[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 52 KB, 1000x400, infinitejest-1000x400.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6498487 No.6498487 [Reply] [Original]

Has a novel come out since that is superior to Infinite Jest or Underworld?

That or has a novel come out in our millennia that has comparable merit to either? Every postmodern memer seems to cite Infinite Jest as the monumental work of our time. I wonder if anything more recently has been given similar praise. I myself don't really read any new shit so I have little awareness of contemporary lit

>> No.6498500

Mason & Dixon came out after Infinite Jest but I think before Underworld

>> No.6498506

2666 by Bolaño seems to be about as popular, and came out in 2004.

There's also Min Kamp by Karl Ove Knausgaard that came out within the past few years and has been getting a LOT of media attention

>> No.6498558

>>6498500

M&D came out the same year as Underworld, I think, Underworld got all of the attention, but I enjoyed M&D much more.

I know that a lot of people love U. and some people I really respect call it their favorite book, but it didn't move me for a single moment in all its 800 or so pages.

>> No.6498592

When did Calvino publish Invisible Cities? that feels recent.

>> No.6498599

>>6498592
I don't know but he died in the 80s

>> No.6498655

Saramago had quite a few novels published from 1996 to his death. Sebald's Austerlitz was published in 2001. The novelists Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Javier Marias have been getting a lot of attention lately.

>> No.6498776

>>6498655
>>6498506
These are all just people who've gotten a lot of international attention, btw, and they're certainly not the only ones. Just saying there's more to literature than the United States and certainly more than David Foster Wallace

>> No.6498825

>>6498776
>Just saying there's more to literature than the United States and certainly more than David Foster Wallace

Certainly true, but I'll be interested to see what contemporary writing will be of enduring interest 40 or 50 years from now. I think generations to come will still respond to IJ, albeit with a smirk at how off the mark some of his ideas of what the near future would be like have turned out to be. And I think he will be a figure that looms larger than most if not all of his contemporaries in the US or internationally. Already there is more interest in him as a person than anyone else of his generation I can think of.

>> No.6498873

>>6498825
Knausgaard's recent burst in popularity I think is a comparable phenomenon, and his fame seems to be rapidly approaching DFW

>> No.6498889

There's also Franzen who's probably more famous than DFW anyway

>> No.6498955

>>6498873
>Knausgaard'd fame approaching DFW's.

This might be true in Norway.

>>6498889
>Franzen who's probably more famous than DFW anyway

Do you really think so? People might remember him for the Oprah spat as much as anything else. Freedom was a pretty steep decline from The Corrections, IMO.

I would love for Franzen to do some work that makes this premise more likely, though. I don't really think his fiction or nonfiction is as stunning as DFW's, but that's subjective.

>> No.6499027

>>6498955
>This might be true in Norway.
Especially in Norway of course, but in the anglophone world too, and seemingly in the hispanophone and francophone as well, and probably other places. Everyone's talking about him.

>> No.6499294

>>6499027

This may be truer than I know; I can't claim much of a sense of these things outside of the US. Here, though, I doubt he is or will be even the most famous Scandinavian writer of his generation.

>> No.6499926

Anyway, Against the Day is, IMO, a greater achievement than Underworld is and came about 10 years after.

But there are a shit-ton of books since U. that I've enjoyed more, so--. Just for full disclosure.

>> No.6501757

>>6499294
>I doubt he is or will be even the most famous Scandinavian writer of his generation.
Then who?

>> No.6501871

>>6498592
Det var tilbage i 70'erne. Hvor gammel er du?

>> No.6501876

>>6499926
Nobody read Against the Day.

>> No.6501896

franzen is definitely more popular, but want be rembered like DFW.

>> No.6501900

>>6498487

>tfw nothing has ever moved you the way Underworld did

I can't wait to read it for the 3rd time next month.

I haven't read Pynchon's major stuff yet but I don't imagine it'll have the same impact on me

But yeah OP, I'd say the most acclaimed novels of the current century are My Struggle and 2666

>> No.6501915

>>6501900

is it that good? I've heard Underworld compared to The Sopranos. I think I'd like it because it's closer to DeLillo's modernist influence and because his third person radically overshadows his first person-present tense. Underworld IS a mix of third and first person, right?

>> No.6501935

>>6501915

What? The Sopranos? Are you sure? I watched 4 seasons of The Sopranos and I have no idea how any comparison could be made in any regard.

