Pretentious, impenetrable, hard work … better? Why we need difficult books

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This year’s Booker-winner Milkman has been criticised for being challenging. But are we confusing readability with literary value?

“The fascination of what’s difficult,” wrote WB Yeats, “has dried the sap out of my veins …” In the press coverage of this year’s Man Booker prize winner, Anna Burns’s Milkman, we’ve read a good many commentators presenting with sapless veins – but a dismaying lack of any sense that what’s difficult might be fascinating.

Lês fierder by The GuardianLês fierder

How Much Editing Was Done to Emily Dickinson’s Poems After She Died?

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“Before Emily Dickinson died in 1886, her sister Lavinia promised that she would burn Emily’s papers. But when she discovered a cache of almost 1,800 poems that her sister had written, Lavinia instead sought to find someone who could help bring this unique poetry to the world. That person turned out to be Mabel Loomis Todd.”

Lês fierder by My Own Private Book Club Lês fierder

Nacht fan Quatrebras: fan blompot nei brânalaarm

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Freedte jûn 2 novimber is de Nacht fan Quatrebras hâlden yn Tresoar. Leafhawwers fan it tiidskrift dat tusken 1954 en 1966 bestien hat, kamen op dizze literêre jûn ôf..
Troch it stikken falle litten fan in blompot wie elk by de les. Dichter Arjan Hut en proazaskriuwer Elske Schotanus hiene elk in megafoan dy’t se brûkten om lapen tekst út ‘De greate wrakseling’ fan Hessel Miedema foar te dragen. De hiele jûn troch waard tuskentroch tiid ynlaske om wer in part út it gedicht te lêzen.
Eksperiminteel dichter fan ‘e earste oere Josse de Haan, wie út Spaansk Baskelân nei Ljouwert ta kaam om te fertellen oer de Quatrebrastiid (it meitsjes fan kollaazjes wie tige wichtich) en om it earste eksimplaar fan de Anarky’s yn ûntfangst te nimmen.… Lês fierder