This book is a monster desu. What do you frens think of it?

sounds very edgy and pretentious

>pretentious
back to /sffg/

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>author called "Gass"
>novel titled "The Tunnel"
I refuse to believe this is a coincidence. I'm sure Joyce would be very interested in this book.

Also:
>praised by (((Silverblatt)))
So I'm assuming the author glorifies the six gorillions, right?

i wasn't trying to be antagonizing, it's just what I think so far

i was sort of hoping you'd rebute my doubts

is it ever explored as to why he holds antisemitic views? like is he actually talking about the jewish question and stuff?

a desperate sort of person owns these book

shut up

What does that even mean.

silverblatt is based

he is trying to feel better about being a lazy and arrogant brainlet by seeking validation from other brainlets instead of giving the book a honest try

I appreciate you

There’s an unfortunate trend in literature which, perhaps, goes back to Joyce, of making novels into these dense, difficult, intricate puzzles that have to be laboriously studied in order to “get” them. It’s awful, and this book is a product of that. Simplicity, clarity, and directness is far more admirable, not necessarily in the sense of Hemingway, who almost takes it to the point of stupidity, but there are plenty of models one could take for such writing. These pomo (I’m not against post modernism as such) novels that require study and labor to understand do not provide sufficient value to merit such an expenditure of effort. You’re essentially toiling on poor or mediocre soil that will reap a very scant crop. There is nothing to justify expending all that effort on these monstrosities. Maybe Joyce, but the American imitations should be left alone. Joyce tried to put in some real value into what he produced, but the American mentality is unfortunately too masturbatory, and writing these sort of novels is just an excuse to jerk off their ego.

Sums up 99.9% of Yea Forums and people Unironically not reading the meme trilogy

>Posts Infinite Jest anD asks what am I in for, instead of reading it

Americans, I might add, do not only approach the act of writing a novel as a form of masturbation, but also that of reading. That probably explains why these kinda of novels manage to get such a substantial audience. It’s a masturbatory exercise on multiple levels.

Why do you think this is particularly pomo?

>hard
How tf is this hard?

>ironical

>graphical
Also, no it isn't... only the very beginning.

Gass said the illustrations are supposed to make you go 'what the fuck'.

It's not a beast, it's smooth as swamp slime & jfc there are like 6 graphic inserts in the 800 pages, most in the first 30 pages...

>holocaust lies
No, Gass is presenting a photo negative of acceptability with such a straight face that if you check the reviews, he pissed of some Js by not denouncing Hitler. Also, the narrator participates in Kristallnacht & his son is named Adolf

Is this a joke? Hermeneutics of antisemitism? If God is laughter, you're the joke

Why

The Tunnel is an astoundingly smooth read, stupid. Also, your writing is garbage. Eloquence isn't so hard to learn—look into it.

shut up you dumb bitch

The Tunnel was none of those things for me. I just read it straight through and enjoyed it.

smart!

It's miserable proto-incel trash from a nihilistic author who was deep in the closet about his own racist views

>How tf is this hard?
can you read?
hard FOR ME, as I said in the post.
I had little trouble reading finnegans wake or pynchon but this particular book was hard. Not to understand it, but to get through. It felt exhausting even though the writing is great

Racist views? Gass was the most philosemitic writer ever.

I appreciate boomer pomo lit. I think it was generally positive stylistically. Unfortunately all of the writers were brainwashed by jewish TV culture like Pynchon or amazingly transgressive like Gass. They thus failed to pass down a meaningful cultural message.

this isn't an esl book, vato

>philosemitic
I guarantee you cannot point to anything to back this up.

While we're exposing you: Gass is not a boomer by any shot. Even Pynchon is pre-boomer. Look it up before forming these gooey-feelie bullshit opinions. And while you're actually learning about the world, it may help to look into Pynchon's politics & religion.

Lazy thinking is incredibly cringe.

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The book opens up after the first 100-150 pages or so. A bunch of false starts to mirror his failure of wriitng that introduction for his Guilt and Innoncence book. Gets really intimate, well written. Unique, too, read his Omensetter's Luck right after this and it didn't feel right.

Omensetter is a better book

fuck off monolingual mongrel

nice spacing

>rebute
if you don't even know the difference between refute and rebuke, you don't belong here

yeah this

simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. it takes a lot more effort to condense into as concise a form as possible.

That's why I like the book of five rings

Haha you all always respond the same embarassing way. Embarassing. Knowing Spanish/Portugese =\= knowing Greek/Latin. I love the predictable Spanglish brain!!

