it already, but City of Glass by Paul Auster is, at least for me, a great example of postmodernism. (It's quite short as well).
9:27: Hi there. Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow while never having read any other post modern books. At times I am deeply confused, but I am always simply mesmerized by the book.
Good luck, sounds like you've jumped with both feet into a swamp! You probably couldn't have made it more difficult for yourself lol, but I think that is the general experience people have when reading it though!
These are some great suggestions-- I haven't read them all, but I particularly love the Rushdie and the Calvino. The only Calvino I've read is On a Winters Night a Traveller, but I'm looking forward to getting to some of his other books next year. For introductions to postmodernism I think somthing like Ali Smith's The Accidental (which I really dislike!) is a good way to ease into this kind of fiction. Great video!
+A Hermit's Progress Thanks a lot, and good luck with Calvino! I am a huge fan of his, and I'm especially fond of his Ancestors' trilogy (The Cloven Viscount, the Baron in the Trees and the Nonexisting Knight). The Baron in particular is an incredibly fascinating book.
Really good video 'bout really good books... at least those I've read (De Lillo, Vonnegut, Calvin, Marquez). I really want to read Pynchon... I've read American Dust and Trout fishing in America by Brautigan and I found them awesome.
Good choices! I think others good introductions to PoMo could be Robert Coover's "The Public Burning," "A Night at the Movies," "Pinocchio in Venice" and "The Universal Baseball Association" and why not? Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" or one recent book "You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine" by Alexandra Kleeman. Or some recent meta-fictional novels as "10:04" by Ben Lerner or "The Unchangeable Spots of the Leopard" by Kristopher Jansma or "Book of Numbers" by Joshua Cohen. And for hardcore readers what about John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse" and Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." And, oh, an italian author I'm reading in these months: Massimiliano Parente, of whom I may suggest "L'inumano" and "Il più grande artista del mondo dopo Adolf Hitler" (even if I'm not sure he could be tagged as PoMo, but it's interesting the way he uses contemporary art and science in his fiction)
Alisdair Gray's work is definitely postmodernist and definitely worth reading (albeit not as an introduction, perhaps). Works like "1982, Janine" and "Lanark" are brilliant. He's very, VERY revered here in Scotland though I get the impression he isn't as well known abroad, but they're definitely worth checking out.
I've red both a hundred years of solitude and midnight's children. they're amazing and I'm definetly going to read the others you suggested. Have you ever read Martin Amis's "Time's arrow"??? If not, I strongly suggest you to read it. You'll enjoy it :) thank you for your videos!
These are very good suggestions. I am a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, but Breakfast of champions is not a very good book to start with his bibliography, in my opinion. Another good suggestion would be Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau. Have you read Mother Night? I think it's one of the best books by Kurt Vonnegut.
+Rishabh Chaudhary Nope, I didn't know it actually, will have to check it out! I am not excessively fond of Breakfast of Champions neither, but I put it here because with all the drawings and narrative gimmicks I think it gives reader quite a good idea of what postmodernism is about. Thanks for the feedback :)!
I never thought 100 years of solitude as post-modernism. Its style would be better classified as Magical Realism, since it's probably the greatest work of that style. Though, now that i think about it, Magical Realism might be the latin-american equivalent of post-modernism. Both styles happened or peaked around the same time, too.
It's the kind of issue that keeps lit students up all night :) I tend to look at magical realism more as a genre, and at postmodernism as a movement, so that the two things aren't in contradiction (the way Gravity's Rainbow or some of Philip Dick's stuff can be sci-fi AND postmodern). BUT I have several friends who studied latin-American magical realism, and they would probably disagree, and so on and so forth ;)
I think Alasdair Gray is a good guy to get into. Of his books I particularly like _Lanark_ and _Poor Things._ They're both very readable and entertaining. Gray has a direct, down-to-earth, style at odds with the "difficult" reputation of postmodernism. They both deal with the boundaries between genres and fictional worlds. And they're both science fiction.
Bookchemist, you are so cool! Thank you for the amazing suggestions! And nice sweater. I thought you might be interested to know that Gravity's Rainbow was the first really Postmodern book I've read! 😂
Great video, will definitely check out the ones I've not read. I'd recommend anything by Chris Bachelder, not as well known as most of these picks but his stuff is easy, really funny and definitely postmodern. They are all good but Bear Vs Shark is probably the best. Love your stuff, keep it coming, maybe something on post-postmodern lit next?
The only book of those that I have read is One Hundred Years of Solitude and it was fantastic, very easy to read too, a total experience. And I would like to recomend Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, which is a collection of mindblow short stories, some of them very easy to read and some not that much, but still awesome, very postmodern all of them. Saludos de Venezuela.
+Oscar Lopera I love Borges :) and I should definitely re-read Fictions, it's been ages! I should have put it in this video, in fact :P! Cheers and thanks for the feedback :)
I like how invested in these books you are. The only one I have read is Slaughterhouse-Five and I think that I was not prepared for it. I found the novel silly. But, that is because I compared it to all the other books I've read. I have read Jameson's book on Postmodernism and, to be honest, I was no more knowledgeable about Postmodernism after reading it than I was before I read his book. I will say that what I do know of Postmodernism leaves me grinning. Why? Because it seems that Postmodernism is a way of disconnecting from reality which, for me, is to say disconnecting from responsibility. But, personal opinion. I actually own several of the books you have mentioned. I just need to pull them out and start reading them with expectations not connected to reality.
To be honest I'm not the biggest Jameson fan myself ;) Your take on the idea of postmodernism as a way of sneering on responsibilities and rejecting all solutions is legit, and widely shared too, but I must say that many postmodern authors (Pynchon paramount among all) overcome that type of impasse in the later phase of their career
I just got through reading Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Stranger, which is a Postmodern book. I loved it! Right off the bat, the thought of people scrambling about to find a completed copy of the book they were reading is funny. As the book continued, I began to see where, for me, it seemed Calvino was poking gentle fun at the various techniques found in the Postmodern literature. When I could grasp what he was talking about, I had a smile on my face all through the book. I studied Jameson's book with a friend a few years back, so I told him about If On A Winter's Night. He gave me a copy of Invisible Cities he found and is getting a copy of the the Winter book in order that we can read it together and discuss it. I really enjoyed the book but it is so layered I know I hardly got all of what is in it.
