/lit/ - Literature

>>22968013
We need more novels about most people in the 21st century are fucked up mentally ill dregs I think

dios mio

>>22968032
An American Psycho-esque novel about the shallowness of the average millennial would be a great read.
>My Nigerian friend Kwombe asked me to meet him at our local craft beer joint. He's not really my friend, but having a black man as an acquaintance does wonder for my image. Before leaving my overpriced NYC condo I make sure I have my Doc Martens on so everyone knows I'm still hip and make sure my Ukrainian flag and Trans Rights Are Human Rights pins are visible on my vegan leather jacket. When I get to the bar Kwombe fails to respend to my greeting as his attention is focused on sharing his third Instagram infrographic this week regarding Palestine.

>>22968235
Yah, I would read it.

>>22968235
>I stand at the bar, perusing the beer list. I struggle to decide between a double dry hopped pale ale and a passion fruit sour. Still waiting for Kwombe to look up from his phone - he is now browsing Grindr - I turn my gaze to the foyer, a liminal space. I notice that an underprivileged youth touches my Raleigh Propaganda. This fixed gear bicycle was a gift from my step-father, a wealth Jew residing in Lower Manhattan. I accepted the gift, but plastered the frame with stickers I acquired from a Leftist DIY Workspace. Eschewing the face of Che Guevara, I proudly display the silhouette of Chairman Mao.

>>22968300
Kek, let's make this into chain.
>Kwombe is telling me about his poly-partner who identifies by the prounous ze/zir. Kwombe (prounouns he/they) informs me ze are performing a slam poetry gig where ze laments about the power of zir C-U-N-T and about "pegging the patriarchy". This sounds like a good way to spend the night and I'm hoping I'll be intiated into zir poly relationsip and fuck zir, whilst Kwombe films it and uploads it to zir onlyfans.

I ate too much beans and franks too fast and I'm freaking out and I do not need this fucking thread right now

I saw a book signing event today with a qt girl who looked in her early 20s. She had written a fantasy series and had maps plastered around of her "not-earth" setting. I really wanted to stop and talk to her but I was with my gf

>>22968618
and then you woke up

Fucking kek at his self insert and the name he chose

>>22968622
Nuh uh. I found her twitter.

https://twitter.com/SarahKateIshii

>>22968625
More successful than every /lit/ author combined

>>22968013
>That last image

Grim

>>22968235
The problem with this is that the cognitive dissonance of self-righteousness has grown to such lengths that it would not even be possible for an interior monologue to articulate what the person is doing like this. It would be utterly bound and hedged in by ideological jingles. The blatant egocentrism of the 80s is gone, though as a motivation it remains just the same, if not intensified.

>>22968013
AI will replace writers and kill literature you chud!
the writers:

>>22968634
Probably not. A lot of these books don't sell. They're simply the dregs of a dying market being pushed forward by the dregs of a dying industry.

>>22968235
>>22968300
>>22968329
cringe

>>22968039
criaturx

>>22968645
I mean in American Psycho Batemen is pretty uniquely introspective and self aware, right? The book couldn't have been about any of the other yuppies, even disregarding the killing shit.

>>22968625
>Mercury Stardust (@mercurystardust), the Trans Handy Ma'am, is a professional home maintenance technician and award-winning activist. Mercury credits her TikTok success to her experience teaching burlesque, where she learned to communicate and create a safe space for students who had frequently experienced trauma. She's been featured in stories by NBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, Washington Post, and Pink News. Her leadership within the trans community has led to collaborations with such brands as Dolby, Lowe's, and Point of Pride.
He's a maintenance man who leveraged his sexual fetish/mental illness into minor celebrity. Let him enjoy it.

>>22968688
Seeing as it's a book about home maintenance my bet is that it's relatively successful within that niche category and blown up by marketing.

>>22968013
Man young trans are one thing but the old ones creep me the fuck out. He just looks like a decrepit janitor or something with a fake smile and "girly" shit plastered all over him.

