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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 1.95 MB, 2911x4342, monte cristo.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21988915 No.21988915 [Reply] [Original]

How are the works of serialised fiction of the past unlike webnovels now? Is it merely because they stood the test of time?
For one, Dumas must have written more than 1500 words per day for the last 16 volumes (more than 100 chapters almost) for his Count of Monte Cristo, which were all published in 1845. That is only slightly less writing than some "well rated" webnovels, but it is still in that ballpark of writing constantly without as much humming and hawing.
Crime and Punishment by Dostevsky was serialised only within a year, which would have meant less than 5000 words per week. That might be what someone would write as a webnovel if it already had a following.
I'm just trying to say that serialised fiction has always been around with the same sort of writing demands of constant output.

>> No.21988917

Great Expectations was serialised only over 35 weeks. Even if he wrote a good deal beforehand, that is still a pretty similar rate to Dostoevsky's, as it would require 5000+ words per week.

>> No.21988925

>>21988915
middlemarch

>> No.21988933

>>21988915
Better quality

>> No.21988939

>>21988933
What they did at the time was considered not as good as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and others. I think you're just using cultural paradigms, of what has been privileged as good art, to dictate your tastes.

>> No.21988940

Pro-tip: he wasn't doing the writing.

>> No.21988944

Talented authors can make any format work. The difference is there is nothing about a webnovel that would attract a great artist.

>> No.21988948

>>21988939
Yeah Its always the same argument with this type of threads (if old novels were used as entertainment that means current novels good) but modern webnovels dont have the same quality as dostoevsky or dumas.

>> No.21988949

>>21988944
It's only been around really since there was webhosting that was cheap and free. Now with Patreon, there might be someone willing to publish everything they write online, since they have full artistic control and get all the proceeds. Here is the most successful webnovel so far:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-1-gestation/1-01/

>> No.21988952

>>21988948
How would you know? Do you read webnovels? If you have already made up your mind, then it seems you don't really care enough about art to make that judgement.
>its
>type of threads
You yourself barely even write parseable English, by the way.

>> No.21988984

>>21988952
Yeah im esl but you know what im saying

>> No.21988987

>>21988984
Well what's your first language? Surely there is cool, unappreciated stuff in that which mightn't be able to get through publishing houses yet. The internet might help us bring more of that to the light. I think technology frees literature.

>> No.21989004

>>21988987
Sure but most of the webnovel market is aimed at cheaply done power fantasies (harem, litrpg, bdsm romance for women). There doesn't seem to be an audience for more complex stories that's why I think the comparison to the old serialised novels is unfitting.

>> No.21989015

>>21989004
Balzac wrote romance novels for bored bourgeois women. There have been plenty of writers who wrote to the lowest common denominator of buyers. Even current writers like McCarthy fit that bill since he’s adapted so much and lauded by popular sites like Reddit and 4chan.
I don’t read those usual progression and harem novels, but I don’t see why that would define the form of serialising online.

>> No.21989178
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21989178

>>21988949
Worm is hardly the most successful webnovel. Mother of Learning or The Wandering Inn would take those mantles, especially TWI.

If anything, TWI does something that cannot work in any medium but webnovel - 30k words long chapters, twice a week, three weeks a month. 12 milion words since it started in 2016. Can you imagine it working in any different way or format?

>> No.21989213

>>21988915
monte cristo was the original anime power fantasy boilerplate pulp schlock of its era
the fact that it is considered a great canon work speaks volumes of how silly muh literature is