/lit/ - Literature

What is it with alt-lit? Out of all the poetry and short stories that have been thrown at me, I don't think I've ever seen a piece that wasn't completely vapid, lacking in self-awareness, and out of its element. They seem to be entirely concerned with contrived personal notions and idiotic ideas of 21st century romanticism. The prose is about as fucking captivating as a post on livejournal and the poetry is shallow and detached beyond belief.

Sometimes I wonder if the joke's on me and it's all some ironic statement about how meaningless and dead culture has become but then I realize that the scene itself is a huge circlejerk of college dropouts and the shit I've read was written by people fairly far up its social ladder. It seems to be an entire genre populated by assholes who were coddled and deluded by creative writing classes in high school and never received real criticism in their lives. Even my friend, a semi-popular alt-lit poet (apparently), seems fucking confounded when I tell her what I really think of all the short stories and poems she links me to.

So, is it just me or have I just been lurking on the shit side of the alt-lit spectrum? Is there anyone in the scene who isn't a completely boring and banal writer?

inb4 Tao Lin

What's the difference between a pseudo-intellectual and a genuine intellectual, /lit/?

Since you guys porbably know a thing or two about grammar and writing, can you critique my essay for summer school?

Thanks.