/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18330263]

>If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.

[Anonymous No.18331075]

>>18330263
For the last time Chief, I don't care about your opinions on journalists; is that teleporter fixed yet? We got 6 Talarian refugees waiting for transport.

[Anonymous No.18331098]

>>18330263
big dumbo ears haha

[Anonymous No.18331131]

>>18330263
>not talented enough to be a novelist,
Mailer was certainly a man of talent. That is to say, lacking genius.

[Anonymous No.18331137]

>>18330263
Mailer v. Vidal (pretentious twats having a sissy fight):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8m9vDRe8fw

Here's the full interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w_qoioOk

[Anonymous No.18331177]

>>18330263
Rip Torn getting drunk/high and beating up Mailer in front of his family (on the set of an unwatchable pretentious film they were making):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JJAN0AW6sg

[Anonymous No.18331630]

>>18331131
He was a midwit who LARPed affiliation with the underclass and maintained just enough skill from a relatively privileged upbringing to communicate effectively with a literary class who confused him for the real thing.

He had a middling talent that would go largely unnoticed in another era/arena. He's basically Margaret Atwood with a thicker skin but without her clarity of writing. He is inconsequential outside of a shrinking and limited scope and no one will read him in 30 years (50 tops).

Mailer was a based example for OP to use, but journalists have to limit themselves to the contemporary and their talents shouldn't be judged by that restriction. New Journalism tried to go above that but Mailer is, by far, the weakest of the major names (e.g. Didion, Thompson, Wolfe, and Capote). He's a footnote to that movement and his novels aren't anything special.

[Anonymous No.18331773]

>>18331630
>Mailer was a based example for OP to use
It is a Mailer quote, moron.

Mailer will probably be bigger in 50 years than he has been since his peak, he destroyed his own reputation through drink and time is slowly forgiving him. Sort of hate Mailer and the movement, but he had skill and even shitfaced he managed to form better arguments than you.

[Anonymous No.18332025]

>>18331773
It's a Mailer quote? I guess that's why it's shitty. Kind of a nonsequitur between novelist/journalist and lawyer/doctor.
>If a person is not imaginative enough to be a novelist, not independent enough to be a lawyer, and lacks the courage of a police detective, he becomes a journalist.
There. That's better and I did it while taking a shit. (It's still a midwit take that says nothing about combat reporters or the limitations imposed by covering contemporaneous events but at least it makes more sense now.)

[Anonymous No.18332034]

>>18331075
He looks nothing like him.

[Anonymous No.18332058]

>>18332025
>>18331773
P.S. The fact that it's a quote from someone affiliated with New Journalism makes it even more contrived and adds some unintentional self-deprecation. You know, what you usually get if you listen to a drunk person who isn't as smart as they think they are ramble off for a bit.

[Anonymous No.18332067]

>>18331630
Mailer wasn't a 'midwit.' He was an extremely talented writer, legitimately a contender for the greatest writer of the latter 20th century.
The only reason people call Mailer's genius into question is his persona. Had he lived a quiet and respectable life, he would be universally regarded as the great artist he was.

[Anonymous No.18332128]

>>18332058
>>18332025
You should probably learn the context of a quote before you make decisions about its meaning, So far you have used nothing but pretext and opinion to demonstrate your view, shown nothing to suggest you have read anything by him and I would bet that the small number of facts you have given can all be gotten from the first few paragraphs of his wikipedia page.

[Anonymous No.18332362]

>>18332128
>Muh Mailer!
Seethe harder fanboy. I gave reasons for a subjective opinion; the best you can do is cry about it without even giving your own take on a thread devoted to your icon.

Fuck off faggot. Go cry somewhere else. If there's actually context...go ahead and give it. Otherwise go watch Maidstone (genius!).

[Anonymous No.18332379]

>>18332067
Naw, he was a pseud who got BTFO'd by Gore Vidal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8m9vDRe8fw
> LARPed affiliation with the underclass and maintained just enough skill from a relatively privileged upbringing to communicate effectively with a literary class who confused him for the real thing.
Prove me wrong.

[Anonymous No.18332480]

>>18331137
That fake Irish accent is beyond cringe

[Anonymous No.18332540]

>>18332480
Watching him try to bite a drugged-out actor who is beating his ass in front of his kids, all so they can finish some contrived meandering film the midwit came up with, and then yelling at his wife that he gave worse than he got, while standing there out of breath and bleeding on himself, says all you need to know about the guy. What a loser.