>>22969126
>the old ones creep me the fuck out.
9 times out of 10 it's some guy who went insane and abandoned his family in his 40s to pursue this.
My clownworld ass school had a 52 year old HUGE transwoman prostitute come give a talk to us about gender and he told us he hasn't talked to his wife and 2 children in 10 years because he decided to trans out

>>22968013
Imagine being proud of writing that slop. Why even submit that junk to publishers?

>>22969129
What are you supposed to take away from that? If you suggested he abandoned his family you'd probably be expelled. The children are literally the bad guys in the scenario they're selling lol

>>22968633
>early 20s
Do ypeepo really?

>>22969186
femcel face, nice tits, would.

>>22969188
I thought it was a man based on the hairline but those massive hips make unsure. Maybe weird body fat deposits due to hormones?

Couldn’t pay me enough to read some weirdo tranny book

>>22969129
>My clownworld ass school had a 52 year old HUGE transwoman prostitute come give a talk to us about gender and he told us he hasn't talked to his wife and 2 children in 10 years because he decided to trans out
Wow that is bizzare, and really kind of sad.

>>22969266
>outsells /lit/

>>22969364
This doesn't mean anything when you aren't a /lit/ author though retard.

>>22968625
>Mercury Stardust
They keep saying it's not a fetish but they all have stripper names

>>22969186
Why is every fantasy made by white women like this so...hollow? I remember going to a state fair and getting a signed copy of a book from a woman and her husband as well. I was impressed because it was all done through local and collaborative self publishing.

I read the book. It's nothing but a "oh wow, what if the princess saved the knight" story we've already seen, the main character is a blatant self insert for the author...and it's as basic as you can get. Same shit with the maps and character art. It's like these people don't even LIKE fantasy at all. Or even understand it.

I don't think these types of women are bad people. But they're just so harmlessly vanilla NPC that it genuinely confuses me how these people read stuff and they just. Don't get it.

>>22968013
Laura Les lookin goof

>>22968768
Whatever you say, fag

>>22969364
>>22968634
Only kikes calculate the merit of something through its profitablitiy

>>22969627
Npcs create art for npcs and it creates an endless cycle of consumption and creation of bland art. Just look at any Twitter artist and their followers or tattoo artists and the people who are plastered with tattoos.

>>22968013
Wait, so the employee was a tranny too? No way that's fucking possible. Fake as fuck shit.

>>22969754
Welcome to American

Why does every country's bestseller list need a random news publication attached to it?

>>22969104
> She's been featured in stories by NBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, Washington Post, and Pink News. Her leadership within the trans community has led to collaborations with such brands as Dolby, Lowe's, and Point of Pride.
What are you famous for?
I dress up in women’s clothes and colour my hair blue then do normal things.
Oh.

>>22968625
I actually read this first as "Safe and effective". I'm not even an anti-vaxxer

>>22969627
>it's as basic as you can get. Same shit with the maps and character art. It's like these people don't even LIKE fantasy at all. Or even understand it.
what actually matters to this type of person is the narcissistic fantasy of "being an AUTHOR," which is all about the announcements and the interviews and the audience interactions (like talking to you at the state fair), the book itself is just a prop. it just has to look plausible. the important part is "what kind of person i want to be" and the writing gets half-assedly filled in using the logic of "what kind of book would the kind of person i want to be write? i guess there would be a badass princess or something." it feels strange to read because it wasn't meant to be read, it was meant to be handed out at state fairs. it exists solely for her benefit.

>>22968625
hello my name is Eltonjohn Davidbowie and my pronouns are have/aids

>>22968032
>>22968235
I think that the people who are of and can really identify with the average millenial are generally not likely to be capable of writing a good book. That sort of lifestyle and mental state necessitates a life of barcades, video games, toys and other pointless shit. There is absolutely no room for literature. This is also why actually good literature is neither popular nor institutionally approved. The culture has just collapsed into the muck.

what does it even mean it is New York Times best selling book? did they publish it? or did they just do the ranking?

>>22969538
No, dude. These are names that kids would give to their fake characters in a cartoon. These people live their life like it’s a damn cartoon. That’s what they desperately want. They really want to be a cartoon avatar girl, not an IRL stripper.

