Support NeoGAF

[Solemn_In_Berlin]

Walter Dean Myers once said, "Once I began to read, I began to exist." This is the quotation from which I am basing my request on. I am awfully surprised at how parochial my reading is. It is primarily constructed to accomodate the Western canon and while that collection of works is indeed well-versed in the matters of art, life, and the human condition, I find that it is insufficient still. I can only read so many books until I find that it is not as all-encompassing as I thought. There are stories that only people of different cultures can tell.

And such is why I wish to diversify my reading. Diversity and representation are, as we should know by now, very important. They are a means of validating and affirming life, especially to marginalized people like me. But for me, they can be (and are) more than just an expression of sympathy; they allow us to effectuate a world (or at the very least, art/entertainment) that is beautiful and colorful, whether we realize it or not. It can go as far as normalizing the "Other" or if you don't care about that, (why wouldn't you though?) it can be as simple as tapping into a huge goldmine of cultures, themes, characters, and beliefs and getting fresh entertainment out of it.

And before I get called out, this is not a deliberate boycotting of anything "white" (Hilary Mantel is IMO the greatest living writer and her Cromwell books are at the top of my favorites this century) but rather an attempt to learn from and being enriched through diversity. I mean, Virginia Woolfe, said it well, "Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small."

So yeah. If you have any recommendations or suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. Diversity can mean anything depending on who you are so I won't be too strict on the defintion. Typically though, it's more about feminism, people of color, people with mental illness, LGBT, etc. Note that I am accepting any work from any medium so it's not limited to books. For the meantime, here are my own recommendations. Thanks, guys.

Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) by Marvel Comics - I can't recommend this enough. It's probably the most enjoyable and most important comic I'm reading at the moment.

All-New All-Different Avengers by Marvel Comics - The Free Comic Book Day teaser just made me more intrigued and with Waid at the helm, I just can't wait for the trade.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Chimamanda is probably my favorite inspiration right now. Everything she says is inspiring and pleasant. This is her best novel though it's also worth checking out Americanah and her TED Talk, Why We Should All Be Feminists.

Mad Max: Fury Road directed by George Miller - A lot of great essays have been written about Mad Max's brilliance as a film, a message, and both. This is by far my favorite. Watch it. Now.

Shin Sekai Yori by A-1 Pictures - Probably the best anime series I have ever seen alongside Steins;Gate.

Never Alone by Upper One Games - Not exactly great, but it's a mesmerizing game about Inuit culture.

Ulysses by James Joyce - Joyce was obssessed with parallax and that is not more evident than in his all-encompassing work. Ulysses is famous for its stylistic diversity and experimentation.

Beloved by Toni Morrison - Self-explanatory.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - His Nobel Prize speech explains it all.

Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke - From Software's Bloodborne in poetry form. Enough said.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Self-explanatory as it is the seminal African work in English.

Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli - It is many things, including a meditation on Shintoism.

Avatar: The Last Airbender by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko among others.

Spoiler

What is this live-action adaptation you speak of?

- One of the greatest animated TV series ever IMO. Korra is also worth checking out.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz - Recently hailed as the 21st century's greatest novel. While I don't necessarily agree with that, it is indeed great. Diaz wanted it to be a textual Carribean, and in some ways it is.

White Egrets by Derek Walcott - Derek Walcott in Sea Grapes laments how "the classics can console. But not enough." Indeed they are not. And such is why he wrote as he did. Postcolonialism is cliche in discussing his work but it remains essential. Omeros, his epic poem, is worth a look, too.

Trese by Visual Print Enterprises - Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo's horror/crime comic book series inspired by Sandman is about a detective who gets to the bottom of supernatural mysteries. Neil Gaiman is admittedly a huge fan.

Persona 4 Golden by Atlus - Arguably the best Persona game to play, the game is diverse primarily because of the characters from mythology it employs although the storytelling via the Social Links can be considered as well.

Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco - Syjuco's interrogation of the Filipino's sense of history and identity (or lack thereof) is comparable to Jose Rizal's pair of novels.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - Rushdie's magnum opus is the winner of the 1981 Man Booker Prize, the Best of the Booker special prize, and the Booker of Bookers special prize.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - To The Lighthouse is her best work but this is my favorite from hers. Its reflections on mental illness, feminism, existential angst, and homosexuality made me understand my girlfriend more (who has bipolar depression and GAD, is queer, and is feminist).

The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus by Cirilo Bautista - Bautista's epic poem chronicles the eschewed history of the Philippines and is transnational in its form.

Fanfics - Don't underestimate something as "lowly" as fanfiction. If you look in the right places, you'll find great works that not only honor the original work but arguably add to it.

 

[DesertEater]

Very interesting suggestions you post. Here are some books that I read recently and really like

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami

Assays by David Foster Wallace

Assays by Edward Said (I have a large books of essays by him. One of them is about Moby Dick. So good)

Moby Dick by Henry Melville

 

[Sectorseven]

Walter Dean Myers once said, "Once I began to read, I began to exist."

I disagree. I don't think you begin to exist until you write.

 

[tim.mbp]

Fanfics - Don't underestimate something as "lowly" as fanfiction. If you look in the right places, you'll find great works that not only honor the original work but arguably add to it.

