/lit/ - Literature

>>5391668

Pynchon.

>>5391668
This I can understand.

>>5391674
One in a generation.

>>5391673
What in the fuck were you thinking?

>>5391683

>>5391668
>Whitman
Not even in the top 20.

It's Faulkner, Melville, or Pynchon.

>>5391690
>It's Faulkner
This.

>>5391690
>>5391904
faulkner is a hack though. look at how shit light in august is and see how dependent he is on his gimmicks and writing about edgy topics

>>5391690

>>Whitman
>Not even in the top 20.

Don't be such a fucking idiot, kid.

Melville and Whitman come before all others.

Those two writers represent the spirit of America more than any others.

>>5391668

It's Melville, not much of a contest.

>>5391690
>Faulkner

Writer of corncobby chronicles. To consider them masterpieces is an absurd delusion. A nonentity

>>5391690
I like Faulkner, but there's no way he's the best. Maybe not even top 3.

>>5391909
The works usually regarded as his best don't hold up well. Absalom, Absalom is almost unreadable. Check out The Unvanquished--that's what got me into him.

>>5392618
>Absalom, Absalom is almost unreadable.

In other words, you're not qualified to discuss literature.

What about Steinbeck?

>>5391690
Faulkner wasn't an American writer, he was a Southern writer, and the best of them.

>>5392688
Idiot.

Faulkner
Steinbeck
Whitman
Melville
Pynchon
Salinger
Poe
Fitzgerald
Ralph Ellison
Dreiser

Are all that come to mind

>>5392694
>Pynchon

LOL

>>5391690

>Pynchon above Whitman

it's like you actually want everyone to know that you're a newreader

>>5392699
>>5392706
Pynchon is above Whitman. Even in Whitman's fantasies.

>>5392692
There's, or at least there was a major cultural distinction between the South and the rest of America. Writers like Zora Hurston, John Toole and Faulkner do a great job of capturing that, but you can hardly call them "the great American novelist"

>>5392694

>no mention of Henry James

Do we count Nabokov as an American writer? If so, he should be up there. Faulkner is still at the top for me.

>>5392709
LOL

>>5392709

look it's cool that you've recently taken to reading and all but you should reserve polemics until you actually have a clue

>>5392694
You forgot Eliot (if he counts)

>>5392713
But the South is part of the United States.

Faulkner is the best American novelist. Whitman and Melville are the best writers.

>>5392709

>the guy who wrote this turd
>above Whitman

I guess some people are fated to be plebs no matter how hard they try, lol.

>>5392715
He's a great writer from America, but when I think "American Novelist" he hardly comes to mind, most of his work is set in Europe.

>not Lovecraft
Plevs

>>5392730
Distinct culture. It's like calling a Irvine Welsh a great British writer when he's writing about Scotland.

>>5392741

What a supremely fine addition, good sir.

>>5392741
Books set in New England and space can't be called American novels.

>>5391683
tell me somebody else thinks he'scute

>>5392768
Looks like Dan Bilzerman

>>5392717
well, his most important works were written in english when he was living the american life, so yeah, he counts

>>5391668
I don't really think that there is a definitive "greatest writer", but I do believe that there is a top tier that includes the following:

William Faulkner
Herman Melville
John Steinbeck
Walt Whitman
Thomas Pynchon


It pains me to omit Frost, Dickinson, and James.

all y'all niggas is wrong. twain is king. bow. behind him? faulkner. behind him? capote. after that, it doesn't matter.

>>5392789
Twain is only king when it comes to his influence, not his skills as a writer.

>>5392794
that's fucking retarded.

Are you people fucking with me?

Mark Twain should at LEAST be top 5.

>>5392804
MAH NIGGA

'sup bitches

>>5392736
>if i hump this old stropher, it means i'm not a pleb!
>where was pynchon's writing in dead poets society???!!!!!!!!!!!!! nowhere!!!111111

Your judgment's clouded by the splooge irrelvant professors spunked all over your face.

