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/lit/ - Literature

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6449008 No.6449008 [Reply] [Original]

Wolfe-senpai got a nice profile in the New Yorker today.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius

>> No.6449040

Will /lit/ turn against him now that he has been co-opted by the mainstream corporate machinery?

>> No.6449048

Wolfe what?

>> No.6449056
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6449056

>“There was a time when she did not remember my name or that we were married, but she still remembered that she loved me."

>> No.6449057

literary who?

Is he a critic like Harold Bloom?

>> No.6449065

>>6449057
Maybe expanding? Certainly looks like he's growing up to be one :)

>> No.6449097
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6449097

>>6449056

>> No.6449106
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6449106

>>6449056

>> No.6449107

>>6449008
>On the phone from his home in Peoria, Gene Wolfe explained to me recently that Latro’s memory loss does not make him an unreliable narrator, as many critics assume. Instead, Latro might reveal only the truth that matters.

Wolfe you high as fuck, Latro was cray

>> No.6449134

>>6449040
/lit/ already hates him
largely due to his faggot fanbase

>> No.6449140

>>6449134
Nah we love him. Only people who haven't read him hate him. It's a meme thing.

>> No.6449144

>>6449040
>Will /lit/ ...
>>6449134
>/lit/ already ...
'lit' is not a person with agency, it's a piece of goddamn shitposting software. It cannot have an opinion, you assfaggots.

>> No.6449148

/lit/ here, I most definitely hate him.

>> No.6449161

>>6449148
So you haven't read him?

>> No.6449167

>>6449161
What a silly thing to ask /lit/. Of course he hasn't.

>> No.6449169
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6449169

>>6449167

>> No.6449173

>>6449148
fuck off reddit
real /lit/ here, and yeah I hate him.

>> No.6449174

seven lions was a real bro

>>6449140
it's not a meme thing. the people that constantly shit up his threads, even if they haven't read him, are serious in their dislike for him. they're the same people who insist genre fiction if shit.

>>6449144
/lit/ is definitely a person

>> No.6449180

>>6449174
Is genre fiction hate not a meme?

>> No.6449187

>>6449040
people don't remember, but back in the day /lit/ fucking loved gurm

>> No.6449190

I think he's only pretty good.

>> No.6449195

>>6449057
He wrote arguably the most "literary" of scifi/fantasy works, his magnum opus The Book of the New Sun, as well as consistently pumping out other works of notable quality

/lit/ loves him because while they're lit fic snobs they also have a deeply closeted love of escapist fantasy and scifi, and he's one of the few that you could show to a professor.

>> No.6449198

>>6449187
I didn't, and I constantly posted about how much he sucks.

>> No.6449201

>>6449187
Beem here for over a year, remember only hate. Also early days maybe wasn't pure patrician mememaisters.

>> No.6449202

>>6449144
Lit is the Creative Nothing that cannot be named, anon

>> No.6449206

>>6449201
I've been here since the beginning in January 2010 and I always called him shit

>> No.6449208

>>6449187
/lit/ was more accepting of genre fiction during the first year or so, but from I remember praise for GRRM was never unanimous even amongst the people who exclusively read fantasy. Pretty sure the HBO series was on the table since before /lit/ even existed.

>> No.6449211

>>6449206
Tru patricianhood

>> No.6449212

>>6449201
>Beem here for over a year

oldfag detected

>> No.6449222

>>6449201
>over a year
>thinks he's been here "while"

lurk more

>> No.6449235

>>6449222
sori sensei

>> No.6449285

>>6449174

>thinking that memeing can't be serious

please anon, you know better

>> No.6449290

>>6449008
where do i start with gene wolf

>> No.6449365

>>6449290
You can jump into The Book of The New Sun strait away. But if you want to work your way up to it 5th Head of Cerberus, his short story collection and The Wizard Knight.

>> No.6449373

>>6449365
is BotNS his magnum opus>

>> No.6449379

>>6449290
Fifth Head of Cerberus imo
>>6449373
by consensus, yes. I like 5th Head better though

>> No.6449391

>began to study Catholicism in the mid-fifties so that he could marry his wife, Rosemary, in her church

Vile.

>> No.6449397

>Wolfe wraps his Catholicism in strange language and cryptic images.
>his

>> No.6449406

>>6449391
Whipped as fuck.

>> No.6449417

>>6449406
I hope his eternal soul was worth the poosey and campy Pagan idolatry.

>> No.6449423
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6449423

>gf reads literary fiction and philosophy
>give her The Shadow of the Torturer to read
>she reads the first page then starts laughing and hands it back and says "are you joking?"
seriously, fuck muh literary fiction faggots. Gene Wolfe is literary fiction, they just shit on him cuz my sci fi can't be literary fiction. what is Frankenstein? what is Brave New World? what is the Time Machine?

>> No.6449434

>>6449423
well memed

Or did you just post this same thing before and it's not a meme? I just recognize the "hands it back and says 'are you joking?'" formula

>> No.6449445

>>6449423
I don't think you really have a girlfriend.

>> No.6449488
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6449488

>>6449434
I posted an OP on it before

>>6449445
I do, but I might not for much longer. She was originally fun to be around but I'm finding her more and more annoying.

