How can I create a character separated from society and it's people but not turn him into shadow the hedgehog?
For some background, my character is essentially an alien in a human body who, by extension, cannot fit within society due to his actions (mostly cannibalism). Is there any way I can make him more attractive to my readers?
For one, I'm not romanticizing the gore. It's very done and done. It's more of a horror than anything, but more from the 'monster's' perspective. I'm also having him have a sort of existential crisis in his need to both act on his own urges and the more human urges that his host body has.
Like I said, I'm trying not to turn him into a pure edge character worthy only of a groan from whoever may read my piece, though to a degree I think he's due some edge.
Any ideas on how to make such characters more charismatic and relatable?
Read things like The Stranger or Notes From Underground.
Both contain characters that are distanced from society in one way or another.
Also if you're having an existential crisis, both of these books should be wonderful for you, as both are quintessential existential literature.
Hermits aren't edgy.
Also, why can't he just eat other stuff? He could go live in the woods, hunt animals, and raise lots of crops and livestock.
>>9394024
He can eat other things but they're not as pleasurable as humans.
This is going to sound lame but here's the explanation: he's an alien yes, or rather more like a parasite, but these things take over a host body and when they do they sometimes become overly intoxicated by the humanness of their host. They, by their design, are not made with emotions or feelings or really anything you could attribute to humans rather instead their only drive is that of a parasite: to eat and sustain itself. When paired with a human however they become intoxicated, drunk on the human's emotions and even more so should that host be more charismatic or emotional than others. In some cases, like with the MC until about halfway through, they forget who they are and take on the human identity until they wake up and realize themselves again.
I don't know how much I want to reveal, but to answer your question, basically the parasites take on the host form and continually eat humans so as to overindulge in the drunkenness they get from it. Kinda vampiric but not really.
I suppose they COULD eat other things, but it'd be unnatural for them to do so. Something akin to telling a crack addict to stop.
Dude, everything's a spook, LMAO
Yeah, great "philosophy", Max. Bravo, just bravo
>but why tho xD
Socrates was a fucking child
>Imagine if things are different from what they are xD
Plato was an idiot too
>Things are subjective
Damn what a stupid premise. I can't believe all these "eggsistentialists" have the nerve to act like things like language aren't something that is materially real. Dude, everything has a specific purpose and metaphysik, and it's WHAT I SAY.
>Books about the love of books*
Does Stoner count? It's about the quiet passion the English language and literature.
I cried a few times. Keep in mind, it's also a sad book.
The Name of the Rose
Ficciones?
Post the last thing you have underlined in a book.
>The wraith feels along his long jaw and says he spent the whole sober last ninety days of his animate life working tirelessly to contrive a medium via which he and his son could simply converse
Now what?
>the more she drank, the more she shat
>her cunt became the world
>books helped me overcome my existential sorrow and realize that existence is nothing to hate
>tfw books can't help the fact that I'm just constantly sad for no reason
Try being happy instead.
>tfw stoic forcefield is malfunctioning again
>>9392489
Ray Bradbury explained that this is Beatty's motivation behind burning books in Fahrenheit 451. Because he was well-read himself, he realized reading cannot grant a man happiness.
Why aren't you a nomad yet /lit/?
bougie trash
>>9392505
How tho
they look like faggots
I am a lawyer who works 80 hours a week. I want to quit and write novels for a living. Help me find the courage, /lit/.
Why not just work 40 hours a week?
Whether it's to write a novel or not, working 80 hours guarantees that you live a cucked existence.
>>9392428
dude it worked for john grisham
>>9392428
How much money do you have saved?
Enough to retire today?
If not, don't quit your day job.
>be me
>literally 12 tabs open right now
>7 of them are pdfs of novels / short story collections I'm reading simultaneously
>usually just read a page of one then skip across to another
>end up feeling restless
>tell myself it's actually yet another book I am actually interested in reading
>find a pdf for Kafka's "The Trial"
>read two pages
>feel restless and jack off instead for four hours
>11pm
>panic
>write 300 words for a potential novel
>resent the fact it's midnight
>go to bed angry and frustrated that my genius is being crushed
>use words like "late capitalism" to vent my frustrations
>tfw I don't know what that is
>tfw I don't know what anything is
>tfw haven't read a book in this calendar year yet
nice thread
>>9392415
Noice thread, mate. I got some noice lulz. Is that how most of /lit/ feels and does?
>study for an exam for hours
>check out /lit/ every once in a while
>hope a good thread pops up among all this shit
>it's a worthless autistic 'be me' greentext by a retarded animposter
>tfw
>>9392391
I know (believe) you to be wrong
get fucked kiddo
>>9392391
All belief is knowledge
All proof is belief
Give me one reason why Camus was wrong and there is inherent value and meaning in life.
>>9392289
We can't know nothin.
Why would 'inherent' value be any more valuable than 'assigned' value?
Imagine if an angel descended to you from the heavens right now and decreed that the true purpose of life is to fart 100 000 times. If you stink up the room this number of times, the purpose for which you were brought up into this world would be fulfilled. Would you immediately busy yourself with eating beans and BRAPing all day long?
>inherent
Dasein nigger
Where do I start with him /lit/? Is he a meme or worth the while?
The guy's famous for making lists of books.
What do you think?
He's a meme, but in a good way. Literary autism personified. Start with the Western Canon. As a critic he's a bit shit lately, though, and quickly approaches Scaruffi-tier.
I've been trying to read more this year but I'm always having trouble finding books I'm genuinely interested in.
What are some books that you think everyone my age should read or books you wish you had read at my age.
Thanks.
>>9392249
Camus
The Stranger
The Plague
>>9392253
Thanks, I've read the Stranger which I liked a lot and plan on reading more by Camus. I'll try The Plague next.
>>9392249
Demian by Hermann Hesse
Give me some comments about the works of Dostoevsky that are useful for faking having read him.
I read The Gambler a long time ago but don't know much anymore, except that winning when starting gambling is a sure sign of impending doom.
I want to impress a girl that's all brainy and stuff and likes Dostoevsky to quite some extent, she even wrote a scholarly paper in a medical journal about some scene in The Brothers Karamazov.
That's pathetic, my man
>>9392241
Trying to trick someone who knows a great deal about a book into thinking you've read it is retarded and you're likely to stumble into getting caught.
However since you're a faggot you probably deserve to get caught.
Wait until she asks you what you thought of The Grand Inquisitor then kiss her on the lips.
>>9392355
No it's a way of making conversation without spending hundreds of hours I don't have reading ancient books.
ending was a bit weak no?
>>9392238
It's a shit book shilled by redditors.
>muh violence makes things cool dead babies awesome!!!
>>9392358
There is nothing "cool" about the violence in that book though.
>>9392238
no.
I'm halfway through it. Any thoughts on this book concerning the current political climate?
>>9392215
The Alt right users of Pol literally carried out its tactics unconsciously
>>9392242
Interesting. Do you have any examples which tactics they unconsciously use?
>>9392242
>unconsciously
heh heh heh so (((you))) think...