/lit/ - Literature

In a 1996 Charlie Rose segment, David Foster Wallace talked about how, compared to fiction of the 60s and 70s, he felt that fiction of the 80s and 90s was "hellaciously unfun," and "academic and cloistered and basically written for critics and college teachers and PhD students." Does anyone know what books/authors he might have been talking about here?

Interview source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qjCvkQWvs

>ask mum to buy Infinite Jest on amazon
>she says ok but wants to wait until a cheaper price comes up
>in the meantime she reads reviews
>"anon why are you buying this? everyone on goodreads is saying how terrible DFW is at writing and that post-irony is no more than superfluous masturbation! why am I wasting my money on a glorified doorstop?"
>get angry, tell her all these people have low IQs and that Infinite Jest is one of the defining novels of the 90s
>she says if I want a defining novel of the 90s she'll get me something more relevant to me instead
>fast-forward 2 weeks
>The Virgin suicides comes in the post
>mfw

>And then, but, so but then he…

Into the trash it goes.

he should just write an open letter and denounce putin
problem solved

>>19859608
leave this board and never return

>>19789895
>>19789913
these faces remind of something, can't put my finger on it though

>>19397788
1. They aren't.
2. Reminder that when boomers were kids pretty much everyone fronted the costs of their education and there was no debt crisis—that is, until government subsidies allowed universities to get away with inflating their tuition past actual market prices (this despite their not having to pay taxes most of the time), university staff ballooning as they added more unnecessary administrators, and the ridiculous shit they wouldn't have able to justify some years ago like waterslides and pools and shit.
Yup, but tell me more why education should be subsidized despite the fact that doing that would clearly be regressive.

>>19393001
> Beauty is...le subjective!
I know about the eye of the beholder phenomenon but you're stretching it too far and ignoring what's important (the truth) and it's obviously a cope.
Æsthetics exist, beauty exist, get over it bud.

>>19390382
>Bart Ehrman

>What's the best English dictionary?

>>18947525

I just remembered a time when one fellow /lit/izen wrote a derogatory post in a very ironic manner and I responded with equal amount of irony, smugness and condescension. Why is there so much irony in postmodernity bros? Any books that discuss the prevalance of irony in postmodern discourse and provide a way out of irony intoxication?

>>14642246
>I am transgender and a devout traditionalist catholic
Yeah, you're going to hell lmao

Why is /pol/ and /leftypol/ so cringe

>>14578652
What a retard lol

>>12588694
What a leap. I didn't make the thread, don't ask me.

>>12493620
I thought it was going to be harder to get in than it was. I did the Mensa admissions test and the non-verbal test and got in with both (my highest was the non-verbal in which I scored a 141, maybe I got lucky). I was a member for a while and went to one event. I stopped after I had noticed all the Mensa fags were boring.

Is anybody else bothered by the seeming inaccuracy of David Foster Wallace's references to mathematics? I can't figure out if I just don't get it or if he just assumed nobody would care or if I'm missing something obvious, but practically every time he makes reference to a mathematical concept, it seems weirdly nonsensical or just wrong. For example:

In the most mathematically inclined (and annoying) Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley: "Because the expansion of response-possibilities is quadratic, you are required to think n shots ahead, where n is a hyperbolic function limited by the sinh of opponent's talent and the cosh of the number of shots in the rally so far (roughly)."

Big red son: "rural downstate Illinois, miles and megahertz from any center of entertainment production"

The best of the prose poem: "average # of prose poems from each of The Best of the P.P. contributor: 1.42 (mean), 1.58 (median)"

I like his work, I really really do, but for someone who talks about math so much, even so far to call calculus, "quite literally, child's play," shouldn't he be getting it right? I haven't read Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama yet, but I'm a little bit afraid to.

Apparently his other works are similarly filled with mathematical inaccuracies:

http://www.rudyrucker.com/oldhomepage/wallace_review.pdf
http://www.ams.org/notices/200406/rev-harris.pdf
>>12465667

This fucking thread.

why were women protesting Jordan Petersons lecture today at my university? outside was a madhouse, people screaming at us, banners and two girls jumped up on stage with a banner that said "end bigotry". wtf did this guy do? I only went because I see you guys meme about him 24-7. it was all so weird. inside the lecture the crowd was mainly male soyboys. I dont get it desu senpai. his rules for life that he talked about all seemed extremely common sense. what am I missing?

>>10092863
>fish

>>10018679
>wanting to help people and make the world a better place

saw a dude jump onto the subway tracks and an hero this morning. any books for that feel. everything seems so fake now its weird. mfw he jump. I couldn't believe my eyes.

do you think dave be cry as he hung himself? also post his face when he kick out the chair and the noose tighten. pic related.