/lit/ - Literature

I love Pinecone, but he’s not even the best novelist in the English language. Anybody claiming he’s the absolute best is either an imbecile or trying to fool you.
He definitely would not agree

>>20575277
Who is then?

bump

>>20575144
greatest what?
all time writer? lol no
american writer? no
pomo writer? no

>>20575536
>all time writer? lol no
>american writer? no
>pomo writer? no
You have the wrong answers to all of these wew

>>20575144
He’s definitely among the greatest. Most writers are extremely lucky if they can manage to write a single mediocre novel, even less manage to write something great, and even less so manage to write a masterpiece-tier novel; Pynchon has three of those.

I’m in academia in a european country and he barely registers, although I personally love him, probably the most of any American writers.

For europe (in academia) the most well-regarded novelists (not counting poets and pure playwrights) who wrote in english would have to be Joyce and Beckett (easily 1 and 2 and far beyond the others) then maybe the likes of Nabokov or Melville. After that it’s hard to say, if I were to guess maybe Conrad and Faulkner but could easily be wrong about that.

>>20575539
No, I'm right, you're just delusional.

>>20575723
>Pynchon has three of those.
He's written two memorable books.

>>20575843
What does Europe think of Henry James?

>>20575866
A formidable mediocrity.

>>20575144
I think you could argue he's the greatest American novelist. He has five masterpieces under his belt:
1. Gravity's Rainbow
2. Mason & Dixon
3. Against the Day
4. The Crying of Lot 49
5. V.

Even Faulker, his closest competitor, has four: sound and the fury, absalom absalom, light in august, and as I lay dying.

Cormac McCarthy might reach his level if The Passenger is as good as Blood Meridian

>>20575906
If those are masterpieces, the bar is very low

>>20575144
He's masterful for sure, maybe the greatest currently living, writing in English. Not all time imo or even just in English. He lacks required themes to be great but it seems like he just didn't want to write those in.

>>20575723
Which 3? GR, M&D & ???

>>20575843
>I’m in academia
>in a european country
stopped reading there

>>20576286
>required themes to be great
wut

>>20576336
Vineland

>>20576570
zoomer things like the internet and soundcloud rap

>>20575861
>>20576336
Gravity’s Rainbow
Mason and Dixon
Against the Day

>>20575282

it's >>20574661

>>20576604
>zoomer things like the internet
yo this bleeding edge shit goes off no cap frfr

>>20575906
>The Crying of Lot 49
>masterpiece
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

>>20575144
He is a master prose stylist and his ability to find connections between material and science and history is unmatched. These two qualities also make him unfocused, and there are certainly many authors with tighter narratives. His characters are unfairly criticized, but when compared with the greatest in literature they fall flat. His narratives are thematically dense and interconnected but the plot is often episodic and not dramatically compelling. Basically, he is a postmodern maximalist and if that is your favorite genre he is the GOAT, otherwise he is not.

>>20577120
>compared with the greatest in literature they fall flat
like which characters?

>>20577811
Stephen Dedalus, Quentin Compson, Captain Ahab

>>20577997
nah

>>20577997
dedalus, no, bloom, yes
quentin, fuck no lol bro no
ahab, sure

>>20577997

>>20575282
joyce I'd say

>>20578787
How does joyce's works surpass pynchon's?

>>20579843
It's trickier

>>20579891
Trickier how? Unless you only mean Finnegans Wake...?

>>20576925
not even close buddy

>>20579891
huh?

bump

>>20575144