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/lit/ - Literature

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7364477 No.7364477 [Reply] [Original]

Talentless, modernist-lite hack whose work will struggle to attain any sort of 'timeless resonance', or literary genius? The jury's out.

>> No.7364481

>>7364477
No, it's not.

>> No.7364488

>>7364477
I for one welcome our new faggots overlords.

>> No.7364502

you sure spent a lot more time elaborating the first possibility

>> No.7364526

>>7364502
Aha, an astute observation. A month ago, I certainly was more aligned to that first critical approach to Bret, thinking that he was, by and large, very adolescent, vacuous, at the risk of sounding like a snob/cultural bully, very 'entry level'. But I recently read his latest work, "Imperial Bedrooms", which destabilised my initial perception of his work. Aesthetically and conceptually, I found it quite a stimulating read.

>> No.7364552

>>7364526
Wonderful, my magnanimous elocutionist!

>> No.7364555

>>7364477
i just have read american pyscho, what else should i read from him?

>> No.7364560

>>7364555

The only thing he did worth a damn is Less Than Zero but the rest of his works are ok

>> No.7364564

>>7364552
Cheers man. Really, I wouldn't say I used any words I'd consider deliberately opaque or difficult... they all captured the nuance of what I wanted to say pretty well.

>> No.7364569

>>7364555
The Rules of Attraction was an entertaining and easy read. It's nothing amazing though.

>> No.7364571

>>7364555
Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms make very good companion pieces to AP. As a triptych, they work as a set of nightmarish, disturbing snapshots of true nauseating decadence and excess. And that's kind of why I think BEE is important, despite all the critical flack he receives. No (post)modern writer since Burroughs has really been able to capture transgression without being moralistic or didactic, in my opinion at least.

>> No.7364573

>>7364564
I was just teasing

>> No.7364575

Crowned Prince of POMO

>> No.7364578

>>7364477
jealous loser

>> No.7364580

>>7364575
Princess*

>> No.7364898

>>7364571
I think I must not understand why "capturing transgression" is valuable in and of itself.

>>7364477
I've only read AP but my vote is for hack. Would be one thing if Bateman was psychologically interesting but he's really fucking dull

>> No.7366481

BEE proved to me that anyone can be a writer. Having said that, American Psycho is very good.

>> No.7366486

>>7364898
>he's really fucking dull
that's the point

>> No.7366501

>>7366486
oh good, then it was a massive success at being not at all interesting to read.

>> No.7366506

>>7366486
>the book is supposed to be boring!

death is too good a thing for POMOfags

>> No.7366514

>>7364477
Less Than Zero is the modern drug fueled coming of age story

everything aside from that is pure garbage and he probably just got mostly lucky with American psycho not being a complete mess

>> No.7367990

>>7364477
daily reminder that norm macdonald already eviscerated the hack on twitter for ripping on Alice Munro.

>> No.7369813

bump

>> No.7369829

>>7364477
The guy said the American Psycho movie was shit and bitched that it was directed by a woman, despite it's critical acclaim. Anyone who's that pedantic about their own work are obnoxious and high off of their own fumes. He's like Quentin Tarantino, except people actually care about Quentin Tarantino.

>> No.7370118
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7370118

>>7364526
>Aha, an astute observation
i lost it right there

>> No.7370156

>>7366514

>Less Than Zero is the modern drug fueled coming of age story

But that's trite as fuck famm.

>> No.7370163

>>7369829

And that Tarantino possesses intelligence and a modicum of talent.

>> No.7370683

With "American Psycho" Bret becomes the most interesting prose stylist of his generation, which doesn't mean that "American Psycho" isn't a boring novel...

>> No.7370693
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7370693

>>7370683
Self your face in towel

>> No.7370763

>>7364564

So you are saying that you used the phrase "an astute observation" without the intent of sounding like a dipshit?

>> No.7370816
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7370816

Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what’s always distinguished bad writing—flat characters, a narrative world that’s cliched and not recognizably human, etc.—is also a description of today’s world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we’d probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend “Psycho” as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it’s no more than that.

>> No.7370819

>>7370683
lmao

>> No.7370847

>>7370816

>the contemporary condition leaves a lot to be desired so I can now fool any discerning reader on the planet with trite wankery

Keep telling yourself that.

>> No.7370871

>>7370816
man sometimes I think DFW is way off base but this is 100% completely on point