:C

jus b urself

>>7504165
just B.E. Yourself!

>>7504244
What does the B.E. stand for?

cause dfw had no discernible talent

not even memeing, dfw's popularity largely comes from the fact that his experiences coincided with the kind of people who would read his stuff (young, "intelligent," lower to upper middle class american) and therefore felt like he hit on some universal truth.

joyce wrote about ireland in very specific terms and from a very specific perspective but nevertheless imbued his stuff with more universal meanings that can be appreciated even if you aren't a early 20th century dubliner, but dfw failed at speaking to people who don't fall into a very narrow demographic. that's why infinie jest is so well received by a portion of the demographic but falls on deaf ears for the rest.

what i'm trying to say is dfw is buoyed by his choice of subject matter and not by any real inherent writing ability.

>>7504142
DFW called Bloom shit in his biggest novel.

DFW is great, it's just that Bloomy boy was scared of being looked at as kinda cuck-core if he approved of DFW's works, which was a huge mistake to be honest. The actual mature thing to do of him would be to stay objective.

>>7504142
Because taste in literature is subjective and Harold Bloom shouldn't decide what you like to read

You're not dumb for having your own opinion

>>7504255
>dfw failed at speaking to people who don't fall into a very narrow demographic.
That's bullshit though.

DFW was a meme author because he was young.

Basically all the good writers go into YA fiction and don't even have to try very hard to make a solid living. There is no intellectual purism left when you can just become a fucking millionaire.

>>7504284
there are always exceptions but you'll find that overwhelmingly, dfw fans have a large overlap in personal experience/society/culture/upbringing as him.

the easiest example is to see how he's barely read/appreciated outside of america;
his fans tend to be overwhelmingly white and male 18 - ~45 years old. he describes a very particular experience well, there's no denying that, but i really do believe he lacks the universality that will make him a canon author a couple decades out.

>>7504329
Spoiler: 90% of non-YA literature is read by white males aged 18-45.
I also appreciate him despite not being american and not even close. Some of my friends do aswell. Obviously being memed on /lit/ helps a lot but come on, he's scored masterpieces, masterpieces get recognition, there is no point in denial.

>>7504350
he was a highly functioning autist friend, watch any one of his interviews he literally cringes at himself like it's a nervous tick.

he is an autist who wrote autistic things for autists to enjoy.

>>7504355
implying I haven't read almost everything by him and haven't watched/listened to every interview of him possible
lol

>>7504247
The B stand for B.E. and and the E stands for entirely

I understand Bloomberg's no discernible talent meme (DFW was just ok), but I don't get the Harry Potter one. It's a very good children's book. Is it JUST because prose? That's a valid point, I guess, but Idk, I've never read a "good" children's book like whinny the pooh or that shit Bloomey recommends.

>>7504350
as i said there are always exceptions.

also your point on 90% of non ya literature is read by white male is not true, esp for contemporary writers. females make up, in many cases, the majority of readership.

the fact that you're the kind of person who would post on 4chan points strongly to some level of similarity with dfw. as >>7504355 so vulgarly put it, there's a level of obsession and peculiarity in dfw (like many great writers), but in his case, i simply don't think it will hold up to the test of time.

>>7504370
>the fact that you're the kind of person who would post on 4chan
are you b8ing now?

>>7504374
what are you implying? that posting on 4chan is something that's common/done by a huge variety of demographics?

>>7504142

Here's my shitty opinion:

DFW reads like he's trying to be someone else. I don't know how to describe it but it feels inauthentic and as if he's not enjoying what he's doing. His prose feels like a mixture of pure genius and a cumbersome word salad that's dripping with self-hatred and pity. Fuck i have no idea what i'm saying and i don't like writing, is the only feel i get after reading DFW. I never root for his characters!

>>7504384
That it's common for, well, everyone ITT, including you, and that going by your logic, you would also have to be similar to DFW in a way, and that I should now point out how you make no sense because you just criticized him despite being a lot like him.

Infinite Jest was bloated and needed a serious edit, and it took me forever to finish. But even so, it's really stuck with me, and I appreciate the scope the endeavor. The passage where James' father is delivering a drunken monologue about cars is one of the greatest prose pieces I've ever read. In fact I felt that way about many parts of IJ: in isolation, the writing was brilliant, but they could have been pieced together better. I've never been an addict, so the novel didn't resonate with me as it might have, but it's still an impressive accomplishment.

I never understood the appeal of "This is Water" though.

>>7504395
>I never root for his characters!

>>7504142
>but hates everything by DFW
Because DFW wrote shit against bloom before.

>>7504255
DFW did everything Joyce did, with slightly less grace

The reason he's not as significant is because he wasn't the first to write with such breadth and density

>>7504402
>What are necessary and sufficient causes

>>7504350
>90% of non-YA literature is read by white males aged 18-45.

Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure women read much more than men.

>>7504500
Yes, I should've added 'non-romance' near 'non-YA' and then it would've been true.

>>7504513
Nope. Contemporary literary fiction is very much women majority.

>>7504518
Have you recently checked any syllabus of contemporary [country] literature anywhere?

Most of the stuff has so much literary merit it might aswell be either given to women or put in the trash, and that's exactly what they ''read''

>>7504350
Completely wrong.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/16/a-snapshot-of-reading-in-america-in-2013/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14175229

>>7504577
>America
top lel

>>7504513
Nah. Women read much more than men of essentially every genre except sci-fi.

Ivory tower Literature could be majority-male, but on average women are more voracious readers even if you take away romance.

>>7504142
Because masters of prose

>>7504523
Classics as well.

You're living in a fantasy world in which men are overwhelmingly intellectually superior to women, but in the modern West women are objectively more well-read.

>>7504852
Here girl, have a haiku


Sides
gone
they are

>>7504367
>It's a very good children's book
It's not. You're just thinking "oh, it's a children's book, therefore it doesn't need to be judged according to reasonable standards because children like anything", which is retarded.

David Foster Wallace is just Sylvia Plath for boys

>>7504255
i don't think thats true. many main characters in infinite jest are very dissimilar to me in almost every conceivable way

>>7504367
top pleb

>>7504367
Rowling is so weak compared to Milne/Lewis/Dahl. She built a fairly entertaining world but her characters are weak and her attempts at moral lessons in the series are laughable and ham-fisted