/lit/ - Literature

/lit/, there was an article shared by an Anon which took apart DFW's writing and compared it to masturbation. I can't find it on google. It was mostly about postmodernism, I think.

And but so...

Can someone please explain the 'This Is Water' commencement speech by David Foster Wallace?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

Which of this asshole's short story collections should I read?

>>4262492

Is there a dog ?

Well /lit/, I'm just back from a typical drunken night out with my friends. However, something occurred to me tonight, and now as I write this I swear to God I'm this close to killing myself.

Everything nowadays is so steeped in irony and parody etc. that it becomes impossible to distinguish any true feelings. The fact that the mere mention of the word "feelings" implies a weakness or "cop out" of some kind sort of proves my pint. Why are true feelings so frowned upon? The word "cool" by definition means an ironic detachment to the emotions within a given circumstance, but what value is "coolness" if the majority of people already feel this way?

Why are "feelings" seen as "gay" in contemporary culture?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJXhKzs0bw

"The insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying."

This is David Foster Wallace, a miserable man that could not write.

Tennis

Why does /lit/ love this guy? He couldn’t think, he couldn't write. There’s no discernible talent.

Was DFW gay?

As I read Infinite Jest he clearly seems to have more sympathetic and dare I see humanistic view of boys and men, portraying them as textured, sympathetically tragic lost souls.

The women seem to merely be a context with which to further explicate the men, and never vice versa.

Is this simply the nature of the "world" of Infinite Jest-- a passive critique of societal conventions-- of do you think it says something about DFW.

I could definitely see him being a homo, in a good way.

And but so

So, I just finished Infinite Jest. Really strong emotional pulls, some moments of out loud laughter, some moments of boredom and wishing DFW would just get on with the plot.

Good:
Every moment with Gately. Did he die at the end? Seemed like it.

I also loved the character of Himself. The extended footnote about all of his movies was hilarious.

Bad:
The goofy names got old pretty quick. I started to hate the sections when it left the drug house and went to the tennis academy.

That is until the very end when Hal realized his plight. His first person narrations of the last 50 pages or so were good.

Hope you guys are up for some tug of war! Just bought the rope.

DFW dug too deep. You don't get to keep your sanity and happiness once you reach a certain level. A certain level of understanding the life and living.

He was on a different level. You don't get to hate on someone who's on a different level. You don't understand him.

Truly a master of the modern literature.

He is simply, unhateable. Sorry.

>>2888735

Embrace the Walrus.

I want to get into literature by reading the masters.

Which master and his/her work should I read? Now nothing impossible like finnegans wake but at least something that is real hard but not impossible.

>>2695833

>>2642129
Did someone say my name?

/lit/ how do I into postmodernism?

Hey guys what's going on here....

Hey guys, what's hangin'?
I'll get around to writing my new book, I'm just a little tied up is all.

http://www.philosophynow.org/issue58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_And_Beyond

Thank me later.

THIS I SAY WITHOUT MALICE, I DON'T MEAN TO BE CALLOUS
BUT Y'ALL CAN SUCK MY PHALLUS CAUSE I'M DAVID FOSTER WALLACE.
AND IN A PLOT TWIST THAT MIGHT HAVE COME FROM VALIS,
I'M BACK TO ASK LETHEM HOW HE LIKES MY OFFICE,
I'M BACK FROM THE GRAVE AND I'M POSTING ON /lit/
TO REMIND YOU THAT I'M STILL THE POSTHUMOUS SHIT:
ADMITTEDLY YOU HAVE NOT HEARD MUCH FROM ME LATELY,
BUT REMEMBER HOW THAT GHOST APPEARS TO DON GATELY?
COME ON, FANBOYS, TIME TO MAKE SOME NOISE
AND APPRECIATE MY ECTOPLASMAL EQUIPOISE
AS THE AUTHOR YOU LOVE MOST
COMES BACK LIKE BANQUO'S GHOST
SO NOW THANKS TO moot I HAVE COME AGAIN TO S.N.O.O.T.
DRESSED IN THIS MADAME-PSYCHOTIC VERBAL SUIT:
WITH MY CHARACTERISTIC LOGORRHEA NOW UNCHECKED BY PAREGORIC
THAT PERMITS ME ONCE AGAIN TO BE PROLIX AND METAPHORIC,
LIKE IN THAT NOVEL WHOSE TITLE ONCE REFERRED TO YORICK.
WITH MY CATEGORIC KIND OF LINGUISTIC SCHLEPPING,
AND WISECRACKING ABOUT TENNIS BUT NOT ABOUT TWELVE-STEPPING,
I APPEAL TO THOSE WHO EARNESTLY READ,
AND TO THOSE WHO NEED
TO BELIEVE A "HIGHER POWER" JUST MEANS ME SMOKING WEED...
WELL THE TRUTH IS THE AFTERLIFE IS COMPLICATED,
AND I AM SLATED TO BE REINCARNATED
AS A LOBSTER OFF THE COAST OF MAINE,
SCHEDULED TO BE EATEN BY JOHN MCCAIN.
BUT EVEN IN DEATH I'M STILL A LITERARY STAR.
THIS BRIEF INTERVIEW IS OVER---NOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE.