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Thoughts What Modern Classics Would You Recommend For Someone Who Usually Hates Classics?

Oh, and:
JT Leroy - Sarah
Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl (probably doesn't count as a classic-classic, but it fucking should)
 
i don't know what counts as a modern classic....

but i'd go

midnight's children - salman rushdie
blood meridian- cormac mcarthy
quiet flows the don- Mikhail Sholokhov
unbearable lightness of being- milan kundera

i haven't read them since i was a teenager so taste may have changed but:
100 years of solitude- gabriel garcia marquez
house of the spirits- isabel allende
 
tubgirl.jpg said:
Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer
Knut Hamsun - Hunger
Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf
Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Denis Johnson - Jesus' Son
Hubert Selby Jr - Last Exit to Brooklyn
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"Hunger" is a great choice, short and very modern in style.

Anyone who likes Henry Miller, or Charles Bukowski for that matter, should read Louis-Ferdinand Céline since he was a huge influence on them, as well as the Beats. (Ginsberg and Burroughs made a pilgrimage to his house outside Paris in 1958 to meet him.)

Céline is probably my favorite fiction author, though I should probably note that he was also a notorious anti-semite and accused Nazi collaborator (like Knut Hamsun, actually). I love all his books, but definitely recommend starting with his first novel, Journey to the End of the Night, a true modern classic.
 
JTemperance said:
"Hunger" is a great choice, short and very modern in style.

Anyone who likes Henry Miller, or Charles Bukowski for that matter, should read Louis-Ferdinand Céline since he was a huge influence on them, as well as the Beats. (Ginsberg and Burroughs made a pilgrimage to his house outside Paris in 1958 to meet him.)

Céline is probably my favorite fiction author, though I should probably note that he was also a notorious anti-semite and accused Nazi collaborator (like Knut Hamsun, actually). I love all his books, but definitely recommend starting with his first novel, Journey to the End of the Night, a true modern classic.
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Oh, I will definitely check it out.
Lovecraft was a racist and a bigot, but his writing is still splendid.
 
also for sci fi:

three body problem trilogy- cixin liu
XX- rian hughes

i got addicted to both of these big time.

neuromancer- william gibson
foucault's pendulum- umberto eco
glass bead game- herman hesse
the magus- john fowles
the happy death- albert camus

my favourite book of all time:
the once and future king- T H White

that definitely counts as a modern classic given disney made a film of the first book. the sword in the stone is an absolute joy to read. i don't know how many times i've read the whole thing. many books i reread at different point in my life and don't like so much. once and future king always brings me pleasure.
 
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.
Anything by Sir Arthur Donan Coyle
 
ChemicallyEnhanced said:
Loved The Stand (M-O-O-N, that spells "The Stand" ;) )
Wasn't a huge fan of The Gunslinger, but really liked most of those books (I persevered as someone described The Gunslinger as more of as a prologue to the other Dark Tower books, and I would say that's accurate). I actually really liked the ending of the series, too (apparently, a lot of people did not).
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After a long time I love it’s ending as well. Lol.. and King has got to be one of least gifted closers of all time.. but then it’s hard to accept , let alone appreciate, any end to a long love. I wonder what the experience was like for King.

I still remember where I was when I finished reading The Dark Tower series. Initially I was really disappointed.. but looking back I think that had allot to do with such an amazing tale having to end.

Maybe that’s why he brought it full circle ❤️

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed
 
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feeling personally offended by the lack of love for cormac mccarthy in this thread!! mans a genius. though will admit most of his books that i've read are the sort i have to get through as quick as possible because they are so painful i just need them to be over.
 
chinup said:
feeling personally offended by the lack of love for cormac mccarthy in this thread!! mans a genius. though will admit most of his books that i've read are the sort i have to get through as quick as possible because they are so painful i just need them to be over.
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I agree.. but I showed some love
 
neversickanymore said:
After a long time I love it’s ending as well. Lol.. and King has got to be one of least gifted closers of all time.. but then it’s hard to accept , let alone appreciate, any end to a long love. I wonder what the experience was like for King.

I still remember where I was when I finished reading The Dark Tower series. Initially I was really disappointed.. but looking back I think that had allot to do with such an amazing tale having to end.

Maybe that’s why he brought it full circle ❤️

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed
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I might cover half that with a spoiler warning? lol

Yeah, King isn't usually great when it comes to endings. Even he has admitted sometimes the movies had better endings (he much prefers the movie ending to The Mist) There are exceptions, of course. I loved the end (well, "end" meaning more like the last third in this case) of Carrie. The only change in the movie versions that I preferred with that (and interestingly all three movie adaptations of Carrie did this) where she did her Prom revenge from the stage inside the Prom (if you haven't read the book: she does pretty much the same thing, but from standing outside, looking in through a window).
Misery ended well, although I prefer the initial, darker ending King described in On Writing (after their fight and Pauls struggle to escape,in the last chapter we see Annie holding her unique copy of his new book, bound in his skin).
I loved the town destruction at the of Needful Things (fuck me, was the movie a disappointment, though).
 
chinup said:
feeling personally offended by the lack of love for cormac mccarthy in this thread!! mans a genius. though will admit most of his books that i've read are the sort i have to get through as quick as possible because they are so painful i just need them to be over.
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He is truly great. I don't know why I didn't mention "Blood Meridian". I love that book. I guess I just don't consider it a classic, although it certainly is.

