Most difficult to read fiction

[Chekhonte]

I love to read and don't mind a challenge but I started reading Proust again and I think he is the most difficult author to read. His sentences are insanely long, often times taking up a long paragraph's worth of space. He also writes with an iron fist. If you're mind wanders for even a bit you'll often times be lost. This is a striking difference between his work and let's say Ulysses where your mind can drift as often as the protagonist's and be on the same page.

What author or authors give you trouble?

[Duggeh]

Tolstoy is inflated, impenetrable, dull and pointless.

Tolkien is the same, but much easier to chew through. And I'll probably get shot through the lungs for that one.

Moby Dick was also impenetrable inflated and dull. Don't know about anything else Melville wrote.

Foucault is very complicated and advanced and difficult to read even though the translations are good, but thats fact not fiction.

[Chekhonte]

Yeah Foucault is a pain I'd put Kant and his monads on that list if it included philosophy. I am in complete agreement with you with Tolkien. I've never been able to enjoy reading his fiction.

[humanflyz]

Yeah Foucault is a pain I'd put Kant and his monads on that list if it included philosophy. I am in complete agreement with you with Tolkien. I've never been able to enjoy reading his fiction.

Actually, the monads are Leibeneitz, to be nit-picky.

Personally, I can't stand Pynchon, something about his prose just makes my mind wander and get lost.

[The Monkey]

Pynchon can be tough. Faulkner, too.

[The Monkey]

scrypt's posts were usually tough to read.

[Chekhonte]

Actually, the monads are Leibeneitz, to be nit-picky.

Personally, I can't stand Pynchon, something about his prose just makes my mind wander and get lost.

You're right, leibneitz originated the concept of monads but Kant discussed monads as well.

[The Monkey]

gonads.

[Chekhonte]

according to Kant your gonads have extra monads.

[Chekhonte]

Ha! Yeah logic has little place in understand how we know what we know.

[jinp6301]

Tolstoy is inflated, impenetrable, dull and pointless.

Tolkien is the same, but much easier to chew through. And I'll probably get shot through the lungs for that one.

Moby Dick was also impenetrable inflated and dull. Don't know about anything else Melville wrote.

Foucault is very complicated and advanced and difficult to read even though the translations are good, but thats fact not fiction.

I could actually get through Tolstoy (but I usually have to take notes on the characters since I always get confused their names), Tolkein and Moby Dick pretty easily. For some reason I have much more trouble with Dostoevsky.

[Sherwood]

scrypt's posts were usually tough to read.

But oh so worth it! I miss him dearly.

For my vote, I always enjoyed kant a great deal (even knowing nothing of German), so it was never a chore. Orhan Pamuk, on the other hand, is maddeningly difficult for me to get through.

[The Monkey]

I miss scrypt too. I liked him.

[grawk]

Ken Kesey - It Bids Pretty Fair is a tough one. It changes character perspective from paragraph to paragraph. Worth it tho.

[Dusty Chalk]

Stanislaw Lem -- just...bizarreness (and yes, I realize they are translations -- doesn't help).

[slwiser]

Gene Wolfe has to be some of the most complex fiction (fantasy possibly science fiction) that I have read and best. One can go into it at so many levels. The Series "Book of the New Sun" with the Shadow and the Claw as a great introduction.

Amazon.com: Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' (9780312890179): Gene Wolfe: Books

[swt61]

i loved Tolkien as a child, but i enjoy it less and less as i get older. Kant is better in German, you just have to hit the german/english dictionary every third word.

Oh yes, I see how that could make for a fun read.

[humanflyz]

I'm reading Hegel right now, and that's definitely even more obscure than Kant.

[en480c4]

I thought Tatyana Tolstoya's The Slynx bordered on unreadable. It was the most work I've ever put into a novel. I'd like to blame it on the translation, but I'm not sure I can...

[blubliss]

Ok, I ve seen you guys talk about scrypt, and he posted today at HF after being lauded by Jude. It was hard for me to read but very entertaining.

Laughs from a latent Head-Fi'er (Scrypt) - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

[Dusty Chalk]

Jesus -- epic win, indeed.

[Hopstretch]

Jesus -- epic win, indeed.

TLDR.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, I know, I was just linking directly to his post, just in case anyone only read the first page and thought it was about him rather than by him.

And -- oo -- I got mentioned by name. I cried a little. Might have to log in and respond. I don't think he understands that people aren't just daunted by his vocabulary or by his sense of humor, but because they actually misunderstand him, I.E. they hear something other than what he's saying. I know, to the rest of us, it's like, "no shit", but I really don't think he gets that.

I am reminded how much I miss him. God. Damn.

[The Monkey]

I sent him a PM saying hi. I also encouraged him to drop by here.

[dvse]

I used to feel good about reading difficult fiction, but grad school maths textbooks are a whole different world of pain... Three pages per hour? That's a good going.