/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7042083]

So I'm about 15 pages in and the narrator is already literally eating shit.

Did I fuck up by reading this book?

[Anonymous No.7042092]

>>7042083

How could you fuck up? It says right there that it's a brilliant celebration of human ingenuity and the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years. It's utterly compelling, I hear.

[Anonymous No.7042103]

>>7042092
And it's soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Damon.

He's so dreamy and politically insightful. I bet this movie will be great and not gimmicky at all! shutup and take my money!!1 LOL XDXDXD

[Anonymous No.7042112]

The book has now devolved into linear algebra to calculate food supplies (not counting the shit the narrator ate several pages before). Is this High Art?

[Anonymous No.7042116]

>>7042103
Wasn't Matt Damon in a movie just last year where he got his stupid ass stranded on a desert planet?

[Anonymous No.7042202]

>>7042112
If you don't like it, why are you still reading it?

Personally, I try to avoid reading things I think are fucking awful.

That said, I thought the Martian was fucking awesome, but that's because I'm an engineer and I'm the audience being hardcore pandered to by the book.

Think of it like Ready Player One for engineers. If you're not in the particular geek-niche it's aiming at, you'll find it unbearable. (Personally, I thought RP1 was good-fanfiction-tier, but gaming nerds vehemently disagree.)

[Anonymous No.7042226]

>>7042116
Elysium? He was stranded on Earth and that wasn't a desert, he was just surrounded by Mexicans.

[Anonymous No.7042243]

>>7042226
Interstellar.

He does seem to get stranded a lot.

[Anonymous No.7042249]

>>7042083
I'm about 236 pages in and the narrator is already literally eating shit too.

Did I fuck up by reading this book?

[Anonymous No.7042253]

>>7042249
kek, I remember that. I wish The Martian was as interesting.

[Anonymous No.7042259]

>>7042202
And no, it's not High Art, because as I understand it it can't be High Art if it's deliberately fun, not intended to have deeper meaning below the surface, and not trying to express universal or personal truth. This is a story intended purely for enjoyment, designed to appeal to the experiences and interests of a specific set of technical-minded people. It's geek pandering, basically.

[Anonymous No.7042265]

I listened to it on audiobook, makes it go by much quicker. It's all about curiosity for me. I wanted to know how he'd overcome all this shit thrown his way. The rest of it is trash, the characters are laughably bad, the protagonist is irritating and doesn't act like a normal human being would in that situation, the prose was alright, mostly dialogue which I normally hate but the author was doing a thing, so fine.

Plow through it and never look back, or drop it, doesn't matter, point is he overcomes shit and makes it home.

>>7042202
Don't listen to this guy's last four sentences. Being pandered to doesn't mean a damn thing when it comes to the quality of the pandering product. I'm in that geek-niche that RPO was aiming at and I thought the book was hot garbage, which it is. Simply spouting things that you know doesn't make something good ffs.

Is that all it takes for a book to be good?

>Oh hey, I recognize/understand/get that thing that was just mentioned! 5 stars!

I'm being hyperbolic here, no offense to you, just see this viewpoint all over and it boggles my mind. At least the Martian was better than RPO. Christ this infantile trash just upsets me more than it should. Just reference on reference, nothing new, nothing different, nothing profound or even interesting. It is like fanfiction, but all fanfiction fucking sucks so there you go.

[Anonymous No.7042267]

I would've enjoyed this more if he just cut out all of the bullshit characters and dialogue and stuck to the science, it's extremely obvious that they're all just an excuse anyways

[Anonymous No.7042273]

>>7042202
Being in the particular geek-niche doesn't necessarily mean you'll find it bearable, though. At least, I am and I didn't.

[Anonymous No.7042281]

The narrator is top fedora

[Anonymous No.7042310]

>>7042265
>I'm in that geek-niche that RPO was aiming at and I thought the book was hot garbage,

I thought it was hot garbage too. I literally felt like I was reading fan fiction. Not even particularly great fan fiction - I've read better.

But since something being hot garbage is apparently subjective - because a lot of people honestly thought it was the best thing ever - I figure I must just be on the opposite side of the clicks-perfectly-with-this-weird-crap dynamic.

I liked the Martian the same way other people apparently enjoy Greg Egan novels - I loved one aspect so much that I just glossed over the godawful everything else.

It's 50 Shades with nerdglee instead of boners being the element that makes you ignore everything else.

