/lit/ - Literature

>>12982255
uhhhhhhhh literally

>>12982255
fuck you

>>12982255
ahaha is that a t-shirt

high quality

>>12982255
I disagree.

Gravity's Rainbow is Catch-22's and Slaughterhouse 5's retarded, sexually weird child

>>12983349
pynchon is 10x a better stylist than heller and vonnegut put together

>>12983373
Too bad he's 10x worse everything else

>>12983349
I really like S5 and Catch-22 is one of my favorite books. This year I've decided to read some of /lit/s top meme books. So far I've read 2666 and Mason and Dixon and have to say: these are teriffic books. Is Gravity's Rainbow going to let me down? Like I said, I like the subject matter and time period, but it gets both so lauded and trashed on here I don't kknow what to expect.

>>12982255
Correct.

>>12983705
>Mason and Dixon and have to say: these are teriffic books
>Is Gravity's Rainbow going to let me down?
I read M&D three times. I couldn't get through more than a chapter and a half of Rainbow.

>>12982255

I agree. Unfunny nonsense that psued losers pretend to understand because they think it makes them look smart.

>>12982255
>>12983796
Not "getting" GR is the sign of a true brainlet

Yep

>>12984438
Haha what the fuck

>>12984215
"getting" GR is the sign of a true pseud

>>12984558
never gonna make it

>>12984438
Wait no way this is a real passage from the book.

>>12984568
luckily "making it" has nothing to do with reading thomas pynchon, who is relevant only to a dwindling number of college-aged geeks (picture a gaggle of even spazzier joshua cohens) and a few disillusioned ex-hippie boomers, all american

>>12984568
he's right, people who try to divine and scrape out every ounce of "meaning" from experimental/avant-garde fiction are sickos. gravity's rainbow is textural like a lot of pynchon's work, and people who think they "get" it like it's some kind of arcane puzzle to be solved are just as literal-minded and shallow as people who complain that it's too hard and pointless

>>12984630
read it again

Literary tradition would look at postmodernism as a very awkward, but thankfully short period of disposable literature that is of no use to anybody. Everything from beats up till DFW is best simply forgotten., or written off as the world slowly coming back to it's senses after the shellshock of WW2, producing some idiotic rambly novels in process.

>>12984713
okay retard

>>12984630
holy shit, how does someone get this retarded? you don't need to tear apart GR to find its meaning, you just need to read it and pay attention to at least half of it. it's not that hard. imagine having a fucking aneurysm whenever you read something even slightly abstract and expecting it to completely spoonfeed you

This board is fucking garbage these days lmao. The jews are the cause of all ills in the world and niggers are not even human beings. rahowa

best book in the world

>>12984798
I very much hate the notion that it's somehow my job to work and dig intently through the heaps of shit (in case of GR, actual shit) in search of joy and meaning. Just read garbage, consume this nigh-gibberish until your desperate brain comes up with some pattern-extract to fool into thinking that the world still makes sense, just do it! Well no, bitch. I'm the customer and a book is the whore. It's her job to please me, and mine to relax and get my balls sucked. The simple question is the following: you have these grand towering masterpieces like Divine Comedy or War and Peace, or abovementioned Catch-22, which do not assault me with obscurantist horseshit, these books instantly open up and let me in on the ride. So, what happened with GR? Is Thomas Pynchon that much smarter, better, talented than Dante, Tolstoy, or Heller? Are his ideas so advanced and ahead of its time that normal, non-retarded prose simply wouldn't suffice? Well either that (in which case lowly humanoids such as myself are not worthy) or Pynchon is just a postmodern moron like many before or after.

>>12984870
>I very much hate the notion that it's somehow my job to work and dig intently through the heaps of shit (in case of GR, actual shit) in search of joy and meaning.

never gonna make it.

>>12983796
I've heard pynchon's jokes are cringe, and I read the excerpt with the shit...was a whole lot4me, I want to be the smartest boy in earth but do I really have to read this mans?

>>12984885
Pynchon's hilarious

>>12984893

>>12984798
how the fuck is that what I'm saying. you expect me to believe you understood Gravity's Rainbow when you couldn't even digest two consecutive sentences?

