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/lit/ - Literature

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6478915 No.6478915 [Reply] [Original]

Most Hateable Characters in Literature thread

Name someone more despicable than Edith Bostwick Stoner . I'm halfway through and I am fucking livid. Chapter VIII literally had me shaking.

>> No.6479011

>>6478915
Haven't read Stoner, but my vote is for Verloc in the Secret Agent. He's just so pathetic.
Actually, anyone in a Victorian novel.

>> No.6480177

Am I the only one who felt sorry for Edith? She obviously had some sort of psychological issue. Plus, Stoner does rape her and all

>> No.6480231

>>6480177
Yeah agreed. So you have this young girl who has been repressed her whole life and told what to do. Stoner comes along and whisks her away cos he thinks she's hot. She goes along with everything not ever understand why. And even her child who she thought could finally bring her joy is a daddy's girl because its so hard for her connect emotionally with anything. Then stoner cheaps on her and she doesn't go crazy. She tries desperate to reconnect with her daughter but it's already too late. You should not despise her, you should despise the way she was raised.

>> No.6480256

Hate as in poorly written or hate as in we're supposed to?

>> No.6480285

>>6480177
>>6480231
Then I guess we have to feel sorry for literally every character ever written

>> No.6480297

>>6480285
It's not a matter of feeling sorry really, it's more understanding why people behave the way they do. Despising a character is a sure sign you haven't understood them. Sure, there are characters you would never want to meet in your life, and you think the world would be better off without, but why leave it at hate when you could work out what is actually disagreeable? Good writers leave interpretations pretty open...

>> No.6480558
File: 548 KB, 441x680, phitch.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6480558

>>6480297

Yeah this is why I always tell people not to say "I despise Adolf Hitler."

He was beaten viciously by his father and drafted into WWI where he was injured. And all the art schools refused to recognize his artistic genius. It's really not his fault that things unfolded the way they did. It's societies fault.

>> No.6480566

Infinite Jest spoilers:

I got pissed at Marathe after he got Kate Gompert killed.

>> No.6480592

Every character in Franzen's The Corrections. The characters are so repulsive and annoying people just generally condemn the book.

>> No.6480600

>>6480558
>retorts a 14 year old would come out with

>> No.6480605

>>6480600

>retorts a 12 year old would come out with

>> No.6480661

Anne from Bonjour Tristesse. Bitch had it coming.

>> No.6480675

Yeah. I hated Stoner too. I mean, he fucking abandons his family, leads an awful life, and is hypocritical as fuck,

>> No.6480691

John from Brave New World, I had zero sympathy or empathy for him, his position was moronic, I wanted him to fail

>> No.6480708

>>6480177
I felt sorry for her. Then she used the child, and I felt anger. And then like Stoner's own indignation it went away.

Also it wasn't rape. It certainly wasn't passionate, and it certainly felt wrong, but it wasn't rape.

>> No.6480714

>>6480675
>abandons his family
His parents didn't see it like that when they saw he would break the cycle of blood heritage.

>leads an awful life

And yet dies content?

>Is hypocritical as fuck

In what way?

>> No.6480720

>>6480714
Dies content? HAHAHAHA.

>> No.6480738

>>6480231
>So you have this young girl who has been repressed her whole life and told what to do.
Am I the only one who thought there was some sexual abuse/incest with her father? Seemed like it to me anyway

>> No.6480745

>>6480592
That's how I felt about Freedom

>> No.6480750

>>6480745
Yeah. What is the point of those novels? I mean, I just end up feeling angry and quite disgusted.

>> No.6480752

>>6480745
Never read it, probably never will. I've read Farther Away though. Good book.

>> No.6480761

>>6480720
Oh but he did. The line about blood heritage explains why. he knew that life was hard and never got better and he understood the value of what little good he had. You can be sad without being ruined, and he died unruined and he knew this.

>> No.6480766

>>6480177
>>6480231

this. Edith wasn't evil, she was passive first and then angry. Here comes Stoner, a farmer boy who has literally no idea what he wants with his own life, let alone a wife. So she lands in this limbo of Stoner's betaness.

Now, being married to a beta is one thing, but having a beta cheat on you is really rage-inspiring.

She could've just not married him though

>> No.6480773

>>6480761
His life was awful. Enough of that.

>> No.6480810

>>6478915
Kikutani. What a fucking loser

>> No.6480845

>>6480231
>You should not despise her, you should despise the way she was raised.
I tried, but I can't. I do despise Edtih and I find her behaviour through awful. Near the end I did feel a bit sorry for her, but not as much as I dislike her 9/10 of the book before.

