Ouch http://www.sindrebangstad.com/the-artist-as-provocateur-handke-and-knausgard/
― 0 / 0 (lukas), Tuesday, 3 November 2015 23:08 (eight years ago) link
I think it's more the context than the grammar doing the work here tbh, it sort of depends on understanding "read his books" as meaning "generally, on my own initiative" as opposed to on commission for this review. Sort of like saying "I've never traveled in Europe" at the beginning of a travel article about Rome or something. It can be sort of elegant to write minimally and let context do the rest of the work, rather than "Prior to getting assigned to write this review, I had never read his books"
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Tuesday, November 3, 2015 9:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah this usage of present perfect is kinda shibboleth-y and points to a particular kind of university education i think. its deployment here however is probably more to do with the translator than it is knausgaard -- who knows how you indicate this sort of thing in norwegian, though
hey the review actually kinda makes me want to read houllebecq for the first time in a while, though i feel like it would mostly infuriate me
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Wednesday, 4 November 2015 02:56 (eight years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/vanishing-point
acceptance speech for the Welt Literaturpreis, November 6th, berlin.
― Karl Rove Knausgård (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 17 November 2015 22:20 (eight years ago) link
new times piece is soooo goooooooood
― bloat laureate (schlump), Friday, 1 January 2016 09:06 (eight years ago) link
excerpt from book 5 in the new yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/at-the-writing-academy
― uncle tenderlegdrop (jim in glasgow), Friday, 11 March 2016 19:56 (eight years ago) link
Just finished book 4. Waiting for book 5 to come out in paperback before I buy it.
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 5 May 2016 01:54 (eight years ago) link
thoughts after listening to him reading from vs naipaul's the enigma of arrival on the new yorker podcast - http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/karl-ove-knausgaard-reads-v-s-naipaul
1. this is a brilliant story, i need to read the book.2. knausgaard is a good voice actor and also maybe should read children's bedtime stories.
one of the best new yorker podcasts imo.
― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 1 June 2016 20:51 (eight years ago) link
I'm somewhat biased by being friends with two of the writers, but I've been enjoying this series of letters on My Struggle, which has covered the first volume so far, and will continue through book 5 by the end of the summer: http://post45.research.yale.edu/2016/06/the-slow-burn-volume-2-an-introduction/
― one way street, Friday, 17 June 2016 15:33 (eight years ago) link
i still have uh a ways to go w/ karl's struggle and the gradual slumping of his press has been giving me the slightest of misgivings
so i found this reassuring even if it does imply that the middle books would still be kinda meh
http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-struggle-against-language
― j., Friday, 17 June 2016 23:01 (eight years ago) link
started the second one recently, a year or more since finishing the first. i am generally enjoying the mixture of feelings i have towards him, as i go on. in book 1 i often thought "what an idiot" and occasionally enjoyed the long, tedious descriptions of things. it felt sort of sub-musil or like a trashy airport novel for people who enjoy literature. in book 2 after 100 pages or so i'm finding myself laughing at his juvenile, petty, pretentious anger, about his kids or swedish parents or his life, but not to the point that it makes me ridicule him. it's like a mixture of boorishness, sensitivity, sexism, and alternative thinking. as a writer he's almost impossible to pin down. there are so many feelings at war with each other - it can be trite or bad-tempered one second, and profound the next.
overall good page-turners, but still feel like airport or holiday reading.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 8 May 2017 22:46 (seven years ago) link
the stuff about him being a parent in this liberal swedish milieu and being a small c conservative and basically finding it awful but having no choice but to be around because of his kids is the funniest stuff in the books so far for me and I've read the first 3. there's this really funny bit - well for some reason it jumped out at me as particularly funny - where people are talking about immigration and he intentionally says nothing because one of the guys there works in refugee settlement and his views on immigration have previously made people think he's a racist
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 8 May 2017 23:18 (seven years ago) link
also his view of childrearing - he is a house husband because he can't justify not being one - his wife needs to go out to work, he's a writer and can work from home - but basically finds it unfulfilling and emasculating because he is really, despite his extreme sensitivity, someone who prescribes to traditional gender roles
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 8 May 2017 23:20 (seven years ago) link
the mixture of profundity and basic misanthropy makes for a fairly amusing read. p sexist tho throughout.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Friday, 12 May 2017 11:57 (seven years ago) link
As far as I know, I own all of this dude’s works that’ve been published in book form in English. If you’re a My Struggle superfan, check out A Time for Everything, which is different from My Struggle, but there’s a connection there that might be interesting to you.
