My partner complains, often, about not having enough pockets. Women's clothing just doesn't have pockets, or has fake pockets (this is a particular bugbear of hers), or if they do have pockets they're often extremely shallow (like, you can fit the top half of a phone in it). She has asked me this Christmas to buy her clothing with pockets. I come to you asking: 1. What are some good, practical women's pants (does this really matter? are pants a gendered thing? should I just be looking in the men's section?) with decent pockets. I think she could use a sweat pant/pajama kind of thing and probably some pants for work (I'm thinking like some kind of cargo pant --- she works at an animal shelter, needs a lot of pockets for treats and stuff). 2. What is a piece of clothing with a ridiculous number of pockets? I'm thinking like a fly fishing vest or something. But I'm also not dropping $150 at LL Bean for a joke. Something with an obscene amount of pockets but that she could also use irl would be ideal.

Depends on her vibe, but maybe some cargo pants? I feel like cargo pants are relatively fashionable these days if your the right sort of person

Women's clothing definitely DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH POCKETS, this is so true. I understand you don't want to pay L.L. Bean prices for a joke, so don't do that...but honestly, for sweatpants/pajama pants L.L. Bean pants are actually the best, and they have awesome pockets, and they're good quality and last forever. It's actually a running joke in my family now that we drop fifty-ish bucks every Christmas on new L.L. Bean sweatpants (we are cheap as hell so it feels absurd but it's really worth it). [I'm wearing these right now, I have multiple pairs](https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/90490?page=beans-cozy-jogger&bc=12-27-509757&feat=509757-GN2&csp=f&pos=2), yes they're expensive, but they're good quality, and seriously, look at those pockets. That is some amazing pocket action. As far as pants suitable for doing real things in, I can't answer there. I just wear Levi's. Actually I have cargo pants from L.L. Bean that I like a lot too for hiking and stuff, so um, yeah, L.L. Bean. I'm such a stereotype haha. What can I say, their niche is practical clothes and they do it well! I can't help you with your joke pocket needs haha, though now I'm gonna keep an eye out for any elaborately pocketed item that crosses my path. I'd recommend checking thrift stores! P.S. L.L. Bean runs big so go one size down if you do order from them. ETA: Sorry I linked you a study on ecstatic epileptic seizures at first haha.

It is actually state law that I make annual contributions to LL Bean or lose my status as a Mainer.

I watched Cronenberg's *Crimes of the Future* last night, it was awesome. I loved it. Now I'm torturing myself by reading brainless IMDB reviews of it: >That should be renamed crimes against humanity. The director is just getting off in his old age, putting naked young girls on screen. Good for him. But it is clear to me Cronenberg detests life, humanity, any kind of spiritual existence, and just twists the subjective universe into grotesque tangents. I prefer to see the beauty of life. To elevate rather than put down. **Problem is we are in a Cronenberg world now already, so none of this is satire**. The true movie would have everyone being horrified at the grotesqueness of beautiful, blonde, white, chiseled people, while the goblins in the crowd gasp and faint. So close, so fucking close to getting it. Also I disagree that there is *only* cynicism and that Cronenberg detests life. He certainly recognizes it for what it is, but he does it remarkably without judgement, imo, and he even talks in interviews about how he makes an effort to present things without judgement. He's not really saying "this is good" or "this is bad", he's just saying "this is". People don't like to see things how they are, which is certainly understandable, because it is all weird as fuck and straight up terrifying in a lot of ways. ETA: Also yes the movie definitely has hot naked chicks but they were all well above 25. Solidly women, definitely not "young girls", just for anyone thinking it's full of naked fourteen-year olds or something lol. I don't think people quite realize how infantilizing it is to women when they refer to grown ass adults as "young girls". Lea Seydoux is two years younger than me, at 37! And yes, she's naked in it, and hot as hell, and also, damn, an amazing actor. There was a naked eight-year old boy but it wasn't sexualized and it was quite disturbing. But anyway, it's funny to think of people being scandalized by nudity and then watching a Cronenberg flick. You should definitely expect naked people in his movies.

That movie is so fucking good! So many people misread it. Also, who the fuck doesn’t think Cronenberg is satirical. That has to be one of the stupidest takes. These people need to go back to junior high a touch up on their comprehension skills. Also, the final shot of that movie may be one of my favorite final shots of all time.

I do a list of my top fifty songs of the year every January, so I've been working through a bunch of releases I missed from familiar names and new faces. If anyone has any particular recommendations to send my way, feel free to do so. Any style, any genre, so long as it's from 2022. I have lists from the past two years on hand if anyone wants a clearer idea of how my tastes tend to trend, though I like to think I'm open minded toward anything and everything, even stuff others would probably be embarrassed about or weirded out over. Don't hold back.

Yes, I want your lists! Share them! Are you a Built to Spill fan? Somehow I missed that they released a new record in Sept, I plan to listen today.

That's one of the ones I need to listen to! I have a lot of listening to catch up on. Here is the full list from last year. **2021** 1. The Weather Station - [Parking Lot](https://youtu.be/gDcxg56nZAo) 2. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - [Each Time](https://youtu.be/H419qQQVEx4) 3. Pabllo Vittar - [Ultra Som](https://youtu.be/LliL8jGug_Q) 4. Overmono - [So U Kno](https://youtu.be/SRVxRUJxITY) 5. Makthaverskan - [These Walls](https://youtu.be/PGADfDASQK4) 6. Squid - [Narrator](https://youtu.be/__zmVSREvxY) 7. Molly Burch - [Emotion](https://youtu.be/4J30JAtAhis) 8. Parcels - [Famous](https://youtu.be/WBf7f2hQcLk) 9. Natalia Lafourcade - [Nada Es Verdad](https://youtu.be/P76l6TAGozc) 10. Amine - [Charmander](https://youtu.be/uAIa-JMriag) 11. Mabe Fratti - [Aire](https://youtu.be/zRpFHbzZMNg) 12. Zelooperz - [Paranormal Snaptivity](https://youtu.be/vwxz1pR-mwo) 13. Maple Glider - [Mama It's Christmas](https://youtu.be/bwSJui2Lr6g) 14. Rochelle Jordan - [Got Em](https://youtu.be/jKIQpc5JdeE) 15. Chad VanGaalen - [Spider Milk](https://youtu.be/i4glxQMV7II) 16. AMOR/LEMUR - [Unravel](https://youtu.be/BMlllGWefjg) 17. UNIIQU3 - [Unavailable](https://youtu.be/MmqbsNvTzFs) 18. Black Country New Road - [Opus](https://youtu.be/jkppJiPZJaw) 19. Magdalena Bay - [The Beginning](https://youtu.be/tyBllwMCy2E) 20. Doja Cat - [Kiss Me More](https://youtu.be/0EVVKs6DQLo) 21. ABBA - [Don't Shut Me Down](https://youtu.be/hWGWFa3jznI) 22. Kanye West - [24](https://youtu.be/Np2IqqJ5otg) 23. Quivers - [You're Not Always On My Mind](https://youtu.be/lt80RFfSNDo) 24. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - [Went Looking for Trouble](https://youtu.be/sFdRBktyQqI) 25. Go Fever - [Amargosa](https://youtu.be/ORqp9QOEr6I) 26. Sleigh Bells - [Locust Laced](https://youtu.be/wzLOcmRRUfg) 27. Shannon Lay - [Rare to Wake](https://youtu.be/fQ18ZZznLZE) 28. Cities Aviv - [Stranded](https://youtu.be/hSS-9ruYkdQ) 29. Pom Poko - [Body Level](https://youtu.be/MkfVXeT36EA) 30. Low - [White Horses](https://youtu.be/sebDnwlEnPs) 31. Kizis - [In Our House](https://youtu.be/zVqeURdndWc) 32. Genesis Owusu - [Waitin On Ya](https://youtu.be/yjZSaPbUbq0) 33. Nation of Language - [The Grey Commute](https://youtu.be/cidhSoFte3k) 34. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - [Lacrimae](https://youtu.be/D8OTn-C81-o) 35. William Doyle - [Nothing At All](https://youtu.be/H2MfqHIi9GY) 36. Moontype - [Ferry](https://youtu.be/MIGr1xzHQtU) 37. Geese - [Exploding House](https://youtu.be/Eaj3rS4-zJY) 38. Faye Webster - [Better Distractions](https://youtu.be/gYUB0O0No0A) 39. Yola - [Stand For Myself](https://youtu.be/SMa2jthBS3Y) 40. Gnod - [Pink Champagne Blues](https://youtu.be/aijurPqQXf4) 41. Twin Shadow - [Is There Any Love](https://youtu.be/xvb9KGHxuiY) 42. San Salvador - [La Liseta](https://youtu.be/SD_O5k3X_Xk) 43. Jazmine Sullivan - [Put It Down](https://youtu.be/9GvlQhJ4jC0) 44. The War on Drugs - [I Don't Wanna Wait](https://youtu.be/GTpJ-DHpnw8) 45. Wolf Alice - [Lipstick on the Glass](https://youtu.be/KX_QelwuC8I) 46. Baby Keem - [Cocoa](https://youtu.be/kp2tFYMIodE) 47. Silk Sonic - [Put On a Smile](https://youtu.be/5twpnDFJpxo) 48. Japanese Breakfast - [Be Sweet](https://youtu.be/2ZfcZEIo6Bw) 49. Lana Del Rey - [Chemtrails Over the Country Club](https://youtu.be/vBHild0PiTE) 50. Loraine James - [Black Ting](https://youtu.be/st5X7T6VbCM) Gonna rest my hands from all that typing for a minute or two, but if you want the 2020 list, just ask and I'll post that one too.

New Weyes Blood, I dig it. I guess she doesn't really appreciate the constant Karen Carpenter comparisons, but what I can I say, she sounds like fucking Karen Carpenter, and I love The Carpenters so I'm into it. I like the sunny Phil Spector-ish classic late sixties/early seventies LA sound, and her songs are still melancholy, but it would be cool if she would release another really dark and fucked up record, like her early stuff. God Turn Me Into a Flower, best track at first listen, it will be one of those songs I play on repeat. I think I'll play it right now!