Have you read "Under the Volcano" by Malcolm Lowry? If not you should check it out. Goes right over my head, as does most postmodern literature...but I think somebody as bright as you might be able to enjoy it. It has a lot of beautiful prose and a great setting and mood, but I'm a dummy and can't seem to stay focused for too long before I start reading on autopilot and not processing any of the words.
Nope I haven't! I know it's some kind of classic but I know absolutely nothing about Lowry - I actually believed it was closer to Modernism than pomo! You made me curious :)
As someone who picked up Vonnegut in high school as my first book "for fun", It's weird looking him as a complex literary trailblazer, even though he is. I just saw him as some cheeky guy writing great fart jokes.
just discovered your channel, love it already very interesting to see 100 years of solitude in this list, a lot of lterary latinamerican trends (mainly in the literar boom of the sixties and seventies) could very well be considered proto-postmodernism and I think the reason it gets over looked it's cause latinamerican politics aren't as well documented as American or European politics anyways, great video and will def check calvino's book sounds like something right up my alley
I was expecting to see Gravity's Rainbow in this list but you surprised me with Lot 49. Fantastic list! I picked up DeLillo after I saw your video on him being one of your favorite authors (I think?). Though "The Names" isn't one of his best works, his writing is brilliant.
+Sookie Skipper I don't think Gravity's Rainbow is a good "introduction" to the genre, I think it's pretty much just for hardcore readers or scholars; I have friends who study postmodernism or American literature for a living and who really can't stand that book! I'd say Crying is less controversial :)
+Sookie Skipper I don't think Gravity's Rainbow is a good "introduction" to the genre, I think it's pretty much just for hardcore readers or scholars; I have friends who study postmodernism or American literature for a living and who really can't stand that book! I'd say Crying is less controversial :)
This is a funny video that also seriously brings home the nature of postmodernism. Speaking of which, read STATION ELEVEN, by Emily St. John Mandel, a fabulous postmodern work (2014) that is highly rated and under-rated at the same time. It could be called post-apocalyptic, but it's quintessentially about, well, us. Human beings. It also shows that seeing time as linear is a serious mistake. NOT confusing-a beautiful read.
Oh great this looks like a list of books I've been meaning to pick up...apart from 100 years of Solitude which I dnf'd, but now I feel I should give it another try.
Do you know any resources that could teach me about ontology in this context? Is the way you use the word "ontology" in regards to post-modern literature any different than it's general usage?
Calvino's Cosmicomics and Blow-Up by Julio Cortazar (if you want something a little "warmer") or any collection by Donald Barthelme, or John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, if you want something more cerebral!
This is so awesome! I've loved DeLillo's The Names and Libra, and Pynchon's GR. Do you have any more recommendations? P.S.: All these are going in my wishlist :D
+Asher Deep Well of course the easy recommendations are all other DeLillo and Pynchon novels :) if you like Libra's brand of thrilling postmodernism Jonathan Franzen's debut novel The 27th City is also a must. Dope novels, the best he's written!
I read White Noise a couple years ago and I barely remember anything. I only distincly remember the guy who tried something with snakes and ended up getting bitten. It left me feeling kind of like a wet fart. There was something deeply banal about all the goings on. Is that what it means to be post modern? should I give it another read?
To be completely honest, my first reading of White Noise didn't leave me with much more than a general sense of strangeness for certain aspects of life I'd always taken for granted (first and foremost our reliance on technology/entertainment), and vast amusement for Jack Gladney's jealous scheming. More broadly speaking, I think reading postmodern fiction from a contemporary perspective is a difficult feat, and to fully appreciate what books like DeLillo's (or early Pynchon's, Barth's etc) are trying to do, you must read quite a lot of the stuff to tune yourself in to its atmosphere, humor, attitudes etc. It's obviously up to each reader to decide if this is something worth their time!
KANEDAAAAA I mean, I haven't read Valis yet! I'm going to lose all my literary cred right now, but I have to confess I'm not Philip Dick's biggest fan out there - I love some of his books (Ubik, Androids), but was kinda disappointed with others (Bloodmoney, High Castle). As a result I've developed a sort of block when it comes to reading more of his stuff. I'll go back to him one day soon though!
I'd like to see a review of The Scarlet Letter soon. It's difficult and strange, of course, and it's not very erotic for a novel about adultery. But it's a literary masterpiece, and I find myself enjoying it greatly.
+Anand Venigalla I've never read it! Actually, although contemporary American literature is technically my area of expertise, I have read very few American classics from the 19th century, especially among the longest ones!
I have read two of Kurt Vonnegut's books: Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle. There is something about Vonnegut's writing that rubs me up the wrong way.
I didn't find Vonnegut most captivating either. Try reading Erich Maria Remarque and maybe start with Arch Of Triumph or Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.And then there is always John Updike and he is everybody's friend author . You can start with Run Rabbit Run.
The only PoMo I've read is David Foster Wallace's fiction, especially Infinite Jest. Looking forward to read more, though (it's my favourite book). But I guess you would describe it as "post-post-modern", right? I read its definition and didn't stick to the concept: once you go PoMo, you can't go back...PoPoMos are just contemporary romanticists with a touch for style and keen eye for the chaos of our world, like you said in the other video.
+br34 Oh I forgot about Guimaraes Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas! I don't think there's an English translation, but he's the greatest Brazilian writer of all times, along with Machado de Assis.
