/lit/ - Literature

>>18036001
>The Goldfinch
Tartt describes the subject of the book, the painting of the goldfinch, as a mix of highly detailed and fussy brushstrokes with more open and freer methods. She says there's a joke at the center of great art such as The Goldfinch. Her writing is massively fussy. Each sentence is a well-constructed sentence, but she permitted herself, far too many uninteresting ones. There are many scenes you simply cannot believe are still going on. And there is no apparent joke in the book, unless its that you didn't skim.

Then there's Theo, the main character. She transforms him from someone we share concerns with, someone we find interesting and intelligent, into a simpering vessel of self-loathing. The entire scenario of the book, the possession of a stolen painting and his efforts to maintain this as a secret, feels so flimsy for even the flaccid narrator. His journey into illicit sales of fine furnishings is also rife with logical holes. His mentor makes the stuff and then condemns him for selling it? He must repurchase it all? Hands are wrung and lives are in the balance?

But I do love the Boris. I did not like, however, her manipulation of the story with Boris' theft of the painting. She signals it at the time of the theft and then, within a story in which every other detail, down to dust motes and scratches on furniture is raised to abject fussiness, weirdly makes this something Theo does not discover until much, much later. Handled very clumsily

That said I read the whole thing. It does contain a world. The world tumbles along as world's do - and this Tartt did well. But the story started dying, perhaps at the theft of the painting by Boris, and continued to wilt and die progressively. The end felt like a slow death, a grinding to a halt

>The Secret History
The Secret History delves into deep thoughts: the need to be part of a group, an elite, no matter the consequences; where we should place the boundaries of intellectual curiosity; trust in a leader and the impacts of that trust. Ultimately, however, the book asks interesting questions but fails to find answers, or even to pursue the questions too far down the rabbit hole. Sometimes the answer is that there are no answers, but the story does not seem to be making that case. Tartt’s narrative makes the reader think—but not too hard. Her writing is at times pensive, dark, and intense, but I never found the story suspenseful or mysterious. There are no unpredictable twists, and the breadcrumbs are easy to find. That’s not a criticism; this type of story thrives in exploring events, not in keeping the reader guessing. But I wanted the exploration to go deeper, to find something real among the characters’ choices. The Secret History is a worthwhile read; it is intelligent and thought-provoking. But it falls short in trying to be more than a series of events occurring at a small college among a smaller group of students. It reaches out but never lands upon what it seeks

>>17880449
Yeah, there’s like another one with the creator of undertale cucking some Japanese artist when he talked with marine. It was pretty based.

I will say that there is unfortunately a subsection of anons on this board who use literature as a form of distinction. When they see people who watch what they consider a low-culture—or even degenerate—for of media like anime, it devalues their own position of perceived superiority as someone who participates in high-culture literature or philosophy. In essence, they don't like the idea that "peers" with "manchildren". These poseurs can be readily identified by their love of renaissance/baroque/counter-reformation/neo-classical statues and romantic-era paintings in the OP they make, in their quest to LARP as aristocrats.

>>17826661
>What would you say is the most fundamental philosophical question?
On /lit/? I will say that there is unfortunately a subsection of anons on this board who use literature as a form of distinction. When they see people who watch what they consider a low-culture—or even degenerate—for of media like anime, it devalues their own position of perceived superiority as someone who participates in high-culture literature or philosophy. In essence, they don't like the idea that "peers" with "manchildren". These poseurs can be readily identified by their love of renaissance/baroque/counter-reformation/neo-classical statues and romantic-era paintings in the OP they make, in their quest to LARP as aristocrats.