Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1996. page

>>9022382
just write a tough guy novel with some abstract themes and send it to gordon lisch to cut up for you.

Be careful about who you take writing advice from in general.

As much as I love /lit/, I don't value any writing advice or criticism I see on here.

For one, you kind of need some creds to be giving out writing advice, which most everyone on the web in general won't have. Those who have probably won't be eager to give out a lot of advice, because they'll be busy fucking working.

Even if you do find someone who's got some cred, their opinion may or may not be valuable to you. Like....Stephen King thinks that Hemingway was an awful writer, so that goes to show you there's no accounting for taste either.

I wouldn't take any advice at all, unless you know exactly who it's coming to, their credentials, and if you actually value that person's opinion.

In short though, this is why most writers will just tell you to do your thing, find out what you like to write, write what you want to write, try new things, and have faith in what you like, and don't worry a lot about what others say. Really the best advice you're going to get.

>>9022400
>>9022414
So in the case of those writers/editors whose opinions you do trust (rather than random internet folk), would you be willing to pay for editing or feedback?

My initial thought was, if I had a writing group or friend group, it could operate on more of an "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" basis, but I doubt that extrapolates well to strangers/professionals.

For one, he never resorted to the terrible "greentext" form of writing, which tends to dissuade people from taking one seriously.

>virgin
>syphilis
Now wait a sec!

Because he is actually right, I cant care less about his sexual life and social habilities when the guy singlehanded flipped philosophy upside down

>>9022301
Forsaking the time-honored rule of staying put when lost, Ambrose struggles against his disorientation physically and figuratively. He starts and stops, retelling his own story as he does so. In one telling, he dies among the dimly-lit passageways recounting his tale to the dark and being transcribed by the operator’s daughter. In another, he becomes an operator himself, with the flick of a switch showing “what was up in every cranny of its multifarious vastness …” (Barth 97). In attempting to navigate the maze, Ambrose is attempting to wrest control of the story from Barth. Rather than floating down the Lazy River of his story, Ambrose strives to give it order and make sense of it. He deconstructs the pitfalls of the Funhouse, but nevertheless is not immune to their hindrances: Ambrose “explained to her, in a calm, deep voice his theory that each phase of the funhouse was triggered either automatically, by a series of photoelectric devices, or else manually by operators stationed at peepholes” (Barth 92-93). This interplay between author and character drives home one of Barth’s most perennial ideas throughout the collection: that a story is not just a collection of words arranged in a definite manner with definite meanings and definite ends. Barth at once is the story’s progenitor yet seems to have little control over its unfolding, even to the point that he exhibits open distaste for it: “Is there anything more tiresome, in fiction, than the problems of sensitive adolescents? And it’s all too long and rambling, as if the author” (Barth 91-92). This relationship can be, and is, extended to include the reader.
The maze of mirrors is a metaphor for Ambrose’s uncertainty towards who he is. On a more macro level, it is also a metaphor for the unavoidable game of Chinese Whispers that is played out during the transmission of ideas. While lost, Ambrose “wondered at the endless replication of his image in the mirrors, second, as he lost himself in the reflection that the necessity for an observer makes perfect observation impossible” (Barth 94). By using italics, Barth signals the “ ‘outside,’ intrusive, or artificial” voice which reminds us that we are observers looking upon our own imperfect reflections (72). We view the events- the cognitive dimensions of Ambrose’s situation- through the lenses of our own minds, and therefore impart our own idiosyncrasies to them: “no matter how you stand, your head gets in the way. Even if you had a glass periscope, the image of your eye would cover up the thing you really wanted to see” (85). Barth’s story is altered by Ambrose, whose story is in turn altered by the reader.

reads like an undergrad paper.