>>5392812
no fucking way. if every anyone was overrated, it's ernest hemingway. in the words of capote, "he doesn't write. he types."

>>5392786
Exit Pynchon.
Enter Frost.

>>5392789

>twain is king. bow.

Melville laughs at your pleb shit.

Why do we judge American authors as if they have to write "American" books?

>>5391690
Melville - the first american fan fiction author

>>5392820
the fact that you mention melville makes you, assface, the pleb. melville is to well known, highly regarded literature as rand is to well known, highly regarded philosophy.

>>5392817
Didn't Capote say that about 'On The Road' though?

>>5392813

>???!!!!!!!!!!!!! nowhere!!!111111

It's amusing how upset you are right now.

But I'd imagine being forced to remember that the writer you're trying to advocate over Whitman wrote something as laughable as "Bleeding Edge" would be pretty upsetting.

Keep trying and failing, newreader.

>>5392833
and he was right. there's another example of some grossly overrated shit. if you want a GOOD example of kerouac's, go read The Dharma Bums.

THE DEFINITIVE AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING TOP 10 OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

1: Nabokov
2: Melville
3: Faulkner
4: Hemingway
5: Fitzgerald
6: Steinbeck
7: Pynchon
8: Salinger
9: Twain
10: Dr. Seuss

again i'll say it:

1. Twain
2. Faulkner
3. Capote

>>5392843
>Nabokov
nah

>>5392804
Thank you, as I was reading this thread I was thinking about Twain being conspicuously absent.

>>5392843
>hogging Nabokov for yourself even though he's a citizen of the world first
stay american

>>5392843
kek

>>5392830

>the fact that you mention melville makes you, assface, the pleb.

Assface? This board is 18+ m8.

What is your main concern here?
That he's "to" well-known?

...Are you serious with this shit?

Have you even READ his prose?

>>5392843
I don't think we can really count Nabokov. Get Twain higher and get DeLillo on there. Other than that good list

>>5392837
Child, I was reading Whitman when you were in diapers. Even if I tried, I couldn't be mad about your poorly educated opinion.

>>5392858

Bleeding Edge.

>>539285

proofread before you post. assface.

>>5392861
You know he wrote other books, right? Right?

>>5392855
proofread before you post, assface.

>>5392867

Bleeding Edge.

>>5392839
I honestly believe that Kerouac should be in the top ten. I know that I've activated a full on /lit/storm by even mentioning his name, but the influence of his creation of beat literature had a massive impact on American literature, and, in my opinion, had a bigger hand in cultivating the modern American writing style than Hemingway.

Don't misunderstand me, though. I am painfully aware of beat literature's shortcomings in some aspects and its complete atrocities in others, but there is something so unique and enchanting about Kerouac's style, kind of a robotic beauty. The heavy, heavy themes of complete devotion to one's dreams and aspirations coupled with this idiosyncratic execution fills me with a genuine excitement and a deep yearning for adventure and freedom. Truman Capote can suck a dick. Oh wait.

>>5392861
>>5392877
fucking kek

>>5392889
i understand what you mean, and in terms of the scope of his influence, especially considering the relatively brief period during which he worked, is highly impressive. but that doesn't make him a GOOD writer. his form is tiresome almost all of the time, and while his themes are broad strokes of highly idealized mindsets, his execution almost never upholds that which he attempts to exalt. also, i see what you did there. like it or not, though, capote damn near out-composes everyone, both from his time period and otherwise. that guy was a master.

THE DEFINITIVE AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING TOP 10 OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
FAGS EDITION

1: Whitman
2: Dickinson
3: Kerouac
4: Burroughs
5: Ginsburg
6: Irrelevant
7: Irrelevant
8: Irrelevant
9: Irrelevant
10: Dr. Seuss

>>5392889

>had a massive impact on American literature

Should always be quality over impact. And imo he just wasn't good enough to make the cut.

