yo /lit/
I'm not too avid of a reader but can someone tell me why pic related became such a huge hit? It's made me want to start writing because I don't think anything I come up with could possibly be as bad.
>>7560039
If you don't understand why, you'll never be a successful writer.
The publishing industry is a cabal. Cline knew someone, the publisher markets it through 'reviews', and word spreads.
It panders and isn't demanding in anyway. It's just wish-fulfillment.
You gotta know your audience brah
>>7560039
It's all about marketability. Cline identified a huge market for what he had kinda started on Reddit, and just finished writing what he realized they wanted to read. it's not at all a question of prose quality or philosophy, except that he recognized his readers philosophy was so malleable he could do whatever he wanted.
It's not that hard to figure out. First of all, it's YA, so doesn't challenge the reader at all with "big words"—just perfect for your average adult with ten bucks to spend. Second, it's dystopian which is already widely popular among middle-class sometime-readers, since they want some adventure-in-decay they've not yet experienced in their too institutionalized lives. Third, it nods hardcore to the video games of the 80's and 90's, which a lot of Millennials grew up playing and nostalgia about where possible (incidentally many of the kids who grew up with video games became the group of middle-class sometime-readers already mentioned).
You find out what's trendy, you find out who buys books, and you exploit/pander to that market. It's not difficult.
>>7560057
Book Bengazi?
>>7560039
It was pretty good. Not everyone is going to like it. I'm certain that the people on here haven't read it and if they did they would enjoy it. As an avid reader, I give it a 10/10. Definitely, worth a read/ buy.
>>7560980
ebin
>>7560983
It is epic. If you haven't bought it then I suggest you do. It will look hardcore on your shelf.
What's even worse? Spielberg will probably turn it into a great movie and it will never go away.
Was literally going to buy this today
Is it that bad?
>>7562532
I don't say this lightly. It's literally Reddit: the book.
I read this book.
Let me start off by saying that I've been posting on this board for quite a while, and a lot of the standard /lit/ snobbery has rubbed off on me. When information about this book began to spread, I shared everybody's understandable disdain. From where I was sitting it seemed to me like an embarrassing book designed to pander to nerds' nostalgia. As somebody whose reading time is mostly spent rereading my favorites by Joyce, Gaddis, and McElroy, I didn't think there was any chance that this book would be anything but pain for me to read.
Which is why I'm extremely surprised I'm about to give this book the assessment I'm about to give it. Honestly, I thought it was a staggeringly impressive debut that singles out Kline as *the* writer to watch right now. It's well-written, funny, ingeniously plotted and even (this is the big one) moving. As I was reading it, I couldn't believe my own reaction. And when I was finished, I was astonished at how powerfully the novel resonated.
I urge everyone who's skeptical to give this book a shot. You're bound to pleasantly surprised.
>>7562550
Fuck this is a good troll. Casual McElroy and Gaddis posting too. Good pasta.
ready player one is fuckin epic
>>7560039
>genius male invents an endless wonderland of virtual possibility--an infinite frontier of limitless experience
>ends with said inventor saying "yeah I worked hard and performed a miracle but basically I wish I'd just got laid I'm a huge lame ass dumb dweeb nothing I did mattered gurrrrl power fuck I'm stupid FUCK why couldn't I just get pussy"
>protagonist nerd finally gets pussy and is given a "destroy World of Warcraft forever button"
Otherland is 1000x better. Same concept, far darker, has edgy 90s Internet, even more diverse cast, less SJW PC Reddit cuck bullshit.
Reading this caused the most staggeringly painful series of bowel movements in my life. It was like my body and soul were trying to excrete the contents of my childhood toy box. Buried as it was under the decaying detritus of twenty years of adulthood, it burst forth from its chrysalis in such violence that it left me weeping upon my toilet floor. As I cried, pleading with any deity of abrahamic or pagan origin to release me of the wearisome burden of life, my copy dissapeared into whichever foul dimension of mind it sprang forth from. There it waits to claim another victim either one of those so weak of mind to act as vectors for it's maleficence or one such as I whom it does not kill but leaves so sickened by the experience that they wish it had.