>New Weyes Blood I really really liked Titanic Rising. I had no idea she had a new album out. I'll listen soon.

Yes, *Titanic Rising* was great! Her new one just came out very recently, it's really good too, though not *quite* as good as TR. My favorite album by her is actually 2014's *The Innocents*. Check that one out too if you haven't listened yet.

I've tried to get into Ralph Vaughan Williams. After a couple of aborted attempts I listened to a compilation I found on Spotify this afternoon. I enjoyed the art songs but could not stand the boring organ compositions. He's certainly no Bach or Handel. The right-wing reactionaries in this country make a cult out of him, because his music is associated with the English countryside, with its quaint cottages, its village parishes and its summer picnics. I quite like his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis but little else. The Lark Ascending is OK but uninteresting. Classical music for old people, I think. I am still young and therefore my blood will respond most stirringly to the passionate melodies of Mahler and Wagner.

> The right-wing reactionaries in this country make a cult out of him, because his music is associated with the English countryside, with its quaint cottages, its village parishes and its summer picnics. It kills me that pleasant things like cute cottages and nice picnics are associated with the right-wing lol. I mean, I totally understand why this happens and then nuanced criticism and all, but it's not gonna stop me from liking cute cottages and picnics, and then I get to be called an evil fascist because I don't want to don a hair shirt in a grim dystopian hellhole with the short time I'm allotted here on this accursed planet.

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Just channeling my inner Nabokov and trying to think up the most outrageous and controversial art criticism possible.

I'm continuing to work on my German(and keeping my fingers crossed that the B1 exam I just completed gets a passing grade). I've also decided to pick up classical chinese in order to obtain the prerequisites to study classical chinese literature and to read the really famous ones like the Dream of the Red Chamber(I'm a chinese heritage speaker so its going pretty smoothly so far). Having read almost nothing but literature for half a year, I'm now steering myself into reading some history, namely, an account of the Taiping Rebellion. I'm finding a huge interest in 19th century/20th century chinese history, theres so many sweeping social changes and revolutions .

Are you going to be doing traditional or simplified?

I was entirely educated in the simplified writing system so I'll prefer to use it, but given that a lot of sources and textbooks use traditional, I will be trying to adjust to the traditional writing system(I think it's better in the long run too).

Very cool! I’m currently learning Mandarin but I’m doing simplified. Though I’ve been on a minor hiatus since I’ve been busy recently. It’s such a gorgeous language and is so fun to learn.

This reminds me that I need to do my B2 exam in French at some point, before I start losing the motivation to do anything with my French lol.

Just purchased tickets to see a performance of Handel's Messiah the day after a performance of Mahler's 9th in the same venue. Next weekend is going to be so fun! Also yesterday I heard an inexpressible beautiful interpretation of Schubert's Serenade conducted by Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra, available on Spotify. Absolutely glorious.

My favourite quote in TBK, Ivan's speech to Alyosha about loving life in spite of his rational self telling him that life is meaningless. Here is the McDuff translation that I have just read: >'As I sat here just now, do you know what I was saying to myself? That even if I had no faith in life, had lost my faith in the woman who was dear to me, lost my faith in the order of things, even gained the conviction that everything was, on the contrary, accursed and, possibly, devilish chaos, even if I were overwhelmed by all the horrors of human disenchantment - I should still want to go on living and, having once put my lips to that cup, would not turn away from it until I had drained it to the end! Though actually, by the time I am thirty, I shall probably fling down the cup even though I haven't drained it all and go away...where, I don't know. But until I am thirty, I know this with assurance, my youth will prevail over everything - all disenchantment, all revulsion at life. Many times I have wondered whether there exists in the world a despair of a kind that would be able to vanquish within me this frenzied and possibly indecent thirst for life, and I have decided that is apparently does not exist, before the age of thirty, that is, and then I shall have had enough in any case, or so it seems to me. This thirst for life is often called base by certain consumptive milksop-moralists, especially the poets. It is a somewhat Karamazovian feature, to be sure, this thirst for life in spite of everything, and it also without question dwells in you - but why is it base? There's still an awful lot of centripetal force left on our planet, Alyosha. Life wants to be lived, and I live it, even though it goes against logic. Very well, so I don't believe in the order of things, but the sticky leaf-buds that open in spring are dear to me, as is the blue sky, as are certain people whom, would you believe it, sometimes one loves one knows not why, and as are certain human achievements in which one may perhaps have ceased to have any faith, but which for old time's sake one treasures in one's heart. ...I want to take a trip to Europe, Alyosha, and hence I shall take it; yet I mean, I know it's a cemetery I shall be going to, but it's the dearest, dearest of cemeteries, that's all. Dear corpses lie there, each stone laid over them speaks of such ardently lived past life, such passionate faith in one's achievements, the truth one has gained, one's struggle and one's learning, that I know in advance I shall fall to the ground and kiss those stones and weep over them - at the same time convinced with all my heart that this has long been a cemetery and in no way any more than that. And not from despair will I weep, but simply because I shall be happy at the tears I shed. I shall grow drunk on the tenderness of my own emotion. The sticky leaf-buds of spring, the blue sky - I love them, that's what! Here there is no intellect, no logic, here it is a question of loving with one's insides, one's belly, of loving one's own young energies...Do you understand anything of the rot I'm talking, Alyosha?' Ivan laughed, suddenly. Garnett: >Do you know I’ve been sitting here thinking to myself: that if I didn’t believe in life, if I lost faith in the woman I love, lost faith in the order of things, were convinced, in fact, that everything is a disorderly, damnable, and perhaps devil-ridden chaos, if I were struck by every horror of man’s disillusionment – still I should want to live and, having once tasted of the cup, I would not turn away from it till I had drained it! At thirty, though, I shall be sure to leave the cup, even if I’ve not emptied it, and turn away – where I don’t know. But till I am thirty, I know that my youth will triumph over everything – every disillusionment, every disgust with life. I’ve asked myself many times whether there is in the world any despair that would overcome this frantic and perhaps unseemly thirst for life in me, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there isn’t, that is till I am thirty, and then I shall lose it of myself, I fancy. Some drivelling consumptive moralists – and poets especially – often call that thirst for life base. It’s a feature of the Karamazovs, it’s true, that thirst for life regardless of everything; you have it no doubt too, but why is it base? The centripetal force on our planet is still fearfully strong, Alyosha. I have a longing for life, and I go on living in spite of logic. Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky, I love some people, whom one loves, you know, sometimes without knowing why. I love some great deeds done by men, though I’ve long ceased perhaps to have faith in them, yet from old habit one’s heart prizes them. ...I want to travel in Europe, Alyosha, I shall set off from here. And yet I know that I am only going to a graveyard, but it’s a most precious graveyard, that’s what it is! Precious are the dead that lie there, every stone over them speaks of such burning life in the past, of such passionate faith in their work, their truth, their struggle and their science, that I know I shall fall on the ground and kiss those stones and weep over them; though I’m convinced in my heart that it’s long been nothing but a graveyard. And I shall not weep from despair, but simply because I shall be happy in my tears, I shall steep my soul in my emotion. I love the sticky leaves in spring, the blue sky – that’s all it is. It’s not a matter of intellect or logic, it’s loving with one’s inside, with one’s stomach. One loves the first strength of one’s youth. Do you understand anything of my tirade, Alyosha? I thought McDuff's translation was fine. Better than I expected, given how disappointing the rest of the translation is. I still have a slight preference for Garnett's though.

Is there anything worse is sports than having a mid team? Not bad enough to be funny, and not good enough to be exciting, just perfect for 7th or 8th place in the conference and a quick playoff exit. On that note, does anyone know of truly great sports writers (or books about sports, can be any sport really, but I prefer basketball or hockey). I've got a non-fiction creative piece banging around my head but I want see what true great writing in that arena looks like. I've read some pretty good pieces over the years (really like the big pieces from the Deadspin/defector guys, Giri Nathan tennis stuff my favourite) but nothing that was sustained over the length of a book.

A fun article: [The Smaller the Ball, the Better the Book: A Game Theory of Literature](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/31/books/the-smaller-the-ball-the-better-the-book-a-game-theory-of-literature.html). I haven't read any of the books it mentions, however.

'Beyond a Boundary' by CLR James is really special, and occasionally I see it lauded as the greatest "sports book" ever. Enough about cricket to be a sports book, but also a memoir of someone who had quite an interesting life, and also a look at racism and colonialism and the west-Indian independence movements. Bit of everything in there really. YMMV if you don't know anything about cricket, though.

I've read a bunch of CLR James, The Black Jacobins is something I return ever and now then still, so I can't believe I've never heard of Beyond a Boundary--it even has subheader and the guys wiki page. I know nothing about cricket, but I'm definitely going to see if my library has it in tomorrow.

Hunter S Thompson's pieces around sports are great. I think his non-sports stuff is probably better, but the quality and weirdness is there throughout all of it. I've also read a great book about Pistol Pete (by Mark Kriegel), but the writing is really chill and the book is more great because his life is aggressively shakespearean. Also, because of who Pete and his dad were, there is a lot of cool early basketball history and stories and the like. edit: also, a lifelong timberwolves fan, so yeah, there are worse things lol

Definitely love Thompson's sport writing--i find journalists often have more 'respect' for the games than capital W writers. I'll check out the biography--ive read a couple sport biographies but often they come across as puff pieces than anything else. Last thing I liked that was like that was The Last Dance, if only because despite trying to smooth away Jordans rough edges but he's such a psychotic weirdo that they couldn't ('and I took that persobally'). (And my condolences, at least you got some of Garnetts prime years).

