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Chad_Abraxas t1_j9osile wrote

Personally, I love George Saunders.

He's a surrealist. His work is intended to have a bizarre, dreamlike, disorienting quality. it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but as with all surrealists in any field of art (not just writing) the key to appreciating it is to not try to get the hang of it--the key is to just fall into it and allow yourself to feel whatever you're going to feel as you read it.

The point of surrealist art is feeling, not meaning.

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rep-old-timer t1_jab51jb wrote

I've always thought of him as America's Martin Amis.

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Chad_Abraxas t1_jacnsd5 wrote

I don't know, he seems like significantly less of an asshole than Martin Amis appears to be...

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rep-old-timer t1_jadpuxv wrote

Yeah, George Saunders seems like a nice guy from the interview I heard on the radio. But I'd bet if you asked him he'd say that Amis is a big influence: especially the execution of comic set-pieces. I personally enjoy their similarly clever "verbizing" of nouns and (literally) ironic names of places. people, and products.

BTW, what did Amis do? I'm just a rando who likes to read so I probably miss 99% of the lit world gossip. I am old enough to vaguely remember Larkin being posthumously cancelled which seemed like a tragedy since his poems were so great.

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