/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22427540]

Why is his writing so devoid of charm and charisma?

[Anonymous No.22427599]

>>22427540
I consider myself a fan of his but starting to grow a bit wary desu. His older books were wholesome and fun but lately he's grown weirdly obsessed with "mental health awareness" aka pop-psych wordbabble. Characters aren't evil or flawed, they're "toxic" or "need to face their trauma", the kind of buzzwords twitter progressives love to repeat endlessly.
Also a bit too much virtue signalling about trannies and gays, which is especially awkward coming from an observant Mormon. Idk if it's publishers leaning on him or what but it makes his books noticeably more cringe.

[Anonymous No.22427696]

lol cope

[Anonymous No.22427700]

>>22427696
vgh... the American tolkien...

[Anonymous No.22427704]

>>22427540
Look at that fat bugman, you really think he has anything to say? He probably eats McDonald’s every day

[Anonymous No.22427708]

>>22427599
>>22427540
He WILL finish ASOIAF and you will cope

[Anonymous No.22427746]

>>22427708
Don't care, asoiaf is gay and if it were finished tomorrow I still wouldn't read it

[Anonymous No.22427750]

>>22427708
He said he wouldn’t do it

[Anonymous No.22427784]

>>22427696
Literally video game fiction

[Anonymous No.22427793]

>>22427540
Why are his teeth so devoid of whiteness?

[Anonymous No.22427796]

>>22427696
This was funny.

[Anonymous No.22427798]

Der amerikaner

[Anonymousn No.22427800]

>>22427696
This is like the stories people wrote during enforced 'creative writing' time in English lessons.

[Anonymous No.22427808]

>>22427700
That distinction goes to GRRM.

[Anonymous No.22428067]

>>22427599
>A Mormon is into pop-psych wordbabble
Yeah... almost like their entire religion is about psychic relief from being ashamed of true sexual expression.

[Anonymous No.22428083]

Why do we have more than one thread with this fucker as subject?

[Anonymous No.22428098]

>>22428083
He raised over 41 million dollars on "swag boxes" filled to the brim with goyslop on some crowdfunding site, so he's likely being seen as a new model to "make it" for losers who want to make money writing.

[Anonymous No.22428116]

>>22427540
His books are just so offensively fine. They're not Colleen Hoover bad, but they're not exactly groundbreaking works of literature either. I suppose it's fine if you want something easy to read, like the Halo books

[Anonymous No.22428125]

>>22428116
It's hard to realise for some retards ITT but easy reading is going to appeal to more people because most people have the reading level of a highschooler or even less. Not everyone is an intellectually insecure nerd that needs to read the hardest books to feel adequate.

[Anonymous No.22428139]

>>22427599
>Idk if it's publishers leaning on him or what but it makes his books noticeably more cringe.
He both believes it and panders to publishers.
Dude mentioned it in one of his lectures to mormon writers that agents won't consider you if you aren't throwing in "strong heroines who are just as good as the main characters" and token gays everywhere.

[Anonymous No.22428150]

>>22428067
I don't think they guys with 8 kids are having trouble with sexual expression.

[Anonymous No.22428156]

>>22428150
That's why they rape so much.

[Anonymous No.22428166]

>>22428139
Can't help but notice that all his self-published kickstarter books are centered around heterosexual romances
Really makes you think!

[Anonymous No.22428178]

>>22428156
what are the raw numbers? that list seems like cherry picking

[Anonymous No.22428181]

>>22428166
Yep.
In case anyone actually wants to read "muh magic system" stories like Sanderson pushes they can instead go to Will Wight and get the straight male equivalent.

[Anonymous No.22428186]

>>22428178
>raw numbers
They cover it up consistently and systemically. LDS hides how many kids and women they rape.
>cherry picking
That's just what hits the media. Most countries have gag orders on rape cases, and the LDS has enough money and lawyers to get something hidden from public eye, if they don't just use hush money.

[Anonymous No.22428187]

*ahem*

[Anonymous No.22428310]

>>22428186
what does the leadership gain from circling the wagons around low-level lay clergy?

wasn't there a hoax a few years ago where the lady accosted a guy with dementia outside his home about having a rape-room in the missionary center, but the story fell apart after scrutiny?

[Anonymous No.22428682]

>>22427540
He’s a fat Mormon who only has a career because Robert Jordan got cancer. What were you expecting?