[Anonymous No.7042335]

>>7042267
Frankly, this. The book feels obviously aimed at Reddit, but that's fine. It was fun enough. I enjoy puzzles, and the book was mostly just a series of them.

[Anonymous No.7042340]

>>7042310
I agree with you on the Martian thing, obviously. Like I said, curiosity kept me going, and on that front it was enjoyable. Could have been better though, so much fucking better, and with little effort.

That's what I've noticed about these sperg authors, look up Andy Weir and Ernest Cline and the like. The dudes are like stereotypes and when it comes to writing characters they live up to that stereotype with aplomb. This usually manifests itself in a single, irritating fashion: The characters are too fucking light-hearted in all situations. They're always cracking (shitty) jokes, making light of everything. I'm reading Leviathan Wakes atm; people die in this book, friends die and a few pages later it's like nothing ever happened. fuck it.

People think RPO is great because they don't read anything else. We, presumably, read books, watch movies, etc. We've seen this trite story played out a thousand times, and we've seen so much better. Of course Jane Doe is going to think this shit is great, she doesn't fucking know any better, and le quirky pop culture reference just fills them with joy for some goddamned reason. It's pathetic.

[Anonymous No.7042358]

>>7042340
You're fucking spot on with Ernest Cline. Ready Player One was hard to get through at times. Its main character was so 'edgy internet teen.'

[Matt Damon No.7042360]

>Matt Damon

MATT DAMON
A
T
T

D
A
M
O
N

[Anonymous No.7042551]

>>7042340
>le quirky pop culture reference just fills them with joy for some goddamned reason.
That's an interesting point. The average reader of deeper doesn't have that kind of blind giddiness when spotting any common allusion they understand.

[Anonymous No.7042570]

>>7042083
you can read it in a matter of hours, who the fuck cares

[Anonymous No.7042789]

>>7042340
>implying there exists a better survival story than The Martian

[Anonymous No.7042835]

>reading new books

You fucked up OP

[Anonymous No.7042858]

>>7042265

>doesn't act like a normal human being would in that situation

Astronauts are not normal human beings.

[Anonymous No.7042946]

>>7042858
Well that's a dilly of a cop-out, isn't it?

[Anonymous No.7042966]

OP here. About 60% through at the moment. At this point I am literally just reading to see what happens next, which is roughly the same logic I had about anime series I got entrenched in when I was 12.

[Anonymous No.7042974]

>>7042946

How is accuracy a cop-out?

[Anonymous No.7042992]

>Putting quotes and advertisement all over the cover

You should have known it's just a flash in the pan meme book that will be forgotten in a few years.

[Anonymous No.7043017]

>>7042083

It's a good book for people who don't read that many good books.

[Anonymous No.7043049]

>>7042974
Any criticism of unrealistic human portrayal can just be written off as "he's not a normal human being".

[Anonymous No.7043062]

>>7043049
I think the most unrealistic portrayal is actually that turbocunt NASA media director, Annie (or whatever the fuck her name is). Weir has got woman issues, methinks.

[Anonymous No.7043068]

>>7043062
Yeah, pretty much a requisite in order to author a book like this.

[Anonymous No.7043098]

>[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 No.7043127]

>reading STEM propaganda

[Anonymous No.7043152]

>>7043127
What's propaganda about it? Are you upset that he was able to survive on mars without knowing a single bit of philosophy or ancient greek?

[Anonymous No.7043161]

I'm too drunk on fine wine to read the rest of this post so if what I'm about to say has already posted i apologize

this is not lit by any means, this is a easy read and just a fun read, despite what people say i like the protagonist and I'm sure he would be a regular here on /lit/

[Anonymous No.7043169]

>>7043161
>I'm sure he would be a regular here on /lit/

I'm not sure if that was meant as an insult, or an indicator that you are a bad judge of the protagonist's character

[Anonymous No.7043185]

>>7043169
not a bad judge nor an insult

i love /lit/

[Anonymous No.7043191]

>>7043185
The main character is an autistic permapleb

[Anonymous No.7043200]

>>7043152
It's the same camp as Interstellar, Rick and Morty, and Neil Degrasse Tyson. Media like this panders to people who think reading science articles on Huffingtonpost is a form of self-improvement, the kinds of people who are amazed by Newtonian physics for no other reason than "Science bitch!" and who skim wikipedia articles about quantum mechanics looking for a deep universal truth or some new fact about black holes that they can drop at a party.