>>5392915

>2: Dickinson

THANK YOU.

Crazy that it took this long.

>>5392889
"Next I noticed the continual current of gentleness running beneath that raw spiel of rough words, the mercy with which he described the vast and varied flock summoned from his memory--the tootsies and the floozies, fags and wimps and dope fiends, killers and convicts and bullying sailors, hustlers and losers and phonies of the first water--yet. in all his long considering, he never puts a soul of them down"
Kesey on Kerouac

>>5392936
Speaking of Kesey, he's very, very, very, very, very, very underrated by almost everyone. He was also better than Whitman.

>>5392936
It's a shame Kesey's only great novel is One Flew.

>>5392950
>>5392951
From what I've read on here a lot of people prefer Sometimes a Great Notion.

>>5392951
>I only heard of One Flew

Educate yourself. His best novel is, doubtlessly, Sometimes a Great Notion. Sailorsong is a close second.

>>5392950

>very, very, very, very, very, very

You underage kids really should go and shit up /r/books or something no one here wants to suffer your teenage tardshit.

>>5392969
>You underage kids

I'm 30.

>>5392970

>mentally regressive

Literal tardshit then.

>>5392970
But you're an infant at heart.

I don't know about objectively greatest, but Steinbeck is certainly my favorite.

>>5392974
I just don't take this shit seriously, duder. If I want to type a bunch of "very"s in some sort of ironic homage to those running on a vocabulary deficit, well, who gives a shit.

I'm the author of >>5392942 and >>5392979
I'm not putting this shit on my résumé, bro.

Melville
Whitman
Faulkner
Dickinson
Steinbeck
Frost
Twain
Eliot
Fitzgerald
McCarthy

>>5392822
Because Americans, unlike most other nationalities, believe that American is a quality and state of being in addition to being a nationality. Being born within the borders of the United States of America may entitle one to citizenship, but that does not mean one is very American at all.

So the best American author is not merely the greatest uthor who was from the US, but the greatest author who also best exemplifies Americanism.

>>5392992

>guys look I'm in my 30s and I'm linking you posts I made about putting pens in my anus I'm just one of the guys, duder

There is something very tragic about your specific brand of manchild. Like you seem smart enough to know how pathetic all of this is.

>>5393012

>Because Americans, unlike most other nationalities, believe that American is a quality and state of being in addition to being a nationality.

lol this is also the mindset of literally every other nation on the planet you absolute shit for brains retard

Can i get a little Poe up in this bbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttcccchhh???

Norman Mailer FTMFW

>>5393028
apparently not. My country isn't like that.

>>5393032
>bbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttcccchhh???
>>5393036
>FTMFW

30 year old tragedy case pls stop.

>>5393000
>Dickinson
>Frost
>Twain
>Eliot
>above Fitzgerald
>no Hemingway
>Melville at all

lol

fucking /lit/'s epic autism

>>5393041

0/10 keep at it you'll get there one day

>>5393040
How did you know I was 30?

>>5393014
Ouch right in the gut

>>5393014
>A little nonsense now and then...

Perhaps when you're older you'll understand.
Here's a .gif I made just for you.

This is perhaps the most dull and uninteresting possible way to talk about American literature. Greatness is a disease of our minds.

>>5393044
>trying this hard

lol

>>5393063
sauce?

>>5392590
didn't nabokov say this

Nobody reads Henry James anymore, huh?

How is somebody like Pynchon getting 10x more play than James?!

>>5393041
>crying about Hemingway
HAHAHA

>>5392856
>>5392853
No Nabokov referred to himself as an American writer. We get to claim him

>>5391668
OP was right. Also, Emily Dickinson.

>>5393101
probably because pynchon in more interesting and culturally relevant to lit anyway. james is boring as hell most of the time.

but thats just like, my opinion.

>>5393121
hows it going, harry?

>>5393101
henry james was way too gay. homosexuals can't be good writers. source: every famous writer was gay.

a-a-a-am i edgy yet sempai?

