Hacker News with Generative AI: 20th Century

In search of a new 20th-century canon (newstatesman.com)
In Stranger Than Fiction, the American editor Edwin Frank seeks to tell the story of the modern novel through an eccentric, provoking list of 32 books.

Literature, Books, Canon, 20th Century

3 points by lermontov 11 days ago | 0 comments

Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel (thebaffler.com)
Did the novels of the twentieth century accomplish anything? Edwin Frank, who is known for his love of the genre, is convinced they did. In his stylish, selective survey Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, he focuses on the genre’s formal innovations, which take readers’ minds off their somewhat vulgar appetite for suspenseful plot and relatable character and teach them to be satisfied, instead, with something like a diet of single sentences, exquisitely prepared.

Literature, Novels, 20th Century, Literary Criticism

30 points by samclemens 34 days ago | 1 comments

Risers and Fallers What happened to the intellectual giants of the 20th century? (arnoldkling.substack.com)
Which 20th century intellectuals have higher or lower status today than when they were in their “prime”?

History, Intellectuals, 20th Century, Status, Legacy

3 points by paulpauper 86 days ago | 0 comments

Neal Stephenson's New Novel Traces the Making of a Spy (nytimes.com)
“Polostan” sets up a historical fiction series about espionage and revolution in the early 20th century.

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Espionage, Revolution, 20th Century

13 points by ctoth 94 days ago | 1 comments

Undark and the Radium Girls (2006) (damninteresting.com)

History, Science, 20th Century, Women's History

74 points by not_a_boat 166 days ago | 30 comments

Vivian Maier, One of the Best Street Photographers of the 20th Century (smithsonianmag.com)