/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6586634]

i'm compiling a list of vaporwave literature. what else do you think belongs on this list? should anything be removed?

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Synners - Pat Cadigan
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
The Big U - Neal Stephenson
Infinte Jest - David Foster Wallace

[Anonymous No.6586641]

Just because something's post modern or prophetic doesn't mean it's Vaporwave. Nothing on that list even comes close to achieving the Vaporwave aesthetic.

[Anonymous No.6586647]

>>6586634

So is this the new alt lit?

[Anonymous No.6586648]

>>6586634
There really isn't anything even remotely vaporwave on that list. As much as I want it to be a real thing in literature, you can't just reappropriate books that have nothing to do with its aesthethics and reason of being.

[Anonymous No.6586651]

>>6586634
Do you think vaporwave got more popular after Floral Shoppe became a meme on /mu/? That was me one day, got bored and turned it into a forced meme by spamming it and noticed it really gained popularity. It got reviewed by Fantano a few days later and then more little vaporwave scenes started popping up. Always wondered if I could take any credit. In a way I feel more important than the artists themselves.

[Anonymous No.6586661]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZs0pJrLN-Y

i always imagine this when you people mention vaporwave

[Anonymous No.6586671]

>>6586648
>>6586641

I guess you guys never read Microserfs or Synners.

[Anonymous No.6586704]

>>6586671
Vaporwave can be cyberpunk
Cyberpunk != Vaporwave
Vaporwave can be post-modernist
Post-Modernist Art != Vaporwave

[Anonymous No.6586744]

Vaporwave literature doesn't need to be a slaving imitation of vaporwave music. It's just writing that evokes the same mood:

Anti-consumerism, obsolescence, and the distortion of reality.

[Anonymous No.6586829]

>>6586744
so Karl Marx can be vaporwave?

[Anonymous No.6586849]

>>6586829
i dont see how karl marx embodies obsolescence?

most of the other books in the OP deal with technology of some sort.

[Anonymous No.6586857]

>>6586849
>i dont see how karl marx embodies obsolescence?

I can see how he can

[Anonymous No.6586873]

>>6586857
But can you also see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

[Anonymous No.6586879]

>>6586849
I meant more of the anti-consumerism/accelerationism

[Anonymous No.6586891]

>>6586873

[Anonymous No.6586942]

i want to know

[Anonymous No.6586968]

The more I think about it the more Infinite Jest fits.

There's a weedy taste to the whole book and the VHS tape gimmick to boot.

[twinshia !b2E8KBMQGk No.6587735]

http://ryzhknd.bandcamp.com/

[Anonymous No.6587803]

Hasn't vaporwave been dead for at least a couple years?

[Anonymous No.6588017]

>>6586634
Why Infinite Jest?

[Anonymous No.6588036]

>>6586879
>anti-consumerism
>accelerationism

Marx is the most vapourwave of all. Or maybe vapourwave sort of grew out of tryhard marx 20-somethings

source: live in portland, home of vapourwave

[Anonymous No.6588039]

>>6587735
>http://ryzhknd.bandcamp.com/
I've seen it 3 times now I guess I should download it *sigh*

[Anonymous No.6588622]

>>6588017
- the outlandish humor is a distortion effect on the lives of the characters
- the plot deals with a now-outdated technology (VHS tapes)
- impossibly large structures (the tennis academy tunnels reminds me of an abandoned mall)
- vague feeling of emptiness and anti-consumerism

[Anonymous No.6588670]

>>6586704
I mostly agree, but I think it's important to note that it shouldn't be "Vaporwave can be post-modernist" but rather "Vaporwave IS post-modernist" as that's kind of the whole point. Vaporwave began in post-ironic circles, with Lopatin was just fucking around with samples and Ecco the Dolphin

So basically we need to get Tao Lin to write a novel set in the late 80s/early 90s

>>6586744
>tfw Fight Club is vaporwave

[Anonymous No.6588684]

>>6587803
Depends. I think Vektroid has stopped doing it. Lopatin, the creator, still has vaporwave in his OPN project. Ferraro has moved away from strict vaporwave in favor of trap-ish RnB with a slight vapor sound. Releases still come out, but they're mostly tumblr kids or /mu/tants with little to no talent. And future funk, which is an incredibly fun subgenre, but is almost too far removed from the eccojams roots to be considered true vaporwave

[Anonymous No.6588709]

>>6588622
>the plot deals with a now-outdated technology (VHS tapes)
>Infinite Jest came out in 1996

dumbest shit ive heard all day. next you'll be telling me that Pet Shop Boys is vaporwave.

the whole point of vaporwave is that it's a REVIVAL of the 80s aesthetic, not the 80s aesthetic itself.

