/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16259138]

For the literary value per page, what would you rate more highly, Pynchon's Mason & Dixon or DFW's Infinite Jest? Which would you rather read and why?

[Anonymous No.16259160]

Pynchon's shittiest work is head and shoulders above DFW's best work. The two are not in the same league.

[Anonymous No.16259162]

>>16259138
haven't read M&D, but based on my experience reading Gravity's Rainbow, I'd go with pynchon, no need to think.
more fun, more emotions

[Anonymous No.16260208]

>>16259160
>>16259162
Thankee, Anon.

[Anonymous No.16260212]

I haven't read DFW. Therefore, I rate M&D more highlier.

[Anonymous No.16260266]

>Learned English Dog be cry

[Anonymous No.16260332]

>>16260266
A daring synthesis!

[Anonymous No.16260341]

I enjoyed both, but I think back on Infinite Jest far more than I do Mason & Dixon.

[Anonymous No.16260345]

>what we were doing out in that Country together was brave, scientifick beyond my understanding, and ultimately meaningless
I doubt DFW has ever crafted a more succinct and profound sentence.

[Anonymous No.16260379]

>>16259138
Wallace could never hope to compare to M&D.

[Anonymous No.16260397]

I doubt "DFW" can even tackle topics more complex than drug addiction and tennis. Nor perspectives that much different from his own. He couldn't even get ebonics right, imagine him trying to successfully ape eighteenth century English.

[Anonymous No.16260858]

>>16259138
Infinite jest by far. Pynchon is all aesthetics and he doesn't want to be picked apart. DFW wants to be picked apart and sets up his stories so they're rewarding when you do. This makes his stuff more impressive and engaging imo

[Anonymous No.16260954]

>>16260397
>implying 1990s porch monkey talk was the same as the 2010s variety you hear in your raps

[Anonymous No.16260995]

>>16260954
well I listen to 90s rap so...

[Anonymous No.16261037]

>>16259138
I would have to go with IJ, it is just more relevant.

>>16260995
The Wardine chapter is narrated by a 14 year old*, uneducated meth addicted girl who is almost certainly high at the time of narration. Learn context.

*I think she was 14 at the time, I would have to give another look over, you have to extrapolate her age from other parts in the book and it has been awhile since I read it.

[Anonymous No.16261181]

>>16260397
>I doubt "DFW" can even tackle topics more complex than drug addiction and tennis.
Imagine being so plebeian you think this is all IJ is about.

[Anonymous No.16261185]

>>16259160
Ok then
Vineland vs IJ
Who wins?

[Anonymous No.16261234]

>>16261037
>I would have to go with IJ, it is just more relevant.
Please explain how besides the fact that AOC is thew book's most famous fan. At least Idiocracy was entertaining and funny, both are about as shallow in their political and social commentary. Corporations naming years? Even Mike Judge was more clever than that.

[Anonymous No.16261422]

>>16261234
Your post is a perfect example of what IJ is commenting upon and like Hal, you do not speak, you just meme, do exactly as expected, you have no identity of your own. You did not just ask, you tried to prove your own view before even getting response, you took the easy to attain pleasure of masturbation over the hard work of understanding. You are so mired in /pol/ you can not even see there is no political commentary in IJ, politics is just spectacle distracting people from what is important, people picking sides so they can circle jerk over their own righteousness and never face the difficult questions, never engaging in honest communication, just looking for the next handjob. "AOC LIKES IT SO IT MUST BE SHIT!" You could not even give actual examples from the book, you just attacked, "ITS SHIT AND THIS SHIT IS BETTER EVEN IF IT IS SHIT!"

Politics, drugs, tennis, tv, they are all the same in IJ, symptoms of the problem, ways people avoid being honest, distractions from everything difficult. They perform or pick a side or get fucked up so they do not have to deal and only are honest when they absolutely have no other choice, but even then they only do it when it is expected of them, in places like AA or with a therapist.

Read it again and try not to be distracted by the spectacle, focus on the moments of honesty, perhaps then you will understand.

[Anonymous No.16261689]

>>16261234
Corporations naming years isn’t meant to be some sort of smart Simpsons-esque, “OMG, look, DFW foresaw the future!” prediction. It’s meant to as a pointed jab at the increasing vacuity of modern society, Infinite Jest being predominantly about the many different sorts of lacunae that litter our contemporary lives and what people use to try and fill these gaps.

[Gustav Klimt No.16261934]

>>16259138
I'd rate most highly AI-created machine-learning literature. GPT-3 can beat any human writer by now. It's like trying to win at chess against the computer, bro - you just can't do it.

