/lit/ - Literature

post the /pol/ poster

>>5095137
half of those aint even popular anymore
just goes to show that for all the bitching about whatever new book being the death of literature, shit books generally just get forgotten

>>5095137

>kids books have limited literary merit
Aren't you so cool for pointing that out

>>5095216
Was "Switched" ever popular? First time I've ever seen it

>>5095360
>dat filename

>>5095373
Anon, I've seen adults reading half of these at my job...

>>5095137
Most of these are written by women. Just sayin'.
Make your own conclusions.

>>5095137
Why is Stirner not on that list?

The Hunger Games is about as good as it has ever been for absolute entry level popular fiction. It is refreshing to see children and people that rarely read anything pick up and finish The Hunger Games.

>>5095137
What's so bad about Game of Thrones?
Because it's popular now?

>>5095703
I'm guessing it has to do more with the uninventive prose. I tried reading a bit, and found Martin's style to be mind-numbingly boring.

>>5095137
Wasn't Eragon written by Underaged B&?
Like, literally written by a socially awkward, autistic adolescent about his edgy make believe fantasy world?

>>5095733

yeah. and his daddy owned a publishing house

>>5095627
Because we'd see Kierkegaard listed well before

>>5095734
Can we count that as self publishing?

>>5095703
>>5095725
pic related

>>5095137
I've read 4/12 of those.

>>5095738
I guess so. It didn't really take off until it got republished by Knopf though

>>5095735
Stop being dogmatic, butterface

>>5095733
I still think he was nothing but a product of his literature agent parents.

>You know what honey, we have this kid sitting here doing nothing but playing computer games, we could make some serious money with him
>What do you mean?
>Like, we'll slap together a fantasy series for kids - don't worry about the work, we'll just rip off Star Wars and Lord of the Rings - we'll pretend it was him, we'll market him as a precocious genius, we'll have him finish school early and have him travel and promote the book, we'll start a publishing company! People will lap it up, they love shit
>brilliant, I get my buddies in the movie industry together, we'll make a movie series, we'll be rich!

Thus: Eragon.

>>5095750

That kid was a huge 'tist, though, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually wrote it. Some parts of the serious are too hilarious to have been written with anything but sincerity. Also hairless elf groins.

I never took note of the names of that one fantasy series by this semi-attractive woman. All the covers are just horrible

>>5095759
Samantha Shannon, Bone Season?

>>5095740
>people honestly think that he's comparable to Tolkien

>>5095756
I think the most realistic one was that the kid did write most of it, and the parents that what he wrote ticked all the boxes.
I mean, if you live with your parents and both work in the publishing industry you can't tell me they won't constantly meddle with your work.

>>5095768
Tolkien is the acceptable face of fantasy. People will invariably liken fantasy they like to Tolkien so as to not look like the worst sort of socially retarded nerd.

See: Eragon
>oh this book is really great
>y-yes it has dragons
>I-It's nearly as good as Tolkien, I swear!

>>5095749
He started it.

And if he, or anyone, here takes any of this seriously... Well lol on them.

>>5095763
Nope. Never heard of that one. One cover is a lousy illustration of a female head. Was it a medusa or could she just not draw hair?

>>5095779
>Misplaced comma.

>>5095768

Tolkien used goofy onomatopoeia too, you know. I've never really been sure why that passage is used to illustrate GRRM being a bad writer, it is not exactly one of the most cringeworthy moments in ASOIAF. Someone post Myrish swamp.

>>5095779
Samantha Shannon is that English girl who got a publishing/film deal without even writing anything and she was still in University. Only 22.

I was seriously looked down upon by people for criticising this book a few years ago

>tfw all the hot girls at school read divergent

>>5095137
should add Harry Potter and Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks.

I work in a children's library and it pains me every time I see one taking out a terrible book (at least they're reading though. Remember, they're just gateway books...just gateway books). The best feeling is seeing a kid take out White fang or other top tier books.

>>5095867
My friend was that sort of kid. Read Harry Potter, Eragon, Lord of the Rings. Now he's an adult and he has read Game of Thrones and a lot of his book collection is fantasy/modern military guff.

Anyone read this series? It's pretty terribly written and is a god awful modernisation of fairy tales but... I really like it, help me /lit/...

>>5095826
This book is a terrible misrepresentation of kids with autism and that's the only reason it became as successful as it did.

