>"I do things like get in a taxi and say, 'The library, and step on it.'"
>that entire ebonics section, which would probably be offensive if it wasn't so incoherent
>multiple mathematical errors and a hilariously faulty understanding of organic chemistry (DFW later admitted that he just copied most of the information on drugs out of a pharmaceutical textbook)
>completely unnecessary endnotes which are not only irritating to read but destroy the cohesion of the narrative rather than allow it to flow
>"And so but"
>frequent and casual use of the word "fag" + multiple transphobic portrayals of transvestites and the ambiguously-gendered
>goofy names, obsession with popular entertainment and the invisible social structures which govern us, postmodern style, endless abbreviations, yet DFW claims to have never read Pynchon
It's obvious to anybody who looks beyond the size of the book, the front cover blurbs from Wallace's MFA-cronies, and the many 4chan memes, that this is not a good book. It's an insecure attempt by Wallace to demonstrate to the literary establishment that he was just as smart as he thought he was, and he failed.
Please /lit/, look beyond DFW's carefully manufactured celebrity appeal and listen to Bloom. Some of you are better than this.
>>7521981
>"I do things like get in a taxi and say, 'The library, and step on it.'"
It's said by a precocious anxiety-ridden 18 year old. And it's brilliant even if you dislike it for... well, what exactly? Edginess? Ego?
>which would probably be offensive if it wasn't so incoherent
It is coherent on a close read. You wanna say you didn't read the book or? You skimmed through then made this thread?
>hilariously faulty understanding of organic chemistry(DFW later admitted that he just copied most of the information on drugs out of a pharmaceutical textbook)
Anon, most of the chemicals are made up. It's fiction. Wallace never admitted any of this.
This thread is a very poor and cancerous b8.
>>7521981
>>frequent and casual use of the word "fag" + multiple transphobic portrayals of transvestites and the ambiguously-gendered
stopped right there
>>7521981
>DFW claims to have never read Pynchon.
can you link me to a quote of some kind on this?
also i think you were trying not to enjoy infinite jest or went into it with the wrong expectations. i think its a pretty outstanding novel myself.
So has anyone else noticed that the modern "avantgarde" of poets and writers like Tao Lin and Heiko Julien basically spew the same shit you have seen on Tumblr for years?
First of all they are weirdly obsessed with "dank memes", this new meme culture that is recent enough to be considered newfag, yet old enough to be stale. The vaporwave and ironic 90s tech chic seems to be very a very common theme and artistic inspiration. I bet those "artists" don't see the IRONY of trying to be innovating while spewing buzzwords and funny images about hating life, suicide (with a healthy dose of thesaurus abuse) and "aesthetic" computer ads from the 20th century they see on tumblr blogs.
Speaking of irony, this whole obsession with irony is pretty ridiculous. A statement can be ironic but how does one do something ironically? Talking about how you do things "ironically" only comes of as you being a self conscious conformist that is trying be different in the safest way possible. Dude that stupid thing I like I ONLY LIKE IRONICALLY so you are the one that's stupid. Chan culture and this board in particular seems to emulate this behavior while usually removing itself from it source via this magical irony.
Is this the present and future of literature?
The world keeps a moving
but the Iliad stays the same
>>7521920
Agreed. I wish I had been born in the 1920s when real literature was being written- now it's all meme-meme bro irony get anomie tumblr crap. I feel like I was born in the wrong generation; literature, what happened?
I don't want to sound like a shill but icycalm talks about this in his art essay. Literature has degenerated. Artfags have taken over. /lit/ is completely fucking unwilling to even entertain the idea that the point of literature is entertainment. This opens the door to all sorts of shit.
Why did the Greeks revere assholes like Odysseus?
They appreciated men of intent, and with flaws. There wasn't a single Greek hero besides maybe Theseus that didn't piss the Gods off in some way.
if you were fighting and winning, to the Greeks, great. If you were losing and dying, just as good. If you're sitting at home doing nothing, well, how many Greek heros did that?
>>7521822
>assholes like Odysseus
They didn't have 3000 years of ideology weighing them down.
>you'll never plunder maidens, pillage palaces and boast on you boat
>no mixing wine in the crater
>no sacrificing oxen for a safe passage on the water
>no fucking every king's daughter on the coast of the Mediterranean
>ever
Eliot, Lawrence and Pound are the ones that spring to mind, though I'm sure there are more. Filippo Marinetti didn't even 'become' a fascist -- he preempted Mussolini and made Italy's modernists (Futurists) fascist by design.
Why?
Massification was the most prominent and most repulsive aspect of the modern zeitgeist they were championing for other reasons, and they wanted to find ways to deal with it
>>7521722
Eliot wasn't a fascist, he volunteered as a fire warden during the Blitz in London during WWII.
Pound was a massive fascist AND invented Modernism, so it just appears that lots of Modernists were fascists.
>>7521910
>Eliot wasn't a fascist, he volunteered as a fire warden during the Blitz in London during WWII.
lol That wouldn't exclude him from being a fascist
>The obsessive hatred, bordering on psychosis, againstproducts— i.e. against man-made objects — seems to be the hallmark of the pseudo-intellectual today. Hatred of consumption, a problem which no sane, healthy person has ever had. As if food and clothes, as if eating or dressing were bad. Such is the pseudo-intellectual's craving to appear to be raging at something, that he will rage at life's basic necessitities if need be.
