Why don't we have any literary geniuses anymore?

>>8784301
why not you?

sorry i was taking to break

>>8784301

We do. They aren't writing forms you'd recognize as "literary" anymore, though. Poetry, novels, the short story—these have all been commodified to the extent that individual talent and genius is no longer possible there. Instead you just see glorified market campaigns spread out over 1000 pages penned by cheap two-bit MFA grads with three names, like Garth Risk Hallberg. The really talented writers of this generation are writing in that other genre variously theory, criticism, or continental philosophy.

>>8784337
>Poetry, novels, the short story—these have all been commodified to the extent that individual talent and genius is no longer possible there.
That's kind of what I was thinking. Publishers are so focused on selling books that the "geniuses", if they do exist, are being left in obscurity because nobody cares to publish their works and even if they are it will be lost in the steady stream of politically correct confessional poetry and YA novels.

I think that the feminization of literature and academia has also been disastrous.

cause this age doesnt need it, these are not times of strong change.

so called geniuses are always there, but they get social attention only when they are truly needed to help build a new view that will fit the new world. when that world is constant no new views are needed, simply some people who retell the same old story.

>>8784385
Agreed. The sense of revolution has become vague depression and disillusionment. People hide behind irony and avoid actually caring about things

Honestly every day I hope for a major war to shake things up

>>8784301

>Rimbaud
>genius


Are you 15 years old?

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>>8784361
>feminization of literature and academia has ALSO been disastrous
I would say it is the main problem. Women flood literature with their emotions and the rational men start avoiding it, hence why there are a lot more geniuses focused on other subjects but find writing and publishing to be not worthwhile in the West's market full of women and manginas.

>>8784403

Not all women, desu.

Have you read Agota Kristof? Well, I think the good ones are dead.

>>8784403

women =/= femininity. the feminization being complained about herecis largely the combined result of male domination of the representation of women combined with unrefined reaction formation against the norms propounded by those representations.

>>8784419
>not all women
Why does someone always feel the need to point this out?

It's like if I said that people are born with either XX or XY and you said "nuh uh there are people with Down's syndrome that have an extra chromosome"

>>8784301

Post-Modern industrialization of education has crippled western culture and the cultivation of potentially great minds. Capitalism has become a hulking, monstrous, parody of it's own self, and now humanity is it's main food source. Things could definitely be worse, but as far as expecting the cultural environment that creates artistic genius to exist anywhere in the west is foolish.

There may be one or two in this new generation coming up that may be such an individually driven intelligence that he transcends all trends and influence to create something that can lead a new way.

>>8784393
He's just a pedophile dude, chill out

>>8784428
What are you trying to say? Feminity is a real thing and is mainly biological. The fact that women raise children and get fucked cause an entire web of psychosexual traits that are basic expressions of the mating process. Everything revolves around sex. Culture can be changed, the underlying reality of sexual dimorphism cannot.

>Tao Lin
>Murakami
>Ta Neheisi Coates

Check m8 OP.

>>8784446

Kekd

>>8784446
They're just good, not genius.

>>8784457

>Tao Lin, Murakami
>good

gtfo

>>8784403
>women are emotional
Can we end this meme? Women are thought to be more sensitive because they like to fake emotions to manipulate people. At their heart, women are sociopaths and most of them are not capable of the type of deep feeling men have.

>>8784470

I agree.

t. women

>>8784470
I sense a red pill circle jerk's formation.

I'm sure there are but it's tough getting published. John Kennedy Toole, who had a lot of potential, killed himself after ACOD, and he didn't even manage to get it published.

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>>8784301
this is what i think of whenever i see that pic of rimbaud

>>8784301
They all became musicians

I dont care if you hate his message and general flavor of niggerdry, Kendrick Lamar is the greatest millennial word-writer-and-sayer (since music isnt literature and you contrarians dont think rap is music), period.

>>8784503
lel no

Kendrick is just a trendy nigger who regurgitates safe, mainstream politics for an audience of milquetoast liberals who want to consider themselves tolerant

He says nothing that hasn't been said before.

