/lit/ - Literature

I hate fantasy that tries too hard to be dark and "mature" to win the approval of a mainstream audience.

There are no popular black authors who don't write about being black.

Anti-heroes are the worst kind of shitty wish-fulfillment characters.

/lit/ has no fucking idea what it is talking about.

>>2337232
>>2337238
I think it has to do with too many writers making a self-conscious effort to distance themselves from Tolkien. There's nothing wrong with Tolkien-style high fantasy, but there is a stigma associated with it.

I think that's why you see so many "Black-haired-girl-with-leather-pants-holding-a-dagger" and "guy-wearing-a-hooded-cloak-while-crouching" covers nowadays.

>>2337232
You're wrong. Ursula Le Guin.

>>2337232

I've really enjoyed some of Anne Mcaffrey's books about faux-empowered sluts.

Also some of the Pern series are genuinely touching and not about faux-empowered sluts.

granted, it's all pretty light reading.

I've never enjoyed a book written by a woman no matter how hard I tried. This lead me to advoid female authors and so far I've never been missing out.

People who don't read classics or old literature are boring and ignorant. People who read biographies for inspiration constantly are pitiful.

OP proven wrong.

Pat Cadigan ftw

I LIKE TO PRETEND I'M GAY ON 4CHAN I KEEP SAVING THESE PICTURES OF MEN AND ACTING SENSIBLE, BUT I'M JUST FIXING MYSELF SOME AFFECTION ISSUES, I'M NOT REALLY GAY

I am sick of writers writing about writers. I understand writing about what you know, but it just always seems lazy to me.

>>2337232
kill yourself

>>2337307
cool

>>2337350
agreed

>>2337238
>There are no popular black authors who don't write about being black.

There are no popular [anything but white men] who write about anything other than whatever the fuck they are. White Men are the Constitutive Same and everyone else is the Constitutive Other, typically on a free meal ticket and condescended to by the Same.

Niggers and women are novelty acts.

>>2337302
She's cool. also, James Tiptree Jr (ofc there are like a billion other examples, just sayin', James Tiptree Jr was awesome as fuck)

>>2337352
agreed but unironically

>>2337355

oh, FUCK yeah. Forgot about her.
Only thing I've ever read of hers is "The Girl Who Was Plugged In", but it definitely left an impression.

wiki says it won a hugo for best novella.

>>2337367
i have to read all her stories in moderation because they're all completely depressing + about alienation & loneliness & death & sex & the fear of being ultimately alone and dead, except w/ aliens

so fucking rad. also, everyone totally thought she was a dude.

God Emperor of Dune was a horrible slog through 400 pages of worm-philosophy and was a definite step-down from the previous novels

>>2337350

that's one thing stephen king very badly needs to stop doing

the other is shoehorning dark tower mythos into unrelated books

>>2337296
> Ursula Le Guin.
> Good

She cannot into believable characters.

I read the first Earthsea book years ago, it was so-plodding and dull.

I've generally found that I hard relating to characters (male and female) written by female authors. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the story, but without being able to make a connection with the characters I find myself unable to enjoy a book. This maybe because I primarily read as a form of escapism and wish fulfillment.

The only fantasy novel written by a woman than I can remember enjoying off the top of my head was Dragonsong by McCaffrey.

Also, since this thread is about getting shit off your chest. Fantasy novels are just romance novels for men. Anyone who says otherwise is a faggot.

>>2337401
And modern American literary fiction novels are romance novels for Jews.

>>2337401
>Also, since this thread is about getting shit off your chest. Fantasy novels are just romance novels for men. Anyone who says otherwise is a faggot.

Well, I mean, some of them are. Many of them. Certainly many of the most popular fantasy novels are. But there are some fantasy novels that have legitimate worth (in the same way that there are novels about romance which have real literary merit).

>>2337380


Check out Peter Watts' novel "Starfish"

nothing has come close to depressing me since reading that. clinically depressed abuse-cases stationed at the bottom of the sea, being exposed to constant sensory deprivation and going through stress atavism? fuck yeah!

>Any fantasy or sci-fi novel written by a woman is going to be awful. They're almost always about faux-empowered sluts.
You've obviously never read Neuromancer.

>>2337410
William Gibson is a dude, dude.

There is no such thing as high or low literature. All art is a waste of time.

>>2337406
oh god damn aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

>>2337409
ugh i've been meaning to read him for a while but he just seems like such a chore. i should really read blindsight though.

>>2337412
Yep, I was talking about the empowered sluts.

>>2337416

Actually, I really really enjoyed Starfish.

Phillip K Dick has great ideas but is a hell of a shitty writer. Cliche and amateur.

I purposely read lesser known and obscure works.

I adore sites that list under-appreciated and neglected authors for that reason.

I don't completely ignore the established popular classics, but I'm much more motivated to buy a book when it has only a handful of reviews on Amazon.

Any fantasy or sci-fi novel written by a man is going to be awful. They're almost always about faux-empowered image of what neckbeards desire to be.

