/lit/ - Literature

The ESL anon is immunized against all dangers: one may call him a scoundrel, parasite, swindler, profiteer, it all runs off him like water off a raincoat. But call him an ESL anon and you will be astonished at how he recoils, how injured he is, how he suddenly shrinks back: “I’ve been found out.”

How does one become truly fluent in a different language after the elasticity of youth wears out?

>>20888834

Alright Weedman, thanks for the deprecated copy. I finished reading Egregore and I have to say, I rank this book up with Eggplant and The Last Free Man. This is some of /wg/'s best. Now I don't know how this is to some other horror books because I don't read much horror lately and in my time was more into the weird fiction brand of horror before it became a full fledged genre.
There were a couple turns of phrase I found rough around the edges but the shape of the story I can only describe with one word: alarming. There is this unease that swings into alarm as the situation unfolds and I think you unpacked it quite well considering it the limitation of setting and characters. Also when I saw "the First Words" and thought "wait that wasn't in the Contents section"...I shit bricks. I don't know if you intended that. But it scared the hell out of me for some reason.
I'm gonna write up a little review on Goodreads / Amazon for you. Thanks again, bwo.

>>20736897
>reading Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
>focused on kids
>adult in library figures everything out from old town records
>carnival of that shows up every October every certain number of years
>Dad, but why do they do it, what fuels the carnival?
> Fear and pain
Are both IT and this story both hinting at a folktale that I can't recall and I'm just retarded?

>>20742452
wtf?

>>20674410
I don't have one yet, I'm editing my novel now before beta reading, then more editing, copyediting, proofreading, then a submission to an agent with the letter. I could tout my managerial experience at work and all my other degrees but it's not writing related so I haven't heard if that is really helpful to my bio. I might try throwing some of my short stories at journals in the meantime just to show that I'm serious.

>>20617972
I don't know which came first but the success of "grit lit" and horror of this nature has been going on for decades and Harry Crews made a big splash in 1968 and into the 70s to the point writers outside of America are writing the genre. I still read some of it, but it's definitely repulsive. I prefer something a bit more restrained even if there's something bad going on.

>>20089120
>its a guy

>>19295394
You're right. The warning I mentioned is generally from writers who eschew contrivance. Instead they advocate discovery from the subconscious. There's some truth to the subconscious aspect, it's allowed me to learn more about how I felt about my theses. What I take issue with is the idea that theses in stories are disingenuous. Our subconscious sublimates philosophy anyways, so why not try to pin it down some and explore it from there?

>>19042795
See
>>19025004
Avoid blow-by-blow fight scenes as much as you can. It has no impact and just slows the scene down.

>>17437320
>>17437354
>>17437378

The thing about this is weird, but I've finally figured it out.
In the same way H.P. Lovecraft is only truly scary if you're an early 20th century guy with the same racial hangups (oh no an italian i'm going insane, help me niggerman), People Mover might only work if you're from that specific modern strain of mormonism that for some reason people in the outer-SLC region are.

Give me a few years and I’ll post my shelf. I just have a small collection of sci fi novels and a few philosophy books

Rec me some black authors who don't write about being black
>inb4 Dumas
>inb4 Baldwin