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alterego879 t1_iueo57y wrote

Ergodic literature! One of my favorites.

Someone already mentioned Arabian Nights, but other examples I can think of are:

Pale Fire - Nabokov

House of Leaves - Danielewski

S. - JJ Abrams and Dorst

If on a winters night a traveler - Calvino

The name of the wind - Rothfuss

Hyperion - Simmons

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Snoo57923 t1_iuepejo wrote

Heart of Darkness... never heard them termed ergodic before. I've always called them frame stories.

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helvetiq t1_iufgg4h wrote

Conrad does it really well, Lord Jim is another good example.

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alterego879 t1_iuer4nn wrote

You know, I may be mistaken in my assumption of the meaning of the term! I first came across it when reading House of Leaves and S. and assumed the term applied those books having stories within stories.

But now that you mention frame stories, well hell. “Let me sit you down and tell you a tale” is exceedingly common in literature and seems to apply to most of my quick list above!

I’ll have to look further into this…

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jess2888 t1_iuglgny wrote

Just looked it up, the simple definition is "any kind of literature that requires special effort to navigate and digest." I'm thinking Infinite Jest or Ulysses would be good examples of that.

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