>>5393127

>>5393046
Everyone's 30 on /lit/.

>>5393041
lol, Hemingway over Melville. That suggests a personality difference, nothing more. They're both great.

>>5393133

I'd say Melville

>>5393103
>Melville's a good writer

HAHAHAH

>>5393177

anyone advocating hemingway over melville is either baiting or too plen to even respond to

>>5393101
>American Writers
>Pre-20th century

okay /lit/...
stay pleb

>>5393190

>being this bad at baiting

chin up etc.

>>5393106
Who the fuck wants that gimmicky cunt?

Into the trash.

>>5393195
>being THIS bad at baiting

chin up etc.

>>5393189
Melville's not a good writer.

>>5392856
>I don't think we can really count Nabokov.
We can, we do, and so did he.

>>5393200

>>being THIS bad at baiting

master of the spin zone detected.
so 10/10 bruv.

>>5393188
Either troll or doesn't get it. Melville was a genius. Nobody paces as well as he does, his characters are so well defined they're burned into our culture, he's hilarious, and the depth of his research for a work of fiction -along with his technique- are beyond comparison.

>>5393217
>Melville's a good writer

10/10 troll

It's fucking retarded how /lit/ gets their boipussie all wet for hacks just because of a circle jerk

>>5393217
>implying Melville has anything worth reading aside from Moby Dick

Face it, melville was a one and done.

>>5393217
>has not read flaubert

>>5393221

Just stop for real you're not good at this.

>>5393227
>flaubert
Wow, you're right, I haven't. Doesn't really seem like my kinda stuff, though. The descriptions of his work read like something Gabriel Garcia Marquez would right if he were French. I mean, of course I've seen these titles, but never had any interest up to this point. Worth reading in terms of plot? Thing I like about a lot of male American authors is that the stories are clearly f-ing Guys-guy stories. I want to be an old man and catch giant fish and I kind of admire a crazy captain who chases a whale around the world, and I want to blow up bridges and die in WWII and raft down southern rivers... I think that's a huge part of American lit.

>>5393269
lolright. Write*

>>5391668

Fitzgerald

>>5393232
No, you're not.

Anybody who says anything other than Whitman is underage

>>5393310
other than leaves of grass, what did whitman do?

>>5393314
...are you for rela

>>5393188
>Thinking that all of Hemingway's bibliography combined is near Moby Dick itself
HAHAHA
Oh, you.

>>5393327
yes

>>5391668
George Orwell

>5393343
dis nigga for serious?

>>5393314
back to middle school

>>5393353
no real answer?

Whitman, Dickinson and Melville and the three top American writers

No one else can be compared.

The people are say writers like Faulkner, Hemingway and Pynchon are the epitome of plebeian.

It is honestly disgusting people read Pynchon over Whitman, Dickinson or Melville.

Read more you underage yuppies.

>>5393362
the question is so idiotic it is not worth answering

go fucking research it you /b/ tier sperg

>>5393366

>Whitman, Dickinson and Melville

This.

Literally /thread.

It is absolutely disgusting that anyone would even suggest anyone other than Whitman. This site is full of repulsive know-nothings, and this thread proves it with all these lousy suggestions of Faulkner and Salinger and Poe. Poe! My fucking God, get these goddamn filthy casuals away from me.

I swear to God, I'll quit coming here and never return again if the next 55 answers aren't all Whitman and the thread 404's after those 55 marvelous answers.