[Anonymous No.22428687]

>>22428310
People obsessed with goodness try to repress their inner animal and usually become worse because of it. That’s why LDS Churches always have this shit.
>hoax
So one hoax negates all other evidence? That doesn’t make sense. Truth is that Mormons are obsessed with power and sex deep down but don’t know how to consciously and healthily express it.

[Anonymous No.22428693]

>>22427540
Genuinely annoys me that people as talentless as Sanderson manage to have careers as writers.

[Anonymous No.22428724]

>>22428125
This is pure cope.

You downplay the crisis of illiteracy that's come over the west. The average reading level isn't high-school, the average American *adult* reads at a 6th grade level, meaning the 12 - 13 age range.

Books that are considered easy today are not the same quality as books that were considered "easy" in the past.

Children's books in the 1800s would be considered college level now.

And it's not just that the prose itself is "easier to read," it's also that the ideas are simpler and more childish. You very rarely find mature books in the mainstream anymore. Not mature as in "graphic" or "inappropriate for children," but books that actually deal with deep or mature themes and ideas.

The quality of the prose and the depth of the ideas in contemporary writing is abysmally childish.

[Anonymous No.22428736]

>>22428724
>You downplay the crisis of illiteracy that's come over the west.
Ah yes, as if literacy rates among the lower classes were ever that high. You simply will not have high literacy when state schools are underfunded with terrible curricula created by education majors (who have IQs much lower than even most humanities majors).
>The average reading level isn't high-school, the average American *adult* reads at a 6th grade level, meaning the 12 - 13 age range.
So what? The average person couldn't even read throughout most of history. Most people aren't built to be readers, because they're made to work the fields or provide services. Only the clergy and administrators ever needed to read.
>Children's books in the 1800s would be considered college level now.
Doubt.
>And it's not just that the prose itself is "easier to read," it's also that the ideas are simpler and more childish. You very rarely find mature books in the mainstream anymore. Not mature as in "graphic" or "inappropriate for children," but books that actually deal with deep or mature themes and ideas.
Who cares? There were centuries of slop that no one remembers, because the vast majority of people will pay for stuff that affirms what they already believe.
>The quality of the prose and the depth of the ideas in contemporary writing is abysmally childish.
Good. Less competition for me.

[Anonymous No.22428747]

>>22428724
> Children's books in the 1800s would be considered college level now.
This is true. A kid today would hardly read Alice in Wonderland

[Anonymous No.22428754]

>>22428736
(You) obviously live in a modern bubble. I wasn't asking you to take my word for it, you swarth.

Pick up and look through random children's stories from the 1800s.

This is the spelling book written by Noah Webster for 2nd graders. 60 million young children were taught how to read by this Blue Back Speller. https://archive.org/details/webstersspelling00libg/mode/1up

The problem isn't school funding, you dipshit. Keep doubting and being smug about how little you know about the past.

[Anonymous No.22428776]

>>22428736
>why do you care, literacy rates were never very high!

Because they were extremely high for almost 300 years.

Don Quixote, written in the 1600s, wasn't written for the educated elites; it was written for the working class, and became popular first among the working class.

From the 1600s to about 1950 there was high literacy among the lower class, and the average soldier during the Civil War was more well-read and well-spoken than college-educated people are today. I'm not asking you to take my word on this, either. Read some of the letters written by Civil War soldiers to their girlfriends and wives. You can find hundreds of them online.

[Anonymous No.22428791]

>>22428724
I've been reading a biography of Thomas Paine recently and it's made the sharp fall in the average person's literacy/linguistic understanding all the more apparent. This was a writer who was known specifically for writing in the common vernacular of the day, and his works being read aloud in pubs and general public spaces is one of the key things that swung public sentiment in the 13 Colonies towards thoughts of Revolution. Then you read the text of this "voice of the people" and he's writing at a level that the average American ~250 years later would find unintelligible, and not because of an excess of archaic words or because it deals with the specific politics of the time. It's simply the complexity of the syntax
>It has been the folly of Britain to suppose herself more powerful than she really is, and by that means has arrogated to herself a rank in the world she is not entitled to: for more than this century past she has not been able to carry on a war without foreign assistance. [...] England was never famous by land; her officers have generally been suspected of cowardice, have more of the air of a dancing-master than a soldier, and by the samples which we have taken prisoners, we give the preference to ourselves. Her strength, of late, has lain in her extravagance; but as her finances and credit are now low, her sinews in that line begin to fail fast. As a nation she is the poorest in Europe; for were the whole kingdom, and all that is in it, to be put up for sale like the estate of a bankrupt, it would not fetch as much as she owes; yet this thoughtless wretch must go to war, and with the avowed design, too, of making us beasts of burden, to support her in riot and debauchery, and to assist her afterwards in distressing those nations who are now our best friends.

