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/lit/ - Literature

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7955712 No.7955712 [Reply] [Original]

Anyone already read it ? is it good ?

>> No.7955715

it's out of this world.

>> No.7955722

It's FUCKING good, hell yeah!

>> No.7955739

is it really as bad as those awful passages posted here will have you think?

>> No.7955741

>>7955712
leave
now

>> No.7955752

i love it! its epic for the win! (so much epic sciencing)

>> No.7955786

For a new reader it's ok.
Stop being ironic faggots.

>> No.7955823

>>7955786
You fucking dunce

>> No.7955828

>>7955712
it was okay. definitely felt like it could have been a lot better.

>> No.7956199

>>7955712
It shouldn't have to be said, but don't judge the book on the movie. The movie felt like Matt Damon's Mars Vacation. None of the troubles he faced in the movie felt like actual trials. Everything seemed to come pretty easy and he just had to wait long enough to eventually trundle off to his rescue.

The book has the complete opposite feel. The trials and tribulations in the book have a lot more tension, the danger feels much more omnipresent, and when he does overcome and solve each problem facing him, it feels earned. Not just, oh, let me slip a paperclip over this thing... and solved!

I don't want to give anything away, but the solutions to his many survival problems are much more inventive, much better explained, and far more satisfying because of it.

It's an enjoyable a quick read and I highly recommend it.

>> No.7956218

>>7955712
I want to read it but can't find a copy without matt damons head slapped onto it

>> No.7956248

>>7955712
I can't quite tell if OP is trying to bait people to react badly to this thread or if he genuinely asks (because with how popular the book has become, it's not impossible for people to genuinely ask how the book was).

Personally, I was very torn and somewhat frustrated by it. The majority of the book is fairly well researched, despite a few inaccuracies: I think it's an admirable effort from a writer who had no contact with NASA or any other scientific organisation while writing it. I also believe the writer is competent in his abilities to write tension and obstacles: for every solution Weir's protagonist overcomes, there's always something that keeps from his plans going smoothly. For a pulpy YA genre fiction novel, this allows the book to have a consistent pace and keeps things exciting enough for the casual reader.

However, I was, at times - genuinely - embarrassed by how it was written. Weir's sense of humour and characterisation of Watney is genuinely cringeworthy. I understand that Watney is meant to be the joker of the crew, and that humour is commonly used as a defence mechanism in times of trouble, but Watney's sense of humour is irritating if the "lol so random" mentality does not appeal to you.

This is a shame honestly as Watney also feels like the most distinctive character, despite how agitating he can become. Every other character feels very flat: in fact, every other character is just a narrative device rather than a genuine character. They don't feel like believable characters but rather someone to enter the room, spout exposition to move the narrative along, and then leave.

The book should have been more heavily edited too: Mark Watney is very repetitive in his logs when he is detailing activities he has had to perform during previous logs. I understand that Weir must have published a chapter or two on his blog and that in later chapters he must have felt the need to remind his readers what happened in earlier blog posts, but in the print medium, repetitive details should have been cut back to not sacrifice the cohesion of the book.

I was disappointed, honestly. I remember when the initial reviews were published for this book and it had be curious. I saw the film first, casually, with a few friends and found myself enjoying it (in a simplistic, blockbuster popcorn flick sort of way). I thought the book would have been harmless fun, and at times it is, but overall I just found it frustrating and unpolished. I wish the best to Weir because it was clearly a project he was passionate about but I don't want to read it again and I would argue the movie is much better.

>> No.7956288

>>7956199
That's funny, because i felt the exact opposite.
Nothing feels like a tribulation, because the character has no psychological depth, he's literally trapped on Mars and is spouting hes retarded memes and being oh-so-quirky.

>> No.7956290

>>7956248
>despite a few inaccuracies
care to elaborate? i thought he worked at NASA

>> No.7956323

>>7956290
Well, a big issue is that the storm that causes Watney to be left behind is technically impossible on Mars because the atmosphere is too thin; storms happen on Mars, of course, but they don't carry much power.

Weir doesn't/didn't work at NASA and he had no connections there while he was writing the book, but he was a software engineer.

