>that moment you realise the author has created a character as a self-insert
Stopped reading High-Rise once I realised Anthony Royal was clearly an edgy Ballard self-insert, completely ruined it for me
What other novels does this happen in?
I dropped Anna Karenina after realizing Levin was a Tolstoy insert
>>8126990
You'll be disappointed to find that every main character in Ballard's books are Ballard himself.
>>8127043
It's fine in Empire of the Sun, given that it's basically a fictionalised autobiography of his childhood. Just not so much in his fantasy novels.
Went to see some of the Empire sites when I lived in Shanghai. His house was gutted, is now a fancy restaurant. Pain to find.
The camp is now Shanghai Middle School, also a pain in the ass to get to from what I remember, though the metro lines might accommodate that area more by now. A lot of the buildings he describes are still there, but sadly the block he lived in was torn down a few years back.
Pretty cool following the little tour of shanghai he gives during the passage where he's cycling. You need to know the colonial Street names, but it's straightforward enough. He also describes the scene on the Bund with pretty precise detail, if you read that chapter while sitting on the Bund you can see exactly where he's talking about because he locates incidents by the buildings.
Books you now can't read:
>Ulysses
>a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
>The Metamorphosis
>Canterbury Tales
>Carpenter's Gothic
>Moby Dick
>>8127067
How is moby dick a self insert
>>8127073
Melville was a homosexual and spent the first hundred pages fantasizing about being in bed with an exotic bull before realizing he had to get on with it.
>>8127073
"Ishmael" is a reflective, rambly, "orphan" who joined up to sail because fuck it
If you know anything of Melville, it's pretty clear that's him
everything Kafka ever wrote
>>8127079
is it possible to be more unfunny
>>8127086
If you have a problem with Moby Dick's narrative, take it up with Melville - I'm just conveying an accurate synopsis. Lusting after man ass can be found in Billy Budd, too.
>>8126990
stopped reading notes from the underground because the main character was dostoevsky himself
>>8127093
okay I'll give Melville a ring
Stephen Maturin is Patrick O'Brian's self insert, but both are intellectual Irish spies so it still makes for good reading.
>>8127093
Billy Budd was such a fucking letdown after Moby Dick.
>there once was a fucking gorgeous young sailor
>and he got pressed into a navy ship
>and an officer had a boner for him but was confused about it so he framed Billy for some shit
>so Billy Tyson'd the bitch
>so they hung him
>and everyone was sad, the end
>>8127023
Tolstoy literally did the thing Levin does where he made his future wife read his list of sexual exploits before the wedding.
you rang?
>>8127067
Metamorphosis is a self insert done right, its basically another character with a dilemma the author had instead of shit like gatsby where the narrator is a writer from new york, background beta, and other stupid and blatant characterizations
>>8127067
Pretty sure Gibbs in JR is also a complete Mary Sue.
>>8127023
I read the whole book without realizing this, only learned of it afterwards.
Is it bad if I still liked the book and found Levin an interesting character?
>>8127809
kek
>that moment when anon frogposts