I like fantasy and sci-fi I don't read new books in either genre.

I usually just go to used book stores and get cheap copies of esteemed genre writers from decades ago.

>>2337443

Same here.

I don't get the obsession of reading novels. I do it from time to time, but anyone not primarily reading non-fiction is scum.

>>2337457

yokel or engineer

not /lit/ material, at any rate

>>2337457

funny.
I feel the same way about anyone who reads non-fiction.

>>2337447

The key difference being that the faux-empowered man is moral, the faux-empowered woman is ammoral. lol?

>>2337461
>reading about facts is wrong
Oh /lit/, never change

>>2337465

reading about all the facts you want but calling people "scum" for having different taste than yours is pretty lame and petty

>>2337472
I'm not that guy you daft tit.

>>2337472
>anon is one person
u fukd up

>>2337465

>read works of opinion
>think they represent factual information

hahahahaha

>>2337473

you lack the same social skills, so w/e

>>2337476
>Trying to assess social skills through a 4chan post
>>>/soc/
>>2337475
The post said 'about facts' you moron.

>>2337475
>reads completely made up shit, stuff taken from the wind
>still manages to feel superior to those who read about the World itself and the opinions of the people in it

>has never read The Handmaid's Tale.

>>2337491
>implying fiction doesn't illustrate concepts through narrative

>>2337493
As a Canadian, I have a well-developed reflex that forces me to swat any Margaret Atwood book in my presence to the ground.

>>2337491

>believes the world consists of anything other than completely made-up shit
>can't come to terms with the fact that he is already living in a fantasy world, so can't enjoy other fantasy worlds

I dunno...

I, uh, really enjoy Stieg Larrsson's series?

I love the Song of ice and fire series but I can't help but thinking that George RR Martin will die of a heart attack before The Winds of Winter ever gets submitted for publishing... GRRM

>>2337502
>subscribes to anarcho-leftist ideas (are you twelve?) >cannot come into terms with how bizarre and interesting, and Real, the real world is
>feels the need to read about the collective harry potters in what's-its-name lands
Scum.

>>2337517
>ignores the fact that the only remotely coherent models of physics find no distinction between perception and reality
>keeps ignoring it
>WHY WON'T IT GO AWAY ;_;

Don't have a doctorate in mathematics or theoretical physics? Turns out that YOU are the very scum you despise. Bye now, kiddo.

>>2337510

He's put a Theon chapter from Winds of Winter on his website.

Stannis is still being a five-star badass in the North, the letter at ADwD is probably a fake as he will likely get Manderly to convince the Boltons he is dead so they can take Winterfell

I read all of the Hunger Games novels this past week. I kind of enjoyed them.

>>2337522
>>2337522
Maybe I'll go and get me a degree in theoretical physics then, sounds pretty interesting disclipine, now that I think about it. Go read you harry potters in the meanwhile, ”kiddo”.

>>2337232
I'm switching to a STEM degree, because the more I study literature and criticism and theory, the sillier it all seems.
I really do love reading and writing, though.

I like Stephen King and Harry Potter.

Greco-Roman poetry and gangsta rap are basically the same thing.

>>2337548

>My uni doesn't offer a degree in theoretical physics. The field must not exist at all!

Thanks for proving my point.
I'll enjoy my fantasy worlds, you can enjoy yours kiddo. The difference between us? I know what's fantasy.

>>2337560
You mean they're both gay?

>>2337564
That is the biggest non sequitur I'v seen in my life.

I'm getting a theoretical degree in theoretical physics from my school (which may or may not exist, depending on the state of the observer) so I too can enjoy fantasy worlds. Escapism is not easy.

Overindulgent self-inserts will almost always make me put the book down.

I hate people who hate fantasy (Harry Potter, Tolkien, GRRM, etc) because it is unrealistic but then gush over surrealist and magical realist fiction.

>>2337606

10/10

Would be mocked by again.

>>2337307

Boy, do I have the book for you!

The Myth of Sisyphus is overrated although I love Camus.

that greentext fight was the dumbest thing I've ever read. Mutually so.

Andre Norton?

Patrick Rothfuss is a hack and The Wise Man's Fear is the the most overrated piece of crap I've read in years. Calling it Twilight for boys would be a compliment IMHO.

>Monkey make sound.
>Monkey hear sound.
>Monkey think of banana he ate once.
>Monkey sad, remember happy.

this thread just proves that /lit/ is populated by dickless males and feminazis who are out to disprove a statement that's largely true

>inb4 Starcraft is sexist because ~99% of Starcraft players in tournaments are men

>>2337871
>Dickless males
>males
>penis metaphors
>not a 5th grader
>it's a body part, not an ethos

>>2337874
well, if I'd been so inclined, I would have said "males who are ashamed of being born with a penis", because that's what feminists have done to men

>>2337876
That's what feminists have done to you apparently.

I don't care if it's entry level, there's no better dystopian book. I don't care if BNW applies to today better than 1984 did, it was a warning, not a prediction.

