/lit/ - Literature

AMERIKAAAAAAAA

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Might be Breakfast Of Champions.

100 years of solitude

>>2256657
Yup

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. First published, 1996.

>>2256643

Is that actually good? That's one of the few Twain books I've never actually read or heard anyone really discuss.

Funny how you have left a trap of contempt for anyone who says MB or TGG, as though they are invalid answers to this stupid, ambiguous question which you've asked so you could just air your own view.
> implying people always saying something makes that statement false

>>2256670

Seconded, but it was '97.

>>2256684
> bothering to point out everyone wrong with the retarded shit Sunhawk spews every day

Pick your battles.

>>2256682
I read it when I was very-very young and liked it. Very funny, very amerikan.

I've heard people call The Road one of the great American novels. Too early perhaps?

Nevertheless, I'm going with Huck Finn. My tastes are very obscure, I know.

>>2256664
that's not even american

not to mention it's mediocre

>>2256684

I'm not saying they're bad, or good, I'm just saying people seem fixated on them, which to me is silly, classic or not classic. And this board thinks that opinions are facts, so why not act the same way myself?

I must say, I really want to read Mason and Dixon, after all the people here saying it's great. Against The Day finally made me like Pynchon, so I'd like to read this, but I can't afford to buy it.

>>2256706

Library, bro.

>>2256684
Hey buddy, the great gatsby really WAS over-rated shit with excessive melodrama. I have strong suspicions the reason anyone recommends it is because of this

>>2256706
>so why not act the same way myself?
what kind of retard logic is this?

>>2256785
>excessive melodrama
>giving a shit about plot

pleb detected, opinion invalidated

>>2256656

This

>>2256657

This.

>>2256791
>giving a shit about plot
Are you retarded?

>ctrl + f
>"Infinite Jest"
>no results

.... the fuck?

>>2256837
>Droog

Irony, palpable. Don't you have to go cry into your pillow some more about how you don't like being a nihilist and it's just not fair?

I think that American readers are funny. They want one novel to entirely encapsulate and represent the entire country, which contains about 500 million people, all spread across 4000 kilometers. I can't accept that there could be one singular work of fiction that could possibly speak for the entire nation, and yes I'm using nation in the sense of Benedict Anderson's conception of it.

If you mean Great American Novel as in the best ever written, it's either The Great Gatsby or The Sound and the Fury. Both are immaculate.

>>2256846
Gravity's Rainbow is better. sry duder.

>>2256847
Now if you'll just direct your attention over HERE, y'know where the debate is, and stop being a fallacious dick sucker, I believe that you will find that plot is one of the most important parts of a story. Otherwise, y'know, its just not a story.

Moby-Dick

>>2256848
only 300 million ppl, i think, but agreed, the search for a singular Great American Novel that will somehow encapsulate THE american experience is kinda dumb

>>2256853
Droog you are so dumb stop being so dumb

>>2256853
My favourite element of the site Goodreads are all the fora where people shit on high-art books because they couldn't identify with the character or believe in them. I look down on those readers because they think believable characters are a requirement of good novels. It's the same with almost any superficial element of a story. The plot doesn't need to be good, or even exist, if there are other more pertinent and successful elements

>>2256859
Fallacies, fallacies everywhere.

>>2256859
shit. sorry. A quick Google search confirms your number. My bad

>>2256853
>fallacious

Do ho ho ho. It's lovely when imbeciles are made aware of fallacies. They think everything is a fallacy. Like the idiots who get insulted but think it's ad hominem. There's no debate here. No one has argued anything.

But I am mighty, mighty interested in this fallacious post of mine. Can you quote it and tell me which fallacies I committed?

>>2256862
Certain books can pull off the no plot thing, sure. But very few. And if your gonna try to make a plot and it sucks, despite the rest of the book being good, then your a shit author.

>>2256862
believable characters is one thing, i hate it when people dislike books because they dislike the main character or think he's a bad person. makes no damn sense. that is a bad way of reading books.

>>2256863
Droog, calling it a fallacy implies that we're having a logical argument in which we exchange our views and i try to convince you of the truth of some proposition. we're not, though, you're just dumb.

>>2256848
Nobody actually thinks one novel can encompass the entire country, you fuck. It's just something to think about it.
>>2256862
google "young adult lit manifesto"

>"young adult lit manifesto"

It's been discussed, the consensus is that the author suffers from being a fucking idiot.

>>2256868
Define argue.

>>2256862

Really, you don't think a character has to be somewhat believable? I'm totally with you in that identifying or relating to characters is largely irrelevant, but I do think he/she needs to be somewhat believable and interesting..

>>2256877
Define define.

ITT: People seriously thinking plot isn't incidental to prose.

/lit/ is tumblr-tier.

>>2256880
Go read some poetry faggot.

>>2256877
When you tell me which fallacies I committed.

Wait holy shit I didn't even read the OP

Did Sunhawk seriously just claim that Gone With The Wind is the great American novel? ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha fuck you Sunhawk. Fucking ridiculous.

>>2256882
>he thinks poetry has prose

Blood Meridian.

>>2256885
Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn

>>2256883
How can I? We seem to have differing opinions on the definition of argue. I was assuming that when I contradicted your post you would do the same to mine in a manner not unlike an argument.

>>2256892
A fallacy isn't a function of the definition of 'argue'. You should be able to provide it even if we defined argue to be 'to not know shit and pretend to do so.' So, tell us, which fallacies did I commit, Droog?

The Fountainhead.
I know it has a fuckload of flaws but so does everything. Go ahead and kill me.

Shoplifting from American Apparel.

>>2256894
>prose-poetry

Look fuck you guys, I didn't go to college or finish highschool. Your no better at comprehension or more intelligent than I am. I just spend more time having fun or reading books than reading philosophy off of wikipedia or listen to a professor spout bullshit tiny facts that noone cares about.