+br34 I have been studying different definitions of post-postmodernism lately and yeah, the whole genre is kind of a mess. I mean postmodernism itself still is largely a fuzzy concept, let alone what follows it. I would personally call IJ post-postmodern, but more out of its author's poetics (Wallace explicitly wanted to leave behind the deconstructive and caustic irony of postmodernism) than out of any specific literary feature of the book.
+The_Bookchemist That is really interesting and I understand what you mean; in some parts IJ combines this poetics with an abuse of detail where absurdity/humour/humanity are fuzzed
I'm actually surprised that I have read a couple of these, I didn't enjoy or understand one hundred years of solitude, even being a Spanish speaker I found it "disgusting" in some parts, the pedophilia mainly and I know that was part of the culture of the moment but still turned out my stomach. Slaughterhouse 5 I enjoyed immensely and plan to continue reading more of him. Salman Rushdie is on my list already :D and now every other book you mentioned. Thanks!
+quickthunder86 Funny you should mention!, I recently purchased a collection of his short stories because a professor of mine suggested it. So far I've only read his collection Untouched by Human Hands but it was ages ago!
+Andy McKinney Metafiction is indeed a common (really, the most common) postmodernist device, used to remind the reader of the artificiality of what he's reading and, a layer beyond that, of the artificiality of modern reality itself. But there are plenty of metafictional passages in classic literature too (even in authors like Jane Austen and Walter Scott), so metafiction itself doesn't make a book PoMo (not to me at least!)
"For those of you who'd rather take that red pill!" This must have been right at the edge of the last time you could say this and feel that you're just making a Matrix reference. feelsbadman
Would you say that Terry Pratchett was also a post-modern author, considering how he constantly played with conventions, broke the fourth wall, made fun of his own universe, and even started one of his novels with "It was a dark and stormy night"?
They are both veeery blurry categories that mean different things according to whom you ask, but they don't exclude each other; if you ask me, Rushdie is definitely both things (as is, most notably, Garcia Marquez).
Ah fair enough, that makes sense. Are there any other examples, aside from Garcia Marquez, who fall into that category? And, somewhat realted and out of interest, are you familiar with Alisdair Gray?
I’m ready if on a winters night a traveler and I’m so mad,bored, confused. This is just a bunch of babble that gives me no reason to be interested in what it’s saying. Why read if it isn’t enjoyable. Wasted my time. Hate my teacher who told me to read this
*a washing machine interrupts a video about postmodern fiction with a song*
Your caveat above about the danger of being turned into a "paranoid weirdo" reminds me that back when I was a grad student , one of my friends recommended that I should read "V", which led to my being hooked on Pynchon for life. I had a friend in the English department who shared my enthusiasm; when I mentioned to her that I was planning to start on "The Crying of Lot 49", she shook her head and said, "that's the book that drove Y_____ insane" ...(Y____ being a mutual acquaintance who was convinced that government agents or extraterrestrials were tormenting him by transmitting threatening messages to him via his dental fillings).
As someone who was really sucked into the New Age movement in my late teens and early twenties, The Crying of Lot 49 really spoke to me. Nothing else really gives you that paradoxical feeling of knowing more than you have ever known while also finding out you're more in the dark about important aspects of the conspiracies you believe in.
.....quiting weed helped me come to my senses
Kurt Vonnegut. Yes. He answers the big questions with humor and ease and is never condescending. I wrote him a fan letter once and got a postcard in reply that he designed. Write to living authors. They love it! I also got letters from John Irving and Jack Williamson.
When anyone mentions Vonnegut I hear harps playing in background. It makes me want to kneel on a prayer mat and bow towards Indianapolis.
+Fleur Bandito I sometimes think about it and realize that possibly no one else in, like, human history combined enjoyability and irony and emotion and wits so brilliantly as Vonnegut. Except for fucking Shakespeare, always spoiling my exaggerations
+Fleur Bandito Perfect way of describing my feelings towards people who've read and enjoyed Vonnegut
You're on the correct track Boyo
Never understood someone who dislikes Vonnegut.
I am intrigued how post modern fiction later influenced movies. Pulp Fiction is certain a post modern film, but my favorite is PT Anderson's Magnolia. As a matter of fact, David Foster Wallace was Anderson's English lit professor for a short time. I can see a huge influence on Anderson's work.
I love Paul Thomas Anderson, but I think Charlie Kaufman's films are my favorite in the genre ("Synecdoche, New York" being the most deeply postmodern example). He also recently wrote a postmodern novel (Antkind) which may very well be my favorite book of all time. It was without a doubt the funniest book I've ever read.
When I think of the most postmodern movies made in America, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Punch-Drunk Love, and Alien all come to mind. If you like foreign films I’d recommend checking out the movies of Jean-Luc Godard like Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Pierrot Le Fou, and Weekend or the movie of Wong-Kar Wai like Chungking Express and Fallen Angels (though his films arguably fit as well or better into post-postmodernism).
It’s tricky because film as a medium’s origin is modernist, and much of common film criticism and theory is neomodernist, so postmodernism in film (if that’s even a thing) looks/feels very different than in other mediums
Just to add to the list of great post-modernist films, id say works that fit the bill perfectly are like Persona, Satantango, Post tenebras lux, Sleep has her house, Norte the end of history, Uncle Boonmee/ Cemetary of splendor (i highly recommend to anyone interested in magical realism in film), Costa (horse money, vitalina varela), Ruiz (city of pirates, mysteries of Lisbon)
as well as mentioned above the french new wave, but also the czech new wave and japanese new wave, bonus for the french new extremity.
I’d like to recommend “The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor,” by John Barth, to anyone who would like to sample post-modern literature. It’s a delightful read, not too difficult (once you get used to the narrative style), and not very long. It’s no like anything I’ve ever read, and I loved it. 💕
Spot on selection! If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino is one of my favorites. I would also add At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (okay, maybe not really post-modern, but) to me it is a clear inspiration or influence (okay, maybe not really, but I cannot help myself thinking otherwise) on such books: V. by Thomas Pynchon, (the mentioned) If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (another one of my favorites); so if you like At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien there is a good chance you will like those as well, hence it is a bridge to post-modernism. Maybe it is a roundabout way of reasoning (but I cannot help myself thinking otherwise).
