About time we had another Hubert Selby Jr thread
I like this guy. Last Exit to Brooklyn was good, but Requiem for a Dream is great. After watching the movie several times over the years, I decided to give the novel a go last week. It's fantastic.
Selby is one of those people who easily might not have made it as a novelist despite their talent. No dialogue attribution, almost no descriptions, paragraphs that go on for pages, extreme brutality, etc, all this stuff doesn't sit well with many readers. His prose is a bit awkward sometimes, when he's not writing his wonderful dialogue. But Christ, he ticks all the right boxes for me. Nothing really happens in Requiem for a Dream, plotwise, but the way he creates these blocks of internal monologues that sprawl for pages and consider dozens of little things you hadn't though about; or the way he manages not to make his dialogue confusing no matter how many voices are being used at once; or the way you can almost see the creative outpour happening in front of your eyes decades after he wrote the books — it astounds me.
Even at his clumsiest, he's not boring, he doesn't make you roll your eyes, and he appears completely earnest. He catalogues so much suffering that it can be pretty harsh on his readers, but even the ugliness is worth looking at here. I need to get my hands on more.
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
I'm also a big fan of Hubert Selby Jr. Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream are my favorites so far. The Room wasn't bad either. I also have The Willow Tree and The Demon waiting in my to-read pile.
I think it's always better to read the book before seeing the movie but Requiem for a Dream was still a good read after the movie.
His writing is a bit different and takes a little while to get into but he's definitely got a way of making you feel weird and messed up emotions. Most writers can't make you feel anything.
It's 2011, and Selby is ahead of this time. He wrote without pretense, and showed readers honest moments.
A young writer friend is delving into transgressive lit. I recommended he read Last Exit right away. He replied that he'd rather read writers who are still alive. So I told him exploring transgressive lit and ignoring Selby, Burroughs, and Bukowski is like composing punk rock and not knowing The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and Iggy Pop.
A young writer friend is delving into transgressive lit. I recommended he read Last Exit right away. He replied that he'd rather read writers who are still alive. So I told him exploring transgressive lit and ignoring Selby, Burroughs, and Bukowski is like composing punk rock and not knowing The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and Iggy Pop.
I like when Tyler says things.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Me too. I haven't read any Selby Jr. yet. Gasp!
Haven't you felt like you already knew what was going on next? I've read the novel after watching the film and, well, nothing surprised me anymore. I knew it all by heart. Maybe I should've read it first, then seen the film, because it's a great job as far as sticking to the storyline is concerned, but I haven't, and the book seemed really dull. And this is one of my favourite films I'm talking about.