/lit/ - Literature

oh my god i agree! :D don't worry op, you really do have friends outside of your miserable existence as a loser trying to get guys on image boards to go and say 'omg i luv u 2 [insert emoticon]'. OMG LETS HUG I MEAN IT.

fucking loser.

>This is honestly the best board on 4chan
There are Chuck Palahniuk and Robert fucking Jordan threads right there on the front page. Right now, /t/ is more educated-looking than /lit/.

Sieg Heil OP!

op, this is a shithole and we all hate each other are you sure you have the right place

Definitely my favourite place to kill time. I just wish the forum was a little faster.

>>2370164
No we don't. It's called having an opinion. Everyone here has developed critical thinking skills an has an opinion of their own. Which means that people here think, unlike on other boards. If you don't like it here, then go to /r9k/ or some other shit hugbox board.

>if not intelligent then people concerned with appearing intelligent, and I'm fine with that too.
So you're fine with that kind of person, Tao Lin, Ayn Rand, DFW, endless homework threads, endless recommend-me-some-sci-fi/fantasy threads, but you don't like me?
Too genuine for you?

Just curious.

>>2370164
What's even funnier is those pedophiles on /tv/ absolutely buy these thread. Just eat them up, trying to convince one another they haven't reached the apex of humanity's woefulness through the art of disney tween flavor of the month waifu threads. Its weird to think there are fat men with crusty penis cheese sending each other ':3' on a daily basis.

>>2370170
>Everyone here has developed critical thinking skills

not even

>If you don't like it here, then go to /r9k/ or some other shit hugbox board.

just because it's a shithole and everyone hates each other doesn't mean it's no pretty much the best place on the internet to discuss literature

>>2370174
I don't know, you're a troll and I can't tell when you're being serious or not.

realtalk for a moment, i really do enjoy posting on this board. it's a hell of a place.

>>2370185
When I joke I think its rather transparent, but I am normally being quite genuine.
I don't pretend to be the smartest person in the world, but I try to help out...

>>2370201
So do you like DFW or not?

>>2370211
Is that like a secret club that we all belong to? Jesus. Stop using DFW like a motherfucking litmus test.

>>2370216
a secret club? dfw is a famous bestseller. he's pretty much kurt cobain for the book crowd, it's probably just a friendly question.

Everybody I've had the displeasure of communicating with who says they don't like DFW inevitably ends up being a nincompoop.

I posit it's because they have the attention spans of goldfish and are unable to focus long enough to finish one of his sentences.

>>2370216
excuse me but what is a motherfucking litmus test

>>2370228
It's not their fault, it's ADD's fault.

>>2370228
DFW is fucking garbage, pretentious bullshit, hurr i can write lots of big words look at my "prose"
what? you don't enjoy my book? well, you are just a pleb with bad taste!

>>2370228
i have add and i love dfw

don't blame the disease dawg

>>2370230
No it's their fault.
DFW's quick, intelligent prose keeps the attention of the worst ADHD-sufferers, and the themes in Infinite Jest of revolt, of going back to zero, of anti-consumerism are universal, accessible and desperately needed in the world we live in today.

>>2370233
hahaha oh god how pretentious can you actually be?

>>2370230
Why'd he have to kill himself? He looks so happy there.

>>2370238
he knew his books would never become popular until he killed himself.

>>2370239
I'm sure some people have actually done that. Which is terribly sad.

This is now a DFW thread!

>>2370241
Joy Division would have never become famous had Ian Curtis not killed himself.

You ever notice how /lit/ gets really shitty when the americans wake up?

>>2370233

Agreed. Furthermore, the cohort of cretins who insults DFW for being 'pretentious', simply are making gaudy displays of their incomptence (though of course they don't realize this being that they are incomptent).

I'm somewhat at loss for explaining how exactly DFW ever earned the qualification 'pretention'. Nobody would call quantum physics pretentious. They wouldn't call calculus pretentious. They don't understand these things, but they accept their validity, and yet they call DFW pretentious. Has it never occured to them, in their blighted worldviews, that DFW is so far beyond them that it is though they are living in flatland and he has appeared to them in all his glorious sphereicality?

>>2370251

As an aside, it's also blatantly false that his writing is ALL complex. He does throw bones to his stupid readers. Unfortunately their minds are on auto pilot. This is standard operating procedure of course. If they can't be bothered to think in real life then you can't expect them to suddenly become animate when reading a book. But I suppose they fail to notice all the colloquialisms, common turns of phrase/slang in his work....

>>2370254

I'll add too that DFW, being omniscient as he is, as already pre-empted the criticism of him being a pretentious twit. See, for example, his non-fiction essay on the Illinois State Fair.