>>5095906
I just hated the main character

>>5095908
He was an autistic cunt.

>>5095919
He was but it wasn't the autistic part that bothered me, he was just a dick.

>>5095935
Because of the autism, yes.

>>5095740

The only thing wrong with this passage is the onomatopoeia.

>>5095783

... because those who post it have never actually read the books, so they don't know there are legitimately cringeworthy passages in the series -- mainly regarding sex.

ASOIAF is well-written on the whole. Critics agree on this point; only 2smrt4u highschool senior sperglords on 4chan ever try to dispute it.

>>5095963

>well-written on the whole

ehhhh. I'd characterize Martin's prose as mostly unremarkable with occasional moments of oh shit nigger what are you doing. I can think of maybe one passage in the entirety of ASOIAF that I felt was conspicuously well-written, it's the septon's shtick about "war is bad kids" in AFFC. I guess in context of NYT-bestselling fantasy, that constitutes being well-written, but I would say it's written just well enough to convey its plot and thematic content and nothing more.

>>5095974

It's certainly unremarkable, yes; but it's a practiced, entirely competent unremarkable.

For instance, I find him a much neater writer than Stephen King.

I have never read any of the SOIAF books, large ongoing epics scare me. Would /lit/ recommend reading it? It's not dry politics filled as critics make it out to be is it?

>>5095963
>Critics agree on this point

Can you point me to some respectable critics saying this? I can't find anything, except from kids on Goodreads.

>>5095985

I wouldn't say it is dry. It is sprawling and will very possibly never be finished, but it's earthy in tone and has at least a couple of good plot twists in it. I would say the biggest problem with it is that Martin while competent writer isn't really good enough at writing that you won't get at least a little sick of him after 2000 pages. He has a tendency to fall back on stock phrases (mayhaps niello nipples on a breastplate could not tell who had the cock and who the cunt words are wind nuncle) and his attempts at writing in high-fantasy diction backfire about as often as they work. But it is still pretty decent read if you like fantasy.

>>5095137
GRRM is completely out of place there. Wheel of Time would slot in nicely instead.

>>5095740
This gave me a queasy feeling in the stomach if you know what I mean.
I mean it's shit.

>>5095474
whatever u think of them, 50 shades and got are not kid's books

>>5095703
It's so extremely dull and boring

>>5096797

Obviously that's a minority opinion.

>>5095779
>Medusa
Got you covered anon. The name is Gloria Tesch.

>>5095735
is being a caustic fedora in response to people being mean to you here or did it come first

is this what you really think about kierkegaard

>>5095137
>Game of Thrones
>on the same level as Eragon, Twilight and 50 Shades

>>5096979
Seriously. It isn't Dostoevsky but it's not shitcore, if it wasn't made into such a shit tv show then no one would hate it so vehemently.

What's wrong with Eragon? I never read it before, but surely it can't be that bad. It has maps and a fictional language and everything.

>>5097000
lel
It's basically Star Wars taking place in LotR.

>>5097008
I've heard of this criticism and I'm not too bothered because Star Wars isn't entirely a bastion of originality either. Are there problems with the prose? The characters? The dialogue?

>>5097000

>>5097229
This has to be a joke.

>>5097011
Yeah, there is a bit where he has a page and a half long sentence, he swallowed a dictionary when it comes to describing speech and in general his descriptions of irrelevant objects are florid paragraphs without direction or future importance that litter the work and spread it to three times the length it could be.

Also the plot sucks, the characters suck, and it literally is Star Wars plot in a LOTR setting.

>>5095784

She was at Oxford or something, continuing to prove that the OxBridge connection is doing a lot to ruin British society.

>>5096891
So are you saying that if there is a majority opinion that it's automatically right? I say this because you're trying to discredit that guy's opinion simply because it's "the minority."

>>5095137
Didn't realise NoTW was considered pleb here. I thought it had some quite clever bits in it, for a fantasy series at least

>>5095373
>50 shades
>ASOIAF
>kids books

I find it disheartening that despite being horrble these authors have confidently put more words to page than I ever will.

>>5096901
That's the one. Obvious "shitcore"

>>5097498
I would not call it shitcore, but it lacked badly in the character and plot swiftness department

>>5096901
Did you just call a filthy, namefagging, shitposting cunt of a whore anon? Get fucked.