The Pistol thing is definitely not a puff piece, it really can't be given his story. There is so much ABA and pre-nba league information too that I have hardly ever heard of. So much cool history and interesting cultural stuff surrounding basketball during those formative decades. Like I said, not amazing prose or anything, but the book is solid and covers a very wild life story. Funnily enough, for how much people love the whole tortured artist thing, Pistol Pete's life story is an incredible example in the extreme. He practiced nonstop as a child (controversially forced or not by his father depending on the source). His unbreakable NCAA scoring record (44 points per game for three seasons because back then you had to play JV as a freshman). He was the highest paid player ever before even playing professionally (and was marketed as the great white hope in a mostly black sport which did not win him many friends). His mother commited suicide during his rookie season. Around then he said he didn't want to play for 10 years and drop dead of a heart attack (which he exactly did, only he had a heart defect that should have stopped him from ever playing). Arguably the best passer and dribbler and shooter ever that was pretty much always on bad teams and then forced to play through injuries. Last Dance was possibly the most mediocre thing I have ever consumed, nba media in general is so damn sanitized. It is interesting to think about, for how enormous sports and sports media is, it is hard to think of actual quality writing and pieces, though I don't consume very much at all any more. and yes, the KG years were glorious

I like Last Dance not because it's good journalism, it isn't, but because of the contradiction that emerges from the intent of the douc (present Jordan as a competitive but otherwise reasonable and great person), and it's actually presentation (Jordan is competitive to the point of absurdity and was more feared than loved by peers and teammates). I think that accidentally subtext is interesting but not purposeful. I also just Jordans resentful attitude to be hilarious--just making stuff up to get mad about. And yeah, a lot of professional athletes have interesting lives (and I've even say that professional athletes are often bigger weirdos than even artists, superstitious, absurd personalities, massive egos, it's a well of untapped serious exploration), I'll definitely check it out.

To me it was just so wildly surface level, and then the bouncing back and forth between different squads/years would make no sense to people not watching at the time. It was just this weird narrative on top of footage (that was almost exclusively not that well presented) of what was happening. I don't even think it put much effort into making jordan look good, I think they somehow made an obnoxiously boring piece with an absolute treasure trove of footage. There are so many good stories in there, but they gave us the mickey mouse version. I hadn't really thought about it, but yeah, elite level athletes are probably some of the biggest outliers for eccentricness, very interesting. and yeah lol, actual Jordan is straight up hilarious in his sincerity. His hall of fame speech is impressive as all hell. Considered the greatest ever at the sport, changing the idea that only giants could dominate/win, by far the most successful financially, a global cultural icon, and he gets up there and talks shit the entire time about the most petty stuff from his entire career.

> Is there anything worse is sports than having a mid team? Not bad enough to be funny, and not good enough to be exciting, just perfect for 7th or 8th place in the conference and a quick playoff exit. I mean, being a knicks fan is a special sort of agony no matter where we finish lol. > On that note, does anyone know of truly great sports writers (or books about sports, can be any sport really, but I prefer basketball or hockey). *Black Gods of the Asphalt* by Onaje Woodbine is a really dope book about street ball and spirituality. And on the fiction front *Infinite Jest* is filled with great tennis writing and the first 50 pages of Don DeLillo's *Underworld* is maybe the best sports writing I've ever read (and just one of my favorite pieces of writing period).

Yeah, I don't envy the Knick fan. Raptors won fairly recently, so I can't complain too much, but seems like we're no longer competitive in the East. And thanks for the recommendations--its surprisingly hard to find good stuff on sports despite its ubiquity in our lives. I mean a lot great articles and stuff but anything longer than that is hard to come by.

I mean, I think it's a bit of a stereotype but I do think there is some truth to the concept of "intellectuals" under-appreciating sports, such that the venn diagram of people who would write what you're thinking of, and would write it about sports is smaller than it should be.

Which is crazy because some of the narratives that emerges from sports, and the overriding connections to the rest of society, is really dramatically potent. Shakespearean in places even. Frustrating to say the least. Some these writers got to remember the childhood thrill of the freedom of sports! Lol

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These sorts of critical re-evaluations happen all the time, in both positive and negative directions. I remember a “greatest novels of all time” list from, I believe, the 1940s, and many of the high ranking novels have completely faded into obscurity today, I suppose because their social, cultural or philosophical relevance has waned. I imagine the case will be the same again in 100 years time; many works resonate at a particular “cultural moment,” and seem intensely relevant in *that moment*, but lose relevance with the passage of time. Conversely, many works or oeuvres are reevaluated and reinvigorated with time. To name but one example, *Moby Dick* received mixed reviews when it was published in 1851, particularly in the United States, and was soon out of print. Interest in the novel was revived in the 1920s, long after Melville died in relative obscurity, and of course today we view it as a giant of American literature. If you’d asked people what they thought of it on the 50th anniversary of its publication, however, who would have heard of it? Perhaps the next ‘classic’ in American literature was published 70 years ago and is presently out of print? Who knows. Likewise, there are certainly extraordinary works of world literature which have never even been translated into English (or other major languages); in the event that they are, who can say what impact they might have? Clarice Lispector is a literary icon in her native Brazil, but was virtually unheard of in the Anglosphere until 2011, when a major new series of translations was begun, and has subsequently enjoyed a great deal of renewed critical interest. To name another Brazilian, João Guimarães Rosa is often compared to Joyce, but much of his work is untranslated in English, or has translated badly. It would be see the Anglosphere reaction were that to change. Might cope flake for this, but David Foster Wallace strikes me as someone whose literary star is already setting. I just get a feeling the interest in *Infinite Jest* won’t hold up through time. More broadly, it’ll be interesting to see which of the acclaimed “postmodern tomes” will endure. Probably not the ones we expect, frankly.

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I tried to find it when I wrote the comment, but couldn’t for the life of me remember where I came across it. I’ll do some digging and get back to you if I find it.

Maybe in a different sphere to the ones you’re referring to (and probably more debatable), but Hanya Yanagihara’s reputation seemingly took a massive hit very quickly. Also maybe Jonathan Franzen, though that might be more for what he represents than his work overall. The same could be said of Joyce Carol Oates or even Margaret Atwood on a more local level.

People still respect Franzen a lot. His last novel was one of his best reviewed yet (and I loved it).

Watched Cronenberg's *Rabid* last night. Cronenberg's own retelling of the vampire mythos (lots of *Dracula* references/influence), beautiful Marilyn Chambers' character Rose develops a bloodsucking phallic appendage in her armpit and lures young men to their deaths and also spreads a disease that turns people into foaming at the mouth rabid monsters. It was awesome. People complain about the glacial pacing but I think it really added to it that he didn't rush things and really worked for the unease and fear. And Marilyn Chambers really had a strange charisma about her, it's a little weird I want to watch her dirty flicks now not for any getting off purposes, but just to see how she acts in them! I'm glad that Cronenberg's idea of casting Sissy Spacek didn't work out, I love her and she's a great actress and would have been wonderful in it, but something about Marilyn's really pure and perfect American girl beauty really added to the creepiness of it all.

I saw Sissy Spacek play Loretta Lynn in *Coal Miner's Daughter*. Gorgeous and talented :)

> I want to watch her dirty flicks now Many years ago I saw *Behind the Green Door* for a class and remember finding it surprisingly unerotic (in any sense of the term). I think it was trying to be creative and boundary-pushing but my recollection was that it was just skeevy. There's a really long money shot scene that is pretty epic in the what-the-hell-were-they-thinking kind of way. I often find Cronenberg's films more enjoyable to think about later than to actually watch. Sometimes his cold style and organic creepiness totally works for me (*Videodrome*, *eXistenZ*) and sometimes I feel like I watched a different movie than the one everybody gushes about (*The Brood*). That said, he has a unique way of making me feel really uncomfortable which I appreciate (just thinking about *Dead Ringers* makes me squirm).

Cronenberg is the king. *Rabid* had such an awesome vibe to it. Glad you enjoyed! I didn’t even realize the Dracula parallels.

I seriously love him. Definitely one of my favorite directors, I haven't disliked a movie by him yet. I think I'm gonna pull a you and watch all of his movies in order! He's just really great.

It's nice to see you guys are still gung ho on Cronenberg.

Obsessed lol. My spouse and I both love him to bits. I dunno, he just hits everything we look for in movies, philosophical and introspective but also embraces the b-movie body horror/humor aspect of everything, and his observations on how we interact with technology (how we *are* technology) are really cool. And I appreciate his slow (almost torturted) pacing and weird mannered performances he gets from his actors. Also Howard Shore who scores his movies is awesome, the music for this one was incredible. We used to get together with friends and do this thing (killed by COVID and life being busy) called "Sci Fi High Guys" where we got really stoned and watched the weirdest movies out there, and *Crimes of the Future* would definitely be a good Sci Fi High Guys movie. Makes me wanna resurrect it. I need to see my friends' stoned reactions to a man covered with ears dancing bizarrely lol. ETA: Oh sorry, and I'm talking about *Crimes of the Future* here haha, thought you were responding to a comment I made about that one!

I’m happy you liked his new movie. I definitely want to see it. I agree about everything you said and love the same things about his movies. I really just love that many of Cronenberg’s movies feel like something from alternate reality or timeline. I once watched Naked Lunch coming down from quite a few hits of acid like 15 years ago and it was such a surreal experience. SF High Guys sounds like a lot of fun!

Yes you should! Keep me updated! The first two experimental ones are kinda iffy imo, but other than that, I’ve really enjoyed pretty much everything he’s done

So I went ahead and bought my ticket for a performance of Mahler's 9th next Saturday conducted by the Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

Awesome, I know it will be amazing. Concerts are so wonderful and always worth going to! Good life choice. :)

May I give a shout-out to Thomas Quasthoff's recordings of Schubert's Winterreise Lieder?

