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/lit/ - Literature

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12386747 No.12386747 [Reply] [Original]

Is he a meme? Reddit seems to like him so I guess he is.

>> No.12386791

>>12386747
Why do you know what reddit likes? Why does reddit liking him make him a meme?

>> No.12386856
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12386856

>Karabekian'sdrink was aBeefeater'sdry martiniwith a twist of lemon peel, so Bonnie said to him, "Breakfast of Champions."
>"That's what you said when you brought me my first martini," said Karabekian.
>"I say that every time I give anybody a martini," said Bonnie.
>Doesn't that get tiresome?" said Karabekian. "Or maybe that's why people found cities in Godforsaken places like this -- so that they can make the same jokes over and over again, until the Bright Angel of Death stops their mouths with ashes."
>"I just try to cheer people up," said Bonnie. "If that's a crime, I never heard about it till now. I'll stop saying it from now on. I beg your pardon. I did not mean to give offense." '

>> No.12386896

>>12386747
Yes he is, entry level lit if you're a teenager who doesn't know better.
His most popular work Slaughterhouse 5 which is a recollective trip through ww2 from the perspective of an American soldier, which is pretty stereotypical and boring, optimally paired with 1984.
The rest of his work centers around generic tropes of American commercial culture along with its denunciation through surface level criticisms and "comedy material".
That is, a collection of mediocre and "acceptable" witticisms that can be considered "reddit humor" .
Read a couple of his books when I was 18, regretted it soon after.

>> No.12387285

he's comfy

>> No.12387291
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12387291

imagine being so far out of your league that you get put in the very back

>> No.12387299

>>12386856
>"Or maybe that's why people found cities in Godforsaken places like this -- so that they can make the same jokes over and over again, until the Bright Angel of Death stops their mouths with ashes."
gay and cringe
no one would ever say this in any situation

>> No.12387303

>>12386791
because that’s what reddit culture is built around. it trains your brain to like whatever happens to be the most popular. being overrated doesn’t make you shit, however, as some black&white autists like to believe.

>> No.12387450

>>12387291
Gaddis that absolute madman

>> No.12387460

>>12386747
Obsessed

>> No.12387539

>>12387299
I think the person saying the line was some pretentious artist visiting the town

>> No.12387610

He's fine entry level to lit. Slaughterhouse V is something that pretty much any teenager would like and anyone interested in literature or the literary can get something out of.

High schoolers that read Vonnegut or Heller (Catch-22 should be mentioned in the same breath as SV) often progress to become undergrads that read Pynchon etc

>> No.12387625

>>12386896
>>12387610
cringe takes by literal children

>> No.12387635

4channel.org is basically reddit now

>> No.12387637

>>12387625
damn OP sorry I totally changed my mind after this intellectual powerhouse unleashed his entire argumentative arsenal on me and really contributed to the thread with his brave but brilliant analysis that addressed both the faults of the author in context and suggested what other authors might be preferred for someone interested

>> No.12387647

>>12387539
Yeah, Rabo Karabekian was Vonnegut's pretentious abstract expressionist, in that scene they talk about how his art consists solely of flat canvases of one color with one or two vertical lines of colored duct tape.
One of his less popular books, Bluebeard, is actually all about Rabo. I liked it, puts a lot of effort into defending art like Rothko that a lot of people call shit, exploring why such a strange movement in art happened. As the other anons said Vonnegut was my favorite early in high school and those were some pretty new outlooks to me back then.
>>12387625
Correct posters absolutely btfo, how will they ever recover

>> No.12387992

>>12387291
Imagine being tall?

>> No.12388000

he's very entertaining

>> No.12388022

>>12387625
Truly the kind of intelligent counter argument I browse /lit/ for

>> No.12388567

>>12387647
Was a high school favorite for me as well. Are there satirists / social commentators of a similar voice with more mature subject matter that you're aware of?
There's basically nothing I've read since Vonnegut that I would compare to him.

>> No.12388576

gave up with slaughter house 5, writing style did nothing for me

>> No.12389694

bump

>> No.12389719

>>12388567
Swift is pretty good, not just for gullivers travels.
Tale of the tub is a funny one, you might need a slight interest in the period to really enjoy it tho

>> No.12389759

>>12386747
He has a super easy to read prose-style and some depth so he gets overrated by teenagers and underrated by pseuds. He falls into the same camp as George Orwell. I like both of them. For Vonnegut I recommend starting with Slaughterhouse-Five. It's an amusing anti-war sci-fi novel. If you like Philip K. Dick then you'll probably like Vonnegut.

>> No.12389988

>>12386747
ITT: crying redditors and seething niggers. /lit/huanians are dead. Long live the new king!