>>22969170
Obviously. It’s about brainwashing. Some kid is supposed to think “yeah, it’s ok for me to abandon family to troon out because they did it”. That is the point.

>>22968235
I gotchu bro: https://manuals.plus/m/fbb34cf8d7834b6afd49d724859a2eb16a89213e83f18a859bef082d9f82dee1.pdf

Screenplay, not novel, but American Psycho is most remembered for the movie anyway.

Doesn’t piss anybody else off that literature has been transformed into low brow fantasy indulgence for women and social climbing for trannies? What the fuck? I’m tired of going to the book store and it being filled with shitty fantasy and fucking toys!!!!

>>22970089
it means literally nothing. It's a marketing tactic. You only have to sell a few thousand copies to be #1 for a week, so its incredibly easy to fake being a best seller. A self published book "Handbook for Mortals" did exactly that when the author bought a few thousand copies off amazon. And they would have gotten away with it if the big jewish publishing houses didn't demand it be revoked. Only Random House, Macmillin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette can rig the best seller list by buying their own copies of the book!

>>22970119
and what role does the NYT play there then? do they just check every week who sold most books and call him the winner?

>writes book explaining basic home maintenance, apartment/house hunting tips, tenant law, etc
>/lit/ sees a tranny standing next to a book and shits itself while gibbering about YA and funko pops

>>22970089
It means the New York Times, which is the Bible for coastal liberal-progressives in the upper middle and lower upper classes that have jobs like those in universities, government agencies, legal advocacy groups, etc., has acted as progressive commissar and approved this book as a book which affirms progressive biases and refineries the socially engineered worldview that the staffers at the New York Times think everyone on the planet should have. The publishers want this to happen because New York Times stamp of approval means boosted sales.

>>22970123
They’re literally curating books and telling you what you should read and shouldn’t read. This isn’t intuitive to you because you’re not the son of some lawyers in Boston. If you were, you would know exactly what the New York Times is and does intuitively.

>>22970145
>A heckin tranny author who obviously looks like a man and wrote a bs story is valid!
kys

>>22968013
Why do they always look like that?

>>22970218
Opening is a bit cringe but I agree with the general sentiment. You shouldn't be ashamed of ignorance if you're trying to rectify it.

>>22969186
How do I meet femcels as a fake normie

>>22968032
It would be almost impossible for that to be done without it seeming like a cheap joke. Such is the state of affairs.

>>22970096
Did you write this? I'll read it tonight.

>>22968625
>brony turned troon
woah

>>22968235
GUYS
I don't know what it is, but even though I agree with this sentiment this is just pure fucking cringe. Fox News Boomers have somehow made the most uncool people on the planet (SJWs) cringe to make fun of because the embarrassing not-self-aware boomers ran all the "jokes" into the ground and managed to be just as annoying with their shit. Like I'm so fatigued from this shit since gamer gate and feminist Rekt compilations hit the scene a decade ago.
Normal people would have been shamed into stopping by now but since SJWs literally have no shame and live in echo chambers they have outlived the entire culture making fun of them to the point where making fun of them is now a tired cliche.

>>22970483
No, it's a screenplay that got #1 in the blacklist a few years back. It undoubtedly got the 24-year old author a staff writing position.

>>22968633
Smells like young adult fodder. The light novels of the west.

I think I’ll kill myself.

>>22969627
>Why is every movie made by Disney's Marvel Studios like this so...hollow? I remember going to the theater and getting a signed copy of a poster from a director and his husband as well. I was impressed because it was all done through cutting-edge, industrial-scale distribution.
>
>I saw the movie. It's nothing but a "oh wow, what if the good guys and the bad guys fought over an important object that glows" story we've already seen, the main character is a blatant self insert for the screenwriter...and it's as basic as you can get. Same shit with the sets and the costume design. It's like these people don't even LIKE superheros at all. Or even understand it.
>
>I don't think these types of creators are bad people. But they're just so harmlessly vanilla NPC that it genuinely confuses me how these people read comics and they just. Don't get it.

