/lit/ - Literature

>>9794378
The solution is in the realisation of the problem. You have already realised the problem. Redirect your efforts to quashing it. It is not simple nor easy, but if your goal means something to you, you will do it. Best of luck, you self-deprecating depressive.

>>9793760
But aren't such evolutions in styles inevitably dead ends too?

>>9794276
>Never read his works. What should I should I read?
This is a bad sentence because of its ambiguity. I, like almost everyone else, took "read" to be in the past tense, instead of the imperative. Maybe you should read Hemingway; he might teach you a thing or two about constructing a sentence.

>I guess you meant ''i have never readed''
The past tense of read is read, not "readed". Your thread is bad because if we should not read Hemingway, we could literally cite any other book from any author in history. The ambiguity upon ambiguity is your fault. Read a dictionary or a style manual or go for an English class.

>>9794076
I have an alternate suggestion. Read the Art of Fiction interviews by the Paris Review. They have interviewed writers over the past century, and they have many fine insights into writing. Read Hemingway's, Nabokov's, Vonnegut's, and anyone else whom you recognise.

As for books, Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut is a good book to observe. Watch for his pacing and the specific words he uses, and how he is able to convey a idea through language.

>>9793826
I disagree with the pacing because we are thrown into the thick of things within the first few paragraphs. There can be minor edits here and there. But of course, I have higher standards for prose, and so this critique may not help so much. It just seems that there's no grip on the pacing, and the story is let to run loose. But of course, what I'm saying depends on how you want to tell the story.

>>9794219
I would advise against starting with The Old Man the Sea, and instead, read The Sun Also Rises after reading A Moveable Feast. This is because TOMATS is far into his body of work, and it's best to understand the man before his reading his prose. Not that his prose can't stand by itself.

>>9794207
A Moveable Feast. Definitely read A Moveable Feast first. This is for several reasons. One is that it is non-fiction, and you'll have a portrait of Paris in the 1920s. Second it's well-written, and it's an intimate reminiscence of Hemingway's youth. Third is that it's not a novel, but a memoir, so you can read it just to have a feel for his style and sensibilities.

The best works on Project Gutenberg will likely be the best works anywhere else. Search up well-regarded literature and try your luck.

>>9793425
An artificial man, if he is a cyborg, might want to be human. But that is a cliche. An artificial man, if he is sentient, will likely question his reasons for existence, and why he was created, and if he finds no reason, then he must confront his existential dilemma, and in doing so, reaffirms that he is alive, if not human.

>>9793417
This thread can't be serious. You come to /lit/ and expect people not to know Gertrude Stein.

>>9792347
Then you are setting arbitrary limits on yourself and what you might find. Why 220 pages? Why not 215 pages? Why not 230 pages? They're all arbitrary limits. At least extend it to 350 pages because many great books are within that range. A great book to read is Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It sits at around 350 pages depending on the version. I know you mention "contemporary" but if a contemporary book had the same quality as Joyce's prose, then you'd be doing yourself a poor favour.

>Tell me what I need to know, and then go away.
The world, and the writers in it, owe you nothing. If there's one thing you need to know, it's to be less self-centred.

>>9790612
sandcastles, an idea that could differentiate your novel from others is the element of parody or self-awareness. Where it could be a simple, shallow book about concepts and storylines that have been beaten to death, it could also be a parody of that sort of writing itself. It might get you at some attention through concept at least.

>>9793421
I wouldn't call it high concept. It's pure fantasy even within the genre of fantasy. That being said, it could be one hell of a tale.

>>9793399
Postmodern literature, or postmodern thought, is often concerned with the dethroning of the Western model in favour of multicultural narratives, irrespective of aesthetic merit. They see aesthetic merit, as we know it, to be mere narratives propounded by Western history, and hence, should lose their relevancy in favour of under-privileged minority systems and views. That is why the Western Canon is being challenged.

The grand conspiracy, so to speak, is that the Jews were the forerunners of postmodernism because of their influence in the ideas of Marxism and the Frankfurt School, and are said to have taken control of academia to accelerate the dethroning of the Western Tradition.

The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky

>>9793388
>oh sweet jesus, this is by NO means deep, meaningful, or symbolic in the slightest. it's just entertaining. shallow fun
oh thank god I thought you were setting yourself up for a long road to ruin. Glad to know you are consciously writing such prose. I've known others who were serious with such ideas. At least you know that its shallow. Whether you become published or not will depend on the quality of your writing then. Self-publishing is cheaper and more profitable for each copy sold but your exposure may be next-to-nothing. A publisher deal will definitely make you more prominent but whether your book will return on its investment is another matter.

>>9792969
At least we can agree that it was playwrights who came after Shakespeare.

>>9793353
>Except in Proteus
Are you implying that because Dedalus speaks about Paris in one episode, the book automatically has Parisian overtones? Dedalus is but one character in the book, and it is a large book. I am not saying that Anon is right, but that perhaps your criteria for a book having Parisian overtones should be more than one episode/chapter.

>>9791524
If you read Ulysses once, you would know that it is about Dublin, and Dublin alone. Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is more relevant to Paris than both Joyce, who wasn't even writing about Paris, and Proust, who came from an earlier Paris.

>>9793224
>>9793289
>magical female luchadora who is the last wrestler on a post-apocalyptic earth
I didn't think you were serious, until I sat back and read it again. What you're writing is genre fiction at its lowest, and because I have not read your writing, I cannot necessarily say that it is bad or good. However, on premise alone, it appears to be one of those discount pile novels with the ugly, big font size covers. If this is what you want to write, then I wish you the best of luck. Sincerely.

However, as someone who has read Joyce, Fitzgerald, Beckett, Hemingway, and all the other big names in fiction, I do not think that your work will last, nor will it be of great literary merit. And that is fine if you do not wish it to be so, but have no illusions about what you're writing. I would be happy to help review your book but this is my present stance.

>>9783183
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>>9784164
Since no one bothers to even provide the source of these comics, despite praise for them, here it is: http://www.supermegacomics.com/index.php

>>9791062
There is no inherent merit to reading older literature if only because of their age. That being said, Beowulf is the oldest I have read, and many lines remain resonant today for reasons that I am sure the artist himself could not have envisioned.

>>9793161
Postmodernism is skepticism of meta-narratives and the notion of objective morality and even faith in human reason and potential. I am not wrong in describing postmodernism as questioning.

The erosion of aesthetic value in favour of cultural representation is not Modernist. It is Postmodernist, and it is the reason for the decrying of the Western Canon in Ivy League universities.

>>9790985
Lang Leav's Sad Girls is nowhere near the god-tier. This thread must be a joke if you truly believe so. Women such as Djuna Barnes, George Eliot, or even early Toni Morrison are leagues above Lang Leav.