How does /lit/ recognise a genius writer? I'm talking specifically about 21st century writers. Do we have a living writer about whom we could say is one of the greats, whose works will be regarded as masterpieces in the future?
I look in the mirror.
Throw against wall see if sticks
Tao Lin
The eyes.
Always the eyes.
>>7417335
Gaiman is a goth sissy though. The only good stuff he does you can tell he is doing his very best to channel Moore's been there done that, and everything else is a granny and her teacup on the eve of the apocalypse.
Pynchon
>>7417335
Pynchon, Gass, McElroy, for sure, friend.
>21st century writers
David Fost--
>a living writer
Never mind.
Innovative.... The most genius writing is the one which seems the most nonsensical, while still having the aesthetic qualities good writing has, and delving deeper into the writing it makes fluid sense. L-like DFW.
>>7417553
huehuehuehue
>thread about genius contemporary writers
>OP posts picture of Neil Gay Man
Off to a bad start here, OP.
I bet Cormac McCarthy will be in the high school English curriculum within a century. Influenced pop-culture, well established, and literary.
>>7417779
All The Pretty Horses already is. Source: 'school reads' section of book shop.
Is Gaiman pronounced Gay Man?
>>7417779
You mean Kneel, Gay Man.
>>7417779
I read the road for AP sophmore English. Kind of a weird choice of his books but maybe the best for high schoolers
>>7417796
>literally his most boring book after the road
Read something other than American stuff you fags. Best living writer is Javier Marias
>>7418575
>America
Why would I want to read anything by anyone from outside the center of the political, social, economic, and cultural universe, though?
>>7417369
Yes.
Deep recessed eyes underneath a stern straight brow - and some kind of plain, jaded colour, like a washed out greenblue/grey with a fixed, mildy annoyed look: Becket and Wittgenstein fit the image.
>>7418608
How do I get wisdom eyes?
>>7418694
Read and listen to people smarter than you. :)
when they don't write recycled dystopian garbage.
>>7417335
>How does /lit/ recognise
read an amazon review and post "should i read" and "is it worth it", received group validation on 4hcan, then profess IRL their "opinion" all in an effort to build a false confidence and the comfort that comes with it
hate to break it to you but there is nothing special or exclusive to /lit/
My list of writers that I know of (an admittedly small list) who I KNOW will be regarded very highly once they are dead (most of them are already very highly regarded):
- Cormac McCarthy
- Stephen King (not a personal favorite of mine but it's a certainty he will be stuffed into the canon alongside Lovecraft)
- William Gibson
- Margaret Atwood (again not a personal fav but she's at least trying to deal with important contemporary themes earnestly and competently)
- Chuck Palahniuk
- Kamau Brathwaite
to be honest, Gaiman a shit. I read American Gods, and that book was just about the most retarded, asinine treatment of american culture I could possibly have dreamed up. I fucking live on the itinerary he's talking about in that novel and there's fuck all he knows about the history of this place. Obviously a european with, at best, the perspective of a coastal dweller, trying to write about what his heart tells him is a bunch of flyover states.
>>7420574
Really? Palahniuk?
I don't have anything against him necessarily (I still like a few of his books), but I doubt he will be studied seriously. His later output especially is pretty shit.
>>7418608
>tfw genius
Damn, thanks for letting me know man
>>7420614
He already is studied seriously.
>>7417335
The answer is always Ursula K LeGuin.
>>7417779
Yes
>>7418608
This is me.
>tfw a professor told me that I have eyes of a poet
>>7417335
Gaiman has a team of writers doing all the work for him and he stamps his name at the end, a book by committee that is assembled with whimsical tropes and survey approved fantasy, he's airport literature at best.
>>7418608
brown eyed subhumans btfo
>>7420727
>tfw Sandman author is this much of a sellout
WHAT HAPPENED, MAN???
>>7420737
Hazel proportionally has the most authors and writers.
>tfw hazel master race
My latest favorite author is Lazslo Krasznahorkai. Just finished reading War and War and I was blown away.
>>7417779
We read a short story by DFW in my Senior year creative writing class. It was cool
>>7420743
Who knows, ran out of ideas, got lazy, publisher didn't like what he was working on, who knows. But yes, it's sadly a case of a once pretty good author being used as a prop
>>7417335
Me (LoL)
>>7418603
>implying good writing is only in English
pic only somewhat related
Haruki Murakami, anyone?
>>7420574
>William Gibson
He's not going to get anymore praise than he already has.
>>7420852
>>>/reddit/
>>7420852
That face. It looks like he knows his books are bad and he's feeling so damn sorry for it.
>>7420852
Well, world literature is gaining momentum lately, but dunno. It's a shame, Japan has a lot of amazing writers from the 20th century.
>>7420867
No, why?
>>7420865
Haven't been keeping track of him after his cyberpunk phase, have we? For shame.
>>7420886
He's only going to be remembered for his cyber punk shit. Sorry to break it to you anon.
>>7420886
>After expanding on Neuromancer with two more novels to complete the dystopic Sprawl trilogy, Gibson became an important author of another science fiction subgenre—steampunk—with the 1990 alternate history novel The Difference Engine
>steampunk
He deserves to be remembered for hundreds of generations to come! A true master of the science fiction genre!
>>7420574
I'd remove Palahniuk and add Murakami and DFW
>>7420852
>Murakami
How to tell somebody hasn't even touched Soseki or Oe 101.
>>7417335
It sure as fuck isn't Neal Gaiman.
>>7420895
sorry to break it to you, but you're out of the loop. He's literally one of the few good SF authors doing groundbreaking work in the genre today.
>>7420899
Difference Engine was, first of all, alternate history, not steampunk. Gibson didn't conceive of it that way, nor does he actually care how it is characterized. Furthermore, he has moved far from that field. In fact, he hasn't written anything remotely "steampunk" since.
Both of you need to catch up:
The Essential Gibson Reading List Post - Sprawl Trilogy:
- All Tomorrow's Parties (establishes sense of disruptive tech and refines modern cyberpunk)
- Pattern Recognition (Establishes "past future" SFnal based on Gibson's philosophy of heterogeneous distribution of "future")
- Zero History (sets up unique " secret economic singularity" hypothesis - note that this is my own personal interpretation and he has denied parts of this thesis personally, but regardless this is a seminal work for its perfection of the "past future" genre)
- The Peripheral (masterwork SF and return to form, a reimagination of what should replace cyberpunk; a more "futuristic" look at well-extrapolated dystopia than previously considered).
Many underground avant garde writers.
GRRM shaped genre fiction
>>7420747
Green eyes myself.
Probably biased but I think it's the best eye colour
