vinodks
March 24th, 2006, 11:13 PM
Inspired by the other posts and vinod's satirical fashion...in the true tradition of being a copy cat...
Ok, I thought I have been very modest in starting new threads... I shouldn't stay behind...
Lets talk about most creative books... The most creative (and also difficult) book I ever found is Ulysses by James Joyce... It was selected as best novel of 20th century by Modern Library...
check out their list (I have read more than 1/3 of both lists, my dream is to read atleast one book all of these authors, and deadline is age of 30:)))...
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
I made 2 attempts to read Ulysses and couldn't go beyond few pages... actually sometimes it becomes so excrutiatingly meticulous about feelings and events... 700page novel is a 18hours story of characters in Dublin city and Stephan(the same character as in Joyce's "A Portrait of Artist as young Man") meets many people... The book was banned at that time (around 30s) in US becuz of its unorthodox ideas, vulgar language... This is the boldest experiment in modern literature... the last 40pages of book are written in ONE SENTENCE, thoughts in mind of a female character... there is no punctuation mark in 40 pages although reader desperately need some full stops sometimes... its hard to go thru them becuz reader's mind feels being forced to go thru roller coaster of steep up downs.... it may not be grammatically correct but thats what "stream of consciousness" is about... non-stop train of vaguely linked thoughts... thats the way to understand true nature of character... that female character has thoughts about christianity and vulgar sexuality almost back to back... anyway, if you like challenges in reading, here is one..
Second most difficult/creative book I found is The Sound and the Fury... the review can be read in link I gave in reviews of books post... so won't go in details...
Oh yeah, "To the Lighthouse" by V. Woolf is another creative piece... first 100 pages of this feminist novel are about story of Ramsay family during one day, with just 2-3 conversation... whole novel is just interior monologue, stream of consciousness, things that go in people's mind not what they speak.... then next 30pages cover 10years and in these 30 pages just the description of a deserted house is given... it really insightful... then remaining 50pages cover one day and Ramsay family is disintegreted... style is unforgettable...
There are few books with very creative style, e.g. The Void.. 200 page novel that doesn't use vowel "e"-- the most used letter in english language... imagine a sentence without it... but author went thru painful selection of words to avoid it and plot is nice... I read only few pages becuz it becomes boring... this book is translation of a french book which also didn't use "e".... there is novel by same author I guess that uses no other vowel than "e"... its shorter book though...
I think Vikram Seth's "Golden Gate" is also pretty innovative... all verses in 300page book with same rhyming scheme...
There is a novel which comes in loose sheets in a box, you can arrange these pages in the way you want and read and it makes sense everytime... my literature teacher mentioned it, I forgot name, I am in search of this book...
Very creative short stories I found are by J. L. Borges... style is unbeatable..
Creative styles are in simple books too, like "The Sun Also Rises" and "Old man and the sea" by Hemingway (easy to miss out but simplicity is very good innovation too), Italo Calvino's books etc... we are talking about creativity only in style not subject matter becuz subject matter of all books given in the list is unique and applausible... but we r talking about only the language part of it...
But wait, there is another book more difficult(perhaps most difficult) than Ulysses, its Finnegan's Wake by same author, James Joyce... well, you have to browse thru pages to see what I am talking about... author uses words invented by himself, its kind of coded book with so called Joycian langauge...
I am putting opening paragraph of book here..
------------------
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend 1
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to 2
Howth Castle and Environs. 3
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen- 4
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy 5
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor 6
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse 7
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper 8
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to 9
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a 10
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in 11
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a 12
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory 13
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
----------------------
Enjoy!
-vinod
Ok, I thought I have been very modest in starting new threads... I shouldn't stay behind...
Lets talk about most creative books... The most creative (and also difficult) book I ever found is Ulysses by James Joyce... It was selected as best novel of 20th century by Modern Library...
check out their list (I have read more than 1/3 of both lists, my dream is to read atleast one book all of these authors, and deadline is age of 30:)))...
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
I made 2 attempts to read Ulysses and couldn't go beyond few pages... actually sometimes it becomes so excrutiatingly meticulous about feelings and events... 700page novel is a 18hours story of characters in Dublin city and Stephan(the same character as in Joyce's "A Portrait of Artist as young Man") meets many people... The book was banned at that time (around 30s) in US becuz of its unorthodox ideas, vulgar language... This is the boldest experiment in modern literature... the last 40pages of book are written in ONE SENTENCE, thoughts in mind of a female character... there is no punctuation mark in 40 pages although reader desperately need some full stops sometimes... its hard to go thru them becuz reader's mind feels being forced to go thru roller coaster of steep up downs.... it may not be grammatically correct but thats what "stream of consciousness" is about... non-stop train of vaguely linked thoughts... thats the way to understand true nature of character... that female character has thoughts about christianity and vulgar sexuality almost back to back... anyway, if you like challenges in reading, here is one..
Second most difficult/creative book I found is The Sound and the Fury... the review can be read in link I gave in reviews of books post... so won't go in details...
Oh yeah, "To the Lighthouse" by V. Woolf is another creative piece... first 100 pages of this feminist novel are about story of Ramsay family during one day, with just 2-3 conversation... whole novel is just interior monologue, stream of consciousness, things that go in people's mind not what they speak.... then next 30pages cover 10years and in these 30 pages just the description of a deserted house is given... it really insightful... then remaining 50pages cover one day and Ramsay family is disintegreted... style is unforgettable...
There are few books with very creative style, e.g. The Void.. 200 page novel that doesn't use vowel "e"-- the most used letter in english language... imagine a sentence without it... but author went thru painful selection of words to avoid it and plot is nice... I read only few pages becuz it becomes boring... this book is translation of a french book which also didn't use "e".... there is novel by same author I guess that uses no other vowel than "e"... its shorter book though...
I think Vikram Seth's "Golden Gate" is also pretty innovative... all verses in 300page book with same rhyming scheme...
There is a novel which comes in loose sheets in a box, you can arrange these pages in the way you want and read and it makes sense everytime... my literature teacher mentioned it, I forgot name, I am in search of this book...
Very creative short stories I found are by J. L. Borges... style is unbeatable..
Creative styles are in simple books too, like "The Sun Also Rises" and "Old man and the sea" by Hemingway (easy to miss out but simplicity is very good innovation too), Italo Calvino's books etc... we are talking about creativity only in style not subject matter becuz subject matter of all books given in the list is unique and applausible... but we r talking about only the language part of it...
But wait, there is another book more difficult(perhaps most difficult) than Ulysses, its Finnegan's Wake by same author, James Joyce... well, you have to browse thru pages to see what I am talking about... author uses words invented by himself, its kind of coded book with so called Joycian langauge...
I am putting opening paragraph of book here..
------------------
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend 1
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to 2
Howth Castle and Environs. 3
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen- 4
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy 5
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor 6
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse 7
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper 8
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to 9
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a 10
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in 11
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a 12
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory 13
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
----------------------
Enjoy!
-vinod