/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Mon Jun 29 20:48:35 2015 No.6757542 [Reply] [Original]

>In high school, I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. (You may not have guessed this Botanist / Mechanical Engineer was a bit of a nerd in high school, but indeed I was). In the game I played a Cleric. One of the magic spells I could cast was “Create Water”. I always thought it was a really stupid spell, and it never came up. Boy what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that in real life right now.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 20:51:33 2015 No.6757555 >>6757542 His writing literally makes me cringe.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 20:53:13 2015 No.6757562 >>6757542 Well, good to know the movie isn't a Hollywood-ization of a legit good book. This reads as bad as that trailer looked.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 20:55:41 2015 No.6757569 The people I know who love this book baffle me. While yes, the narrator's problem-solving is somewhat interesting, there is literally nothing else in this book. No character, no style, no description, no interesting structure. Fuck this shit.

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 20:58:23 2015 No.6757582
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I just finished this. There is actual no substance. It's just a giant list of how to survive on Mars with a few forced Star Wars/Star Trek references.

>“So we just need to send Watney those 20 instructions?” Venkat asked.
“That, and how to edit the files. And where to insert the instructions in the files.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that!”
Venkat was silent for a moment. “Jack. I’m going to buy your whole team autographed Star Trek memorabilia.”
“I prefer Star Wars.”
"The original series?"
"Of course."

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:00:26 2015 No.6757595 File: 25 KB, 793x673, 1424392765830.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757582 >Someone wrote this and published this and is having a big-budget movie made out of this. Fucking kill me now.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:04:21 2015 No.6757609 >>6757542 Reads like a facebook post tbh

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:05:11 2015 No.6757613
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>Problem is, they soak up a lot of power, and have to run all day long. The rover batteries have 18kwh of juice. The Oxygenator alone uses 44.1kwh per sol. See my problem? You know what? “Kilowatt-hours per sol” is a pain in the ass to say. I'm gonna invent a new scientific unit name. One kilowatt-hour per sol
is... it can be anything... um... I suck at this... oh fuck it. I'll call it a “pirate-ninja.”

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:06:37 2015 No.6757618 File: 20 KB, 540x380, 11193307_918204724911098_8269837297953678096_n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] this can't be real please lord don't let this be real

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:09:57 2015 No.6757632 File: 1.84 MB, 720x720, 1435158481987.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 >you will never play tabletop roleplaying games

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 21:59:31 2015 No.6757821 >>6757582 better than dfw

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:11:34 2015 No.6757861 >>6757595 And directed by the dude who did Blade Runner!

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:16:19 2015 No.6757884 File: 26 KB, 389x450, reaction002.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 >>6757582 >>6757613 >people think this is a good book

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:19:22 2015 No.6757893 File: 22 KB, 250x227, 1430372560088.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 This is awful.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:20:29 2015 No.6757898 File: 224 KB, 500x500, iUZmuZU.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757861 Fuck I forgot. Well, Ridley is debatably no longer a good director anymore, anyway.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:21:55 2015 No.6757900 File: 2.41 MB, 308x233, RAEG_2.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757893 >this guy is getting rich off of writing this

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:23:01 2015 No.6757906 >>6757542 wait.... this is an actual citation from the book? WTF

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:24:38 2015 No.6757914 >>6757542 >I played Dungeons and Dragons a lot but I would never try out any other classes besides cleric. I mean, cleric is a good class and everything but who the fuck does this the author obviously doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:29:33 2015 No.6757928
File: 1.91 MB, 450x254, reaction029.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

“[11:49] JPL: What we can see of your planned cut looks good. We’re assuming the other side is identical. You’re cleared to start drilling.

[12:07] Watney: That’s what she said.

[12:25] JPL: Seriously, Mark? Seriously?”

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:32:26 2015 No.6757948 I can maybe understand Watney acting like a huge faggot but the fact that everyone in the book act like a thirteen year old ruins the entire book.