Here’s a link: https://archipelagobooks.org/book/a-time-for-everything/
― the ghost of markers, Friday, 12 May 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link
There’s also some more books of his coming out in the future listed on that website here: https://archipelagobooks.org/book_author/knausgaard-karl/
― the ghost of markers, Friday, 12 May 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Friday, May 12, 2017 4:57 AM (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh it's very sexist. i mean, it's very candid, so, i think most men being extremely candid would come across somewhat sexist. but he really takes the cake, i feel completely chaste compared to his constant lechery.
the saving grace for me is that in writing this autobiographical account of being a drunk, sometimes pretentious, chauvinistic, male writer he doesn't ever really try to do the male writer thing and elevate himself by romanticizing himself as a struggling artist, or charming rogue, or whatever. his frailty, banality, and weakness is constantly apparent. you're often laughing at him and rarely with him.
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Friday, 12 May 2017 21:08 (seven years ago) link
I got tired of the guy 3/4 of the way through Book 1. Not really interested in checking out more by him tbh
― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Friday, 12 May 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
his frailty, banality, and weakness is constantly apparent. you're often laughing at him and rarely with him.― -_- (jim in vancouver), Friday, May 12, 2017 5:08 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Friday, May 12, 2017 5:08 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
do you think this is a central part of the project? like, is the book a masochistic deconstruction of the heroic male author archetype?
― Treeship, Friday, 12 May 2017 22:37 (seven years ago) link
i think knausgaard would have no interest in that in the abstract, or like from a point of principle. but it is that in effect.
the central conceit is his relationship with his abusive father and his desire to not be like him and perhaps part of that is the openness and nakedness of this book. contrasts greatly with his father who remains an enigma throughout.
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Friday, 12 May 2017 22:42 (seven years ago) link
i found book one sporadically engaging, mostly a bit bemusing, even with the melancholy. book 2 has a lot more intellectual heft. both are page-turners imo. maybe his approach is building through me as i go too.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Saturday, 13 May 2017 01:47 (seven years ago) link
the scene in book 2 where his wife gives birth was incredibly powerful imo, don't think i've ever read somebody detail childbirth from a viewer's perspective like that, it was extremely moving.
book 2 is so much better than the first one. he does like some shit indie music tho.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 29 May 2017 14:44 (seven years ago) link
he does like some shit indie music tho.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 29 May 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
the cardigans just emerged in book 2. and i mean, i guess damon albarn's mali album might not be shit, idk, but just seems the kind of lame thoughtless indie-fan purchase of the time. i realise he does like some good things as well, i think, based on his interviews.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 29 May 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
wtf Lovefool is the best song ever
― flopson, Monday, 29 May 2017 15:49 (seven years ago) link
i dunno if it's diff in diff parts of the world but that record is one of the most irritating i can remember - the earlier stuff was fine i guess but that era is basically like texas or the stereophonics in my mind.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 29 May 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
i really do not know what to make of this guy. he is so bloody talkative. i get bored after one page. how can someone take himself so seriously. "min kamp" reminds me of rousseau's confessions which are unsupportable as well. on the other hand he thinks "engführung" by paul celan is the best poem in the world. paul celan and knausgard, that is about the largest distance you can have between two authors. weird guy.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 29 May 2017 16:11 (seven years ago) link
"boring" is definitely the right word but i dunno, the tediousness is kind of key to the whole experience. i'm a bit torn about him, parts of it are weaker than others. i find myself tearing through the books tho, there's something addictive about them, in a sort of trashy way.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, 29 May 2017 16:14 (seven years ago) link
Pretty good interview. Anyone read/is planning to read his new book?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link
ranked:
part 2 part 5part 3part 1part 4
part 6 - waiting for translation.
― nostormo, Sunday, 27 August 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
hmm, that's a conundrum. i've read 1-3. do i push through struggle through 4 in order to get to 5 and the promise of learning about how his trip to the grocery store goes in 6?
ultimately i think i will, because for the most part i just really enjoy reading him describe his non-adventures. and it helps me to see someone who is about as successful as one can be, at least in terms of his career and standing among peers, feel like utter shit so much of the time.
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 27 August 2017 16:30 (seven years ago) link
Not strictly related but interesting profile of Gunnhild Øyehaug in the NYer. Somehow I'd never heard of her.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 28 August 2017 10:28 (seven years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/magazine/a-literary-road-trip-into-the-heart-of-russia.html
― khat person (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:21 (six years ago) link
Reading Part 6 now. i will really miss those books. The most important novels in the last 20 years i think.part 6 is more meditative than the rest, and i think it makes it just a little weaker.part 2 and 5 are the best imo.1 is the worst (though it is great on it's own regardless). He kinda learned to write them along the way.
― nostormo, Saturday, 8 September 2018 14:32 (six years ago) link
Hate this series (gave up after vol.2) but mildly interested in just picking this last book -- I think 'meditative' could really work for me.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 8 September 2018 18:43 (six years ago) link
1 >>>> 3
― Uhura Mazda (lukas), Monday, 10 September 2018 00:37 (six years ago) link
One is my fave so far, only read first 3.
