Slan by A.E. Van Vogt -- theoretically English prose, absolutely terrible
Van Vogt was a strange person. He had a mechanical, almost Oulipian technique for writing. He didn't seem to understand what literature was.
I have never read the repulsive Slan and never will. But the penumbra around it is the very stuff of literature.
These lists are wonderful for including the likes of Slan with the likes of For Whom The Bell Tolls.
― alimosina, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 18:55 (three years ago) link
Yes. Where are these lists coming from again? Daniel is making them up or...?
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 20:23 (three years ago) link
wikipedia has per-year pages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940_novels
but it's not that simple
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 20:37 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
All right, what joker cast the vote for Slan?
― alimosina, Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:53 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I select from the wikipedia per year pages, trying to give particular emphasis to non-US/UK stuff (which nonetheless always dominates). I also try to fit in as many curios as possible and hit a good balance between literary and genre fiction, but it's getting harder as the number of books listed per year starts to pile up and tons of hugely canonical works show up in one year.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 February 2021 11:14 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1941
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:18 (three years ago) link