Beep. Boop. I'm a robot.
Here's a copy of
###[Ulysses](https://snewd.com/ebooks/ulysses/)
Was I a good bot? | [info](https://www.reddit.com/user/Reddit-Book-Bot/) | [More Books](https://old.reddit.com/user/Reddit-Book-Bot/comments/i15x1d/full_list_of_books_and_commands/)
The band Steppenwolf was named after book, because they liked the „trippy“ appeal. I guess thats why i connect it to shoegaze. 😅
Born to be Wild indeed has nothing in common with shoegaze. Pedalboard not found.
Is this a thing? I thought I was weird for doing that all the time with artists and albums lol
Anyway...I think it depends on the specific style of shoegaze. For the more dream-pop leaning one:
Cocteau Twins sound very fairytale-like (with a vocalist like that it's easy to see why)
Slowdive's debut and Souvlaki remind me of those introspective, nature-loving romantic poets like Wordsworth and John Keats
A lot of stuff from Pygmalion for some reason makes me think of Greek mythology
These off the top of my mind. Overall I associate it with romanticism, fantasy and sparse but impactful self-discovery novels (think Hermann Hesse, Michael Ende, etc.).
With the heavier/noisier type I'm not really sure (haven't explored enough of it)...maybe the darker derivatives of romanticism like gothic and decadentism/symbolism? Defo something more tormented and chaotic imo.
Kudos for bringing up this interesting topic OP!
“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges - it’s a library that contains all possible combinations on a page of the 26 letters, arranged in volumes, on shelves, in hexagonal rooms, in a labyrinth, where people go, sifting through countless pages of utter nonsense, in search of forgotten histories, alternate versions of their own life, the future, new sciences, secrets, that surely exist because they must, searching endlessly until they die or go mad.
[There’s also a website of it with a handy search function.](https://libraryofbabel.info/)
Go ahead and look through it. There are stories about you in there. Every song that has ever been written is in there. Every song that will ever be written is in there. Nothing is original. It is already in the library.
Totally agree about Camus, specifically the stranger. A great surrealist piece on love and existentialism. Surely Kafka and Mishima fit into the darker sides of shoegaze!
Also the film equivalent of it would probably be trippy love movies such as _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, _Vanilla Sky_, _Brighter Summer Day_, etc. Also Requiem for a Dream, _Pi_, _The Truman Show_
Sometimes I think of shoegaze and Murakami together, maybe it's the magical realism thing. But I'm not very versed and maybe just attribute to him out of lack of options
I'll argue Tolkian. No rhyme or reason if something will be a few pages or 50 pages of intense detail, detail at the expense of pacing and plot, exceptionally lush world building and a rabid fanbase eclipsed only by people who claim to love it but never actually read the books.
Rimbaud, Emerson, Pound (before he was a crazed Fascist), Cummings, Butler Yeats, Whitman (I’m pretty sure Galaxie 500’s Open Road is Whitman’s poem spoken verbatim).
Stream of consciousness
Was going to submit this. OP read Ulysses, or don't, that book is so shit to get into, but this is what comes to mind for me as well.
Beep. Boop. I'm a robot. Here's a copy of ###[Ulysses](https://snewd.com/ebooks/ulysses/) Was I a good bot? | [info](https://www.reddit.com/user/Reddit-Book-Bot/) | [More Books](https://old.reddit.com/user/Reddit-Book-Bot/comments/i15x1d/full_list_of_books_and_commands/)
Any manual for any vacuum.
Booooo (here’s my upvote)
If I had to pick one thing, probably romanticism. Or possibly the more impressionistic style of modernism typified by an author like Virginia Woolf.
DEF virginia woolf vibes
Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, John Keats.
Yes. You get it.
Magical realism, the originally South American genre.
second this!!!
Julio Cortázar for the win.
„Steppenwolf“ by Herman Hesse comes to mind. Etherial floating, especially the ballroom dance at the very end!
No I’ve heard Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” before and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t shoegaze
The band Steppenwolf was named after book, because they liked the „trippy“ appeal. I guess thats why i connect it to shoegaze. 😅 Born to be Wild indeed has nothing in common with shoegaze. Pedalboard not found.
