These are the books I've come across most often here. I've

Yeah. Before you won't have read the book. After, you will have read the book.

Every decision changes your life in an equally trivial way. Stay at home and masturbate forever.

>>8987766
in the minute way that casting your eye across the page changes your life, in that your eyes had not been cast prior, yes, it will change your life. guaranteed.

Not if you get them with those covers

>>8987774
>>8987782
>>8987791
who knew lit was so hilarious

No meme, if you make the effort to read all three, even better if you enjoy them, I'd reckon yes, it would change your life in some small way. They are pretty much the three "big books" of Western Contemporary literature. Infinite Jest is like a thesis on postmodern American culture, Gravity's Rainbow is a bible of new age and counterculture, and Ulysses is the epitome of the modernist experimental novel.

If nothing else you'll gain a lot of knowledge on a lot of subjects you may have never cared about, at best you may stoke a new interest in the arts or have some identity shaking epiphany.

They're read for a reason. They're just books but they all justify the critical (and 4chanical) praise.

>>8987766
not Infinite Jest
the real jest is that DFW tricked people into reading a hyberbolically infinite book that really isn't worth anyone's time

>>8987807

False

>>8987803
> They are pretty much the three "big books" of Western Contemporary literature

lmao meme harder bro, Ulysses sure, but nobody cares about the other two outside of america

>>8988954
When they first came out, i can find academic work on Pynchon and Wallace in my uni library now. I found was a ten year old thesis on Mason and Dixon. Wallace and Pynchon are well respected outside of the US.
You meme harder now.

>>8989415
Not to defend their point but no, it's true that they're nearly unknown outside of US culture

>>8989468

They belong to US culture, how could they be known outside of it? Both are known here (UK) by people interested in literature, if you want to put it that way. Casual readers (yes I know by definition they're interested in literature) would unlikely know them, but they're not the audience anyway.

wat about atlus shrugged

>>8987766
>will they change your life?
Yes
IJ will make you like tennis
Ulysses will make you like farts
GR will make you like bananas

>>8989415

lol Just because they're being studied that doesn't make them the "big books of Western Contemporary literature”, they just memed to beyond in this site because they're somewhat difficult to read (along with positive things like how very well written they are and their complex composition), I mean I have read them both and I really like them both, but there’s no way they are as relevant and consolidated as Joyce and his work, hell not even close.

If I didn't like the first 50 pages of Gravity's Rainbow, would I like the rest of it?

>>8989415
You sound like a fucking retard. Please read Elements of Style before posting any further.

>>8989627
Even in lit UK is still an outlet for US culture (sorry), I meant it's true that unlike Ulysses they're virtually unknown in literary circles elsewhere in Europe, and in the non-English speaking world in general. For good reason. Pynchon isn't easy to translate and Wallace is irrelevant out there.

>>8987766
I've read IJ, loved it. I read the Ulysses prerequisites and loved them even more (Odyssey, Hamlet, Dubliners, Portrait...), and am reading Ulysses now and I love it. I have a copy of Gravity's Rainbow which I'll occasionally open to a random page just to get a feel, and it looks pretty good, I'm excited to read it.

The only people I see genuinely bashing them are people too pretentious to like them. They have some preconceived perception, and validate themselves when they reach the first sign of imperfection (by their somehow superior standards), think to themselves "I was right... again." They put on their McDonald's uniform to go to work, and kiss their English degrees on their way out the door. These are the only people I see bashing these 3 books.

>>8989668
I'm about 90 pages in. Assuming you are literally 50 pages in, at least read to page 60
http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/rainbow.htm
Page 60 there I mean. That chuck from 53 to 60 is dope, specifically the last page. That website is a good resource too, there's another one like it somewhere.
I've heard that it gets easier to understand what is happening and who is who and how they relate as you go along, but that the writing gets more difficult. Can anyone confirm?
I'm not really having a hard time.

>>8989738
Can you tell me about these "Ulysses prerequisites"? I'm currently reading Dubliners, and of course I was planning to read the Odyssey next, but I'm wondering if there are more works I "should" read

>>8989795
I was reading Portrait anyway, just to see if I enjoyed Joyce, and I loved it so much I finished through Dubliners. Then I decided to read Ulysses, and there are threads on here at least once a week asking what the prereqs for Ulysses are and Odyssey and Hamlet kept coming up so I read those while my Ulysses copy from AbeBooks was shipping.

>>8989891
Did reading Hamlet improve your enjoyment of Ulysses in any way?

>>8987766
No. Those are just some popular english based books. if you are not americunt you have no interest in reading them, and dont make someone says otherwise

>>8987766
yea, you'll read them and realized you wasted your fucking time.

There are some genuinely moving and wonderful parts to Ulysses and Gravity's rainbow (I have not read Infinite Joke), but overall they are waaaaaay to long for what you get out of it. I'd cut 200 pages out of both.

>>8989415
they arent even translated here

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we need to accept that into meme pantheon

>>8989924
>joyce
>americunt

you also don't seem to speak english, what made you think you should give your opinion?

>>8989468
>>8989627
>>8989662
>>8989669
>>8989929
I wasn't defending the notion that they are ''the great books'', i was saying that they do have merit and are recognized in literary circles around the world (I'm not from the UK). Even GR are and IJ are imporantant works outside of the US, just not as well know or 'important' as they are in the US.
Allthough i would say for 20th century American lit, Delillo is better known and as far as influence is concerend, i think both Mann and Proust are way more important for Europe (allthough not as influential as Joyce). I couldn't really say how influential the American post-moderism was on the european tho.
And yes, i do know that the world is larger than just Europe and the US.

>>8990112
>and IJ are imporantant works outside of the US
No. Infinite Jest has only recently been translated to German and French, for instance, and as it turns out nobody cared about it.

>>8990162
And yet, does anyone care what the 90s were like for France and Germany? Show me a French or German novel that
A. critiqued the contemporary culture
B. is read anywhere outside the country of origin

>>8989767
It becomes a lot clearer by part 2, especially as Slothrop becomes more clearly the central narrative.

>>8990056
>hurr durr i read only novels writen in english, i am so patrichun guys do i fit in already
kill yourself

>>8990392
That's entirely beside my point. Infinite Jest is not an important work outside of the US at the moment, and it will presumably never be.

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>>8989638

>DUDE FOOTNOTES LMAO

>DUDE REFERENCES LMAO

>DUDE QUIRKYNESS LMAO

>>8990908
/lit/

Ulysses is difficult to understand without an archaic dictionary. I've even had trouble finding definitions on the internet. You get to learn about Jews, masturbation, alcoholism, cuckoldry, and whores in turkish graveyards.

>>8988954
>nobody cares about the other two outside of america
>>8989468
>they're nearly unknown outside of US culture
lol who cares about anything out the US

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>>8987766