There is no longer any conversation about technology's uses and limits. Humanity is no longer at odds with technology. There is no longer any ceiling to axiomatic reasoning. Apparently if you make someone look at the stars or you explain how atomic mass works you are a hero. This is the new common perception of intelligentsia. We are preparing children to make barista jokes, not to become genuinely interested in science. We are training them to despise art galleries and prefer pop science YouTube channels.

Backyard science is, for all intents and purposes, professional science in these peoples' eyes. A baking soda vinegar volcano now contains more valuable knowledge than any unquantifiable thing we can say about literary character.

[Anonymous No.7043221]

>>7043200
who gives a shit about science? people study math so they can get wall street finance jobs or do some crazy algorithm optimization for silicon valley startups, i don't think i have ever met someone who gave a shit about outerspace and i meet a lot of tedious stem assholes

[Anonymous No.7043226]

>>704319

how so? he did science bro? he like the DFW of potatoes!

[Anonymous No.7043252]

>>7043221
What the fuck? Ever heard of NASA? Or CERN?

[Anonymous No.7043255]

>>7043221
It's not about science itself. It's about this disposition towards logical methodology, "autism" in 4chanese, that is despicably trite.

[Anonymous No.7043261]

>>7043252
yeah, i want to bust my ass doing a stem phd in order to get a dead end government job! what a fucking retard....are you some kind of fucking european? you seem lazy and unambitious

[Anonymous No.7043276]

>>7043255
I believe the term is "positivism", but I guess autism works.

[Anonymous No.7043280]

'The Martian' is a great book. In my opinion its only defect is that it isn't longer -- the story could go on indefinitely if it was up to me. What /lit/ fails to understand is that not only 'philosophy' is dead but their so called 'literature' is dead as well.

This is exactly why I think 'The Martian' is a ground breaking book. Its a scientifically precise bestseller. When did that happen before? Never. 'The Martian' is the first of a new generation of books that will blend quality literature and scientifically accurate facts. 'The Martian' was such a success that my guess is that from now on all books will try to blend these two sides of the same coin: science and art.

[Anonymous No.7043287]

>>7042966
That's pretty accurate. It's fucking hard to talk with my co-workers about anime, because they all still watch for that reason.

>>7043280
What's a thread without a little shitposting, eh?

[Anonymous No.7043289]

>>7043280
Perfect post.

[Anonymous No.7043300]

lel I didn't know this was actually sci-fi, by the title I assumed it was some YA thing about a high school social misfit

[Anonymous No.7043315]

>>7043200
Are you one of those pretentious pseudointellectuals or something? What do you think about last Stephen Hawking lecture in Stockholm about black holes?

[Anonymous No.7043321]

>>7043300
Why did you assume that, especially with an orange cover featuring an astronaut?

[Anonymous No.7043330]

>>7043317

Posted in wrong thread, but given it was a Gravity's Rainbow thread, I think it was ironically appropriate.

[Anonymous No.7043343]

>>7043280
>philosophy is dead
>makes philosophical claim

[Anonymous No.7043346]

>>7043315
Case in point. If someone doesn't appreciate positivism they are a pseud. Not only that but you should test their mettle with the most trivial scientific questions possible in order to test their reddit browsing capabilities.

[Anonymous No.7043371]

The only reason philosofags hate positivism is because none of their claims are verifiable in real life, and actually knowing things (like facts) is too much work for some dipshit with a liberal arts degree.

[Anonymous No.7043372]

>>7043343
Just ignore scientist posters

[Anonymous No.7043394]

>>7043371
You sound like a 100-level aspiring science major who is pissed he has to take English composition. Stop it.

[Anonymous No.7043400]

>>7043200
I think you're conflating a bunch of stuff that isn't actually part of some grander picture.

The "I Fucking Love Science!" crowd is real and definitely annoying, but I don't think you can really say they've "taken over society."

And the fact that there's no longer a conversation about what and how much technology *should* do is a real problem, but I don't think it's related. Except wait, there is such a conversation - see also: drones, Google Glass, genetic engineering, stem cell research, or literally any of the huge public pushbacks against science and technology that the public felt went too far and ultimately should not exist. It's more that we're powerless to actually stop science and technology from advancing - because ultimately, people will accept anything that offers them a service without thinking of what the long-term costs to society will be.