>>12984910
cant tell if deflecting or just retarded

>>12984930
why don't you restate to me what you think I said

>>12984930
Hahahah I love that he spelt ‘says’ like that. It was consistently he only thing he misspelled

>>12984942
That it's so incredibly hard to get at the underlying meaning of the text when in reality Pynchon is very generous with his verbiage, repeats his points often to help flesh them out, and you just need to look up esoteric references now and then which, once you do, is instrumental in lending the text its authenticity

>>12984949
haha yeah so epic and goofy

>>12984965
that's why he's my fav

>>12984592
oh course it is. wait till you read all the graphic sex scenes of adult men with prepubescent children

>>12984954
you're saying this like there's a big meaning to be had, like it's a mystery novel or something. It's a perfectly readable book, but I take issue with the idea that you're supposed to read every book like a fable and "get" some singular big concrete idea behind it.

>>12982255
Was just reading this today. I can't believe I got meme'd into buying this. I'm not sure if pynchon is mad or just trying to come acros that way. I was drawn to it because I heard he trained as an aeronautical engineer before turning to literature - I expected some wittgenstein level intellect. But this was just stir fry.

>>12985019
No, I'm saying it's more than just textural though. It is a mystery novel though, pynchy loves Chandler

>>12984870
it literally isn’t that hard. read the book. if you read every word, in order, with a dictionary, the meaning will be obvious without further analysis. the absolute state of /lit/, holy shit

>>12985039
keep on reading. You will be surprised not once

>>12985039
thinking that engineers have some kind of general level insight that applies to all fields is both the most STEM and the most humanities thing i've ever heard

>>12985072
What are you talking about? What words? There are entire passages, pages, chapters that make little to no sense.

>>12985203
have you ever watched a surrealist art-house movie?

>>12985054
you're right about that, mystery novel was a bad example. and for sure it's not *all* just textural, but a big chunk of the action, characters and vignettes in the book aren't in service of the plot and never get resolved in any meaningful way, which I assume frustrates a lot of literal-minded readers who try to slog through it expecting some kind of masterful joining of every thread

>>12985203
for you

>>12985235
You're a big pseud

>>12985233
>He reads for the plot

yikes

>>12985233
>fucking plebs, expecting books to make sense n shiiet!

>>12985233
Pynchon's fucking masterful at weaving plot threads through each other. No he doesn't wrap every single one into a pretty little bow because that's life but you need to have a better overview of the greater structure before identifying what struts are supporting what.

>>12985203
they are supposed to be kind of like puzzles, in order to be deciphered in a way, not all of them, but some of them for sure

>>12985298
>puzzles
Ah fuck, and here I was expecting a novel. Dumb me.

>>12985307
yeah you do sound pretty dumb lmao

>>12985203
>being illiterate
>>12985298
you’re not helping, pseud

>>12985392
>you’re not helping, pseud
nothing pseud about what I wrote tho, it's literally the best explanation of the nature of the novel to someone new

>>12985203
The problem with /lit/ these days is that this person is precisely correct but look at how the retards responded.

>>12985419
actually the problem with /lit/ is that he’s precisely incorrect but look how you responded

>>12985441
to be fair, hasn't Pyncher gone on record stating there are parts of GR he was too fucked up while writing to remember what he actually meant?

>>12985451
and.....?

>>12985451
>having never read Death of the Author
nice, very /lit/

>>12984906
Yeah, hard agree

>>12984930
Yo that's actually hilarious

>>12985606
ikr

>>12984975

>>12985510
>Dude Pynchon is the best stylist ever, his writing is like an intricate puzzle, you just gotta slow down and read carefully
>Um, didn't Pynchon himself admit that most of it is just a stream of consciousness a la On the Road?
>DUDE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR LMAO

>>12985801
that's not what "stylist" means you clod. he has fantastic, iconic prose and that's his best quality

>>12985801
>didn't Pynchon himself admit that most of it is just a stream of consciousness

lol he never said this, and that doesn't imply you shouldn't slow down and read carefully. Keep at it sport.

>Why yes, I do prefer Infinite Jest, the superior work of a much more sincere author!

it was literally planned and written by a comittee of jews.
thomas pynchon is just a façade in their plan to degenerate an entire generation.

>>12985801
I'm these two (>>12985510 >>12985392). I am on record disagreeing with the guy who said it's like a puzzle. keep up

>>12985451
To be fair, aren’t you too stupid to understand what a lot of it means anyway?

