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/lit/ - Literature

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7436361 No.7436361 [Reply] [Original]

Any particular reason why The Pale King isn't nearly as memey (not to mention hardly mentioned) on /lit/ as IJ? I'm planning on reading Infinite Jest this winter

>> No.7436393

The fact that it's unfinished makes me expect that it'll be completely unsatisfying when over, but I started it recently and the writing is miles and away above Infinite Jest. I loved DFW up to and including Girl with Curious Hair and then IJ just seemed to throw all talent out the window with a really awkward and poor Pynchon impression.

>> No.7436418

>>7436393
Felt more satisfied at the end of PK than IJ, TBQH.

>> No.7436446

>>7436393
If you think that it was a poor Pynchon impression then the book failed you. Nice bait though

>> No.7436451

>>7436393
Interesting to hear that. I'm still getting introduced to DFW so don't have a cataloged knowledge of his work. Would you say the same about Good Old Neon/The Soul is Not a Smithy (more recent short stories that I've read and, from what I gather through reviews/analyses, more thematically similar to Pale King)? unless you're a "no discernible talent" memer, of course

>> No.7436461

>>7436451
Oblivion is terrible in my opinion. You should read Girl with Curious Hair. Honestly after IJ I had no idea DFW could write like that.

>> No.7436486

>>7436451
He is entitled to his own opinion but he is telling you the opposite of the truth about DFW, probably on purpose. Oblivion, Pale King and Infinite Jest are his great fiction works and you should definitely read them. They are not very similar to his non fiction if that is what you are used to.

>> No.7436506

>>7436461
>Oblivion is terrible in my opinion. You should read Girl with Curious Hair.

nigga u high

>> No.7436541

>>7436361
Can I read this on ambien?

>> No.7436549

>>7436541
>ambien
post results

>> No.7436599
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7436599

>> No.7437281

>>7436361

I'm nearly done with it now but I've enjoyed it a lot, reminds me of a post-modernism version of Office Space. With only 500 or so pages of the novel published it makes me think how much of it we actually got, seemed like it was going to be a very ambitious project for DFW. I liked the Illinois setting and think it helped with the theme of boredom a lot, I don't think it would've worked in any other location.

>That chapter about shit

>> No.7437315

It's not as good and most people here won't be able to relate to most of it because they have no knowledge of accounting and finance.

>> No.7437328

>>7436541

>Using tranquillizers to read

Masturbate instead.

>> No.7437339

>>7436541
You're gonna be pulling the book out of the toaster the next day senpai

Say hi to the walrus for me

>> No.7437346

>>7436461
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is pretty fucking insane too. Felt like a fever dream

>> No.7438558

>>7436361
It's for grownups.

>> No.7438577
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7438577

Because it's not a good book. Wallace killed himself while writing it. That's not a joke. He knew it was going nowhere.

>> No.7438597

>>7437346
I couldn't even finish The Depressed Person in the collection,

>> No.7438602

>>7436361
Unedited (edited by a pleb, NOT DFW) garbage that was unfinished. An idea Wallace got board with, and did not love.

>> No.7438635

>>7437315
>most people here won't be able to relate to most of it because they have no knowledge of accounting and finance
There's a lot more there than the setting. There are underlying themes that are very relatable.

>> No.7438653

>>7438602
>Unedited
>edited by a pleb
Michael Pietsch is one of the people we have to thank for having any Wallace at all to read
>An idea Wallace got board with, and did not love
He left the ms in a prominent spot to be found and dealt with
3/10 you got me to affirm the right answers and to help Google identify images of kayaks

>> No.7438670

>>7436393
>>7438602
and other saying it's incomplete.

Yet you still read Kafka and his fragments of novels. He did not finish them, he did not want to publish them and so on.

>> No.7438942
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7438942

>tfw somebody squeezes your shoes

>> No.7438956
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7438956

>>7438942
>tfw you think someone might've noticed how much you sweat

>> No.7439017
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7439017

>tfw the boss' babby stares at you menacingly