[Anonymous No.18332605]

>>18332362
Not really a fan of Mailer but I would enjoy actually discussing him.
>If there's actually context
There is always context, for example; the person who made the statement is a context, you did not even know that much.

[Anonymous No.18332702]

>>18332605
>There is always context, for example; the person who made the statement is a context, you did not even know that much.
Are you a complete retard? The reference was to the specific quote (i.e. triggered anon alluded to context without bringing it into the discussion). Also, learn how to properly use a ';' you pretentious pseud. "tHeREs alWayZ coNTeXt." (What a non-statement).

Macdonald is the superior Norm. Fight me.

[Anonymous No.18332714]

>>18332702
That semi-colon was just for you.

[Anonymous No.18332733]

>>18332714
Because you keep the whole one reserved for fags.

[Anonymous No.18332739]

>>18332733
It is rare I use colons: but sure: I can use them that way.

[Anonymous No.18332781]

>>18332739
>That semi-colon was just for you.
Sure. Good to know you like to share your colon with strangers.
>It is rare I use colons
Is it? Ok bottom.

Fuck off.

[Anonymous No.18332901]

>>18332781
>this will show him!
>fuck
>delete post
>this will really show him!
You should respond to the post prior to the delete if you want to play such games, that way you can pretend it was a different anon. You should also not do a variation of the same bad joke.

[Anonymous No.18332950]

>novelist
>smart

[Anonymous No.18333045]

>>18332901
>Deleted post!
>Muh context!
I wrote the same thing twice retard. Is that all you got or do you want to tell us more about your colon?

How about another excuse to convince us strangers that you actually do know how to use a ;?

Loser.

[Anonymous No.18333068]

>>18332901
>You should respond to the post prior to the delete if you want to play such games, that way you can pretend it was a different anon. You should also not do a variation of the same bad joke.

[Anonymous No.18333090]

>>18330263
>smart enough to be a lawyer
They are pretty stupid desu

[Anonymous No.18333101]

>>18332901
>You should respond to the post prior to the delete if you want to play such games, that way you can pretend it was a different anon. You should also not do a variation of the same bad joke.

I deleted it because I posted it twice retard (which you even say in your retard comment). The only bad joke is you making excuses to strangers because you don't know how to use a semi-colon.

[Anonymous No.18333108]

>>18330263
I am both a novelist and a lawyer. I can't imagine ever becoming a journo.

[Anonymous No.18333180]

>>18332128
You're dealing with disingenuous retards, anon. Don't wrestle with pigs etc.

[Anonymous No.18333227]

>>18333180
>You're dealing with disingenuous retards, anon. Don't wrestle with pigs etc

[Anonymous No.18333241]

>>18333108
No one cares.

[Anonymous No.18333249]

>>18331630
>Mailer is, by far, the weakest of the major names (e.g. Didion, Thompson, Wolfe, and Capote

William Gass is a major name. Thomas Pynchon is a major name. Vladimir Nabokov is a major name.
Do not mistake good, competent, even excellent books with major works of art. No one ranks Alma-Tadema alongside Jacques-Louis David. Big differences.

[Anonymous No.18333280]

>>18333249
>New Journalism tried to go above that but Mailer is, by far, the weakest of the major names (e.g. Didion, Thompson, Wolfe, and Capote).
I was specifically talking about New Journalism retard. Learn to read.

[Anonymous No.18333310]

>>18330263
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2jXH-wPAfU

[Anonymous No.18333345]

[Anonymous No.18333349]

you hold lawyers in way higher regard than you should

[Anonymous No.18333364]

>>18333310
He's like Christopher Hitchens but without the charm/wit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QAOotH9Jdo

[Anonymous No.18333372]

all the real journalists are killed or exiled these days - the world could do a lot better if this were the case with lawyers including most politician lawyers

[Anonymous No.18333395]

>>18330263
F. Gardner is a really smart and talented novelist whose hands are not too shaky. That's it.

[Anonymous No.18333400]

>>18332025
Your quote is worse. The goal is clearly humoristic, yet you try to make it appear too literary, specially by qualifying lawyers as ''independent''. I mean, what?
Also, the police detective bit makes it kind of wrong, because it does indeed bring to memory investigative journalists (the detectives of journalism, so to speak) and others journos who often end up in pretty bad situations (some of them go to war zones, others face death threats from politicians).
Not to mention the fact that Mailer gives a fine image of ''shaky hands'', making his sentence more concrete, while yours is all purple-prose abstractions. Notice also how he not only conveys incompetence for medicine, but also lack of courage through that image, i.e., he tells two things through a single image, while you show no image whatever, you merely tell.