>>12985955
I'm getting there!

>>12985451
yeah, there is a quote, can't find it now, but he says that there are stuff in it that now he couldn't possibly understand what he meant

>>12986013
yeah, isn't there a quote, can't find it now, but he says he carefully planned everything in the book and could answer every question you have about it

>>12985451
>>12986013
Prove it faggot (you can't)

>>12986248
>I was so fucked up while I was writing it . . . that now I go back over some of those sequences and I can't figure out what I could have meant.

>>12986273
wow epic /b/ro pynchon btfo

>>12986294
That's just a game theory

>>12986273
you made this quote up. links or it didn't happen

>>12986412
googles

>>12983705
Don’t listen to the other retard, GR is an amazing read. It’s hilarious, somber, vulgar, and esoteric all at once. I really loved it when I read it, even if some of the subject matter went over my head. I went into it thinking it’d be a shitty masturbatory meme, but it’s honestly great.

>>12986412
he didn't make it up but it's from the old playboy article about pynchon where somebody who claims to know him shares various anecdotes. you should not take that article very seriously. it's full of made up shit like pynchon having his buck teeth removed in mexico.

>>12986427
>>12986483
literally just fucking link it, I can't find anything

>>12984438
Sometimes balls smell like popcorn and sweat and sometimes dried cum smells sweet but what on earth does fresh cum smell like?

>>12985451
>>12986273
this keeps being posted around the internet as some sort of excuse that "the author himself can't even make sense of gravity's rainbow!"

however, i believe the full story goes something like pynchon wakes up after a bender and discovers pages and pages of writing and has trouble deciphering it, so much of the "fucked up" text is expunged and/or carefully revised into coherency by sober pynchon

i unfortunately have no source for this; it *might* be from when jules siegel briefly appeared on the waste mailing list to shed light on his famous playboy article but i cannot be sure

>>12984438
This reads more like George RR Martin.

>>12986546
Asparagus.

>>12983349
Plebs coming out of the woodwork

Catch-22 is a good novel (not compared to GR) but Slaughterhouse-Five is literally babby-tier, I can’t take anyone seriously who says Vonnegut is their favorite writer because I automatically know they have the mind of a thirteen year old.

M&D is his best work, GR was just made only to inform/inspire his true masterpiece.

>>12987796
Nah. Smells like a Bradford Pear tree.

>>12987827
yep, GR exists only to inspire Against the Day, his true masterpiece. pack it up, thread's over, we figured out that AtD is his best work

>>12983320
it's actually what the cover looks like. i thought it looked liked a t-shirt in this photo then checked my edition, it's just how it look

>>12987844
Holy fuck, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

>>12985233
dude "getting" it is just enjoying it, you don't get it. it's genuinely a good book and non-philistines like good books. pynchon is doing something aesthetic while also redpilling boomers. u r dumb

>>12987844
>>12988974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4p0uw42cdo

>>12989310
Why do you write like a retarded person? Begin your sentences with a capital letter, and end them with a period mark, for starters. Is this the effect Pynchon's erratic writings have on young, impressionable minds? Horrifying.

>>12989325
why are you on /lit/ when you are a philistine?

>>12989310
I agree with you, I'm on your side you bimbo

>>12989310
It's possible to 'get' a novel and still despise it, as it is possible to not 'get' a novel yet enjoy it. To claim that those who 'got' must necessarily love it is beyond retarded.

>>12989425
i said you have to enjoy it not love it, if u dont enjoy good art u r gay and boring philistine
>>12989389
lol i didnt know which poster i was replying to just general trend of convo

>>12989325

>>12984438
If this is weirding you out that's the sign you're a complete brainlet

>>12990786
yeah that's not weird haha

>>12983349
>Slaughterhouse 5
take your meme books back where you came from

any literary work that can inspire this kind of debate is obviously worth your time.

>>12992145
this desu

>>12992145
bingo bango bongo

so what the hell is this novel about anyway that its talked about so much here
the wikipedia article says its about rockets or some shit yet here we are discussing a guy eating literal shit while fantasizing about black cock

>>12994195
it's WW2, and military scientists discover that this guy gets an erection whenever Germany is going to bomb London, which is their first lead to figuring out what the fuck they're doing with their V-2's
I'm not joking, that's the actual synopsis of the book: man's peepee hard when London go boom boom

>>12982255
>/lit/ claims to despise beats and despise drug fueled and crazed writing styles
>recommends Pynchon a beats enthusiast as confessed in "Slow Learner"
op, take the /lit/ pill but do your own research. You did it to yourself

>>12994302
literally what the fuck are beats?

