/lit/ - Literature

Blocks your path

>>21692210

I read this and enjoyed it. I didn't think it was anything special, but I don't think Wolfe is a hack either. I legitimately don't understand what makes this book so polarizing here.

Finished book of the new sun series. I listened to it on Audible instead of read it (speed read). I got a lot of it but I don't understand what happened after the boy died in the third book and the two headed dude? Also I was kinda bummed about the lack of resolution concerning dork and agia overall the highs of the series were great but how did that all happen in a few months ?

I greatly enjoyed reading this, can we have a thread about it?

I pray ever day this never gets adapted

>>19262514
>Did I get memed into reading bakker?
I'm sorry to say this but yes, you did. We all did. Pic related is no meme though.

I just finished reading this. I found it highly enjoyable.
It has come to my attention that this book has a reputation of being challenging to read. Why is that? Each part took me 3-4 days to read and I never found it difficult at all.

I like these books because they expand your vocabulary. My suggestion goes to, of course, Gene Wolfe.

Is it really on the same level as Lord of the Rings though?

>>10020356
get ready homo

Book of the New Sun question....


So i'm randomly going through BTNS threads because I can't remember what happens to Jonas, and I stumble upon a theory that Severian raped Jolenta and that he's generally an unreliable narrator because all the female character swoon at him.

WHAT.THE.FUCK


I didn't get that impression at all, I just assumed Servenian was just super ripped and naturally charming. I'm 99% certain the Jolenta fling was consensual as I remember her inviting him to go for a walk and it's not like she acted out of character after the incident


Did all that just fly over my head? Am I truly a pleb?

>>9701231
is is written for kids? Is it really gay like Game of Thrones? If no I'll give it a go

>>9701234
yes I unironically have diagnosed brain damage. I'm worried being intelligent before this masks a lot of the symptoms, but doctor still thinks it's only mild from the brain scan.

I'll read your ones if anon's memeing me with Book of the New Sun

>>9701246
kek

why have you not read Gene Wolfe yet, /lit/?

The Shadow of the Torturer is hands down, the worst fantasy book i read in last 2 years, and i read some crappy stuff

I have never saw a book that has no purpose no point, no structure, no overarching plot no nothing, but here, here i saw an author shit out a, incoherent narrative as he went along.

Shit happens: the book

Fuck who ever told me to check it out.
If rest of Wolfe books are just as bad i will be a happy man if i never have any contact with anything done by him again.

>>9363361
No.

>dude we fight with flowers and some hoes appear
>i have told you that i am christ
really? how did you meme me into reading this?

>>9241098
BITCH, PLEASE

>>9185300

>>8912098

what do you think about Book of the New Meme?

>>7870040

pic related

>>7132381
>I don't know why Pynchon gets the "literary" brand if other great genre writers like Gene Wolfe don't.

because pynchon doesn't get book covers that look like this lol

I really liked the beginning of the book. The idea of the main character brought up as a torturer in a sort of guild of torturers, except all the members were children that were 'donated' to the guild. Unusual, interesting, etc. BUT while the initial idea was great, the rest fails miserably. Firstly, there is nothing unique to the torturer's guild. There isn't discussion of guilt, or how it becomes part of the every day, or a blatant enjoyment of it, etc. The guild is very dull. By contrast the brief visit, in the beginning of the book, that the main character makes to the librarian guild is quite well done, but short. Then on throughout the first half of the entire series, at least as far as I could get, there are many events that happen with no real interweaving them into the story. They just happen. And Severian is always agile, prepared, unshakeable, etc. It makes me wonder if the author wanted to be the main character, like wanting to be Superman or Batman.

Also, the women in this book are entirely submissive, docile, failures at scheming, and breasts and thighs. All there for the main character's copulation any time he chooses, and they all love him and adore him...just because.

I've read the interpretation that in this being the main character's recounting of his life, he is lying to you in this 'recounting'. Unless there's some explicit indication of this, whether or not he is lying is debatable at best. Severian's 'lies' are not checkable since this is fiction. It is not the same thing as an autobiography of someone real so that fact checking can be done to some degree. Severian can be an awful, evil, vile person, but without variation in other characters, context, etc(which there isn't). it doesn't matter if he's lying. The women remain docile, pathetic, meat, etc. Reminds me of why I couldn't finish To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Farmer.

Lastly, the author's almost unrelenting use of archaic words is not interesting or done well. He just throws them in there. I think its sort of a nod to people who know them all, that if you do you're 'in the club.' Not to mention there all not from a certain part of the world from a certain time period. They're very inconsistent.