[Anonymous No.22430220]

>>22427540
Because the fat slob is devoid of charm and charisma

[Anonymous No.22430234]

>>22428791
Precisely. People always ask why X Renaissance / Victorian writer was so good, but fail to realize that they existed entirely in the context of a world in which even the working class were articulate, mature, and well-spoken in their writing.

[Anonymous No.22430251]

>>22427540
>... Sanderson feels no pain. It’s true, Sanderson’s sister-in-law says. Even though he writes for eight hours a day on a couch, he has no backaches. The hottest of hot sauces cause scarcely a sweat. At the dentist, he refuses novocaine for fillings. When I ask Sanderson later to confirm this, he does but asks if I really have to print it.
https://www.wired.com/story/brandon-sanderson-is-your-god/

[Anonymous No.22430252]

>>22428166
What exactly are you trying to say? His books aren't exactly devoid of heterosexual romances in the first place. Stormlight even portrays arranged marriages positively.

[Anonymous No.22430291]

>>22430234
Language was not restricted by artificial means (political correctness) at the time. When you restrict what people can say or how they can say it for a hundred years you get a generation of speakers who can only express themselves by saying the word 'like' 5 times in every sentence.
Another reason was importing millions of immigrants who did not speak English.

[Anonymous No.22430315]

>>22428687
This comes across as you having a personal animus towards Mormons. You need to retool your criticisms to hide it better in the future.

[Anonymous No.22430368]

>>22427540
He's a Mormon.

[Anonymous No.22430378]

>>22428687
>People obsessed with goodness try to repress their inner animal and usually become worse because of it. That’s why LDS Churches always have this shit.
It has nothing to do with "goodness". Virtue is next to beauty. And Mormons aren't good in the first place.

[Anonymous No.22431404]

Revelling in mediocrity is the ultimate expression of internet culture. An empty, tokenistic society encapsulated by this, an empty, tokenistic fiction.

[Anonymous No.22431623]

>>22427599
If you knew anything about Mormons, you'd realize this completely adds up.

There's sort of a spiritual void within Mormonism, the same way there's said to be one within Judaism. This is because, beyond them being technically in the Christian camp, all they have is a bunch of sci-fi extravaganza. That sits at the heart of Mormonism.

In recent years, I'm talking since COVID, there's been what I would honestly consider a significant shift in the Mormon population toward Eastern Spiritualist values, traditions, beliefs, practices, etc,. This is because these values are easily peddled as through a pantomime of God faith through self-help books and the like, (I'm sure you've seen them, Mormons go nuts for those, believe it or not,) and because the actual core beliefs of Mormonism are so vacuous and virtually either non-existent or madcap sci-fi ridiculous that this has left a spiritual vacuum now filled amongst Mormons by normie, vague Eastern spiritualism, which is the substrate of modern therapy.

So there's your explanation for why Brandon Sanderson writes like this.

[Anonymous No.22431656]

>>22430251
lucky bastard. I feel like a 23 year old on a middle aged man's body because of my fibromyalgia, although typing on a keyboard is the least of my worries

[Anonymous No.22431791]

>>22430251
lol this is the closest Sanderson has ever come or ever will come to sounding like a badass and it was written in a smear piece. Crazy shit

[Anonymous No.22431797]

>>22427696
how do people fucking read this. It's literally like a Marvel movie novelization

[Anonymous No.22431892]

>>22431797
cope more

[Anonymous No.22431899]

>>22431623
geez, did the missionaries get half your congregation or something, pastor? usually only exmos whine with a chip on their shoulder like this; did someone embarrass you with a Bible verse?

[Anonymous No.22431902]

>>22431892
a cope for what?

[Anonymous No.22432011]

>>22431623
There aren't very many of them where I live, but just going off doctrine it always seemed like a bit of an NPC religion, literally just Christianity robbed of everything that makes Christianity convincing or compelling.

[Anonymous No.22432021]

>>22427696
Jesus, I didn't know he was this bad. I am not interested in YA or contemporary fantasy/action adventure, so I would have never read that page without this post lol. I have read high school creative writing short stories that sound a million times better than this.