>>12994272
so the consensus is all this shite on wiki about it being "one of the greatest novels ever written" is just based on 3deep5u bullshit then?
im used to 4chan being contrarian but the posted passage about literally eating shit and the nonsense about "not even the author fully understands" leads me to think they might be right this time

>>12982255
shill for clown world

>>12994340
>passage about literally eating shit
that's not actually in the book, they're literally shitposting
>not even the author fully understands
read more Barthes, especially his Death of the Author essay

>>12994362
wtf yes the shit eating passage is in the book, that's not even the most graphic scene. don't talk about books you haven't read.

>>12994325

>>12994372
>don't talk about books you haven't read
ok, you do that, it'll do you wonders, since you obviously haven't read GR

>>12994372
having not read the book i have to ask
does the passage add anything? in a literary sense
or is it just the drug induced ramblings of a mentally ill sexually starved autist?

>>12994404
after some quick googling it looks like that passage actually is in GR my friend
unless other people on other websites are also shitposting

>>12994417
it really isn't. there's some autist with an obsessive hatred of Pynchon hacking every source he can get his hands on to trick people who haven't read GR into thinking that passage is actually in the book, thereby making fewer people read it. all the anons in this thread are either said autist or haven't read it and fell for his conspiracy

>>12994404
>>12994417
retard

>>12994458
are you handicapped? just read the book it's probably half way through

>>12994469
>just read the book
already have, it's not in the book

>>12994458
many of the reviews mentioning the coprophilia passage are good reviews
you could claim that this is part of your alex jones tier conspiracy theory if you wanted to but i find it more likely youre a shitlord who wants me to spend 700+ pages worth of reading to get "le ebin trold exdee"

>>12994518
>many of the reviews mentioning the coprophilia passage are good reviews
ok, not sure how that makes the conspiracy less real but sure
>youre a shitlord who wants me to spend 700+ pages worth of reading to get "le ebin trold exdee""
no, I want you to spend 700+ pages worth of reading because (A) it's a good book and (B) I want more people to recognize this conspiracy as something that's actually happening

>>12994531
shit I own a bootleg, ignore everything I've written

>>12994531
it makes it less likely because of how much effort went into the positive reviews
your conspiracy theory would make more sense if it was a bunch of low effort 1 sentence "this book sucked grr he eat poopie"
instead there are dozens of full essays written in which the coprophilia passage is explored
i am aware that none of this is 100% proof and the only real confirmation would be to go buy a copy myself but i think its substantially more likely that youre just full of shit like the GR protagonist

>>12994550
sorry, I just found out my copy is a bootleg, disregard my posts

>>12994548
>>12994569
very unfortunate

>>12994340
This board loves gravity's rainbow and has forever you retard

>>12994586
as clearly evidenced by this thread
thanks for clearing that up kid

>>12994593
I suppose you're right the board is inundated with literal newfags who don't read now

>>12994597
literally

>>12994601
Fuck off reddit

>>12994607
you sure showed me

>>12994612
There have been multiple threads up about this book every day for like 10 years. You are aware that you're a dipshit newfaggot, because you are. Stop acting like a cancerous fucking retard

wow you made me google it and waste nearly a minute. thanks a lot anon...

>>12994639
Of course its in the book you retard it cost him the pulitzer. Not everything is LE EPICK TROLE you're just a fucking moron.

>>12994632
talked about =/= forever beloved
you're the cancerous dipshit here claiming to be the /lit/ ambassador

>>12994410
It has a pretty good punchline at the end of the book

>>12994195
Pynchon is the original shitposter, dabbing on the literary establishment with his memes.

>>12994302
Burroughs is incomparably better than Pynchon.