I’ve only started reading books a year ago, and by watching this I’ve just realized that I’m somehow unknowingly keep on picking up post-modernist books. Love Vonnegut to bits, am reading Midnight’s Children, and One Hundred years of Solitude is on my shopping cart waiting to be checked out.
Will definitely have a look on your recommendations! Thank you for this video!
My situation exactly! I started reading in November 2020 at the ripe old age of 29, and now I can't stop reading these postmodern books!
I remember watching my mother reading thillers and I would tell her "I'd love to start reading, but not thrillers" and she would reply "what else is there to read then, fantasy books?". I've always been into niche music and movie genres, I should have suspected that books worked the same way.
I am forever thankful for finding your channel when I was doing my thesis. So much love for you
Probably not the best of choices, but Gravity's Rainbow was my first taste of pm fiction. I don't think I got more than a quarter of the way through on the first attempt. Months later, when I finally came back to it, I just accepted that I won't always understand what is happening or why and let my imagination live in the moment page by page. I finished it and really enjoyed it.
+sixtofive That's the best way to go about some of Pynchon's novels ;) and yeah that was pretty hardcore for a first postmodern novel :)!
VALIS by PKD is explicitly more postmodern since it attacks the nature of reality way more closely (partially because it's based on PKD's hallucinations that made him question reality). The trade off is that it's also extremely bizarre and at times over the top, but that's part of the fun.
I love valis
Slaughter House Five is one of my favorite books too. Looking forward to read more post-modern novels soon.
same
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster was my introduction to postmodern fiction. I didn't know postmodern fiction existed, but by stumbling onto that book, there I was, reading it, and enjoying it. The New York Trilogy is a collection of three short novels, so it won't take much time investment, and if one doesn't like the the first story (City of Glass), then there is no reason to read the next two, and their postmodern experiment can be over in a couple of hours. City of Glass has all the postmodern staples, but is straight forward in prose, so it's one of the easier postmodern books to read. My enjoyment of that book eventually got me to Auster's more famous friend, Don Delillo, where I agree, his White Noise is another fantastic starter, and probably my favorite book in the genre. White Noise says everything that needs to be said about the last fifty years in America, which is striking because thirty years have passed since it was written, and it covered that too.
+ExLionTamer13 Oh yeah you're totally right, the New York Trilogy works brilliantly as gateway drug too - especially for fans of detective fiction :)
+The_Bookchemist Auster has said in a few interviews that he's bigger in Europe than the U.S., and he has attributed it to his simpler prose being easier to translate into other languages. I imagine you read Auster in Italian, so you're the perfect person for me to ask, do you find this to be true? Also how much affect do translations have in the success of books in Italy? Do some books die there due to bad translations?
+ExLionTamer13 It IS true that Auster is rather popular here in Italy, and widely studied too. I did read him in Italian (I read his works a few years ago, and back then I still did not read all of my English books in the original) but I can't tell you much about it, mostly because I'd need to read them in English too to give you an idea about that. As for translations, that's a tricky topic: if you ask people in the academia, they'll tell you all translations suck massively, each and every one. Seriously - I still have to find a Foreign Languages student or professor who says something like "yeah, the translator did a good job here." I work as a freelance translator myself and I can understand why a job so precarious as translation and a means so sacred as literature always result in shitstorms when they collide.
... So yeah, if you ask people they'll tell you that literary translations all suck, but again, I believe they are mostly exaggerating. As for the books themselves, they don't die at all because of that - most people knew too little English to understand while they're reading whether something's off with the translation or not. Which troubles me a bit, but what can you do?
It is true that some American authors are way more famous than others here in Italy for whatever reason (like, Philip Roth is super-famous, Mordecai Richler is too, but I don't think anybody knew who Foster Wallace was until his death). I don't know why that's so; it must also be said that here in Italy American literature is largely unknown and goes largely un-studied, even in universities. Really, I have heard more than once people (stupid people of course, but still) ask me "why, do Americans have a literature too?"
+The_Bookchemist That is all is very interesting. Language itself is a difficult enough obstacle to translate, so getting point-of-view across too, must be close to impossible. I can see Foster Wallace's voice coming across as almost aggressively American. So embedded in American pop culture, and American academia, fucking Tennis, I could see many Italians having little interest in any of it. Whereas Roth and Richler, so driven by Jewish suffering, might seem more universal a point of view, as we all suffer, and then you throw in Jewish guilt too -- Having seen a few Fellini films -- The religious guilt runs strong in Italy too. That would be my completely uninformed speculation of their respective success in a country I've never been to (although my grandparents came from Napoli!).
You re-reading City of Glass in English, might be an interesting experiment.
Great to see this video in my subscribers feed, I was one of the people asking for it. Read some of those, but I love you setting them in the genre. Looking forward to read the rest.
The more I get to know it, the more I am convinced that Latin-American Literature is full of marvellous and portentous post-modernist novels - Bolaño, Vargas Llosa, and still many others to discover. I do think that Latin-American Literature "is the future"!
Don't foget Cortázar and also Jorge Luis Borges.
a lot of lterary latinamerican trends (mainly in the literar boom of the sixties and seventies) could very well be considered proto-postmodernism and I think the reason it gets over looked it's cause latinamerican politics aren't as well documented as American or European politics
, this trend has kinda faded away, with all literary trends over here sadly, but you're goddamn right there are a lot of latinamerican classics and a lot of them are post-modern too
Thank you so much for this video and all your content. Having recently finished House of Leaves, I was looking for my next post-modern read and landed on Slaughterhouse Five to start based on this video. You’re right, it is a perfect novel. It was so thought provoking and a real call to action, or call to peace more specifically. It is one of my favourite books too now! Thank you again. I’ll be working my way through your other recommendations now!