Admit it, this is true. Zizek et al tie themselves up in knots trying to logically explain why the core of capitalism is shit but they just can't do it
>Rail against mindless, materialistic consumer plebs and their filthy acquisition of things
>spend lots of money on pretty hardcover books, lust after other people's bookshelves
Zizek hardly has a hatred for consumption.
Thoughts on Pratchett?
A couple years ago a friend of mine was staying over. We went to the library to check out some DVDs to watch. We returned with a documentary about corn production in the US and a cartoon adaptation of Discworld.
Is discworld not a children's book?
>>7521439
Nah man.
>>7521439
Some of it is fairly adult in theme. Anyway, kids wouldn't understand some of it very well. It's written in a way that child could read it though.
I've grown to enjoy the Discworld books. They're very entertaining. I don't read them for the same reason I read Pynchon.
How does /lit/ feel about this series?
By kids for kids senpai
Do your duty and remember to sage, report, and hide Eragonposters
>>7521411
gtfo
we're not doing this again
this shit sin't even arguable
at least start a harry potter thread for serious arguments
In 200 years how will society view our era and literature?
Decaying
>>7521159
I think it depends on the future of consumer culture, which could possibly disappear in 100 years if terrorism doesn't steal the narrative in the meantime. That is, we work towards the cessation of global warming, which might consequently destroy much of consumerism, which might cause more living equality in the world, which makes "school for getting a job" obsolete, by which school will be obsolete anyways, and possibly most jobs, and people start reading and watching good films etc. again (no need for mass escapism in a semi-utopia), etc.
So in 200 years, if this all takes place, which there is a chance of, we'll be looked upon as totally retarded. We'll have our Melville of the era, probably not a shakespeare, but a Melville; most consumerism shit will be ignored as artifacts (pop music/film, science fiction for the most part, probably traditional religion other than maybe Catholicism and Islam which will likely survive along with Hinduism that India can't function without)
But by and large we'll be considered (or rather, perhaps our parents will be considered) complete retards on average, but our geniuses will be recognized as such.
Well, that's just a wild ass guess at least.
>>7521169
>think it depends on the future of consumer culture, which could possibly disappear in 100 years if terrorism doesn't steal the narrative in the meantime. That is, we work towards the cessation of global warming, which might consequently destroy much of consumerism, which might cause more living equality in the world, which makes "school for getting a job" obsolete, by which school will be obsolete anyways, and possibly most jobs, and people start reading and watching good films etc. again (no need for mass escapism in a semi-utopia), etc.
Shiggy diggy
ok, to start it off. you guys are freaking intimidating. I was lurking some of those /lit/ threads and most of the stuff written in there I didn't even understand.
>mosty read fiction and fantasy all my life
>read a bit Gogol and Tschechow due to my father insisting on it, I liked it to be honest
>speak German, English and Russian (in that order of proficiency), just picked up Spanish a year ago
>german education yr 13
now what did I miss? I don't even know where to start and whether or not I should get some good literature into my brain. I've spent most of my free time with watching tv and playing games (oh, and lurking 4ch, for about a year now or so)
Thread will probably get deleted anyways..I guess it's more about starting to move in a chosen direction than to actually standing in front of a gigantic crossroads intimidated to make the first step
>inb4 tl;dr
shameless selfbumb with a micro-spaceship
The Greeks, either their philosophy, poems or tragedies it doesn't matter.
>>7521009
Don't be intimidated. You're way ahead of many here in terms of your desire to learn and not show off.
What do you want to do with your reading? Any particular area(s) of interest?
Worst meme-tier descriptions of books you've heard.
I'll start:
>It's really well written.
>it's meme-tier
really a dumbass description in general tho
>A tour de force
if you havent been on this board for a while its really terrible
Are there any books that were written to criticize a group of people, but end up being loved and revered by those same people?
Lolita
A Confederacy of Dunces
>>7520926
It doesn't happen often, mostly because reading is an active activity, you cannot read and be unaware of the meaning of the message.
It's more common in music though...
Lorde's Royals became very popular precisely among the public the song criticizes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVB6np4qwG0
You could be reading one of the greatest works of literature RIGHT NOW, but instead you're reading my shitpost.
>>7520906
The Game
The problem is, I'm making myself read a book I don't really want to read currently, so as a result I'm avoiding it even though I could finish in a day.
joke's on you I'm redding Game of thrones!
I propose a new addition to the meme trilogy
also discuss this book
>>7520817
hey why the fuck did we chose the recognitions
that book is probably the oldest piece of pomo lit referenced on this board and it gets to be part of the "new" trilogy?
It's New Year's Eve.
I'm making one of these for myself and other newfags.
everyone gets one vote.
Starting with crime and punishment.
>>7520741
The 2015 one is from the END of 2015, ya dingus.
I've been wanting to learn a new language for literary reasons and decided to go with russian, mainly because of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Is it the right choice?
>>7520739
No. It'll be difficult. So difficult that you'll most likely give it up within a few months and move on to something else you'll never follow through with
>>7520739
Yes, but not for the right reasons
learn German instead
![Infinite_jest_cover[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/1WGV0aM.jpg "Infinite jest cover[1]")
