/lit/ - Literature

that may be a bit of an overstatement but he’s excellent. one of americas all time greats

>best at frivolous juvenilia
high praise

ye

>>11444104
I don't think anyone is debating this. I like him more than Faulkner, and he's in my top five prose stylists

>>11444104
>Punctuation is bad
>I had to change my name because people laughed at me for being named Charlie McCarthy
>run-on sentences are good
that's nice OP

>>11444104
no argument there

>>11444209
Who else is in your top 5?

>>11444184
not many people talk about how good the beginning is

>>11445367
Mann, Joyce, Proust, Wallace

>>11445391
wallace above ruggles

sure

>>11444104
Yep, my favourite writer.

>>11445396
They're not very similar so I don't see your point

>>11445400
a ham sandwich and a dogshit aren't very similar but one is clearly preferable to eat

>>11445407
why are Pynchon fans so insecure about Wallace?

>>11445421
it's less about pynchon and more about you putting wallace together with those four other names

>>11445429
If it's less about Pynchon why did you bring him up in a comparison with Wallace?

>>11445435
Because that's a name that would be more fitting in that group. I could just as easily have mentioned Sebald, DeLillo, Melville, or anyone else

>>11445443
Okay well I think Wallace is better than those writers. What part of MY top five are you
not understanding?

>>11445446
I was just thinking that if you liked Joyce and Proust then you would be able to discern them from the likes of Wallace.

The man walked into the tienda adjacent to the burnt-out husk of an Iglesia such that it appeared to be the vestiges of a single structure partially ruinated by a cruel and atheistic Heavenly Overseer who had in His self-loathing deigned to elevate the commerce of mortals to a level of sanctity that dwarfed His own.

The man sat down at the counter and ordered frijoles and coffee and also tortillas which he dipped into the coffee and after dipping the tortillas into the coffee became embarrassed because he had meant to dip the tortillas into the frijoles instead but could not bear to admit to the Mejicanos in the tienda that he had committed such a mistake as God Himself had committed in His ineffable wisdom to seed this Earth with humanity which having been blessedly given dominion over that realm formerly administered over by God had with the rapacity of Los Perros Diabolos commenced to ravishing it with the boundless appetite of some primeval and unearthly monster.

One of the men at the counter of the tienda said Senor por que you are dipping your tortillas in your cafecito amigo? And the man bowed his head as might a Jesuit priest in communion with such a force as had wrought tortillas from the heavenly emptiness and the man said shut your fucking hole and the other man said si senor and then the man went outside and shot a burro and when yet another man who was neither the man who had shot the burro nor the man inside the tienda who had previously accosted the man for his mistake in tortilla etiquette questioned his man who had shot the burro on his spiritual motivations for shooting a burro the man explained to this burro-concerned third man that the world that God had created and then forsook much in the same way we might forsake coffee that had been compromised with an ill-chosen dip of a tortilla is a cruel and merciless world in which the senseless and thoughtless and furthermore corazonless murder of burros was commonplace and inexplicable yet it was humanity's compulsion to the question the necessity of such inevitable acts of transgression against all that was sacred and pure in this world that made the human race worth saving in the eyes of the Lord and so saying the man commended the other man for his compassion towards the burro and then shot the man for having dared question his God-given right to exterminate said burro. The man dipped the burro in frijoles and drank coffee from a cup made from trotillas and then fried an egg on top of a second burro which he shot and set aflame as his own soul might never be aflame with such passions that might drive a man to sacrifice his own life in defense of a burro's honor.

The frijoles squatted.

>>11445456
Idk? My favorite kind of writing is psychological and Wallace does that a lot better than many writers.

>>11445175
Grammar isn't an absolute thing, it's just meant to help the reader in understanding what the author is trying to express. He does a great job, everything flows naturally and nothing is left to doubt that wasn't intended that way. Corncob McCarthy might have his faults, but grammar isn't one of them.

>>11445469
alright then

>>11445469
if you like psychological stuff, have you read any Sebald? Austerlitz is amazing.

>>11445464
is this your writing? Qué mierdas am I seeing?
when's the book coming out, vaquero?

>>11445464
10/10 way better than the french one

>>11445464

>>11444184
This imagery is excellent

>>11445579
the whole thing made me never want to write again, it's that good.

>>11445464
this is the best post /lit/ has had in months

>>11445464
Bravo

>>11444184
One of my favorite openings.

>>11445391
wew, i don't understand this Wallace wank. he's not remotely comparable to the other four.

>cuck mccunty
kek

>>11444104
In recent history yes, but go backwards 50 years and you have Kafka, Proust, and Joyce, all three of which are much more likely to be permanent figures in the canon than McCarthy.

>>11445788
>comparing McCarthy to anyone but Faulkner or Hemingway

>>11445367
Actual OP
>Melville
>Joyce
>Nabokov
>Beckett

>>11444104
FUCKING RETARDS

>>11444104
Who is this?

One of the greatest now alive, for sure. Anyone who wishes to deny it is nothing but a hard-headed contrarian.

>>11444184
His imagery is so vivid and terse. People who complain about how simple his language is ignore how excellent it is at painting a scene.

>>11444184
Comma splice in the second sentence. Remind me: why do people read this guy again?

>>11447979
It's a correct use of a comma splice. Consider his options:

>Uses a period (.)
Makes the rhythm of the sentences seem too abrupt when they're supposed to feel flowing. It also makes them seem like separate ideas when the descriptions are supposed to be conjoined.

>Use a semicolon (;)
Lol. Only undergrads would unironically do this.

>Use an em dash (--)
Best possibility of the three, but depending on your interpretation, could be rhythm breaking. I see the em dash as somewhere between a period and semicolon in terms of stoppage and it also adds emphasis to what follows, almost like a colon.

The comma splice was a good stylistic choice here.

>>11444184
>Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves.

literally makes no sense

>>11448037
>turned fields
Farming term for tilled fields

>yet a few last wolves
Meaning there are a few wolves who are remaining, implying they will disappear later as the season gets colder.

>>11448037
snow covered fields are in front of woods with a decreasing wolf population

>>11445443
>DeLillo

>>11448042
>>11448062
ah, it's "darker woods beyond, that harbor yet a few last wolves", not "dark woods beyond that harbor, yet a few last wolves". this is not uncharacteristic of mccarthy's garden path garbage.

>>11448398
esl scum, do not post again

>>11444104
Malcolm McDowell?

>>11444104
You're not wrong. Definitely one of the greatest living American writers.

>>11444184
Beautiful.