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/lit/ - Literature

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5036776 No.5036776[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

What is the justification for books like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream? The novel itself and even the general style of it seems to be moderately popular for some unfathomable reason.
No real plot, no story-arcs, no character developments, no characters themselves, no message, no meaning, no underlying purpose, it's just an entire book that's meant to illustrate how much the author can make a cast of characters to suffer in the most excruciating agony because the plot demands it.
There is literally nothing salvageable from these types of stories, so why are they like The Thing and have an actual small cult following?
This truly mystifies me, the entire book is monotonous, and if it got any more edgy and grimdark it would be a parody of itself. But it's not a parody at all, it's entirely serious - and for some reason people really like to read short stories and novellas that are literally nothing more than the author saying "EVERYONE EVERYWHERE SUFFERED IN TOTAL AGONY FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY AND IT WAS SO HORRIBLE, THE END." in the longest, most drawn out way conceivable.

I really cannot fathom this shit /lit/
Just why?

>> No.5036787

>>5036776
Fuck off retard

>> No.5036793

>>5036787

Could you care to elaborate on that position? I'm not entirely satisfied with your presented argument.

>> No.5037292

>>5036776
I agree. It was simply horrid writing.

>> No.5038259

I guess those kind of stories have a self-enclosedness, a formal simplicity and necessity of purpose that appeals to the mind.

I'm not really talking about the "I Have no Mouth" subgenre of stories, but rather about the original story by Harlan Ellison, and more generally that kind of short stories that seems to be entirely built against a small but very specific point. Those stories are like thought-experiment (actually, writing experiments) or even small literary automatons, functioning on themselves, without need of much background or external references.

They are fascinating precisely like an automaton is: as something that seems very simple, almost dumb or purely mechanical, yet moves on itself, and is organized around an undeniable ordering of purpose (each piece crafted exactly in the right form, put exactly in the right place).

>> No.5038370

>no real plot, story arc, characters, development, etc
Why do you think a story needs to have these? If you're going into a piece of lit with some archetype in mind all play and deviations will be lost on you. You'll just be lonely and butthurt.

>> No.5038410

>>5036776
>The novel itself and even the general style of it seems to be moderately popular for some unfathomable reason.
>No real plot, no story-arcs, no character developments, no characters themselves, no message, no meaning, no underlying purpose, it's just an entire book that's meant to illustrate how much the author can make a cast of characters to suffer in the most excruciating agony because the plot demands it.


Nice troll thread, about a book of short stories.