The Complete Cosmicomics, Castle of Crossed Destinies and all Calvino's shortform + Lost in the Funhouse by Barthe which I just started!
you're my new favourite youtuber thanks man
The Broom of The System is one I would recommend. it's not short but it's really easy to read.
Spot on! :-D
Can you make your top 5 Delillo novels public? Would love to watch it.
I'm so glad you're doing these videos! I'm reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and watched your video on it which I thought was superbly balanced and insightful.
I'd add John Barth's novel The Sotweed Factor (1960) to your list - it's a hugely enjoyable, playful game of a book.
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry by B.S. Johnson
I KNOW you'll enjoy this short little postmodern masterpiece. And it's comedic and not dense at all, I recommend it as the first novel anyone should read to get into Postmodernism because of how accessible it is whilst still being a great example.
That sounds awesome, I've added it to my list :)
@@TheBookchemist God damn it man I'm WAITING ON MY REVIEW! (please)
I love your stuff, your enthousiasm, thanxx a lot, I only just discovered you yesterday, Bookchemist!
Personally I should love to add 'The Hitchhikers guide into the Galaxy' the omnibus of 5 parts, of Douglas Adams. Hilarious, and touching and weird and uplifting and ceashing, wow...!
Gravity's Rainbow was the first book of postmodernism that I had ever read. But... my undergraduate degree is in postmodern and existential philosophy.
My first question is immediately what your thoughts are on the New Sincerity "genre" if you will, I hate that word, too. I want to say the only book I would potentially add to this is DFW's The Broom of the System. It's not the best book in the world, but it's a fun read and is pretty funny at times.
I usually tell people that if they are interested in Postmodern lit then The Crying of Lot 49, White Noise, or The Broom of the System are where to start. I think so much of Postmodernism is difficult that the first books should be moderately challenging. I've never thought Crying of Lot 49 was truly difficult, just something that you needed to be attentive towards. That's my best advice to anyone interested: that if you're going to read this stuff then you're going to have to really learn to be attentive to each word in your reading. If you're used to Modernism already then I think you're prepared (Joyce is harder than much of Postmodernism, imo.), but if you just want to make the leap into it, don't be discouraged if you don't understand something, and don't keep rereading and rereading until you get a paragraph. Some things you just won't and that is okay. Half of being attentive is realizing that. For instance, I just read DeLillo's Ratner's Star. I didn't understand a single Mathematical concept in the book, but I finished it and had my own thoughts about the novel anyway.
Looking forward to your top ten list.
+Keith Witty I agree with the "don't stop just carry on" ethic, with some books it's the only sensible solution. I would perhaps not suggest The Broom of the System in a video like this one, mostly because to me that's already a work of late (post-?) postmodernism, one that engages with the authors coming before it... I wouldn't call it high postmodernis. (Moreover, being a hardcore Pynchonian, to me it's heresy to read Broom without having read Crying... which is the book Broom kinda rips off. I liked Broom, really, but I'd say that to me that's more or less a book just for Wallace completionists.)
As for the New Sincerity business, I have studied it extensively in the last few years and the more I study the more I realize how much of a mess it is. I mean postmodernism already is slippery as fuck, let alone the people who react agianst it. You can draw connections here and there (the obvious ones, Wallace-Franzen-Eggers) but not many that make much sense or have any cultural value outside academic taxonomy. I'll hopefully try and offer some ideas about it all (or at least about a slice of the whole movement) if any college feels like funding my PhD research proposal.
Thanks for the feedback as always, the top ten's coming in a few days - I already filmed it :)!
DFW claimed he hadn't read Crying of Lot 49 at the time he had written Broom. Always found that interesting. I think it is during an interview with Bookworm that he says it, he sounds defensive when he says it. Not sure what to think there.
Good luck with your proposal, academia is hell, I got out of it while I felt I still had a chance to.
+Keith Witty I didn't know about that interview but I am 95% sure he was lying. I checked briefly and his biography denies the claim (you know, Every Ghost Story, p. 30); I also knew (the biography itself is pretty clear about it) that after Broom came out he had a small breakdown because not a single reviewer out there failed to see the debt he owed to Pynchon. But well, with these things you're never entiely sure, it's always such a mess.
You probably did well with your choice, we'll see how it goes for me - the next couple of years should be quite interesting indeed.
Thanks for the suggestions. Just borrowed "If on a winter's night a traveler" from my girlfriend and will be starting it in the next couple of days!
Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow and One Hundred Years of Solitude and looking for something a bit easier next. Thanks!
Underrated writer: Roberto Bolaño. (The Savage Detectives, 2666, Nazi Literature in America) His books are probably an eclectic mix of modern and post-modern.
Vonnegut flows nice, tells many things and draws many pictures , with each page I turn I expect to be further down the road and I am still running in circles .At times I felt impatient following his story. But then again I haven't read enough of KV to be most objective of his work. On the other hand Orwell will fill your fuel tank to the rim . Better get ready for a bumpy road and make sure you won't be getting up early the next morning . Last year I picked up Homage To Catalonia and I could not put the book away .It is just such a brilliant story of real men who are filled with idealism to the rim , who love and hate with deepest passion , men who will kill without any hesitation anyone opposing their beliefs . I respect and admire George Orwell very much .God bless his soul.
Just start with The Recognitions. What could go wrong?
I love a lot of postmodern drama. Waiting for Godot, or Six Characters in Search of an Author, anything by Pinter. Do you enjoy reading plays? Only read a few pm novels; Slaughterhouse Five (which I loved), and Camus' The Fall, (he counts, right?) but I've had my eye on 100 Years of Solitude for a long while now. Thanks for a great list!
