Detailed list of books below the cut!
For more book recommendations, especially queer horror, check out my Bookstagram @hauntedstacks
In an interview, Tartt lists her favorite authors and the names of a few works. I have listed the most popular works from each author and the specific ones she recommended as well.
Homer
Greek Poets and Tragedians
Dante
Shakespeare
“I went back and read Macbeth and Hamlet during the pandemic”
Dickens
“Dickens was a part of my familial landscape, the air I breathed.”
Nabokov
Proust
Dostoevsky
Yeats
Borges
Edith Wharton
Evelyn Waugh
Salinger
Virginia Woolf
Edward St. Aubyn
Haruki Murakami
Olga Tokarczuk
Don DeLillo
W.G. Sebald
Joan Didion
Other Specific Books
המתח ביני לבין ספרים עם סאבטקסט הומואירוטי על קבוצה של סטודנטים למדעי הרוח שמבצעים פשע בלתי יתואר אבל מחליטים לשמור על זה בסוד עד שבאופן בלתי נמנע הוא ממוטט את החברות שלהם מבפנים, בונוס אם הדובר הוא פשוט-לכאורה, בו זמנית טוב בלהתבונן וחסר מושג, מוקסם על ידי כל החברים שלו אבל בסופו של דבר היחידי שמתמודד עם השלכות המעשים שלהם.
האמת שחשבתי לקרוא את if we were villains! הוא טוב?
עוד לא סיימתי (עוד 50 עמודים ואני שם 🥲) אבל אהבתי מאוד! עברו יומיים והזנחתי את כל האחריות שלי בשביל הספר הזה (כרגיל) כי באמת ממש קשה להניח אותו!
בגדול הייתי ממליצה על ההיסטוריה הסודית קודם כי if we were villains נכתב 20 שנה אחריו אבל יש להם וויב כמעט זהה (רק שאני חושבת על ההיסטוריה הסודית כמקורי ועל iwwv כמעתיק קצת). ולמרות זאת זה לא מוריד מהערך של שניהם ואני חושבת ש-iwwv באמת באמת מרתק ומעניין ושווה קריאה!!!
אני אשמח לקישור, תודה! D:
שמעתי שגם הספר Vicious הוא בסגנון הזה. קראת אותו במקרה?
לא קראתי אבל אם הוא בסגנון אני אבדוק לגביו! (שמעתי מטיקטוק שגם the atlas 6 הוא בסגנון אבל לא שמעתי על הסופר והתקציר שלו לא מוסר הרבה מידע ככה שאני לא בטוחה)
תהני!!
אני עכשיו קוראת את ההיסטוריה הסודית והדמיון בין "הסיפור היחד שאוכל לספר אי פעם" ל"רַק עַל עַצְמִי לְסַפֵּר יָדַעְתִּי"
אני יודעת שזה מעבר למשפטים דומים ואני משתגעת
OUGUHH I'VE READ 'THE PILLOWMAN' 😭😭😭😭 It was absolutely brilliant and I'm already drawing about it lmao. Katurian K. Katurian I love you aaaaaaaa. It is horrifically tragic but also funny, thought provoking and Kafkaesque. It's also a very short and easy read. Here it is if you want to read it too!! The next time I'm in London I'm breaking into the National Theatre Archive to watch the original production with David as Katurian just look at him!!
Howl's Moving Castle (HMC) is my favorite book of all time, and I tend to look for the things I like and love to read the same trope or style of book over and over again. There are a few things I look for in a book when trying to capture the magic of HMC:
SO HERE ARE THE BOOKS, and how/why the remind me of HMC. THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS and I will continue to update as I read (I will only inlcude books I have read to be sure of quality - but send me recs so I can check them out):
A chart of New Weird books and other bizarre, unsettling, and uncanny literature published in the last 30 years or so. This is a follow-up to my previous chart of classic weird fiction and another selection from my list of over 200 works of weird literature.
The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. [EDIT: I SCREWED UP! This was created in 2019 by the guy who runs the Midnighter-Core page on Facebook, and Joey just reposted it!]
So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:
"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe is fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." -Joey deVilla, 2021https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/
- Midnighter-Core, 2019
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0bU6TrKdX6QgMLnUFk64jResHMVwiSyENASvJk7efasgZ94G4c81XJCVgGcLFPgPsl&id=594855544368212&mibextid=Nif5oz
1: Magic is a Metaphor > 2: Morgana is a Lesbian > 3: Merlin is Gay > 4: Arthur is Bi
Obviously, magic is a metaphor for being gay. It's is something that you're born with, that you can't change, but that you have to hide because the society around you won't accept you. Both Merlin and Morgana are always saying that they've been made to feel like a monster, an outsider, and they just want to be accepted for who they really are. And it's no coincidence that they are the most queer coded characters in the whole show.
But building off of that subtext, I think that you can read the different way that Merlin and Morgana go about trying to achieve equal rights as being an allegory for queer identity politics, where Merlin embodies this homonationalist assimilation strategy. He believes that if he stays closeted and conforms to the status quo, then eventually he will prove that sorcerers are good, moral, normal people and therefore worthy of rights. But over time, he internalises all of this shame and self-hatred and becomes increasingly obsessed with Arthur and dependent on his validation until he becomes complicit in his own oppression.