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:36:44 2015 No.6757969

>Spend moments agonizing over every word, every sentence
>Go through and re-work your stories incessantly, slaving away to make each draft shorter, sharper, more poignant, more complex
>Spend hours researching philosophy, literature, theatre, myth so that I can give a story several layers of possible analysis
>Drive myself crazy re-working all of it so that the themes are subsurface, lurking below the action and words of the characters, never to be spoken aloud in expository dialogue
>Andy Weir writes a long blog-post in sloppy free-form without a care in the world and is rolling in cash and praise.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:37:31 2015 No.6757972 >>6757582 This is just awful.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:42:44 2015 No.6757990 File: 827 KB, 1262x1484, light novel titles.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 it reads like a fucking light novel. All it needs is a anime girl on the cover and a hot sister.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:46:53 2015 No.6758003 >>6757990 Those sound like engrossing reads tbh

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:48:07 2015 No.6758005 Is this a troll thread? What is wrong with that passage?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 22:55:43 2015 No.6758029 >>6758005 Is this a troll post? What isn't wrong with that passage?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:00:30 2015 No.6758047 I only heard about this book yesterday from a friend who is loving it while he reads it. Didn't realize it was trash.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:01:49 2015 No.6758051 >>6757969 >Spend hours researching philosophy, literature, theatre, myth so that I can give a story several layers of possible analysis This is actually bad writing

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:04:30 2015 No.6758069

>>6758047

Also really highlights the difference in our education; he's actually a smart guy who makes a lot of money as an engineer and can create things or solve equations I'd never be able to. This is stuff I cannot do, whereas he doesn't seem to be able to appreciate and identify decent literature. Also I make less money than him so I guess I win?

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:13:04 2015 No.6758109

>>6758069
Engineers are the apotheosis of pleb when it comes to anything that might be considered art or within the realm of the humanities.

I know an engineer who spends nearly all of his free time watching kids cartoons. If you want to do so every now and again, sure, go right ahead. But for that to be your primary source of entertainment makes me question your status as an adult.

Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:31:04 2015 No.6758166

>>6758069
>This is stuff I cannot do, whereas he doesn't seem to be able to appreciate and identify decent literature.

I used have a "lol so nerdy" friend who, whenever he reads literature he just complains about the characters acting too emotional and not being perfect logic machines like him (On Hamlet: "There are many liegitamate ways for Hamlet to kill Claudius, I don't get why he's waiting so much... Yeah I know it's the point of his character, but does he really have to be unintelligent?").

He also does the same thing with characters in movies. I would call him autistic if he wasn't so damn normal in everyday life, I dunno why characters in stories are so difficult for him.

He likes Dune though. That was something I couldn't get into because the characters weren't interesting and I just didn't care about this "perfectly detailed world" (his words) and having to go to the glossary every page and learning arabic to decypher what's going on.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:35:37 2015 No.6758195 >>6758109 Commerce students come pretty close. My roommate is a chartered accountant who rakes in a bunch of money but is depressed as hell and only reads self-help books before spending his nights watching Paul Blart and Jurassic World. He's 25.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:42:52 2015 No.6758228 >>6757969 What the hell are you writing about man? ALSO > I'm going to have to science the shit out of this wut

>>	Anonymous Mon Jun 29 23:44:04 2015 No.6758236 >>6757969 the struggle is real, amigo.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:04:51 2015 No.6758306 File: 125 KB, 1102x967, 1430871963055.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757632 I know that feel bro. I know that feel.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:20:39 2015 No.6758341 Mediocre books become popular all the time. The writing might suck, but at least the premise is interesting and the problem solving is neat. It's more than you can say for a lot of shitty books that somehow become super popular.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:25:50 2015 No.6758361 >>6757542 Are you the guy who made me go find this goddam book for your lazy ass at my half price?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:46:46 2015 No.6758418 >>6757861 tbh why did the lord take tony from us and leave ridley

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:48:09 2015 No.6758424 >>6757582 Shouldn't it be Original Trilogy? Original Series is Star Trek, not Star Wars.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:53:27 2015 No.6758440 Fuck all of you hipster faggots. I enjoyed the hell out of the book

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:56:32 2015 No.6758450 Honestly though, its a great premise for a film.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 00:57:53 2015 No.6758455

