[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature


View post   

File: 124 KB, 1080x1080, 21st Century.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16138324 No.16138324 [Reply] [Original]

What are the greatest books of this century so far?

>> No.16138328

>>16138324
my diary desu

>> No.16138329

James Mason.

>> No.16138335

Nothing, publishers only put out astroturf shit by/for women, fags and coloreds

>> No.16138355

>>16138335
I wonder how this timeframe will be remembered.

>> No.16138413

>>16138324
Eragon by Christopher Paulini.

>> No.16138435

>>16138324
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. It will be studied and remembered for centuries.

>> No.16138440

>>16138324
We, the drowned by Carsten Jensen.

>> No.16138466
File: 616 KB, 645x470, 0AJ.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16138466

Taipei is the only book I've read other than Infinite Jest that is less than 30 years old and I really enjoyed it. It is by no means great and does nothing to break any boundaries or whatever but it's a modest little look into how some people are living and feeling nowadays.

>> No.16138509

A Primer for Cadavers

>> No.16138656

>>16138324
Nothing. Literature is a dead and obsolete art form that has no place in this century.

>> No.16138669

>>16138324
The Pale King

>> No.16138680

>>16138324
House of Leaves

>> No.16138923

>>16138680
Lol that book is already a forgotten piece of kitsch. Literally a coffee table book.

>> No.16139754

>>16138324
Liveblog captures well the normative patterns of abuse so celebrated in the young

>> No.16140367

The Foundation for Exploration

>> No.16140547

>>16138324
There’s lots of stuff I’ve enjoyed but we’re obviously in a period of degeneration

>> No.16141749

>>16138324
nothing good so far, but there's still 4/5 of the century to go.

>> No.16141905

>Brothers, Yu Hua
>The Frogs, Mo Yan

>> No.16141906

>>16138324
Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming

>> No.16141932

>>16138324
Austerlitz
2666
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

>> No.16142848

>>16140547
Agree, its just so obvious that the entire world is in decline.

>> No.16143827

My diary desu.

>> No.16144616
File: 22 KB, 268x430, 9781786070159[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16144616

Hilarious, fun, and thoughtful; the dumbass racists here could learn a lot about race through this book since it speaks to their sensibilities.

>> No.16144861

>>16144616
Why do yiy assume racism comes from lack of knowledge instead of the opposite?

>> No.16145947

>>16141932
bassd

>> No.16145999

>>16138355
It will be remembered by the signs of decay that will be so obvious in retrospect that future historians will wonder how we didn't notice them.

>> No.16146203

>>16145999
Are you literally 12?

>> No.16146737

>>16138324

The Road.

>> No.16146839
File: 36 KB, 317x475, 53203467._SY475_.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16146839

The Quest for the Obsidian Pickaxe 2: Never Say Nether (An Unofficial Minecraft Book) by renowned wordsmith Splendiferous Steve

>> No.16146954
File: 1.89 MB, 240x180, 1594324235080.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16146954

>>16138324
Telling Lies
Justice as Fairness
Animal Spirits
The Letters of John F. Kennedy

>> No.16147076
File: 357 KB, 1650x2538, 81Vxa7Ta++L.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16147076

duh

>> No.16147296
File: 572 KB, 1719x1125, best books of the 21st century.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16147296

>>16138324
I will trigger everyone on this board with this chart.

>> No.16147319

>>16147296
Sally Rooney and Tao Lin don't belong on that list. I would replace them with Delicious Tacos but I can see why people dislike him.

>> No.16147334

>>16146203
Are you?

>> No.16147339

>>16147296
Not op but thank you

>> No.16147359

Against the Day

>> No.16147424

>>16138435
Oh shut the fuck up
the book doesnt even read like something by dfw, it's just a mess and there's no way it was anywhere near finished
fucking poseurs i fucking cant stand you

>> No.16148611
File: 40 KB, 474x630, HOUSe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16148611

I'm feeling that depression all those Avatar fans felt after seeing the film for the first time. Nothing else compares. This book just busted a huge load on my face and I enjoyed every last drop of it.

Avatar was just okay btw.

Recommend me something that will get me out of this slump.

I read Perfume recently. Enjoy'd that too, but nothing beats HOL.

>> No.16148648

ghosts of my life by big mark

>> No.16148846

>>16138324
Thinking about writing the next postmodern masterpiece: A novek that looks like a cookbook but contains a cohesive narrative within the recipes

>> No.16149174

>>16147296
Baffling idea to put Quichotte there imo, Shalimar The Clown is the better Rushdie book. I'd also put Crabwalk by Gunter Grass there, and Knausgård's My Struggle.