>>2337880
nope, I'm labeled a "misogynist" for refusing to be made to feel ashamed for being born how I was

There is a delightful irony in how bigoted modern feminists are.

>>2337884
check out "We" by zevgeny zamyatim. I'm not saying it's better, but it's pretty the original template for both Brave New World and 1984 and dystopian fiction as we know it.

>>2337886
The irony is one sex caring about what the other sex thinks about the first sex. Male is not female, and vice-versa. To know both is to be free. To know one is to be normal. To know neither is to be God.

>I don't care if BNW applies to today better than 1984 did

It doesn't though.

Both apply.

>>2337894

>>2337886
lol yr probably too socially inept to even be considered a misogynist
thus is /lit/

>>2337895
this is super true and proves that modern day relevancy does not always equal a better work.
still liked 1984 way more.

Whenever I write, my fear and admiration for black cock creeps into my stories, and they end up being half about racial dichotomy. I know this sounds like a typical stupid 4chan post, but I swear to god it's true.

>>2337903
lol this is best the def post on /lit/ i've seen in a week.
the pathos is imposing.

>>2337895

Seen it before, did not click.

Both paradigms apply, it depends on your social status and location. The poor are treated like the proles in 1984, the wealthy are the party, but they have a life closer to that ot BNW, distracted by endless consumer trinkets and increasingly medicated by the state.

>>2337896
>insult
>>2337874
>doesn't work
>insult
>>2337880
>doesn't work
>insult
>>2337896
>doesn't work

You are so cute when you think you're arguing.

>>2337907
At this point, I'm just rolling with it, because I don't know how else to deal with the problem, if it is a problem. Maybe I can be known as the writer who fetishizes black dick.

>>2337915
Trying way too hard.

>>2337922
what's the retort equivalent to "u mad, bro?" for feminists?

>>2337925

>>2337925
Dunno. Maybe women are just mad that they're born with an absence. Or maybe Freud was retarded.

>>2337936
both?

The Wheel of Time isn't that bad when you're comparing it against other popular series. It is only bad when comparing it against the real best of the genre. Even still, most of the books are fun for what they are.

Count of Monte Cristo > D'artagnan Romances

Most biographies fucking suck

Almost all new nonfiction-journalistic style books are fucking garbage (Thomas Friedman, the book about Henrietta Lacks, that Moonwalking book about memory, etc etc)

Reading series that won't finish for another 10+ years is fucking stupid

>>2337241

And why ? They're more a way to explorate the right and the wrong, and they're more realistic character since they're not stuck in one type of morality.

All the recent Hugo winners I've read have been total disappointments.

The only contemporary sci-fi I enjoy is either anime/manga or comics.

>>2337415
everything is a waste of time. it's why we were put on this earth.

>>2337457
you learn more about human experience and morality from fiction than you ever will reading science .

>>2337840
the fall is his best and most underrated work. yes better than the stranger

>>2337959

Except they don't, and they aren't. They're written by bitter neckbeards to make strawman examples of traditional morality and social structures look ridiculous, while allowing them the means to live vicariously through them as some sort of Snake Pliskin type. They're usually less realistic because they're built on a thin conceit.

>>2337840
article semi related. just thought it was interesting

http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/books/82555/camus-the-jew/

>>2337510
GRRM told the HBO people the end of the series. At least we get to know who wins if he dies

I hate that any interesting female character is usually written off as a "man with boobs" by some whiny feminist cunt because "lol a man could have done the same thing".

These people want interesting female characters, but whenever they get one with any depth or moral direction, they just bitch because she falls outside of their pre-approved list of stereotypical female personality traits.

I'm so disillusioned with higher education.

I was expecting to actually learn something about literature, but all I got was a bunch of latino-marxist-queer theory bullshit.

Instead of broadening my Horizons, /lit/ has actually made me more narrow-minded and cynical.

>>2338349
>I was expecting to actually learn something about literature

I can't imagine what led you to believe that.

>>2338328
>I hate that any interesting female character is usually written off as a "man with boobs" by some whiny feminist cunt because "lol a man could have done the same thing".

Accuse them of being gender-essentialist. Their heads will explode.

>>2338430

>>2338349
>2012
>thinking schools are places of learning

they have been marxist indoctrination camps for like the last 60 years

>>2338477

maybe if you're a big capitalist crybaby

>>2338477
yeah, they should be Leninist.

I feel your pain.

>>2338349
>>2338477

>2012
>not studying hard science

>>2338525

wrong board

>>2338530
>2012
>trying to be quentin
>pretending nazi's were atheists

>>2337895
This is entirely dependant on which county you're in though

>>2338530

>implying I can't enjoy literature without an education in it

You /lit/erates and your "durr engineer"

I think literary experts arguing over various forms of literature are the same thing as ten-year-olds arguing over the best character in Mortal Kombat.

Read what you want to read and enjoy it. If you don't like it, don't read it.

I read Left Hand of Darkness over Christmas. While there were no faux-empowered sluts, there were a lot of veiled jabs at masculinity without any balanced reflection on the feminine.