(And I find your claim that axiomatic reasoning is also problematic baffling at best)

>We are preparing children to make barista jokes, not to become genuinely interested in science. We are training them to despise art galleries and prefer pop science YouTube channels.
>Backyard science is, for all intents and purposes, professional science in these peoples' eyes. A baking soda vinegar volcano now contains more valuable knowledge than any unquantifiable thing we can say about literary character.

You know, I once saw somebody who claimed one of the biggest problems was the massive, annoying proliferation of Infinite Jest fans. And I'm sure, for her, she really did encounter them all the time - but the reality was, only a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of people had ever actually read IJ and become fans of it, and that the only reason they seemed to be everywhere to her was that she happened to run in circles where such people were common.

Likewise for this. I don't believe that "Annoying, dismissive IFLS science-worship types" is really any kind of dominant factor in society. I think you just hang out on the Internet too much, where they appear to be all over the place. Hang out here too long and you'll think Tumblr is one of the great political forces in the world, too.

And people have *always* been dismissive of immaterial intellectual pursuits. There has never been a mystical golden age where the average person gave two shits about literary analysis, because it's always been something that was "out there" beyond what could materially affect their lives. Could it make them "better" in a vague but real way? Yes - they have value. But they cared about them, when they did, only because they liked the idea of being "better" in some abstract sense or - in the case of ethics and theology - thought it really did materially matter to them.

The dominant attraction to science, engineering and math is because those are things that do seem to offer immediate, material relevance to their lives. The idea that scientific facts are ideas about the "real world" in ways that philosophy isn't.

[Anonymous No.7043765]

>>7042789
Cast Away is a better story.
>>7042858
>>7042974
The other astronauts make token efforts to be sad and other emotions when they think Watney is dead. I mean, the commander is quiet and shit which is about as far as Weir is willing to go, but obviously the intention is there, so it's far more likely that he just can't write people outside of cardboard cutouts sprinkled with reddit humor.

[Anonymous No.7044891]

Why is it that every time the author develops a sense of mystery or suspense, he ruins it by cutting to NASA where they spoil everything in a dialogue full of "witty" "banter"? This is the first time since I really got into books that I've been able to detect bad writing.

[Anonymous No.7045048]

>>7043400

Quality post. Solid go, anon.

[Anonymous No.7045114]

>there is a scene in the middle of the book where the German guy converses with his wife, and instead of writing in German or indicating using prose that they are speaking in German, Weir just italicizes the entire conversation
>toward the end of the book, the German guy speaks in actual German out of nowhere

Pure art.

[Anonymous No.7045885]

I'd be mad about RPO and The Martian getting movie adaptations, but frankly they're probably better suited to that format. Spielberg will do good stuff with RPO.

[Anonymous No.7045897]

It's a pretty flawed book, but with a great core story. It's written in the style of a facebook post, meaning idiotic, which is annoying and yet probably accounts largely for the book's popularity.

Overall, good. A lot of the humor falls flat on it's face, but they're not trying to appeal to a comedy-wise audience, rather to people who think kittens staring at balloons is hilarious.

[Anonymous No.7045902]

>>7042243
He was also in that movie where he was stranded on an island and drew a face on a ball for company.

[Anonymous No.7045980]

>>7045897
I'm more inclined to say it was overall bad. I know he didn't anticipate it becoming a movie when he wrote it, but it reads like a movie script -- as if the way he visualizes what is happening in a story comes exclusively from film.

[Anonymous No.7048146]

>>7045885
>Spielberg is gonna make a Ready Player One and plebs will taunt you about how good the book was

[Anonymous No.7048207]

>>7048146
>yfw people will actually think having read Ready Player One is evidence of patricianship

[Anonymous No.7048263]

>>7042103
can you tone down the butthurt a little bit

[Anonymous No.7048270]

>>7043400
If the "i luv science, i'm a nerd" crowd had really taken over society, we would be having this conversation telepathically on Mars. Too bad they are too busy bitching about religious people.

[Anonymous No.7048278]

>>7045885
Have you read Armada by the guy who did RPO? It's the worst book ever written. He obviously wants to make quirky movies full of references, and worst part is people like them.

[Anonymous No.7050237]

>>7048278
No, I only read RPO because a book rec site told me it was similar to The Rook. I might check out Armada just to see how much worse it can be. I struggle to think of something worse than claiming that Christianity gave him trust issues.