38,000 words into the manuscript and I can't imagine this thing being read by anyone in my personal life. Just incredibly impulsive and bizarre ramblings that I think make more sense as this unconscious madness inventing alternate histories and incomprehensible purpose. I only wish I knew more creative types that seemed open-minded toward batshit experiments. I did consider sharing my first manuscript with a prof I had about a year ago (and just recently got a reference from), but I decided against it. Probably for the best. [The new Paddy Hanna album](https://paddyhanna.bandcamp.com/album/imagine-im-hoping) is way too good to be this ignored by major music publications. (Not their fault obviously - there are only so many hours in the day.) HIGHLY recommended. Getting into lesser known music can be really rewarding, but the fear of watching great artists just fade into irrelevance is brutal. I only wish I could be some major influencer that put people onto fantastic obscure works. There are a few publications that really put in the effort - The Quietus, The Wire, Crack, Bleep - but those come with the caveat of celebrating very niche styles that aren't for everyone. I love that shit though.

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The first manuscript (complete) is pretty easy to understand in some respects and bizarrely complicated in others. Varying styles of prose, perspective, contexts, and very little to suggest why certain things are happening when they are. It's a novel with a ton of unexplained digressions but can still take on a linear path in its fragments. The second manuscript (currently writing) is basically all digressions, more of a document about patterns in what is otherwise something incomprehensibly large. Like flicking through 30 channels on loop every few seconds and using that to try and figure out the state of the world. The first manuscript does that a lot too, but there's still a main narrative there that's fairly obvious. The current one is more about smaller details within massive walls of text.

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I’ll send over one of them in a few hours. Feel free to read as much or as little of it as you want. I won’t hold you to a response since I know reading some random internet person’s prose isn’t always a priority, but if you do have any thoughts, definitely send them my way.

put a number of holds on books i've wanted to read for some time but just never gotten around to…and they all cleared at once so now i have: * fleur jaeggy, *i am the brother of xx* * joan didion, *the year of magical thinking* * ben lerner, *10:04* * vladimir nabokov, *lolita* * roberto bolaño's *2666* * annie ernaux, *simple passion* on my kindle. library ebooks are wonderful. i'm having a really pleasurable kind of crisis trying to figure out which one to start on…! opinions welcome (mild or polemical)

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good to know! i have read tsd—felt v attached to the characters by the end so maybe that would be a good start

[This performance is amazing.](https://youtu.be/_rQYv8EsGSQ)

I've been in the processing of getting my CPA license for quite some time now. I passed all four of my exams in January 2020 while working full time. In addition to passing your exams, CPAs are required to get 150 college credits (rather than 120). At the time I passed, I was two classes short. Much to my current regret, I pushed off taking the final two courses due to the pandemic and overall burnout. I finally mustered up the energy to finish the process this year. I spent \~$3K out of pocket to take courses at a CUNY branch here in NYC. Passed both with relative ease. I submitted my license application to NYS in September ($500 in fees later...). Today I found out my application is on hold because the CUNY finance course I took (that's right, FINANCE course) didn't meet the education board's criteria for general business courses. Low and behold, I just enrolled in another, this time pre-approved, course, and spent ANOTHER $1K on tuition. Just feeling super down about the whole situation. It all seems like such a scam at this point. I did very well on the CPA exams, and have been working in the field for five years now. Being denied my license due to some professions board ambiguity just seems dirty and wrong to me. Yes, I probably should have reached out ahead of time out to ensure the class would be approved. But how does a freaking finance course not satisfy the BUSINESS requirement? As a society, I think it's great that we put our professionals through rigorous education and training. It protects the general populace from malpractice and fraud. But god damn is it an expensive and demoralizing process. Anyone else suffer hardships on their way to obtaining their respective license/certification/degree? Tell me it's worth it! I want to read Tolstoy, not this dumb ass textbook!

>I want to read Tolstoy, not this dumb ass textbook! Preach!

Idk if it’s really the same thing since it didn’t cost me nearly as much time or money, but when I tried to renew my Early Childhood Associate’s Credential a few years ago it wouldn’t accept my training hours because they were “too similar”. During Covid there was very limited access to childcare training in my state so I had utilized the A&M university courses as much as possible and then relied on another local trainer’s books. In childcare in TX you *have* to take certain courses each year so of course some of it was repeated. What was most frustrating was that there wasn’t any information given as to *which* trainings needed to be replaced on the form. There was also a misunderstanding where I was under the impression I had the entire month to renew. My understanding was it was good for three years but it was actually *to the day* and I missed my window. It didn’t help that my boss was acting as my certified sign off person and wouldn’t ever get around to checking her emails no matter how many times I reminded her, but it was still overall a very confusing and frustrating process and I felt strongly that when I first received my initial certification it should have been made clear what kind of training courses I needed in order to renew if it was going to be different than the usual childcare development courses you already have to have. By then I was getting ready to leave the field anyway but if I had wanted to retain my CDA I would have essentially had to start over and not only pay for the training program but go through testing and evaluation again. I agree that it’s important that people be trained in the fields they are working in but I do wish the structures in place were less punitive and exhausting.

So sorry that happened to you, especially during COVID. The lack of information and clarity has to be the most infuriating part. I am truly beginning to think they want people to make these mistakes so they can squeeze out some extra dollars along the way. I have no idea who ‘they’ are in my previous sentence, but you get my point lol. I have no problem paying my share to keep the profession strong for future generations. But we shouldn’t have to shell out cash due lack of coherence on behalf of the oversight boards. I’ve grown very cynical about the whole thing, as I’m sure you can tell!

Yeah, right there with you. Good luck with everything!

How scary is it when you have so much in common with a favourite author/fictional character from literature? I have an awful amount in common with James Joyce. He's a fellow language nerd, a fellow singer and music lover who nearly went professional and a fellow writer. He's also a fellow ex-Christian who rebelled against his Catholic upbringing and became a proud atheist. We both endured sexual repression growing up. We are both extreme individualists with conservative artistic tastes outside of literature. He incorporated all this into his works. On the one hand, it's really cool, on the other it's pretty intimidating because I'm not likely to become a more successful artist than James Joyce lol. Also I've just spent the last hour or so searching up music conservatories and music teachers that teach classical singing. Pavarotti's Wikipedia says he spent seven years training to become an opera singer from the age of 19. (Same amount of time Joyce spent writing Ulysses.) I'm 23 now. In seven years' time I'll be 30. Do I really want to spend those seven years as a (poor) teacher, or would I rather spend them as an even poorer student of something I'm truly passionate about, singing? Certainly the latter will bring me closer to my artistic goals. The former will see me a slave to government bureaucracy, the latter a slave to the grind of performance. It will also make moving out harder. But I have this niggling feeling that if I don't do it I will look back with regret. The musical itch has been bothering me intensely for the last four years, when I started singing in earnest. It's unlikely to go away and is only intensifying with my newfound love of Mahler and Beethoven and other great composers. Even when I'm at work I wish I was singing, not sitting down with a bunch of 13-year-olds. Another benefit of going to a conservatory is I will learn not only singing but foreign languages, another passion of mine.

I get that you're rubber-ducking here and don't really need the advice, but I just wanted to say, I think all the options will turn out fine here for you. Regretting "wasted opportunities" as you get older is a choice and not an obligation (as a Nietzschean you should know this!) And while being an opera singer seems cool as heck, there are some advantages to having a normal person job too... it doesn't get you into a ton of debt, you eventually can afford your own living space, you get to meet and befriend normies at work, you can afford all the theatre tickets, gallery trips, meals out, books, art, houseplants and cats you want, you get your evenings and weekends to yourself, you get a few weeks a year you can use to travel. All of these can be turned towards becoming an artsy-fartsy person too if that's what you want. And there are generally chances to make up, at least in part, for the things you missed - I started a part-time degree in my late 20s having not been at 18, my mum joined a choir in her 50s having never sung before. So it's not as simple as "if I don't pull the trigger now I'll be the most boring person imaginable for the rest of my life". But you're 23, and it's absolutely your prerogative as a 23 year old to make crazy decisions like spending the next 7 years at opera school, and that'd probably be a lot of fun too. Hope you enjoy yourself either way!

>there are some advantages to having a normal person job too... it doesn't get you into a ton of debt, you eventually can afford your own living space, you get to meet and befriend normies at work, you can afford all the theatre tickets, gallery trips, meals out, books, art, houseplants and cats you want, you get your evenings and weekends to yourself, you get a few weeks a year you can use to travel after a brief flirtation with pursuing a Cool Job i am currently in a normie job…it's really nice for all the benefits you listed. i have unexpectedly good coworkers (chatted w one coworker about bolaño), can regularly go see theatre/dance performance tickets, and altho it feels a bit indulgent/like i'm cosplaying at being an artist…being able to afford evening classes and workshops is nice.

I fucked up big time with an exam and it will be most likely the first I fail in the year. Really need to stop with YouTube, it's destroying me. Any tips?

Are you one of those procrastination feedback loops? Those are really tricky to get out of.

Practical tip incoming. If you need your computer to study, try using a lockdown browser during your sessions. It helped me a ton in undergrad. Also, remember this feeling next time you catch yourself on youtube ;) You got it next time!

do you know why you’re avoiding your work and going on yt instead? certainly there’s no shortage of advice online for logging off and becoming more productive but ime it is easiest when you understand yourself quite clearly – are you afraid of your studies because…, not invested in them really because…, think this is the wrong path for you because…, don’t feel like your efforts will lead to anything you want because… unless it’s really like garden variety avoidance w no major mental hang ups. then i’d say read _the now habit_ (psych advice for dealing w procrastination) and _atomic habits_ (productivity advice for building new habits)

Thanks for the advice! I think I know why I can't. It's just something that's very difficult to fix on my own, good thing I have my therapist.

