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Authors You Once Loved But Now Have No Time For

Started by Small Man Big Horse, October 04, 2017, 11:13:21 PM

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buttgammon

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 06, 2017, 04:01:20 PM
Yes - Will Self. He lost me at The Butt.

I might re-read the old favourites though, one day. So many books, though.

I was going to say Martin Amis, but I never really loved him in the first place.

The Butt is the one that turned me off him, actually. I never enjoyed his novels as much as his short stories, but that was the point that reading the novels crossed into the territory of being a chore.

MojoJojo

Quote from: mothman on October 05, 2017, 11:54:06 PM
Since I wasn't enjoying then that much myself anymore, I tried looking back through the series to identify when, I guess, the Golden Age Of Pratchett was, and when it ended. I went back through the books, in reverse order, and kept going, and kept going... I came to the conclusion that if there even was a truly great period, it was very brief (it probably ended with Guards! Guards! ... in 1989!) - and that perhaps he hadn't changed, but I had.

I'd probably extend that to to Lords & Ladies - that's probably the best Witches novel, and would have been a conclusion for them. After Guards! Guards! you also have Reaper Man and Small Gods, which are both pretty decent. There other aren't the best, except Eric, which I can't remember at all which probably means I didn't like it, but I've never been very keen on Rincewind.

Just realised how short a gap there was between Moving Pictures and Soul Music, which I think was the first blatant plot reuse - although considering the dodgy ending of Moving Pictures was I'm not surprised he wanted another go at.

Still, 8 "golden age" books and few others isn't shabby. Just went on a bit too long, same problem as the Simpsons.

(And he did do some other stuff like the YA books. )

MojoJojo

Just realised I've confused Small Gods and Pyramids. The Guards Guards idea is looking better.

holyzombiejesus

Second The Beats (and the Brautigan caveat). I'm not sure if Charles Bukowski and Jim Carroll are beat writers - I'm sure both have featured in Beat Scene magazine but I guess that's not the strictest criteria - but I used to really really like all Bukowski's work and The Basketball Diaries but just find them pretty sad nowadays. I might be being a little hard on Hank as, to be fair, Ham on Rye and Hollywood weren't the tired retreads that make up much of his work but, gah, what a tiresome bore. Maybe I got it wrong when I was young but are you actually supposed to like, even admire, the guy? I'm pretty sure my peers and I did and thought he was pretty cool but nowadays, if that dickhead walked in to a bar that I was sitting in and started hollering his bullshit, I'd kick the shit out of him quietly shuffle out whilst avoiding eye contact. And the less said about Jim Carroll's tedious junkie chic bollocks the better.

Actually, I just had a look at the list of beat writers that wiki provides and I've only read about 10 of the 60-odd listed so I might be being harsh.

Genevieve

The last Kerouac I read was The Town and the City about four years ago, I suppose he hadn't quite developed his breathless style yet but I loved it.  It occurs to me though, maybe coming-of-age tales become boring as you age because you know all your adventures are behind you and you're too tired to start anything new, which is a rather frightening thought.  Read lots of books when you're young kids!  Before everything seems like a waste of time!

hewantstolurkatad

Kurt Vonnegut
Honestly, after going through all the major ones when I hit Mother Night I kind of went "yep, really liked this one but I think I'm done"

Haruki Murakami
You publish a 1000+ page book and I'm immediately gonna become a bit wary of you in general, several years removed from reading anything by him I'm just afraid I'll be embarrassed.

JD Salinger
Really liked the Catcher in the Rye even though I'd've probably adored it a few years earlier. Nine Stories started out incredibly well but by the end there was enough there to give me the impression he was an extremely talented writer who was leaning towards writing stuff that didn't play to his strengths at all.


Repeater

Aw the usual fuckers innit - Chuck, Brett, Dougie Coupie.

Urinal Cake

Neil Gaiman- read American Gods
Roberto Bolano- it was fashionable

Hemulen

Quote from: MojoJojo on October 06, 2017, 05:10:46 PMStill, 8 "golden age" books and few others isn't shabby. Just went on a bit too long, same problem as the Simpsons.