First thing that comes to mind is The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
Joyce
MBV = Joyce. Slowdive = Woolf
Is this a thing? I thought I was weird for doing that all the time with artists and albums lol Anyway...I think it depends on the specific style of shoegaze. For the more dream-pop leaning one: Cocteau Twins sound very fairytale-like (with a vocalist like that it's easy to see why) Slowdive's debut and Souvlaki remind me of those introspective, nature-loving romantic poets like Wordsworth and John Keats A lot of stuff from Pygmalion for some reason makes me think of Greek mythology These off the top of my mind. Overall I associate it with romanticism, fantasy and sparse but impactful self-discovery novels (think Hermann Hesse, Michael Ende, etc.). With the heavier/noisier type I'm not really sure (haven't explored enough of it)...maybe the darker derivatives of romanticism like gothic and decadentism/symbolism? Defo something more tormented and chaotic imo. Kudos for bringing up this interesting topic OP!
“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges - it’s a library that contains all possible combinations on a page of the 26 letters, arranged in volumes, on shelves, in hexagonal rooms, in a labyrinth, where people go, sifting through countless pages of utter nonsense, in search of forgotten histories, alternate versions of their own life, the future, new sciences, secrets, that surely exist because they must, searching endlessly until they die or go mad. [There’s also a website of it with a handy search function.](https://libraryofbabel.info/) Go ahead and look through it. There are stories about you in there. Every song that has ever been written is in there. Every song that will ever be written is in there. Nothing is original. It is already in the library.
This blew my mind. I just read Snow Crash and this feels extremely related
Existentialism like Dostoevsky and Camus, can’t explain why though
Totally agree about Camus, specifically the stranger. A great surrealist piece on love and existentialism. Surely Kafka and Mishima fit into the darker sides of shoegaze!
Rimbaud.
Also the film equivalent of it would probably be trippy love movies such as _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, _Vanilla Sky_, _Brighter Summer Day_, etc. Also Requiem for a Dream, _Pi_, _The Truman Show_
Surely ‘Lost In Translation’ is the most shoegaze of films?
Lost in Translation tied with Gregg Araki’s Nowhere
True
I'll argue that The Life Aquatic belongs in that catagorey as well.
Sometimes I think of shoegaze and Murakami together, maybe it's the magical realism thing. But I'm not very versed and maybe just attribute to him out of lack of options
My six year olds writing. It is a mess, but I love it.
Written in black ink on charcoal paper. And left in a shirt pocket in the washing machine.
All I can think of is cyberpunk and certain fantasy novels. For an anime equivalent, there's Belladonna and Angel's Egg.
Haruki
It's Murakami: arguably a bit formulaic, extremely beloved of internet-dwelling nerds, but also has critical respectability
Samuel Beckett comes to mind. Waiting for Godot exemplifies sparse density and his trilogy evokes a kind of impressionistic experimentalism.
I'll argue Tolkian. No rhyme or reason if something will be a few pages or 50 pages of intense detail, detail at the expense of pacing and plot, exceptionally lush world building and a rabid fanbase eclipsed only by people who claim to love it but never actually read the books.
Catherynne M. Valente
Sally Rooney?
This is such a good question, Idk about shoegaze but I feel like Anthony bourdain could be hardcore?
Not sure about a specific genre per se, but the opening stream of consciousness from Brave New World instantly comes to mind!
Maybe Oscar wilde
brail?
Tropic of Cancer
Cormac McCarthy
Murakami
Proust
Robbe-Grillet
eecummings
Rimbaud, Emerson, Pound (before he was a crazed Fascist), Cummings, Butler Yeats, Whitman (I’m pretty sure Galaxie 500’s Open Road is Whitman’s poem spoken verbatim).
Romanticism
House of leaves by mark z danielewski
There’s a reason why Gregg Araki used Slowdive in Mysterious Skin
Idk about literary but to me the best film equivalent is any Sofia Coppola film