/lit/ - Literature

>>18236734
When it was all settled, she took the car/bus/train/plane/hovercraft from wherever the fuck she lived to wherever the fuck he lived, somewhere in London or something (he hadn't agreed to meet at her place, or even halfway in between-he could be quite selfish sometimes, she thought, but she couldn't stay mad at him), and met him at his favorite Waterstones. She picked out the man with the fedora, their previously agreed-upon sign, and came up to him, hesitating.

"S-Sunhawk?"

"Yes," he said, and left it at that.

Despite that autismal introduction, he soon warmed up and started expostulating, like his normal superficial, pseudo-intellectual /lit/ self, about shit he clearly had no insight into. She was getting quite annoyed with how much he talked about the cashiers (notably less pretty and sluttier than the cashiers from days gone by, according to him) instead of discussing whatever Roman shit she was reading at the moment with her, but as they were leaving she decided to stick close and subtly play his girlfriend while he paid for his books. The girl did give him an appraising glance, she thought, and she was happy for him. Could this be the rumored friendship unknown to NEETs?

She followed him to his flat and sat inside. He offered her some tea, which she gladly accepted. They made brief, stilted attempts at conversation but mostly sat in silence drinking their tea. All the while her mind was racing. She had to do it soon. It was now or never. Quickly, she kissed him.

"But... but I thought you were a lesbian," he said when their lips parted.

She mumbled some bullshit about fluid sexuality and kept kissing him, her image of a female Sunhawk firm in her mind. They moved to his bed and undressed. Slowly, cautiously, he touched her. She helped him along, but the foreplay was still shit. Finally she bade him enter her pussy. He lasted nearly an hour, as he was only used to the wizard death grip he had been using on his dick to masturbate. Butterfly was exhausted, her vagina was chafing, but unexpectedly she started to enjoy it. She must have grown to love him, she postulated in between thrusts, in all those long hours posting in his threads, yearning for his attention, for a decade. And he was kind of effeminate... maybe she could convince him to trap for her? Whatever the reason, her cunt redoubled its lubrication and they finished in an explosion, their sweat-soaked bodies pressed against each other.

As Sunhawk went to the bathroom to piss, Butterfly had an epiphany. She realized that, far from being a lesbian, she was actually a trip-sexual, hopelessly attracted to all tripfags. It all made sense; how she used to touch herself to D&E's, REI's, satan's, and all the others' posts; the erotic flush of blood she felt everytime she witnessed some of their narcissistic faggotry; how she felt compelled to defend all tripfags constantly. She had to tell Sunhawk, now that she knew, now that she loved him.

>>18236696
« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ », known to some as Butterfly, was getting old. She was past thirty now and wondered where her life was heading. ">tfw no gf," she thought to herself, as her fingers unconsciously typed "4chan.org/lit" into the address bar with a well-practiced ease. It wasn't just the lack of a qt Laurie Penny gf, though. She wanted more. She knew her fertile period was beginning to wane and she had started craving a child. On /lit/, she opened every thread she could and commented in all of them, with surprisingly apt pictures attached, and flirted with desperate men who thought they had a chance with a 5/10 lesbian.

Then she saw it. A Sunhawk thread. She was so lonely, and had desired Sunhawk's attentions for almost ten years now. There was no one left for her after Feminister died, gangraped by a bunch of MRA activists when her boyfriend had lifted up her shirt and exposed her bare breasts to them. Sunhawk never responded, but every time Butterfly commented in one of his threads she allowed herself a tiny bit of hope. He was the only familiar face among the anonymous horde. She knew that he, too, was alone: he still posted threads about attractive girls that he couldn't summon the courage to talk to.

This time he answered. She couldn't believe it. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she replied and had a surprisingly only half-fumbling conversation with him, and most of her spaghetti reserves had remained securely in her pockets. She left her email for him on a post, unwilling to let this feeling of elation go. Of course, the drones of /lit/ conspired to flood her inbox with filth pretending to be him, but she could tell which one was him. The total un-self-awareness of his own vapidity, the way he could supposedly read so many books and still be a utter pleb, revealed the real Sunhawk to her.

She got off the internet and started masturbating instead. She imagined Sunhawk as a cute, shy girl who she was initiating into the beauties of sapphic love. Her pace quickened, her fingers plunging into her cunt in the same pattern they had typed on the keyboard, as if to say "HA HA, TIME FOR 4CHAN!", and she came hard.

In the few moments of clarified thinking after her orgasm, she realized what she had to do. Over the next few days she exchanged emails with Sunhawk, trying to slowly bring the conversation around to the possibility of a meeting. He was recalcitrant, but she eventually brought him around. He was, after all, just as old and tired as she, as lonely and longing, as desirous of some iota of human contact that wasn't perfused with anxiety and awkwardness and judgement.

>>5912868

Yeah. TPK was perhaps his best work.

