I've decided to learn GermanI have read most of what Kafka wrote, excluding his letters, Death in Venice and the essays and aphorisms of SchopenhauerWho are the most important authors to read? I want some adult slop authors to grind and I'd prefer them if they were respectable
Is Zettels Traum a meme btw?
>>24841053Thomas Bernhard is pretty nice. Many people like Hesse. Though I don't know what they see in him.The older writers like Goethe, Kleist, ETA Hoffmann, Büchner, Schiller and so on. (I will try to do a deep dive into Kleist myself in the next few weeks)Maye some poetry like Benn, Trakl or Rilke>>24841089Pretty much, yes. I have only read Leviathan by Arno Schmidt and it was very interesting. But I probably couldn't survive about 2600 pages of this prose (the original. There is a shortened one with only about 200). If you are really interested in him, try it. But I would recommend to read other authors first.
>>24841053Read Thomas Mann's novels. Buddenbrooks, Magic Mountain and Doctor Faustus are all fantastic. And I heard Joseph is his magnum opus, can't wait to read that.Döblin is great, at least Berlin Alexanderplatz. Heard great things about Broch and Musil too.>>24841149I don't understand Hesse's appeal either, both Demian and Steppenwolf repulsed me. I guess I'll give Glass Bead Game a try before completely writing him off.
I'll balance out the Hesse haters, I like him. Aside from Siddhartha, Unterm Rad is the one I would recommend.
>>24841053I think Hesse is super easy to read, and therefore a good bridge to more demanding stuff, in this category you could also have Sueskind or Schlink or Lenz or Kracht if their style pleases you more.Mann and Bernhard were really worth it. Grass was harder to digest, but also good.
Who are the most overrated German authors besides Hesse?
