/lit/ - Literature

>>22087228
my professor made me read Mistborn and some Elantris stuff. I am still in debt over ten years later btw.

>>22087234
A university tier teacher recommended you read Sanderson? But /lit/ tells me he is poorly written and for zoomers

>>22087241
As someone who occasionally teaches Composition in American Colleges, it’s easy to mindbreak yourself into just assigning anything you think the little bastards might read

>>22087255
treating paying adults like children is totally awesome. i hope nothing bad happens to academia

>>22087228
His writing is garbage.

>>22087258
It’s a real nightmare- you can’t imagine the number of those adults’ PARENTS who will call personally to try and debate grades.

>>22087270
Go fuck yourself. Fuck. You.

>>22087272
Lololololokokolo

>>22087270
>found the guy whose mommy called the professor

>>22087285
>taking it out on the student for the actions of a mentally ill parent

>>22087287
He didn't say that. If your reading comprehension is normally this bad I can see why your mom felt the need to call the prof.

The Applebee’s of fantasy fiction

>>22087228
He already saved it, now he's soaring like an eagle and taking it to new heights.

If by saving it you mean destroying it then no he's actually doing a pretty good job.

>>22087228
More like saving fantastic amounts of money

The genre is irrelevant except for Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. They are the yin and yang. Everything else is derivative of it. There is no point in emulating Tolkien, as you do not have the credentials and knowledge of European mythology to do it justice. And even if you did it will be chastised as a clone. You cannot emulate GRRM, as he was the first to invert LOTR into a nihilist and modernist version of itself. Game of Thrones will it be forgotten in the coming decades. Lord of the Rings will probably stick around.

>>22087378
>They are the yin and yang. Everything else is derivative of it. There is no point in emulating Tolkien, as you do not have the credentials and knowledge of European mythology to do it justice
Delusional Tolkiendrone
Tolkien had a pseud-tier knowledge of mythology and destroyed the then-burgeoning fantasy genre

>>22087381
Name 2 (two) "burgeoners" that Tolkien destroyed.

>>22087385
Eddison
Dunsany
tolkien was a hack
simple as

>>22087381
I don’t like Tolkien. Fantasy literature was not notable before him. The only reason GRRM is worthy of mention is because he inverted it. I don’t like Fantasy in general, I think much of it is made up of lazy and unsophisticated writers looking to make a quick buck. Or, they genuinely think their work is good and that fantasy is a worthwhile medium to write in. In that case, I feel sorry for them.

>>22087391
>Fantasy literature was not notable before him
Yes it was
Dunsany was renowned

>>22087393
okay yeah the one guy

>>22087410
Zoomer tolkiendrone coping

>>22087425
I dont understand your either or argument. Tolkien is right up there with Dunsany and MacDonald and everyone else.

>>22087428
No
Tolkien ruined fantasy
it's that simple

>>22087432
alright zoomer

>>22087434
Zoomers love tolkien
You haven't read any author pre tolkien
pretty sad

>>22087438
Because nobody cares about fantasy apart from Tolkien.

>>22087445
Because tolkien ruined the genre by infantilizing it to the masses

>>22087228
None of his books will be classics of literature:

>not deep
>not an insight into the writers mind
>no commentary on society that is original
>no reflection of a gargantuan effort
>no cultural impact

I could go on, but books like these never learned with Tolkien or Howard, they don't know what classic means.

There is a reason we learn about themes and the ideas behind a book more than the actual plot (and theres a reason hell be forgotten in 10 years).

>>22087469
im bad at themes and ideas. never learn that stuff

>>22087462
Why? Can you elaborate?

>>22087391
It’s fine to hate fantasy but you need to actually read a decent amount of it before insisting that only Tolkien and GRRM are influential

The real thing that ruined fantasy was wheel of time, it was heavily influential on Sanderson for example but none of you fuckers have read enough to know that

>>22087479
Tolkien is infantilised mythology+prissy catholic morality

>>22087228
I would curbstomp him for his prose if given the chance. There's so much bad technical writing in fantasy; all he does is add to the heap.

>>22087517
If you were as technically proficient as Sanderson you could write easily consumable slop and then get published. Everything you hate about his prose is intentional and desires by publishers

his existence is probably the sole reason there aren't any dumb opinions pieces with titles like "Is Fantasy Dead?", so I guess in that respect, yeah

I don't read him, but I'm glad Sanderson exists because he's very active and he serves as a measuring stick and a great point of reference for other books

>>22087626
>I don’t read him
>Still insists on having multiple uniformed opinions about him
If only lit wasn’t like this

>>22087705
?

can you name the multiple uninformed opinions I have of him?

