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/lit/ - Literature

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13208593 No.13208593 [Reply] [Original]

I want to write a book where there isn't actually a conflict, the character just walks around experiencing weird trippy shit, with lots of aesthetic descriptions and philosophical digressions. The problem is that structure falls apart very, very fast. Progression is what ties together stories, and gives them a purpose to have the next page. Without events tying the previous events together, it very quickly just becomes a collection of fragments.

I've thought about just making a story which runs on the logic of a dream, aka just making stuff happen without explanation which expresses symbolizes some emotion, but the same problem of fragmentation seems to occur. Each little part blends into each other and there's no narrative which makes any one part meaningful in relationship to any other.

I am just tired of stories that have narratives, I don't care about characters going about their business in the world, the world is an evilly contrived place.

>> No.13208703

bump

>> No.13208717

>>13208593
Something like Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass?

>> No.13210124

>>13208593
This mentality typifies the type of insular modernist navel-gazing so prevalent today. As you yourself note, stories need progression. They need a hierarchy of significance, and development. I don't give a fuck about your cringeworthy attempts at philosophical digression. They're almost undoubtedly cliche and overworn, and I'm being charitable there by not immediately assuming that they're flat out wrong, as opposed to 'merely' cliche and boring. Create some nuanced characters and have them respond to situations themselves, have them grow and interact, you know, like real life? Otherwise you'll just have a didactic borefest that will irritate your reader. When you've mastered that, then you can start experimenting to see where your boundaries are. Read Lukács OP.

>> No.13210878

In Search of Lost Time. If you don't fall in love with it by the madeiline cake scene then it's probably not for you. But I think you'll really enjoy it.

>> No.13212085

Two books I can think of that I think do this very well are:
Frontier by Can Xue and Nog by Rudolph Wurlitzer

Both quite different, but very surreal and dreamlike. I don't know if it's exactly what you're looking for, but they might help you find your way.

Also, I think DFW described The Pale King as, and I'm paraphrasing, "a book where something is always about to happen, but never does". Maybe it's worth looking into as well.

>> No.13212215

>>13208593
Pic alluding to Jarry? If not try him

>> No.13212271

I think that Gravity's Rainbow does pretty much what you describe, if you were to skip most of Slothrop's chapters. But then it wouldn't be Gravity's Rainbow.

>> No.13212314

>>13208593
ring of saturn by sebald

>> No.13212349

>>13208593
Either give it an unimportant or negligible plot that you can fall back on if you hit a sticking point or get really good at writing and especially transitions or dialogues.

>> No.13212966

>>13208593
Your issue seems to be that your definition of conflict isn't abstract enough.
What you've described is still a story of conflict, but one that focuses on the characters internal struggle with the overwhelming visuals or audio of the world.
Good luck anon.

>> No.13213025

>>13208593
I’m not even sure if I could finish an anime with this strategy

>> No.13213031

the notebooks of malte laurids brigge

>> No.13213700

>>13208593
Ulysses

>> No.13213703

>>13208593
Nobody will read it.

>> No.13213720
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13213720

>> No.13215325

>>13213025
Mushishi?

>> No.13215377

>>13208593
Lol I love this drawing

>> No.13216092

>>13208593
>>13212349
I agree with this. You need to have some sort of story to string the story together and explain why the protagonist is experiencing these things. It could be as simple as having the main character be a drug addict, and you could intersperse his trips with chapters relating his lucid state of mind and explaining why he's become like this.

>> No.13216126

>>13208593
>It's another 'Chode Shitposts About a Fake Novel He Never Intends to Write so Strangers on 4chan Will Think He's an Intellectual' thread

>> No.13216131

>>13208593
> I am just tired of stories that have narratives, I don't care about characters going about their business in the world, the world is an evilly contrived place.
are you me? fuck, even when reading something with a genuinely interesting moving plot i always wish i could cease the conflict and let the characters simply exist. maybe do some irrelevant shit or reflex on life.

i'd read your thing. maybe try writing connected short stories?

>> No.13216170

So like "A Night of Serious Drinking" or "Record of a Night too Brief" or any number of other semi-surrealist books

>> No.13216344

If life has no meaning, wouldn't you be right to abandon the idea of conflict? Would your book be a little closer to objective reality?

>> No.13216351

>>13208593
Sounds boring as hell. Without conflict there is no interest. Remember your Heracleitus: Struggle is the father of all things!

>> No.13216353

>>13208593
You obviously haven't read much weird fiction. House on the borderland, the dreamquest of unknown kadath, a number of borges'stories, invisible cities, etc. That should get you started for ideas

>> No.13216383

>>13208593
100 years of solitude my dude