>> No.6480847

>>6480714
>And yet dies content?
acceptance would a better

>> No.6480858

>>6480592
Nice Guy did nothing wrong, except give Patty her meal ticket back.

>> No.6480953

>>6478915
I hated stoner, felt bad for his wife

it was a cold marriage

>> No.6480975

>>6480231
>>6480177
>>6480675
>>6480708
>>6480766
>>6480845
>>6480953
Would you guys recommend Stoner?
Does anyone have the .mobi?

>> No.6481087
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6481087

>having a nice enough life that you don't identify strongly with stoner

Assholes

>> No.6481101

>>6478915
>>6480231
>>6480177
>>6480675
>>6480708
>>6480766
>>6480845
>>6480953

ITT: Boys that had anger issues with his father decisions and behaviour

>> No.6481111

>>6481087
>normie
>goes to uni
>makes friends
>finds his passion in life
>gets a well paid tenured job
>marries the woman he loves
>has a child
>has an affair
>dies in his old age
gee so terrible his story sure tugs at my middle class heart strings

>> No.6481120

>>6480975
It's in all honesty the best book I have read or am ever like to read again. It truly is a one of a kind.

>> No.6481122

>>6481101
hey look i can make pop sci cheap shots too

>>6481101
>>6478915
>boys that had anger issues with mother and behaviour

>> No.6481126

>>6481120
>the best book I have read

This says far more about you than it does the book. In fact, it says nothing at all about the book and everything about you.

>> No.6481127

>>6480773
That's your opinion, and your entitled too it. However me, and John Williams, who wrote the book and stated in an interview that Stoner had a pretty good life, would disagree.

>> No.6481129

>>6480558
>recognize his artistic genius

troll...olol....olol....

>> No.6481145

>>6481126
I'm sorry I enjoyed a simply written and beautiful book that I connected with more than any Pynchon or Foster Wallace work or some archaic middle English poetry. Wait, no I'm not.

>> No.6481444

>>6481129

How was this not obvious to you by the end of the first sentence?

>> No.6481562

>>6480566
That shit happened are r ye pollin me leg

>> No.6481570

>>6480845
She never achieved any sort of autonomy, which is exceedingly difficult to sympathize with. And nothing justifies how she used their daughter; she simply had no life. Her handling of Grace's development was her biggest crime, and the one I think with the least ambiguity to it.

>> No.6481575

>>6481570
Simply had no right**

>> No.6481589

>>6478915
Izabela from The Doll, she single-handedly destroyed the main character's psyche and was oblivious to it

>> No.6481592

>>6480558
Who would be stupid enough to say "I despise Adolf Hitler" like that's an opinion anybody cares about ?

"I really hate fire, it's all hot and stuff".

You should tell people not to say that because it's a stupid thing to say.

>> No.6481611

>>6481145
>literature is exclusively made up of standard English and American /lit core

His point exactly.

>> No.6481656

>>6480558
>He was beaten viciously by his father
There is very little proof of that.

>drafted into WWI
He was drafted into the Austrian army, where he failed his physical exam. He then requested permission to serve in the Bavarian army, voluntarily.

>And all the art schools refused to recognize his artistic genius.
trololo

>> No.6481674

>>6478915
I thought Stoner was more despisable, he went about everything with slave morality.

>> No.6481683

>>6480691
Ditto.

>> No.6482484

>>6478915
Humpert humpert. Perhaps its because I dislike the book though.

>> No.6482673

fucking dean moriarty it's like settle down and get a job ya bum amirite

>> No.6482699

Mrs. Compson

>> No.6484015

Umm, I haven't finished the book yet but it seems to me like its implying that Edith is already cheating when Stoner has just now met whatshername.

>> No.6484065
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6484065

>>6482484
I think he's too funny to hate.

>> No.6484089

>>6479011

>that self-justification

>> No.6484223

Milo from Catch-22 is probably up there.

>> No.6484242

judas

>> No.6484348

>>6484242
Why though? He was the one to make the ultimate sacrifice

>> No.6484418

>>6481111
what is this? tumblr?
life isn't fucking about individual plot points its about how we take in and experience what's around us, don't treat any book like it's just a stupid piece of fiction try to understand where someone's coming from like you would with a normal fucking person.

>> No.6484433

>>6484418
anyone who identifies with his character has nothing to whine about.

>> No.6484498

>>6484433
I can't really say I identified with him but I understood his character, I felt good for him with the Grace and Catherine parts but never did I pity him.
I don't think I could ever pity or feel sorry for him, he brought everything upon himself.
I don't think I pitied anyone in that book, I was angry at Edith and sad when Catherine left.
The book seemed to be more of a study of Stoners life, sadness and passiveness instead of some kind of look at some cliche kid that had grown up in a broken home but got married so nothing else mattered for he had found love.