>>22969186
>>22969627
These "indie" authors are publishing mass-market slop targeted for a lowest-common-denominator audience. If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to earn a living.

Amazon sells somewhere around 80% of all books globally, a vast majority of which are "self" published. Anyone can upload anything to "kindle direct publishing" and enjoy the same revenue split that only A-list authors can get from conventional presses. In strict dollars and cents, you'd be a fool to publish anywhere but on Amazon.

This leads to incredible market saturation. Kindle direct is drowning in ChatGPT summaries of bestselling books, e-celebrity autobiographies, self-help manifestos, and genre schlock in every genre.

To succeed in this environment, you must either (1) cater to a very small niche of readers who reliably pay for anything that checks certain boxes, or (2) rely heavily on social media marketing and keyword matching -- often so much so that your outline is little more than an amalgam of trends.

(1) is great if you don't mind writing pornography (sometimes called "romance") or post-apocalyptic neo-westerns that advocate a return to the gold standard. Keep turning out the specific thing your readership wants, and they'll keep buying your books. But if you have any artistic drive, you'll eventually get sick of writing the same book over and over again.

(2) gives the author flexibility, since you can write any story you want as long as it coincides with the current BookTok trend. But unless you can see a year into the future, you find yourself in a new dilemma: (a) write an inventive story first, then shoehorn in the viral terms you see trending just before publishing it, or (b) write a stock story that you can churn out quickly, tailored from the beginning to the trend.

(a) works, but if you have a genuine artistic vision, you won't cheapen it just to accommodate the right hashtags, so in practice almost nobody pursues it. So nearly everyone does (b), reproducing stock plots and stock characters, tailored to the moment.

Postmodern design is in? Write characters with simple clothes, and pay a contractor to draw your characters in the Memphis style. Earth tones are in? Change the setting to a rocky cliffside. Female heros are in? Gender-swap the knight and the princess. Sensitive men are in? Swap the knight and the princess back again, but make the knight sad about his dead wife. Pan-Asian race politics are in? Set it in a vaguely oriental city (without saying "oriental," of course; we don't use that word anymore), and make the bad guys English.

In practice, (2b) is only distinguishable from (1) because the demand for a given keyword expires over a period of months rather than years. Regardless of the mode, every "indie" author is effectively a servant of Amazon's user-recommendation algorithm, tailoring their work to a tiny audience they can predictably monitize.

>>22971676
Or stop being a faggot and write what you want to write?

>>22971727
If Amazon lists a book for sale, but nobody ever buys it, does it have a readership?

>>22971734
Does it need one? Keep writing.

>>22971676
>In practice, (2b) is only distinguishable from (1) because the demand for a given keyword expires over a period of months rather than years. Regardless of the mode, every "indie" author is effectively a servant of Amazon's user-recommendation algorithm, tailoring their work to a tiny audience they can predictably monitize.
Where does one track the popular keywords on Amazon for books?

>>22971751
>No bro, you don't get it, just write for a nonexistent audience and subsist on rice and beans that you pay for by working a minimum wage job. If you try to reach or appeal to readers, or earn a living by writing, you're selling out, maaan.

>>22971764
>If you try to reach or appeal to readers, or earn a living by writing, you're selling out, maaan.
But you are.

>>22971761
There's a bunch of competing analytics tools for this. I've heard good things about Publisher Rocket, but haven't personally used it. The press I work for has an in-house tool that the IT guys built.

>>22971773
And that's a good thing.

>>22971789
Why would you dilute your art for money?

Be and do you, if that doesn't work, it wasn't meant to be.

>>22968625
>fixing someone else's house for free
do r*ntoids really?

>>22971818
>Colleen Hoover is "meant to be" the voice of modern American literature.

>>22970099
Yes. The last time I went to a Barnes and Noble, they had a full back row of isles dedicated to toys, the entire back wall was dedicated to extremely expensive "collectors" legos. One corner of the store was for movies, the other corner was a starbucks, in the center was a massive kindle section. There was also like two whole isles for manga. Strewn about were isles of random hobby things like board games, DnD, etc.
It was like 75% random bullshit and 25% books. And no I didn't find what I was looking for.