>>7562641
But what about in terms of sheer fun factor?
>>7562654
Literary masochism.
>>7562602
>Otherland is 1000x better.
1000x0=0
seriously, this is one of the worst books i've ever read and 'ive read literally hundreds of sf novels.
>>7562665
Name dropped and hailed as a god.
>>7562946
>>7562602
This, I'm glad I'm not the only who noticed the similarity. Otherland user VR in a much more interesting way than a book that was written 20 years later.
>>7562556
Not a troll. Paid shilling.
>>7562665
What does he have to do anything? Why would anyone care about him? He's some pathetic loser who was a background character on a space show for faggots.
>>7563017
Cory Doctorow and him were elected president of the VR land because of their long track record of standing up for netizens rights
>>7560039
Gen Xers love anything that makes them feel special and important, and all the 70s/80s pop culture references in RPO provided that in spades.
So what Young Adult novels do you think are actually good or fun /lit/?
Picture related for me, it's a bit more mature. I doubt anyone here has read it though
>>7563670
why would anyone who is not a young adult read novels for young adults? that would be like watching cartoons aimed at little girls.
>>7563762
>caring about arbitrary tags
Well there's so many of them you'd think there are a few good "hidden gems" that hide beneath garbage like Hunger Games and the likes. I got curious because pic related was actually a pretty decent magical realism book.
I havent read the book, but Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is pretty good for a YA film adaptation.
The script was written by the book's author, so maybe the book is OK.
>>7560039
Didn't know it was all that succesful, but Spielberg is making a movie, so I guess it was...
Well, I really liked the scenes in reality. They had good, harsh setting, and they showed the main character to be pretty resourceful, but every time they plugged into OASIS - it was forgetful. Sure, I had some kind of fun reading them, but you can't have a good, thrilling story, if your reality has almost no rules and any-fucking-thing can happen. Also - it's too much depending on your knowledge of 80's pop-culture. There're so many references, to the point it's not working on it's own.
>>7563798
>you can enjoy mlp as an adult, too, it sometimes gets very deepand magical
I liked it when I actually read it.
But in retrospect,I find it lackluster with the shoehorned black lesbian character and the forced 80s theme.
the film adaptation of this is gonna make the martian's dialogue sound like bergman in comparison
i mean can you imagine the quirky cheekiness factor
Here's the thing. The book is very much wish fulfillment and reads like a screen play but with sections dedicated to referencing things in bulk that sort of sound like the author just opened up a wikipage of games/movies/tv shows of the 80s and 90s and copy pasted them. The plot is mediocre, the only real interesting part is the section where he describes a corporate prison and attempts a breakout but because the author doesnt really have a good grasp on literary detail, it comes off as Mary Sueish in his miraculous escape.
The fights are cheesy, so are most of the character interactions, there are a few clever implementations of 80s culture blended with VR (such as having to perfectly act a role from a movie, in order to progress in the search, like a cinematic DDR). But ultimately what >>7561006 is true, it's a book written with the explicit idea of being turned into a movie. And it might actually be an interesting movie.
>>7563670
Red Rising. It sort of reads like LOGH from the sole side of Reinhard. The author is not afraid to hurt the MC but sometimes he makes side characters seem a little too one noted. However if the author was smart he'd write more than 3 books and have books dedicated to time between the time jumps because the MC sometimes reference these periods at very critical moment which makes the plot armor of the MC seem really apparent.
broke up with my gf of like 2 years a couple months ago, she cited my incessant negativity.
>yfw i was reading all the time
>yfw she told me I should read ready player one because its her favorite
>yfw i straight up told her it was bad and I didnt need to read it to find out
>mfw no more blow jobs and plebs being around me
>>7564226
damn nigga should of sucked it up.
>>7564113
Same here. I enjoyed it but in retrospect it's pretty cringeworthy and lame. REALLY lame in fact