I picked this book up on a whim, thinking it was some kind of horror story set on Mars.I was in the mood for some light genre fare. I really dig sci-fi horror. I admit it, I bought the book because it had a cool cover. Whoever designed it absolutely nailed it. But there's no substance to this book. I was totally misled. I can understand why some people might like it, but it's not for me.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 01:07:06 2015 No.6758484 >>6758236 >>6757969 Or you are just garbage writers hiding behind your guise of pseudo intellectualism and imagined superiority. I hope you fags end of sucking dick for money on the streets

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 01:08:23 2015 No.6758488 >>6757898 I think every time Ridley Scott makes a blasphemous movie God drains him of a little bit more of his talent.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:09:30 2015 No.6758632
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>>6757542

> reading V
> friend asks what I'm reading
> do my best to explain the premise without sounding pretentious
> "you should read the Martian anon. I bet you'd really like it. It was written by a real NASA scientist"
> "s-sounds good"
> explain that I want to read Gravity's Rainbow after V, show him the "try to tickle me" quote from my Goodreads app
> "It seems like it'd be kind of boring to read a whole book that's written like that."
> mfw

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:23:13 2015 No.6758667 >>6757861 its weirdthat he made 2 absolutely genius movies and then a bunch of garbage for decades

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:24:28 2015 No.6758674 File: 78 KB, 238x372, Revolution_and_Counter_Revolution_cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 so this is basically reddit: the book

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:26:15 2015 No.6758681 >>6758166 He's an ultra-high functioning autist.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:29:19 2015 No.6758691 File: 98 KB, 600x500, 1421538276984.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757542 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQqhfq87FgY >I'm going to science the shit out of this this is basically reddit: the movie

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:31:31 2015 No.6758699 >>6757542 >>6757582 >>6757613 >>6757928 Are these real lines from the book? Seriously fuck the publishing industry if they are.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 02:57:31 2015 No.6758799 can we all agree that this is a pretty cool cover though? if I didn't know the book was shit I'd read the fuck out of the first few pages

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 03:03:25 2015 No.6758820 >>6758691 >Take that, Niel Armstrong! I wonder if Niel Armstrong or any of his family will watch this, and what they will think.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 03:04:10 2015 No.6758821 >>6758799 So true

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 03:09:17 2015 No.6758835 >>6758691 The writing samples are atrocious but the movie looks like it might be fun

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 03:09:20 2015 No.6758836 >>6757928 "Seriously?" XD He did NOT just say that on a super serious engineering project! XDDDD

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 03:56:33 2015 No.6758961 >>6757542 wait, this is taken from a published novel? what the fuck, I wrote like this in middle school

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 04:16:26 2015 No.6759011

>>6757542
>>6757542
I found the premise interesting and fun enough to carry me through the book, even when some of the "lolnerdculture" humor and some dumber cliches were making the higher part of my brain peer over its glasses to shake its head in disgust.
>tfw the commander's literal first reaction of finding out this guy is alive is to be "HUR I FAILED" and sulk like a self-important bitch rather than be happy at this outstanding news just so Weir could write a "wow best ldr she such gud care about team but 2 hard on herself"
Fun if you just let it be and don't go in expecting Space Odyssey

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 04:31:02 2015 No.6759040 File: 165 KB, 631x616, reaction031.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] I'm still mad.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 05:33:14 2015 No.6759157 >>6757542 > written by a NASA scientist Found your problem

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 05:39:21 2015 No.6759166 >>6757542 >stemfag writes a book lel STEM BTFO

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 05:48:49 2015 No.6759189 >>6758455 >>6758799 This. That cover is fucking awesome.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 06:21:20 2015 No.6759257 >>6757582 this is some john green-tier dialogue

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 06:41:16 2015 No.6759319 Do you people enjoy spending all your time picking apart someone else's work rather than write the book you've been thinking about making for years?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 06:51:29 2015 No.6759340 >>6759319 My book is coming along well thank you for asking. I'm going to literature the shit out of it today ;^)

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 06:59:04 2015 No.6759360 >>6758069 Engineers still play with pokemon cards and shit. These are the people who love capitalism because it allows them to live lives as basically weaponized autism

