/lit/ - Literature

>>10138767
Yeah, I have trouble appreciating other novels now that I have read Celine. Bukowski and Burroughs were right.

>>10138767
I've tried reading it three times and each time I've made it in about 30 pages before I've given up. Does it get better?

>>10139640
It's a bildungsroman, a travelogue and a philosophical treatise in the form of a single book. Does it get better? It gets different, that's for sure.

>>10138767
Only book I enjoyed of him.
Castle to castle and Death on Installmentplan were not enjoyable in my opinion.

>>10139689
I'll give it another shot then. I simply don't care about war novels, and was worried it was going to be mostly about WWI.

>>10138767
this fucking book lol

>>10139700
I'm not the one that replied to you but only the first couple of pages are about war. The remainder is about his travel to Africa, America and back to France.

>>10139700
Stick with it, it gets better when he gets into this gonzo mood when talking about war and then gets to Congo anyway and it turns into this vitriolic, funny as fuck spin on 'The Heart of Darkness'. This is a really funny book.

Never got the idea that it was a funny book. I just loved his dark aphorisms. Guess I'm oblivious.

>>10139723
Tragicomic, maybe? Or maybe it's just a matter of translation? I've never read the English translation.

>>10139733
The only absurd thing I rememeber was that he had a job identifying fleas in America. I had the Dutch translation but I think not much should be lost in translation, I think.

>>10139640

No. It's a novel that's lost all novelty. Welcome to the classics.

Imagine how revolutionary it was at the time, though. Soldiers aren't brave and heroic? Colonies are miserable? Wow.

I'm confused by all the people recounting how much fun they had reading the book, though. I found it neither funny nor personally satisfying.

It’s not a funny book, it’s not supposed to be.

At the core, it’s about existentialism, psychoanalysis, as well as a thorough and multi-faceted portrayal of modernity in all its aspects (free love, free markets, free borders).

“The end of the night” is the desire to die, the death desire.

>>10139764
>death desire

*i meant death drive

is it still worth it to read this if I read the english translation? i heard that celine's style is untranslatable

>>10139764

So it's not a work of art, meant to be appreciated aesthetically, but a novelist riffing about philosophy, psychology, sociology, and whatever other field of knowledge he's not qualified to speak on?

What a gigantic waste of time. Why wouldn't I just read the literature of these disciplines than a novel? Any conclusion Celine comes to is crippled by his ignorance. It's like you want to listen to Jim down at the auto shop instead of people who devote their lives to study and knowledge.

I know you're just a pseud with nothing to say about this novel, I just want you to know what people who know art think when we hear you talk.

>>10139754
This is such a surface-level criticism of this book, pathetic

>>10139782
I don't think so
I got it in German because the translation was supposed to be insanely good
Loved it, read 300 pages in a day
But suddenly realised that I just wasn't getting the real deal
Dropped it
This was years ago, haven't picked it up since

>>10139764
How is it not funny? Celine would love this website. He would hate all of us, granted, but he's the proto self-loathing shitposter, only with more Montaigne references.

>>10139803
Bait

>>10139804
>>10139947

>pseud-sama squirms away from his crucifixition at the hands of >>10139803

>>10139754
>No. It's a novel that's lost all novelty.
Welcome to the anglos.

>>10138767
is it similar to catch-22, but better?

>>10140123
>is it similar to catch-22
Absolutely not.
>but better?
Undoubtedly.

Has anyone read Celine's pamphlets from the war?

>>10140145
The only real notable thing about them is the shock that they've caused for being so ragingly racist, which will unfortunately not even make you flinch considering you're on 4chan.

Middle era Celine is honestly not nearly as great.
Partially for lack of Manheim translations, but mostly because he's kind of in an ugly duckling stage where he (or his prose, depending on your theory) was too unhinged to write tight prose like his first two novels but not Chateau-era levels of raving nutjob where he transcends coherent writing.

>>10138767
I almost bought a copy of this in Paris, but I didn't. I havent read it. Have a nice day, fellow anonymous poster.

>>10140454
>but not Chateau-era levels of raving nutjob where he transcends coherent writing.

is the trilogy good? I read most of North and then put it down because it was so pointless. lukewarm observations is all it was. celine put everything into his first two novels

>>10140454
>e transcends coherent writing
this sounds enlightening, are you referring to specific verses?

>>10138767
In case you guys are interested, there's a great free jazz album based on Celine's work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbLzbAt8Ag

Whining for 500 pages isn't that appealing to most people

>>10140720
That's more Death on Credit material. Though the part where Ferdinand loses it and attacks his father is traumatizing to read. Especially when you can easily look track of the passage of time and the book and don't realize how much Ferdinand's grown up, yet still carries an infantile mindset

>>10138767
bump

>>10140454

Got links for the pamphlets?

>"White civilization ended with Stalingrad. It's impossible now."
-Celine's Paris Review interview.