how old were you when you realized jonathan franzen is a genius?
negative ten
I think I was like 16 when I read Freedom. Thought it was a damn good book with some annoying elements (all the shit about birds.) Haven't read The Corrections but I assume it's the superior novel so I've gotta check that out some day. He's a really good essayist too, though he can be a bit of a pompous prick sometimes.
>>7787845
It isn't. Freedom is better.
>>7787834
There is literally nothing good about Franzen. He tries to compensate for his white maleness by cucking everything up, and he is pure dork, through and through. Literally anything is better than him.
Worst most banal shit I have ever read. Corrections : everyone is an asshole, let's have family dinner and try and correct it. Fuck me what a piece of shit. I don't over use pleb but this is what happens when you let someone who should have been a fucking menial near a type writer and college. What an intellectual midget that motherfucker is.
>>7787983
I was gratified to see samuel r delany talking about how absolutely atrocious it was ,too. When an edgy black gay porn overeducated sf writer blasts your writjng publically, you know you can't write for shit.
Franzen is a fucking parody of the 'post modern' genre
The fact that people think this hack is any better than Vonnegut just proves how pleb this board is
>>7787834
He tries so hard sometimes to be Gaddis and fails miserably.
16, then 18 when I realized he wasn't
"Experimental Fiction
Franzen frequently bemoans what he sees as literature’s marginalization by television, film, and the Internet. But the culprit isn’t just television, film, and the Internet. It’s also literature itself—difficult, experimental literature. In The New Yorker, he criticized William Gaddis’s formal experimentation and championed more accessible novels, with strong narratives and relatable characters. In 2005, Ben Marcus fired back with an essay titled “Why Experimental Fiction Threatens to Destroy Publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and Life as We Know It.”"
He doesn't like experimental fiction
Explains why he's so shit
>>7788197
how has he ever tried to be like gaddis?
>>7788217
If you're seriously asking that question you haven't read one or the other
>>7788235
whatever you say man
>>7788215
>strong narratives and relatable characters
>Franzen
>FRANZEN
kek
I think he is a good author but far from a genius.
Gaddis, Vonnegut > Franzen
>>7787834
i keep getting older. haven't gotten old enough i guess.
>>7788293
>vonnegut
>next to gaddis
>>7788293
Take out the word good, replace "a genius" with " competent", and you hit the nail on the head.
>>7788313
>competent
how about sub-par?
>>7788293
Vonnegut doesn't even begin to approach Gaddis' style or content.
>>7788307
this desu
