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/lit/ - Literature

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1640140 No.1640140 [Reply] [Original]

So how does /lit/ feel about this guy? Any good?

>> No.1640156

That's Neil Gaiman, right? He's OK, imo.

>> No.1640160

Yeah, I'm fond of Jonathan Franzen.

>> No.1640166

LOL GEE THANKS GUYS

>> No.1640459

Hey OP, I would call myself a big fan but at the same time I don't really think he's done anything that good in the past decade. I know /lit/ is a giant shitheap, but you shoulda known that it takes more elbow grease than this for people to post about anything besides 1984, whether or not Holden is a little bitch, or their violent rape fantasies about Ayn Rand. Hope this helps.

>> No.1640495

bump

>> No.1640500

He won a fucking Pulitzer, what do you think? it means he sucks, ofc

>> No.1640573

good-looking dude

bad essayist

>> No.1640622

Two things /lit/ abhors out of ignorance: living authors who aren't Thomas Pynchon, and The Jews

>> No.1640629

>>1640622
/lit/ loves PHilip Roth so you're wrong on both accounts

>> No.1640633

Who the fuck is he? Am I supposed to recognise plastic-faced botox monkey authors now?

>> No.1640636

>>1640629

/lit/ doesn't know who Philip Roth is. Compared to his status as a writer, he's mentioned only very rarely, and I don't think I've ever seen a thread dedicated to him or his books.

>> No.1640637

>>1640633

You could look at the name of the picture maybe?

>> No.1640640

>>1640636
yeah, honestly, it'd be more convincing to make this case with Jonathan Fuckin Safran Foer

>> No.1640641

>>1640636
I don't know about that, he was mentioned quite a bit in the early days of the board.

>> No.1640646

>>1640640
I think we talk about Roth more often than him

>> No.1640732

>>1640641
if this is true then maybe the glory days of Old /lit/ are more than just wishful thinking

i feel like /lit/ is way more out of touch with contemporary lit than my dad who reads one novel per year

>> No.1640749

>>1640732
Yeah, we enjoyed talking about how misogynistic his novels were, especially his I Married a Communist. If you know the whole situation surrounding it, you'll realize what a jerk that man is! Goodness.

>> No.1640756

>>1640749

I also think that in comparison to his early work, some of his later work is badly in need of more editing. Not so much with The Plot Against America, but American Pastoral and the Human Stain were really sloppy.

>> No.1640761

>>1640756
Yeah, as you can clearly see, writers start to lose their marbles as they get older, and it's visible in their books. See: Delillo, Pynchon, David Markson (especially this guy, wtf). Kind of makes me wish they'd all just offed themselves at a younger age a la DFW. Haha, just kidding! But really.

>> No.1640766

>>1640761

I actually think Pynchon is getting better, but I agree with your point. This makes me think of John Irving--it's sad that he's even still trying, and I don't think he's all that old.

>> No.1640814

>>1640756
Oh, definitely. But he's streets ahead of your average old-revered-dude-who's-still-writing, which I say as like 25% a compliment to him, 75% an insult to other people in that class

>> No.1640857

i saw him do a reading at the liberry a couple years back and it felt a little like someone was running an experiment on how gay a straight-identified person has to seem for a sensitive mature liberal minded fellow like me to be like "come on, who are you kidding"

>> No.1640889

>>1640761

i just read cosmopolis by delillo--it's a later work--but i enjoyed it thoroughly. it was sort of like an updated white noise to a degree.

>> No.1640962

>>1640761
when do you think markson lost the plot? i keep meaning to check him out and i gotta know what to look out for when i troll the used bookstores in my brother's college town next week

>> No.1640998

>>1640646
Nah, Deep&Edgy doesn't want to go to homecoming with Philip Roth

>> No.1641004

>>1640962
Oh, I was joking for the most part when I mentioned him. His later books (Reader's Block et al) are pretty unusual in that they aren't so much novels as they are collages of short, directly stated anecdotes about and quotes from various authors, composers and artists of all kinds, with a developing narrative involving a character named "Writer", "Author", "Novelist", etc. sparsely strewn throughout. There's certainly an aesthetic sense to how the different anecdotes are arranged and a lot of the time it's quite poignant. They have been described sort of as long poems, a description the author himself agreed with. I do recommend looking into them if this sounds interesting to you.

>> No.1641018

>>1641004
Oh, also, most people who've read him say his earlier Wittgenstein's Mistress is his best book, but that's not one I've read, so.

>> No.1641033

>>1641018
>>1641004
ha ok, i was wondering about that! i seem to recall people pulling their hair out when he died because he was still doing rad stuff, and scheez, that was almost a year ago. my to-read list is so fukkin backed up. thanks for the info~

>> No.1641041

>>1640962
>my brother's college town
>college town
this everything that's wrong with /lit/.

>> No.1641047

>>1641033
Apparently he was still working on something similar to his previous 4 books a couple years before he died, but sadly that didn't go through.

>> No.1641048

>>1641041
townie swineherd detected

>> No.1641068

>>1641048
go do some serious reading on the bus dullard.

>> No.1641078
File: 84 KB, 679x569, poof.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1641078

>>1641068
I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.

All must bear the cross, but not all the same cross: each one his own.

Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?

the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it".

>> No.1641080

>>1641048
You should check out Wittgenstein's Mistress, D&E, since you seem to like Wittgenstein, and the book has his name in the title.

>> No.1641084

hey it's almost like something else in this thread might represent everything wrong with /lit/

>> No.1641085

onionring im going to contact a paedophile in my area this weekend. tell me your thoughts and i shall read in the morning.

>> No.1641088

>>1641080
I have been meaning to read some Philip Roth but it will probably be the Human Stain

>> No.1641090
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1641090

>>1641085
before self destruction, you are already dead to life. if you want some sense of existence you need to have a religious experience towards life.

>> No.1641099

okay...... good luck with your book.

>> No.1641101

>>1641088
Cool, even if that's not germane to what I had just said. I've only read Portnoy's Complaint myself, and it's a pretty funny book, loads of lols throughout.

>> No.1641108

>>1641101
oh sorry for some reason I'd gotten it into my head that was a philip roth novel. sounds good from the wikipedia entry might give it a look

>> No.1641111

since I hate you...The Human Stain is about a light-skinned black man who passes himself off as a Jewish university professor and then get's into an affair with a redneck woman. At the end of the book they're killed in a car accident when her jelous ex runs them off the road. Enjoy your book, D&E!

>> No.1641117

>>1641111
bro there are other people who read this board too :(

>> No.1641120

>>1641111
>implying I read novels for "story" or "theme"

>> No.1641122

>>1641111
He would have only read a chapter or two, anyway, only to come on here, professing to have read it all and that it was boring and no where near the zenith that is Bret Easton Ellis.

He really is a stupid fag with horrible taste in everything.

>> No.1641123

american pastoral is better

>> No.1641124

>>1641111

zounding quads tho fair play 2 u

>> No.1641125
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1641125

>>1641117

That's why you always leave a note!

>> No.1641136
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1641136

How does a thread about a popular writer read by every glasses-wearing Barnes & Noble employee and precocious 17-year-old Dinosaur Jr. fan in America generate 50 posts ending in Deep&Edgy getting spoiled for a late-period Roth novel

I'll never understand you, /lit/

>> No.1641138

>>1641117

Yeah, sorry about that, but it was for a good cause.

>> No.1641177

>>1641136
well, it started with a mention of the Jews

>> No.1641200

I tried to google for that picture of him with the steampunk goggles and had to bail because he has such creepy mind-control eyes and the image search results page was tripping me out