who here has read the entire meme trilogy? which one is the best?

please explain the meme this triade implies, new to lit here

>>9244822
Gravity's rainbow is the best. Ulysses is boring as fuck. Infinite jest is good but it doesn't belong to be there with these memes. Put in the recognitions for infinite jest. Then the recognitions would be the best of the 3.

>>9244822
read all three. joyce if i had to choose

>>9244822
Ulysses is the best. Gravity's Rainbow is very good. Infinite Jest is only there to keep things casual but it is still a laugh.

Yes.
Ulysses is the best by far. GR is next. Infinite Jest is still off in the stands thinking of whether or not to approach the podium. The Recognitions decides to take the bronze.

>>9244856
IJ is better than that. probably better than GR, it's more entertaining

>>9244843
i'm a regular on /lit/ and i don't really understand why these books are considered "memes". Ulysses is god-tier, GR is better than 90% of the shit you'll read, and Infinite Jest is a pretty good book if you read it with an open mind, and not some preconceived negative perception of it based on anonymous people on 4chan bashing it with zero substantial reasons as to why its bad.

>>9244822
Blood Meridian is probably the best

>>9244843
cant tell if this is serious or not, but if it is these are just three books that have a reputation for being "hard" books to read, whatever that means. Be it length or difficulty of prose. So they are memes because they get spammed here a lot.

>>9244866
Well, IJ sure uses the word "fart" a lot.

>>9244879
joyce called his gfs "little farters" what ur point?

>>9244886
I'm making fun of you, then you made fun of yourself by bringing something up that's not actually included in Ulysses. You're a funny lad.

>>9244891
oh you're that guy. cool.

>>9244822
I think Ulysses is the most "profound" and "high-brow"-seeming. Gravity Rainbow is the most intricate and thought-provoking. Infinite Jest is the most intimate and self-aware in the sense that the themes it explores seem to reflect an awareness of contemporary society and the nature of one's experience thereof (but not in the traditional self-referential pomo sense).

>>9244868
A lot of the hate you see for these books on /lit/ is of course genuine and much of the memeing is of course an expression of nihilistic post-modern disingenuous ironic criticism. However, a good portion of /lit/'s population does seem to have a genuine level of respect for these books and their authors. The problem is that the memeing, irony, meta-irony, post-irony, and disingenuous pseudo-fanboy culture of /lit/ and the layers and layers of trolling, baiting, and shitposting make the "intellectual" landscape of /lit/ so convoluted as to be impossible to accurately discern.

>trilogy
>three entries
I thought reading was supposedcto make you literate.

Already read Ulysses and is really fucking great, Joyce is a beast I dont understand how can someone be that creative and talented at the same time
Just starting GR, I'm already enjoying it, I really liked that passage when he talked about how the banana's dna somehow connected with the guy's dna or something like that, but the regular banana thing is starting to get weird, but is fun I want to how far it goes
as I said in the other thread I dont think I will read IJ, DFW just seems like a complete shit human, and not in a "artsy" way, like, just plain stupid, and I dont understand how that makes any sense because everyone says he was so intelligent
But I already read 2666 so I guess that compensates since it is somewhat of a meme here, but not as much of a meme as IJ
What do you guys think, should I read IJ since I'm on a meme streak?

File: MSS049_IX_gaddis_head_shot_photo_b154_f617.jpg (91KB, 965x1278px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 965x1278px

>>9244846
I second this

>>9244988
i mean... i could see how one could dislike his writing, but i think its much harder to argue that he is stupid. you should just go ahead and read infinite jest and see what you think

>>9245025
I mean stupid in a (please dont kill me for saying this) emotional way
I can have a really hard time relating and connecting and pretty much anything related to human interaction too, but this guy was so far his own ass, in some thread someone posted an interview with him saying something like "yeah I read really avant-garde literature but not stuff like Pynchon thats like so entry level"
Well, a lot of "artists" are like that too, but this guy seems like such an extreme and disgusting way, maybe thats a good reason to check his work

File: Maude_Adams1.jpg (146KB, 564x795px) Image search: [Google]

146KB, 564x795px

They're "memed" for a reason.

