Only subpar and limited authors would write a book that has no point beyond experimenting with form.

Someone let this guy know that you can experiment with form WHILE writing a book that's good across many other dimensions. See Italo Calvino.

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>>24540308 (OP)
check out arno schmidt, anon

It’s not some avant-garde experiment, it’s just low-IQ juvenile “art”, like ASCII graphics or 1337 speak etc. I’m SO glad I researched this book a little before wasting my life reading it.

>>24542179
So you’re condemning it without having read it? Impressive!

>>24540308 (OP)
Name 1 good Calvino book that isn't If on a Winter's Night

>>24543006
The Baron in the Trees

>>24543113
Hmm..I'll check it out

>>24540308 (OP)
Calvino didn't really experiment with form much, he was all about structure and just let form be dictated by structure, it was a side effect. The Pale King is a good example of the opposite extreme, structure (narrative wise, which is what we are really talking about here) as side effect of form.

We do see Calvino tackle form on occasion and these tend to be some of the most polarizing of his works because all he really does is play with it, never puts it to any use other than fun, Cosmicomics/T-Zero being a prime example. If on a Winter's Night is probably his most serious attempt at utilizing form and directly confronts form, but he does it by developing a structure which contains and compartmentalizes form and it is this structure which defines the form of the novel as a whole.

I have no opinion on House of Leaves; never read it and probably never will, it just does not interest me.

>>24543006
if on a winter's night is one of his weakest books
invisible cities, mr palomar, cosmicomics and marcovaldo are all superior as well as many of his discrete short stories
if on a winter's night is mainly overrated based on the cool concept and obvious gimmick

>>24543923
If on a Winter's Night is where he pulls in all of his various ideas on writing and literature into a single work and he does it very well. Reducing it to a gimmick is admitting you are a retard.

>>24540308 (OP)
I don't know how he got them to ever print this to be honest. Most agents get their panties in a twist if you've even got the word size to 13 instead of 12. That's honestly the most interesting thing here.

>>24540308 (OP)
>no point besides experimenting with form
Eh? Did you even read it properly? I finished it a couple weeks ago. The story explores the concept of darkness, and the way each person has their own perspective thereof depending on their psyche.
There's the literal darkness of the house in the Navidson Record, but the nature of that space amplifying one's character and subconscious desires exposes each who enters into a subset of darkness separate from that which they end up exploring.
Will's darkness is ambition and doing the right. Tom's is loneliness and not making the best out of his life. Holloway's is his fear of doing the wrong thing, which causes him to perish in the end with his suicidality. Each character has one.
Outside of the Navidson Record, Truant's darkness is his filling of the void with drugs and sex caused from his past trauma. Also Zampano's notes and Truant's descent into madness (the novel indirectly compares Truant to the minotaur, with zampano as the keeper of the labyrinth).
The form of the book didn't do that much, it was meant to exemplify the labyrinthine narrative that inevitably comes with stitching some old man's schizo notes together.
Going back and forth between the footnotes and the story was fun to me.

>>24544544
>and doing the right thing
Meant to complete this sentence.

>>24544544
>it was meant to exemplify the labyrinthine narrative that inevitably comes with stitching some old man's schizo notes together
Not that anon, but It felt gimmicky to me. after getting over the "oh this is kinda neat" first time the novel starts really doing it, it just felt tiresome. It didnt do anything with so beyond that point it just made the novel slightly annoying to read. I kept thinking, if he was better writer, he could have done better job simply using the prose and leaving the gimmicks from the books entirely.
What I cant get over is how fucking bad the characters are in this book, everyone is some kinda over the top caricature superhuman.

>>24544544
>concept of darkness
>the literal darkness
>a subset of darkness
>darkness is ambition
>darkness is his filling of the void
Hello, darkness my old friend....

you sound stupid btw

>>24545695
>Hello, darkness my old friend....
Good song and good album.

>>24545708
Nevermind, drunk. It made me think of I See a Darkness but "hello darkness" has no connection to that.