Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.
1slickdpdx
I think these two (hunger and the arabian nightmare) could stand up to each other in quite interesting ways. I don't have any other thoughts yet...just wanted to preserve the idea.
2margad
I'm looking forward to a more extended comparison when you've developed your thoughts further. I haven't read either of these books. Can you say a bit more about their subject matter and the potential basis for a comparison?
3Jargoneer
Hunger is the best known novel by Norwegian Nobel Prize winning Knut Hamsun. It describes the descent into (near) madness, brought on by hunger, of a young writer. It is often listed as a major existential novel; influenced by Dostoevsky, especially Crime and Punishment in terms of the narrator; and in turn influencing Kafka with it's bizarre logic.
The Arabian Nightmare is the first novel by Robert Irwin, who is also a leading historian on Arabia. The novel is a strange blend of Arabian night's tale and post-modernism. It is set in medieval Cairo, where an Englishman may or may not be suffering from the Arabian nightmare, a terrible monotonous dream that the sleeper can't remember upon waking. We get dreams within dreams, a narrator who dies midway through the book, and various other narrative tricks. It is easily one of the best fantasy novels of the last 30 years (it was originally published in 1985) but if you like a straight-forward read then this isn't the book for you.
The Arabian Nightmare is the first novel by Robert Irwin, who is also a leading historian on Arabia. The novel is a strange blend of Arabian night's tale and post-modernism. It is set in medieval Cairo, where an Englishman may or may not be suffering from the Arabian nightmare, a terrible monotonous dream that the sleeper can't remember upon waking. We get dreams within dreams, a narrator who dies midway through the book, and various other narrative tricks. It is easily one of the best fantasy novels of the last 30 years (it was originally published in 1985) but if you like a straight-forward read then this isn't the book for you.
4slickdpdx
#2 Thanks for the kind words.
Its going to be hard to beat that #3!
I have to reread Hunger. But the drifting through the city while starving/suffering from the nightmare struck me as something worth exploring. What also struck me as possibly worthy of exploration is that Hunger is about a writer and The Arabian Nightmare is, to some extent, about an oral storyteller.
It might be worth adding The Trial or The Castle and Ishiguro's The Unconsoled and Abe's Kangaroo Notebook.
Its going to be hard to beat that #3!
I have to reread Hunger. But the drifting through the city while starving/suffering from the nightmare struck me as something worth exploring. What also struck me as possibly worthy of exploration is that Hunger is about a writer and The Arabian Nightmare is, to some extent, about an oral storyteller.
It might be worth adding The Trial or The Castle and Ishiguro's The Unconsoled and Abe's Kangaroo Notebook.
5margad
Thanks for the clarifications. This should be a very interesting comparison. Both novels seem to deal with madness or near-madness, and with one narrator a writer and the other a storyteller, there could be some intriguing insights to do with the whole process of writing/telling fiction. I may want to add The Arabian Nightmare to my TBR list. It's getting awfully long, but medieval Cairo is one of my interests.