Right then, time to show my colours here. I am a long-time Pratchett fan - not "goes to conventions dressed as Rincewind" level, but "has read pretty much everything he's ever written" level - and I would say there are two "golden ages" of Discworld novels. The first run that others have already pointed to is indeed wonderful, and I will admit things get a bit iffy around Soul Music through to The Fifth Elephant. That was Discworld on autopilot and I don't blame anyone for losing interest there.

But after that I think he had an incredible second wind during which he produced some of his very best work. He doubled down on the satirical elements and started to imbue his writing with a beautiful, humane wisdom that isn't anywhere near as present in his early work. The Truth, Night Watch, Monstrous Regiment, Going Postal, Thud! and the Tiffany Aching series (admittedly, I still have the last of these to read but the first four are magnificent, IMO) are all amongst his best work. It's different, certainly - less forgiving of casual/new fans perhaps as the world is so well developed and "lived in" by this point, and definitely less joke-heavy - but I would say late-period Discworld is well worth checking out even if you lost interest somewhere in that boggy, repetitive middle bit.

Also, he wrote Nation pretty late into his career, and that book is nigh-on perfect.

Dr Syntax Head

Another one bored with Palanhuik. I loved Fight Club, Survivor and Choke a great deal, they spoke to the nihilist inside me. But he's become a pastiche of himself. And his horror writing isn't my thing though Rant was quite good.


Dr Syntax Head

I still enjoy the beats and very much still read Hunter S. I think it's a nostalgia thing like when I listen to the music I liked when I was younger but don't have much time for because of changing tastes etc. I find the escapism of Kerouac still warming especially now I've got house, family and adult life and all that jazz daddio.


Will Self is a weird one for me, it's like I don't know if I've ever really "enjoyed" his books but I still kind of like them. There seems to be a seriously pessimistic undertone (which given the bloke's general demeanour isn't too surprising) to all of it that at times I just find a bit exasperating. I'd agree The Butt was shite, really didn't even find it interesting. Book of Dave I think is a really good book but again there's just something so unremittingly grim seeping out the seams that I don't know if I enjoyed it.

Having said that I did genuinely enjoy Umbrella and was massively surprised by how good it was. Seemed like a departure from a lot of his earlier stuff. I am a sucker for cut up, fragmented narratives and all that sort of lark though so maybe just was more up my alley.

Vonnegut is another one I have mixed feelings about, like he was really quite influential on my thinking and tastes as a teenager but I just have no enthusiasm to finish off the last few of his books that I've not read.


garbed_attic

Absolutely same experience with me with Pratchett - was monumentally into Discworld as a 12-to-14-year-old (had the maps up on my bedroom wall; collected the metal figurines; made a good go at attempting to play Discworld MUD). Then I got to Jingo, which had been released a couple of years previous, didn't enjoy it - assumed my interest would pick back up and I would skip ahead to The Last Continent. Discovered Asimov, then Kurt Vonnegut and J.G. Ballard and have just never felt inclined to read a Discworld book again since... it's like, all the characters and places exist in my late childhood and encountering them again would be like reading about ghosts. But then, that's part of the pleasures of nostalgia and, again, I've re-read more R. L. Stine books than I have Pratchett's.

I think generally I'm not a snob, but I feel there is a small part of me that side-eyes people who are past their early 20s and still heavily into the Discworld and its lore (which is terrible as I really did love it).

---

More fortunately with Vonnegut I've grown into his later works. So, while Slaughterhouse 5 and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater used to be my pocket-sized humanist bibles, now I find them a little too self-consciously fable-like and feel that while warm and sad and witty and wise, they lack a degree of self-awareness that I think is present in later works like Bluebeard and Deadeye Dick, which are novels I wouldn't have gotten much out of as a teenager, but reading them in my late 20s over the last couple of years really chimed with me.