Not that the Mailer quote can't be improved upon, it is not a great quote, just a funny one. It can be improved. But you didn't do it. Yours is worse.

[Anonymous No.18333410]

>>18333241
Yet you replied.

[Anonymous No.18333426]

>>18333410
rekt the classical woman reply

[Anonymous No.18333490]

>>18333410
Are you excited?! You got some attention!!!

[Anonymous No.18333513]

Two huge egos in the room

https://youtu.be/EvwzEShUSgI

[Anonymous No.18333527]

>>18333400
>The goal is clearly humoristic
>because it does indeed bring to memory
>Not to mention the fact that Mailer gives a fine image of ''shaky hands'', making his sentence more concrete
>Notice also how he not only conveys incompetence for medicine, but also lack of courage through that image

Purple prose? LOL. You write like a fucking pseud. Thanks for putting that much thought into something I wrote on 4chan while taking a shit!

[Anonymous No.18333768]

>>18333101
>posted it twice
So you deleted your post one minute after I replied because it was a duplicate of a post you would not make for another 10 minutes and is not only a reply to a different post but attempts to remedy the faults of the deleted post? Sure, that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up.

>>/lit/thread/18330263#p18332733

[Anonymous No.18333781]

>>18333527
Purple prose in the bad sense, obviously. You are not Nabokov (who, as a writer, was always full of images). You are merely prolix.
Also, English is not my mother tongue.
Your writing is mediocre.

[Anonymous No.18333782]

>>18330263
Journalists are the biggest brainlets. I have allways hated them, politicians and lawyers. Oh and teachers.

[Anonymous No.18333839]

>>18331177
>pretentious film
>translated to french
yeah pretty sure french people were the main target. Like pottery

[Anonymous No.18334107]

>>18333781
>Purple prose in the bad sense, obviously. You are not Nabokov (who, as a writer, was always full of images). You are merely prolix.
>Also, English is not my mother tongue.
>Your writing is mediocre.
LOL Ok faggot.

[Anonymous No.18334133]

>>18333768
Is this supposed to be a big gotcha moment? YOU DELETED A POST (after realizing you made the same joke)!

You're a fucking retard. At least you're not making lame excuses because you don't know how to use punctuation anymore. Wait! That's it! You're projecting.

[Anonymous No.18334178]

>>18333768
Is this supposed to be a big gotcha moment? YOU DELETED A POST (after realizing you made the same joke)!

You're a fucking retard. At least you're not making lame excuses because you don't know how to use punctuation anymore. Wait! That's it! You're projecting.

[Anonymous No.18334203]

>>18333768
Is this supposed to be a big gotcha moment? YOU DELETED A POST (after realizing you made the same joke)!

You're a fucking retard. At least you're not making lame excuses because you don't know how to use punctuation anymore. Wait! That's it! You're projecting.

[Anonymous No.18334227]

>>18334178
not him. but its obvious you are lying. You obviously duplicated the post on purpose becasue he had time to reply to you befor you posted it again. You were fully aware. Imagine lying on an anonymous board lmao

[Anonymous No.18334232]

>>18334178
>>18334203
you didi it again but this time at least you didnt wait for somebody to reply.

[Anonymous No.18334270]

>>18333090
Mostly this. Lawyers are stripped of their personal and creative capacities, their souls are caged and juiced for the economic ends of their employers. Even the most poetic genius who ever lived walked away from lawyerdom because it is bland, boring, and soulcrushing office work in the majority of cases. Law degrees are cool though.

[Anonymous No.18334335]

>>18334227
No, I fully admit it was me. I started deleting posts after he pointed it out just to fuck with him. I didn't really know what my end game was though.
>>18334232
Got me again! OH MY GOD!!!!

[Anonymous No.18334390]

>>18333839
I actually liked The Naked and the Dead. I just managed to trigger a couple of Mailer fanboys and decided to derail their thread. It's getting boring now though.

[Anonymous No.18334895]

>>18334270
Pay is great tho

[Anonymous No.18336545]

>>18330263
Has he ever been disproven on this?

[Anonymous No.18336987]

>>18336545
No

[Anonymous No.18336996]

Also a psychopath or sociopath