Why /lit/ never talks about good books like pic related?
While I was reading it and for about a week afterwards, I could make better decisions under pressure because it was influencing my inner monologue. It was such a fun read too. Has Weir done anything lately?
>>8226355
The book is reasonably interesting purely for the idea of how a person might survive on mars like that, but the actual quality of the writing is extremely low. It's just awkward and full of cliches, and literally every character in the books is identical. Snarky, sarcastic nerd. Literally every character is Leonard from The Big Bang Theory.
>>8226355
because this isn't reddit
you know, i thought the premise seemed cool, i'd have loved a character study type of thing, like psychological effects on someone so completely isolated on mars no less. hell, spice it up with some hallucinations or delusions due to a lack of social interactions...it could have been some top tier lit.
as it is, it's just a guy running into tech problems and solving them over and over again.
>>8227661
I'm glad that wasn't just the movie
>>8227661
Because the author isn't a fiction writer. He's just someone who likes to make up scientific situations like that and plan them out to see how crazy they would get. He literally says this in the special thanks at the back of the book.
>>8227661
What cliches did you see?
I've hated books for characters that are all the same, but never really noticed it in The Martian but I think you have a point. Maybe its because if any terrestrial character had too much depth the reader would recognize how insane it is to spend billions of dollars to save a particular man's life. The story's spell would be broken. I think that was just a happy coincidence, because if Weir had considered that he would have just dropped the China subplot that went nowhere, added something else and it might have held up.
>>8227699
the difference is subtle and largely obvious only to teens and YAs it would seem. Explain why this book is not suitable please, i wish to hear about your tiering system?
>>8227824
it's not on harold bloom's western canon
>>8227743
Ok Alex, I think I'm going to go with "What is science fiction?"
>>8226355
lit is more about literary quality, as in phrasing, nuance and metaphor. Less about interesting plots. It's an academic thing, I guess. I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't extremely good. As an engineer, I had a total nerd-nerd from how accurate he was about the chemistry of things, but there wasn't wittiness, as in actual good writing, to it.
except for one part, actually. When he takes the long journey to the other vessel, he keeps writing in his diary how much he hates those old tv shows that are all he has to watch. and it makes the reader wander, why does he even watch that shit if he is so bored? he can write, or sleep, or whatever.
And if you think about it, you understand what he isn't telling you - He knows if he'll be alone with his thoughts, he'll go mad from the loneliness and horror of being surrounded by nothing but sand and thin, deadly atmosphere. He MUST distract himself, at all costs, from even acknowledging that fact.
I might have been imagining the whole thing, but I found it beautiful either way.
>>8227699
Why are people on here so obsessed with reddit?
>tfw you're gonna be propagating the downfall of literature by selling accessible general/science fiction to an increasingly dead audience
I'm gonna win over the Ready Player One, Martian, Quentin Tarantino-loving audience. Once I'm financially well-off phase two has me shitposting on twitter against Stephen King and Rowling over politics
Hi I'm Mark Twatney and I am fucked really fucking fucked did I mention I am fucked but oh wait no I am not fucked oh I am a fucking botanist how fucking cool is that?!?!? Science, bitch!!! Oh no I am fucked okay I have solved the problem but now I am fucked again I sure do hope the chinks can save me and their shit doesn't disintegrate in midair because it's fucking chink garbage oh boy I am the most desirable hooker because I cannot stop getting fucked
Oh hi guys did I tell you how FUckEd I was?
>>8228512
because they strongly believe that the people you associate yourself with reflects who you are, and that the intellect and "refinement" of those people reflect your own.
as reddit, and r/books is much more popular than /lit/, the visitors range from lit nerds to people who read <1 book a year, this means that much of the discussion on r/books is centered around the most popular books with the most mainstream appeal. on /lit/ there is a lot of discussion around more obscure and less mainstream literature, which the users on this site believe means that they are of superior intellect and refinement than the userbase of reddit.
>>8228952
makes sense though. 4chan is originally a counter coltural site.
it started while anime was still considered weird. /b/ is about trannies, gif is for gore and abuse porn, fit isn't about health at all, but about taking steroids and lifting unnatural weights.
of course lit isn't going to fall far from that hideous tree.