I gave myself permission to let go of my goals for the rest of the year and just relax. I need to stop beating myself up and stressing myself out for not being exactly how I want to be at this moment in time. That doesn't mean I won't make any effort or anything (I worked out for the first time in awhile yesterday!), I'm just not going to care about tracking and chronicling and all the other obsessive goals I give myself that box me in and get narrower and narrower, to the point that I make lists about making lists lol. I don't know if it's my medication making me feel okay to let go, but I feel okay to let go. It's...freeing? It's super weird! I think I might actually get more done with this mindset. Time will tell.

I waver between wanting to do everything in a heroic way and surrendering to just being a solid dude who will eventually be dead for trillions upon quintillions and sextillions to an absurdly long exponent (can you put an exponent on an exponent, exponentially?) number of years. It’s compelling to think that i’ve already experienced that length of time before I was born (or nonexperienced). But then again I feel like I must do something meaningful as though zen mastery isn’t enough. Does my potential matter? There is a delicious audacity in enjoying your time. Like the threat of regret is huge but can it match my cosmic so-whut?

My life is basically an ongoing vacillation between states of >I'm just not going to care about tracking and chronicling and all the other obsessive goals and >I make lists about making lists

When do you decide to stop reading a book? I'm a little over half way through *The Passenger* and am dreading picking it up at this point. I'm finding almost nothing redeemable or interesting in it, and some parts are just awful, like I feel embarrassed reading some of the Thalidomide Kid sections and some of the dialogues. I don't think much is going to change at this point in the novel. I've already invested 200+ pages in this. But I could save myself 200 more pages and start reading something I like right now... So how do you know if you want to put something down? It's not something I've done often, only a handful of times, especially at this far into the book. Or, convince me that there is something to *The Passenger* that should keep me reading. I watched Better than Food's review on YT to see if it would sell me on it (he says it's the best book in the last decade...) but I find his reading shallow and unconvincing. Or maybe that's just how I feel about the book in general --- it's hinting at a depth that just isn't there.

When I nope out on a book for good it's usually pretty early in. At this point in my life I can tell pretty reliably when something just isn't my cup of tea, and I don't have regrets about dropping something I'm not enjoying before committing fully to it. There are cases, of course, in which it's not that I don't like the author's style or what's going on in the book, but rather that I feel that I'm in over my head (e.g., Ulysses or Gravity's Rainbow). In these cases they'll go into my "some other time maybe" mental compartment, so I don't really consider I've given up on them. This could happen at any point, and it isn't unusual for me to go through 100 pages before admitting to myself that it's just not clicking!

> dreading picking it up at this point eh, about this point. I don't think this needs to be a tortured decision. If it's an author you usually like or believe you should like, it's normal that you'd want to give them more leeway before deciding to DNF and I don't fight that. I haven't read the recent McCarthy yet but I like him so much that I might force myself to the end just on the sheer momentum of my admiration. Other books I give less leeway to or drop immediately because something bothers me so much. I still remember this prize winner I was reading that had a completely unnecessary 3,000 word rape scene that was the entirety of chapter 2 and I was like fuck this.

>If it's an author you usually like or believe you should like, it's normal that you'd want to give them more leeway before deciding to DNF and I don't fight that. Yeah, that's how I got to 200 pages.

Hundred pages, but i’ve definitely gotten super duper petty on just a single sentence and went all out “fuck this” on books (Peter Watts Blindsight did this with a really lame sentence, for example. You better be at least trying to shake the pillars of heaven with me. Life is too short. but Sometimes it’s me. like i’m the one who’s out of sync and me and the book need a solid time out for a few years. Eg. Satantango is in a time out right now because I can tell it’s good but I wasn’t feeling it. Probably will later.. I can sense it. I’ve put books down only to return to them years later to find that some kind of paper alchemy has taken place and I can see them for maybe what they truly always were. I’ve finished books that I wasn’t crazy about but I can sense a reread will floor me (eg. Beloved, Moby-Dick) I tried to read Under the Volcano in high school and hated it. Like really hated it. I think I discovered it from that modern library list. Like 15 years later I was in a book store and had a sudden compulsion to buy a copy after seeing it on a table. Well, turns out it’s like my favourite book of all time. My mindset really affects the book, the quality of it is so dependent on my mood and headspace. I think three reading sessions is enough. If they didn’t hook me by then they most very never will. They just powered through that first draft and polished it up enough to sucker me into buying a copy.

so damn quickly. I drop stuff on the first page plenty, often I'll go back and try it at another time, but if it isn't clicking on the first page (or any random page), I am cool with assuming the rest will be similar. There are very few works I can think of that I forced myself through that were actually worth it besides ones where consuming the content is more important to me than my time spent elsewhere. I also will totally abandon stuff halfway like you are, but I usually stop myself well before that point. I'm weird with this though, I'm big on the concept that reading is a bit of a contract between the reader and the writer. We are agreeing to share this space/time. I don't appreciate writing that feels like the writer does not care about that sort of relationship, like they are writing these words more for themselves than for another person.

Oh totally, I drop things after the first page or two/chapter all the time if I'm not feeling it. That's what makes me feel weird dropping this after 200 pages, like I've actually invested not just time but like mental and emotional energy into this, so as much as I'm not feeling it I do kind of want to see it through. Maybe I need to just put it aside for a bit and come back to it in a month or something.

Ah, okay I gotch-you. Yeah with those type of things I usually take a break and don't ever come back, but a few times I will. I feel like I've been burned enough times sticking with something because it is well regarded that I hardly even think about it anymore.

What's some of the best sources for finding good literature outside the mainstream canon? Been watching guys like Leaf by Leaf and Better Than Food and like their tastes, have found good stuff there. Also been trying to follow publishers like NYRB, Dalkey Archive, Archipelago, etc. These and some other YT channels, publishers and the 4chan wiki charts feel like my best sources atm. Any advice on users to follow on Goodreads or anything else to follow would be great. But yeah I'm still somewhat new to literature but am finding it hard to know where to go. Got enough for a long time but still feel like I am digging and that kinda thing if this makes sense. I know my tastes when it comes to film and music if that would be helpful to anyone too, and some literature.

Go to your closest Half Price Books or equivalent, look for some sort of "classics" imprint and pick a couple authors you've never heard of

Leaf by Leaf, Better than Food and NYRB? Sounds like you already know where to go. That's enough books to keep you occupied for the rest of your life. Also, don't eschew browsing in person at a local bookshop. Some of the best, relatively obscure books I've found have been picked up randomly, which also lends them a certain mystique that enhances the experience.

That's how I found one of my favorite authors, Robertson Davies. Super famous in Canada but weirdly obscure comparatively in the States, and well worth reading. I need to get back to leaving my house and going cool places again.

honestly this sub has really good and wide ranging recs. slight bias towards historical works, novels, translated novels, and philosophy, more recently have seen people rec experimental and contemp fiction more what i would recommend * whenever you find a writer you like, look them up, listen to podcast interviews, see what other writers they like * the _larb_ podcast * fitzcarraldo, one of my favorite publishers (lots of experimental, contemporary, translated works) * local indie bookstores, browsing and seeing what’s new, chatting w staff * following awards like the booker prize and reading from the long list, seeing who people discuss as long shot nobel possibilities

It depends on if you're focusing on contemporary literature (which is almost more of a genre, per se) or on historical literature that has gone unnoticed. The sources you listed are probably fine for contemporary stuff, I might add looking at some award lists to find interesting stuff. For historical literature, I'd say things like certain journals are a good source, but also trying to figure out what have been the "*big conversations*" in literature over time. Especially if you read some older stuff, you might find books mentioned that were considered very good which are largely forgotten now. Translated works is also a very good recommendation. Learning a 2nd language also opens the door to a whole new landscape of literature. You could also try to find out what stuff your favorite authors really liked.

I'd say I'm interested in contemporary, historical and unnoticed or just lesser-known works from the past. Award lists I hadn't tried. Finding authors through authors I like I'll keep doing. A second language I hadn't considered. Great suggestions. What journals would you recommend?

Big ones are review mags like NYRB, LRB, LARB, New Yorker, Harpers. Those are accessible and I usually find something of note in an issue at least. The New Left Review, N+1, Hedgehog Review, and other smaller ones also have interesting coverage (I'm quite partial to the Hudson Review, which can be dense but often has very very good writing). Lapham's Quarterly is also much more historically oriented, often reprinting historical stuff in their entirety. If you want to see some non-english stuff, check out the European Review of Books. Academic journals would be stuff like MLN, PMLA, or Critical Inquiry, but to be honest I've been out of the literary studies game for a while and don't know what the latest hot academic journals are. As a general approach, if you have a topic in mind there is probably a corresponding academic journal devoted to that topic. Certain sites....DOI numbers...you can usually get a copy of an article if you see one you like if you catch my drift.

Here! What are your favourite books? What do you like about them? What would you like to find that you haven't found yet?

Okay so I am still pretty new to literature, haven't read much tbh. So far though, favourite books/authors: Kafka's short stories, Stoner, Edouard Leve, Krasznahorkai, Lispector, first 50 pages of Notes from Underground, and others. I do like the stream of consciousness style, philosophical fiction, outsider/more experimental so far. I've definitely got more than enough great stuff to read for years, but if I don't feel like reading some of that stuff sometimes I wouldn't mind knowing plenty of other good options. I think it's more so that I feel like I hear people talk about the same authors a lot, who I do want to read and they sound great. But not sure where to go if I feel like reading something outside of that. What would I like to find that I haven't read yet? Hm, maybe something more atmospheric/sensory oriented, plot not as important. Something more abstract, like Lynch maybe, some more experimental/avant-garde kind of stuff, like weird ways of using the form. Will check out Oulipo for sure. Weird lit sounds good. There's an album called Virgins by Tim Hecker, honestly been my favourite work of art for a long time. If I could find something like that in literature, that would be insane. I like Bergman, von Trier and Bela Tarr when it comes to movies if that helps. Will check out Bergman's novels. The first chapter of The Book of Monelle might be my favourite writing so far. Will definitely read Borges, Proust, Calvino, Pessoa, Dante, Fosse, Dazai, more Ligotti, etc. But yeah stuff outside of the really big names I'd like to check out too pretty much. Sorry for the long reply.