>>8784337
Continental philosophy has wasted many capable minds.

>>8784510
Okay

>>8784301
We do.

>>8784519
You can say the same thing about analytic philosophy

Philosophy in general has been a waste of thought and effort but it's littered in the past with figures like Plato, Descartes, and Nietzsche. 20th/21st century philosophy is a special type of shit

>>8784445

>literal 19th century evopsych

back to your phrenology charts

>>8784446
Tao Lin will write a Great Novel someday.

>>8784527
Name some.

>>8784536
Do I have to?

>>8784531
It's true though
>inb4 everything is culture and humans are rational and we can make social progress to deny natural facts etc etc
Pure ideology

>>8784538
Well, if you know any genius writers you should want to share them.

Not exactly hard to be noticed as a genius poet in an environment where education is limited and the population is low whereas today you have millions of professors all publishing their work in journals and books etc. so it is harder to sift through.

>>8784301
Because DFW died in 2008.

>>8784552
Cormac McCarthy.

>>8784589
1. He's not THAT good
2. He's 83. Not really fresh blood.

>>8784301
there are many literary geniuses. But societal pressure makes these would-be amazing authors into average engineers or lawyers. thanks a lot STEM

>>8784596
And he's still writing books.

>>8784609
The inevitable result of global capitalism is to eliminate wonder and beauty and turn human beings into cogs in the machine and slaves to the demands of ever-progressing technology.

We REALLY need to fix this. People are idle and depressed because they are pacified by distractions. Western society is so weak now that Muslims could very likely come in and conquer us because they actually have the will to do things.

We do. All the time. They just aren't special no more.

>>8784616
You can tell things are shit for literature when the only great recent writer you can think of is 80 years old

>>8784385
>"these are not times of strong change"

>Obama presidency 2008 (based primarily on change)
>Trump presidency 2016 (based primarily on change)
>the middle east is imploding, possibly creating the scene for WWIII.
>atheism hits the mainstream, more than doubling in size and causing a new existential panic
>climate change is destroying the planet
>alienated young men going on shooting sprees
>the economy is at a rate of stagnant growth and the falling rate of profit could mean an end to capitalism
>automation sure to come in the next decade or 2
>Mars colonization planned for the next 5 to 10 years
>cyber technology invading everyone's privacy and changing the face of warfare

Not times of strong change?! Who are you? Howard Dean? Bill Maher? Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Mitt Romney?

>>8784301
false

>>8784637
All I read was
>globalism has continued on its course
Our society is characterized by boredom and general continuity. Nothing stands out. Art, like the rest of the world, is continuing on the expected path. It's not like the Industrial Revolution. Even the Internet hasn't done much but pacify us. Also
>presidency based on change
>implying anything changed or will ever change unless we overthrow the retarded, corrupt American political system
>implying Trump will be allowed to change anything

>>8784630
Mmmm… fair enough. Although, could it be said that the best among the many are geniuses? And, by proportion, there will always be literary geniuses? Or has genius status been something that has eluded the global population in recent years?

What bout Junot Diaz? He´s great and not that old

>>8784655
>just saying false xD without giving any examples
Let's face it. Art is shit now.

>>8784672
There will not necessarily always be geniuses or great art. People tell themselves this due to the just-world fallacy but genius is partially crafted by the environment. Make a constricting environment and genius will not flourish.

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>>8784392
>>8784440
>>8784624
>>8784671

We all know what this means, comrades.

>>8784403
Feminization prevents people from taking risks in favor of a cushy Last Man lifestyle. Fuck this. We need some kind of stimulator, like a real conflict, or a famine, or a revolution. Conflict and struggle is what makes us great and is the only thing worth pursuing. Everything atrophies without struggle.

