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/lit/ - Literature

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[ERROR] No.5067464 [Reply] [Original]

What do you guys think of jonathan safran foer? I know he gets a lot of mixed reviews, so I'm curious about the board's opinion. I personally enjoyed everything is illuminated and extremely loud

>> No.5067536

He doesn't do much of anything new. It's a lot of modern and postmodern techniques, and EL&IC owes a lot to Vonnegut. That said, I think his use of blank space is wonderful. Like how he showed what Oscar's grandmother wrote in her memoir. A similar thing occurs in Tree of Codes. While reading it, you see the words about to appear and you get these impressions that transcend noveltime. Personally, I love him. His work is easy to study to point out these techniques. I don't think he's going into the canon, but he's nice to have around.

>> No.5067541

>>5067464
I read Everything is Illuminated when it was still relatively new. I thought it was great, but /lit/ always writes him off as hipster bullshit.

>> No.5067546

He's a gimmicky vegan pussy that writes books which play it safe.

>> No.5067568

>>5067541
If you read it again, now, your opinion would deplete like cray-cray.

It's almost like it's an enormous secret that shit looks good through the lens of naivete. People will say crap like "oh man, that was amazing when I read/saw it 10 years ago."

Well, take a fresher look. It won't be so amazing.

>> No.5067577

>>5067568
are you talking about literature in general, or everything is illuminated in particular

>> No.5067580

>>5067536
hmmm.. what does he borrow from vonnegut? i really enjoy vonnegut and didn't pick up the similarities. this obviously isn't saying much as i didn't look to make these connections

>> No.5067621

>>5067580
EL&IC, like Slaughterhouse Five, is a book about trauma. Both involve Dresden. Both have forms of timetravel. It's been a while since I've read either, so I'm trying to find my notes.

>> No.5067722
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>>5067580
>>5067621
Oscar is also a baby.

>> No.5067731
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>>5067580
>>5067621
>>5067722
Tomas lost his voice dealing with his trauma. He has all these words and phrases he reuses which vaguely connect with so it goes/poo-tee-tweet.

>> No.5067740
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>>5067731
>>5067722
>>5067621
>>5067580
One last thing, Oscar is probably on the autistic spectrum, which connects to Billy Pilgram's schizophrenia.

>capt: uncorrelated simish

>> No.5067813

>>5067740
>Oscar is probably on the autistic spectrum, which connects to Billy Pilgram's schizophrenia.

that sounds like the type of bullshit an undergrad makes up to pad out an essay.

>> No.5067895

>>5067813
Which part is bullshit? The way Oscar talks, the precise calculations he makes and his lie counting could point to autism. Or maybe he's just a weird kid. Vonnegut flat-out tells us Billy's schizophrenic, "a novel in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner." And if you're reading literature as a history of ideas, themes, motifs, etc., then having a protagonist with a psychological problem that directly plays into the novel's themes and development is a connection.

>> No.5067902

>>5067895
I think you're missing the biggest connection between SH5 and Foer's book - they're both shit.

>> No.5068071

>>5067813
hahahaha you're a dumbass