This is too long for you? Oof

Jack off while reading a phonebook

=^)

>>>>rebute

>praised by a guy named silverblatt
lmao no Im good

written by a career college professor, which guarantees it's tedious trash

both ulysses and finnegans wake are plain as day, user. no puzzle if you actually read em

holy based

Ew imagine the manlet who typed this out and hit send

Top cringe post this year

this book taught me that people on /pol/ are the way they are because they have a small dick

You're Jewish, aren't you?

Same

you guys should really check silverblatt talking with authors he's really knowledgeable and an acute reader he's got interviews with gass on youtube in fact and barth and gaddis not sure about that last one

Thanks user, I'm really excited about these.

They have a certain... well known weakness...

sounds like you're a fat fucking retard

I'd rather you jack me off until I cum in your mouth honestly

I disregard anyone who unironically uses "incel" or to a lesser extent, "racist."

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for your shitposting pleasure

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ok i'll save them and maybe use them sparingly cuz i respect the effort and appreciate the gesture

huh?

>rebute

glorious neologism user

I never expected to see Silverblatt memes

>"Some may seize on it as a postmodern masterpiece, but it is a bloated monster of a book. [...] The bloat is a consequence of sheer adipose verbosity and an unremitting condition of moral and intellectual flatulence. [...] The abjection of (Gass') hero seems less lived than written. It is an act of ventriloquism"

I've posted this more or less every time I've seen The Tunnel talked about on here. But I just read this recently and absolutely loved it. One of the best works of literature I've ever read. So hateful and honest. Another user some thread months ago talked about how Gass captures the bigotry that is inherent in Americans (in particular men) and it's a completely coherent thesis in the novel. He even has a "chapter" about how he became a bigot.

My favorite section though, without a doubt, is Do Rivers. Absolutely beautiful writing, and heart breaking. I have Gass' little work on literature, but I'm almost afraid to read anything else. After The Tunnel I immediately read the little work on the color Blue, and enjoyed it. But The Tunnel stands alone. The only other book that I enjoyed this much was probably Moby Dick... or maybe Proust when I first started.

While I'm here another recommendation from this year: Havoc by Kristensen. If you're reading The Tunnel and enjoying the hatred, perhaps you'd enjoy the kind of cynical nihilism/defeat of Kristensen.

It's great. One of the best I've ever read. But I like prose over plot though (I think).

Read Omenetter's Luck and Middle C

Good prose, but lacked impactful stories. Very cynical and jaded. Revels in self-pity and the disgusting.

Sorry to say, but it reads like Gass himself looks, like a fat angry eunuch.

Sure, but coming from The Tunnel? I expected something avantgarde in terms of format. Not just a good novel.

Yes, it's probably because those terms are accurate descriptions of your personality and you have no rebuttal

Omensetter was very avant garde... The Tunnel less so... You think weird text formatting = experimental? Huh?

Huh?

I specifically wrote it was avant garde in terms of format. How are you unable to read that? It's only in literary fiction you see this sort of playing around.

Omen is as avant as any other mo/pomo stuff.

only true post here

milan kundera has some great quote that no goes to the effect of 'no novel should be so long that you forget the start by the time you reach the end'

io non sono espagnolo ed io anche non sono italiano faggot :)

isn't that a bit reductive, assuming that every novel is an exercise in narrative? what about novels that are formally experimental? i don't buy that shit at all, some of my favourite experiences reading were from transcendent, non-linear works

Literally what

I'm Danish and haven't read Havoc (Hærværk). Feel like I should get to it, bit of a tome, innit, though?

Literally your inaptitude

>There’s an unfortunate trend in literature which, perhaps, goes back to Joyce, of making novels into these dense, difficult, intricate puzzles that have to be laboriously studied in order to “get” them. It’s awful, and this book is a product of that. Simplicity, clarity, and directness is far more admirable, not necessarily in the sense of Hemingway,
The hell, this is NOT a pasta?
Good post.

I find it surprising that Yea Forums talks about the tunnel without tristram shandy... it's designed around it...

Anyone care that there’s no such dichotomy as “getting” and “not getting” a novel like this? You can read The Tunnel and appreciate it on several levels without the historical/literary/philosophical background knowledge to pick up on all the allusions. Gass was a prose stylist first and foremost, so half the fun comes from the sentences themselves, which anyone can appreciate. I don’t think Gass was the best writer of these encyclopedic postmodern tomes (Pynchon and Gaddis both have him beat), but I’m tired of people dismissing them as pretentious drivel just because they demand more of the reader than most novels.

Gass fan here. I've read 4 books of Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49 > Inherent Vice > Bleeding Edge > Gravity's Rainbow imo. What Pynchon books have you read and how do you rank them? I ask because the only "big" one I've read is Gravity's Rainbow and I thought it was okay. I personally think Gass is a better writer. Gaddis from what I've read is probably better than both of them.

It's fairly hefty, but it is so damn good I read it in a week.

At least they read books over there

bump