>>8784465
>black man writing about being black #2234242
>good

>>8784534
I think you mean:
Tao Lin "will write a Great Novel" someday

>>8784672
you are a postmodern moron

The types of people who used to become poets in previous generations now become musicians due to the extreme ease of recording music on your own, relatively recent emphasis on artful lyrics in more countercultural genres of music, and the explosion in breadth of music genres, record labels, "cratedigging" culture, and internet reviewers. But then they become entrenched in the music world and never move on to writing novels. Also, the younger generations' brains are retarded by technology and they lack the concentration to sit down and produce something meaningful, much less consume anything meaningful. Finally, the last big counterculture, hipsterdom, was based on irony and re-appropriating older culture. It isn't ingrained in people's heads that new art is on the horizon, save for perhaps in music. Capitalism is to blame.

>>8784546

relying on a wikipedian understanding of evolution to justify your misogyny is what is ideological—calling you out on it is merely critical. i haven't endorsed any of the positions you're at pains to ascribe to me.

>>8784705
Thank you, I try my best.

>>8784709
Music has had the same thing happen to it as other forms of art, a kind of homogenous diversity. The music now is usually regurgitated and sensationalistic. Especially postmodern hipster "experimental" music.

But I do agree that poets are likely to become songwriters. Poetry always had a musical quality that academic literature types are fine with ignoring, even though poems of the past were meant to be read aloud and sung.

>>8784729
>misogyny
I have yet to hear a coherent argument other than that you got your feelings hurt. I'm not a misogynist. I just recognize differences between the sexes and provide an explanation for why they exist. That's not ideological. Your fanatical support of egalitarianism doesn't hold up to scrutiny or you would have used a real argument.

Is Ben Marcus a genius? Probably not but he's pretty good. Is Joshua Cohen a genius? He probably is honestly but his attitude is kind of grating. DFW was a genius. Vollmann is a genius for sure. Is Tao Lin a genius? No but he has a ton of natural talent and is probably the first person to do something new with prose since DFW.

>>8784529
>Philosophy in general has been a waste of thought and effort
possibly the most pseud comment I've ever read on /lit/. Like how can you be this retarded?

>>8785179
it's true tho, philosophy as a project has basically run its course, and amounts to 2000 years down the drain

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>>8784385
>these are not times of strong change

dog it's 1968 Pt. II

>>8784690
>We need some kind of stimulator, like a real conflict, or a famine, or a revolution. Conflict and struggle is what makes us great
i agree with this 100%
the 'struggle against capitalism' doesnt count either

>>8784301
Will computers generate the next genre-defying piece of art?

>>8784690
well u could try moving out of ur mom's basement for stimulation, before you call for world war 3 and nuclear armeggedon to save us all from feminization, try moving out first

>>8784671
Are you 10? Do you seriously not remember life before smart phones? That alone has created a significant change in how society functions.

Be glad you live in a world so comfortable that you can be bored.

>>8785369
>Implying Detroit isn't the exact situation you're talking about, complete warfare and downfall of society

Where are all the great Detroit artists and philosophers anon? Where are all the great Somalian and Sudanese Renaissance men to lead the new millennium?

The idea that hell and destruction creates great artists and thinkers is an old pleb meme that never had any connection to reality. Plato lived a cushy silver-spoon life and the biggest trauma he ever experienced in his life was watching a loud homeless guy getting arrested once

Most of the modern "memes" on this board are undoubtedly geniuses.

What you're looking for are the writers who won't be either recognized or discovered until after their death. Don Delillo wasn't known at all until one of his fan boys befriended someone on the National Book award Committee.

If you want to find someone like that, you have to look. You can't search among the lists of Macarthur fellows or browse through articles in the New Yorker.

You immerse yourself in all the self published trash on Amazon. You buy books you've never heard of at used book stores because they look interesting. Do this for months, even years, and maybe you'll find this one writers who's good, really good, the desk they wrote a being exhibited at the Smithsonian in 100 years good.

But this might not happen either. I've been around for twenty-three years and I've found two people that can really think for yourself. The first thing people do now when they hear of something interesting is to look up the opinion of someone else, find someone who sounds smart and then regurgitate whatever they said, whether it's accurate or not.

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>>8784301
Why don't we? we have nigger culture now. Where NWA gets inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Where equality trumps exceptionalism. We have no standard of excellence because "everyone is great in their own way" and nobody is bad for any reason whatsoever.

