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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Depressing Literature

Ellis

22:47 / 28.11.01

What's the most depressing piece of work you have ever read?

Did you like it?

If so why?? Do you enjoy being made sad?

And...

What is the infamous Werther novel, mentioned by Martin Amis in "Night Train" - itslef a rather depressing read, I am assuming that such a novel existed and wasn't made up...

(Edit- a quick search on Amazon found me "Sorrows of Young Werther" by Goethe, did this book really make so many young people commit suicide? I'm a little scared to read it now...)

[ 29-11-2001: Message edited by: Ellis ]

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:43 / 28.11.01

I don't know if it's the most depressing thing I've ever read, but I'd have to say that Julian Barnes' Before She Met Me was something that bummed me right out after I read it.

I did like the book, yes - I just thought that the main male character was incredibly pathetic, so sadly attention-seeking and controlling... it was just pretty affecting. It's good, though I think Barnes is going over the same ground again and again in his novels, now...

I think I enjoy being made sad by literature and music. Doesn't everyone, occasionally? In my case, it's probably more than occasionally, but hey.

Fist Fun

03:31 / 29.11.01

The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster, anyway I think that is the English title because I have only read it in translation. Sorting out a house after the death of a loved one, coming to terms with their flaws, coping with solitude.

ephemerat

07:18 / 29.11.01

Charlotte's Web by EB White. It got me young.

I didn't care about the interconnectedness of life and the great organic cycle of life and birth. She died. She fucking died and no-one could do anything about it. I howled.

Probably Watership Down as well. And people wonder why I don't like nature...

Kit-Cat Club

07:27 / 29.11.01

Practically anything by Graham Greene, but especially The Heart of the Matter. I was also very depressed by the scene in Titus Groan where Sepulchrave's library gets burnt (but the I would be, wouldn't I?)

About Werther - I don't know whether people found it depressing so much as portraying a state of heightened sensibility & emotion - sort of the culmination of the vogues for Gothick fiction like Ann Radcliffe and for 'sentimental' novels like Rousseau's. I haven't read it myself, but I hazard that it might actually be quite difficult to read 'straight' nowadays - too many layers of discourse to get through.

Cavatina would know about all this - ask hir.

Jackie Susann

07:28 / 29.11.01

Maestro, by (I think) Peter Goldsworthy.

A couple of years ago I was tutoring year 12 kids, and this was one of the set texts. I cannot imagine a worse book to try to make kids about to leave school read, or what was in the heads of the teachers who selected it. The story is about a teenager with an exceptional gift for playing (the violin? the piano? - i forget which) and the older master musician who teaches him. The upshot of the story is that while he loves playing and is incredibly talented, the boy realises that he's just good enough to realise he's never going to be as good as he wants to be, or good enough to enjoy the acclaim he's come to expect. Basically, it is about no matter how talented you are and how hard you try, your dreams may well come to shit anyway.

Opalfruit

07:32 / 29.11.01

Robert Newman - Manners. Heavy going from start to finish. Lots of introspection about the decline of a Policeman. Trying to find out where things went wrong and then, and then when you think it can't get anyworse - it gets worse.

The Return Of Rothkoid

07:36 / 29.11.01

Crunchy: oh yes. I remember studying the Goldsworthy - not fun. Although there was that rather naff "tongue like a coral fish" bit in the library to keep class interested, I have to say...

As regards Goethe's The Sorrows Of Young Werther, there's an etext here if you want to read it. From a brief perusal, Kit-Cat seems to be on the right track - it appears to me to be more an exploration of a type of person, rather than a text that sets out to depress, intrinsically. Again, Cavatina would be the authority here, as it's hir neck of the woods.

ephemerat

07:57 / 29.11.01

quote:Originally posted by Kit-Cat Club:
I was also very depressed by the scene in Titus Groan where Sepulchrave's library gets burnt (but the I would be, wouldn't I?)

Agh! I cried at that!

It also inspired instant venomous hatred in me for Steerpike, the vile, bastardly, little shit...

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