My favorite is "Sunset Limited" though - I know it's a screenplay, but it's so damn good. Sometimes I pick it up and just read a few random pages in it. There's not a bad line in that entire thing.
 
chinup said:
feeling personally offended by the lack of love for cormac mccarthy in this thread!! mans a genius. though will admit most of his books that i've read are the sort i have to get through as quick as possible because they are so painful i just need them to be over.
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The Road was awesome!
I also have Blood Meridian but haven't read it yet. Is it as good?
 
Oh! And I've also read Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier. Read it be after seeing the 1973 movie of the same name. I can count on one hand* the number movies (in the horror/disturbing/extreme/banned type genres) that have had any effect on me and that was one. TBF I had no idea it was a horror movie. I had a friend and we both had really similar tastes and he recommended this to me. I'd never heard of it (I was born in the 90s and was 15 at this time, so please excuse my ignorance) and he didn't tell me anything about it. When I asked he told me "just watch it". So the entire time I thought it was just a straight drama and nearing the end I was like "ohh, he probably suggested it because it has a surprise happy ending where his daughter IS alive", so I watch him follow that redcoated person into the building thinking it was gonna be a tear-jerking reunion and than - THAT. It took me completely from surprise and just the way she looked and acted and everything. I literally shivered and got goosebumps. I wasn't like *scared* per se, just deeply creeped out.

Has anyone else read it? (OT but what did you think of the movie?). Would you recommend anything else by Du Maurier?


*and I've seen like Registros Fatais 3, MDPOPE, Gore Porn etc.
 
tubgirl.jpg said:
He is truly great. I don't know why I didn't mention "Blood Meridian". I love that book. I guess I just don't consider it a classic, although it certainly is.

My favorite is "Sunset Limited" though - I know it's a screenplay, but it's so damn good. Sometimes I pick it up and just read a few random pages in it. There's not a bad line in that entire thing.
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i haven't read that!! not sure i can cope with screenplays but might be worth a try.

ChemicallyEnhanced said:
The Road was awesome!
I also have Blood Meridian but haven't read it yet. Is it as good?
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the road was horrifying, but yes, awesome.

i like blood meridian better. the writing is just amazing, i don't think i've ever read anything like it. about half way through i realised it wasn't the book i thought it was at all, possibly i'm just slow on the uptake, i was in rehab when i read it so brain wasn't in the best of conditions. i must reread it.
 
chinup said:
i haven't read that!! not sure i can cope with screenplays but might be worth a try.


the road was horrifying, but yes, awesome.

i like blood meridian better. the writing is just amazing, i don't think i've ever read anything like it. about half way through i realised it wasn't the book i thought it was at all, possibly i'm just slow on the uptake, i was in rehab when i read it so brain wasn't in the best of conditions. i must reread it.
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That's why I liked The Road, I think. I'm somewhat obsessed with with reading/watching anything that most people deem as very disturbing/extreme/controversial. I usually disagree and they don't faze me at all, but I still enjoy the experience. I loved The Road because, yes, it was "horrifying" in parts but it was also an excellent story and the writing was great, too.
 
chinup said:
i haven't read that!! not sure i can cope with screenplays but might be worth a try.


the road was horrifying, but yes, awesome.

i like blood meridian better. the writing is just amazing, i don't think i've ever read anything like it. about half way through i realised it wasn't the book i thought it was at all, possibly i'm just slow on the uptake, i was in rehab when i read it so brain wasn't in the best of conditions. i must reread it.
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Did they monitor what you read in Rehab? I've have twice had books taken off me against my will (they gave them back when I left) when in rehab or sectioned. A nurse saw I was reading Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel when I was on the Acute Mental Health Ward for Psychotic Depression. I didn't even get told anything, she said "I think not" and took it off me. Apparently, they have a list of "triggering" books they won't let you have. Stuff like The Bell Jar etc.
When I was an inpatient on the Eating Disorder ward, when they were watching me unpack (just like they do in rehab in case you smuggle in drugs, they have to there because people sneak in laxatives, emetics, Ephedrine, etc), I had a copy of Marya Hornbachers Wasted and - even though Marya says she wrote it to try and dissuade people from it or to encourage them to get help and recover - they told me the staff at ALL ED places HATE that book and it's banned.
 