>>22970218
>She lives in Madison
Huh! Who knew.

>>22971896
When did she start? How many books has her team put out?

>>22971901
>The Wal-Mart of bookstores panders to the broadest possible audience and doesn't even carry the obscure out-of-print-for-70-years book I was looking for
I swear you people just spend your days looking for things to be mad about

>>22971922
I am thinking of trying some risky small town chinese food, what do you think?

>>22971922
What can I say, there's much to be mad about in this world.

>>22971949
Swing for the fences, champ.

>>22971956
>>22971951
Check your privilege

>>22968235
This monologue of too self aware, people with cognitive dissonance constantly lie to themselves that they are good people doing their best. Very cringe writing, but the concept has potential. You just need extremely good talent to make the dissonance realistic. It's hard getting into the head of a bipolar person who thinks they are the worst people in the world for being white, not perfect but at the same time have extreme self confidence by "being on the right side" pro feminism, pro lgbt, minorities etc. Basically a pendulum swinging between white guilt to a saviour complex.

>>22971920
Why would that matter?

>>22968013
I prefer Dionysus for my sadist excesses

>>22970234
Don't worry, if you're asking that question you're not fake

>>22971457
No

>>22968235
>>22968300
>>22968329
low effort

>>22968618
>had maps plastered around of her "not-earth" setting.
Hié Region map looks like a vagina and womb

>>22968235
>>22968300
>>22968329
A good concept but it needs to be better than this /pol/-tier writing.

>>22969958
Normal words, but a woman guy!

>>22973102
>retarded greentext didn't have the effort and quality of an actual piece of writing put into it
Are you retarded?

>>22969129
Don't forget u have a poster presentation due tuesday

>>22968329
>"Did you hear the news about an activist ally being senselessly stabbed earlier this week?" I ask the bartender. I would not normally talk to her since she is fat and over 26 years old but I have to interact with her because she knows Katie, the girl from the office. If I win the favor of the Mother Hen she will let her guard down and not cockblock me. "Terrible. His poor girlfriend must have been traumatized. The perpetrator seemed distressed. Our system let him down. We need change." She nods. I wonder if Katie's nipples are pierced. She recently moved from Boston, her neighborhood had become too dangerous she said. I asked if there were local DIY groups she was a part of; my ex used to be in one. "Really?" Her eyes brighten. "What was it like? No I really haven't done that although I want to." She goes on about how she's new here, though everyone knows already. One guy tried to greet her but she ignored him. He was 5'6, when will he learn? My beer is getting cold, I should have bought a Martini. I had a Martini in Ibiza last summer. The people were too loud so I purchased a pair of earplugs. I use them from time to time in meetings. "Hey man nice jacket!" That's Tim from the office, I forgot he comes here from time to time. "Thank you. How's your side gig going? Bicycle repairs right?" It's going well but not too well. He thinks not many people are interested in alternative workshops. I think he didn't manage to find a cute Latina to groom. Beaners have really swarmed this place but at least their food is better than the food chain slop. I need to buy a poncho to hang in my living room for when I throw parties. "Did you know my grandmother was Puerto Rican?" My boss would be surprised. "That's how I hambla espagnol so well." He gives me a weird look. Why is my second beer taking so long? Stupid fucking bitch, I shouldn't have to ask twice.

>>22976152
Oh nevermind I just made him a Rooshesque coomer and not the indifferent Batemanesque sociopath I was aiming for. I read too much Delicious Tacos
Mystery messed me up

>>22969803
newspapers just ended up falling into the role of compiling best seller lists a century ago. it's a tradition at this point.

>>22968235
>Doc Martens
Not made in the UK with unionized workers
Chinese sweat shops and vegan leather

>>22968300
People are still into fixies bikes? After hitting its peak a decade and a half ago? Doc Martin peaked in 99. Where is this paradise.