/lit/ - Literature

>>23202476
Bad prose is everywhere, and regardless of genre it all sounds exactly the same. Bad prose is written the way a normal person talks, but with a serious tone, and with a ton of literary cliches thrown in because the author doesnt read enough to know they're cliches. Here's an example:
>John was a city boy. He loved the hustle and bustle of the city, with its grand skyscrapers, yellow taxis, and fashionable cafes. He was walking down the financial district with it's endless crowds of men in suits, drinking in the energy. A rat gingerly scurried by with a slice of pizza in his mouth. They made eye contact. The rat's beady black orbs studied John's face. Internally he thought 'hey! I'm walkin 'ere!"
Many people might think there's nothing egregious about this prose but it is genuinely awful. It does nothing, and everyone writes in this awful style.

>>23202476
Read any YA fiction. Read Moby Dick as an example of excellent prose.

>>23202521
> Bad prose is written the way a normal person talks, but with a serious tone, and with a ton of literary cliches thrown in because the author doesnt read enough to know they're cliches
I agree. I would say Hemingway is included.
>>23202528
I think a good example of horrid writing is Ready Player One. Read a ton of fanfiction as well for more poor examples.

>>23202476
>picrel

>>23202476
Something retards say because they're too dumb to engage with a book and pseuds say because they dont know they're retarded. Whenever you see a post that mentions "prose" feel free to disregard everything that person says.

>>23202476
Bad prose is more or less either poor mastery of grammar, abuse of rhetorical and poetic figures, or the use of a tone or register of writing that doesn't match the subject. But sometimes this is circumstantial, depending on authorial intention. Talking about breakfast cereal in poetic metres while using archaic English vocabulary is terrible if the author intends you to take it at face value, or could be good if the author wants you to think the narrator (or a character) is a pretentious ass.

>>23202476
prose that is bad

>>23203106
>Talking about breakfast cereal in poetic metres while using archaic English vocabulary is terribl
Not really bitch

>>23202476
No such thing. Stringing words together is an accomplishment by itself. Imagine the various ways you could be rendered incapable of doing that.
>>23202521
I like how you were trying to make an intentionally nondescript paragraph but couldn't help adding a joke. That's probably similar to how it goes for most authors who write like that.

>>23203109
Fact

>>23202737
/thread

>>23202730
>translation

>>23203316
>No such thing. Stringing words together is an accomplishment by itself. Imagine the various ways you could be rendered incapable of doing that.
This
>>23202476
For a minute I thought that was the David Mitchell book. David, I find, is one of the better Sci-fi writers of the 21st century.

>>23202730
Read a different language translation and other stories of Dazai in original and he's an absolute genius of prose

>>23202521
this is kino

>>23202737
>>23203316
>>23203322
>>23204047
lol what the fuck is this shit? You have no standards and read shit books, and now you're coping that bad prose doesn't exist or that it doesn't matter.

>>23204146
>*Adjust glasses* "My fiction is REAL fiction"
LMAO what a faggot.

>>23202521
>Internally he thought 'hey! I'm walkin 'ere!"
kringo

>>23204163
Whom are you quoting, retard?

>>23202521
>it all sounds exactly the same.
Lysidike took her ability to read his mind as a matter of course, but his converse power was still unsettling. Time was only Anaximander ever gleaned what she thought with any proficiency; but he deduced her nature from what his oily smarts told him was the nature of a person, and only sardonically hinted at his mastery. Tlexictli didn’t even have to puzzle to catch her straight away, so the privacy she took for a metaphysical given in her youth broke up, and she felt her disagreements with her husband as dumb sensory pressures, like heat or cold. Their cross-purposes weren’t any easier for their transparency, but there was nothing to worry over – they’d conducted business together before becoming sentimental.

>>23203316
Have you not read Burroughs?

>>23202476
Bad prose is any prose that calls attention to itself. So 90 percent of the navel gazing crap /lit/ pretends to like because they think it makes them smart to like it. Good prose should be completely invisible.

>>23204672
Terrible opinion. Bad prose *can* call attention to itself, but it does so by abusing what it thinks is "literary", Amanda McKittrick Ros being the standout example of someone using words they don't know the meanings of, drowning sentences in grating alliterations, and heaping detail upon the mundane. But the opposing view, "it should be invisible", is equally terrible, reducing prose style to lowest common denominator pandering, contemporary cliches, and the emotional tone of ad copy. Someone who masters rhetorical figures and knows a big enough vocabulary to shift registers is a better prose stylist than any given retard churning out material for sitcom-tier entertainment value.

Sometimes you read something, and it just reads kind of bad. I'm not educated enough to articulate why that is.
Some writing flows, and feels pretty, and some writing is just SHIT.

>>23204672
>Good prose should be completely invisible
bad opinion
>>23204722
>ars celare artem reduces prose style to lowest common denominator pandering
also bad

I am better

>>23202476
There’s no such thing. Have you seen how popular the most horribly-written slop available on wattpad is? Even if you think that shit is an unreadable eyesore thousands of people eat it up. It’s all your taste and nothing more

>>23204672
>good music should be invisible and not call attention to itself
>good paintings should be invisible and not call attention to themselves
Another dogshit take from a worldbuilding retard who only writes because he's too incompetent to make a film. Garbage in, garbage out.

>>23204672
i dont necessarily agree. sometimes good prose is the point, its supposed to be beautiful

>>23204771
>>ars celare artem reduces prose style to lowest common denominator pandering
>also bad
Not what I was arguing against, retard.

>>23204890
no, it's what you argued

>>23202737
This. What matters is the substance behind the narrative. Any novel can be compelling if the idea is interesting enough, the prose is a plus

>>23204904
>reading for idea

>>23204901
No, it's not, and you would've known that if you didn't skip over what I said about Amanda Ros.

>>23204908
wrong

>>23204912
>wrong

>>23204920
I accept your concession.

>>23204972
>I accept your concession.