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/lit/ - Literature

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1190877 No.1190877 [Reply] [Original]

Why did 3 out of 4 of the family members get lots of POV sections, but Jessica didn't get any at all? I was confused by this.

>> No.1190882

Franzen's a bad writer, that's why.

>> No.1190885

Lies! I've only read one of his books, but it was pretty good. How can you say he's bad?

>> No.1190892

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/27/freedom-jonathan-franzen-digested-read

>> No.1190894

>>1190885

Because no-one should write the kind of book he writes in this age. It's morally wrong.

>> No.1190937

>>1190894
>Because no-one should write the kind of book he writes in this age.
>It's morally wrong.

DERP.

>> No.1190960

Why is it that, every time I've visited /lit/ in the last few weeks, there's a new thread about this book on the front page, but the thread never gets above a handful of posts?

>> No.1190963

Because most people here don't actually read books. They scan and mentally summarize them in accordance with their own preconceived notions.

>> No.1190976

It's a new book, it's natural that many people will not have read it yet. Also, it's a long, boring book about how much it sucks to be a middle-class white person. Not the most exciting or original material...

>> No.1191003

>>1190960
>>1190963
>>1190976
same/newfag that doesn't know how to reply

>> No.1191004
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1191004

3. Be Jonathan Frazen
2.Book about the life of a middle-class white American family
3. Write it again
4. Repeat step 3 until proclaimed greatest writer of your generation
>mfw

>> No.1191006
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1191006

>>1190976
This this this this this this this this this this this

>> No.1191007
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1191007

>> No.1191025

>>1191007
good job

>> No.1191026

>>1190877
>Middle American's living middle american lifestyles
>By that guy who once spoke to DFW at a book store.

>> No.1191052

Frazen doesn't just write about being white and angsty, he writes boring would-be transparent 'realist' prose about same. So he's immoral on at least two different levels.

>> No.1191370

franzen is like delillo and wallace plus tolstoy except not good

>> No.1191383

because he thinks he's faulkner

>> No.1192472

OP here. Franzen actually reminds me of Margaret Atwood and JD Salinger. He has that feel to him, a bit. He's a good writer.

>> No.1192474

>>1192472
Should I start with Freedom or one of his other novels?

>> No.1192475

>>1192472

You've just named a second-tier writer and a nowhere-tier fucking joke mimsy nag cardigan subsidy-shark Canadian shit-scraping out of nothingness typist. Try some good books. Ask some friends who laugh at your taste. They'll help you.

>> No.1192476

>>1192474

Start with defacing all the copies of his work at your local library. Go there with a shit-compacted ass, and wipe.

>> No.1192487

> Calling Salinger a second-tier writer

>> No.1192491

>>1192475
>>1192476
You need therapy, a glass of warm milk, and a hug.

>> No.1192494

>>1192487

He is second-tier. He just wasn't that good a writer. He's famous, yes; he's easy to teach, yes, but he wasn't that good, really.

>> No.1192496

>>1192491

No, I'm perfectly calm, I'm just trying to help people steer into the light and away from Franzen's shit novels.

>> No.1192498

Go and read Franny and Zooey. If you don't think that's good, I don't know what to say to you.

>> No.1192499

>>1192496
Did your mother not breast feed you as a baby? Or did you have the opposite problem, and your mother insisted on breast feeding you well into your teens?

>> No.1192502

>>1192498

I've read it, and no, he's just not that good. He's not bad. He's second-tier, like I said. Read some serious literature. Stuff not about how WASP the author wants to be, how badly he wants to pretend that no poor or non-white people exist, and with no bullshit boil-in-the-bag mysticism.

>> No.1192503

There are a lot of disturbed people in this topic.

>> No.1192505

>>1192499

I'm sorry to break it to you, but the New Yorker is not a literary periodical. Franzen is a bad writer. You're going to have to get a real committment to literature into your life, or step away now.

>> No.1192507

>>1192503

No.

>> No.1192511

>>1192505
I like to inform my opinions with experiences and facts. To determine whether Franzen is good I plan to read one of his novels. I am wondering which to read.

The opinion of an angry, starved for attention, should-have-been-a-miscarriage brat like you isn't too important to me.

>> No.1192692

>>1192511

You imbecile, I've told you what's correct about his work. Now you make it obvious that you've already decided to like him. Enjoy your middlebrow.

>> No.1192713

Does anyone else wonder if that cover art is meant to be intentionally funny? I always laugh when I see it. You've got the pretentious, grandiose title and author billing on the left side, and then out of nowhere this little bluebird is sticking his head in going "hay guise what's going on in here?"

>> No.1192880

>>1192713

I think it's meant to convey that nature herself must stop and notice when the schlump Frazen opens his face on a subject.

>> No.1192887

Is Franzen really as bad as this thread makes him out to be? There is no single book of his that might possibly be worth reading? He should be crossed off of my to-read list completely?

>> No.1192889

>>1192887

Yes he is, no none of them are, and yes he should.

>> No.1192948

>>1192889

So... how's that new Wheel of Time novel treating you?

>> No.1193104

>>1192889
I don't believe you.

>> No.1193523
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1193523

>>1192887
give him a shot on your own but definitely start with either the corrections or this one, his earlier stuff is definitely weaker and personally i don't care for his essays. i think he's a pretty bitchin observer of human behavior if not a great prose stylist

also mfw salinger was supposed to be the "second-tier writer" and not a "nowhere-tier fucking joke"...

>> No.1193535

>>1193523
But he wasn't Canadian like Atwood.

>> No.1193604

>>1193535
I know. I thought I was following the superior internet lit nerd message board comment correctly until I got to the "Canadian" part

then I disapprovingly shook my head irl