+BooksandQuestions I do, though not extremely much - I'm not a huge theater buff, though I do enjoy watching a play every once in a while. I do like Pirandello's Six Characters a lot (to me that's a play that's good straight from the page, even if you don't get the chance of seeing it on stage). As for Camus, I wouldn't know - I still have to read his fiction! Thanks for the feedback :)
There is a brilliant filmed performance of Godot (by the Abbey in Dublin as far as I know) available on youtube somewhere. Something about the actors' Irish accents really brings the humour to life. It's flippin hilarious!
You are so helpful. I'm very glad to have found your channel. Thanks for sharing.
I'm not sure if someone has said it already, but City of Glass by Paul Auster is, at least for me, a great example of postmodernism. (It's quite short as well).
+Viktor Skog Totally agree, City of Glass would work brilliantly as an introduction to postmodernist fiction ;)
9:27: Hi there. Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow while never having read any other post modern books. At times I am deeply confused, but I am always simply mesmerized by the book.
Good luck, sounds like you've jumped with both feet into a swamp! You probably couldn't have made it more difficult for yourself lol, but I think that is the general experience people have when reading it though!
Excellent! I can't wait for a Post-Postmodernism and a Top 10 Book Read in 2015 video :D
These are some great suggestions-- I haven't read them all, but I particularly love the Rushdie and the Calvino. The only Calvino I've read is On a Winters Night a Traveller, but I'm looking forward to getting to some of his other books next year. For introductions to postmodernism I think somthing like Ali Smith's The Accidental (which I really dislike!) is a good way to ease into this kind of fiction. Great video!
+A Hermit's Progress Thanks a lot, and good luck with Calvino! I am a huge fan of his, and I'm especially fond of his Ancestors' trilogy (The Cloven Viscount, the Baron in the Trees and the Nonexisting Knight). The Baron in particular is an incredibly fascinating book.
Really good video 'bout really good books... at least those I've read (De Lillo, Vonnegut, Calvin, Marquez). I really want to read Pynchon...
I've read American Dust and Trout fishing in America by Brautigan and I found them awesome.
+Lauracio I recently read Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar and I found it awesome too, very imaginative and fascinating, though weird as fuck!
Good choices! I think others good introductions to PoMo could be
Robert Coover's "The Public Burning," "A Night at the Movies," "Pinocchio in Venice" and "The Universal Baseball Association"
and why not? Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad"
or one recent book "You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine" by Alexandra Kleeman. Or some recent meta-fictional novels as "10:04" by Ben Lerner or "The Unchangeable Spots of the Leopard" by Kristopher Jansma or "Book of Numbers" by Joshua Cohen.
And for hardcore readers what about John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse" and Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." And, oh, an italian author I'm reading in these months: Massimiliano Parente, of whom I may suggest "L'inumano" and "Il più grande artista del mondo dopo Adolf Hitler" (even if I'm not sure he could be tagged as PoMo, but it's interesting the way he uses contemporary art and science in his fiction)
Alisdair Gray's work is definitely postmodernist and definitely worth reading (albeit not as an introduction, perhaps). Works like "1982, Janine" and "Lanark" are brilliant. He's very, VERY revered here in Scotland though I get the impression he isn't as well known abroad, but they're definitely worth checking out.
Thanks for the suggestion man, I confess his name doesn't ring a bell! I'll keep him in mind though!
Is The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov postmodern?
I've red both a hundred years of solitude and midnight's children. they're amazing and I'm definetly going to read the others you suggested. Have you ever read Martin Amis's "Time's arrow"??? If not, I strongly suggest you to read it. You'll enjoy it :) thank you for your videos!
Never read it - I know very little about contemporary British fiction! I've added it to my list though, thanks ;)
These are very good suggestions. I am a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, but Breakfast of champions is not a very good book to start with his bibliography, in my opinion. Another good suggestion would be Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau. Have you read Mother Night? I think it's one of the best books by Kurt Vonnegut.
+Rishabh Chaudhary Nope, I didn't know it actually, will have to check it out! I am not excessively fond of Breakfast of Champions neither, but I put it here because with all the drawings and narrative gimmicks I think it gives reader quite a good idea of what postmodernism is about. Thanks for the feedback :)!
I never thought 100 years of solitude as post-modernism. Its style would be better classified as Magical Realism, since it's probably the greatest work of that style. Though, now that i think about it, Magical Realism might be the latin-american equivalent of post-modernism. Both styles happened or peaked around the same time, too.
It's the kind of issue that keeps lit students up all night :) I tend to look at magical realism more as a genre, and at postmodernism as a movement, so that the two things aren't in contradiction (the way Gravity's Rainbow or some of Philip Dick's stuff can be sci-fi AND postmodern). BUT I have several friends who studied latin-American magical realism, and they would probably disagree, and so on and so forth ;)
I think Alasdair Gray is a good guy to get into. Of his books I particularly like _Lanark_ and _Poor Things._ They're both very readable and entertaining. Gray has a direct, down-to-earth, style at odds with the "difficult" reputation of postmodernism. They both deal with the boundaries between genres and fictional worlds. And they're both science fiction.
"Day of the Oprichnik" by Vladimir Sorokin, or "Empire V" by Victor Pelevin
Bookchemist, you are so cool! Thank you for the amazing suggestions! And nice sweater.
I thought you might be interested to know that Gravity's Rainbow was the first really Postmodern book I've read! 😂
Great video, will definitely check out the ones I've not read. I'd recommend anything by Chris Bachelder, not as well known as most of these picks but his stuff is easy, really funny and definitely postmodern. They are all good but Bear Vs Shark is probably the best. Love your stuff, keep it coming, maybe something on post-postmodern lit next?
+Damhán McLaughlin Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know him! And I'll consider filming that video on po-pomo :)
The only book of those that I have read is One Hundred Years of Solitude and it was fantastic, very easy to read too, a total experience. And I would like to recomend Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, which is a collection of mindblow short stories, some of them very easy to read and some not that much, but still awesome, very postmodern all of them.
Saludos de Venezuela.