ChemicallyEnhanced said:
Did they monitor what you read in Rehab? I've have twice had books taken off me against my will (they gave them back when I left) when in rehab or sectioned. A nurse saw I was reading Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel when I was on the Acute Mental Health Ward for Psychotic Depression. I didn't even get told anything, she said "I think not" and took it off me. Apparently, they have a list of "triggering" books they won't let you have. Stuff like The Bell Jar etc.
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in rehab they didn't monitor what we read though one of the psychologists, when she realised i was reading blood meridian, commented that they probably shouldn't be letting me read that. they let me read requiem for a dream too, i didn't do that to trigger myself though i did it to put myself off and it worked pretty well.

i've been on an acute mental health ward and tbh i don't remember anything about being admitted at all so i have no idea what i even brought with me and whether anything was taken away. but when i had stabilised enough to have visitors a friend brought me some books including the happy death by camus which i'm not sure is that suitable for someone in a psychiatric crisis. they also didn't monitor me eating- i was severely anorexic at the time but that's not how i ended up on the ward, though they forced me to stay longer than i wanted cos i was in the 'immediate risk of death' BMI category- and said friend ate a lot of my food. he apologised for that a few weeks back, it was over a decade ago and has apparently being eating him up the whole time. poor guy.

ChemicallyEnhanced said:
When I was an inpatient on the Eating Disorder ward, when they were watching me unpack (just like they do in rehab in case you smuggle in drugs, they have to there because people sneak in laxatives, emetics, Ephedrine, etc), I had a copy of Marya Hornbachers Wasted and - even though Marya says she wrote it to try and dissuade people from it or to encourage them to get help and recover - they told me the staff at ALL ED places HATE that book and it's banned.
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no idea what i was allowed or not allowed in residential ED wards. again my memory of those times is just really bad cos i had such low blood sugar all the time. i know i took in loads of my textbooks cos i was so stressed about how much uni i was missing. despite being given the year off to concentrate on my recovery. i don't know why they let me have those, you shouldn't be trying to study in IP.
 
chinup said:
in rehab they didn't monitor what we read though one of the psychologists, when she realised i was reading blood meridian, commented that they probably shouldn't be letting me read that. they let me read requiem for a dream too, i didn't do that to trigger myself though i did it to put myself off and it worked pretty well.

i've been on an acute mental health ward and tbh i don't remember anything about being admitted at all so i have no idea what i even brought with me and whether anything was taken away. but when i had stabilised enough to have visitors a friend brought me some books including the happy death by camus which i'm not sure is that suitable for someone in a psychiatric crisis. they also didn't monitor me eating- i was severely anorexic at the time but that's not how i ended up on the ward, though they forced me to stay longer than i wanted cos i was in the 'immediate risk of death' BMI category- and said friend ate a lot of my food. he apologised for that a few weeks back, it was over a decade ago and has apparently being eating him up the whole time. poor guy.


no idea what i was allowed or not allowed in residential ED wards. again my memory of those times is just really bad cos i had such low blood sugar all the time. i know i took in loads of my textbooks cos i was so stressed about how much uni i was missing. despite being given the year off to concentrate on my recovery. i don't know why they let me have those, you shouldn't be trying to study in IP.
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Well, if there's any book/movie that's gonna put you off drugs for life it's Requiem for a Dream lol. As much as I liked the book, it's a VERY rare case where I think the movie is even better. I first watched it 12 years ago and it has stuck with me ever since. I've been borderline-obsessed at times. Partly because both book and movie are excellent, but partly because I just relate to Sara Goldfarb so much. I started as an addict super-naively, too: I had terrible depression and anxiety and had just been put on Sertraline (Zoloft). I was starting to improve, so my brother (who is only 16 months younger) was encouraging me to hang out with him and his friends (it was summer so no school; I was 18, they were 16 and 17). Everyone including my parents encouraged me to drink alcohol to get the confidence so I did and it worked! I was happy, confident, fun. I made a lot of friends and got very popular, but you know how it goes: drinking every day, then all day every day etc...I ended up getting pancreatitis and was prescribed oxy and fentanyl for it. My friend knew a doctor who would prescribe you Dexedine for weight loss so I went to him and got that (unlike in Requiem... he did look at me and talk with me, but also I was 5'6 and 132lbs and he gave me weight loss meds) and when I mentioned my history of social anxiety he gave me Xanax, too). I pretty much went the same way. Total addiction and psychosis and was eventually sectioned when I as discovered wondering the streets in my underwear at night, picking up imaginary coins and pills from the ground every few feet and talking to people who weren't there. I was 91lbs.
Thankfully my story had a happy ending, the doctors there were excellent and I made a full recovery.
Also, Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb is hands-down the best acting I have ever seen.
Sorry, that was a very long and rambling tangent.

Wow! You must have been both very dedicated and very stressed to take study textbooks with you! Poor thing. And they definitely shouldn't have let you study there. Your physical and mental health is way more important!

Huh, I don't remember being much about the acute mental health ward, either (the start). I=The time I was there for psychotic depression, I mean. I remember being there just fine, but cannot remember who put me there, when/if they told me beforehand, being taken there, or arriving there.
 
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