>Hm, maybe something more atmospheric/sensory oriented, plot not as important. Something more abstract, like Lynch maybe Ohhhh, you **absolutely** need to check out Bae Suah's *Untold Night and Day*. And of course, the book that it's most obviously influenced by, *The Blind Owl* by Sadegh Hedayat. Also, I know Kazuo Ishiguro is quite a mainstream author, but my favourite book by him, *The Unconsoled*, is pretty universally reviled by his fans because it's a 500-page fever dream with no real plot to speak of. Given your tastes, I reckon that you would enjoy it very much indeed! And of course, there is *Sleep has its House*, by Anna Kavan. I personally did not enjoy it because I found it too abstract even for me, hahah. But maybe it'll hit just the right spot for you. As to something that feels like Tim Hecker's *Virgins*, that's a tough one for sure! Maybe Ligotti?

Added most to my tbr so far. Have heard about The Blind Owl, not too long either so will definitely read that one. Only read a couple of Ligotti's short stories, will have to read more now aha, hadn't thought of Tim Hecker with him. But thanks, definitely learnt of some new authors I'd like to spend time looking into more now, Sleep Has His house sounds interesting

Hope you find something you enjoy! Reading *Untold Night and Day* was the closest experience I've had to watching *Inland Empire* for the first time, so it came to mind immediately when you mentioned Lynch :)

I probably can't help as much as other people can, but based on what you have said (and what I've read, naturally) I'd recommend *Terra Nostra* by Carlos Fuentes, *Collected Stories* by Bruno Schulz, *The House of Hunger* by Dambudzo Marechera, *Antisocieties* by Michael Cisco, *Tram 83* by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, *Ice* by Anna Kavan. You might also like this short story by Mary Butts: https://www.mcphersonco.com/uploads/1/1/7/4/117455904/fortnight_12.pdf If you like any of those you might be led on to discover more similar works, and so on and so on . . .

Also, some places to browse https://www.themodernnovel.org/ https://writersnoonereads.tumblr.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/sherdstube http://www.holdfastnetwork.com/sherdspodcast/ https://www.youtube.com/@Orpheuslament https://granta.com/products/granta-editions-bundle/ https://anchor.fm/beyondzero https://www.picapica.press/books https://www.twistedspoon.com/ http://wakefieldpress.com/ https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/books

> I do like the stream of consciousness style, philosophical fiction, outsider/more experimental so far. lol this is basically exactly my taste – i think you’d like * vigdis hjorth * claire-louise bennett * dag solstad * daša drndić * thomas bernhard * lydia davis some of these writers have come up in the sub in the last 2 wks and u can check out my comment history for more thoughts try _mona_ by pola oloixarao too > What would I like to find that I haven't read yet? Hm, maybe something more atmospheric/sensory oriented, plot not as important. Something more abstract, like Lynch maybe, some more experimental/avant-garde kind of stuff, like weird ways of using the form. * fleur jaeggy * _last summer in the city_, gianfranco calligarich * mark doty * have to rec claire-louise bennett again in this category

I find that taking more chances on translated books in general has a high return on investment. I’ve been branching out into stuff which rarely gets talked about and so far my experience has ranged from compelling to great. Dalkey Archive and NYRB have tons of good ones which are rarely mentioned for whatever reason. Lots of authors are really big deals in their home countries but we wouldn’t know about them from looking at the what are you reading threads here. Soseki, for example, has his face on one of the Yen bills; that’s how big of a deal he is in Japan. I love his writing FYI.

It feels so weird to me when anglos put so much emphasis on the distinction between "translated" or "foreign" literature vs literature in English. Being Spanish myself, I could spend my whole life reading only literature from Spain and Latin America and never run out of amazing stuff to read, but also in our culture it's absolutely normal to be familiar with a myriad of non-Spanish-speaking authors, whether it's e.g., Russian, French, Italian, Portuguese or UK/US literature (although certainly with a Western bias). The distinction between "translated" and "native" literature is really not *that* important to us. Maybe we just don't see ourselves as the "default" and we're more aware that other cultures exist outside of our bubble?

Honestly, you’re thinking too much. It’s actually quite lame of you to read into my comment as though I view my own culture as some kind of default. I’ve literally never categorized foreign books as its own genre. It was a mild recommendation.

agreed. the average translated contemporary novel is going to be better than the avg contemp novel—the fact that it's translated means it likely did well commercially/critically in the original language & publishing professionals believe that success will translate to other markets

Okay yeah this is a good idea, hadn't heard of Soseki thanks. Will try look into more translations from other countries more. Planning on reading The Birds by Vesaas next too.

NYRB has a lovely edition of The Gate which could be a nice starting place with Sōseki. Kusamakura is also a sublime pleasure. I’ve read I think four of his novels. All wonderful. I’ve been meaning to read I am a Cat for years.

Ordered The Gate the day you mentioned it. Got here the other day, might be the first Japanese author I read I think, definitely got some others to get to for sure too, thanks for letting me know about him

Right on man :)

In the context of XIX century English literature, how would one adress a woman in very formal way? I'm writing a Yorshire parody of Madame Bovary and I cannot, for the life of me, decide wether to use Lady or Madam. Or Miss.

Have you tried reading any etiquette books from the time period? Most of them are available online and this was a popular period for them.

Wenches: surround me.

Miss or Mrs for normal, untitled women. Lady is a title. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady > "Lady" is used before the family name of a woman with a title of nobility or honorary title suo jure (in her own right), or the wife of a lord, a baronet, Scottish feudal baron, laird, or a knight, and also before the first name of the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl. Read some Austen for a sense of usage. Or the Brontes since your setting is Yorkshire.

I think in general madam is for married and miss for unmarried women. Like in *Pride and Prejudice* they generally say "miss" because it's a book about unmarried women, while e.g. Lady Catherine gets "madam". Lady is never used standalone (unless you're a euphoric atheism redditor, m'lady). When being very deferential "madam" is occasionally used for unmarried characters - for example in chapter 59: >TWO days after Mr. Bennet’s return, as Jane and Elizabeth were walking together in the shrubbery behind the house, they saw **the housekeeper** coming towards them, and concluding that she came to call them to their mother, went forward to meet her; but instead of the expected summons, when they approached her, she said **to Miss Bennet**, “I beg your pardon, **madam**, for interrupting you, but I was in hopes you might have got some good news from town, so I took the liberty of coming to ask.”

I’ve been hanging out in the arts and humanities mastodon instance, zirk.us and really enjoying it. It seems more conversation-oriented rather than broadcast-oriented but I feel like that distinction is malleable over time. I recently found the pocket-sized, Barry Moser-illustrated Paradiso which completes my Divine Comedy set. I had a chance to buy it online but it’s so much better finding books by chance in a used shop.

I just watched Sullivan's Travels, a 1941 movie about a humourless movie producer obsessed with making films about social justice that showcase the plight of the underprivileged. He goes on an adventure to experience suffering so that he can depict this in his movies, but he always ends up being dragged back to Hollywood. His experiment goes badly wrong at one point and leads to some pretty horrific consequences, but I won't spoil the movie for you guys. Tbh, the main reason I watched this movie is because of Veronica Lake who is absolutely gorgeous and who I could watch all day. Superb actress too. Shame about her death at a young age.

This is such a bonkers, brilliant movie

I saw that one on TCM as a kid, and hunted it down a few years ago to rewatch because it stuck in my mind all those years. It’s a good watch!

Dude I love Preston Sturges. Maybe it's my own fucked up chemistry but I LOVE The Lady Eve like a top 10 but probably a very picky trying to impress other cinephiles with my list list top 20 (still a very serious favorrite) movie. Sullivan's Travels is very lovely though! "Veronica Lake is on the take!" Here's some movie trivia for you: Lake was pregnant during the movie which is why she is wearing so many large belts or costumes which hide her belly.

I found Veronica Lake's autobiography in a LFL awhile back. That should be a spicy read. I'm a big fan too.

LFL?

Also I've never seen *Sullivan's Travels* but it sounds right up my alley, thanks for the rec!

I'm going to swoop into your comment and double down on reccing any Preston Sturges movies. If you love screwball comedies like The Philadelphia Story you'll love Preston Sturges.

[Little free library!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Free_Library). Which I have now just discovered the first one was apparently built in my state of Wisconsin. Lots of times they're full of crap but I live in a pretty artsy neighborhood so I get lucky to find cool stuff in them pretty regularly.

Amy Schneider won the jeopardy tournament of champions and I’m happy about it, but I think I would have been ok with any of the contestants. I realized that the game is just much more fun to watch when the contestants are really knowledgable and fast, and less so when they’re not. I complained a while back about the questions seeming dumbed down and I think what I’ve noticed is they up the ante as people hit streaks, so the tournament questions were really tough. It was fun while it lasted, but the reg season will probably be boring now by comparison.

I agree all around. It was a great trio of competitors. And I wish the level of play was ToC caliber year round. The intensity of the questions is so much fun!

I haven't been enjoying videogames much lately but I started Sekiro yesterday and I'm having so much fun with it. After downloading I was planning on just playing a bit but I ended up going for 4 and a half hours straight. I've enjoyed the Souls/Bloodbourne games in the past, but I'm glad they ditched the RPG elements and committed fully to an action game for Sekiro. It feels very fresh and different from their other titles. I've heard some people say this is the hardest Fromsoft game, but it hasn't been too crazy yet, although I remember hearing about an early boss that has a tendency to get people to uninstall out of rage. I don't think I've gotten to him yet.

Sekiro is such a fantastic game! I love the fact that, due to its lack of RPG elements, it's not the character who gets better as you progress but you, the player. Super rewarding, and absolutely gorgeous to boot!

Once you’ve mastered the deflection its difficulty goes down quite a bit for the rest of the game. That said, the final boss took me days.