Reading and understanding Ulysses will give you a greater appreciation of the world, people and your waking thought. Reading Infinite Jest will have you contemplating suicide. Still, because I grew up on television, because I've felt like Erdedy when I smoked, because Gately and Hal and Michael and Mario are so damn fun to read, because the P.G.O.A.T standing over the baby's crib being the video that leads people to suicide cuz maybe we just need a hug from our mother, and because we really do need a hug and that one scene where Erdedy is forced to hug at an A.A meeting DOES INDEED remind me of my mother... IJ holds a special place in my heart, and I plan on dissecting it and dissecting it. However, while I've read and researched and extensively went through Ulysses and IJ, I have only read through Gravity's Rainbow once without an outside source, so, keep that in mind when I say:

Ulysses is objectively the best. Gravity's Rainbow trails behind, and Infinite Jest even further.

Though Infinite Jest holds a special place in my heart because of its many beloved scenes, the reason I rank the other two higher is because not only are IJ's scenes slightly more penetrable, but even when the scenes ARE penetrable, the benefits are highly lacking to what Joyce can offer. Joyce will definitively give you something worth thinking about outside your own 21st century addiction to television, which is a fucking downward spiral that really makes you sure that DFW did kill himself because of a physical, present, crippling pain, and not just as a career move.

Reading Ulysses, your appreciation of language and writing skills will skyrocket. And to anyone who says its boring, they either don't like reading, or they don't understand that on a first read-through, Ulysses is supposed to be a slog.

>>9244943
>Pynchon
>4chan meme(s)
>Gravity Rainbow
>Shared banana/human DNA

wtf?! Did Pynchon travel into the future, lurk the the fuck out of 4chan, become obsessed with /b/ shitposting, and leave behind subtle hints and clues throughout GR alluding to the great meme of all memes, the naked banana? If that is indeed the case - which I think it is - then everything makes so much more sense... not just Gravity's Rainbow. Not just the nature of infinity, Quantum Mechanics, feminism, the origins of life, Donald Trump, PizzaGate, etc... No, no, no, I mean, everything... Everything. It's all coming together now.

Stay tuned guys. I'll report back with more info as soon as possible. If you don't get an update within 30 minutes, then I'm probably dead. If that's the case, then even reading this probably puts you at risk.

Be safe, and be weary. The Jews are lurking behind ever corner.

>>9245087
Sure is reddit in here

>>9245137
>Reddit in here
More like Reddit in your mothers pussy, amiright?

>>9244988
It's pretty bad. I had to drop it after the AAVE chapter. But it is pretty memecore I would recommend The Recognitions by Gaddis if you wanted a better meme core read.

If you liked Joyce and GR you'll really like it.

>tfw reading GR reminds me I have bananas in my kitchen
Just fix'd myself a banana milkshake to help me ambient better into the books
Why aren't you doing this?
Is like reading Ulysses without smelling farts, or reading IJ without being suicidal and high on weed
Do you guys even like literature?

>>9245235
>had to
spooky

File: 67577261.jpg (59KB, 400x400px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 400x400px

>>9244822
Read IJ, loved it.
Reading GR, it's not my cup of tea. Nice prose, but dense af and hard to follow.
Ulysses is on my shelf but I have some other works I want to get through first.

>>9244943
Well said; I still don't know how /lit/ actually feels about DFW.

>>9244988
see pic

>>9245235
>reads the first 37 pages
>literally 3% of the book
>"it's pretty bad... memecore"
pls be trolling

>>9245280
>I still don't know how /lit/ actually feels about DFW.
Most here probably identify with him enough for it to be personally disconcerting,

>>9245050
Are you thinking of the descriptor 'pretentious'? If so, DFW was extremely sensitive w/r/t being seen that way. I think you might've misunderstood whatever was said in that interview.

>>9244822
>pls be trolling

usually, but not about this. I've read some of this other stuff and know more than I'd like to about him. The first chapter is good, then it just freefalls into really poor, really tryhard style and subject. I would call him pretentious but he's trying especially hard NOT to be pretentious, yet sill wants to a maximalist and a smary-panted postmodernist. This creates a really awkward, almost autistic sort style. And his themes of addiction, vulnerability, and sincerity seem almost hallmarky compared to those of the authors he's often placed against.

Maybe I'll give it another shot someday, but I hope not.

>>9245280
A good gauge of it is how many accurate references are made in jest to the book on the board. That is, i've read enough dfw shitposting to acknowledge that lit likes it rested on the premises that
A) you would've had to read him to make such an accurate shitpost in the first place,
B) lit doesn't have the patience to read something it really doesn't like
(im bad at logic tho)

>>9245087
Shut up Pynchon

>>9244822
ugh i don't have time for IJ
2/3

>>9244822
>picture isn't in chronological order

File: IMG_20170228_104957.jpg (2MB, 2976x3968px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2976x3968px

With regards to these long and conplicated books, how is it best experienced? Other than fantasy and scifi the longest novel ive read was moby dick, but it worked almost chapter by chapter for a lot of it so i could just read a bit per day. Between my readings for class and general studying i worry that i wouldnt be able to devote enough of my attention to one of these. Basically what im asking is how you went through the process of reading+understanding these types of books, a little each day or a lot?

