/lit/ - Literature

>slogging through all that trash
No need to make a martyr of yourself

>>19707784
As long as you give honest reviews, not delusional or self-referential ones (ie. this book fits very nicely within the 4chan perspective, or something), then I suppose it's a good endeavour.
I also received Eggplant from the author and promised to provide feedback once I get around to reading it.

>>19707800
I am currently an unironic Waldunchad. I am saving L'Academie for last because it seems like the best. I avoided reading too many excerpts back when it was a hot topic because I legit didn't want spoilers. He seems like a great kid and I have a lot of faith that his career will develop into something genuinely impressive. Gotta a lot of choice words for you guys, regarding your treatment of Waldun.

>>19707784
I've posted literally 100s of short form reviews, a single post full post usually, on 4chan. Do it if you want to, or don't. People write long-form reviews for free on Goodreads and other sites all the time. From how you are describing it though, you shouldn't do it. It will be thankless, uncompensated, unappreciated, and not worth your time relative to other stuff you could be doing. That's life. Deal with it or don't.

>>19707784
Waldun is not a /lit/ selfpub, and if you think he is you truly don't understand the Waldunian disposition. He would never associate himself with this shithole nor will he given he genuinely believes he is a serious writer. All waldunposting is organic, the one genuine meme writer. The rest are faggots who obviously shill their gay little books. Do NOT compare the Don Wal to them.

>>19707821
Like I said, I am hoping to build interest in my own release (The Savage Green, a retelling of Dante's Inferno set in the Florida Panhandle). It's pointless just to try and build a circlejerking hypetrain because no one ever fucking buys it. That being said, I'm not interested in humiliating or embarrassing anyone, and it is my sincere hope that I can find something to like about all of these books.

Its very common for aspiring 4chan authors to talk a big game about "cultivating a community of outsider artists" or whatever but none of them are willing to do any actual work to promote anyone but themselves. It's shitty and dishonest and selfish and I'm fucking sick and tired of it. They beg for sales and memes and reviews but they refuse to make an effort on behalf of anyone but themselves. I believe in the value of alternative literature and I believe in 4chan, and its terrible that the halfway-decent authors get drowned out by a sea of screaming shills who can't accept our opinions on their work.

Just for a preview, there isn't much of Eggplant to really connect it to 4chan, but it does make an excellent discussion point for selfpubs on /lit/ and Ogden Nesmer's attitude towards self-promotion is something to admire and imitate. As for the book itself: if you like JG Ballard, you will absolutely find a lot to like about Eggplant. There are flaws, but you'll have to wait for the finalized review to hear about them.

>>19707784
You forgot one

>>19707784
The best self-publish of 2021 was just published a few weeks ago. The Last Psychiatrist's Sadly, Porn.

This is a good thread and a good endeavor.
desu I get sick of newfags shilling their 1488 schizobabble every month to try and appeal to le ebin 4chan bullshit, to see writers try something inventive and not just their own retarded tryhard racist shit is cool
Did you get the physical for Eggplant? I’m honestly thinking about buying a copy just for the cover.

>>19708085
I love the cover, great art style!

>>19707976
>I am hoping to build interest in my own release
Your future opinions have now been invalidated and discarded.

>>19708191
This meant for >>19707976

>>19707976
Keep in mind, the people who are making art, especially the white guys, are living through perhaps the most individualistic and selfish times imaginable. There is next to zero camaraderie in today's society and even if you consciously WANT to help other people, we are subconsciously adapted to our inner boomerist and actively crab-in-bucket each other. You can look at other races, other ethnic groups, religions, sexual groups, and they align themselves in ways to uplift their own kind. Writing is naturally an isolated profession, add on top of that the social engineering to make us naturally dislike each other, and you have the state of modern /lit/ you see today where imposters get book deals and there is little to no organic culture reflected in writing.

The entire social fishtank is poisoned to work against the type of person who would frequent a website like 4chan.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/acclaimed-author-esi-edugyan-to-deliver-2021-massey-lectures-on-art-and-race-1.5965136

Once I get my shit together, I'd like to print a book with a bunch of /lit/ writer's stories in it. Another anon suggested that brilliant idea to me and I'd like to follow through with it, however, my finances are at an all-time low and due to the vaccine mandate bullshit, there is next to zero work available. I don't think anyone WANT to shill here per se, but as outcasts of society, we have very little in the way of platforms.