Fuck this gay earth. Hemmingway would roll in his grave if he only knew what has become of us.

>>8785458
I've also been looking for the next don delillo. have you come close in your searches at all?

>>8784771
Agree with a lot of what you said but DFW wasn't a genius. He was talented, exceptional, pretty close to a genius, but i don't think he was.

He took a few half-assed ideas and ran them 1000 pages into the ground. He was too caught up with the literary tradition to really think for himself; and it shows in his work.

That's what bothers me. I doubt has this board has read infinite jest all the way through, probably a few short stories, maybe Oblivion, wasn't Good Old Neon so sad ?? :'''(.

All he did was take negative character attributes and try to turn it into something literary. Everything he ever wrote could've come from the macbook of some really smart 14 year old had they read everything ever considered post modern.

Im the new literary genius, if everything goes right you guys should be hearing about my novell in about two years
AMA

>>8785477
Ray Torkelson

Don't know if i spelled the name right cause i don't have the book with me.

he self-published two books on amazon. One was about a small town supposed to be the small town where he was a school counselor. The other one is set way back in a Colonial Puritan town and is absolutely mind-blowing.

Found him on Amazon a while back. I don't know if he's still on there. Google Ray Torkelson and see if you find anything. He's from Kansas, Augusta or something like that.

>>8784301
>Only one enemy left; Two if you counted God.

There is.

Public schooling, mono-culture, ideas have been exhausted and everything is DROPPED when your sensibilities are offended.

>>8784301
Yeah, I mean Krasznahorkai, J. Erpenbeck, Jacques Roubaud, etc are all chumps. Give me that old boy school shit.

>>8784301
>Why don't we have any literary geniuses anymore?

We do.

We don't have kids who can read anymore.

>>8785458
who are your two?

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>>8784470
>>8784490

I agree entirely, circle jerk formation or not.

I wish experience had taught me otherwise.

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>>8785480
>i doubt this board has read IJ all the way through

can we stop this meme, I read it when I was literally 15, its not difficult and it only takes a modicum of interest of discipline to get through, especially if you go on /lit/ often and see people referencing it. I think the reason so many people perpetuate the "IJ is hard to get through" meme is so they can feel better about their own "accomplishment". Its just a book.

Also, as much as he was a meme he was also a genius. There is no other writer who so perfectly captures the ennui of the pomo cancer. He was a pathetic loser, but IJ is a masterpiece.

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>>8785514
can someone explain this meme please? I googled the phrase and the only thing that came up was a reddit post referencing the meme.

>>8784492
because of his time in harar?

>>8784301
everything worth saying has already been said, often dozens of times over

There no standards anymore.

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>>8785656
Here's a smiling David foster Wallace to my express my gratitude for this response.
Well earned, anon.

>>8784703
I think you mean:
Tao Lin will write 'a Great Novel' someday

>>8784503

You're such an idiot saying this, lyrical content in music is at an all time low, even in indie music or non mainstream, you're not gonna find it anywhere in rap either.

Pick up a fucking book, maybe a poetry book

>>8784337
>The really talented writers of this generation are writing in that other genre variously theory, criticism, or continental philosophy.
I roughly agree, but I think instead they are busy writing memes and shitposts on the internet. Anonymous is the new Joyce. The new Ulysses is my diary desu.

>no more latin emphasis

>no more focus on the Greeks and Romans and the pantheon with all its glory (Ovid, Virgil,)

>no more philosophy taught in schools when children hit 13/14

>no more theology taught

>0 emphasis placed on nature by any modern ideas and thus one of mans most important novelistic and poetic connections and spiritually is all but severed

>1000 distractions abounding in technology and entertainment, why read when you can play and play for your whole life

Other people have said it as well but education being dumbed down and all the cultural and philosophical aspects being butchered for more practical purposes kills any hope of having young artists with immense skill at a massive level.

>>8785656
I disagree with you for exact reason you consider him a genius.

I'm not detesting Post Modernism as a whole. And i don't know how you can call PoMo cancer and still hold that opinion of DFW.