+Oscar Lopera I love Borges :) and I should definitely re-read Fictions, it's been ages! I should have put it in this video, in fact :P! Cheers and thanks for the feedback :)
I like how invested in these books you are. The only one I have read is Slaughterhouse-Five and I think that I was not prepared for it. I found the novel silly. But, that is because I compared it to all the other books I've read. I have read Jameson's book on Postmodernism and, to be honest, I was no more knowledgeable about Postmodernism after reading it than I was before I read his book. I will say that what I do know of Postmodernism leaves me grinning. Why? Because it seems that Postmodernism is a way of disconnecting from reality which, for me, is to say disconnecting from responsibility. But, personal opinion. I actually own several of the books you have mentioned. I just need to pull them out and start reading them with expectations not connected to reality.
To be honest I'm not the biggest Jameson fan myself ;) Your take on the idea of postmodernism as a way of sneering on responsibilities and rejecting all solutions is legit, and widely shared too, but I must say that many postmodern authors (Pynchon paramount among all) overcome that type of impasse in the later phase of their career
I just got through reading Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Stranger, which is a Postmodern book. I loved it! Right off the bat, the thought of people scrambling about to find a completed copy of the book they were reading is funny. As the book continued, I began to see where, for me, it seemed Calvino was poking gentle fun at the various techniques found in the Postmodern literature. When I could grasp what he was talking about, I had a smile on my face all through the book.
I studied Jameson's book with a friend a few years back, so I told him about If On A Winter's Night. He gave me a copy of Invisible Cities he found and is getting a copy of the the Winter book in order that we can read it together and discuss it. I really enjoyed the book but it is so layered I know I hardly got all of what is in it.
Have you read "Under the Volcano" by Malcolm Lowry? If not you should check it out. Goes right over my head, as does most postmodern literature...but I think somebody as bright as you might be able to enjoy it. It has a lot of beautiful prose and a great setting and mood, but I'm a dummy and can't seem to stay focused for too long before I start reading on autopilot and not processing any of the words.
Nope I haven't! I know it's some kind of classic but I know absolutely nothing about Lowry - I actually believed it was closer to Modernism than pomo! You made me curious :)
As someone who picked up Vonnegut in high school as my first book "for fun", It's weird looking him as a complex literary trailblazer, even though he is. I just saw him as some cheeky guy writing great fart jokes.
just discovered your channel, love it already
very interesting to see 100 years of solitude in this list, a lot of lterary latinamerican trends (mainly in the literar boom of the sixties and seventies) could very well be considered proto-postmodernism and I think the reason it gets over looked it's cause latinamerican politics aren't as well documented as American or European politics
anyways, great video and will def check calvino's book sounds like something right up my alley
Thanks! I love your profile picture :)
Any video on Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek, Last Temptation?
I was expecting to see Gravity's Rainbow in this list but you surprised me with Lot 49. Fantastic list! I picked up DeLillo after I saw your video on him being one of your favorite authors (I think?). Though "The Names" isn't one of his best works, his writing is brilliant.
+Sookie Skipper I don't think Gravity's Rainbow is a good "introduction" to the genre, I think it's pretty much just for hardcore readers or scholars; I have friends who study postmodernism or American literature for a living and who really can't stand that book! I'd say Crying is less controversial :)
+Sookie Skipper I don't think Gravity's Rainbow is a good "introduction" to the genre, I think it's pretty much just for hardcore readers or scholars; I have friends who study postmodernism or American literature for a living and who really can't stand that book! I'd say Crying is less controversial :)
the assassination of kennedy the start of postmodernism? for me, it's ww1 and the french literary reaction to it
Very very good list ❤
This is a funny video that also seriously brings home the nature of postmodernism. Speaking of which, read STATION ELEVEN, by Emily St. John Mandel, a fabulous postmodern work (2014) that is highly rated and under-rated at the same time. It could be called post-apocalyptic, but it's quintessentially about, well, us. Human beings. It also shows that seeing time as linear is a serious mistake. NOT confusing-a beautiful read.
Oh great this looks like a list of books I've been meaning to pick up...apart from 100 years of Solitude which I dnf'd, but now I feel I should give it another try.
Do you know any resources that could teach me about ontology in this context? Is the way you use the word "ontology" in regards to post-modern literature any different than it's general usage?
Any suggestions for someone looking into post-modernist short stories in the vein of Borges' more unorthodox stories?
Calvino's Cosmicomics and Blow-Up by Julio Cortazar (if you want something a little "warmer") or any collection by Donald Barthelme, or John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, if you want something more cerebral!
This is so awesome! I've loved DeLillo's The Names and Libra, and Pynchon's GR. Do you have any more recommendations? P.S.: All these are going in my wishlist :D
+Asher Deep Well of course the easy recommendations are all other DeLillo and Pynchon novels :) if you like Libra's brand of thrilling postmodernism Jonathan Franzen's debut novel The 27th City is also a must. Dope novels, the best he's written!
I read White Noise a couple years ago and I barely remember anything. I only distincly remember the guy who tried something with snakes and ended up getting bitten. It left me feeling kind of like a wet fart. There was something deeply banal about all the goings on. Is that what it means to be post modern? should I give it another read?
To be completely honest, my first reading of White Noise didn't leave me with much more than a general sense of strangeness for certain aspects of life I'd always taken for granted (first and foremost our reliance on technology/entertainment), and vast amusement for Jack Gladney's jealous scheming. More broadly speaking, I think reading postmodern fiction from a contemporary perspective is a difficult feat, and to fully appreciate what books like DeLillo's (or early Pynchon's, Barth's etc) are trying to do, you must read quite a lot of the stuff to tune yourself in to its atmosphere, humor, attitudes etc. It's obviously up to each reader to decide if this is something worth their time!
How about “Tristam Shandy”? It was post-modern before there was modernism.
I'm surprised you didn't mention VALIS, which is easily Philip K. Dick's most postmodern novel. And that's saying a lot.