Boom, said. Pleb all the way.

>>2256900
Define function.

I assumed we would be debating what I said, and then you pointed out something irrelevant completely ignoring the point of what I said. I associate fallacy with politicians because I've never actually lookedup the word, and that sounded like what a politician would do.

>>2256905
> I didn't go to college or finish highschool

Oh, we can tell, but I don't know why you'd think we give a shit if you were or not. Maybe the same reason why you have a name.

>Your no better at comprehension or more intelligent than I am.

"You're." And, yes, we are for the most part. It's not because we're educated, it's because you're frankly a moron.

>>2256917
So wait you're accusing people of using fallacies when you don't know what they are?

Come on, man.

>>2256919
This.

I got your back bro. Don't let them plebs mess with us!

>>2256917
>function
>: a variable that depends on and varies with another

>I assumed we would be debating what I said

You don't have a thesis worth debating.

>you pointed out something irrelevant completely

Oh, no, I think it's extremely relevant, given my assertion that you were an idiot. It's for evidence.

>>2256919
Plebeian IS a common insult on here...

And thats just like, your opinion man. Grammars not my strong suit, and I don't try to make it that way.

>>2256933
You should learn proper grammar. It should come with reading books.

>Grammars not

2011

>>2256923
I know the connotations, but not denotations. And I get the feeling that this happens alot on here so fuck you.

>>2256933
>he thinks I called him a moron because of his grammar

Also, I have plenty of evidence for my statement. I was thinking of screenshotting your idiotic posts and putting them in collage in a nifty jpg I could post any time you made a thread, you'll be famous.

>>2256938
>I know the connotations, but not denotations.

Fucking wow.

>And I get the feeling that this happens alot on here so fuck you.
>I USE WORDS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY MEAN THEREFORE EVERYONE DOES LOL

ITT a bunch of normal /lit/ posters and one fucking moronic pleb with a trip

>>2256945
>>2256939

these are not good posts

see these posts? post posts that aren't like these

>>2256938
>I know the connotations, but not denotations.
Skillz

>>2256924
Oh I'm here to stay. I'll show you book haters how to actually enjoy books, not just criticize them. But a new name is in order.

>>2256942
Yes, yesssssss, give me what I want Bahaha! I shall be the new D n E!

>>2256954
>implying we don't enjoy books far more than ever could

Wait, you DO know what enjoy means right?

>>2256945
YES, in fact this happens quite a bit on this board. Especially in philosophy threads. I've heard many proletariat types on here bitch about it.

>>2256957
I wish we had D&E. Instead we're stuck with shits like you.

>>2256962
>I've heard many proletariat types

STOP USING WORDS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

>>2256958
I know there are some on here who enjoy reading. And yes I do enjoy reading more than you. Probably.

>>2256966
Y'know, I bet if we met in person we'd really get along quite nicely.

>>2256969
>>2256969

Explain how you enjoy reading more than anybody else. Do you masturbate into the book in an attempt to impregnate the words with your spunk? Or do you shove the pages up into your vagina in order to be impregnated by the words?

>>2256969
No, you don't. Anyone who cares about plot is too busy trying to get to the end of it to actually savor prose.

>>2256972
I hate people.

>>2256974

this thread is like a bad post magnet

>>2256979
Who made you the judge of post-quality? Maybe if Droog or whatever he's going by would back up his claims or attempt to engage with the thread, then this thread wouldn't attract arseholes, including yourself

>>2256974
No I enjoy reading more than slot of people on this board. Never have I forced myself through some bullshit book to look smart, I enjoyed every word of it.

Right now I have a friend reading art of war. He's been reading it for a month. He's almost done now. He doesn't enjoy it anymore than he enjoyed the anthology of Edgar Allen Poe he reads coupleof months ago. But he will insist on debating literature with me loudly in public when he finishes it. It's disgusting.

He is /lit/ in a nutshell.

>>2256986
Yfw droog hasn't been posting ITT since he changed his name.

>>2256991
>I'm too hipster to hipster like common hipsters herp derp.

You, sir, epitomize /lit/

>>2256986

you can't sit there with a straight face and tell me those are in any way good posts

>>2256998
You've proven your hipsterness by bringing hipster in the argument. I am no hipster, I promise you.

>>2257001
at the risk of sound samefag, some of the posts in this thread at least made me smile if not chuckle slightly. i come here to be entertained

>>2256991
>i don't enjoy some things
>therefore no one does
>and they only read it to look smart

all plebs are the same.

>>2257007

there's posts that are okay posts itt, don't get me wrong, but also some spectacular examples of how one should not pjost

>>2257007
I Personally think if all the e/lit/ists went to /b/ at the same time it would actually be funny there again.

>>2257011
You go on ahead and set up base camp.
>>>/b/

>>2257009
No. I didn't say that. I said there are a type of people that read books to look smart and they congregate here.

You seem to think I'm some kind of Harry potter fan. I've been accused of being pretentious many times in my life, because some people can't comprehend someone enjoying something like infinite jest etc. But only someone who enjoys literature could spot someone who just does it for appearances.

>>2257015
Point proven. That made me smile.

sometimes forcing one's self to finish a novel will reap its own rewards. I can't say that I loved reading every page of, say, The Sound and the Fury, but I struggled through and then fucking loved it. Sometimes a novel is work, because it's novel and unfamiliar, and the very act of completing a challenge becomes pleasurable

>>2257017
>im so hardcore i like infinite jest lol

>>2257021
Fuck you it was an example. Do you want me to quote my bookshelf to you? I'll admit, im slacking on anything before 1850 but otherwise I'm proud of it. I've got infinite jest nestled in right beside twilight.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Or Kanye's monologue at the end of The College Dropout