[Anonymous No.6589015]

for real, when infinite jest described the music on madame psychosis' radio i just heard vapowave

[Anonymous No.6589025]

also, infinite jest is not vaporwave it's CLEARLY grunge

[Anonymous No.6589082]

>>6586634
>vaporwave
Is a bad joke.
/thread

[Anonymous No.6589086]

>>6588709
by reading it aren't you reviving the aesthetic?

>>6589025
disagree. the science fiction aspects of infinite jest clearly push it over to vaporwave.

>>6588670
if anyone was to write the "great vaporwave novel" it would probably be tao lin. or me. i've got some short stories that touch on the vaporware genre but i havent had anything longer focus on it. its possible that vaporwave as a genre is best represented by poetry.

[Anonymous No.6589106]

>>6586634
>should anything be removed?
you from /lit/

[Anonymous No.6589115]

>>6586744
>Anti-consumerism, obsolescence, and the distortion of reality.
>Anti-consumerism
Nigger what?

[Anonymous No.6589228]

>>6589086
>if anyone was to write the "great vaporwave novel" it would probably be tao lin. or me. i've got some short stories that touch on the vaporware genre but i havent had anything longer focus on it. its possible that vaporwave as a genre is best represented by poetry.
I already wrote it. I just need to get it published.

[Anonymous No.6589265]

>>6589115
Vaporwave songs remind you of consumerism, but its meant to be sarcastic in tone. Much like all the product name drops in Microserfs. Which, I think, means we can possibly consider American Psycho as an addition to the list.

[Anonymous No.6590248]

>>6586634

What about Brief Interviews with Hideous Men? I somewhat instinctively think about that book when I think about vaporwave. Especially that part about some TV producer and his daughters or something.

[Anonymous No.6590299]

Doing God's work OP.

[Anonymous No.6590328]

>>6589265
>mfw appreciating vaporwave sincerely even if it's meant sarcastically

Post-snark living is here

[Anonymous No.6590347]

Clarify something for me.
I'm not familiar with the origins of Vaporwave. Is the entire genre an extension of the New Sincerity movement, do they exist separately, or do they work in tandem towards a common artistic goal? Does Vaporwave even have a 'goal'?
Anti-Consumerism and nostalgia both seem to be the workhorses behind good Vaporwave, but neither are achieved through it.
The Vaporwave market is not only very consumerist but is also dominated by people too yung to know what an empty 80's mall actually looks like. Is this intentional and done out of ironic expression or is the real endgoal just obfuscated under piles of spacey irony and cherry-scented bliss?
ad: How deep does the rabbit hole go?

[Anonymous No.6590506]

>>6590347

Vapor wave is just a meme. People will try to say it's a new genre of music, but that kind of sound has been around for a long time. "vapor wave" is more about the album art at any rate

[Anonymous No.6590567]

>>6590506
There's no such thing as 'just a meme'. Memes are only representing cultural units. Memes as straightforward as common idioms and phrases are supported by the context in which they're used. In the case of Vaporwave, it describes a much more abstract (but no more legitimate) concept.
Even if the genre has been around for a while, the recent reincarnation of it and the widely held belief that this reincarnation is an entirely new spin on music only proves Vaporwave's status as a timepiece model of memetics.
You're right though, I should've noted that a clear distinction has to be made between Vaporwave music and Vaporwave cover art/fan art. I'm referring to the music.

[Anonymous No.6590813]

>>6586651
It's hard to say whether it was the biggest tipping point for vaporwave, but it definativevly was one.

spoiler/ the spammers win again /spoiler

[Anonymous No.6590919]

>>6586651
Wait, is Floral Shoppe supposed to be bad? I sincerely listen to it all the time. Although S U R F I N G is my favorite.