He was so embedded in the Post Modern tradition that his work became trite and uninspired. His work contains very little literary innovation. He took the catalogs of Pynchon and Gaddis, set them to a formula, tweaked it a bit, and set it at the base of everything he ever wrote. At least Vollman added a little bit of new depth to his works. DFW comes across as a student who wrote a book for a class that was taught by Gaddis and Pynchon.

But go on, I'm interested in what you have to say.

>>8785836
You know he kept writing after girl with curious hair, right?

>>8785656
I read it when i was about that age too. I didn't say it was difficult, i just said that most people haven't read it. But i also get the impression that most people on this board don't read a lot in general.

DFW honestly got me into literature. But when i decided to go back and read it again, i was tremendously underwhelmed. Maybe you hold this high opinion of DFW because you read it so long ago. You might go back and reread him.

And what led me to say most anons on this board haven't read it is because i almost never see it discussed. But i also never click of DFW threads cause they're mostly memeing, so there may be some observation bias there.

>>8785841
I know that you should get your head out of your ass and say something worthwhile.

>>8785636
A guy I've met here at uni in philosophy club and one of the girls i dated in high school and my dad. So three i guess. I guess maybe i should start talking with older people.

Yours?

>>8785458
Excellent post.

>>8785852
Why should I when your post reads like a stephen a smith rant about david foster wallace? You use absolutely no evidence in your post and show no substantial knowledge of literary theory or conception of postmodernism.

>>8785791
Kendrick really isn't a bad poet once you get passed the inane style his medium forces him to write in.

And they're plenty of great lyricists out there. Ryan Adams, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell to name a few.

But your opinion is just as valid as mind, even if you are a retard.

>>8785867
Neither does anybody else in this thread faggot.

And there are plenty of points in there you could rip apart.

not the guy you're replying to btw

>>8785878
I really just dont feel like wasting time arguing with someone who misread dfw so badly that he thinks of him as a tweaked pynchon or gaddis.

>>8785836
I just wrote a long post and then my computer crashed :^)

Basically Wallace is more human, Pynchon is so caught up in being clever that none of his characters really feel human.

Also, Wallace's prose is quite conversational. I remember feeling like I was listening to someone talk when I read IJ, which isn't the case for most things I read. Wallace seemed to actually put himself into his work, not just his sense of humour and his intelligence like Pynchon did, but his insecurities and his flaws.

>>8785887
Then you're not contributing anything and are part of the reason lit sucks now

>>8784301
capitalism and overexposure from technology.

Also dfw fans are hipsters who used fake intellectualism to get nervous handjobs inhigh school cause they werent good at anything. U want genius read joyce

>>8785402
he's right though. you just reaffirmed what he said.
>globalization continues

>>8784589
>Cormac McCarthy.
an example of genius. postmodern literature. lmao.

>>8784589
>Cormac McCarthy.
"He ate the last of the eggs and wiped the plate with the tortilla and ate the tortilla and drank the last of the coffee and wiped his mouth and looked up and thanked her."
pure genius. lmao

>>8784301
>Why don't we have any literary geniuses anymore?
Because mass media has taught us to be not fazed by any over-average faggot with a shrewd literary agent. Fuck! Even printed media can't abstain from headlines reading like clickbait.

Mary Pickford was once called the sweetheart of the whole world, or something. Because she was. There wasn't really any other qt players in the world.

>>8784403
What about world-builders with more or less philosophical messages? That seem pretty much literature at it's finest, sempai.

>>8784470
It's quite easy to break this meme. Don't put women on a pedestal. Ever. Not in bed. Not on the town. Not at work. Not at all.

Of course, there will always be essential differences between women and men and one should always show some decorum. E.g. it is not fitting for women to discuss child births at the workplace's lunch table, if there's any reasonable possibility that a man may step into the room or hear them.

>tfw a woman at my job seems to be found of playing the little girl-card at meetings
No more, missus. No more.

>I don't read books published after 2000
>Why don't we have any literary geniuses?

>>8784465
>Murakami
>bad
You're such a special, unique person, anon.