Call of F Gardner is amazing

>>19707956
Dol Wal is literally in Gardner’s book and so is Butterfly lmao

>>19708325
Gentleman Frank Gardner is the OG /lit/ meme king

>>19708318
>>19708325
>>19708341
Perfect example of what has to be overcome if there is ever going to be serious support for work that comes out of /lit/. This is blatant shilling, grifting, and just plain stupid writing.

>>19708318
>>19708325
No fucking way. The absolute madman

What about The Shitckickers? Jason Bryan is a great author! Spare Change by the Unreal Press was excellent as well. Looking forward to whatever they have coming next. Have not yet read the latest F Gardner but it sounds like a masterpiece. Call of the Crocodile was superb.

>>19708375
How is it stupid writing?

What if Frank doesn't care about being a NYT best seller? Like seriously, we all have our own reasons for writing. I'm one of the most crazy and fucked up people who does NOT fit into this society, at least not when I'm avoiding being an alcoholic, drug-addicted hedonist. Writing keeps me stable and with a solid goal to accomplish, and a sense of pride. Like who gives a fuck about the money, really. Creation is a very high state of consciousness, and I think most of us who write really enjoy it. It might suck that we're outcasts of society, but hey, what can you do other than write?

Maybe Frank enjoys making money on his day job, and this gives him the freedom to write for his audience of memeheads who have a good laugh at all the references. I've watched Chris Dw I's videos on Frank's books on YouTube and he seems to really enjoy some of them. I don't even have a shelf to put books on right meow, otherwise I'd have ordered all the /lit/ meme books!

What you call blatant shilling is actually a form of art, Frank's writing is a form of performance art and I want to read more of call of F Gardner. Whoever is posting those screenshots, post more please!

>>19707784
>should I even bother?
please bother.
if for no other reason than to better your own writing/marketing, and for the sheer anthropological thrill of delving into what is, like it or not, the underground literary world of today.

>>19708428
Who is the Spare Change guy?

>>19708447
100%

>>19708440
From what I know about Gardner is that he’s not even trying to be funny though. So even if you think it’s hilarious it’s because he’s retarded. His books are supposed to be like goosebumps for edgelords. No one want to read that. It’s a joke but he’s delusional. It makes me so fucking mad that F Gardner of all people accidentally memed himself into being an author. Other people actually try and literally all he did was buy ads for that stupid fucking crocodile book

>>19708542
Frank worked 100x harder than any modern tradpubbed author. Have you seen the amount of promo work tradpubbed authors get for free?

>>19708542
If it makes you feel better, nobody is reading his books.

>>19708559
It would make me feel better but it’s pretty fucking obvious at this point that isn’t the case

>>19708575
Why not just appreciate Frank? His books have a unique flare to them and the memes help bring us together.

Anyways,
Where can we read the Eggplant review?

>>19708628
Ogden needs to send his book to:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN2nRnDk8c0enzoyEBoE3UA

>>19708633
Oh I’ve seen that guys chanel posted before.

>>19708085
Oh shit, TLP wrote a book? Jumping on that immediately.

>>19708731
Who is he?

Harassment Architecture is fun to read, just for how stupid it can be. Gets old pretty quick, but it also ends pretty quick

>>19708318
>>19708325
This is horrible prose. Reads like the dragonfucker

>>19708805
https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/
A blogger from mid 00s to mid 10s, wrote about psychiatry and somewhat political topics. He was really good. Eventually he got doxxed and quit publishing on his blog. Apparently in early 2020 he wrote a book interpreting a portion of Homer's Odyssey and on Christmas last year his second book Sadly, Porn was published. He's a great writer, you can get a good sample clicking around randomly on his blog.

That he stopped writing was a real loss for the internet and people who followed him at the time were pissed that he got doxxed, since it put his livelihood at risk to have non politically correct views tied to his real identity.

>>19708837
Damn... any idea what the fallout was from him getting doxxed?

>>19708869
No, I stopped following the drama years ago. From a quick ddg I think he's still employed somewhere in [redacted because I don't know how stringent /lit/ mods are]. Maybe he took a deal to stop blogging and keep his job. What happened with Scott Alexander and Slate Star Codex (another psychiatrist blogging about topics, but less politically incorrect than TLP) getting doxxed by the NYT kinda brought TLP back to my attention last year, but today's the first I heard he's writing books now.

>>19707800
>Gotta a lot of choice words for you guys, regarding your treatment of Waldun.
Sure, we're homophobic and ableist because we make fun of a retarded faggot with a limp dick, but that doesn't mean we're bad people.