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 07:59:51 2015 No.6759486 File: 65 KB, 491x399, 1435665591131.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6759360 >weaponized autism b-but anon

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 08:12:32 2015 No.6759516

>>6759319
>implying we somehow lack critical authority unless we've accomplished as much or more
I certainly hope you've never criticized a book, or a song, or a painting, or a building, or a car, or your dinner, or a politician (that is, unless you've been published, had a number one hit, have a painting hanging in a museum, designed a building, built your own car, grown your own food and run a country)

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 08:57:05 2015 No.6759625 >>6758835 >but the movie looks like it might be fun >Maaaatt Daaaaamooooon on Mars for two hours >fun >haven't made a good movie in 20 years >fun >people will pay to see this shit >"best selling novel" >a fucking blog

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:01:07 2015 No.6759641 File: 223 KB, 800x800, argument bingo.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6758484 that sure is a long winded way to say "UR JUST JEALOUSE!"

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:03:43 2015 No.6759649 >>6759625 What's with Matt Damon playing all these lone spessman in spess roles recently anyway?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:04:41 2015 No.6759654 File: 20 KB, 480x360, hqdefault.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6759641

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:07:42 2015 No.6759670 >>6759649 Famous face and name, that's all. He's been in a lot of roles ever since he played Bourne.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:16:31 2015 No.6759705 >>6759641 >Calling out a strawman means you suck at arguing Actually, whoever made this image probably sucks at arguing

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 09:43:12 2015 No.6759805

>>6759319
I already wrote it and haven't had much luck with getting an agent.

He got published in a really roundabout way where he had fans on a blog who told him to put it up on amazon and after it sold a bunch of copies there he got a publishing deal 3 years later.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 10:43:15 2015 No.6759976

>>6757582
>mentioning star wars and star trek in the same breath and then referring to the original star wars trilogy as "the original series".

It's rare to see something both as subtle and as wretched as this. If it was trolling it would be fucking brilliant.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 13:38:24 2015 No.6760644 >>6758835 >guy gets left behind on Mars >everyone's like "oh shit that guy's on Mars" >he does shit so he can live on Mars for a while. >people on Earth are like "Oh he can't be rescued, oh wait yes he can be rescued" >after some time he is rescued

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 14:36:42 2015 No.6760910

ITT: People who have never read much science fiction and don't know that the quality of propose and dialogue is usually proportional to the quality of the science part of the fiction.

>>6760644

The book is about the problems you might run into on being stuck on Mars, odd possible solutions to such problems, interesting possibilities and challenges that arises and how to technically become a space pirate.

Really, I can't imagine that any of you have a broad apprication for literature if you become this butthurt about some shitty jokes. It's like when someone gets upset about what kids are listening to these days when they just read random bullshit on the radio.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 14:50:21 2015 No.6760969 >>6760910 >Really, I can't imagine that any of you have a broad apprication for literature if you become this butthurt about poor literature.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 14:59:00 2015 No.6761005 heheh epic vikings from space (fuck year boys). Runescape 2007 remember that guys? fruit roll ups. Only 742 more km to go until the power gen reaches 95% and we have enough thruster fuel to reach delta B.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 15:07:08 2015 No.6761039 >>6760644 Id like to hear the logic behind why he got left behind.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 15:11:43 2015 No.6761054

>>6761039
>Massive Sandstorm
>"This storm is stronger than anything we expected, it's unsafe! Run to the lander and evacuate!"
>Piece of metal breaks off something due to the high winds, slams into protagonist while they're running to lander
>He's sent flying and knocked out
>The radio that transmits his medical status to everyone else is damaged
>They can't find him due to the sand
>They presume he's dead, and after a heart-wrenching scene where the captain doesn't want to abandon him, they get in the lander and take off.
>He wakes up a few hours later

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 15:46:42 2015 No.6761193 >>6758228 I actually chuckled at that line. Still don't want to see the movie, though.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 15:54:41 2015 No.6761221 File: 50 KB, 512x512, mèmes_dans_la_troisieme_dimension.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6761005 I laughed a lot more than I thought I would. Thanks for the chuckle, anon.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 16:00:09 2015 No.6761245 >>6758799 It is indeed an awesome cover.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 17:51:02 2015 No.6761733 >>6761245 it's actually so fucking ugly