KANEDAAAAA I mean, I haven't read Valis yet! I'm going to lose all my literary cred right now, but I have to confess I'm not Philip Dick's biggest fan out there - I love some of his books (Ubik, Androids), but was kinda disappointed with others (Bloodmoney, High Castle). As a result I've developed a sort of block when it comes to reading more of his stuff. I'll go back to him one day soon though!
I'd like to see a review of The Scarlet Letter soon. It's difficult and strange, of course, and it's not very erotic for a novel about adultery. But it's a literary masterpiece, and I find myself enjoying it greatly.
+Anand Venigalla I've never read it! Actually, although contemporary American literature is technically my area of expertise, I have read very few American classics from the 19th century, especially among the longest ones!
I have read two of Kurt Vonnegut's books: Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle. There is something about Vonnegut's writing that rubs me up the wrong way.
I didn't find Vonnegut most captivating either. Try reading Erich Maria Remarque and maybe start with Arch Of Triumph or Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.And then there is always John Updike and he is everybody's friend author . You can start with Run Rabbit Run.
The only PoMo I've read is David Foster Wallace's fiction, especially Infinite Jest. Looking forward to read more, though (it's my favourite book).
But I guess you would describe it as "post-post-modern", right? I read its definition and didn't stick to the concept: once you go PoMo, you can't go back...PoPoMos are just contemporary romanticists with a touch for style and keen eye for the chaos of our world, like you said in the other video.
+br34 Oh I forgot about Guimaraes Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas! I don't think there's an English translation, but he's the greatest Brazilian writer of all times, along with Machado de Assis.
+br34 I have been studying different definitions of post-postmodernism lately and yeah, the whole genre is kind of a mess. I mean postmodernism itself still is largely a fuzzy concept, let alone what follows it. I would personally call IJ post-postmodern, but more out of its author's poetics (Wallace explicitly wanted to leave behind the deconstructive and caustic irony of postmodernism) than out of any specific literary feature of the book.
+The_Bookchemist That is really interesting and I understand what you mean; in some parts IJ combines this poetics with an abuse of detail where absurdity/humour/humanity are fuzzed
I'm actually surprised that I have read a couple of these, I didn't enjoy or understand one hundred years of solitude, even being a Spanish speaker I found it "disgusting" in some parts, the pedophilia mainly and I know that was part of the culture of the moment but still turned out my stomach. Slaughterhouse 5 I enjoyed immensely and plan to continue reading more of him. Salman Rushdie is on my list already :D and now every other book you mentioned. Thanks!
New subscriber, thanks for the suggestions.
have you read any Zadie smith books?
+Malibu Thompson White Teeth is on my bedside table and I'd like to read it sometime in 2016, but we'll see about that!
white teeth is great, you should read her review for social network, she destroys zuckerberg nicely
I highly recommend you to read Robert Sheckley's sci-fi novel "Options", which was released in 1975. Postmodernist as fuck!
+quickthunder86 Funny you should mention!, I recently purchased a collection of his short stories because a professor of mine suggested it. So far I've only read his collection Untouched by Human Hands but it was ages ago!
Hey, how about Joseph Heller's "Catch-22'?
It's high time I read that, I know :S
very cool. thx
Are books which feature metafiction classed as postmodernist?
+Andy McKinney Metafiction is indeed a common (really, the most common) postmodernist device, used to remind the reader of the artificiality of what he's reading and, a layer beyond that, of the artificiality of modern reality itself. But there are plenty of metafictional passages in classic literature too (even in authors like Jane Austen and Walter Scott), so metafiction itself doesn't make a book PoMo (not to me at least!)
+The_Bookchemist Oh. There is a detective novel called Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke which I think is PoMo but I am not sure.
"For those of you who'd rather take that red pill!"
This must have been right at the edge of the last time you could say this and feel that you're just making a Matrix reference. feelsbadman
Would you say that Terry Pratchett was also a post-modern author, considering how he constantly played with conventions, broke the fourth wall, made fun of his own universe, and even started one of his novels with "It was a dark and stormy night"?
Why not!
What about postmodern poetry? :)
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov can be a recomendation for this kind of literature.
Is your washing machine modern or post modern.
I'm going to read these books.
I'm not joking.
i just WISH we were friends
Are there collections of postmodernist short stories you'd recommend?
The must-read ones that immediately come to mind are Barth's Lost in the Funhouse and Cortazar's Blow Up! They're both unforgettable
Would you consider The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Postmodern?
Was Rushdie not a magical realist? I nitpick, I guess, but I would never have considered him post-modernist.
They are both veeery blurry categories that mean different things according to whom you ask, but they don't exclude each other; if you ask me, Rushdie is definitely both things (as is, most notably, Garcia Marquez).
Ah fair enough, that makes sense. Are there any other examples, aside from Garcia Marquez, who fall into that category?
And, somewhat realted and out of interest, are you familiar with Alisdair Gray?
The first 2 selections are magical realism... hardly post-modern.
Yes. Vonnegut. Done.
Glad you included Dick, but how about Burroughs?
anyone have any suggestions on post post modernism books? I had no idea that was even a thing, and now my interest is boiling.
ohh yes! I would love some recommendations on that!
This dude reads
Can i have ur mail id sir I need help regarding my research
Interesting, because 100yrs is rather political so it must be considered a sort of outlier.
Any female authors?
Angela Carter certainly stands out (and I'm sure there are many other "big names" I should know!)
I’m ready if on a winters night a traveler and I’m so mad,bored, confused. This is just a bunch of babble that gives me no reason to be interested in what it’s saying. Why read if it isn’t enjoyable. Wasted my time. Hate my teacher who told me to read this
pos-post modernism? please...
Poetry, as I wrote, is part of literature, and you talk only about prose.
Why did you say you are “ a bit of a genre Nazi” In my opinion that is a No Go. Please remember what the Nazis did to this world.
What did they do that the jude0 bolsheviks didnt do, heidegger and rosenberg were pretty good even if their ideology was crooked