>>5393373
so i guess you don't know/haven't read anything else by him

>baby shoe, never born im selling

>>5393385
i guess you havent researched it yet

>>5393224
Moby-Dick is by far his best work, but he has some good novels, short stories and poems worth reading. I'm halfway through Clarel right now and it's pretty good. Plus, Pierre is a great crazy read in light of Melville's biography—especially when he goes batshit insane with the storyline:

>From throbbing neck-bands, and swinging belly-bands of gay-hearted horses, the sleigh-bells chimingly jingle;—but Pierre sits there in his room; Thanksgiving comes, with its glad thanks, and crisp turkeys;—but Pierre sits there in his room; soft through the snows, on tinted Indian moccasin, Merry Christmas comes stealing;—but Pierre sits there in his room; it is New-Year's, and like a great flagon, the vast city overbrims at all curb-stones, wharves, and piers, with bubbling jubilations;—but Pierre sits there in his room:—Nor jingling sleigh-bells at throbbing neck-band, or swinging belly-band; nor glad thanks, and crisp turkeys of Thanksgiving; nor tinted Indian moccasin of Merry Christmas softly stealing through the snows; nor New-Year's curb-stones, wharves, and piers, over-brimming with bubbling jubilations:—Nor jingling sleigh-bells, nor glad Thanksgiving, nor Merry Christmas, nor jubilating New Year's:—Nor Bell, Thank, Christ, Year;—none of these are for Pierre. In the midst of the merriments of the mutations of Time, Pierre hath ringed himself in with the grief of Eternity. Pierre is a peak inflexible in the heart of Time, as the isle-peak, Piko, stands unassaultable in the midst of waves.

>>5393389
yeah, you probably never read leaves of grass either

you're a faker

Melville, Dickinson, and McCarthy

>>5393390
>replace "but Pierre sits there in his room" with "but Pierre faps in his room"

>>5392936
it's funny because Kesey is far better than Kerouac

Steinbeck should be number one. Nobody else is as quintessentially American as Steinbeck, and his tremendous talent and influence just strengthen his standing.

>>5393036
THIS. Mailer was a genius.

>>5393426
>4chan

>>5392709
>

>>5393101
James had an English taste about him, just like T.S. Eliot. Since, you know, they lived in England.

All the people saying Whitman just look like trolls, at this point.

>>5393434
Whitman is a much better candidate than Steinbeck

>>5393445
all the people who deny Whitman ARE trolls, or stupid, or uneducated, or all 3

>>5393445
what

>>5392812
I would say he's pretty high up there even though very few will agree

>>5393447
No way. And I'll go further: The Great Gatsby may well be THE quintessential american novel. There are plenty of other examples of greatness out of the man's cannon, but this one....it takes the cake.

The only options are Steinbeck, Richard Wright, or Mark Twain.

>>5393453
See, you just look trolly with that business.

how many times do i have to say it? TRUMAN CAPOTE. have you read Other Voices, Other Rooms? it's FLAWLESS. and that was his first book! need a short story? Children On Their Birthdays. again, FLAWLESS.

>>5393463
>Great Gatsby
>Steinbeck
U wot m8

>>5393482
WHAT HE SAID.

>>5393480

>how many times do i have to say it? TRUMAN CAPOTE.

he is middling at best you fucking prole. shut the fuck up.

>>5393484
>middling

how dare you. the fact that you'd feel that way about such intimate genius shows how much lower you are than the rest of this entire thread.

>>5393491

/r/books new reader just stop

do people really not care for Absalom, Absalom? Faulkner pleb?

>>5393491

> such intimate genius

He was a talent, but nowhere near the names being thrown around here. Cope with yourself.

>>5393484
>>5393500
>>5393505
you guys are fucking retarded. he might not have created the veritable volume of work comparable to many vaunted american writers, but one look at the work he DID produce (outside of the rest of his public persona and legacy) proves just how utterly gifted he really was. if you don't see that, then there isn't hope for you.

>>5393520

>proves just how utterly gifted he really was. if you don't see that, then there isn't hope for you.

No one is saying he wasn't gifted you fucking tearqueen.He just wasn't anywhere near the level of Whitman, Melville and Dickinson.

Go to /r/books. Seriously.
You will fit in nicely there.

