Why do some fiction writers purposefully write books that are hard to understand?

>>8183062

In the words of GBS, why not?

>>8183062
Because casuals ruin everything.

Seriously dude?

I thought he did that on purpose to try and relate to his schizophrenic daughter?

Often to attempt to disguise a lack of substance (as is the case with Faulkner, for example), others for ideological reasons, sometimes because the complexity is part of the essence of the book (as is the case with Ulysses).

to distract us from the fact that people are evil and life is meaningless?

Finnegans Wake isn't hard to understand. It's impossible to understand, because there's nothing TO understand. It's written in dream language. Whatever you think is happening is. That's all there is to it, little plebbies.