>>8785798
>they are busy writing memes and shitposts on the internet
this pretty much tbqh

>>8784301
>still hasn't read my diary desu

>>8786203
I don't read japanese, so I can't tell. Is he good? Because the translator seems kinda mediocre.

>>8785507
t.Ray Torkelson

>>8785819
Can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find the truth. Many of the great geniuses of the past were extremely well educated, just look at Joyce or Nabokov (the last truly great writer).

>>8784637
>>8785319

>they think superficial changes are actual change

yeah and we stop being the same person when we change our clothes

>>8784457
>Being this autistic
Anon >>8784446 is clearly being sarcastic. Nobody is going to compare Murakami, Tao Lin, or Coates to someone like Goethe, Dostoevsky, or Kafka except for pretentious hipster faggots and SJW "leftist" professors at second rate universities.

The ridiculousness of the juxtaposition of the first three authors that were mentioned in the above post against the last 3 really illustrates the difference in literary merit. To compare any contemporary author to someone like Dostoevsky just seems ridiculous. The best authors in recent history are almost certainly DFW (and I'm not just messing) and the Latin American magical realists (and actually they've kind of died down at this point). Even amongst such figures, however, none of them compare to a lot of the great French, German, and especially Russian authors of the 19th and early 20th century.

>>8786935
*(and I'm not just memeing)

>>8784301

Because we never did.

Evan dara

>>8786935
>is clearly being sarcastic
>trying to explain sarcasm

you deserve to be slapped.

>>8787090
Lelwut? Who is being sarcastic me ( >>8786935 ) or Anon ( >>8784457 ).

>>8784546
>you don't agree with unsupported Grand Unified Theory A, you must be of those unsupported Grand Unified Theory B fucks

>>8784609
>He thinks he's one of them

>>8784301
What does 'a literary genius' mean? What are the criteria for this title? Maybe the humanity has run out of ideas and thus there isn't created anything strikingly insightful anymore.

i havent written anything yet

>>8784301
Probably why I stopped talking to a friend of mine.

Dude gets triggered if you mention books. He can't stand books.

Claimed to me that the only books he read were the ones High School and Uni made him read.

To sum up his explanation, a person when and if they want to be successful can not, MUST NOT stop moving. You are always chasing after that opportunity. Always trying to network. So doing something like sitting down and reading let alone *gasp* writing is a Basement Dweller sport only. He just kind of... Codes all day freelance. Makes a ton of bank doing it but full on -roid rages- if you distract him. This is his existence.

Is he right about the 21st century? Please tell me he's not right.

>>8787451
He sounds like a great character to write about desu. Also wtf, coding all day implies sitting down and not moving. He represents the millennial attitude well but is he right? Idk considering that everyone dies at the end I dont really understand the intense quest for success beyond providing comfort for self and family, but thats just me. What is everyone racing towards? Idk but its kind of funny in a sad way

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>>8787451
That was a little long winded. What I meant to say was that according to his example intelligent, functioning people just kinda flock to the Technocracy. It's kind of what you are 'born to do' if you have book smarts.

>>8784301
Literary geniuses are declared sonafter death. Time will tell what post-modernist and new sincerity works endure. I suspect DFW will be on the list though.

>>8785540
>Erpenbeck

Elaborate on him. Couldn't find any substantial info on his importance.

>>8787451
Oh is he gonna be fucked when he gets divorced.

>>8787490
He just has no poetry in his soul and an excessive desire to be better than other people

>>8784435
>you're either XX, XY or Downs
that's not how it works lad
do you think that Downies are assexual?

>>8787491
Not really. Most literary geniuses were recognized as such by their contemporaries.

>>8785429
You're a retard. It's not the downfall of the society that's great, it's struggle. Detroit is just a bunch of niggers shooting each other for no reason. They aren't fighting for something they believe in. They aren't causing cultural change. They're just caught up in a shithole and are lashing out.

And great culture usually arises AFTER conflict. Western civilization as we know it exists only because of Athens' cultural reinassance after winning the Persian War, after fighting for their freedom and culture and winning against all odds. Same with the modernists after World War I.

