Jesus fucking Christ, /lit/.
Pic related is the new fad in Italy. The "distilled".
Basically, they're novels cut down to 40% or 30% of their original size. Small enough that "you can finish them in the time it would take to watch a movie" (actual slogan).
Some 23 year old assistant editor just cuts hundreds of pages from novels, conserving only the plot and the main characters. The skeleton of the book. And they have the gall to say that "nothing of the original experience is lost".
I didn't even want to believe it, but they're a real thing. What the fuck.
Does shit like this happen in other countries as well?
>>7518352
To what kind of books exactly they are doing this?
>>7518352
"New fad in Italy" where.
I've never seen one of those things anywhere.
Do you only buy books at the newsstand?
ugh, this is more depressing to me than those cheesy textspeak shakespeare things
>>7518386
Second post and already we have a twat attacking the OP for no reason whatsoever instead of talking about the obscenity in the post.
No, I don't fucking buy books only at newsstands. I buy them pretty much anywhere. You'll have to find some other way to feel superior to me.
>>7518369
It's a new thing they're just launching. They're gonna do it to both narrative and fiction, from authors of all countries.
>>7518418
I went and GIS'd the image, can't read Italian myself so I had to translate. The site looks sleek so I assume they see a fair amount of traffic. So they're going to "distill" 2 books a month for some subscription program?
>>7518443
The site for anyone interested:
>http://www.centauria.it/prodotti/dettaglio/distillati.shtml
They're gonna rape 1 book a month, for what I've seen, and sell it for 3.90€ to anyone who feels like stabbing their own soul a bit more.
>>7518453
No wait, they're gonna rape 2 books a month.
And they're not saying anything about special subscriptions or anything, so I assume they're gonna sell them in book stores like regular books.
>>7518418
The thing is, if you say it's a fad, it means it's a popular thing, and you seem to imply that it is in any way relevant.
Instead, it's a project by a no-name publisher, that is in fact sold in newsstands, and didn't get any sort of major exposure.
Is it shit? Yes. It's the same kind of shit as those digest editions they sell in the summer, or the year some magazine published "the great classics for kids rewritten by modern-day people!".
Is this going to matter in any way, shape, or form? No.
By the way, it's pleb-tier "literature". Mazzantini is not going to change much with a 30% less.
They did this kind of shit with sci-fi novels in the "Urania" series. They just cut a good chunk of the books, one sentence every 4 or 5, until they had a book small enough that printing it was cheap and so they could keep their cover price low.
But they didn't have permission to do this shit, so when the foreign authors discovered it, heads rolled.
>>7518467
>didn't get any sort of major exposure
I've seen ads on the most widespread newspapers, familia. In a few months I'm gonna see a lot of people reading these bastardized versions of novels, and if you think such a blatant "fuck you" to literature doesn't matter, you're just another 14 year old trying to sound cool by imitating a cynic.
>>7518467
Boy, you really love this kind of baby formula, uh?
I guess the full sized books are still too much for you. But now you can be just like the big boys!
This kind of junk would be quite popular with hipsters if it covered the literary greats. Junk like this gives readers just enough information from a book to pretend they're well read individuals. Can't wait for an even more retarded subset of NIMBYs to emerge in 10 or so years.
>>7518478
You're being overly dramatic.
It's fucking books for newsstands. "Fuck you to literature", come on. That is not literature, and you are not going to see them everywhere.
It's not going to last, as it didn't last with countless similar projects in the years, and it is literally nothing to draw conclusions from.
>>7518488
You should work on your reading comprehension, kid.
this looks like contemporary garbage anyway. i don't like it, but at least they aren't ruining real lit.
Good. Anyone who buys that shit wouldn't be able to read the full thing anyway, for want of mental faculties.
holy fuck this is depressing. Everything an author writes he writes on purpose
>>7518352
I thought the new italian fad would be to translate all books to the medium of waving your hands about.
>>7518593
Why stop there? Why not have porn scenes with starlets waving their hands to the tune of Gravity's Rainbow?
>>7518547
Look, I can't find hard data, only stupid media articles, but it's a known fact that Italy is one of the countries in Europe with the lowest number of readers. This is a commercial move to try and catch some more public. It's for the lowest common denominator, the blurb on the site talks about "keeping all the twists and plot points intact!". This is going to have zero impact on literature, education, or whatever. No need to get anyone's panties in atwist over this.
>>7518616
what made italy so illiterary?
>>7519985
Either Berlusconi or the commies, depends on who you ask.
Sounds like a good idea. I might read Infinite Jest if they cut out the boring two thirds.
Sounds great tbqh senpai. If they did this to the meme trilogy i could read all three in a single day!
>Some 23 year old assistant editor just cuts hundreds of pages from novels, conserving only the plot and the main characters. The skeleton of the book. And they have the gall to say that "nothing of the original experience is lost".
Sounds like editing, Hemingway style.
Philistines always butcher great works of literature, even the Bible (especially the Bible)
"First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss."
"The BOSS said to my BOSS, Be my right hand man while I put even your opponents under control: Therefore let all America know beyond any doubt that God has made the same Jesus whom you LYNCHED, both PRESIDENT and leader . . . Rock said to them, Reshape your lives and let each of you be INITIATED into the family of Jesus Christ so your sins can be dealt with; and you will receive the free gift of the Holy Spirit."
"You've got to give me proof, proof, proof that you've got a changed life and do not feed yourself any of this "we good church folks" stuff. I bet you right now, if God wanted to he could make good church folks out of this pile of rocks right here! Halleluiah! A chainsaw is sitting at the trunk of the tree and every tree that does not perform some worthwile function is gonna be
[makes chainsaw noises]"
"[Jesus after being tested by the devil] I passed. And then angels appeared with a sack of chili cheese dogs for him."
>mfw
>>7520574
I wish those quotes were parody, alas, not so.
We all must prostate ourselves at the alter of EQUALITY, and allow the plebeians to dictate what is high and what is low. Everything's twisted around so I don't know which way is up, these plebs need to know their place. Democracy and Liberalism have rotted away out culture so that it is only an emaciated skele held up with lies! and people wonder why we think the West is collapsing, look around you!