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 10 September 2018 02:59 (six years ago) link
He cancelled his U.S "tour" due to family crisis.
― nostormo, Monday, 24 September 2018 05:52 (six years ago) link
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n21/fredric-jameson/itemised
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:04 (five years ago) link
nice
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:59 (five years ago) link
lol at Q3, pffft at the answer to Q5, he shd have done the whole thing Q&A style
― mark s, Thursday, 1 November 2018 19:03 (five years ago) link
when jameson said
But all of this – the essay or essays scattered throughout this enormous final volume, where it might be argued that he ought at least to be allowed to draw a few conclusions – is not to be judged on the basis of its interest (some of it is interesting, some jejune or embarrassing, some simply conventional) but rather on generic (I won’t say aesthetic) grounds; and this, however much you are willing to sacrifice on the altar of heterogeneity, is a value I also personally prize. But these essays are not narrative, they are opinion – that doxa the Greeks so sharply distinguished from episteme or ‘knowledge’. I am willing to argue that this opposition has its literary and formal version, and that there is, in fact, something we may call narrative truth. Knausgaard’s accounts of his own opinions are not the narrative of someone thinking, arguing, discovering plausible or pernicious ideas; they are simply a collection of his own personal thoughts, which he might better have projected in a truly rhetorical and literary form, i.e. the essay. There have been remarkable essays in which an author effectively tells the story of his own opinions. Here, however, we already know what Knausgaard is doing, and where the flaw lies: he is itemising them. He has already discovered and thought them through; now he is listing them for us, no matter how elaborate the entries.
i felt that
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 1 November 2018 21:05 (five years ago) link
this was really good, thanks for linking to it. i especially liked the section discussing the pronouns, subjectivity/objectivity, the perceived "you" of the books, etc, ending with this:
I believe that this is a unique and as yet untheorised human relationship: not new certainly, but unnamed, and not subsumed under any of our pronominal categories – not ‘I-you’, or ‘them-us’ or ‘we’, but a peculiar absent presence of an otherness which is neither the big Other nor the crowd of eyes; and its shame is permanent, its openness an ever possible vulnerability to some unknown consciousness which is not an entity and can never really be reached by us in any active way. Knausgaard’s achievement is to have foregrounded this immeasurably strange relationship which is there all the time but to which we so rarely attend directly.
to me that gets to the heart of what i have enjoyed about these books (having only read the first three so far): they place the reader in a strange relationship with the author, intimate but distant all the same (the style of itemization contributes to that, i think) that i find kind of addicting
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 1 November 2018 21:42 (five years ago) link
i haven't read any knausgaard so this may be totally unfair but this piece does nothing to correct my general view: that everything jameson writes could be cut be at least a third and lose nothing substantive
stylistically it is somewhat less tiresome than i generally find him: is he doing a thing where he writes "in the style" of the object critiqued?
― mark s, Friday, 2 November 2018 11:50 (five years ago) link
ha I don't think so.
I read this a week ago (as I was about to board a plane) and didn't much like it, and I am usually ok with his book reviewing but it sounded like he was reproducing the 'this isn't very good but I can't stop reading it and I can't explain it at all to you' reaction this has sometimes gotten -- that's how I see this weird Q&A (why is it stop-and-start?)
Except he has an in-the-end explanation of how the book isn't that good, which he seems to take ages to arrive at.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 November 2018 10:18 (five years ago) link
absolutely this.
in addition I think I consume these books really compulsively for idiosyncratic reasons. there's something about a growing up in a shame-based, emotionally repressed culture that also has very liberal, post-60s ideals (which Karl Ove did in Norway, and I did in Minnesota) that I hadn't felt captured before. in particular the experience of a free-floating sense of shame as one's primary lens for experience.
― lukas, Thursday, 9 April 2020 19:20 (four years ago) link
i devoured these for similar reasons, i think, though my shame is southern protestant in origin. my mother loved them as well, with her southern baptist repression.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 9 April 2020 19:44 (four years ago) link
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/10/linda-bostrom-knausgard-i-would-like-to-be-seen-as-a-person-and-author-in-my-own-right?
His wife is an ok novelist. I read The Helios Disaster last yr.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 24 May 2020 13:09 (four years ago) link
Critics have often failed with Karl, here is a character from Dasa Drnic.
Drndic's character Andreas Ban on Knausgaard. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/nwOEF7C1tO— Emmett Stinson (@EmmettStinson) September 2, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 2 September 2020 09:28 (four years ago) link
I file him with Tao Lin under "fad authors I will never read".
― wasdnous (abanana), Thursday, 10 September 2020 23:05 (four years ago) link
pffft
tao lin could never
― rascal clobber (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 10 September 2020 23:27 (four years ago) link