>> No.7956337 [DELETED] 

>>7956290
I doubt anyone could grow potatoes on a planet without a biosphere

>> No.7956362

Did you guys even read the book? And if you did read it, did you even get it? I have to say it seems like the answer to both questions is "no." I know you guys like to dismiss this book as "Reddit-tier" or "pleb-tier" or whatever just because it sold a lot of copies and they made a movie out of it, but it's actually quite deep. First of all, it's a retelling of Robinson Crusoe, which probably went over your head because you're all pseudos and haven't read Defoe. Second, why do you think it's called The Martian when he's obviously from Earth? That doesn't make much sense does it? In what sense is Matt Damon a "Martian"? Well, let's see. Yeah, he's from Earth, but he gets stuck on Mars and has to ensure his survival there using his knowledge of science, and he succeeds. When he succeeds, that's when he becomes the Martian. The first one. Weir is trying to get us to think about what it means to belong to a certain place, a certain nation, a certain planet. Where identity comes from, and he asserts in The Martian that people come to belong to a place when they tame it, turn it to their purposes, and repurpose it so that they can survive. Matt Damon was not just able to visit Mars, that doesn't make you a resident, but he was able to live there. So at the beginning of the book, he was an Earthling, but at the end, he was a Martian. Yeah, think next time to you want to dismiss a book.

>> No.7956394

>>7956362
No shit, faggot, Weir spells this out so obviously in the book through multiple chapters when Watney considers how he is the first person to colonise the planet and the first person to step on certain patches of soil. That doesn't save it from being a book with no real depth.

>> No.7956402

r/books

That should cover it.

>> No.7956406

>>7956394
Yes, notice the word you used 'colonise'... you think Weir isn't aware of the colonial history of the West, and isn't commenting on it?

>> No.7956410

>>7956362
I bet you think your surface-analysis of a pop-science book makes you sound smart.

>> No.7956424

>>7956406
wow....how fucking deep

>> No.7956423

>>7956410
Hmmm, well last time my IQ was tested I scored 160, so... ?

>> No.7956434

>>7956424
I can see clearly that you're one of those who're inclined to recoil and get defensive whenever the West gets criticized, so there's probably not point in discussion.

>> No.7956444

>>7956410
There's no such thing as "pop" books vs. "literary" books, please get out of the 1950s.

>> No.7956446

>>7956406
you think those observations aren't trite hack shit?
protip: they are

>> No.7956454

>>7956362
m'lady :^)

>> No.7956455

>>7956434
Explain how the book is criticizing western colonization. You're so far gone in modern political rhetoric that you read the word "colonize" and instantly think "Bad western civilization! Bad!". Pathetic, really.

>>7956444
Neck yourself.

>> No.7956473
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7956473

this thread is proof that we have redditors among us because there are posters here like >>7956362 who think they've read something with at least an iota of literary merit which is worthy of an analysis that they think is "deep".

considering the reddit, /mu/, /pol, /r9k invasions this board is truly fucked.

>> No.7956483

>>7956362
ayy lmao.

>> No.7956491

>>7956473
Yeah this is the redditiest board on 4chan, you can tell because theyre unable to discuss anything without acting in a hoity-toity, self satisfied way and acting sarcastic while also having no self awareness

Probably because we had an 'intellectual' reputation a while ago so the 'le intelligent' guys from reddit come over

>> No.7956577
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7956577

>>7956491
>people call me out when I make pseudo-intellectual posts

>> No.7956585

>>7956577
i think we are both arguing against the same people retardo

>> No.7956594

No.

>> No.7956633

>>7956362
>people think this is a genuine post

>> No.7956871

I watched the movie, thought it was so-so. I would have liked to see more of Robinson Crusoe in space and less B-movie politicking at NASA headquarters. Also fewer jokes would have been nice because most of them sucked

>> No.7956969

The Martian is perhaps the most misread work of popular fiction of recent years. It isn't a book about an astronaut surviving on Mars. It's a love story, about a romance between the author and the reader. You see, Weir as a novelist is in much the same position as his protagonist, trapped alone in the infinite void of uncreated space with his only connection to humanity being a series of short entries of text which may or may not ever be read by anyone but him. His brilliant and effervescent prose is almost seductive as he clearly yearns for the Other as represented in his invisible and frankly imagined audience. He uses humour to attract, to coax, to seduce the universal human intellect, to draw the collective unconscious from that endless darkness, and to mate with the zeitgeist itself in rapturous dispatches of offhand witticisms. This is the very definition of sprezattura, the soul of creation itself. The final revelation of this profound debut novel is that the astronaut is not in fact a mere author surrogate, nor any manner of dramatus persona, but instead an embodiment of us all. The Martian, we discover, is the quintessential earthling. And that is what makes this book so important.

>> No.7956979

Its decent. Better than that trash film

>> No.7958193

He wrote this because he sucked so bad at being a programmers/hackers.