>>9246479
for ulysses it was one moment of not understanding anything for a moment of a great read
I'm on GR and this shit is nuts, and I'm in like, page 15

>>9244891
it's not like Ulysses doesn't have toilet humour. there's a detailed description of Bloom shitting at the end of his first chapter.

Infinite Jest should not be included in there, it's hardly even art

>>9244843
They are the magnum opi of /lit/'s three favorite meme authors: James Joyce, who wrote like a madman and loved farts; Thomas Pynchon, who is a Salinger-tier recluse and conspiracy theorist who loves eating poop; and David Foster Wallace, who was /ourguy/, a NEET, and hanged himself.

>>9244879
So what. So does Gravity's Rainbow, and Ulysses, and The Recognitions

>>9247092
there are so many things wrong with this post

Reading GR (Enjoying it very much), I will get around to Ulysses, I don't feel any motivation to read Infinite Jest.

>>9244822
>calling Ulysses a meme
>when Finnegans Wake exists

>>9247092
"trigger /lit/ in one sentence"

>>9248280
what page of GR are you on?

File: meme trilogy.png (710KB, 1044x495px) Image search: [Google]

710KB, 1044x495px

I haven't read any of them.

File: lit in a nutshell.png (284KB, 500x775px) Image search: [Google]

284KB, 500x775px

>>9244822
This one.

File: art.png (369KB, 1019x918px) Image search: [Google]

369KB, 1019x918px

GR

the end

I Got through about a quarter of IJ and I intend to finish it some day, it's alright. Ulysses makes me want to read a book on the greeks first

All of IJ. I liked it.

Half of Gravity's Rainbow. I didn't like it. I'll revisit it one day.

None of Ulysses. It seems like I'll enjoy it but I'd rather at least read Dubliners first.

I'm not really interested in DFW, but out of Ulysses and GR I'm gonna say GR for my love of the setting and subject, I'm gonna visit Peenemünde this summer
Has anyone here read Against the Day? I'm thinking of reading it next, how would it compare against GR?

File: Gravity's Infinite Ulysses.png (584KB, 500x775px) Image search: [Google]

584KB, 500x775px

>not reading the best version

>>9248622
>no Quran
bigot pls go

>>9245280
>Well said; I still don't know how /lit/ actually feels about DFW.
i think we like him but not his books

>>9248538
Is that the most interesting thing in GR? I feel like it might be, even though I haven't read it.

>>9248622
>bible
>not the Lattimore new testament

>>9248622
>City of God
>not The Iliad

Change that and you got an honest-to-goodness meme trilogy.

>>9244843
It's a retarded meme forced by posters who haven't read any of them.

Calling Joyce a "meme" and putting him alongside two 7/10 authors is fucking insulting.

>>9248613
saved

>>9248732
lol no

>>9248613
>not "Ulysses' infinite rainbow"

File: Ulysses' Infinite Rainbow.png (586KB, 500x775px) Image search: [Google]

586KB, 500x775px

>>9249722

>>9249748
>Ulysses' Infinite Rainbow
>Ulysses'
>'

wew

File: wew.png (98KB, 500x775px) Image search: [Google]

98KB, 500x775px

>>9249758

>>9244846
Hmm, do you think the recognitions is better than JR?

>>9248732
The MOST interesting thing in gravity's rainbow is difficult to say.

I would say Slothrop scattering is most interesting but the best section of the book for me is Casino Herman Goering as everyone slothrop knows gradually disappears.

>>9248732
there's a scene where a guy dresses up in a pig suit and gets castrated

>>9248633
>i think we like him but not his books
I think it's the other way around.

>>9249831
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

I find it amusing that in those, "show off your bookshelves of personality substitutes that you've never read" threads 90% of the posters have at least 2 of these.

I find it fucking weird that there seems to be this wave of negative opinion towards IJ recently.

I remember it being lauded when I first came to /lit/, and when I finally got around to reading it only recently I definitely agree that it's a damn good book. I certainly wouldn't have read 1000+ pages of something that wasn't incredibly engaging.

I certainly hope the more recent opinions I see here don't put people off reading it.

>>9250229
but why did Ned Keep his Testicles?

>>9249811
The Corrections is better than both

>>9248622
>not summa theologica
that would be god-tier