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/lit/ - Literature

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9580252 No.9580252 [Reply] [Original]

Why are there so few books where characters actually have to work? Seems like fiction is filled with people who have massive spans of free time or are students with magically regenerating pocket cash.

>but work is boring
>but muh escapism

ITT: books about people who work

>> No.9580259

>>9580252
Moby Dick

>> No.9580261

well i gather already you haven't read any classics

>> No.9580266

>>9580252
Well the Dresden files he's a detective and each book follows his case.
Also The Name of the Wind Kvothe is dirt poor so he has to find money and do jobs to go to magic school

>> No.9580288

The Junglle- Upton Sinclair

>> No.9580299

The reason for this is literature is written for aristocrats by aristocrats. If I had it my way you wouldn't even be allowed to read

>> No.9580305

>>9580252
Often books are written to skim past the part where they work for the sake of sparing the reading the grueling boredom of work for 90% of the book.
Or you're only reading books about upper class people that have never worked other than pursuing whatever academic pursuits they feel like.

>> No.9580309
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9580309

>>9580252
>people need to work

>> No.9580317
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9580317

Kafka, Camus, Faulkner all come to mind.

I don't think you've read enough.

Maybe they don't depict modern wage-slavery, but that's likely because life is heavily restricted and lacks depth in that system. Imagine a book about someone working >40 hours a week just to pay the bills, getting home and scrolling facebook and watching netflix until they fall asleep, only to get up in the morning and do it all again.
How could this book explore any complex ideas without having them realise that it's not how a person should live?

Do you realise that in non-USA countries it's fairly common to only work 3-4 days a week?

>> No.9580361

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

>> No.9580375

>>9580317
>Do you realise that in non-USA countries it's fairly common to only work 3-4 days a week?

Where? Every Anglo country is exactly the same, aside from things like guaranteed sick days that the US doesn't have

>> No.9580404
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9580404

>>9580252

>> No.9580656

>>9580317
In Germany you have to work 5 days a week.

>> No.9580688

Kafka - The Trial

>> No.9581099

>>9580317
A fiction about modern wage slavery sounds dope 2bh

>> No.9581127

>>9580252
Lord of the Rings. They work pretty hard in those books.

>> No.9581138
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9581138

>>9580317

It's comforting to know that normies' lives are as empty as mine.

>> No.9581145

This is one of the reasons that bukowski is so popular since he talks about having to work quite a lot and he also talks about the shitty consolation one gets for being a slave.

>> No.9581156
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9581156

>>9580252
>Who is Zola
>Dickens
>Hugo
>Sinclair
>What is realism

>> No.9581374

>>9580404
Is this any good? I picked it up based solely on its cover.

>> No.9581457

>>9580317
>3-4 days a week
What the fuck are you talking about you delusional retard, name 2 countries that do this

>> No.9581591

J.J. Voskuil - Het bureau

>> No.9583359

>>9581145
Good point.

>> No.9583370

>>9581457
Chad
Kekistan

>> No.9583408

The angry Balkanian.

>> No.9583428

>>9581591
I don't think that one is translated

>> No.9583445

>>9580299
this, fuck peasants

>> No.9583755

>>9580252
>>9580252
Read The Fountainhead; both white collar and blue collar works are described in detail. As well as the social and political stuff surrounding it.

>> No.9583768

>>9580266
Well-crafted bait. I did enjoy Name of the Wind, though. It was fun, but not really anything that's going to stand the test of time.

>> No.9583773

Platonov's the Foundation Pit is both the best and only novel you have to read about "work"

>> No.9583775

>>9580361
I liked this one

>> No.9583781

>>9583755
yeah, but that book fucking sucks, though.

>> No.9584446

Oblomov features many working characters

>> No.9584447

>>9580317
You could make an amazing Kafkaesque novel about this, borrowing heavily from the themes of The Trial

>> No.9584468

>>9583781
What don't you like about it?

>> No.9584482

>>9583755
Fuck Rand. If i wanna read cardboard cutouts I'll go to walmart. At least there im not wasting my time

>> No.9584501

>>9584468
here's a synopsis of every chapter:
>people want to subvert his ideals, but Roark is ubermench and rejects their attempts.
>for like 500 pages of wooden-assed prose

she cannot write, she cannot think. there is no discernible talent.

>> No.9584507

>>9584468
incoherent "philosophy" delivered by repetitve monologues, mc is a gary stu, oh yah and a woman enjoys her own rape and falls in love w the rapist. im pretty sure this "novel" was a thinly disguised power trip fantasy written by a woman who hated herself. the only ppl attracted to it are 15yo boys and potential rapists

>> No.9584530

>>9581374
does it say who drew the cover? i have a nostalgic fondness for that particular style

>> No.9584605

>>9580252
Because fictional works are for escapism. Why wage slaves want to read about working?

>> No.9584608

>>9580252
Because reading is work enough.

>> No.9584690

>>9584507
Fair enough, I didn't care for the cringe sex parts either and tried to hurry past them, the main character was brilliant but people like that do exist, so why not? I think there has to be more to call someone a gary stu. Main female character is the worst which is ironic.

I still thought it was a good read, the characters and their lives were interesting, the prose was great, and the story kept me turning the page easily. I'm closer to 51 than 15 desu.

>> No.9584856

>>9580252
because authors as a whole tend to be workshy fucks who cannot for a moment imagine what the word means, let alone conceive of their characters having to engage in it.

especially those with left-leaning tendencies, the fucking two-faced hypocrites.

>> No.9585545

>>9584856
Or, back in reality, because books are written for people who'll pay 20 quid for a hardback the day it comes out, which working people can't afford to. So they're written for wealthier audiences, and tell them what they want to hear.

>> No.9585586

The Jungle

>> No.9585612

>>9585545
as I said, cunt communist with a blinkered view of the world and of man in general.

why don't you read a book for a change?

>> No.9585700

>>9580317
I wouldn't mind a book like this

>> No.9586676

>>9583428
It's only translated to German, apparently.

>> No.9587913

>>9580252
Hunger - Knut Hamsun

>> No.9587935
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9587935

>>9580252
>literally all about how work allocations would function in a truly anarchistic society

>> No.9588137

>>9585612
>anyone who treats the working class like actual people is a communist
You sure showed him

>> No.9588147

>>9580252
Martin Eden

Grapes of Wrath (about lack of available work, but still)