Why does /lit/ abhor this book so much?
>>7618392
I've never heard of any big criticism of that book itself, but I've heard us talking about how its author is a huge pleb (see his essay on Gaddis for more).
Sold a lot, author's a dweeb, domestic realism, American
oprah
It's literally a drawn-out sitcom episode except that it suggests it's better than one because it's aware of itself (even though sitcoms break the fourth wall all the time.) There is no depth, the themes it covers have all been covered countless times before, the prose is terrible, and Franzen is a terrible person.
Extremely, extremely boring
Primary school teacher lit
ITT: Jealous unpublished cucks and their emotional baggage
>>7618501
Sure, John.
/lit/ would like franzen more dead, I think
maybe I should read him but 'purity' sounded kind of dumb
>>7618412
Pretty sure it can all be traced back to this
>>7618392
No idea but I really dug it, prose is very purple at times but its a fucking funny book for sure.
Also most people here read less than 5 books a year, there's no way even half of the people shitposting about it have read it
I thought that book was good. I'm not going to buy it now lol
>>7618392
People mostly hate Franzen himself, not his work. he is everything a writer shouldn't be: fame seeking and posterity obsessed. His awful treatment of Oprah didn't do him any favors, she was a boom to publishing and her heart was in the right place.
/lit/ hates him because he doesn't deserve his stature and is a suburban middlebrow writer who champions domestic/conventional realism as the only true type of literature.
>>7618392
Because Franzen is a sperg, but the book itself is good. Certainly better than his new one, if most reviews are anything to go by.
>>7618392
Same reason we hate any lit fic: It's boring.
Chip has some moments that are almost funny, but you have to slog through so much shit to get to it. It's not worth it.
first of all, I hate it because it reminds me of things I hate about myself, so in that sense I think he succeeded, but the book thinks it's too clever to really be enjoyable to read
>>7618654
>we
Speak for your fucking self m8
>>7618654
>Same reason we hate any lit fic: It's boring.
If you think The Corrections or literary fiction in general is boring you can seriously fuck off back to r/books.
I just saw this article about Franzen and Oprah and just wow, what a load of shit
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/books/oprah-gaffe-by-franzen-draws-ire-and-sales.html?pagewanted=all
>appeals to the authority of the 'high art tradition'
>bloom says he can't have it both way
kek
>shit talks Frederick Barthelme
>shit talks realism because his pomo garbage didn't sell
>writes fake tv-script realism to appeal to retards
>"i write 8 hours a day 7 days a week and my voice gets hoarse because i say all my dialogue aloud"
he's a pretentious fuck who doesn't care about anyone but himself. just like so many postmodern wonderboys, he has no interest in a literary tradition or community.
>faggots ripping Franzen for his Mr. Difficult essay because they're fans of Gaddis
>faggots don't realize Franzen is a much bigger fan of Gaddis than they are
>they never finished the article and realize it ends on a note with a compromise between the two models (art for arts sake and create for the consumer)
>>7619933
>"faggots"
stopped reading post discarded etc ec
>>7618787
Wow, if only I were smart enough to read literary fiction. How do you do it?
>>7618792
i don't know how much of it is true, but it does seem quite odious and poor manners to say or imply: "Ms Winfrey has abysmal taste, and to associate with her would be the death of the literary tradition and my standing in it" instead of just saying "no, thank you." If this is how he behaves then Franzen is a sperg and autist, regardless of his writing.
>>7618392
I liked it.
>>7620070
I hope that was a reality check for him and he's less of a sperg now, but I don't think there's much coming back from >muh high-art literary tradition can't appear on oprah
His material sounds like it was written by a eunuch. A woman could have reasonably written his drivel. There's no heart, no balls, no brain and a writer needs to have at least one of these things guiding the pen. I can't imagine sex with him being remotely satisfying.
>>7620202
His mouth writes checks that his no discernible talent ass can't cash
>>7620202
it's one thing to shitpost when you're not an accomplished novelist, it's another to actually behave that way in the world of people
>>7618392
We wish it was abhorted.
>>7620070
Not a Franzen fan (nor a detractor, I haven't read anything from him), but if Pynchon or another of /lit/'s favorites did this people here would probably call it 'based.'
>>7620304
Pynchon would have elegantly avoided that public fuck-up. Recall that Franzen went well out of his way to be a shitlord.
>>7620306
And I'm saying if one of /lit/'s darlings similarly went out of their way to do that they'd be praised by many of the same posters calling Franzen's comments inappropriate
>>7620304
This
Wait what?
I picked the book because it was recommended by /lit/ and seemed to be well liked at the time here, but that was back in 2012-2013 I can't remember, so maybe the userbase has changed his opinion or there's a vocal part that dislikes him.
Also, I haven't read everything by him or about him but I did like this one for example:
http://booth.butler.edu/2015/02/13/a-conversation-with-jonathan-franzen/
>>7621099
>2012-2013
Fuckinng newfag
I loved the book OP. Whilst other people might have found it a drag, I found it extremely sad in a way.I found it extremely sad when Alfred died for some reason, not so much his death. but the reactions from his family. The patriarch dies and everyone is better off for it.
>>7620070
Lol since when does /lit/ give half a fuck about Oprah? This is clearly just confirmation bias at work.
If it was Bret Easton Ellis or that stupid Milo Yannapolous faggot acting smarmy towards Oprah you faggots would call them "le based" and be posting "B T F O"
>>7620202
Franzen seems very confident and comfortable with his stature as one of America's "serious" social novelists, so when he doesn't act under the unwritten obligation of having to be as modest as possible about it, people just jump to the conclusion that he's just a douchebag. Most people who try to downplay his success are crybabies who can't handle a little banter, and haven't actually read any of his work.
>>7621229
no, wrong, I'd feel the same way about BEE or anyone else, because unlike you I can discern spergtastic behavior when I see it
has nothing to do with oprah, has everything to do with being an unprompted douche
>>7620304
speak for yourself
>>7619916
>just like so many postmodern wonderboys
Are any of his works "post-modern"? Because The Corrections was not.
>>7621330
Oprah's a big girl anon, she doesn't need you defending her. Franzen can say what he wants to about her, he's not an amateur. Hes earned his status.
And besides, what the fuck has Oprah ever done for literature anyway? Mass produce stickers so soccer moms can identify what books to read in some futile attempt to appeal to an authority, or to feel a part of a book club that doesn't even know they exist? Fuck Oprah
