/lit/ - Literature

>>18006939
no

>>18006939
Yes it's essentially 'Pseud: The Novel'

>>18006939
it’s the most reddit book ever written

DFW is the stupid people idea of a genius.America has had great writers: Poe, Faulkner ,Dos Passos, hell even Lovecraft, I dont understand the obsession with mediocrities like DFW and Jonathan Frazen.Is it because he wore a headscarf and commited suicide?

>>18006939
most probably

Whats the best book written by df wallace?

>>18006939
Yes

>>18006939
I don't get why this is memed this hard. I thought it was pretty good

>>18007068
>I thought it was pretty good
OK tell us what it's about

>>18007083
Why don't you just read it and form your own opinions instead of basing them off of those shat around on a Mongolian rock climbing forum?

>>18007068
It genuinely is very good, this board loved it until IJ became the quintessential 'look how smart I am for reading this' book on literature-adjacent editorial blogs. Bashed by the in-crowd, saying you like DFW is akin to outing yourself as a pretentious, white litbro with shit opinions.

It's all imagery and social status, just ignore it and read whatever you want to read.

>W hen the A.C.D.S.S.F.H said he had induced like 250 micrograms of the Ketorolac tromethine (a non-narcotic analgesic) he like talked to the weirdly-familiar-yet-Southernish-sounding girl about Mario II's incomplete gestation and arachnoidal birth

Nah it's not pseudy atall.

>>18007083
Quite a lot of things. On the most superficial level it is a fresco of decadent lifestyles set in a grotesque warped caricature of a not-so-distant future where the worst aspects of American ethos are taken to the extreme
In particular I enjoyed how compared to other hysterical realist novels the numerous digressions into topics secondary to the main "plot" are framed into the AA meetings which ground them and give them contest that plays with the theme of addiction and lack of meaning
The core of the novel I feel is the relationship between the three brothers and their lacking relationship with their father, which mirrors how the dissolution of the role of the pater familias in American culture lead to a directionless generation that seek guidance in institutions or that just gave up and resigned to indulging in pleasure without searching for higher meaning
The main theme is explicit in the conversation between the terrorist and the secret agent, which seem to conclude that maximum freedom will always lead to people choosing pleasure and addiction leading to death

After Das Kapital, yes.

>>18007195
Wrong! Try again, pseud.

>>18007195
>The main theme is explicit in the conversation between the terrorist and the secret agent, which seem to conclude that maximum freedom will always lead to people choosing pleasure and addiction leading to death

>>18007210
Well that's what I got out of it

The main theme in Infinite Jest is that if you use words from random pages in the Thesaurus then your IQ is over 150.

>>18007195
>>18007215
>>18007210
Freedom is the reason America will soon be below 50% white. Give the average man freedom and he will inevitably self-destruct, bringing everyone else down with him.
This is the fundamental reality of the American project.

>>18007083
https://archive.org/details/InfiniteJest/page/n7/mode/2up
Might actually give it a look when I'm finished what I'm reading.

>>18007256
Perhaps, but now you have to argue in favour of an ethnostate and how it would be a preferable outcome worth giving up individual freedoms. And something tells me you won't have much to say beyond niggers are ugly and stupid and violent and I don't like them

Yes, the sooner /lit/ grows out of it the better.

>>18006939
Yes, pseuds in n/lit/ defend it

>>18007098
Best post in this thread.

>>18007256
>only white people are human

big yikes

>>18007098
>this board loved it

wrong

>>18007301
>niggers are ugly and stupid and violent and I don't like them
convinced me desu

>>18006939
>Pseud
Filtered confirmed
>>18007204
>Mommy, communist is bad, in figthing!
Grow a pair, bitch. You will never be able to read Das Kapital, brainlet

Makes me very sad that people who don’t read it just meme it. I loved this book. It was deeply uncomfortable to be called out by a book like I was. I hate that people see all its features as flaws and then get filtered by them. Why would you complain about length, big words, end notes, and non linear story telling? That shit is all fucking cool as hell and should be worn like a badge of pride. We should be gatekeeping lit bros. It’s like telling someone you like Kurosawa films. They fucking rule, but you have to get over the aspect ratio, black and white, subtitled, time piece, three hour long aspects that just completely filter normies. It’s absurd to be that lit has become a bunch of short attention spanned zoomer faggots who can’t even take pride in their shitposting anymore. Remember when the meme trilogy was a real thing? Remember when “lurk moar” was biting and serious advice? Remember when lit actually read books? God, I fucking hate all of you.

>>18008962
Relax, anon. As the times passes people here apparently getting dumber and more edgy about not reading, but talking trashing about books.

Its the same people who fakes read Aquinas or all Aristotle...

>>18006939
Nah, it just tricks pseuds into hating it. This book outs all of you dumb faggots.

