/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2247481]

To be a writer is to obsess about other writers. Mostly it is to obsess about other, better writers. “Infinite Jest” is an exceptionally good novel. But David Foster Wallace so haunts the modern literary imagination, not because of “Infinite Jest,” or the unfinished and uneven “The Pale King,” or any of his other books. Wallace is the object of a generation’s adoration on account of his unavoidably evident talent, which so patently surpassed that of his peers that, in a sense, it was immaterial what he did with it. Other writers knew they were not as talented as he — even the ones who wrote better books — and they stayed up nights because of it. Jonathan Franzen wrote “The Corrections” just to feel better about himself after reading “Infinite Jest” in manuscript. Smart writers always know who is smarter, even — especially — when they’d prefer not to.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/10/23/102311-arts-books-john-jeremiah-sullivan-pulphead-1-4/

[Anonymous No.2247489]

i cant tell if /lit/ likes DFW or not

[Anonymous No.2247488]

someone browses metafilter

[Anonymous No.2247491]

>>2247489
it's a divisive thing, like genrefags and nonretards. half of /lit/ likes dfwalrus and the other half hates him.

[Anonymous No.2247500]

>they were not as talented as he
Is this even grammatically correct?

[Anonymous No.2247508]

>>2247500
It should be "talented as him."

[Anonymous No.2247509]

>>2247500
>They were not as talented as he [was].
Yes.

[Anonymous No.2247513]

Yeah and all the good it did him.

[Anonymous No.2247516]

>>2247491
>Half of /lit/ bothered to read his books and the other half resent their length

[Anonymous No.2247529]

>>2247516
Guide to deciding whether to read a book:
1) Touch penis until erect
2) Hold spine of book next to erect penis
3) If book is thicker than penis, do not read it

[Anonymous No.2247526]

>>2247509
No one says "talented as he", though.

[Anonymous No.2247525]

>>2247500

"as talented as he was, they were not, as much as him"

[Anonymous No.2247533]

>>2247526

THEY CALL HIM FLIPPER FLIPPER FASTER THAN LIGHTNING
NO ONE YOU SEE IS SMARTER THAN HE

[Anonymous No.2247538]

>>2247526
i've heard the same structure used before.
either way, i don't think that's really the point of the article.

[Anonymous No.2247541]

Saying "talented as he" is like saying "It is I". Technically correct, but only pedantic old men say it.

[Anonymous No.2247547]

>Jonathan Franzen wrote “The Corrections” just to feel better about himself after reading “Infinite Jest” in manuscript

aw hell nah

[Anonymous No.2247553]

Who cares whether Wallace is a good writer or not.

The man has swag, and that's 90% of being remembered.

Pic related: Swag.

[Anonymous No.2247560]

>>2247553

[Anonymous No.2247599]

DFW's non-fiction was his worst writing. Remember that 20-page-long tennis article?

If Sullivan is trying to model his journalism on Wallace, he will produce nothing but tripe.

[Anonymous No.2247630]

>>2247553
Wallace wrote too much to write so clunky.

The man has no sense of rhythm at all. Well, I guess he is a white guy who wears bandanas with eyeglasses. That's what his prose is like. Wearing bandanas with glasses.

[Anonymous No.2247657]

>In his book’s penultimate essay, "Violence of the Lambs," Sullivan profiles a scientist named Marcus Livengood, who looks like a young George Lucas and who argues, convincingly, that animals are in the midst of rising up and beginning a war with mankind. "I believe that dolphins are capable of hatred," Livengood tells Sullivan, "and that their hatred of us is essentially bottomless."