The blinking away tears of frustration line was really impactful in the worse way. And the "humor" of a repeated line of "I am a stick" to show conflict is garbage.

[Anonymous No.22432034]

I hate how every Sanderson thread crashes and burns into pseuds shaming my religion without know a single damn thing about it. Read the Book of Mormon you fucking retards

[Anonymous No.22432037]

>>22428776
Think about Shakespear. Wasn't his stuff considered literally lowbrow during his own time?

[Anonymous No.22432058]

>>22428098
>on some crowdfunding site
Oh, you've missed kickstarter while familiar with the idea of crowd funding sites.
The pseuds in this board are unparalleled.

[Anonymous No.22432228]

>>22428776
Who cares? none of your examples are as important as Homeric poetry, Ovid, Beowulf, Virgil, Nibelungenlied, etc

[Anonymous No.22432232]

>>22432058
>t. kickstarter paypiggy cuck who never gets his products

[Anonymous No.22432496]

>>22432228
Homer's plays were also for normal working-class people, as was Shakespeare. Thank you for proving my point, you tard.

[Anonymous No.22432499]

>>22432496
>plays
Homer didn’t author any, retard. If you didn’t know that his epic poetry was only performed for Kings, you don’t even read.

[Anonymous No.22432519]

>>22432499
>hE dIDnT AuTHor any
Stop being intellectually dishonest. When someone uses the term "Homer play," you know they're talking about play adaptions of Homer's works. I didn't claim that he wrote them in screenplay format.

And there have been hundreds of plays based on Homer's works that were played all over Europe throughout the entire medieval period. It was only for kings at first, but by the 1200s Homer plays were being performed for the general public for the price of a cheap ticket (however, rich people could pay for better seats).

Try not to be so intellectually bankrupt.

[Anonymous No.22432523]

>>22427708
He hasn't even read it beyond a few chapters.

[Anonymous No.22432662]

>>22432519
>play adaptations of Homer’s works
Which ones? No one goes to see a play of the Odyssey.
>screenplay
No shit. Cinema didn’t exist for another few millennia. You’re a bit stupid.
>medieval Homer plays
Name one. Medieval peasants didn’t go to plays beyond the ones they threw at some dumb flower festival.

[Anonymous No.22432725]

>>22427540
Write what you know, as they say...

[Anonymous No.22433546]

>>22432021
holy cope

[Anonymous No.22433598]

>>22432232
I have never supported anything on any crowdfunding site.

How about now? Are you a pathetic pseud for flexing your (exact) ignorance of [popular thing]?

[Anonymous No.22434060]

>>22427540

[Anonymous No.22434085]

>>22434060
Anons there's no way he's this bad and somehow got famous

[Anonymous No.22434158]

>>22434085
It's the big picture stuff he does that is interesting and entertaining, and to do that at his schedule/rhythm he uses a simple, utilitarian prose that does go too far and is pretty dry.

[Anonymous No.22434230]

>>22432058
It's a sign of good manners to avoid names. "My friend went to..." is more polite than "my friend JOHNNY DEPP went to..." Similarly, not everyone has heard of Kickstarter, so it's more polite to describe it by its function so that everyone can keep up.

[Anonymous No.22434267]

>>22428791
>Blah blah blah England blah blah blah cowardice blah blah blah we have taken prisoner
>Crowd bursts into applause
It's the same as the speech from the "Barbie" movie, or any other rousing feminist speech in a movie. The kind where the character uses big complicated words. "I don't understand it but it confirms my biases, therefore I like it."

[Anonymous No.22434281]

>>22427599
Mormonism is basically scientology. Idaho has a ton of mormons and whenever I asked them specifics about what they believed in they grew vague. I think a lot of them insticively know how batshit insane their religion is but it causes such strong and healthy (for the most part, there's some dark shit too) social cohesion that no one says anything about it.

[Anonymous No.22434292]

>>22434281
You’ve never met a Mormon in your life

[Anonymous No.22434394]

>>22434292
I literally grew up around them.

[Anonymous No.22434399]

>>22431899
shouldn't you be spending 10 hours a day shilling your thinly veiled pyramid scheme for free? how do you find time to shill for it on here as well?

[Anonymous No.22434745]

>>22427540
is that the Ready Player One guy?

[Anonymous No.22434765]

>>22433598
>posts goyslop as a rebuttal
What's the point?