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 18:48:09 2015 No.6761918 >>6760910 Do you appreciate Transformers because you can "turn off your brain and eat popcorn"?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 18:51:16 2015 No.6761926 >>6757542 is that an actual line? holy fucking shit

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 20:46:23 2015 No.6762238 >>6760910 You forgot to put an "inversely" in there, chief.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 20:55:42 2015 No.6762252 >>6757990 You forgot unnecessarily wrong title that reads like clickbait. >My crewmembers think I'm dead but I'm actually stranded on mars and now I have to survive on potatoes and memes. Or MCTIDBIASOMANIHTSOPAM for short.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 22:16:06 2015 No.6762468
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>>6757542
HOLY FUCK
Okay
okay
o k a y

I'm not a /lit/fag at all, and I have highly pleb taste. I was dying with boredom with the brothers karamazov and I saw this book in a youtube video so I thought I'd read it because I like sci fi a lot

This book is exactly what I'd imagine a robot or alien impersonating a human would write if forced to write a novel at gun point.

Don't get me wrong, I like hard sci fi and I appreciated all the detail put into this book. I also really thought some of his solutions to the problems he faced were CLEVER AS FUCK (solar panel placement to trace out the storm was genius)

But this book read like my engineering exams at school. I don't know how to put it outside of "there's no humanity in this book"

And what was up with that weird ass romance bit? The human side of the book was just so fucking bad. This nigga is stuck on Mars and you don't dive into his psyche at all?

HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS BOOK HAVE LIKE 4~5 STARS ON EVERY SITE

Also how freaky deaky is this:

I read the book the night before the SpaceX supply mission to ISS blew up. JUST LIKE THAT SUPPLY MISSION BLEW UP IN THE BOOK

<_<;

Also does anyone have any recommendations for similar near-future sci fi books that aren't shit? I'm starting The Wind Up girl today, but I really like 'realistic' hard sci-fi, and I think wind up girl is more fantasy.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 22:23:50 2015 No.6762481 >>6762468 If you like near-future sci-fi check out Eon and Rama, they're very similar in terms of overall premise but very different after about the first 1/3 of the book

>>	Anonymous Tue Jun 30 22:24:07 2015 No.6762482 >>6757542 This actually gives me some hope that I might be published one day.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 22:28:58 2015 No.6762501

>>6761054
Which bugs me, because wind doesn't work that way on Mars. Due to atmospheric density and gravity, a windspeed of ~1000kph would be required to actually cause the level of chaos that Watney and his team experience.

So a badly written book defended by people saying: "B-but the science!" hinges its plot on bad science.

Anonymous Tue Jun 30 22:44:29 2015 No.6762551

>>6762501
There were other plot holes too. Once he hooked up the rover to communicate with Earth and they had proper back and forth communication going, why wouldn't they send him a full mission outline ASAP?

That part where he lost communication then realized he had to figure out the rest on his own pissed me off so much. How the fuck would you fail to send an entire preliminary mission plan just in case you lose communication?

Especially since you're talking through decade old that could get fucked at any moment?

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 01:45:14 2015 No.6763054 >>6762481 Eon was my first greg bear book when I was a kid. He always had pretty good sex scenes that 13 year old me appreciated.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 01:48:24 2015 No.6763064 >>6758440 >hipster b8

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 01:53:53 2015 No.6763091

>>6757582
>>6757914
>>6757928
Looks like it was written by a committee.
>nerds like hard sci-fi right?
>don't forget to add pop culture references and internet memes, nerds love that!
>yeah just add some stuff about Star Wars, and what's it called, Star Journey or whatever

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 03:04:29 2015 No.6763238 >>6757969 post something so we can all see how much better you are

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 03:14:08 2015 No.6763253 >>6762468 >I'm not a /lit/fag at all, and I have highly pleb taste >not a /lit/fag >highly pleb taste You have belonged here all along anon

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 03:22:53 2015 No.6763269 >>6758632 What kind of look says "try to tickle me" anyway?