>>8785458
>bro just search through thousands of trash books to find one that you like
Capitalism and democratization has ruined literature

>>8785870
>And they're plenty of great lyricists out there. Ryan Adams, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell to name a few.
>calls other people retarded

>>8785798
Correct. Memes and shitposting is the freshest and most original forms of expression in the 21st century. A great meme is inexplicable and inevitable, like a great poem.

Cultural homogenization.

There are effectively three countries in this world. America, Mini-America, and "the third world". And everyone wants to rebuilt the third world in America's image.

>>8784301
The concept of a genius in the way you're talking about it is just a modernist conceit

Bob Dylan

>>8784503
>Discussing lyrical rap without mentioning mf doom

>>8784503
>did a song with Maroon 5
fucking dropped

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>Lives in the era of Last Men
>Wonders why we don't get Great Men

Really transvaluates the ol' neurons.

>>8784385
>not seeing the exponential rise of technology as a time of great change

what a limited worldview you have

>>8785480

DFW was a genius right up to his death: the final act a dark warning to where this society is going.

Let me break it down: DFW represents a terrifying prospect in the modern age. He's a man who had capabilities well beyond the average person, yet, he was bogged down by what we perceive as accomplishment these days. His life was full of trying to appease the people who raised him, of trying to develop everything about him so he may achieve this modern ideal of success by gathering capital to diminish our inherent suffering that's lies dormant for us all. His life as a fiction writer was a direct protest against what was expected of him. IJ was his masterpiece: an extremely long piece of work that shows the tell-tale signs of battering by Post Modernism (i.e the neverending need to feel fresh and big in world immense) that's heavily disjointed and seemingly lacking direction on the surface level, but hinting at an incessant plea for stabilization beneath, the urge to resolve; yet, on the surface. the book never resolves in the way you want it to: it's all left up to chance, up to luck, up to what one ultimately perceives resolution as.

>>8788193
>Joshua Cohen
whats it gonna lead to

also, who are the best fiction writers about technology

>>8784403
this is retarded.

i can understand /pol/ sometimes but hwat?

>>8788043
The idea of genius as we know it was a Romantic thing

>>8785993
Well it was intentional. He didn't write like this because he was an imbecile.

But yeah, not a genius. A non-entity.

>>8788165
is this something nietzschean? i've just begun zarathustra

>>8785993
>>8788485

I just finished BM and you two have no idea how wrong you are...

>>8788347
And romanticism, although early, is a manifestation of modernity

>>8785369
>the 'struggle against capitalism' doesnt count
It COULD count, but people don't really buy it anymore
They're wholly comfortable within capitalist ethics; they balk at anything that smells different because of communism's disrepute

We've tried liberal democracy. It didn't work. But we haven't found the next thing yet and meanwhile people still believe in old, wilted ideals.

There are plenty of literary geniuses around today, they just aren't shown us much on mainstream media as they used to be.

>>8788165
The last 130 years has laid the groundwork for the ubermensch, the dysgenic bubble is about to burst and the ensueing chaos will make eugenics and human-transcendence an inevitability.

>Still sucks that I wasn't born 100 years from now

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>>8789162
Some guys already tried the "next thing"

>>8784301
i cant get over how qt he was

>>8789230
;_;

>>8789230
Every day I remember that the Nazis lost and cry a little inside

>>8789312
>>8789315
fucking disgusting racists

>>8789325
Im not racist
Take racism out of the nazi ideology and it becomes literally perfect desu
>>8789315
They werent perfect but they were way better than whatever it is thats going on now

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>>8784335
Too*

>>8784301
Depends on who you consider a literary genius. My favorite authors are Piers Anthony, Ray Bradburry, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Koontz, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Neil Gaiman. Are they genius? Are comic books considered literature? I'd include Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.

>>8784510
I think you could argue that the ideas he promotes haven't been displayed on such a large platform before though. Sadly, a lot more people primarily listen to music rather than read now

Plus, he creates in such a way that his music is accessible to very different types of people