House of Leaves is a really good book, and so many people have read and enjoyed it in the past, but where did he go? Only Revolutions was abysmal, probably the worst book I've ever read. There were 2 novellas, but I'm talking about a proper, full length book. He's been working on The Familiar for something like 8 years, but it's not out yet. I would love to see another really good book by this guy, but I'm starting to wonder. Anyone else find themselves thinking about him, and wondering?

Can't believe it. Took so long. Definitely hit and miss, but more hit than miss. I shall now rank his books, which will make people angry, but whatever. I rarely agree with Pynchonites on these things, but still.

BEST

Inherent Vice
Against the Day
Bleeding Edge
Gravity's Rainbow
V
Vineland
Slow Learner
The Crying of Lot 49
Mason and Dixon

WORST

A lot of lite near the top, but that's just how I feel. People hate it when I put Mason and Dixon at the bottom, but it was fucking dreadful. GR is a pretty enjoyable book when you understand it, i.e. the second time through. Bleeding Edge was sometimes bland, but the setting and ideas were great. Vineland was underrated. Against the Day is undervalued by fans, with lots of good contents, and the length was a good idea.

>mfw I have read all of Pynchon's books

I've (very slowly) read 7 of his 9 books, some multiple times, with only V and Slow Learner left. I've just ordered them off Amazon, and hope to read them soon. Just think, I'll have read them all. Not sure what to think about Slow Learner, but people always speak SO highly of V, that I'm looking forward to it.

As someone on this board once said, maybe 3 years ago, I'll soon be a real boy.

Of course, postmodernism rocks.

>>5214420

Those were the days. But you make it sound like it wasn't a big disappointment. Still a decent book, though, and the frenzy surrounding it was fun.

I flipped through it today at a local shop, and the prose seemed kinda special. Is the prose great throughout, and is the book generally entertaining?

I've read Oscar Wao 22 times. This is the most I've read any book. Is this bad?

I'd say Bleeding Edge is one of his mid-level novels. I've read it twice, and it's good stuff, but yeah, Pynchon should go back to writing more complex shit, like Gravity's Rainbow.

Gravity's Rainbow, Bleeding Edge, Inherent Vice. His other books were alright, but some were too long to reread, and others I don't have anymore.

He's written 31, and I've read 6. I want to do this. He reminds me so much of DFW, and that's almost totally a good thing, plus he beats DFW in some ways, like the focus on Jewishness. Anybody else like Roth a lot?

Very well-written, with some really cool sections, and the general late 60s feel is good indeed. Yeah, it's not complex, certainly not like ATD or GR, but so what. It's a really entertaining book, one of Pynchon's best.

This board has always avoided Roth. People should read him. He's smart, and entertaining.

His books are (generally) well-written, and certainly smart. I've been reading some more of his stuff recently.

American Pastoral - very good
Portnoy's Complaint - okay
Sabbath's Theater - good
The Human Stain - very bad
The Plot Against America - very good
Operation Shylock - good

I need to read more of him. Can anyone recommend me 2 or 3 books more? Preferably his complex stuff, and an okay length, nothing short.

Biopic of rich, selfish guy. Starts with flashforward then jumps back.

Or, simply go out with one? I can't imagine any of the "writing" on this board would get a girl to fuck a guy here - quite the opposite, if she was thinking about it, she'd stop - but I was curious. Girls are notorious for sleeping with guys who write, even if their writing is bad.

>>5094011

No.

I'd also forgotten about that picture. It used to be one of the favourites I have.

BEST

Against the Day
Inherent Vice
Bleeding Edge
Gravity's Rainbow
Vineland
The Crying of Lot 49
Mason & Dixon

WORST

Just what I think, of course. I've read GR twice, Bleeding Edge twice (as of today), and Inherent Vice 5 times. Everything else once. I know the books pretty well. But yeah, my rankings. I don't know why people hate on Pynchon Lite so much.

It's certainly enjoyable, but I don't know. What does /lit/ think of it?

>interesting
>good prose
>complex and challenging
>deals with history

I like him quite a lot. I don't see why /lit/ has never really read him.

Sabbath's Theater = decent
Portnoy's Complaint = decent
American Pastoral = really good
The Human Stain = very bad
The Plot Against America = really good

>>5061064

The Happy Prince was awesome. Nothing but feels. Used to listen to it all the time as a child (although I would've had no idea who Wilde was).

Oscar Wao
Ashenden
The Pale King
Stoner
The Birthday Party
Inherent Vice

Such great books. Although, there are certain things that specifically made a book rereadable. Dense prose, short length of the book. Those make me want to reread a book, plus obviously high quality.

Do you ever wonder how much time / effort / skill goes into excellent novels, basically the 8, 9 and 10/10 novels out there (and short story collections)?

I mean, writing a decent or good book can be REALLY hard, so God only knows what it takes to write an amazing book.

> 5 years
> emotional agony
> very high level of skill