>>9022303
This idea is introduced in “Night-Sea Journey,” wherein a “Heritage,” ostensibly an idea, is dependent on the act of being received and results in something at once related and removed from its progenitor.
In addition to meaning lost in translation, Ambrose’s nature creates in him a detachedness which is echoed by the reader. During his experience in the tool shed, Ambrose strives “to be transported, he heard his mind take notes upon the scene: This is what they call passion. I am experiencing it” (Barth 84). The reader is in a similar predicament- striving to fully and empathetically understand Ambrose’s situation but separated by a degree of reality.
Lost in the Funhouse walks the fine line between pretense and platitude. Barth’s use of self-reflexivity meshes well with his position that the audience co-authors any story. By illuminating the “levers” that guide us through a piece of literature, he gives us the power not to avoid a story’s traps but experience them first-hand.

we also read Marquez (read by plebs, really understood by few) and the Pillowman, which I loved.

>>9022277
a better question is why do you guys keep posting that cover. they changed it because too many people thought it was a bit too gratuitous.
It's black with a fuzzy white crucifix now

>>9022277
because I'm NRSV masterrace

>>9022289
Lattimore and NRSV are almost identical; lattimore's omitting the verse numbers and Mark, Matt, Luke, John Gospel order to better emulate the original texts, among small, negligible text differences

why wont anyone respond to my shitpost

>>9022228
hahah holy shit i got quads

I didn't think much of him or his poetry until I read a biography of Samuel Beckett. It said that when the Nobel prize committee called him the only thing he had to say was "How much?"

>>9022167
thrills

Dramatic irony.
Suspense.
Foreshadowing (with subtlety)
Withheld information.
Rhythm of both action and prose.

Boris Valejo cover art

>>9022130
Is this good? My friend gave me a copy but I haven't cracked it yet.

>>9022144
At first it seemed pointless but when I finished I realized it was probably one of the best books I had ever read
You can tell Bolaño was a poet, and not a purple one
The last chapter was my favorite, sadly, is not really a finished work

>>9022144
It's pretty brilliant. Don't give up when you think it's getting boring.

>>9022109
He looks like a supervillian

>>9022115
Because he is

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If you have to work you aren't intelligent enough to read

abdicate

Floccinaucinihilipilification

>>9022098
Stop it.

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>>9022000
Does this work for you?
The MC doesn't actually succeed, but hey, he tries.

Unironically my diary, still work in progress though mane.

>>9022009
Will it be to posmo for me? I havent read pynchon or DFW

Yes, keep going.

>>9021953
if you're already having trouble, you're not ready for it.

The first 200 pages set up the story with the 10 or so primary story lines. If you can't get through that you need to work your way up to this book.

I recommend reading V first as it deals with similar themes and a similar structure while also being more concise.

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Enid Blyton's "Shadow the Sheep Dog" might be more your speed, OP.

>>9021859
lol

>>9021859
read Teatro Grottesco and report back

>>9021906
I'm already done with this on the very first fedora tipping story.

>>9021766
Oblomov.

they should probably just kill themselves desu

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I've just started part two, the how to help a hikikomori portion of the book.

The Spooky Scrotum

is "the eyes of the dragon" any good? Im considering it

>>9021763
the early books. when he starts to deliver 500+ page novels, it all goes downhill. The Stand is good until the explosion 2/3rds into the novel. i'd say stay away from anything after the mid-80's. well, The Green Mile was neat. try to read it as chapbooks. i recently read Joyland and it felt deflated, anemic King. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is probably the worst thing i've read in ages. i hear the new Hodges trilogy isn't bad, but i doubt i'll give them a read.

>>9021760
Get a job as security guard or a night shift in a hotel desk, or any job with lots of downtime and fuck all supervision really. Working surrounded by books does not mean you're gonna be reading them at work.

>>9021768
This probably. I paint and listen to audiobooks all day.

It's a job like any other, I don't think you'd have time to read, but it depends on the location, how busy it is. At least you'd be closer to books, and maybe you'd be able take some with you. You probably also need previous experience, and oftentimes a degree.