>> No.6449503
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6449503

>>6449488

>> No.6449517

>>6449373
It is, but his other works are also insanely interesting.
>>6449397
Just stating that he is the most orthodox Catholic I have ever read, even moreso than some of the popes who published.
>>6449488
So did she like Wolfe or not? Like the fist page is really really good. Also if she is patrician stay with her, also really cute.

>> No.6449541

>>6449517
>So did she like Wolfe or not? Like the fist page is really really good
I didn't ask her to read anymore after she handed the book back.

>Also if she is patrician stay with her, also really cute.
She's patrician in pretty much everything, that's the most irritating thing about her because she is never interested in other aspects of a medium. For instance, she only listens to things like baroque and obscure jazz artists, rock and metal and regular music she really doesn't care for.

>> No.6449549
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6449549

>>6449541
>I didn't ask her to read anymore after she handed the book back.
Fucking dump her

>> No.6449550

>>6449056
Wolfe's resent interviews are super sad. One of the last ones starts with him saying his dog just died.

>> No.6449552

>>6449541
She sounds perfect. Send her my way if you're done with her.

>> No.6449562

>>6449550
>resent
Keep your deliberate Freudian slips outta this, fella.

>> No.6449563

>>6449550
Maybe it will turn into his new masterpiece?

>> No.6449567

>>6449488
She's not hot enough to excuse disregarding Wolfe. Dumb her and go fuck a real woman.

>> No.6449572

>>6449567
Tbh I'm not sure how you can disregard him after one page, I can't even imagine the situation.

>> No.6449576

Not unless quoting Shakespeare, philosophy and poetry in everyday conversation doesn't grate on you after a while.

>>6449567
It's tricky to find a woman who can into Wolfe, though

>> No.6449579

>>6449576
It's hard to find people who can into Wolfe in general. Or literature in general.

>> No.6449583

>>6449572
She sat down started reading him while I was watching, then she started laughing before she was finished, then closed the book and handed it back to me while she was still laughing and then asked if I was joking. Then she exhaled, laid back and started napping.

>> No.6449597
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6449597

>>6449583
Also, for those of you who haven't read him, he's really good even from the get go, so I don't know what her problem is

>> No.6449599

>>6449583
This sounds like something out of Borges.

>> No.6449600

>>6449572
Plebness.

>> No.6449604

>>6449597
I understand why she laughed.

>> No.6449605

>>6449583
You should have left her the moment she laughed at a book you gave her. I almost can't think of anything more disrespectful.

>> No.6449613

>>6449605
I'm a bit attached to her, obviously. For book and sex purposes.

>> No.6449614

>>6449613
She's not *that* hot. No woman is.

>> No.6449615

>>6449604
Do you? Why?
>>6449600
I can understand plebness, but not the laughter.

>> No.6449621

>>6449597
Listen, I like Wolfe, but his prose can be a little bit heavy handed. That is a prime example– it reeks of self importance. While that may be linked to Severian's character, it grates. That said, she's a dick for laughing at you like that.

>> No.6449622

>>6449597
I get the laughter now. This reads like an overwritten self-published book.

>> No.6449639

>>6449621
>>6449622
Severian is a narcissist for one. But I still find this to be great prose.

>> No.6449651

>>6449614
No, but that doesn't prevent the emotional attachment.

>> No.6449659
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6449659

>>6449639
This would have been a better example to show her.

>> No.6449672 [DELETED] 

>>6449639

You're clearly a low-IQ literary dunce if you call that "great prose".

>> No.6449677

>>6449672
Nice meme faggot

>> No.6449679

If Joyce, Pynchon and Wallace are the holy meme trinity then who is Wolfe?

>> No.6449686

>>6449679
He's with the minority of Patrick Rothfuss fans.

>> No.6449689

>>6449659
Where is that from exactly? I can't recall like this.

>> No.6449693

>>6449689
The first page of Peace.

>> No.6449700

>>6449693
Thanks. I'll have to read it after The Long Sun an all the other shit I started already. With an obligatory rerea of BOTNS

>> No.6450250

>>6449541
>She's patrician in pretty much everything,

If she laughed Wolfe off, she's not patrician. You should put her in her place and let her know that.

>> No.6450266

>>6449597
BOTNS dosent really "start" till Secerian leaves Nessus, so its like you cant really expect anyone to get absorved if they werent interested from the get go.

Its like the first 5-6 episodes of Evangelion

>> No.6450276 [DELETED] 

>>6449008
Whoa, his birthday is less that 2 weeks from now? I gotta write him a letter.

>> No.6450277

This is a really short article for what it is

>> No.6450288

Gene-Kun's birthday is May 7th. I'm gonna write him a letter wishing him well.

>> No.6450304
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6450304

>>6449597
>'It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.'

>Shadow of the Torturer begins and ends in front of a gate

>> No.6450398

>>6450288
what address will you write it to?

>> No.6450496

>>6450250
you're god damn right.

>> No.6451138

>>6449423
>Frankenstein? what is Brave New World? what is the Time Machine?
19th century genre fiction.