>> No.16149727

Houellebecq belongs on a list like that if only because of his perfect sense of zeitgeist.

>> No.16150231

>>16147296

Replace No Country For Old Man with The Road.
Also Limonov and The Kindly Ones.

>> No.16150688

Some obscure fetish-fuelled fanfiction on /mlp/

>> No.16150750

>>16147296
Not bad anon. I would add 4321 by Paul Auster
>>16145999
>future historians
you think there will be any?

>> No.16150768

>>16138324
reprints of lolita

>> No.16150772

>>16138335
Knausgaard wrote +4000 pages of male navelgazing which was lauded by the entire literary establishment (rightfully). Get off of twitter mate.

>> No.16150776

>>16147296
>choosing books by checking diversity boxes

>> No.16150777

>>16138440
Is it really that good? Any scandinavian or other literature you could compare it to, or share a few thoughts about it? I've been considering it as my next project, after I finish Doctor Faustus by Mann.

>> No.16150839

>>16138656
Unironically this. We cannot consume indefinitely and all of media is losing worth due to too much of it being in distribution. There is no one to filter for us 'what we should be reading'.
Reading is falling out of fashion in the West as well and the next big artistic medium will probably be the one with the most interactivity.

>> No.16150878

>>16150839
>We cannot consume indefinitely
We do. And there is a whole nother one or two continent to be made consoomers of.
>There is no one to filter for us 'what we should be reading'.
You don't have to remind me of Bloom's death, but he has still left us a commtented canon.
>Reading is falling out of fashion in the West
People read more than ever. The curve goes up and down but we haven't even peaked.
>the next big artistic medium will probably be the one with the most interactivity.
video games are about 30 years old and there are historic milestones, but the definite canon of masterpieces is rewritten every year. Maybe our grandkids will know video games as high-brow art.

>> No.16150887

i love how people keep making these baseless claims like it was objective fact
literature is going nowhere
you just suck is all.

>> No.16150890

ITT: Literal children posting low-tier bait. Get off this board and actually read for once, this is only a waste of your time.

>> No.16150895

>>16138656
>>16140547
>>16142848
>>16145999
>>16150839
>twenty-something posturing undergraduates declare the west dead and the world in decline; have read less than 40 books each and believe the reason that they cannot name a single contemporary painter, composer, sculptor or author or director of note is because there are none, rather than because they are of limited outlook and spend to much time on the internet
Tiresome.

>> No.16150931

>>16150895
Based, I hate this exaggerated pessimism too, and I want to believe that art is fine in the current year but I have doubts too. Can you name some current greats of every medium? The ones who will be remember internationally in the future

>> No.16151015

World War Z. The book revolves in the author's interviews with the various people that partook in the liberation of earth from zombies. Although it's your generic slow moving zombie, they can still almost overthrown humanity, in a realistic setting (psychological fear and apathy from the living to do anything about them is what almost causes humanity's demise). Honestly, the book is like a condom. Simple but good. Aside from that, it shows our corruption and stupidity greatly, as well as our ability to adapt and overcome dire situations. Like a drunk Phoenix.
Personally, although the book is like a modern version of Dracula (Bram Stoker) with zombies and a simplified language, it's really good.

>> No.16151026

>>16146839
Holy FUCKING BASED

>> No.16151059

>>16150231
No

>> No.16151244

>believe the reason that they cannot name a single contemporary painter, composer, sculptor or author or director of note
I can name quite a lot of contemporary artists, but all of them are nothing worthwhile, really.
Tell me, if a museum full of contemporary art were to burn down, would we lose as much as if a museum full of Dutch masters or italian Renaissance painters were to burn down?

>> No.16151277

>>16138324
A Shimmer of Possibility by Paul Graham

>> No.16151278

>>16150890
>>16150895
what are some good books then

>> No.16151313

>>16151244
The same amount would be lost as if a dutch or italian collection burned down while they were contemporary. They have artistic merit but not the historical pedigree.

>> No.16151346

>>16151313
Not really, since modern art doesnt have any artistic merit whatsoever. And because of that, it probably won't have any historical pedigree, either.

>> No.16151543

>>16151346
How often do you go to museums in general?

>> No.16151564

>>16151543
Occasionally, but not ones that heavily feature modern art.

>> No.16151575

>>16151564
What museums heavily feature modern art? What is modern art?

>> No.16151630

>>16151575
doin your mom
you know we straight up doing your mom

>> No.16151643
File: 77 KB, 621x621, hard to digest.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16151643

>>16151630
Bet it sounded real funny and clever in your head bucko

>> No.16151645

>>16151575
I live in Yurop, so most of the modern art we got here is made by locals. The problem is that most modern artists just use this as a job to leech government funds. It has become a self-serving parasitic managerial class.