I've *tried* to read him, several times, but it's never stuck. I have a good feel for his style, though, because it's not very hard to grasp

>>22087719
You haven’t actually expressed any opinions so he’s just speeding out. You should probably still have read an author if you’re posting in a thread about him though

>>22087391
>GRRM inverted fantasy
Explain please, because I can think of a few authors who meet that criteria pre-ASoIaF back when GRRM was still primarily a sci-fi writer, such as Stephen R. Donaldson, Gene Wolfe, Glen Cook, and even Stephen King with his Dark Tower series.

>>22087733
it's not a topic just about the author, but about his impact on the industry. It's like how you can have an opinion on how the MCU affects movies without watching every single one

>>22087469
Oh it's definitely an insight into his mind. He's a fucking anime writer, his full depth is explored whenever a new magic system is employed and explained

>>22087258
Paying adults are children. If you could do something, you wouldn't pay for it. If you need to pay for it, people who are able to do what you can't do are entitled to treat you like a child.

>>22088616
>if you pay me for a service I get to treat you like a child
the entitlement is staggering
If I pay for an exterminator to come to my house and kill ants, I expect to be treated professionally. Same goes for if I take a writing class.

>>22087228

He is the gateway author to better fantasy (Malazan and Bakker). So he is OK in my book.

I wouldn’t say he’s saving it so much as keeping it alive within a semi-mediocre state of zombified existence. He sells quick sellers, and sets the bar for modern fantasy - a exceedingly mid one.

Did write the books he got 42 million for on kickstarter?

>>22087241
My tutor in uni specialises in analysing pop culture shlock. It could easily be something like that.

>>22087391
>Fantasy literature was not notable before him.

It's all so tiresome... You need to go back and start with the greeks.

idk I hate fantasy stories, I hate opening a book and seeing all these names of countries and races I don't know the narrator acting as if I should so I just close the book as soon as it happens

>>22087228
He's very cinematographic, he basically writes movie scripts. his prose is somewhat lacking however, no real artistry to it or the dialogue. book 4 of stormlight was a drag used mostly to set up new rules and mechanics with already treaded character arcs that went on for too long. Emerald sea made me roll my eyes as it was just an excuse to get his self-insert OC extra powers. as a side note he also chases trends a bit with gender/gay/troon talks. his earlier books' strength were having self-contained stries with hints are other things that'd meet up on Roshar, now he increasingly wants to shove in worldhoppers and it gets a bit messy with extra magic systems added on the fly.

>>22089164
Spoonfeed me on Bakker. It seemed interesting but I checked out reviews and seems a lot of people find his book rubbish. Also what about Joe acrombie?

i only ever tried way of kings and it was really bad. flat characters, modern sounding dialogue, video game like magic system, repeats things over and over again, boring prose that never creates images in your head. his fantasy world feels artificial and not lived in. his big thing are characters with mental illness, but his takes are laughable and without any nuance. i just don't get how he is so successful.

>>22087228
>book title is "White Sand"
>black person on the cover
Ummm...? Mr. Sanderson?

>>22087391
No one cares what you feel or don't feel, anon.

>>22089283
the first 2 have been released, #1 Tress of the Emerald Sea: A Cosmere Novel, #2 The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

>>22087290
I've never sucked off a lady boy in the bathroom of a Sanderson book, so hold your horses there, bucko

>>22090206
This is meant for >>22087292

>>22090144
don't be such a bigot, chud, he identifies as white

>>22090231
h-he?

>>22087228
I don't think there's a difference between Fantasy & Young Adult fiction.

>>22089283
They were already written by the time he started the kickstarter, he only hosted it to fleece people into spending $70 dollars a book instead of pirating them

>>22087228
he's the autistic colleen hoover of fantasy.

>>22089438
Abercrombie writes great shit, his plots aren't the best but he has some of the best character work in contemporary fantasy

>>22090162
are they good lol

>>22090740
No idea, I forgot about them until today. Just downloaded them

>>22090740
I've only read Tress, I wasn't a huge fan. Most of the "humor" is reddit as fuck, to the point where I haven't seen more Sanderson haters cherrypicking it to shit on him.

The big draw of the book is that it's one of his first works that really takes advantage of the inter-connectedness of the Cosmere, dropping lore teases and easter eggs to other books, but without actual substance. If you're keeping up with Sanderson stuff you'll probably tolerate it, if you've never read his stuff stay away and read Mistborn or TWOK instead.

>>22087241
A university recommending genre-fiction garbage should make you think twice about the university, not give you hope.

>>22089438
>seems a lot of people find his book rubbish
Because they are unironically rubbish.

>>22089438

Bakker writes epic, edgy shit with great prose. That's his whole shtick.