>>19708628
Well, I was seriously hoping this thread would drop off the bottom of the catalog and I could just move on with my life. Right now I'm waiting to see if Ogden has any notes to improve the first draft of the review I sent him. He was extremely helpful in determining what kind of structure and tone I should set out for this and did not once balk at any criticism I had for him. The most valuable writing lesson I learned from him: you should be 100% positive that your ideas can at least entertain you before you expect them to do anything else.

However, getting about halfway through People Mover has made me want to drop this project entirely. The quality is so poor (as in, I don't think the author even proofread it himself) that it doesn't warrant a critical review. On the other hand, John David Card has endeavored to get our attention and to promote himself as a personality within the community, and it seems only fair to give his book the in-depth analysis that he has been asking for since February. I did pay $15 and so I feel perfectly justified in dropping one snide remark: he apparently believes that guns are like magic wands, a person automatically has to do whatever you say if you point one at them.

Anyway, pic related is a random page from the Call of F Gardner. I didn't bother reading it as I took the picture. I am hoping the 4chan references have a bit more depth than what we've seen in the ads. It seems unlikely that he could ignore every single piece of criticism that he got since Call of the Crocodile and I am hopeful that the prose is at least bearable. I have always liked his ideas, if not the execution.

>>19707784
Mike Ma has been spamming my recommendeds ever since I bought one book from Arktos on amazon. I'm interested to hear what its about, but not interested in reading it because it's obviously one more BAP knockoff. After you finish those, please review Paul Town, OP. he's nuts, but seems to be insightful at the same time

>>19708953
>all that about Barney
Why do I feel personally attacked by this?

>>19708902
I know the college will fucking destroy any doctor that steps out of line at all. In Canada, the medical college is completely political and is happy to end your career on a whim.

>>19708953
I am so jealous of you and that book

>>19708941
Just in case I don't get around to the review:

I suspect that the average Waldun hater did not open L'Academie hoping to be amused. I think he was hoping to be relieved. Because the most common criticism leveled against Waldun is that he is a pseud. The implication is that the average /lit/ user either isn't a pseud or at least recognizes and admits that he is one. As long as Waldun remains a pseud, then the litizen remains authentic. So, if Waldun is releasing decent fiction and the average litizen isn't...

Hence the extreme excitement with which the board awaited KDbooks review. Not so much because of his sense of humor, but rather because the average litizen probably views KDbooks as some icon of authenticity which can accurately confirm their own self-image (at least, in regards to their interest in literature). Interestingly enough, KDbooks' videos rarely go into any more depth than Waldun, but since KD is clearly old enough to drink he doesn't go around spouting pretentious nonsense about what a great writer he is going to be some day.

Sometime within the next seven years, Waldun is going to release something which accurately portrays the Melbourne Movement (just not as he sees it now) and the difficulties he's faced trying to make himself into an insightful artist. He's going to hate every instant of typing it and would probably prefer to blow his brains out rather than show it to anyone, but he won't be able to stop himself from releasing it.

But, as for his career in 2021, well, I guess we'll find out.

>>19709072
2022 anon. Are you drunk? High? Both?

>>19709078
Stoned, yes, but I was referring to L'Academie, not whatever the fuck he does this year.

>>19707976
You could publish them in the /lit/ magazine. Spread them out and keep us waiting for the next review.

>>19708318
>A man wearing a suit walks out on stage. He was holding a microphone.

Unreadable.

>>19709196
>In the morning I walked down the Boulevard to the rue Soufflot for coffee and brioche. It was a fine morning

Frank is Hemingway tier, you fucking pseud

>>19709212
There's nothing wrong with that excerpt. There is something obnoxiously wrong with Frank's. The man WALKS out on stage, and WAS holding a microphone. Is the man still holding the microphone? When was he holding the microphone? Before he went on stage? Yesterday? Last year? Yes it's obvious, and the following sentences make it clear that the man is indeed holding the microphone at the present moment, but it's just middle schooler-tier mistakes.

>>19709240
That's Frank's style. I don't think they are mistakes, but instead, his own bizarre style that differentiates himself. When I first saw Frank's writing, I agreed, it was basic and full of errors. However, the more I looked at his other works and began to see the patterns and then look closer at each cover, the books, without giving away the plot twists, are written from the PoV of our inner child. Look at how the original CotC was written, it is the most obvious there that the book is written from the perspective of a child, and when you look at his collective work as something from a juvenile perspective, it totally makes sense and is actually pretty brilliant. If you go into it expecting Michael fucking Crichton, you're going to be wondering "what the fuck is this mess"

>>19708318
sorry but in the battle of prose nesmer wins

>>19709261
Sounds like a cope but I accept it. I guess it could be readable if you go into it with that notion, though I have trouble believing it's intentional. I'll just imagine Gardner as a 10 year old trying his best.