>>18008962
I'm fine with most of those gimmicks but fuck me the prose is beyond verbose

>>18009121
What’s wrong with that? He rambles with interesting words and makes never ending sentences interesting. I just don’t understand how things that make the book hard make /lit/ posters sneed. Aren’t we supposed to be the most pretentious pseudo intellectuals?

>>18009136
>Aren’t we supposed to be the most pretentious pseudo intellectuals?
...No?
Idk what you get out of literature but your approach does not seem healthy
Anyway big words don't make a book hard, being needlessly verbose is just a mild annoyance that adds nothing substantive and I think in this case it hinders the work since there seems to be a genuine earnest sentiment behind it compared go say Pynchon who is mostly just shitposting

>>18008934
>>this board loved it
>wrong
Wrong. Maybe when you started browsing back in 2020 for the second Drumpf wars, but in general /lit/ likes DFW and IJ.

>>18006987
it's because we're all brain rotten idiots who grew up in front of television while identifying with cartoon characters. That's basically DFW's thesis, if i read him correctly (i've read other works, miss me with that fat fuck of a book), that american culture is ruled by television. He'd probably say social media, if he was alive today.

>>18008927
Welcome to 4chan. you must be new here.

>>18009176
>Pynchon who is mostly just shitposting
Not only did you get filtered by DFW but you also got filtered by Pynchon too.

>>18007195
I feel like you stole this off of Reddit or originally posted this on Reddit yourself

>>18009212
But I like DFW. Quite a bit too

>>18009237
Yeah I get why it would be weird for you to see a post actually discussing a novel if you browse this board regularly

did anybody figure out the hidden main theme yet?

>>18009237
My bad, let me rephrase it
It's about how based terrorists want to destroy degenerate nigger druggie cucks because jews destroyed America with their entertainment and freedom also there's a tranny

>>18008962
Same. I just received a perma ban today so I’ll use it to fuck off from here forever

>>18006939
CIA psy-op to dumb down the intellectuals

>>18007014
Consider the Lobster

>>18006939


>I'm depressed

Don't be, look at all the head accessories you have!

>Just not doing it for me

Hey don't be like that. No matter what, you will be known as the guy who wrote Infinite Jest

>Hangs Self

>>18008962
fuck off I remember you you said you felt called out by a footnote that said there's people that prefer uppers and there's people that prefer downers

how mental do you have to be to feel deeply affected by this wtf

>>18009668
That was an example asshat. The entire book was like that. I’m pretty mental, faggot.

>>18009831
can you name a better example then?

I fear I simply have to deny the insinuation that it’s disloyal or ungrateful to find oneself troubled by certain quite glaring inconsistencies in this master quote unquote Program you all seem to expect us simply to open up and blindly swallow whole and then walk around glazed with our arms right out straight in front of us parroting, reciting.’ ‘Geoff— Geoffrey, man, I don’t think anybody’s trying to insinuate anything over on you, brother. I know I ain’t trying to.’

No, you simply sit there with your arms crossed nodding with that timeless patience that communicates condescension and judgment without exposing you to responsibility for insinuating anything aloud.’

I found this one deep

>>18006987
> hell even

>>18006939
I think it's good :)

>>18009067
This. It’s a reverse-psychological pseud filter, as it’s the perfect scapegoat for pseuds to shit on as a “pseud” book that they think they’re somehow better than. Its quirks and media attention make it an easy target, and only a pseud would have let stupid stuff like that cloud their judgement of a book they’ll never read.

It’s not some ultra-masterpiece or something, but it’s a genuinely good, timely, and unique work of fiction that deserves the attention it gets.

>>18009660
kek

>>18009906
I’ve had trouble with drinking and uppers so every AA scene feels like the meeting I never went to. The bits about how awful hangovers are. The whole scene of the guy waiting for drug deliveries. The super competitive education system creating isolation and such hits close when I was in law school. I also used to play tennis. My addiction to entertainment and my search for post ironic truth. I’m sorry it’s so vague and I don’t have the book with me right now. But when I say I felt a lot from the book, I’m being serious, but it’s hard to really put into words.

bros i just checked this book out and didnt realize it was so hueg. first pages kind of suck, like its gonna be some story about some snowflake smarty pants. those kind of books are boring because im not a teenager anymore.

>>18007014
Oblivion>consider the lobster>pale king>supposedly fun thing>Infinite Jest>broom of the system>girl with curious hair>both flesh and not>brief interviews>signifying rap

>>18007195
Fuck your gloom and doom. Given freedom people will choose pleasure and addiction? Wrong. Napoleon had the greatest freedom to do anything he ever wanted. He never devolved.

Depends on what you want from life. Most addicts do recover, while some don't. And those who recover are rarely proud of their past actions. Human nature is not solely driven by pleasure as Freud or DFW or you interpret it.

USA is still the biggest power in the world. Yes, it has problems, but its biggest strength is still political and social freedom.