>>5391668
Perhaps not the greatest, but certainly in the "must read" list, is Eudora Welty.

how and why is it that

southern writers > everyone else

>>5393545

America was beautiful and unique because of the South for the most part

the North was just ugly industrialization and lame religious separatism, the South was all about that "everybody is a land owner in the land of the free (except niggers)" shit that made America great

the slavery shit just made for that tragic contrast as well

ITT: autism

>>5392744
But he's Welsh...

>>5392741
You could have at least said Poe.

>>5393565
hell yes!

>>5393565
>>5393568
poe sux fuk poe

wow this thread is bad

>>5393571
you're a goddamn moron. we owe the detective novel to this man. fuck off.

>>5392915
>Dr Seuss
>10
Stay pleb. He's a fucking doctor for a reason.

>>5393575
oooh noooo not the detective novel what will we ever do without it noooooooooo

>>5393571

Now that's what I call Edgar.

>>5393578
you've reinforced my point.

>>5393578
Such b8. But really, endorsing Lovecraft at all, let alone over Poe?

>>5393584
i don't endorse lovecraft at all poe was better than him at least

>>5393582
noooooo what will we ever dooooooo ack don't take my genre fiction!

>>5393592
yet again, your lack of insight is astounding. I'm done biting.

>>5393598
you think im trolling and i am but im only sort of trolling because poe is very commonly considered among american critics to be pretty much completely mediocre and i agree with that viewpoint

>>5393601
I never attested to Poe's quality, without contrasting it with other authors. Whatever Poe may be, mediocre or worse, I still place him higher than Lovecraft; the flavor of the month.

>>5393284
you sure about that?

>suggestions for top writers with little to no reasoning given
>rebuttals to said choices are angry one sentence insults calling the poster underage
>no further defense for choices given, cycle repeats as someone else posts their list

Never change /lit/

whitman

joyce's one aspect of plebbiness was not to see whitman's genius in just babbling on about nothing, but somehow not in a pretentious, pompous way like browning

>>5394142
not to say though that browning isnt good too.

For what it's worth, in the Soviet Union (I was born in 1976 and my dad was into Western literature) Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe were seen as the foremost writers in American history.

>>5391668
Without a doubt, Steinbeck.

>>5393930
You're right though.

As for the thread, Dr. Seuss is best. Who else tells stories with that kind of depth while restricting word usage? Yertle the Turtle was about Hitler, you know? And if you thought Hemingway was cool for saying the fish was just a fish in The Old Man and the Sea, then you've got to respect Seuss for doing the same with The Cat in the Hat. He covers all kinds of topics and makes it easy enough for a child. That's impressive. Never mind his popularity

>>5394399
And I forgot to mention how he sucks you into completely bizarre worlds but you follow right along without even questioning the improbable animals and machinery and instruments

Walt Whitman isn't just the greatest writer to emerge from American he's the greatest poet of the modern era. He IS America and he is also modernity.

>>5394262
>hack london

Alexis de Tocqueville

Nathaniel Hawthorne

>>5391690
>Faulkner
Genius.

>>5391673
not bad.

>>5392659
yeah one of the best.


Raymond Carver or Flannery O'Connor.

runner ups:
Mark Twain, Hemingway, Faulkner, Melville, Toni Morrison

Steinbeck, flawless writing career

melville or faulkner but I've not read whitman or dickinson yet so tbd

>>5392843
>1: Nabokov
top kek, did you even read OP?

>5: Fitzgerald
Overrated piece of shit for kids.

Rest is alright.

>>5393106
Who gives a fuck? He did not emerge from America. I can refer to myself as Antarctic writer too, probably the best one there as well.

>>5394461
Don't you people ever get tired of making such absurdly overreaching claims

>>5392852
Thats because /lit/ doesnt read twain
No idea why, maybe reading tom sawyer in school left a bad taste in their mouths? School does tend to push kids away from the authors they focus on.

>>5391668

You guys have any poems of Whitman you'd recommend starting on? Everyone says he's amazing but I've had a hard time seeing what's so amazing about him. Like literally even my favorite author (Chesterton) called him the greatest American author.

