Since everyone is now ga-ga over Tom McCarthy's Remainder (which, hello, where were you people when I lauded it months ago? Seriously. According to Ed's measures, that means I'm a "cool kid" -- a badge I'll proudly wear), it would be remiss not to point you toward a list many of you have no doubt read and committed to memory already: Tom McCarthy's Top 10 European Modernists for The Guardian.
The quick take-away version, minus the detail goes something like this:
- James Joyce
- Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (embarassed to say I've not read a single sentence)
- Martin Heidegger
- Paul Celan
- Franz Kafka
- Georges Bataille
- Fancis Ponge
- Maurice Blanchot
- Samuel Beckett
- Alain Robbe-Grillet (read Djinn in the original French and you'll understand the unique pain of modernism in it's original language...but I believe that's the point, no?)
McCarthy's explanations of his picks are interesting and worth a read. I've buried my much-scribbled-on copy of Robbe-Grillet's Djinn and the mere thought of digging it out and revisiting it makes me want to take a nap.
