/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6010442]

What are some novels essential for understanding 21st century modern society? I'll start.

George Orwell: 1984

pic related

[Anonymous No.6010446]

Anthony Sutton's work.

[Anonymous No.6010454]

>>6010442
>What are some novels essential for understanding 21st century modern society?
No novels. Really, novels aren't good for understanding society.

[Anonymous No.6010465]

>>6010454
>novels aren't good for understanding society.

debatable

[Anonymous No.6010468]

>>6010442
>I force world views 80 years later
>I'm always a century behind my times

[Anonymous No.6010474]

>>6010454
This, there's a reason most characters in classic novels are insufferable cunts, it's to ward off those that are slightly above intelligence from becoming said characters. Sorry op, the best way to understand modern society is by brushing up on and following modern science and paying attention to world happenings. Also 1984 is babby's first dystopia, apply yourself.

[Anonymous No.6010515]

>>6010474
>Also 1984 is babby's first dystopia

Jesus, I heard /lit/ is pretentious, but cmon.
Isn't 1984 one of the most universally acclaimed novels of all time? please enlighten me, what patrician masterpieces do you read?

[Anonymous No.6010516]

>>6010442
>understanding 21st century modern society
>George Orwell: 1984

You're an idiot m8.

[Anonymous No.6010524]

>>6010515
woah this normie hasn't been indoctrinated by the hivemind yet

1984 is widely dismissed by the patricians here because it's high-school core and too mainstream, and so excessively referenced to by the general public.

[Anonymous No.6010528]

>>6010515
Only the most obscure texts, I.e. anything written by someone that nobody's heard of.

[Anonymous No.6010529]

>>6010515
>one of the most universally acclaimed novels of all time?
You don't read master pieces in high school, and when you do kids usually aren't really ready for them (like all the shackespeare hate you hear). 1984 is a correct work made for public appeal to spread certain opinions more easily, if you read Orwell's essays you can see he was dumbing down his prose and structure.

[Anonymous No.6010533]

>>6010442
fifty shades of grey

sad but true :(

[Anonymous No.6010534]

>>6010515
We

[Anonymous No.6010535]

>>6010515
>Jesus, I heard /lit/ is pretentious, but cmon.
...Your definition of "pretentious" is wanting. Dissing 1984 is below average for a /lit/ opinion on the pretentious scale, and it's not even that controversial of an opinion, really. 1984 is read because of its political content and context. It's not lauded for the quality of its emotional depth or anything.

[Anonymous No.6010539]

>>6010535
for its quality of writing or its emotional depth*

[Anonymous No.6010548]

>>6010535
It's actually as delicate and in depth with emotions and characterizations as a good soap opera.

[Anonymous No.6010589]

>>6010528
How long have you been here? This isn't /mu/, /lit/ likes classics that everyone with a cursory knowledge of literature has heard, or they like may may postmodern works.

[Anonymous No.6010605]

>>6010442

breakfast of champions by this guy

[Anonymous No.6010630]

>>6010515
Slow down nigga, it's not a bad novel by any means, just not an accurate reflection of contemporary society. It's not a particularly engaging book regardless, but it's still a decent read. The Crying of Lot 49 takes place in a better dystopia, even if it is surrealist.

[Anonymous No.6010666]

>>6010516
Yeah, because a canonical work such as that has meaning destined to immanence. Fuck you. Your cancerous aversion to actually understanding the value of literature and its ability to transcend a temporal distance is incredibly close minded. Go back to flapping your dick raw and get off /lit/, you fat fucking geek.

[Anonymous No.6010699]

>>6010442

The point of 1984 isn't that government watches people, it's that the crazy laws are actually enforced.

Which clearly isn't the case in most of the West, unless you tickle one of the few weird sticking points, like not being white (in which case the government doesn't even have to watch you through your two-way TV shit and just go straight to battering you), or fucking with one of the few particularly vindicative businesses out there, like the inexplicably violent media biz.

So, while 1984 is one hell of a good read, it has nothing to do with the current political climate.

Fuck you.

[Anonymous No.6010714]

>>6010666
1984 doesn't convey anything that wasn't conveyed by We thought, except nonsense like "these people say sex is bad therefore they are oppressive". Every worthwhile idea 1984 conveys, We conveys, and We has far better prose on top of it.

[Anonymous No.6010721]

>>6010714
what language did you read We in?

[Anonymous No.6010756]

Fahrenheit 451.

It's not so much about censorship as it is about a future where people dont give a fuck about books.

Very few people care about books these days.

[Anonymous No.6010881]

>>6010756
>implying people used to read more in the past
>classic le wrong generation

[Anonymous No.6010887]

>>6010721
Same language I read Dostoevsky in.

[Anonymous No.6010910]

>>6010887
was wondering if you read it in the original Russian, because the English translation I read was nothing special in terms of prose, certainly not any more impressive than 1984

[Anonymous No.6010964]

>>6010881
yes truly nothing has ever changed in human history

these poor misguided fools *humpf*

[Anonymous No.6010983]

>>6010964
I'm saying universal literacy is a relatively new thing.

[Anonymous No.6011108]

blindness by saramago

[Anonymous No.6011228]

Don DeLillo - White Noise

[Anonymous No.6011242]

would it be offensive to rename England to 'Orwellistan'

white english people are represented in the 'Orwell' and immigrant english people are represented in the '-istan'

[Anonymous No.6011258]

>>6010666
1984 is in the 20th century though satan

[Anonymous No.6013379]

simulacra and simulation

[Anonymous No.6013428]

>>6010442

Marx Capital.

I'm not a marxist, and the main problem with his work is the predictive element, but his economic analysis of capitalism is genius and has never been ecxelled.

If you want to understand the news, you have to understand Marx. Just don't expect him to fix the world after he's told you why it's broken.

[Anonymous No.6013525]

>>6010524
The only excessive references by the general public are things like the surveillance state in it, nothing about what happens to language, history, and other things.

[Anonymous No.6013548]

>>6013428
>those protestors
Talk about economically illiterate.

[Anonymous No.6013591]

>>6013525
the language appendix is probably the best part of the book.

[Anonymous No.6013777]

>>6010465

It isn't debatable. Trying to understand the real world through a fictional one makes no sense. If I wanted to understand objectivism, it would make more sense to look it up on wikipedia than to read 5000 pages of the drivel Ayn Rand wrote because its easy to invent a world where your ideology and characters magically works and makes sense.

[Anonymous No.6013796]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

[Anonymous No.6013802]

>>6013796
that is the shittiest suggestion I've ever heard, I hate that book with passion

>hurrdurrr humans used to be so much in touch with nature
>lets just ignore all evidence to the contrary
>hurrdurr let's get back to that imaginary state
>if people die who cares
>hurrdurr more hippie logic

[Anonymous No.6013806]

>>6010442
Open Veins of Latin America
Chomsky. Any book.
Society of the Spectacle - Guy Debord
The Medium is the Massage
Words Made Flesh by Florian Cramer

[Anonymous No.6013844]

>>6010442
>novels essential for understanding 21st century modern society?

Not even joking.