Underworld is a mix, a great deal of it is in first-person though. And yeah, I think it is that good. There is a 50 page prologue to the book that was also published as a separate entity so if you want to get a taste of the book without committing to it fully you can check that out, it's probably online. I'm guessing you'll have a hard time resisting the book if you enjoy the style of the prologue as it is remarkably good.

>> No.6501937

>>6501876
That's because Tommy R. Pinecone has a wide catalog that people tend to pick and choose one or two books from rather than attempting to read everything he's done, and Gravity's Rainbow is his most famous book so anything he's done that's comparable to it tends to get overshadowed by its reputation.

He's not exactly someone with a massive volume of stuff, but when most of the things you've put out are 450+ pages and written in a dense style, people tend not to read all of them unless they're REALLY into you.

Even the more simple "Nu-Pinecone" books are longer than their reputation would have you assume they are.

When it comes to memeworthiness DFW has the advantage of having one book he's well known for and being dead.

>> No.6503415

Bump

>> No.6503478

IJ is a great way for young readers to get into postmodernism because DFW was essentially the last postmodernist the same way Beckett was the last modernist. I don't know if everyone would agree with that but it's certainly how I understand the style of writing. In terms of contemporary fiction since/ better than IJ and Underworld, I can only really address IJ. I've read four of Delillo's books and loved all of them. DFW absolutely loved Robert Coover's origin of the Brunists. Coover wrote a 1000+ page sequel to the Origin about 6 years after DFW killed himself. I've always wondered what DFW would have thought about the sequel. I'm just beginning the Origin of the Brunists but Coover wrote a very short novella called Briar Rose which absolutely fucking blew me away.

Other great postmodern writers during/ since DFW's carrer that I can genuinely vouch for: William H Gass, William Vollmann, John Barth.

Controversial claim:
John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor (greatly loved by DFW) shits ALL OVER Pynchons's M&D. It's not even a competition. Their stories are even similar and Pynchon just gets crushed. Barth's characters, understanding of antiquated English vernacular, history, everything, vastly superior to Pynchon. I'm not saying M&D is badly written. I just find it surprising that nobody mentions The Sot-Weed Factor - it's way funnier, too. This is man who won the National Book award at 23 while raising three kids. And went on to teach writing for 30+ years. Pynchon cannot fuck with Barth and never could. Anyway.

>> No.6503501

>>6503478
I wonder if there are going to be neo-postmodernists 50 years in the future the way there are neo-modernists now. Weird to think about

>> No.6503506
File: 49 KB, 300x503, extension-du-domaine-10.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6503506

>>6498487
>Has a novel come out since that is superior to Infinite Jest or Underworld?
yes ofc.

reminder that houellebeq is to france what DFW is to the US

>> No.6503511

>>6503506
>reminder that houellebeq is to france what DFW is to the US
That is an insult to the both of them

>> No.6503519

>>6503511
More an insult to Houellebeq.

>> No.6503542
File: 22 KB, 300x100, 213.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6503542

infinite jest is boring and shitty, dfw is just another boring academic mind.

this book is so fucking boring. people just think it's good because it's long and there are paragraphs that last 5 pages.

i don't even know what else to say about it

>> No.6503553

>>6503542
did you even read it brah?

>> No.6503567

>>6503542
> enacting the qualities you critique

You're boring, motherfucker. I'm 25 years old. I'm working on a Masters and I loved the book, and not because there were 5-page long paragraphs either. It's not for kids or smartasses. It's for everyone. It's easy to read and it's funny, that's why people like it. If you want to be a contrarian and claim it to be "boring", fine, go ahead. But how about offering us some fucking substance son? You just look like a typical /lit/ IJ hater who hasn't read a fucking word of DFW. Take a seat kiddo and raise your fucking hand nice and high for me to see next time.

>> No.6503569

>>6503542
Sorry you feel that way. I honestly don't get how someone could think it was boring but I know everyone has different tastes. I think if you don't like the first 20-30 pages or so you won't like the book, but if they really grab you you'll devour the whole thing.

>> No.6503576

>>6503567
>I'm 25 years old. I'm working on a Masters and I loved the book

So?