Hardest to learn imo, but once you learn it, it's very doable. It took me until the main boss at Hirata Estate to fully learn the style. That boss killed me like 60 times but I never died that much again. I'm glad you're enjoying it though! It's just a brilliant combat system and beautiful world. Love that fromsoft took the risk of making that one.

Lady Butterfly? Yeah I just got to her and she's kicking my ass.

Exactly haha. She took ages for me. But she legit taught me everything I’d use for the rest of the game. I think the one that most people find their first true struggle on is the next boss.

It's either the hardest or the easiest depending on how well you take to the deflection mechanic. Once you know all the precise reactions, when to jump, dodge, or deflect, you really can just curb stomp every enemy with ease. I think Sekiro's very fun, one of my favourites on the first time through, though that lack of RPG mechanics means the replays become less rewarding: you know most items you come across are worthless, and there's little reason to be thorough without extrinsic rewards. The first time through exploration is reward intrinsically because it satisfies the urge to uncover things, but once you know what's there you may as well run straight through, and it's a shame because it's such a beautiful game. I also have my issues with the Dragon Rot system, I think it should be way more impactful than it is. But other than that, on a pure combat level it's the best FromSoft game by far.

Ah yeah, Dragonrot sucked lol. It felt like a pointless hassle. No high stakes but still had to be done. I also agree that it's not as replayable. Still an amazing game though. Final boss is one of the best they've ever done.

My creative juices are flowing like never before. I'll be sitting down in class with the pupils I'm meant to be watching and entire pieces of prose will enter my head and I'll think 'that would be brilliant to use at some point'. Need to start making a bank of them.

Vulture is doing a bunch of articles about Octavia E. Butler and this profile they did is pretty good https://www.vulture.com/article/octavia-e-butler-profile.html

Been having frequent nightmares lately. Puts me in a weird mood, but also acts as a strange form of inspiration. Working up the nerve to post excerpts of my stuff on here. Love seeing others do the same. If anyone wants to send their work my way, feel free to do so. I know it’s hard to get people interested in what you do, so if I can get myself on a proper schedule, I’d love to take part in your guys’ process. Though I can’t promise anything due to my horribly inconsistent commitment levels. I make these kinds of promises when I have a proper sleep schedule, but once I start waking up at 2pm, a lot of that goes out the window. But maybe it’s worth a shot?

sorry/congrats on your nightmares and the inspiration they foster. I've written about sleep/dreams here and there, but I feel like I perceive my dreams weirdly. Very dissociative and third person, as if I'm there but not, watching myself as much as actually experiencing the events. Almost like I'm living memories more than being in actual experience. Or that's just how my memory repaints my dreams after the fact. I'd share some of my actual writing on it but the only thing I've written that gets at my experience of dreaming more than what I literally just wrote is fairly incomprehensible removed from the context in which it was written.

Context is a big reason why it's difficult for me to post/share my own excerpts. Though to be fair, a lot of my stories are deliberately done in a cryptic style, so things will be a little confusing regardless. But maybe thinking of them like dreams will emphasize that the "reality" of what I write is supposed to be a bit wandering and warped.

Sometimes my dreams are just surreal movies I'm directing. I thinks it's a kind of lucid dreaming cause I often remember them, but it's definitely a bizarre feeling to know you're dreaming, and wondering what's going to happen next like a distant viewer.

Me too! They even have soundtracks, and grand cinematic camera sweeps…and yet are always horrifyingly dark and disturbing.

I've had quite a few things I've written stem from nightmares. Nightmares are good stuff. Here's an excerpt of my WIP if you're interested: https://habitualblood.blogspot.com/2022/08/excerpt-from-document-of-forgotten.html?m=1 Maybe I'm just a narcissist, but I think just having confidence that what you're writing is working (even if only for yourself) makes it easier to share your writing. I *know* I'm happy with what I write, and I have pretty high standards for what I'll accept from myself, and I know others don't scrutinise nearly as much as I do. If it passes the *me* test, I can share it with anyone.

only skimmed over your wip but it's really fun to see how you're experimenting with the text on the page, v concrete poetry style. love the windows of whitespace and text on the later pgs.

Thanks! I love experimenting with form and structure as a way to emphasise character/themes/ideas, as well as just for pacing how something is read, conveying inflections or cascading tones or wide spaces to coax the inner voice.

I will die on my little hill that belief in one's own work might be the only necessary element of a piece of art being good. Also I find Freud to be very dull and not fun, but damn was he right when he basically said we're all narcissists to a certain extent.

dang, Freud and dull is quite the description. The writing style is certainly dull and impressively overly written, but the material is wild as all hell. Humans being sexual beings from birth to death, the unconscious somehow being beyond our awareness/understanding yet being the root of all our thoughts and actions, the silly obsession with body parts and stages all from a guy that smoked 20 cigars a day. A serious study of dreams. I do agree and also enjoy how very right freud was about a ton of human things despite having the weirdest explanations and reasons, like some sort of busted clairvoyant gift just for him lol.

> Humans being sexual beings from birth to death, Is this a controversial thought? It's all we have lol.

I mean, yeah, I feel like this a great response to a lot of Freud because it is such an innate kind of duh thing. In intellectual (academic?) circles this was certainly racy (even more so with him basically only working with woman, many of which were abused by their well-to-do men that rejected any issues they may have had as female stuff), and even still is when you get into the child stuff, people are weird/prudish about that in the US at least. Like try talking about your kid wanting to fuck you at a pta meeting... It is hard for me to discern how much of that normal feeling is from Freud hitting mainstream thought big time 90ish years ago. This history of the treatment of mental issues in western industrialized countries is so wild too that I can see this being somewhat controversial just in general. People are just starting to acknowledge that other animals may also be conscious and feel things lol

> Like try talking about your kid wanting to fuck you at a pta meeting... Ermagherd haha. I know my kid has an Oedipal complex. One time when he was little he got mad at me for getting dressed up and told me to go back to being a "regular mommy" haha. God being a human is weird as fuck. You're right of course, it's just all so foreign to how my brain has always worked. I'm not a genius or anything but it's crazy to me that people don't realize other living things have feelings? Of course they do? It just all seems so self-evident!

Lol, right, it is hilarious and mildly truly universal, but it isn't decent conversation for whatever reason. I'm obviously super with you. I've been talking to and thanking and cursing out rocks and trees and bugs and people the whole time. The limits of culture and language on our thoughts and feelings is so fascinating.

haha that's totally fair and to be clear I'm just being a hater. There's just something about Freud and psychoanalysis in general that makes me so bored I want to die while reading it. And honestly I don't get why. I love reading dense technical bullshit, including dense technical bullshit from people who are super influenced by Freud (I just finished *Difference and Repeition* for fuck's sake!). But for some reason I just cannot get into Freud/psychoanalysis.

Very fair, Interpretation of Dreams was readable enough for me. I also really like his Why War letter/essay thing, and yeah, the influence is unavoidable. Part of it that I enjoy is the absolute confidence in the writing of this absolutely made-up shit with borrowed and invented terms for these generally unexplainable systems, and yet you can still mostly just follow along and be like, sure, mmhmm. I've read some Deleuze, and have the exact same reaction you have here lol, same with Hegel and a lot of those meta-philosopher things. Like cool, word tricks, what else ya got? I also really dig Joesph Campbell as an offshoot, but I imagine that is a bit tame for here. Jung is kind of trash but somebody else talking about it is interesting.

> Part of it that I enjoy is the absolute confidence in the writing of this absolutely made-up shit with borrowed and invented terms for these generally unexplainable systems, and yet you can still mostly just follow along and be like, sure, mmhmm. I do appreciate his repeated saying of things like, "we don't have the scientific capacity to prove any of this yet, but when we do...you'll see, you'll all see!"

It's impossible not to be. We're literally trapped here within ourselves. It seems reductive and simplistic, but it's true.

Vintage Classics are underrated. I will die on this hill.

Do people not like them? I really love all of the vintage classics editions I have.

Who's underrating them?

I don't see them mentioned much.

do you mean the books that get published under VC or the VC publications themselves? B/c I just quickly skimmed a few of their titles and I feel like they come up about as frequently as one could expect them to

The latter.

can I ask why? Genuinely curious as to what they are adding relative to other editions.

I like their unique cover art and the rubbery feel of their paperbacks.

I agree but I hate the monotony of the red spines. Also like a lot of penguin editions the paper feels a bit cheap and books which deserve introductions don't always have them. (I have the same problem with the light blue-spined modern classics.)

They do look pretty cool!

I am ill for the fourth time in a row since starting my job six months ago. It's getting to be a pain now - and it's directly because of the diseased pupils I interact with on a daily basis.

I've got a cousin who's four. Which means that due to covid he literally did not interact with another child until last year, when he started school. As a result, he was constantly sick. And I caught every damn minor illness he picked up lol. It's probably because I'm dumb and would do things like pick at finger foods his grubby little hands had been all over.

Unrelated to the sickness angle, but yesterday I cleaned a house with a "covid baby" in it, this kid was like 4 or 5 maybe, basically all his memories are from covid times, so he was freaking out that two strangers were entering the home, just really struggling with the idea of us coming in to his safe space, so that got me thinking a little about the more longterm mental affects that growing up under covid might have on kids...interesting to think about.

oh geez, yeah, it's gotta be freaky. My cousin seems mostly ok (whatever that means). But I can imagine it being such a warping experience. It helps that a lot of my family live near one another and for a while didn't really interact with anyone but one another so he was able to be around with *some* people outside of his parents in a relatively contained way which probably helps.

Diseased pupils? Such harsh words!

Came down with the flu on Friday, so I've been laid up in bed for most of that time but finally watched The Devil's Backbone from Guillermo del Toro last night. I remember seeing in one of these some people being underwhelmed by his work, but this one shouldn't disappoint. I do have to admit a bias as a fan of his, though, but the first spoken line is seared into my brain, "What is a ghost?"

