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/lit/ - Literature

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15636730 No.15636730 [Reply] [Original]

>I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. My posture is consciously congruent to the shape of my hard chair. My fingers are mated into a mirrored series of what manifests, to me, as the letter X.

Why didn't you drop the book at that very instant?

>> No.15636847

>>15636730
That might have hurt my foot

>> No.15637171

>>15636730
Because I'm not a brainlet that gets confused by prolix.

>> No.15637195

I'm in the beginning of The book of disquiet and i get similar vibes, I hate descriptions, It's for weak spatial IQ pseuds (Tho Pessua has great introspection i just lose interest reading his actual points because of this meme poetry, I also like a good story).

>> No.15637209

>>15636730
>surrounded by heads and bodies
Who even thinks like this? How is this not the not the most convoluted way of saying that you're surrounded by people?

>> No.15637320
File: 48 KB, 639x582, tired pepe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15637320

>>15637195
>I hate descriptions

>> No.15637323

>>15637209
Yes anon you're right, all writing should be in the most simple and straightforward way possible

>> No.15637482

>>15637323
So he probably should read some Hemmingway instead

>> No.15637515

>>15637323
I'm saying that it's a very contrived sentence and that there's no way he couldn't have come up with a better solution to communicate whatever it is he wanted to say

>> No.15637527

>>15637515
He wasn't just trying to convey he was in a room with people. He wanted to highlight the strange perspective of the narrator and of the inherit strangeness of physical existence. Its a way of signaling to the reader what the book will be like.

>> No.15637556

>>15637209
It's been a long time since I read the book (and I didn't even like it much), but IIRC the narrator here is supposed to be nuts.

>> No.15637586

>>15637527
It's like something from someone with dissociative disorder but banal and sophomoric instead of absurd and disorienting. It reminds me of when people talk about "brown bodies" as if they've unearthed some deep insight; you don't believe that shit, you're just striking a pose
>>15637556
I honestly got that but even as a picture of mental illness it's too quaint

>> No.15637626

If anyone was to post something like this in the critique thread it would get torn to shreds but since it's from muh meme book, everyone will justify it.

>> No.15637632

I normally wouldnt like this but once you read on and learn how much of a sperg hal is it makes more sense

>> No.15637643

I found a bulletin board where you can talk with people all over the world
This bulletin board has automatic translation function


Babeler

>> No.15637647

>>15637515
It communicates exactly what he's trying to say. Hal is tripping balls in that scene. That's the point

>> No.15637783
File: 38 KB, 410x598, 1591980197486.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15637783

>>15637626

>> No.15637801

>>15637586
surrounded by nerds and jocks, duh

>> No.15638517

>>15637556
>>15637586
He is just stoned out of his mind.

>> No.15638561

>>15637515
>I'm saying that it's a very contrived sentence
The narrator is the kind of person that express himself in contrived sentences. He memorized the entire Oxford English Dictionary word for word.

>> No.15638572

>>15637515
>I'm saying that it's a very contrived sentence
not at all

>> No.15638576

>>15637515
You're an idiot.

>> No.15638596

>>15638561
>The narrator is the kind of person that express himself in contrived sentences
No, compare his thought patterns in the first chapter to the rest, that is not how he expresses himself or thinks. The first chapter is just an exagerated example of stoner thinking, psuedo deep thoughts that he is too stoned to communicate..

>> No.15638639

>>15638576
And you're a tasteless moron, it reads like lyrics for pop music. It's a trite interpretation of a dissociative state of mind

>> No.15638695

>>15638639
If you don't like it that's fine, but you're stupid for thinking it's not good or effective at what it's doing.

>> No.15638731

>>15638596
I remember him using obscure words and phrases and having to "dumb them down" when talking to Orin

>> No.15638740

>>15636730
I thought it was pretty good desu.

>> No.15638751

>>15636730
It's cringe desu

>> No.15638799

>>15638731
Having a large vocabulary is different than contrived. He talked the same to Orin as he did most everyone else, the only real difference is that he compulsively lied to Orin. The only people he really spoke differently too were Mario and the moms, he never really dumbed things down, he would just recite a passage from the OED if anyone did not know a word he used, which he hated that he did but the Moms had pretty much programmed this sort of performance into him, always asking him to open the pickle jar she could so easily have opened herself. This is also what Himself got on about regarding Hal not speaking, he just performed.

>> No.15638812

i was under the impression that he was relating the scene while having an anxiety attack of some sorts

sorry it's been 10 years since i read it

>> No.15638817

>>15638812
"He" being Hal that is

>> No.15638821

>>15638817
You being gay that is

>> No.15638840
File: 7 KB, 200x200, sad benny.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15638840

>>15638821
hey...

>> No.15639935

>>15638695
what way is it good or effective?

>> No.15640039

>>15636730
I actually did desu

>> No.15640605

>>15637209
the heads and bodies thing is a huge theme

>> No.15640741

>>15640605
I don't care if he integrates descartes meditations on mind body dualism or if he read *all* the wikipedia pages for dissociative disorders, it's still an awful line

>> No.15640816

>>15637209
It's trying to illustrate that he is detached from the "people" in the room as "people." If you read the book, you learn that he is on a highly powerful drug that is exacerbating his already existing detachment from others.