[Anonymous No.22434826]

>>22434158
Are you having a stroke?

[Anonymous No.22434856]

>>22434158
It doesn't excuses him from being this bad

[Anonymous No.22434858]

>>22434745
No that's Ernest Cline.

[Anonymous No.22434863]

>charismatic writing
The hell? It's just words. Don't need to be anything at all.

[Anonymous No.22435144]

Isn’t he very popular right now? should I read his stuff to get a sense for what sells in fantasy these days? Anyone more representative?

[Anonymous No.22435153]

>>22435144
>what sells
You could just look at a the bestseller lists. Why are you asking people who never buy books, let alone work in publishing.

[Anonymous No.22435164]

>>22427696
I'm sorry for ever shitting on Stephen King. I had no idea it could get this bad.

[Anonymous No.22435266]

>>22434060
>AHHH IT'S NOT EVEN A 13-SYLLABLE EPIC I AM LITERALLY CRYING

[Anonymous No.22435538]

>>22435144
I went to a writers conference a year ago and people there absolutely worshipped him. Nobody there knew who O. Henry was though. That should say something.

[Anonymous No.22435720]

>>22427540
just look at him

[Anonymous No.22435771]

>>22435266
>"I suppose," Dockson said
>"All right," Kelsier said
>"Sounds good," Dockson said
>"I guess," Kelsier said
>"All right," Dockson said

[Anonymous No.22435784]

>>22434060
Lol

[Anonymous No.22435849]

>>22431892
I wish. I don't even know how to cope with the fact that such mediocre slop was printed and published, and not chucked into the dustbin where it belongs.

[Anonymous No.22435885]

>>22434158
Simple, utilitarian prose is fine. This is garbage. If you're going to write extended dialogue sequences, you better be able to actually construct bearable dialogue.

[Anonymous No.22435889]

>>22427540

[Anonymous No.22436094]

>>22434230
>JAJAJAJA
>jesus.. he said it was polite JajAjajaaa
>*jesus loses it*
>I was a piggybacking cuck JAJAJAJA jesus, he was polite KYAAAAAJAJAJA

[Anonymous No.22436100]

>>22428687
Good people arent secretly bad you retard. People who are counterculture in the sense that they actually cultivate morality are not somehow more prone to bad things or secretly worse. That makes no sense. Utterly retarded trope based on certain individuals who attracted to larp but fail to become better. Which does not apply to people raised in more moral and disciplined culture. It does not mean Mormons are good or anything, seems like a dumb cult, but you've yet to provide anything backing your assertions.

[Anonymous No.22436174]

>>22427696
>Sticks need Stormlight. For... things...
Never a more reddit passage has been written in literature.

[Anonymous No.22436230]

>>22435164
Stephen King reads actual literature from time to time. He came up in a publishing industry with higher standards. Writers today aspire to be him but he was the king of slop in his day. I say that as someone who likes some of his work. His short stories are better than his novels for starters.

[Anonymous No.22436644]

>>22427540
Too focused on using his books for Mormon propaganda

[Anonymous No.22436648]

>>22436644
There's not a single even vaguely Mormon character or organization in any of his books and you know it anon. Come on, there's plenty of real reasons to hate Sanderson. Like his writing being shit.

[Anonymous No.22436666]

>>22436648
The Stormlight archives plot, last I checked, is clearly based on the Mormon worldview. No, I will not write it all out. Look into it and you will see.

[Anonymous No.22436692]

>>22436230
>Stephen King
He only half remembers reading the better authors he namedrops, yet he only repeats ideas in his works from B-Movies and comic books. Such is the mind of a cocaine addict, augmented by the stupidity of an alcoholic.

[Anonymous No.22436703]

>>22436692
>Such is the mind of a cocaine addict, augmented by the stupidity of an alcoholic.
lol, this sentence is better than any King has written

[Anonymous No.22437409]

>>22428098
He must be one of the richest modern authors outside those few (particularly women, like Hanya Yanagihara) who write absolute dogshit but somehow manage to sell millions of copies
>>22436094
Kill yourself

[Anonymous No.22437411]

>>22437409
Stephen King and JK Rowling were worth nearly a billion each, but they give a lot to charity for """"good points""""" as well as to avoid tax.

[Anonymous No.22437414]

>>22437411
Those were the other ones I was thinking about, yes. In my mind I put them in a different category for some reason, maybe because they're mega-mega-successful/household names.