What are your thoughts on long digressions about philosophy or the arts, like painting, literature, or classical music, in novels?Would you ever write something like that?
If it suits the literary purpose of the novel, they're great. If it doesn't, they suck.
>>25476988Any examples?
>>25476981I mostly enjoy digression unless it’s prose is intentionally obtuse.
Pretty retarded question. It has to be examined on a case-by-case basis. The first reply made the same point--if it overlaps thematically or makes a resonant point, then it could be worthwhile. How about using an example to indicate precisely what you mean?
>>25476989In Search of Lost Time's first volume has long digressions about things like the novels of George Sand. They are just generally appropriate for the tone and perspective of the work, but in particular they capture the childlike wonder in storytelling that the narrator experienced in his childhood, only to have it diminished as he got older, so the reader is brought directly into that transformation.
>>25477005Don't be obtuse, you know what OP means. You can freely name some examples. See >>25477007
>>25476981I enjoy that as long as it's adjacent to my preferred art forms, but even more than that, I enjoy encyclopaedic or scientific digressions about topics I have little knowledge of.
>>25477007Cool, thanks.
>>25476981Yes.
>>25477003Based
>>25476989W.G. Sebald's AusterlitzBely's PetersburgFosse's SeptologyBarnes' Nightwood
>>25476981When they work they're uber kino, but they rarely work.
>>25476981maybe not long digressions but i’ll partake in an aside.
>>25479899Why do you think so?
>>25476989That one about the whale
>>25480613Read more and find out
>>25480700Nice copout.
>>25481732Where do you think you are? A place where people think you're cool and you're in charge? Go to the camps, bug.
>>25481734A place where people explain themselves?
>>25480700Your comment just proves /lit/ is full of assholes who don't read. Anon asked for your opinion, your subjective experience, and all you're doing is being snarky.
>>25483539you don't read
>>25483545Case in point.
>>25476981They're good.
>>25476981I like philosophical digressions but don't like ones about art because there's a chance I don't know what they're talking
>>25485090...about.
>>25476981I like artistic digressions but don't like ones about philosophy because there's a chance I don't know what they're talking
As a writer with several characters who are pretty well-read, I've found that, even so, I'm not tempted to make long digressions. My instinct is more to make direct references to works of art/music/literature within the flow of natural conversation. As a narrator, moreover, I'm pretty neutral; I use third-person omniscient most of the time, and we're constantly moving from the headspace of one character to the next, so there's no real time, or space, for me as the narrator to stop and talk about something at length.As a reader, I've found that I don't even tend to encounter digressions all that much in what I select. I guess I need to read the Russians more, or Victor Hugo. Borges digresses a little, but even he's usually pretty brief, not surprising given the length of his stories. Joyce doesn't really digress, he'll just integrate his references into the text.
>>25483629you don't read
>>25486023Why are you a coward?
>>25476981I like them but I'm not really smart enough to write any worth reading. The closest I'll get is launder them into something that's only really relevant to a magic system (or whatever) that I've created for whatever slop I'm writing. I ripped off Schloppyhauer for a magic system once which was fun. Overall more stuff should have this: The path to re-literizing culture does NOT lie through screaming at people to read Moby Dick, it lies in elevating and purifying whatever slop garbage retardation they already enjoy.>>25481734I look like this
>>25479902Stella Artois would be a great female character name in a certain sort of book.
>>25476989
>>25486005Thanks for your comment. Evidently I've been reading Russians and the French way too much, so it's interesting to see a different perspective.
>>25486839you don't read
>>25488003I do. Now what?
>>25476981Nah I like it to be integrated into the action
>>25487035Cool
>>25476981Balzac, Proust, the list goes on...
>>25489265you don't read
>>25492171you don't read
>>25476981I enjoy them.> Would you ever write something like that?No. I don’t write at all.