>>2370256
People who haven't had a chance to read DFW's nonfiction are seriously missing out. I prefer it to his fiction, and I completely love IJ and Pale King.

It's a tie between McCain, Porno Convention, Cruise Ship, and Country Fair for the top spot. Lobster too famous to count.

>>2370251
>>2370254

David Foster Wallace is always neurotic, and always scared shitless of how is work will be perceived, and it shows. He didn't use words because they were the best possible ones to convey his intention - he used words because they would bamboozle limited thinkers into believing they were reading lofty, great art. What ends up happening with DFW is that his prose is so obnoxiously stilted that every sentence is like a clumsy fall down the stairs.
Not only that, but he was a failure. He was a tortured soul who battled with depression for years. With writing he was always trying to be something he isn't. Infinite Jest is pretentious because DFW was perpetuating his books as "deep" without actually feeling that way himself. Appearing artistic for the sake of appearing artistic. Dude couldn't write a character for his new book, so instead of asking for help, he tried to ween himself off his meds.
It's also kinda funny how all of you guys made up DFW to be some kind of a god or super deity or something really otherworldly when he was in fact just an ordinary guy just as any of us are. He lacked in talent so he tried to make up with pretentiousness and footnotes.
Plus he was a fan of tennis which means that he enjoyed weak, mortal and material pleasures just as the rest of the human race does. Plus he killed himself, which just confirms this. He was weak.

Also, whenever someone tells you that DFW is a good, or something similar feel free to copypaste this.

>>2370264
DFW is funny, and he's sincere, and he speaks out against cunts like Brett Easton Ellis. I'm down with this dude completely.

>>2370264

fuckingthread/

>>2370233
>reading way too much into it
I don't think that DFW is that deep

>>2370264

>Also, whenever someone tells you that DFW is a good, or something similar feel free to copypaste this.

How pathetic.

So I have never opened a copy of Infinite Jest, but I know from lurking /lit/ that it's verbose...
Would reading DFW's works be of benefit to my hungry mind in terms of vocabulary?

>>2370276
well sure

>>2370264
>2012
>DFW
>saying that hes not a god
ISHYGDDT

>mfw every thread on /lit/ eventually turns into a DFW thread

>>2370264

The level of detail in his writing, which is really what you're caviling about, has little to do with pretentiousness. People nowadays have become used to imprecise language, and so when someone comes along who is willing and able to speak accurately it tends to confound them. DFW held conservative values and he was a stickler for minor points, but merely because he sometimes takes a clinical, nuanced approach to his writing doesn't mean he's pretentious. Nor do the abundance of footnotes, which, it's worthing noting, are much less frequently deployed in his later work. They provide an additional level of insight, a further probding beyond the surface, and they shed light on intricacies of character that otherwise might be glossed over in the story. Infinite Jest is a case in point. Is every footnote necessary? Arguably not, or at least I didn't find them all interesting, particularly that ones about the drugs. But some of the richest material in the whole book comes in the footnotes and they take you places that are utterly foreign in literature, but yet intensely personal. Orin's conversations with Hal on the bed come to mind, as well as the scene about the student writing a paper on the Wheelchair Assassins. You'll never hear anyone of the cavilers about DFW mention this though because they are not paying attention to it. They're not getting the immediate, intoxicating jolts of satisfaction they're accustomed to so they give up and miss it.

Also, you mentioned tennis. Are you aware that he wrote about tennis? Are you aware that he wrote about Roger Federer? And are you aware that he basically canonized Roger Federer as a saint in that essay? As someone, who if not entirely godly, was at least a Hercules among men? Wallace was reverent in many aspects of his life, not least of all with tennis, and he was able to find something holy there. I would hardly say that the way he appreciated tennis was similar to the way most people do.

i always laugh at the part in infinite jest around pg 300 where troeltsch's endless quest to find more synonyms for "beat" is described

>>2370337
Can we copypaste this whenever some pretentious fag calls DFW pretentious or something similar?

>>2370216
>>2370334
Is it that time again?

poor DFW, what a way to go. forget cancer, depression is the worst disease.

>>2370337
he wrote about tennis because he was a shallow human being just like the 99% of the population who find pleasure and entertainment in watching other people running after the ball and hitting the same. human, all too human.

>>2370394
That comic is somehow confusing.
On the door it's written /lit/, implying that the bully enters /lit/'s room and beats the shit out of him.
On the other hand, the guy on the floor it's saying "NO, /lit/ NO!", implying that the bully is /lit/.

Then who was /lit/? The bully? The guy on the floor? Neither one? Both of them? Is this a post-modern comic, or what?

>>2370418
It's a bold statement about how the one that hurts us most is often ourselves. We, the people of /lit/, are self-devouring cannibals.

>>2370429

I'm pretty sure DFW has addressed this theme.

