/lit/ - Literature

I hang on his every word.

>>4970949
And he hangs on a rope.

I like his most recent work, his Infinite Rest.

>>4970955
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Awesome, sometimes genius non-fiction, convoluted/boring fiction

>>4970953
Das der Joke m8

404 talent not found

>>4970960
>Awesome, sometimes genius non-fiction

Patently false.

The usual circle for anything popular on 4chan:

>people discover thing, many of them like it
>they start talking about thing a lot
>like, a lot
>it becomes the non plus ultra of everything for them
>other people get annoyed by thing because it is talked about so much
>other people start shitting on thing
>people liking thing become less and less
>thing is now hated and declared absolutely worthless
>whenever someone tries to see something positive in thing, he is shat on by everyone

Every board has something like this, and for /lit/ it is DFW.

>>4970984
Completely wrong. Go back to /tv/

>>4970984
that's just /tv/, neckbeard

4u

>>4970968
What is your purpose in life?

>>4970989
>>4970992
I have never been to /tv/ for more than a few minutes, but the fact that you instantly had an example in mind only proves my point.

i get all chocked up just thinking about him

>>4971003
He got pretty choked up as well.

>>4970998
>The fact that it happens in A means that it definitely happens in B.
No

>>4970984
You're confused.

It's more like this:
--People talk about thing a lot
--It seems everyone likes it, because only those who've read/seen it and like it are apt to post about it
--Other board users check out said thing
--Many do not like it
--Dislikers use their new experience with said thing as basis for negative posts

Nobody gives a shit if it's talked about, genius. They give a shit if it sucks.

>>4971006
Fuck off

>>4971008
I described a formula based on my experience on four or five boards. Sure, the fact it occures on other boards is not a proof, but atleast a strong hint.

>>4971013

>>4971017
My apologies, but /lit/ is above such things. Fag.

>>4971035
>/lit/ is above such things

David Foster Wallace was a young man who, for various reasons, felt an incredible need to impress others and show that he was extremely intelligent.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, he was born at a time when postmodernism and the "it's hip to be young" mantra became popular simultaneously, and so David worked extremely hard to publish a book at a young age, which was pretty much all head and no heart.

Understanding that his lack of sentiment or single-entendre, non-ironic writing was more of a problem than it was a solution (i.e. to modernism and cultural doxas which needed to be criticized) he then struggled to combine the two (sentiment and pointy-headed metafiction) in a way that made the reader aware of the artificiality of the text but still invested in it enough to have real, human emotions as a result of reading it.

But so self-aware and in-the-know was DFW in terms of advertising, brands and the art of selling yourself to others, that his whole schtick became a kind of faux sincerity, both in writing and in his personality, which really masked an "I'm a fraud" conviction, as well as severe self-loathing, which only became more intense the more sincerely metaironic he tried to be.

Unwilling to drop the metafictional stunts, which would have cost him the ability to show his readership, who he wanted above all to impress, that he was a genius, DFW seemed to have decided that he was no longer hip, and that his art could not survive in the coming era of non-metafictional sincerity, in which the reader has already grown up with metafiction and a culture of hollow cleverness, and is longing for something more.

He also dragged his sister through dog shit one time

>>4971081
So he was pretty stupid, then?

>>4971287
He was good at making others think highly of him, less so at thinking highly of himself

>>4971305
You're inadvertently describing his core problem. His entire motivation was what others thought of him and how he came off to other people instead of writing for himself and the joy.

He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and I would have bought him a beer and talked to him about anything.

This is Water is, in my mind, his greatest achievement.

He comes across as painfully self-conscious in interviews.

I like him and just discovered him recently since I'm not really into modern lit. Been reading IJ.

Ended up watching like eight hours of videos/interviews on Youtube. He's hilarious. He's sperger I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know self-awareness wrapped around itself and sucking its own dick like it's Aristotle's godhead. Seems to come across a lot in IJ.

>>4971336
>the joy

*tips fedora*

>>4971350
You're so wrong it's not even funny.

If you think This Is Water is anything but 90's/naughties Self Help lit condensed into one patronizing, naive lecture then you're more retarded than I care to acknowledge

>>4971395
>this nigga doesn't understand the capital t Truth

>>4971391
>being this edgy
I suggest that you start writing for yourself. Notning serious. Just some scribbling with pen and paper. It's fun! :D

>>4971395
>patronizing
>naive
The worst of two worlds.

>>4970984
This isn't true. The other day we had a pretty interesting discussion about DFW's "Oblivion".

Threads titled: "X's thoughts on Y?" will inevitably attract shitposters.

People pls recommend DFW works outside of IJ. Maybe an order of reading or short descrips. Doesn't have to be systematic, just looking for recs.

>>4971476
Oblivion for short stories, Consider The Lobster for essays.

>>4971476
Get the audiobook of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. The interviews need to be heard to make sense, and DFW does a good job at expressing his feelings through his reading.

Also, Forever Overhead is beautiful.

>>4970945
I think he was a pretty good writer. Overhyped by a few, but all in all nearly everything he wrote 1990 or later is worth checking out. Also, IJ is hugely important to the modern fiction scene (if only because people think it's important, which makes it become important).

>>4971350
>This is Water is, in my mind, his greatest achievement.
pic related

>>4971476
I did Brief Interviews → Oblivion → Infinite Jest → The Pale King for his fiction (Broom and Girl aren't as important/good), and it worked well for me.

>people dismissing Broom of the System

You either haven't read it or you're 2square4me

For a 22/23 year old to come up with that is amazing

>>4970945
The Essay 'A Supposedly Funny Thing I'll Never Do Again' is probably his funniest work. Just thinking about DFW inquiring his waiter about fin shapes, and strip searching his entire room to find out just how they manage to clean his room without him noticing makes me giggle.

>>4971750
>For a 22/23 year old to come up with that is amazing
Right, and it's not even a bad book, but just because it's impressive for someone that young doesn't mean it's comparable in quality to his clearly superior later writing.

>>4971778
Didn't say it was, but dismissing at as not worthy of attention is retarded in my opinion

It includes analysis of Derrida, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, the list goes on...

>>4971573
I fucking hate his voice, he sounds like some college kid and I can't take him seriously.

Also, when reading the tone of the stories seems way too different from when it's spoken. On the page if feels urgent, when read it's just banal shit.

>>4970945


he kinda looks like daniel jackson.

>>4972776
JAFFA

KREE