>> No.6503580

>>6503553
yes

the main problem is that he does not have a good sense of humor. i assume most people who are unfunny think that this is a hilarious book, which is why they like it and it doesn't become boring to them. to me it's just cringeworthy.

have you ever seen an interview of dfw? what kind of person makes "ch ch ch ch ch ch ch" sounds with their mouth ? what kind of person asks "i don't know if this is interesting," every 5 seconds?

he needed to live like a homeless bum. reading this book makes me understand why he was depressed. he couldn't stop finishing these incredibly overwrought boring thoughts.

and the part about how the girl claims that her depression is like nausea, but way worse, because its like every cell in her body wants to vomit... that's just whiny teenage girl tier. when you really have to throw up you can't even think.

i don't like that this book is popular.

i like that its themes feature corporations (year of depend adult undergarment, hahahahaha!) and drugs. but that's it

>> No.6503582

>>6501876
>Nobody read Against the Day

Well, I'm not going to say they should, but I will say that if it was between re-reading Underworld or re-reading Against the Day, I would re-read AtD.

>> No.6503584

>>6503576
>I'm 25 years old. I'm working on a Masters

you just proved that you're retarded,

>> No.6503587

>>6501896
>franzen is definitely more popular, but want be rembered like DFW.

I don't think he's popular in the same way. I mean, Dean Koontz is more popular than both of them put together. I don't think that gives a full picture of what the writers have achieved.

>> No.6503595

>>6503580
It's only popular on /lit/, anymore.

DFW will be forgotten in 10 years.

>> No.6503599

>>6503580
I'm >>6503569

Personally I don't find the book that funny. I'm confused by reviews and blurbs about it like "Uproarious!...you will be in tears at Wallace's satire of 90s America". I thought it was mostly sad and bizarre and melancholy and sometimes darkly funny in that way where you laugh at the absurdity of some terrible thing.

>> No.6503600

>>6501900
>But yeah OP, I'd say the most acclaimed novels of the current century are My Struggle and 2666

It would be nice if that was true, but is it?

I'm not even sure 2666 is the most acclaimed Bolano anyone has been reading in English until after 2000.

>> No.6503613

>>6503599

One of the few books that actually has me laugh out loud. Just Himself's filmography puts me in a good mood.

>> No.6503636

>>6498873
can you fucking idiots stop talking about knausgård? he is the ultimate hack

>> No.6503664

>>6503636
True, but he isn't the only hack I mentioned in that post...

>> No.6503763

>>6503664

Does the ten millionth poster who emptily pronounces DFW a hack get some kind of prize? A deluxe trip or a luxury automobile?

>> No.6503799

>>6503763
Yeah, it's you getting all distressed over it.

>> No.6503807

>>6503799

Don't confuse boredom with distress. I could give a shit what weak-tea 'iconoclasts' think about a book they haven't read. I just don't need to hear it hourly.

>> No.6503814

>>6503807
>>6503807
>>6503807

fuck off.

>> No.6503832

>>6503814
>fuck off.

Strong rebuttal. At least, to your credit, you didn't lie and say you've read it.

>> No.6504161

>>6503832

I commend DFW. Fuck you.

>> No.6504170

>>6504161
Yes ma'am.

>> No.6504176

>>6498487
'Infinite Jest' isn't postmodern, you cuckfucker.

>> No.6504353

The Tunnel by William H Gass came out a year before IJ and is just as ambitious and grand in scope

>> No.6506588

Bumo

>> No.6506597

norman rush is a better author than dfw by a good margin. philip roth wrote better books in the 90s than either delillo or wallace

>> No.6506624

>>6504353
Good choice. Gass went on to write Middle C which has to be one of the best recent American novels.

Robert Coover and Joseph McElroy are still writing, they just don't get the same publicity as Franzen, Junot Diaz, or whatever other crap is the Current Important Book.

>> No.6506633

>>6506624
They're all pretty old by now, though. Who are the best younger writers, under age 60 or so? I'm guessing neither Franzen nor Diaz, by your estimation.

>> No.6506635

>>6506633
Diaz isn't even the best writer named Diaz.

I don't know why your palate is so unsophisticated. Top getting your reading list from Oprah.

>> No.6506643

>>6506635
Well, sophisticate me! What authors born within the past 60 years should I be reading instead?

>> No.6506644

i read it and liked it. people tell me i have a good sense of humor and i thought IJ was funny. I've noticed a lot of the people that have read it and don't like it don't have a good sense of humor and take themselves way too seriously. Also most of the peeps that hate it haven't read it. Its not even hard to read. u just hatin just cuz

>> No.6506689

>>6506597
Roth probably had the most consistently great literary career from 1969 through 2000 of anyone in America. Probably the only books that weren't up to snuff were the two political satires and The Breast, all three of which from the early 70s, but he has 15 or so other books from that 32-year period that are just great