>> No.12390027

I started reading Vonnegut in 7th grade, and he was my favorite author in my adolescence. As others have said, solid entry-level stuff, fun and easy to read. Cat's Cradle and the Sirens of Titan are my favorite of his books and I recommend them.

>> No.12390169

>>12386856
Ayyyyyyyyyy

>> No.12390183

Palahniuk tier reddit author

>> No.12390187

>>12389988
cringe

>> No.12390222
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12390222

No, he's a strong middle-brow author. A lot of what he did is mediocre or bad, and his best stuff has been done better by better writers, but he's still pretty good. Cat's Cradle is his only greatish novel, but Sirens of Titan, God Bless you Mr Rosewater, Slaughterhouse 5, Mother Night, Galapagos, and Bluebeard are all very readable books and very good for introducing people to more literary fiction.

Generally speaking he lacks negative capability, is a bit America-centric, relies too much on cutesy jokes and turns, tends to be vague in his characterization, and just doesn't dive deep enough into his themes and ideas when those are the center of his books.

>> No.12390237

>>12390222
>strong middle-brow
he's low-tier middle-brow at best.

>> No.12390240

>>12387610
>High schoolers that read Vonnegut or Heller (Catch-22 should be mentioned in the same breath as SV) often progress to become undergrads that read Pynchon etc
Yeah, I liked Vonnegut in high school and I just read my first Pynchon and I noticed their similar humor.

>> No.12390274

>>12387291
He was a tall guy, no? They are generally in the back for pictures.

>> No.12390708

Great author universally hated by pseuds, so obviously /lit/ hates him

>> No.12390803

>>12390240
Gravity's Rainbow is, in lot of ways, just a more complex and experimental version of Slaughterhouse V is, in a lot of ways, just a more complex and experimental version of Catch-22

(i.e. thematic consistency, humor, Americanamania, etc)

>> No.12391046

>>12386747
Why don't you read him and form your own opinions.

>> No.12391065

>>12386747
He's on the lit top 100 books, so no

>> No.12391105

Why does /lit/ hate him so much anyway? He isn't any more zany than Pynchon or like Marquez

>> No.12391613

>>12387303
>it trains your brain to like whatever happens to be the most popular
Sounds familiar.

>> No.12391652

>>12391105
He's zany like Pynchon but unlike Pynchon he's easy to read. So he's too accessible and "plebbish" for the average /lit/izen

>> No.12391656

>>12391065
This. He’s not the greatest of all time but still very good. Completely worth reading.

>> No.12391720

>>12391656
>He’s not the greatest of all time
Of course he isn't, he doesn't even *look* like Shakespeare.

>> No.12391753

>>12391720
You’re missing the point

>> No.12392063

>>12387299
That’s pretty much the point he’s a pretentious snob, but even he is misjudged

>> No.12392094

People don’t ever seem to mention Slapstick, but to me that is far and away his best work. I would unironically support the assigned middle name system

>> No.12392509

When i was a kid he was one of my favorite authors. I would read his books cover to cover. As repeated in this thread he is def a good gateway/ entry level author for young kids who will eventually get into more mature literary stuff.
I think he probably gets celebrated less than other american authors because he was an out an out socialist.

I honestly think he became a writer just to get back at his mom who was a failed writer and rich heirss who lost all her money when alcohol prohibition happend and turned into a cunt.

Slaughter house five is actually semi autobiographical and he experienced the bombing of Dresden, so, no, it wasnt cliche you cunt

>> No.12392709

>>12387291
I recognise Gaddis, Vonnegut, Gass, Barth, Barthelme, but none of the others. Who's who?

>> No.12392787

>>12387291
No Updike? CUNTS

>> No.12392866

>>12386747
About 3/4ths of /lit/ defends him and asks "why does /lit/ hate him?" Clearly we don't hate him. Mother Night is a fantastic novel.

>> No.12393979

>>12391613
Its the same shit that goes on here. I've never understood why 4chan, especially /lit/, tries to disassociate themselves from reddit.

>> No.12394411

Cats Cradle, Bluebeard and Sirens are great.

>> No.12395677

>>12387637
oh god, just stop anon...

>> No.12395699

>>12393979
my guess would be that r/books is a pretty big circlejerk. That said, they're an optimistic bunch, so it's not the worst place to be. Not my style, though. I could see some people look at r/books and see their old selves (as it usually talks about entry level literature and genre fiction, which is where most readers start) and feel embarrassed, so they work hard to draw a big, clear line between then and now.

>> No.12395938

>>12392709
Coover, Hawkes, Abish

>> No.12395960

>>12387291
GADDIS BABEEEEEEEE

>> No.12396306

>>12387291
POWERFUL tie on Gass what a beast