There is no artistic merit in saying we are doomed and alienated. That is just the sort of casual lazy misunderstanding and nihilistic attitude that makes DFW a pretty mediocre writer. Compared to someone like Pynchon or even Nietzsche, who is a literal God compared to DFW.

Was DFW was the proto-MFA writer?

>>18011550
>Fuck your gloom and doom
I said what the book is about, not what I think dumb faggot. And while those conversations pose the question they don't give a definitive answer, just offer some food for thought
>Yes, it has problems
Which are worth exploring to better yourself, which the book does. While you'd rather plug your ears and shout USA USA
>Most addicts do recover, while some don't. And those who recover are rarely proud of their past actions
Correct. The book agrees with you. The AA association is the only structure portrayed in a positive light and while a lot of the addict characters refuse to engage with what they consider to be empty platitudes their system is the only one that offers some comfort and ask them to believe in something higher than hedonistic pleasure and self destructive behaviors
Read the fucking book you dumb faggot

>>18011499
It's not what it's about, and that character is consistently portrayed as being full of shit and an asshole. I'd you can stomach the prose I'd say it's worth a read

>>18006939
DFW was almost as interesting as Paulo Coelho or whatever that bald Brazilian name was

>>18007083
>OK tell us what it's about
Why? You haven't read it. Neither has anyone else on /lit/. This isn't a board to go if you read.

>>18013472
you have very poor vocabulary

>>18014779
I'm doing my best with my English skills

You all complain about reddit but this kind of herd behaviour is exactly what is shit in the internet
It is a great book, if you don't like it or understand it doesnt have to be bad but I guess thats too much for most of you to consider

>>18013539
Wrong. Shut the fuck up, pseud.

>>18014939
Also wrong.

>>18009193
>us
You must go back

>>18009660
He ties a bandana like a fag

Don Gately is the only interesting main character
>Spends the latter part of the novel in a coma

The wheelchair assassins were the dumbest fucking plotline in any major novel. I thought they were one of Himselfs films at first because it was so fucking stupid. A wheelchair assassin makes no logical sense

>>18015603
Where you on board with the giant babies and radioactive garbage being brought to Canada via catapults?

>>18013483
im barely into it. i read more last night and got into the part where the guys waiting for weed. somehow that was really interesting and i felt like i could read about this guy forever. im dying to know whether he gets the weed and what happens if/when he smokes. good writing id say to make me feel like that.

>>18007088
WHOA NIGGA do you really expect an infinitely long book to promise you worth that you can judge AFTER you have sacrificed countless hours to judging it?

>>18014779
>>18007210
>>18007215
>>18009237
Try taking part in discussions genuinely, it's actually pretty fun!

>>18016011
Do you know where you are?

>>18007098
based
>>18008934
>this board loved it
true, I can still remember it very well, it was 2019. and there wasn't a hint of irony in the air.

the truth is, most haven't read it because it has a bad reputation and is considered a meme book. but as soon as some start making fun of a book, they all jump on the boat and think they have safe ground under their feet. of course, that doesn't apply to everyone, but I would say that half of the people on this board think and act like that.

and the other half are geniuses, of course, otherwise I wouldn't be here.

>>18015808
While that character isn't really important, if you liked the way that section felt and read then you'll enjoy the rest of the book. The only parts that really are a filter because of the level of cringe are the ebonics section, which, aren't even very good ebonics for the 90s, let alone modern times. It hurts to read, but the good thing is that there's only about 3 or so of those sections in the whole book. The rest of the novel is about a handful of characters and living inside their mind while the plot doesn't happen, just like that section about the dude waiting for weed. It's like DFW really enjoyed the calm before the storm and wanted to encapsulated the psychological stillness of the air before the world turns to chaos.

No, that would be Ulysses

>>18015657
I can deal with radioactive garbage being catapaulted and giant fans blowing away pollution but I figured the giant malformed babies were more of a propaganda thing than something literal

>>18009193
likes, sure, but loves....

>>18006939
None of these books are even that bad, and if these are truly the worst you've read then I envy you.

The real answer is George Bataille's Story of the Eye. It's an absolutely terrible piss fetish story filled with hamfisted references to other people's ideas (mostly Freud).
Do any of these references expand or reframe these ideas in an interesting way? No. They are literally just references.
>"broo... the young matador killed the old bull and gave the chick its balls... but then the younger bull killed the matador by stabbing him through HIS balls... wowzers :0 XD"
>"omg, they had sex at the Don Juan church????" XD XD XD ZOMG!1!!
And that isn't even getting into the actual storytelling; it's complete dog shit. Everything that happens on this book is a series of events with very little continuity. There is zero setup or payoff at any point in the story, which causes this 50 page novella full of absurd sex fantasies to be astoundingly dull.

In short, it's Rogue One for midwits; bad storytelling kept afloat by references to things you already know.

>>18017797
>Filtered by literary smut
mysides.jpg

>>18017866
> "Uh... ummm... f-filtered!"
Point proven.

>>18018017
You wish. Cope.