[Anonymous No.16262032]

>>16261934
You likely are the most pathetic namefag in /lit/ history, even London Frog has more to say and likely a better quality of life than you.

[Anonymous No.16262150]

>>16261422
This reminds me of a funny story

>See qtπ girl reading Infinite Jest at college
>Walk up to her
>"So you like DFW huh?"
>"Yes, he's brilliant!" she responds, clearly excited
>Decide to engage her in an intelligent literary discussion
>"Did you know that he killed himself because he hadn't any talent?"
>"E-excuse me?" (she is clearly impressed by my expertise)
>"He can't write, he can't think; there's no discernible talent"
>"Ooo-kay..." she says and turns back to her book
>I tear it from her hands and launch it across the room with all my strength
>"Why don't you read some real literature instead?"
>"What the hell!?"
>"I recommend Hemmingway. Now there's a man's man"
>"I don't like Hemingway!"
>"Hemmingway," I correct her. "It has two m's"
>She collects her book from where it lies three metres away and storms off, completely defeated by my insoluble logic
>I open my laptop
>That feel when no gf

Anyway all memes aside, why bother reading someone who couldn't even live with himself? The only sincere moment in the life of David Foster Wallace was when he kicked away the chair. The rest of his life was a lie, the new sincerity was a joke whose punchline was the creaking of his leather belt around the rafter. His literary career was a menagerie of self help lies told to keep his depression at bay. The audience pussy and drugs were the ghosts at that feast of hypocrisy. The depression turned out to be completely warranted because behind all the gimmicks and the self awareness and the bandannas was no discernible talent.

[Anonymous No.16262235]

>>16262150
>Anyway all memes aside
>Here are more memes!
You even end with Bloom. .

[Anonymous No.16262247]

Shit or poop?

[Anonymous No.16262259]

>16262150
Wow, so edgy.

[Anonymous No.16262340]

>>16262235
>... and then i told anon "all memes aside"

[Anonymous No.16262360]

>>16262340
>t. incapable of independent thought

[Anonymous No.16262571]

>>16260858
>Pynchon is all aesthetics and he doesn't want to be picked apart.

lol wrong

[Anonymous No.16263657]

For me? It's the one with the talking dog.

[Anonymous No.16264108]

>>16261185
Vineland, but that's one of Pynchon's best books.

[Anonymous No.16264131]

>>16263657
For me? It's the one with the nubbin.

[Anonymous No.16264397]

>>16259138
You started a war here anon.

[Anonymous No.16264752]

>>16264131
The what now?

[Anonymous No.16265032]

>>16264752
Mason & Dixon has a talking dog. Infinite Jest has a dog reduced to a nubbin.

[Anonymous No.16265804]

>>16265032
Sounds dumb, to be quite honest with you.

[Anonymous No.16266500]

M&D for prose, IJ for themes

[Anonymous No.16266515]

>>16261037
i thought the Wardine section was supposed to be futuristically accelerated ebonics that degenerated even further than 90s negrospeak

[Anonymous No.16266532]

>>16259138
Pynchon. His command of language is better (M&D is beautiful all the way through, and there are some real breathtakers), he's funnier, his erudition doesn't feel like showing off, and his plots are more inventive. Plus, he doesn't share Wallace's world-weary cynicism.

[Anonymous No.16266547]

>>16266515
Then explain why all the other black people, with the exception of a few at ETA, speak pretty much standard ebonics? She is just fucked up on meth, her mind is going 10 times faster than her mouth.

[Anonymous No.16266584]

You literally have to be a broken person to enjoy DFW. I was told this the other day by a fan of his on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.16266641]

>>16266584
Not true at all, enjoyed him before I was broken, while I was breaking and after I broke.

[Anonymous No.16266804]

>>16266584
I enjoyed him after being put back together. Not sure if that counts.

[Anonymous No.16266816]

Infinite Jest measures 4.76 literature value/page while Mason & Dixon has 4.58 literature value/page

[Anonymous No.16267063]

Different strokes. I prefer M&D if only for Papa Pynchon’s rare sentimentality

[Anonymous No.16267332]

>>16265804
It was dumb... a dumb mistake...

[Anonymous No.16267741]

>>16266584
what exactly constitutes being a "broken" person

[Anonymous No.16269150]

>>16267741
Someone who likes Infinite Jest.

[Anonymous No.16269225]

>>16267741
We are all broken in some way or another.