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 03:35:27 2015 No.6763294 >>6762551 Exactly. For a book which spends paging calculating the water required for a potato farm which will last him a few hundred days, there are an awful lot of unrealistic oversights.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 04:40:36 2015 No.6763434 >>6757542 >Boy what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that in real life right now. Golly that would be swell!

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 04:56:32 2015 No.6763453 >>6763434 Don't worry, he says le epic swearwords like one of those internet reviewers later.

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 05:14:11 2015 No.6763499

>>6760910
Fuck yourself.

No, seriously. There are shitloads of Science Fiction authors, 'hard' and 'soft' if you value those distinctions, who are able to write phenomenally and have produced distinct literature works.

The notion that 'good sci-fi' means it either cannot be well-written or is an acceptable excuse for poor writing is baseless.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 06:51:38 2015 No.6763692 >>6758820 Well Neil Armstrong's dead, so I doubt it.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 07:27:36 2015 No.6763783 >>6763238 Night of your birth. Thirty three. The Aenids they were called. God how the stars did fall.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 07:32:47 2015 No.6763801 >>6763783 >Aenids

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 07:53:45 2015 No.6763848 File: 71 KB, 531x471, 1393659842110.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757582

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 08:13:01 2015 No.6763902 >>6759166 Well that explains a lot.

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 16:44:41 2015 No.6765489

>>6763499
>There are shitloads of Science Fiction authors, 'hard' and 'soft' if you value those distinctions, who are able to write phenomenally and have produced distinct literature works.

I think part of the issue is that there aren't very many books that are similar to the martian in terms of how close to reality the premise and execution is.

Most 'near future' sci fi these days tend to focus on sociopolitical issues and far future ones quickly devolve into high fantasy. Even ones that are hard scifi just use a bunch of technical terminology to pawn off the time travel or whatever unimaginable shit they want you to believe.

There's something very attractive about imagining scenarios that could be feasible and that don't run too far from our own reality. Mars is literally on our radar and a huge focus of our space program.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 19:34:24 2015 No.6766213 >>6759516 I'm saying you're wasting your time and criticising someone's work just because you feel they don't 'deserve' to be popular is really petty and pathetic.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 20:20:35 2015 No.6766374 I think it's "Friday or the other Island" of our time. Watney is writing a diary that sounds like shit. Why? Because his state was deteriorating all the time, it was pure atavism. He thought he made sense, but no, he didn't. He lost his mind.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 21:28:07 2015 No.6766706 >>6762468 Greg Egan is great. Dunno if he'd be realistic enough for your tastes but it's great stuff. Check out Permutation City.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 22:16:37 2015 No.6766899 >>6766374 This doesn't make sense because the events that are narrated by the author are also written just as mechanically (the entire book isn't composed solely of Watney's journal entries)

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 22:18:40 2015 No.6766905

>>6757582
>friend who rarely reads much tells me about this book
>don't know it and don't plan on reading it, but I recommend him Martian Chronicles anyway as it'd be nice to share some decent sci-fi with him
-couple weeks later he tells me its boring shit and that "The Martian" is much more interesting
>decide to pick it up and give it a try
>see this
why have friends

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 22:21:57 2015 No.6766919

>>6766905
I honestly think the reason this is so popular is because the language and themes are so simple and straightforward.

>MAN STUCK ON SPACE ROCK!!
>GASP
>HOW SURVIVE?
>MAN SMART
>SPACE ROCKETS
>BIG BANG THEORY COOL SMART! >SCIENCE GOOD!
>PIRATE NINJAS! LOL!
>HAPPY ENDING :)

Anonymous Wed Jul 1 22:33:25 2015 No.6766963

>>6766919
yeah, and from the excerpts here, it seems written in a very 'everyman' sort of prose, sophisticated sounding but accessible with its high-school level jokes and extremely direct manner of writing. complex enough to seem smart but simple enough to not eschew 'undeveloped' readers.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 22:36:11 2015 No.6766975 >>6766963 I don't think you know what eschew means

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 23:15:15 2015 No.6767111 DUDE SO NERDY LMAO

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 1 23:52:39 2015 No.6767192 >>6759649 There's this and Interstellar, what other movies are there?