>>2370435
>>2370429
exactly.

same here op.

ever since i found /b/ ive been looking for amcivilised version that was still well populated. i tried sci tv mu and r9k before but lit is the most pleasant place to be. :)

>>2370251

That post was fucking AMAZING. The last line was had me laughing for literally almost 10 minutes. Jesus. Copied and pasted the thing into Word. I can't believe no-one has commented on it.

As for DFW, he wasn't the best writer ever, but he was very good. What saddens me as is how only Infinite Jest gets talked about, not GWCH, or The Pale King, or Oblivion: Stories. Fans fawn over him and how much they love him, after they've read Infinite Jest, then show their undying love by never reading anything else by him.

>>2370479
I (and many others, I guess) didn't feel the need to comment on that, because it was a straightforward reference to the main plot of a well-known book.

>>2370502

Wow, I feel so ignorant. I've never ever heard of that. Damn, his comment doesn't seem nearly so clever now...but still very funny.

Same here. I hardly go on 4chan anymore, but if I am here, it is for /lit/. Of course, there are times when I wonder why would anyone want everyone else to agree with them, but that's just Internet. Love you guys.

BTW, I misread the image's caption as 'you are all lonely people' and expected a trollfest... but no. Yet another proof of /lit/'s awesomeness.

Have a great day, y'all.

This might sound stupid, but was DFW a wigger?
What's with all the bandanas and shit?

>>2370479
>>2370502
>>2370505
I don't understand his comment. What was so clever about it, please explain?

>>2370518
Sunhawk liked this image:
>they are living in flatland and he has appeared to them in all his glorious sphereicality
It's a metaphor for comprehension and awe.

>>2370337
sounds excruciating. no wonder the hipsters flock to it.

>>2370174
>>2370211
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MENTION DFW, WHYYYY

>>2370264
>he was a fan of tennis which means that he enjoyed weak, mortal and material pleasures
>posts a picture of Camus the football fanatic

Just sayin'.

His nonfic was so much better. I consider his essays among the best things I'v read. His fiction, in contrast, was meh-y.

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>>2370605
What the fuck is this shit.
Everyone get the fuck out.
Reported.

Oh god. Infinite Jest has now completely moved into ITAOTS status.

>>2370334

it's the circle of /lit/

if you listen hard in these dying threads, you can almost hear elton heralding the requiem.

>>2370334

it's the circle of /lit/

if you listen hard in these dying threads, you can almost hear Elton heralding a tender requiem.

>>2370610
I honestly didn't expect this from someone like you. ;_;

That feel when I have never loved being on /lit/ more than the past 3 weeks: but now I'm sad and afraid.

Just like any golden age, it is short and sweet. Just like any relationship, or milk in the fridge, it will go sour at some point.

I hardly ever bring up 4chan /lit/ in my conversation with people, and whenever I have to, I just say "fooling around on the internet with a bunch of people".

What if we have a huge influx of shit from other boards coming here, to ruin our sanctuary?

If you guys think things are bad here, you are sorely mistaken. It's because your standards are so high, that you would get frustrated with a place like this. It's also the same standards that make this place so much fun.

/lit/, don't ever change on me....don't corrupt yourself....don't forget yourself.

>>2370637
>doesn't know about the board cycles
Stay new.

There are two types of people who don't like DFW:

>Super-try-hard metahipsters, trying to distance themselves from what they consider try-hard hipsters
>Plebs who can't handle his vocab and syntax

>>2370637
>That feel when I have never loved being on /lit/ more than the past 3 weeks

Seriously? The last three weeks have been awful. It's like people don't want to discuss books any more.

>>2370669
this

no, this >>2370637

Good thread, bump.

>>2370394
Oh man, please don't tell me that's DFW?

>>2371119

it is DFW.

>>2370151
I love you too, DFW.

>best board on 4chan
>civilized, educated and intelligent people

>>2370666
dfw?

>>2372176
>>2371275
>>2371199
>>2371119
Indeed!

D'awww, I love you too OP :3

bump

I like how this thread turned into a DFW thread, that's actually a good thing.

Friendly reminder that this thread is the ground zero that triggered our current wave of DFW

>>2370229
HOLD THE FUCK UP! THIS GUY ASKED A DAMN GOOD QUESTION!
ANON, QUIT SIMPLE. A LITMUS TEST IS USED TO TEST THE ACIDITY OF AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION BUT IN THIS CONTEXT IS A WAY TO DETERMINE IF SOMEONE IS OR ISN'T AN E/LIT/E. YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY SIR.

Hey guys
>>>/v/127865772

>>2375764

bump so true

>>2375764
Agreed! Even though that was never my intention.
But fuck it, DFW rules!