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/lit/ - Literature

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2352155 No.2352155 [Reply] [Original]

William Burroughs is the biggest hack of all time. There is no meaning or depth to his idiotic drug babble.

Out of all the pretentious, overrated writers from the beat generation, he is by far the worst.

>> No.2352164

Good thing I've never even heard of him before you mentioned him.

>> No.2352171

>>2352164
Your own fault. Don't know how you haven't at least heard of Naked Lunch if you browse /lit/

>> No.2352168

The whole Beat generation should just be forgotten. There was absolutely nothing of merit produced during that period.

>> No.2352173

He was out of his mind when he wrote. So you can't blame him for the quality of his work. :)
Don't you even appreciate his non-fiction?

>> No.2352179

>>2352168

that's just like your opinion, man.

I love Ginsberg & Kerouac. Besides, what is this generation doing that's so fucking special?

>> No.2352184

A book or a movie only has no meaning when you can't input your meaning onto it.

That's fine. But don't take your vision as the truth.

Books don't have meaning.

>> No.2352185

>>2352173
He was writing for decades. Even his work after he got over his drug addiction is awful nonsense.

>> No.2352226

>>2352155
Congrats OP, you just summarized postmodernism.

>> No.2352229

No. Allen fucking Ginsberg is the worst.

>> No.2352231

>>2352179

>I love Ginsberg & Kerouac.

That means you're probably male, and in your early twenties. Or you're in a comparable stage of your mental development.

>Besides, what is this generation doing that's so fucking special?

Nothing. We're in an intellectual dark ages comparable to the one the Beats existed in.

>> No.2352232

>>2352173
>He was out of his mind when he wrote
>So you can't blame him for the quality of his work

Yeah, blame his publisher

>> No.2352249

>>2352231
>That means you're probably male, and in your early twenties. Or you're in a comparable stage of your mental development.

So off the mark it's scary.

>> No.2352266

>>2352249

Well of course you'd say that. No one wants to think they're a hyper-sexual, immature, new agey, pseudo-mystical, uber-masculine moron. But that's what the Beat fans are. Or they're idiotic women attracted to that sort of thing.

>> No.2352267

>>2352231
To be fair, if you use 4chan you can hardly criticise someone for their stage of mental development. This is the most puerile website on the internet.

>> No.2352269

>>2352231

So now it's no longer immaturity of thought, just any old 20 something male is directly in the line of fire for being interested in literature?

Also 'drug babble'--what do you mean by that? Hemingway drank a lot, were his words babble?

>> No.2352272
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2352272

> Beat Generation
> Bukowski
> No meaning or depth.

>> No.2352276

>>2352272

Yep, shallow drug fueled babble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEbIuDuW7l8&list=FLlkvHmEtnrLMAtVh2hwdjBQ&index=4&feature
=plpp_video

>> No.2352278

>>2352267
There are worse, believe me.

>> No.2352283
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2352283

ginsberg had like 5 great poems and the rest where trivial and boring shite. i bought his collected works after reading 5 poems in a penguin anthology of american verse and it turned out those were the only good ones.
i like dharma bums a good deal. on the road was fairly good. Burroughs is just drivel. Its a problem with isolating yourself in the darkest part of the world and pretending like thats all there is. Francis bacon does a similar thing. I can never relate to that, im not the happiest flower in the world mind, but i dont live in a gloomy nightmare 24/7.

>> No.2352290

Hey guys, I'm also better than everyone; can I join your conversation?

>> No.2352295

I won't be as hasty as to write him off as a hack, but I read "The Soft Machine" and felt the negatives far outweighed the positives. Whatever prescient satire and neat turns of phrases that are contained within the text are buried so far under the mounds and mounds of word salad that, ultimately, it's not worth the time and effort it takes to dig them up. He was certainly an interesting man, though.

I've also read some Kerouac and just thought he was dull and a shit writer; less enjoyable than Burroughs even.

>> No.2352298

>>2352283
>Francis bacon does a similar thing.
No he doesn't.

>> No.2352302

>>2352298
okay im open to being told im wrong, as long as you have a good argument as to why francis bacons work doesnt show a constant depressed lack of emotional range.

>> No.2352312

> it's all subjective.

go to bed children.

>> No.2352317

>>2352231

>We're in an intellectual dark ages comparable to the one the Beats existed in.
>We're in an intellectual dark ages
>intellectual dark age
>we're in

duuuuur idealizing previous generations, bet no one has ever done that before
hurrrrrr see you in 50 years when you realize all the great stuff happening now and lament how the literature of 2060 sucks
duhhhh the radio sucks now music sucks now movies suck now why can't we live in [AN OLDER TIME] when people still cared about [THIS FORM OF MEDIA]

>> No.2352325

>>2352302
>why francis bacons work doesnt show a constant depressed lack of emotional range.
>emotional range
When were we casting for a musical? The same criticism could be levied against Magritte or Munch, who both also dealt heavily with alienation and depersonalisation. I also can't change the fact that your emotional reaction to Bacon's aesthetic is entirely personal. I just enjoy how he frames and conceptualises the sublime in his work, rather unusual.

>> No.2352328

>>2352317

>idealizing previous generations

Did you miss the part where I said the Beat generation was shit too?

Some generations produced better work than others. Ours is one that won't be remembered fondly, I think.

Should I just laud my generation because it's mine? That's nonsense.

>> No.2352338

>>2352231 That means you're probably male, and in your early twenties. Or you're in a comparable stage of your mental development.

You start to lose neurons in your late twenties. Early twenties is peak brain.

>> No.2352346

>Should I just laud my generation because it's mine? That's nonsense.

Why is that nonsense?

>> No.2352354

>>2352338
Using less neurons means greater brain efficiency. A professional violinist will use less neurons to play compared with a less experienced amateur.

>> No.2352361

>>2352354
Someone who isn't a violinist will use no neurons to play, thereby making him indeterminably better than even the most augst professional playing by rote.

>> No.2352381

>>2352361
'i shore hope you don't actually think that'

>> No.2352397

they're mostly all pretty bad.

>> No.2352399

>I don't like this writer
>therefore everything he wrote is meaningless babble

Why do people think this is even close to being a valid perspective?

>> No.2352400

>>2352346

Because I'm praising it for nothing to do with what its producing. It's like saying "I like this book because it's from Japan" or "I like this book because it came out on my birthday".

>> No.2352804

SO was Gertrude Stein, and yet the world continues to revolve. What I'd like to know is why the fuck people kept giving this lunatic guns.

>> No.2353176

>>2352272
no meaning to you, personally. bukowski was not only revered by many in france and germany, but he appealed to a working class readership in the states, who i'm sure you think were unintelligent and unable to digest works of great meaning and depth. if you read "voyage au bout de la unit" i'm sure you would struggle to find meaning.