>> No.16151650

>>16151645
Didn't answer any of my questions.

>> No.16151654

>all these faggots ITT who can only appreciate artworks if bourgeois institutions or Harold Bloom have told them that they are refined™, canonical™ and important™
Read Handke plebs.

>> No.16151659

>>16151654
>dude a jar of feces has just as much artistic merit as Michelangelo's David!

>> No.16151661

>>16151659
This is such an Amerimutt post

>> No.16151666

>>16151661
t. "artist" defending his shitty diploma

>> No.16151679

>>16151666
Satan is American, always thought so. To you "people" nuance is a foreign thing you put in tacos.

>> No.16151711

2666
Your face tomorrow
The Feast of the Goat
Austerlitz
The Nautical Chart
La Novela Luminosa
Bleeding Edge

>> No.16151737

>>16150895
I mean, this is the conclusion I would shy toward too, but then... who are these artists? I can name a handful, but just that. Just a few.

And enough time has gone by that we should be able to see the incipient canon in the 90s. And what is it? It's nothing. It's shit. It's dirt. It's a degeneration. The 80s before it were better, but not particularly.

I agree with you that this is a pessimism found in the young artists of every generation. But that also discounts the fact that art is in a liminal period, a period when the role of art is changing, when its movements are irreparably fractured, when its presentation of social values has eclipsed any other aspect of the art. This isn't just a case of historians compiling the movements later on in time, retroactively. Contemporary art history (for example) often denotes contemporary art by this exact characteristic, the breakdown of cohesive movements within the medium.

>> No.16151746

>>16138324
Seiobo There Below
Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
Repetition, by Robbe-Grillet
Blindly, by Claudio Magris
Fragments of Lichtenberg
Wizard of the Crow

>> No.16152023

>>16151737
>Contemporary art history (for example) often denotes contemporary art by this exact characteristic, the breakdown of cohesive movements within the medium.
This sounds like terrible historiography, simulatenously nominalist (about the present) and non-nominalist (about the past).

>> No.16152028

>>16151659
>doesn't realize that the jar of shit was approved by bourgeois institutions

>> No.16152060

>>16150895
>>16150839
Literature as an artistic medium becoming less relevant is not the same as the whole Western world declining. It is a development which hints to us that art is becoming more visual in times of the Internet. This is not a negative development at all.
>they cannot name a single contemporary painter, composer, sculptor or author or director of note is because there are none
Art is becoming increasingly anonymous and nameless. The reason why barely anyone can do this despite being exposed to more art than ever is that the people behind it don't matter. Art distribution causes people to be less aware of its context and more of what is shown before it is discarded and the viewer moves on to the next piece.
>rather than because they are of limited outlook and spend to much time on the internet
Who isn't nowadays? Who has got the time to consume art in the 'right way'? How is this exclusive to the people mentioned if we see all younger people spending more and more time on the Internet?

Art consumption never has been higher and literature becoming less important in a day to day non-academic setting is not a bad development in itself but one that should be further analysed on how it is changing our perception of art.

>> No.16152447

>>16152028
yeah i know
It's why a return to religiosity is needed

>> No.16152487

>>16138335
Go outside.

>> No.16152569

>>16150777
It's definitely worth a read though it also depends on how into nautical literature you are. I can't really say how it compares to much Scandinavian lit, but I think a comparison could sort of be made with Growth of the Soil with We, the Drowned following a single town moving into the future and a changing world rather than a single man.

>> No.16152677

>>16147296
>No Laiseca
Turbokek, get gut, u mediocre fag

>> No.16152719

>>16150895
We're nearing the end for most people, that much is clear. It's technology that is bringing it, and the moral and cultural decline of the west in particular is just a convenient chronological coincidence for the elite, corporate oligarchs who will inherit the Earth.

>> No.16152738

>>16152023
This sounds like deflection and coping

>> No.16152754

>>16152719
Dude, delete your post so it can't be traced back here. You can get so much Reddit gold for this astute observation. You've nailed it, buddy.

>> No.16153446

>>16151645
>The problem is that most modern artists just use this as a job to leech government funds. It has become a self-serving parasitic managerial class.
I'm not the anon you're replying.
The same happens here. How is that even possible? Even the literary awards are pure garbage used to do politics and let artists vote to give government money to each other.

>>16151654
>Read Handke plebs.
Which book?

>> No.16154376

are you just gonna pretend lincoln in the bardo doesn't exist?

>> No.16154403

>>16138324
Everything has been standardized and genuine culture has been replaced with shitty consumerist “pop culture” and the internet. The autistic savants that would have become great artists or researchers 200 years ago are now dedicating themselves to speedrunning video games