>>5393381

Poe's poems are shit but I will definitely fight for the merit of his stories.

>>5396075
crossing brooklyn ferry from leaves of grass is fantastic, my personal favorite

IDGAF, this man was an American writer in the end.

>>5396075
just read leaves of grass 1855, it's really short

>>5392736
On the other hand...

>>5392843
>10: Dr. Seuss
I don't know if you amerifags know this but that guy is almost completely unknown outside of your states (and maybe Canada, wouldn't know about that). If it weren't for references of Family Guy I don't think I would know who he is at all.

>>5396416
>has some faux air of superiority for how irrelevant Dr. Seuss is in his third-world country
>watches Family Guy

It's just so awkward.

>>5396429
He can't help it. All the world is an extension of America's will.

>>5396463

So who is claiming ownership of your country these days? Israel, China, or Saudi Arabia?

You get tag-teamed in the ass so much it's kind of hard to keep track.

>>5396476
Joke's on you. We have a rape fascination and love getting our prostates jarred, so nobody tag-teams us without us wanting them to.

>>5396416
That's not true. I live in UK and pretty much everyone knows Dr. Seuss.

>>5396476
Please go back to /pol/. Please.

>>5396518

>Please
>Please.

Truth hurts, lol.

>>5396416

everyone in the first world knows dr.seuss you silly foreigner slave

>>5396525
It has nothing to do with the truth. It has everything to do with a sad, drunk shitposter trying to derail an otherwise okay thread.

Please feel free to eat shit and die.

>>5396539

>eat shit and die

Woah look out these middle school smack downs are too much to handle, bro.

It's not my fault that America has been privatised and sold out from under you. I didn't make you the joke you are now. Don't blame it on me.

Your Federal Reserve Banks are privately owned. Your country has LITERALLY been sold to outside interests. And most of you idiots don't even know it.

>>5396555
Off topic much?

>>5396555
So tell us who your favorite writers are.

>>5396575

I'm not some /pol/ reject. This thread is missing out on a token mention of Hart Crane for example. He was more talented than all of the beats combined.

I'm just telling it how it is. Your Federal Reserve Banks don't even belong to your own country. I know this might be an affront to your well-used American vanity on the world stage but it is what it is.

>>5396587
1. Agreed. Hart Crane is a solid poet.
2. Economic theory and nationalistic bellyaching have no place in this thread.
3. American vanity? Surely, you jest.

>>5392812
The Sun Also Rises is on the Moby-Dick/Gravity's Rainbow/Infinite Jest/Taipei/As I Lay Dying/Huck Finn/Invisible Man tier of American novels. Also, the fact that almost nobody has mentioned Ralph Ellison is ridiculous. Racial tension is too essential to American history for the writer of the best race novel (not that Invisible Man's themes don't transcend that) of all time to be excluded from the list. Invisible Man is as essential an American novel as Moby-Dick or The Great Gatsby.

>>5396628
see
>>5392694

>>5396429
>Sweden is a third world country
Ok...

>>5396484
Huh, must have missed that. But I guess that makes sense.

>>5393224
Benito Cereno, boy.

>>5396643
Just living in Sweden...watching Family Guy...

>>5393224

>Face it, melville was a one and done.

Face it, Homer was a one and done.

>>5391690
very close, but I'd amend this to Faulkner, Melville and Gaddis

>>5396908
Very close, but I'd amend this to Faulkner, Melville, Gaddis, or Pynchon.

>>5396922
Very close, but I'd amend this to Faulkner, Melville, Gaddis, Pynchon, DeLillo, or Twain.

>>5396922
of course of course

but if I had to limit it to three Pinecone gets the boot

>>5393224
>implying you've read anything else
melville has a treasure trove of great shit

>>5396927
>DeLillo

He's not even worth a mention in terms of American literature in general, nevermind a "greatest" context.