Anyways, I'd recommend The Stories of John Cheever.

 

[Piecake]

Your post kinda reminded me of this thread, Toward a Feminist Postcolonial Milk Studies.

Anyways, I would recommend The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin. Not only is it one of the best novels ever written, but if you want to truly understand traditional Chinese culture reading this book is probably the best way to do it.

Anyways, I'd recommend The Stories of John Cheever.

Dont Hate. Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality is fucking awesome

 

[Solemn_In_Berlin]

I disagree. I don't think you begin to exist until you write.

I don't know about that. The moment the artist shares to others their work, it ceases to become exclusively theirs. Thus, the reader (typically in the form of the critic) plays just as significant a role in the effectuation of art as the writer and the work itself. The effectuation of art requires not only the writer and not only the work, but also the reader. Andrei Tarkovsky said it best, "Perhaps the meaning of all human activity lies in the artistic consciousness, in the pointless and selfless creative act?" Writing is selfless and creative, yes, but so is reading.

Your post kinda reminded me of this thread, Toward a Feminist Postcolonial Milk Studies.

Anyways, I would recommend The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin. Not only is it one of the best novels ever written, but if you want to truly understand traditional Chinese culture reading this book is probably the best way to do it.

The paper is interesting to say the least. I'll refrain from expressing my initial thoughts as stuff like this requires extensive reading to engage with.

I've read the Four Great Classical Novels and also a lot of Du Fu. I've been wanting to read more Chinese texts but I don't know where to continue after those. Although there was this Chinese-Filipino painter/poet in Maningning Miclat who I was beginning to learn about just a few months but turns out she passed away 15 years ago. I found her imagery to be fresh, to say the least.

 

[Osorio]

 

[spatenfloot]

I highly recommend 2 books by Ursula Vernon:
Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew
Digger: The Complete Omnibus Edition

Nurk is ostensibly a children's book, but highly enjoyable for adults as well.
Digger is a graphic novel compilation of her webcomic series which won a Hugo award a couple of years ago.

She has a very unusual outlook and a great sense of humor. At least take a look at the listings on Amazon which describe them better than I do.

 

[Rug Monkey]

Ok diversifying ...

Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban (written in a future argot of english this book is beautiful, bizarre and powerful.)

Lanark: A life in 4 books - Alasdair Gray (half is a bildungsroman of a Scottish muralist and half set in a dark purgatorial mirror of Glasgow called Unthank)

The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker (it starts when an office worker on his lunch break steps on an escalator and finishes when he steps off it, and is about what he thinks about on the way up ... and is much better than it sounds)

Riotous Assembly & Indecent Exposure - Tom Sharpe (wickedly, viciously funny novels set in Apartheid era South Africa by an author who was expelled for 'sedition')

 

[kerotan_eater]

Diversity is everything, as a matter of factthe greatest pieces of Art in their genre were amazing because they broke away from tradition and tropes and combined theirs with other genres of Art.

 

[Solemn_In_Berlin]

Diversity is everything, as a matter of factthe greatest pieces of Art in their genre were amazing because they broke away from tradition and tropes and combined theirs with other genres of Art.

True, but again, the classics "can console. But not enough." They are still bound by the constraints of the "Western canon." Chaucer, Dante, Milton, and Joyce all broke the canon and rebuilt in their image, but the reality is still very much European. We still await the stories that truly emancipates and we as readers will ultimately decide whether or not that happens.

 

[DesertEater]

Some great recommendations already. I read the piece on Mad Max, very interesting.
I will add:
The Loser by german writer Thomas Bernhard. A story told through a man sitting in a hotel lobby going through his memories of the time spent with Glenn Gould, the piano player. Written in a very interesting stream of conscious way.

 

[Chichikov]

You seem to be going to a lot of geographical diversity, which is great, and it's also the easiest angle for me to pick on, so here are 3 great books from countries that are not on your list -

The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco) - it is often compared to Midnight Children and since you read you probably realize how big of a compliment that is. It's a magical realistic tale in post colonial Morocco that is both personal and historical, so yeah, you can already see where these comparisons are coming from.

See Under: LOVE by David Grossman (Israe)l - let's get it out of the way, it's a book about the holocaust, yes, and it's sad as hell, yes, but it's not your normal retelling of the horror, the book doesn't take place during the holocaust (most of it at least, kinda, you'll have to read it, it has a bit of an unusual structure) and it's extremely moving and personal. It also deal with the issue of mental illness that you seem to be interested in.

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - by Jose Saramago (Portugal) a heretical, philosophical but also funny and deeply humanist retelling of the life of Jeebus. Marvelously written.

bonus:
Jorge Borges (Argentina) just pick a one of his short story collection and go with it. The stories are short, go read them! it's good, magic realism, weird shit, funny shit, sad shit, it's all great (shit).

p.s.
And if we want some diversity in structure I got to recommend also
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (United States) - I love this book so much, but honestly, I think it's more fun to read if you don't know anything about it, it has very unusual structure, one that can cause you to go "wait, how exactly am I even suppose to read this?" at the start, but it's really really worth it. As always with Nabokov, the prose is amazing.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

a fellow rilke fan. you're alright in my book. for a slice of the absurd may i suggest beckett's molloy?