Saul -
I love (most of) your list. Great Ante.
I think you might mean "A Scanner Darkly" by Dick, but there appear to
be as many as 5 novels by the Title "Through a Glass Darkly"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_a_Glass_Darkly and then there is
Sheridan le Fanu's 1872 collection of Gothic Horror short stories titled
"In a Glass Darkly" which feels like it might have been Dick's
inspiration? Any other PKDick fans in the audience? I can't believe I
didn't ante him up for SF's own candidates for literature.
I can do without KerWhack myself... just a bunch of the young and
reckless driving around being jerks and being proud of themselves for
it. Lame, lame, lame storytelling, modest writing, and not my cup of
tea when it comes to social relevance. Though I have to say that when
Tom Leech brought the Kerouac show to the Palace of the Governer's
Museum, seeing the original typed on a long roll of paper gave me more
respect for him. But not so much for the "On the Road" Story.
I also have to second Alison's and Stephen's suggestion of Kesey's "One
Time a Great Notion", though I have to say I liked the movie with Fonda
and Newman (even) better.
Ondaatje rocks. So does Kundera.
And I agree that the ONLY way to read Homer is to let someone else do it
into a microphone for you, abridged, in translation... I tried some of
it straight up when I studied Greek in college... harsher than Ouzo...
and a much nastier hangover. Not recommended... even for the self
abusive. It almost caused the two hemispheres of my brain to fuse
together (oblique reference to Julian Jaynes book on the topic).
All great suggestions and timely since my library book is due back
tomorrow. I'll add a couple of other suggestions:
The English Patient (Ondaatje)
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Persig) (not sure if this
counts as fiction)
A Glass Darkly (Philip K Dick)
On the Road (Kerouac)
Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
and for the Illiad I strongly recommend the audio book with Derek
Jacobi reading the Fagles translation (abridged).
+1 for all Herman Hesse titles mentioned.
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