>>19709262
Nesmer has a crazy good flow!

>>19709268
I learned young from my grandfather that orchestras are some of the most fun music to get to know, because when a familiar piece of music is performed by a different conductor it can sound totally different. Explosive energies tempered with structure, the conductor can interpret the piece's composer in different ways. I feel like Frank is using his rather high level of skill in interpreting a young person's mind and channels that in the writing he does to make a story work like a child's mind does. At least I have picked that up from all of the Gardner I've read, and it works in a way that kept me turning pages.

I recently read a couple books I bought at the grocery store, tradpubbed, and they were hot garbage.

>>19707976
>>19707824
Americans don't get irony.
KYS

>>19709309
There are a lot of things Americans don't get

>>19709261
Yea CotC is the most obvious instance of it. That’s the first technically right? He must’ve just stuck with it after that. The rationale is pretty clear in Call of the Arcade too. Just not as obvious with Crocodile.

post sample of people mover

>>19709410
>>19709410
So it’s definitely a style thing. I mean you can even see it in the covers. They’re like metal album style covers drawn by children. Because the books are edgy as fuck but have mostly children characters in hellish situations.
Look at this cover. The baby is literally burning in fire. The plot is told mostly through Pete as a baby and his experience of trying to survive the leprechaun thing trying to burn him alive. That’s really metal but like from the view of a kid who doesn’t really understand what’s going on

This is making f Gardner books sound really interesting damn

>>19707784
What's People Mover actually about?

>>19709440
That's the thing about /lit/, not everyone is going to write the same way. When you try and contemplate the author's tone and message and all their nuances, that's the aging factor in whiskey. The mind has to mellow the information and taste it, and Frank's work is full-bodied once you "get" the method to the madness.

>>19708628
It opens very strongly, more daring than other books I've read recently. The themes of creation, artistic persona, control/limits are a refreshing read.
Better than any other book I've read from 4chan. I doubt Jack Ma has shot a gun before writing about it. Shitkickers needed an editor.

If there were a couple rooms for improvement: Eleanor / Toby threads seemed unnecessary, and the backstory with Aron could have been fleshed out earlier. It's tempting to include multiple plot lines (especially after reading so many other novels that appear as collections of short stories), but I would have trimmed the extraneous, and given emotional stakes up front.
...
Then again, perhaps I critiqued those two things because it's the feedback I received on my own novel.

>>19708837
Slatestarcodex guy?

>>19709181
I second this idea

>>19707784
>>19707824
>>19709072
>>19707956
I've done everyone a favor and uploaded an ePub of "L'Academie" on Z-Library so you don't have to pay money to read that absolute shit, and I do mean that in every sense of the word!
>>19707824
>an unironic Waldunchad.
There's no such thing.

>>19708318
>>19708325
>>19708953
More screenshots?

>>19709964
Oh come on, you haven't even read The Shitkickers to understand the style and build up.

OP you’ll have to take a lesson from the Gardner shills and abandon all integrity. People don’t read on /lit/, they are not interested in the quality of a given work. They like memes and shitposting; you, Nesmer, Card, all need to get a group of anons and start shilling with the same ferocious disregard for decency as Gardner and Ma, or no one will ever care. Sorry

>>19711199
Only read chapter 1. Can you post prose of a better chapter?

Ok fine I’m starting to cave should I read Gardner or not I already read Mike

>>19711650
I can vouch for Call of the Arcade

>>19711720
I liked Jigoku. It’s like the best Pokémon fanfic ever made.

>>19711739
Im honestly surprised nothing like that has ever been done before. Taking the concept of Pokemon with OC characters and making it horror is genuinely a brilliant move on Gardner’s part. Id read his stuff if he just made more jigoku books

>>19711739
Is there any reference to dragonair that is my favorite I will read it if there is

>>19711765
Being stuck in a Gardner novel would be the real horror. Don't tell me... it's the fate of Butterfly, isn't it. For fuck's sake...

>>19711773
There’s a big dragon monster in it now that I’m thinking about it. IDK of that’s a reference to a specific pokemon thou

>>19712109
Ok that’s convincing enough

>>19712041
She’s a trap and Gardner’s love interest in it.

>>19713752
Pls be true

Waldun's book has the worst cover

>>19714556
it's the least iconic one, and totally in contrast to his own style. training jackets and bald heads? come on...