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/lit/ - Literature

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1385382 No.1385382 [Reply] [Original]

Only 50 pages in and I am already raging hard at every character.

Jonathan Franzen is the master troll.

>> No.1386596

nobody?

>> No.1386609

I'm with the rest of the literary intelligentsia in thinking that Franzen is full of shit. Of course it didn't take me reading it to come to this conclusion so my brain's safe...for now.

>> No.1386612

/lit/'s too cheap to buy new hardbacks

>> No.1386632

>Of course it didn't take me reading it to come to this conclusion so my brain's safe...for now.
>entire post now disregarded

>> No.1386647

>>1386612
lol basically

maybe i'll steal my mom's copy next time i visit

>> No.1386659

I think it's quite interesting for a modern novel... I mean really, in the past 10 years, what other books are of note?

Jodi Picoult? Sparks' new novel?

THE HUNGER GAMES? Oh god, take me up in a chariot.

In fact, I prefer Franzen's The Corrections over Marquez...

>> No.1386661

I've been reading it for roughly three months now, and I'm only on page 232. It's just so unbearably painful for me to even pick up.

>> No.1386672

I enjoyed it. It went way, way over the top drawing the parallels to culture and history (at one point, they talk about Joey's "exit strategy" from his relationship LOL), and it wasn't some great literary adventure as it was a pretty fun, amusing story, that made some really interesting characterization (though the voices kind of meld together annoyingly). Overall, it was an accessible, interesting story, but the literary themes were not really above that of, say, any other popular fiction. Not much that was new, but it was hardly the worst thing I've ever read. Take it as it is.

>> No.1386678

I read through the first couple of pages out of curiosity; I don't like any authors that resort to phrases like "There always was something not right about [whatever family]" (I'm paraphrasing obviously). Show, don't tell, etc.

>> No.1386686
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1386686

No, Dawkins is the master troll. Can't be more enraging than The God Delusion.

>> No.1386689

>>1386661
you could always, oh i dont know, stop reading it

>> No.1386705

>>1386661
3 months? lol give up on reading bi0tch.

I'm gonna get this book after Christmas. The Corrections was great, ione of my favorite novels of the decade.

Anyone who thinks he sucks needs to go back to reading the wheel of time.

>> No.1386712

>>1386689
I always feel weird about not finishing a book once I get into it. I think I've only done that with three or four books in my life, and it just doesn't ever feel right.

>> No.1386742

>>1386705
>Implying that Jonathan Franzen's writing is not on par with a shitty science fiction writer.

Seriously, brah, the prose is terrible. Half of the words could be removed without affecting the basis of the novel. Most of the book is fluff that does nothing to further plot.

>> No.1386745

what is it about?

>> No.1386750

>>1386745
a bunch of solipistic masturbatory bullshit

>> No.1386764

>>1386750
misspelling - your argument is invalid

>> No.1386832

>>1386764
>missed one s
>in all likelihood, just a 'didn't press hard enough' kind of mistake
>discount entire post
jesus christ you people are such fucking faggots

>> No.1386834

>>1386742
you're an idiot. he's one of the greatest mordern writers. you seriously don't understand at all and should probably just stop reading because, i mean, what is the point.

Do you also think authors like Faulkner and Pynchon are overrated? Get back to your Stephen Kings novels neophyte.

>> No.1386847

>>1386834
the thing is that your insults detract from your point b/c they make me not want to listen to you anymore

also, comparing franzen to faulkner or pynchon is certainly immature, and i think there are real, strong criticisms to be made of his writing

>> No.1386854

>>1386834

The difference between Faulkner and Pynchon with Franzen is that they actually write interesting stories.

>> No.1386860

>>1386847
I think equivocating him to a shitty scifi writer (wheel of time isn't even scifi get ur facts strait hurr) is just as egregious as equivocating him to Faulkner or Pynchon.

You have yet to point out any lines from the novel that back up your statements so fuck you and go back to the reading blood moon you fucking idiot.

>> No.1386863

>>1386834

>I consider myself educated because I did my 11th grade book report on "Catcher in the Rye" and got an A-.

>> No.1386866

>>1386834
>in after "neophyte"

>> No.1386888

Obligatory:

Freedom is the War and Peace of middle-aged people, your dad's In the Aeroplane Over The Sea. Following American couple Walter and Patty Berglund, Franzen weaves a complex tale of suffering, unresolved preference, and pathos more befitting Tolstoy than Oprah! Don't be fooled, hip kids: This is not an accessible book for your parents! This is something new. It's....positively Franzenian. Using contemporary politics to tell the story and guide the style of his characters, Franzen uses a freewheeling narrative more at home with the satirical stylings of Pynchon than with Oprah! Don't be fooled, hip kids: This is not an accessible book for your parents! This is something new. It's....positively....transcendent, like The Grapes of Wrath or something, my favorite book of all time. The story will come to define your parents' generation, I believe, just like Steinbeck came to define the Dust Bowl. How strange it is, to be anything at all!

>> No.1386892

>>1386834
>>1386860
Your generalizations are amusing. I do not read Stephen King, nor have I read Blood Moon. Have you ever read Kazuo Ishiguro? He is a brilliant contemporary writer whose prose makes Jonathan Franzen's seem as if it were written by a dolt.

James Salter? Joyce Carol Oates? Do you read any real literature? Because it seems as if the only contemporary authors you are aware of are Stephen King and Nicholas Sparks, and your insults are laughable.

>> No.1386900

I definitely don't think Franzen is at all special as a prose stylist but he's a pretty good, I don't really know what the words I'm looking for are here, dickish observer of things

>> No.1386902

Tangential question, but:
>Joyce Carol Oates?
Is she any good beyond "Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?" Because we read that in high school, and I read it again recently. I hated that story then, and still do now, and so I've kind of avoided her.

>> No.1386906

>>1386902
Yeah she is awesome--read her collected short stories or her novel "Blonde" (about marilyn monroe) which was my favorite by her.