>>12994586
>>12994607
>>12994632
cringe!

this book deeply impacted me. it was difficult but not more so than some others. the Soniferous Aether, the assassin's purgatory, the pavlov twisted beyond the zero, the way everything followed the path of the missile, to a moment of lofty zenith, where things made either the most or the littlest of sense, then the crash, where a sharpening clarity comes in the few moments before the chaos.

i would say it's a fantastic book, i am a double virgo as Slothrop is. frankly i think the book was written for me alone, but i'm happy that you're interested in it.

Daily reminder that Gravity's Rainbow was published in 1973 so its unfunny verbiage on WW2 and hippies is equivalent to a book today saying, "DUDE BERLIN WALL FELL DUDE 9/11 DUDE FURBIES DUDE DANCING JESUS GIF DUDE BLUMPF LMAO"

>>12996636
>tearful and tender anon reveals to all he simply cannot read

>>12996636
someone didn't read Bleeding Edge

>>12996649

I did. It exposed him as a Wikipedia skimmer once and for all.

>>12996652
no you just didn't get it

>>12982255
Stick to Stoner, kid.

>>12996224
Every time I see that photograph of Pynchon I think the greyer stains are from a cum tribute and that excites me for a moment but I always disappoint myself by enlarging the image and finding the sorry bare truth that it's just negative grain. Fuck this world.

>>12982255
Stop taking it so serious. It's a comedy

>>12985852
based

>>12994658
>being a newfag
>trying to pretend you aren't one
stop

>>12994302
That's retarded. You can not like the beatles and like artists who claim influence. You don't have to like bill haley to like nirvana.
>>12996395
Nah

>>12983417
This

>>12994658
>>12997312
>newfags arguing about who's newer
literally why the fuck?

>>12998299
Yeah whatever retard in any case pynchon and this book have been widely enjoyed and discussed here forever and a crop of zoomers seeing the passage that DQd him from the pullitzer is unlikely to change it. Banaposting couldn't turn the board against the book, man goes down toilet posting couldn't do it, thomas pynchon is seth macfarlane (which is true and based) couldn't do it, goofs and gags couldn't do it, and even the release of the inherent vice movie couldn't do it even though a couple of spergs tried real fucking hard exactly as predicted. Honestly if the zoomers manage to make a dent in GR threads I would be genuinely shocked.

>>12998355
>thinking I'm one of the GR haters
wow, I really wasn't wrong when I called both of you newfags, was I?

>>12994639
Imagine having to translate this.

>>12998369
>I'm supposed to be psychic
epic /b/ro I wasn't really talking at you but more the thread in general

>>12998523
>needing to be psychic to realize that I just joined the argument and haven't revealed my opinion regarding the book
truly epic amirite?

>>12998584
(you)

>>12998629
you're talking to a 19 year old literal faggot, not a magapede 40 something

>>12998643
>he thinks that my image was supposed to represent him
>he was 6 years old when i started using /b/

>>12998742
did I mention I'm gay? why are you obsessing over me so mu-
oh. you're also gay. and into me. gee, wow, I actually haven't flirted with anyone on 4channel before. do you... want to go to Olive Garden, some time, get to know each other? you don't have to, but I think it'd be fun...

>>12998977
Are you guys trying to actually destroy any discussion on this website? Its getting pretty atrocious lately

>>12999040
Its just one needlessly hyper-combative wannabe /lit/ ambassador arguing with everyone about everything poorly
Just ignore it

>>12999143
>/lit/ ambassador
wrong anon, I'm faganon, improve your reading comprehension
>>12999040
what's your answer? did you want my Unlimited Breadstick? did you want me to toss your Italian salad?

>>12999176
What's wrong with the gays, folks?

>>12999176
He said “you guys” as you were successfully baited into arguing by the wannabe /lit/ ambassador
Unfortunately you’re the one with the reading comprehension issues

>>12999181
literally nothing, please fist me
>>12999182
>arguing
I'm just fagposting desu ;))

Rereading for the second time now, pynchie is a genius.

Before you think to be ashamed about all the poo poo remember that GRRM and 50 Shades are more vulgar and considered normiecore

/LIT/ IS FUCKING DEAD

>>12992145

>>13000631
he's right, you know

>>12985451
there are parts that literally don't make sense or are hard to orient/pin-down, but not in a way that really hinders the main ideas he's expressing, it's sort of playful in that way.

>>13000637
>what that man said is true, which means he's right and your wrong silly

>>13000649
what did he mean by this?

>>13000649