>> No.6484634
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6484634

>>6480231
>>6480766

By the time Stoner cheated on her she was already completely over him. This was after her father's death and her transformation into a 'woman of status', where she was already stealing their daughter away from him.

>> No.6484654

>>6478915


The main protagonist of OP's soon to be released masterpiece "Autobiography of a Faggot".

>> No.6484727

Daily reminder Stoner raped Edith and if you hate her you're a dumb manchild.

>> No.6484729

>>6484654
>>>/b/

>> No.6485307

Jason Compson

>> No.6485369

>>6484223
Milo is like one of those characters (at least for me) that even when he does really bad shit he's just impossible to hate

Corporal Whitcomb however is just a straight asshole throughout the book

>> No.6485387

>>6484727
when did that happen?

>> No.6485524

Hate is too strong of a word, but dislikeable would me more accurate for many characters. Bird from A Personal Matter comes to mind, as well as that gay union guy from Last Exit to Brooklyn.

>> No.6485549

Currently reading Keep The Aspidistra Flying and my God, that Gordon fellow is annoying. Other than that, I really wanted to punch Amy from Gone Girl. And the husband from We Need To Talk About Kevin. And a classic, Percy from Green Mile. Little shit.

>> No.6485609

LEX , from Jurassic Park. Fucking LEX
>Does nothing except to endanger characters via sneezing/crying/screaming
>Constantly complaining, arc is going from precocious brat to sniveling toddler, and learns nothing.

Tim and Grant's quasi father-son relationship could have been fleshed out if she hadn't been in the book

>> No.6485625

>>6481087
>reviews call it "story of a failure"
>almost every part of his life is more of a success than you

>> No.6485698

Maggie Verver from Henry James' The Golden Bowl. Probably not as obvious as someone like Iago or Jules from Murdoch's "A Fairly Honourable Defeat," or even Jason Compson, but damn I hated her so much.

>> No.6485710

Aeneas

Cause he's a shitty ripoff amalgam of odysseus and Achilles

Also the entire greyjoy family and bran from asoiaf for boring us all to death

>> No.6485711

Jason and Caddy Compson.

>> No.6485742

>>6485710
>Thinking ill of Aeneas
I will fight you

>> No.6485761

>>6485711
why is Caddy hateable?

because she has sex?

>> No.6485775

>>6485761
yes, sex is disgusting

>> No.6485780

>>6478915
While I felt that the relationship was displayed as a little one-sided, Edith was certainly a deplorable character.
There was a far worse villain in Stoner though; Charles Walker.
I wanted to strangle that little cunt - he reminded me of too many egotistical arseholes who'd ruin my seminars at uni by bringing up the same irrelevant shit every week.

>> No.6485989

>>6485780
He was definitely a little shit, but all of my rage is for his advisor Lomax(?) who just completely wrecked Stoner's life then humiliated him on his deathbed. WHY

>> No.6486006

>>6482484
cmon

>> No.6486214

I read somewhere here what I strongly agree

Stoner is a good example of a Stoic, with all its wrongs and good. He gets a wife, makes a living for them, all to to acquit to the general society. He escapes into his studies and readings, but then nothing truly matters for him thenceforth except being looked upon as normal and keeping a job. He doesn't give shit about her daughter and lets her be on her own, without intending to "correct" her from the, as we latter get to know, alcoholism and degradation. He does jack shit to stop her wife.

Maybe not a Stoic, though the novel and the more memorable comments doesn't stand still in my memory. Definitely not a human being without attributes you could dislike.

>> No.6486328

I've never hated a character more than Edith. It's amazing how the book draws such strong emotions out of so many people.

>> No.6486401

>>6485761

Actually, yes, because she's that one woman who you can't wrap your hands around.

I'm aware she is not supposed to be hateable, but that's how I feel at this point in my life. If I had had a couple of qt gfs, I'm sure she wouldn't have bothered me. But now I just recognised that whole shit with her growing up, having sex, losing all her innoncence and becoming unsympathetic, and people like Quentin, "poor Quentin" as she said so herself, becoming beta losers.

>> No.6488028

>>6478915
probably Humbert Humbert. One of the most slick, charming bastards in literary history. If we're allowed to include graphic novels though, Toshiko Tomura, from Tezuka's the Book of Human Insects, is probably the most vile person i've ever come across.

>> No.6488033

Alex Delarge

>> No.6488287

Byr Genar-Hofoen from Excession.

Absolute shitbag.

>> No.6488295

Randle McMurphy. I sympathised more with Nurse Ratched for almost the entire novel.

>> No.6488317

>>6488028
why is Humbert Humbert hateable, though?