Meanwhile, Morgana represents a radical rebellion ideology. Even though she comes from a place of privilege, she quickly realises that she can't achieve meaningful change through constitutional methods and therefore resorts to violent protest. But her downfall is that she's more motivated by personal vengeance than a genuine desire for equality. So she creates a lot of infighting within the community by shunning anyone whose ideas aren't as extreme as her own, and she inadvertently confirms all of the negative stereotypes about 'angry witches' that she has been trying to fight against.
Obviously I don't think that all of this political commentary is intentional, but the basic idea of magic being gay is definitely intentional. As evidenced by this quote from the executive producer of the show, where he says very sarcastically, "some people say that (magic) is a metaphor for his sexuality, but that's just read in by them, isn't it? On no level is magic metaphorical in this show." And then Katie McGrath says, "it's funny because I don't actually think you're being sincere." And then she says directly to the audience, "Julian is lying right now."
Sooo hey. I finally did something with my Shakespeare MA...
The Woman's Part is a collection of original prose and erasure poetry inspired by Shakespeare's women — their unlived lives, unspoken desires, and unwritten stories — using speeches and characters from thirteen plays.
It's been described as:
"A small piece of genius [showing] not only a profound understanding of Shakespeare, but of humankind in general." — Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You
and
"[The Woman's Part] has reimagined Ophelia and Juliet and more into striking freedom through speaking up, sailing away, and eating hearts." — Gwen Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw
and
"To read it is to join the rebellion. An affecting and finely-crafted masterpiece which invites us to unlearn our deepest Bard-based archetypes. Stunning, incisive and fearless writing from one of the most exciting new voices on the literary scene." — Dr Chris Laoutaris, The Shakespeare Institute
~
I put my heart, my rage, and all my obsession with Shakespeare into this, and I would love for you to read it.
Available from most places you get books — a list of easy links at Stanchion Books
Here's THE masterpost of free and full adaptations, by which I mean that it's a post made by the master.
As you like it: you'll find here an outdoor stage adaptation and here the BBC version. Here's Kenneth Brannagh's 2006 one.
Coriolanus: Here's a college play, here's the 1984 telefilm, here's the 2014 one with tom hiddleston. Here's the Ralph Fiennes 2011 one.
Cymbelline: Here's the 2014 one.
Hamlet: the 1948 Laurence Olivier one is here. The 1964 russian version is here and the 1964 american version is here. The 1964 Broadway production is here, the 1969 Williamson-Parfitt-Hopkins one is there, and the 1980 version is here. Here are part 1 and 2 of the 1990 BBC adaptation, the Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet is here, the 2000 Ethan Hawke one is here. 2009 Tennant's here. And have the 2018 Almeida version here. On a sidenote, here's A Midwinter's Tale, about a man trying to make Hamlet. Andrew Scott's Hamlet is here.
Henry V: Laurence Olivier (who would have guessed) 1944 version. The 1989 Branagh version here. The BBC version is here.
Julius Caesar: here's the 1979 BBC adaptation, here the 1970 John Gielgud one. A theater Live from the late 2010's here.
King Lear: Laurence Olivier once again plays in here. And Gregory Kozintsev, who was I think in charge of the russian hamlet, has a king lear here. The 1975 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here. The 1974 version with James Earl Jones is here. The 1953 Orson Wells one is here.
Macbeth: Here's the 1948 one, there the 1955 Joe McBeth. Here's the 1961 one with Sean Connery, and the 1966 BBC version is here. The 1969 radio one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is here, here's the 1971 by Roman Polanski, with spanish subtitles. The 1988 BBC one with portugese subtitles, and here the 2001 one). Here's Scotland, PA, the 2001 modern retelling. Rave Macbeth for anyone interested is here. And 2017 brings you this.
The Merchant of Venice: here's a stage version, here's the 1980 movie, here the 1973 Lawrence Olivier movie, here's the 2004 movie with Al Pacino. The 2001 movie is here.
The Merry Wives of Windsor: the Royal Shakespeare Compagny gives you this movie.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: have this sponsored by the City of Columbia, and here the BBC version. Have the 1986 Duncan-Jennings version here. 2019 Live Theater version? Have it here!
Much Ado About Nothing: Here is the kenneth branagh version and here the Tennant and Tate 2011 version. Here's the 1984 version.
Othello: A Massachussets Performance here, the 2001 movie her is the Orson Wells movie with portuguese subtitles theree, and a fifteen minutes long lego adaptation here. THen if you want more good ole reliable you've got the BBC version here and there.
Richard II: here is the BBC version. If you want a more meta approach, here's the commentary for the Tennant version. 1997 one here.
Richard III: here's the 1955 one with Laurence Olivier. The 1995 one with Ian McKellen is no longer available at the previous link but I found it HERE.
Romeo and Juliet: here's the 1988 BBC version. Here's a stage production. 1954 brings you this. The french musical with english subtitles is here!
The Taming of the Shrew: the 1980 BBC version here and the 1988 one is here, sorry for the prior confusion. The 1929 version here, some Ontario stuff here, and here is the 1967 one with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. This one is the Shakespeare Retold modern retelling.
The Tempest: the 1979 one is here, the 2010 is here. Here is the 1988 one. Theater Live did a show of it in the late 2010's too.
Timon of Athens: here is the 1981 movie with Jonathan Pryce,
Troilus and Cressida can be found here
Titus Andronicus: the 1999 movie with Anthony Hopkins here
Twelfth night: here for the BBC, here for the 1970 version with Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson.
The Winter's Tale: the BBC version is here
Please do contribute if you find more. This is far from exhaustive.
(also look up the original post from time to time for more plays)