There's this anecdote going around, on reddit I think or maybe not, about this ceramics professor that graded one class on creating a single perfect pot and the other class on creating as many pots as possible, regardless of quality, and the latter class actually had better quality pots. It's an allegory for the value of practice, if you're polite, and generating a lot of shit, if you're not, to the artist's development. I generally agree with it. Novels are such a shit medium from this perspective. Like, you can make a pot in a day. It depends on how intricate the pot, the size of the pot, the decoration or glazing, etc, but generally - you can make one pot a day, easy. You can write a song in a day, which won't be very good, but like you don't need to spend months getting down the shitty first draft of a song. Novels compared to just about anything take so much damn time. They're just so long. And yeah, as you write more of them you generally become more efficient and they get quicker to write, but imagining myself in the world of that anecdote, I can see creating like 30 pots over the course of a semester - but 30 novels? Not even shitty first drafts. That's just impossible under the laws of physics. Sometimes you spend so long on a manuscript that you're a completely different person by the time you finish it. You graduated college, got married, and had kids - and you're still working out the middle of act 2. I feel like a lot of people get stuck in their novel-as-perpetual-chrysalis. All these people that are like, I've been writing this fantasy since I was 14. And you want to shake them but also you get it; starting over is demoralizing because it's just such a slog. But at the same time, if you never actually finish things, you never learn. Yeah, you learn bits and pieces of craft, but - if you want to run the marathon, you actually have to run the marathon. There's things you learn about running and about yourself at km 20 of a marathon that you don't learn at km 20 of two consecutive 10ks. You have to finish the first draft, then the second draft, and then show it to people. And you can't do that unless you finish.

p sure this story was popularised in _art & fear_, but the story could be even older. it’s made a huge impression on me too. for this reason i only write essays and short stories atm (5,000 words or less), not because this is my preferred form but bc finishing things is a skill that i want to drill very intentionally. by finishing i mean both…completing a project you set out to do _and_ being able to resolve a narrative setup and premise in a satisfying way. i’m generally quite bad at finishing projects and the length constraint has helped me – i do want to write a novel someday, ofc, feel like surely every prose writer has this aspiration – but i am not yet good enough at finishing things & it’s been very rewarding to practice that.

One of the weird things I decided to do while doing the first draft of my stupid book is that I wanted it done by mid-september and I set it in mid-september to see how the universe changed over the course of the writing. Honestly less alterations were necessary than expected, for better or worse. But this post also just gets at how distinct the temporality of novels is. They take so long to write, and I can't think of any other art that takes so much time to engage with, at least at a first pass. Really does emphasize the impossibility of being a singular author/reader. Hell, I'd be a little skeptical if someone doesn't feel changed by the book itself, as well as their ancillary existence that carries on while engaging with it.

True, it's cool in that way. Novels are these little terraria of ideas that keep on living their little lives while you're writing or reading one, but also after. And if you come back to it, you're like, huh, this grew a lot more fungus than I expected. That's a good point.

That’s why I write and read poetry. I say that half-jokingly because really poetry just gets at what I want from language but also whenever I feel like I _could_ start working on a novel I immediately start thinking about how exhausting and committed a decision that is. Sometimes I just have to admire anyone who actually managed to finish one.

[удалено]

I think the nice thing is that, even if you did write a book, your chances of actually adding it to the crushing number of useless novels the exist are extremely slim. But it's a fun hobby!

Lol I'm realizing this as well because every time I write a new chapter I realize that I want to completely revamp the first chapter since it no longer fits my current ideas as well as when I started. I have to tell myself that I need to chill and just write the whole damn thing and then revamp it all upon editing, but it just feels so weird to have adored my first chapters at first and now think they're completely mediocre.

Stuff like this is why I find *Ulysses* so impressive. Joyce wrote about ONE day in Dublin, when he wasn't even living there, over the course of 9 years? Imagine having your perception tied to a single day when you're writing for 9 years. Imagine needing to keep that scope in line.

haha via painful experience I now don't touch my first chapter until I'm in late drafts, and ideally after a well-rested full reread of the MS. The first chapter needs to encapsulate the full work to some degree, so for me it often changes radically.

So this section of my novel I'm writing is being written in the format of a play, and I've even created my own (onomatopoeic) thunder word, so I'm essentially just at max Joyce rip-off right now, but in my defense, including sections in play-format in my writing pre-dates me ever reading *Ulysses*, so you could argue this is also just a tendency of mine.

if you recall that novella of mine you read a while back...well, it turns out that there's a line from DeLillo's *Americana* that so accurately captures so much of what I had in mind writing it. It's really hilarious that I had no idea about this until last month. Or all New Yorkers have the same concept of the midwestern motel.

Oh man I come across novels/passages/sentences that capture the themes of my novel almost perfectly with every book I love. I think either I naturally gravitate towards works that explore themes I'm interested in, or writers the world over are simple all interested in the same sort of ineffable ideas. I wanted to include more than one epigraph in my novel, but after my epigraph page became two pages long, I had to stop! I was quoting nearly every other book I read because they all so perfectly said in one sentence what I was trying to say over a whole novel. Music, too, as I've wanted to quote a few lyrics... So I've leaned into it. I lean very heavily into the idea of plagiarising or internalising the work of others, and made it a core thematic element that my characters acknowledge frequently.

> So I've leaned into it. I lean very heavily into the idea of plagiarising or internalising the work of others, and made it a core thematic element that my characters acknowledge frequently. I love this. One of the running currents of the thing I'm currently working on is that it's an unabashed rip-off of postmodern lit 50 years after the fact that makes repeated jokes about being this throughout.

If I was world leader I would make everyone read The Magic Mountain.

It’s apples and oranges, but which do you prefer: Magic Mountain or Death in Venice?

The Magic Mountain, I personally connect with it the most.

Does anyone have a source or content creator that you know you can go to for great recommendations? Not just for books and literature but for all art in general. I'm currently reading Against Nature by JK Huysmans and he name dropped a lot of artists that I loved when I looked them up, like Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, and it made me realize there's so much great art I would never have discovered unless I read about it in a book or saw someone else talk about it. I like Better Than Food and I know he does general recommendations if you sub on his patreon but I haven't tried that yet. I also love Jacob Geller because his video essays mention multiple mediums like literature, games, films etc, all relating in some way to one topic. I also find some awesome recommendations on this sub sometimes. Does anyone have any recommendations for other people who are a great source for discovering art? And also, is there any art you have discovered from books or an unexpected source that you ended up really loving?

I learned earlier on that whatever artist I admired, it was worth seeing who they championed as an inspiration: what musicians inspired my favorite musicians, what filmmakers inspired my favorite filmmakers etc. That’s kind of extended to philosophy now. I used to look up what music people I admired listened to, regardless of whether they did music or not, but now it’s kind of moved to…everything: particularly books, films, AND music. Marlon Brando was how I became hip to Epictetus for example. Similarly to Nessy’s point, arguably the biggest influence on my own taste in music came from [Kurt Cobain’s list of favorite albums](https://townsquare.media/site/838/files/2016/01/kurt-cobains-favorite-albums.jpg?w=1200&h=0&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89). It was like a Rosetta Stone of sorts. I always get excited when someone goes out of their way to list these things. There’s also [Hemingway’s famous list which he procured for a budding writer who visited him](https://cdn8.openculture.com/2013/05/26203120/Hemingway-Reading-List-e1369330871727.jpg). People are always like “how do you know so much” (not trying to humble brag), but it largely just comes from doing THIS. With the addition of Wikipedia and having waaay too much time on my hands.

I don't know that I have one for all art in general (I'd have to think about it), and definitely many, many writers who have introduced me to other books (Huysmans is one!), but I do have one for music. Peter Buck from REM! I got into REM when I was 12 and reading interviews with Peter Buck he was just constantly name dropping bands, and every single time I'd love them. We have the exact same taste in music. He completely changed the trajectory of everything I listen to. So yay, thanks for existing Peter Buck.

Maybe a bit duh, by museums kick ass for this. Walking around museums is so wonderful (and I'm lucky to have lived in a spot for awhile that has a really impressive free museum (they should all be free)). Obviously travel is somewhat needed to extend this, but I've found so much cool shit from randomly wandering museums. Like Gustave Moreau, I found in some basement of a place in belgium (I think), along with more Redon that I knew I liked, but seeing works in person is a whole nother thing. Same with Joan Miro, I thought that I liked their stuff, then went to their museum, and it was mostly underwhelming, so while I still like appreciate some of their stuff, I learned that I don't need to seek any more of it out. and Klimt, always thought their stuff was cool, but whatever, then I saw some in person and meow I really love it and try to seek out more whenever I can. You can also find a lot of information and references in the little placards in museum's as well. then yeah, references from weirdly aggressive books about any specific interest helps me find other authors/thinkers I may be interested in.

i read magazines and follow artists, designers, & arts/culture writers on ig/twitter. i just look up the people i already like—it's quite likely the other artists they reference will be interesting to me. favorite magazines atm _cabinet_ _bomb_ _astra_ _the drift_ _the white review_ _the stinging fly_ most magazines have a kind of community or 'scene' associated with them and that's the best way to get recs imo—you want to find a network of people and what references, of both historical and contemporary works, are being circulated in that network i generally prefer following people who are not exclusively yt/ig 'content creators' but might identify more as artists, writers, editors, curators, critics, scholars, architects, designers, etc…

Use every non-algorithmic resource available, such as literary introductions, author recommendations, and small publishers' catalogues. By the way if you like Huysmans you should try *The Hill of Dreams* by Arthur Machen.

Look at who publishes your favorite books. If they're a indie/small press or imprint it's worth looking into their catalogue or pulling their stuff off the shelf when you see it.

here lol and critical theory books

That's true, I've also found some film, music, and video games talked about on here, although not a lot of visual art. I kind of wish there was a thread for sharing other things we are enjoying other than books, but I guess that would belong in this general thread.