>>5393224
bait? Bartleby is one of the most famous short stories ever written

>>5392618
>>5392651
I'm 104 pages into Absalom. If you can't read this you're a fucking idiot.

>It's just incredible. It just does not explain. Or perhaps that's it: they don't explain and we are not supposed to know. We have a few old mouth-to-mouth tales; we exhume from old trunks and boxes and drawers letters without salutation or signature, in which men and women who once lived and breathed are now merely initials or nicknames out of some now incomprehensible affection which sound to us like Sanskrit or Chocktaw; we see dimly people, the people in whose living blood and seed we ourselves lay dormant and waiting, in this shadowy attenuation of time possessing now heroic proportions, performing their acts of simple passion and simple violence, impervious to time and inexplicable Yes, Judith, Bon, Henry, Sutpen: all of them. They are there, yet something is missing; they are like a chemical formula exhumed along with the letters from that forgotten chest, carefully, the paper old and faded and falling to pieces, the writing faded, almost indecipherable, yet meaningful, familiar in shape and sense, the name and presence of volatile and sentient forces; you bring them together in the proportions called for, but nothing happens; you re-read, tedious and intent, poring, making sure that you have forgotten nothing, made no miscalculation; you bring them together again and again nothing happens: just the words, the symbols, the shapes themselves, shadowy inscrutable and serene, against that turgid background of a horrible and bloody mischancing of human affairs.

good god

>>5396904
Uh...

THE CURSE OF BEING STUCK IN 4CHAN FOREVER HAS FINALLY BEEN BROKEN.

And it couldn't have come in a better time, now that 4chan has reached an all time low. There is a new chan, it´s only 5 months old but it´s already the second fastest english speaking chan, losing only to 4chan.

How the fuck did it get so popular so fast? Why is this being so hyped? It´s getting more than 1000 posts a day on the /b/ board, and this chan has climbed 2 million alexa ranks in just a few months. How is this possible? Because mchan is the most unique website on the internet right now. It is completely different than 4chan, reddit and so on. Mchan has a different moderation system designed to allow 100% freedom of speech while at the same time keeping boards organized, and without the need for moderators to delete shit because they power trip and delete what they don't like. Mods will never censor what you want to say again.

On top of that, there is no moralfaggotry in mchan. Only true illegal posts get removed. 4chan bans a lot of things that are legal because of moot´s personal ideals.

Fun has been restored to the inernet, rejoice anons. Someone had the balls to make something that doesn't cater to SJW´s and society's moral codes.

[bypass algorithm: 1]

>>5396922

Bleeding Edge.

Steinbeck, surely. Or is he too mainstream for your tastes, /lit/?

>>5397024

>Or is he too mainstream for your tastes

fuck off you insecure new reader

I forgot where I wiped my cum, this is a huge problem.

>>5391683
>>5391688
>>5392565
>>5393366
Came for Melville, was not disappointed.

>>5391668
ITT: white people who only value white writers
Didn't know /lit/ was all WASP

>>5397227

>WASP

lol you're like those guys who project while using the word "projecting" in their posts out of insecure hypocrisy

i'd bet you're the most wasp ass faggot itt haha

>>5396416

This.

Just because your mommies read that to you when you were Young, or just because this was “muh first read” it doesn’t make Seuss a world famous writer or even a good writer.

Also, this:>>5392817

>colonials
>culture
choose one

>>5391673
Salinger is the greatest American author who ever lived. Greater than Faulkner, Twain, and Melville.

>>5397491

teenage girl who lurks /r/books pls go

>>5392715
>the lesser James

>>5397227
Whitman was super gay

cummings
/thread

Why is Mitchel never mentioned in these threads? Why is Gone with the Wind never brought up in any of the "Greatest American novel" threads?

>>5398154
probably because nobody cares about that book

>>5397227
>colored person complaining
>wants recognition for colored American writers
>picks a self-exiled writer
>picks a writer who didn't want to be judged as a "black" writer

>>5396788
I don't see the problem.