/lit/ - Literature

What was his problem?

>>14806065
way ahead of you, bro

>Novels have been, from the beginning, the reading matter of women and children. A so-called sensible adult would not read them with any sense of deep involvement, and certainly would never take them so seriously as to bang the table-top with their fists in heated debate after reading. When people say that they have been edified by a novel, humbled by a novel and so on, well, if they are making a joke of some sort, perhaps the conversation might still be of interest, but if they have truly straightened their collar or bowed their head in the presence of a novel, one can only say that this is the act of a lunatic. For example, in some house or other, the wife may be reading a novel, and the husband, standing in front of the mirror and seeing to his tie before going to work, might ask, “What novels are interesting these days?” to which his wife might reply, “I thought Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls was very interesting, dear.” Fastening the buttons of his waistcoat, the husband then asks, as if humouring a complete imbecile, “What was the plot?” The wife becomes excited and recounts the story in great detail. Moved at her own explanation, she is choked with tears. The husband, pulling on his jacket, says, “Well, that certainly sounds interesting.” Then, that bread-winning husband goes out to work, and in the evening, calling at some salon, speaks thus:

>“If we’re talking about contemporary novels, after all, I’d say it has to be Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

>That is precisely how pitiful novels are. The truth is, if you can pull the wool over the eyes of women and children, you’re already a great success. And there are many ways to trick women and children, whether by affecting an air of solemnity, playing the dandy, lying about your distinguished background, spreading out all your paltry learning in display, or shamelessly reporting the unhappiness of your home without a thought to the consequences; and if it is thereby plain as day that you are attempting to manipulate the sympathies of housewives, it does not matter, because then we have those dunces known as critics, who fill their rice bowls by holding this nonsense up as something to be worshipped – it’s enough to make you sick!

>No doubt this will seem a superfluous addition, but on one occasion, on a night when I was unable to sleep, I read Toson’s Before Dawn from beginning to end. I read until morning, and then I grew tired. So I tossed that heavy book down next to my pillow and, nodding off, I had a dream. It was a dream that was absolutely and in all parts unconnected with the work I had just read. I heard afterwards that Toson had taken ten years to complete that novel.

Why was he so based?

Source: dazai.livejournal.com/1282.html

Why did he do it, lads?

ITT: INTP (i.e. based) writers.

I guess other (less based) MBTI types can post in this thread too.

ITT: Authors or characters who are literally you.