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 00:27:43 2015 No.6767326 >>6766899 The perspective of the grill in the craft on the way home is super boring and unnecessary.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:08:46 2015 No.6767443 >>6766374 That's stupid

Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:26:29 2015 No.6767496

I liked this book! I started reading it late in the evening and ended up losing about half a night of sleep. It was really fun, with some clever science.

But the funny thing is, reading the quotes in this thread, they seem every bit as cringe-worthy to me as they do to all the people here hating on the book. I guess they felt less lame in context? As I was reading the book, I actually enjoyed the style - light, but not entirely without substance. Or maybe it was late at night and I was feeling a bit punchy. I dunno.

If I hadn't read the book and came across this thread, I would probably agree that it sounds shitty. But having read and greatly enjoyed it, this thread isn't going to put me off from recommending it to my friends and being cautiously optimistic about the film.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:28:06 2015 No.6767503 This book was written by an analytic philosopher.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:45:28 2015 No.6767540 >>6757969 dude you are overworking the shit out of your novel

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:45:55 2015 No.6767542 >>6757542 How could this get past an editor? This is degeneracy; not the d&d, but the writing.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:49:35 2015 No.6767549 >>6766905 If you're looking for hard sci-fi, you might like the mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. I liked Bradbury's Martian Chronicles as well.

Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:51:00 2015 No.6767554

>>6766213
It's only a waste of time if you have the culturally meme-addled cliquey herd mentality of a 13 year old girl.

You've internalized a double standard that effectively says anything that's published and successful/popular is beyond reproach regardless of quality, while those who haven't been published should be criticized for having opinions because you assume they're fueled exclusively by envy.

The thing is, if you go to any writing class, group, forum, etc. as an aspiring writer, you'll constantly be told that you need to write, rewrite, and judge everything you write as harshly as possible before making any sort of attempt at getting it published. Most of that boils down to "do this" or "don't do that" and is repeated over and over.

So why wouldn't seeing the success of things that embody everything you're constantly told not to do as a writer be frustrating? You'd have to be a robot or an emotional basket-case to not express that frustration in any way just because it's seen as "pathetic".

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:52:03 2015 No.6767556 >>6762468 I laughed

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:53:01 2015 No.6767560 >>6767542 It didn't. He posted it on his blog, developed a following there, was told to self-publish on amazon by his followers, did that, sold lots of copies there, then got picked up by a publisher because of how much he sold on Amazon.

Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:56:08 2015 No.6767569

On top of everything else said in this thread, it seems like the author has never played D&D. Who plays as only one class? Also, why wouldn't the author do basic research on a topic that's extremely relevant to the nerd cred its trying to accredit itself with?

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:56:26 2015 No.6767571 >>6759516 yeah, but there's a difference between criticism and the teary-eyed circlejerk going on in this thread. You all clearly lack "critical authority" for some reason

Anonymous Thu Jul 2 01:57:08 2015 No.6767575

>>6767549

The Mars trilogy is the shit. I mean, I could maybe have done with fewer endless descriptions of rocks, but overall it's probably my favourite hard SF story of all time. And I guess it doesn't hurt that the politics in the later books align very closely with my own.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 04:03:03 2015 No.6767876 This is the charlatan who wrote that short story The Egg isn't it. The idea of the short was nice, but idea does not literature make. The truest plebeian writer

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 04:04:07 2015 No.6767882 >>6757898 Yep he's lost it

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 04:05:43 2015 No.6767885 File: 12 KB, 275x285, tywin.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>6757555 >mfw I realize that pic is related

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 13:01:24 2015 No.6769204 File: 27 KB, 500x372, ayylmao.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >I gave the camera a thumbs-up to go along with my note, which said, Ayyyyyy!

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 13:13:00 2015 No.6769235 >>6767571 >>6767876 If it was a circlejerk there would be nothing good said about it. Get fucked

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 14:58:18 2015 No.6769643 I was into it because I wanted to see how he was going to survive all by himself on Mars. I got that, so I was satisfied.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 2 15:02:18 2015 No.6769654 >>6757542 >DM doesn't base adventures around wilderness resourcefulness and environmental hazards God what an awful DM

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