>> No.15641104

>>15640816
I've already said that it's too contrived. Not even the most mentally ill person would separate the head and body in their mind like that. Not even if he was drugged out of his mind. It's a "cool" visual, a *provoking* image, it's not the real thought process of anyone dissociating from people. Dissection can be cold or hot, the cold dissection being the more macabre one, at least to an onlooker. It's understandable why someone would write about a guy who sees heads and bodies, it's theoretically very cold. However it doesn't read like a cold dissection, it reads like someone pretending what it's like to be cold

>> No.15641115

>>15637209
le depersonalization may may

>> No.15641173
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15641173

>>15637209
>Who even thinks like this? I refuse to believe anyone thinks like this. Not even the author thinks like this!, despite being the person penning the.... wait

>> No.15641227

>>15641173
Wow, that must mean shadow the hedgehog is an interesting multi-layered character, a daring expedition into uncharted territory of the collective unconscious, because someone wrote shadow the darkhog and he's a real character. Thanks for clearing that up

>> No.15641459

>>15637209
It is obviously meant to communicate the idea that the narrator is experiencing the world in a very intense and confused manner. We know he is conscious of his positioning as it relates to his chair. We know he is making comments on how his hands look when they are clasped together. He sees “heads and bodies” rather than “people” because it is more accurate his subjective experience. Later on it is revealed that the narrator is high on some sort of drug, which is what caused him to view things so unnaturally and intensely.
If you struggle to understand what such a simple turn of phrase is communicating, literature is not for you. Period. If you can’t even interpret this, you will not understand the vast majority of literature. One only wonders how you would react to metaphors in Shakespeare, for example.
>What does she mean “I cannot heave my heart into my mouth”? Isn’t this the most convoluted way of saying she can’t force herself to speak about her emotions??? What the fuck man?

>> No.15641510

>>15641459
Are all the people reading DFW this daft?
Refer to this post
>>15640741
>If you struggle to understand
It's not that I don't understand, it's that it conveys a mindset that's not real, in any sense of the word. It's a comically cold train of thought, reading more like a parody of a dissociative state of mind than something that resembles reality

>> No.15641543

>>15641510
It's quite realistic, have you ever had a dissociative episode?

>> No.15641570

>>15641510
>it conveys a mindset that's not
>I haven't had it, therefore it's not real
Whatever, normalfag. Try being a tourist somewhere else, you don't like us and we don't like you

>> No.15641579

>>15637626
And if you post Joyce into a crit thread it'll get ignored, what's your point?

>> No.15641592

I've never read Infinite Jest but I see the last sentence posted a lot and I really like the feel of it.
>And when he came to, he was flat on his back on the beach in the freezing sand, and it was raining out of a low sky, and the tide was way out.
It just feels like a good sentence to end the book on. Is it any better in context?

>> No.15641594

>>15641510
>I literally have no imagination or empathy
Again, literature is not for you.

>> No.15641615

>>15641543
Yea
>>15641570
I certainly don't like you
>>15641594
No, it's because I am emphatic that I can sense how much he puts it on, it's dishonest writing

>> No.15641617

>>15636730
I thought they were all severed. Like in The House that Jack Built. Would have been a lot more interesting.

>> No.15641649

>>15641615
>emphatic
Wanna try that again, or should we just try and help you find your parents?

>> No.15641677

>>15641615
Your objection was to the perceived verbosity in saying “heads and bodies” instead of the more simple “people”. That is clear from your post. You have now changed your argument from “it’s convoluted!” to “it’s not accurate to people with dissociative states”, because you got BTFO. The fact is “bodies and heads” is perfectly fine phrasing. You can imagine the poor guy sitting in the interview, tripping, looking around him only to see amorphous humanlike figures — bodies and heads — rather than faces, personalities, people. It is not verbose and it is not dishonest. You should stop trying to read literature because your interpretive faculties are so broken as to be incurable.

>> No.15641711

>>15641649
Sorry, I assumed the first option in google chrome autocorrect would give me empathic. I don't appreciate the red underlining so I hoped the software would choose something similar that it liked better (empathetic) instead of a different word altogether

>> No.15641725

>>15641711
You’re so pathetic it’s insane. Almost feel bad for you

>> No.15641761

>>15641677
> you got BTFO
Shut the fuck up, I can't possible be "BTFO" by morons who think there's something clever about a character talking about heads and bodies, as if they're learning something about the dissociative state of mind. Do you also feel like you're really getting into the headspace of a killer when you read about Hannibal Lecter? The difference here being, at least Hannibal Lecter is amusing in his contrivedness
>>15641725
Eat shit faggot

>> No.15641837

>>15641761
I don't think DFW held this sentence up as his masterpiece, its a perfectly fine sentence the conveys a message stop autistically over analysing it.

>> No.15641901

>>15641837
The talk about posture and X is okay, it relates to someone who is burdened by the physicality of the situation, but the heads and bodies is a projection rather than an embodiment of this dissociative state. The heads I can accept but where are the bodies? Hidden away under clothes, peeking out from cuffs. It's not an accurate description of someone burdened by the physicality, it's too conceptual

>> No.15641934

>>15641901
the human experience is different to everyone, as you say the description is too 'conceptual', you have inferred that Hal sees people as shapes and concepts rather than humans with personalities and feelings so I don't think the content is lost to you are just unable to relate to what Hal is feeling in this scene

>> No.15642081

>>15641592
>Is it any better in context?
Oh yeah. Good ol' Gately.