Literary fiction didn't exist as an art from until 20th century authors perfected navel-gazing

>> No.6451863

>>6450304
Wolfe sempai was really into blurring where the begeining and the end are, due to the whole death being life due to ressurection.

>> No.6451872

>>6449541
no she's just a hipster snob

>> No.6451877
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6451877

>>6451138
>Brave New World
>19th century

>> No.6451887

>>6451877
Do you not understand that those were all b8 comments?

>> No.6451904

I remember when I first came to /lit/ there was a GRRM thread everyday. Every once in a while someone would make a Shadow of the Torturer thread and it would get a few dozen replies. I thought the idea of writing a book about a torturer was very strange. I thought it would have a lot of gardens and intrigue in it, because of the 1st ed cover, and wasn't completely wrong. I didn't pick it up until I'd been posting on /lit/ for a couple years, and was blown away. His books just make me feel like I'm in a strange dream. Some of his short stories fall quite flat, I got a third through "Endangered Species" and gave up. "Gene Wolfe's Book of Days" was better, and "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories" was pretty amazing. You anons should give those a try.

>> No.6451914
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6451914

>>6451887
Much of the time the board reads like one long screed of b8. I've stopped attempting to separate it from the actual opinions.

>> No.6451915

>>6451904
I've read his Best of short stories, some 500 pages. Island of Doctor Death is one of the best short stories I've ever read, so many things going on.

>> No.6451929
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6451929

>>6451914
In Wolfe threads baits are pretty obvious

>> No.6451930

I've been trying my damndest to get my hands on an Island Of Doctor Death ebook, but no such thing seems to even exist.

>> No.6451931

>he nonetheless dredges up some truly obscure words: cataphract, fuligin, metamynodon, cacogens

>cataphract

come on, step it up new yorker

>> No.6451933

>>6451930
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4395088-the-best-of-gene-wolfe?ac=1
I've read it in here.

>> No.6451936

>>6451931

I knew the meaning of "fuligin" because we have a similar word in my native tongue. It describes the black stuff that forms on the inside of chimneys. So I figured "it's gotta be something black."

>> No.6451938

>>6451931
They don't even play Warhammer 40k

>> No.6451951

>>6451936
And then he tells you what it is anyway

>> No.6451953
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6451953

Only Wolfe worth reading is this memeloving fuck

>> No.6451957

>>6450266
Was anyone else irritated whenever Severian talked about love in the first book?

>> No.6451958

>>6451953
Nobody cares about Thomas m8

>> No.6451959

>>6451957

No, why should I have been irritated?

>> No.6451961
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6451961

>>6451958
That's because you're all marxists of poor stock

>> No.6451964

>>6451957
No, I loved those parts.
>>6451961
Why would marxists circlejerk a Catholic author?

>> No.6451975
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6451975

>>6451953

>> No.6451976

>>6451964

I'm neithert Marxist nor Catholic (not even religious really) and I like Wolfe all the same. It's not like only christians can appreciate him, if something is good then it's good.

>> No.6451986
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6451986

>>6451975
I like older Thomas better, he's like a posh gremlin and has a much more memetic appearance.

>> No.6451989

>>6451986
Looks like a used car salesman
>>6451975
Looks like a guy who has important shit to say

>> No.6451991

>>6451989
>Looks like a used car salesman
Which fits his aesthetic perfectly tbh

>> No.6452019

There was a huge hype thread here awhile back, so I started reading book of the new sun or whatever.

It reads like YA fiction with big words. There's really not much literary about it except the vocabulary.

Now I just listen to the audiobook while falling asleep. It's cozy, and fine for what it is... but seriously I don't understand why people hype him here or act like he's some sort of genius.

>> No.6452027

>>6452019

>It reads like YA fiction with big words.

Explain to me how are they similar in any way, and while you're at it I would also like to know your definition of "literary".

I'm not being sarcastic or condescending btw, I'd genuinely like to understand your perspective on this.

>> No.6452192

>>6452019
Because you don't get it. If you only get the language he is too deep for you. Same thing with Joyce, when I tried reading him as a teen I could only get the big words. It takes effort to get dense literature, of course you aren't getting it if you are lisening the audiobook to fall asleep.

>> No.6452202

>>6452192
>hurrdurr you don't like it because you don't get it
>hurdur im so much smarter than you

worst argument ever

>> No.6452213

>>6452202
But I am smarter than you. If I commented for Ulysses "There was a huge hype thread here awhile back, so I started reading book of the new sun or whatever.

It reads like YA fiction with big words. There's really not much literary about it except the vocabulary.

Now I just listen to the audiobook while falling asleep. It's cozy, and fine for what it is... but seriously I don't understand why people hype him here or act like he's some sort of genius." a I'm smarter than you would be enough.

>> No.6452216

>>6452202
He's right though, there are different levels of readership.

The guy cant even articulate his finer points, so that says it all.

>> No.6452219

>>6452213
>implying that I'm the above poster
>implying that Ulysses is on the same level as Book Of The New Sun
>implying
>implyin
>implyi
>imply

(using big antiquated words in place of "normal" ones doesn't magically turn you into Joyce)