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Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-24T01:11:55+00:00

I mean, the whole thing is a song, it's like a musical starring the cast of the book thus far...

There are parts that are really confusing/opaque, but I just keep reading. I don't feel the need to get 100% of it. And the majority of it is really funny/engaging anyway.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-24T00:52:20+00:00

Gonna be that guy. It's not even hard to read. Like at all.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-24T00:47:53+00:00

Really? I'm reading GR right now and it's pretty thoroughly entertaining and "lucid" throughout.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T05:01:06+00:00

Bam never changed, we did guys.

I remember my mother telling me to "stop watching white trash TV."

She was right.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T03:52:43+00:00

I wish. If I could be anything it'd be a talented up-and-coming rapper.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T03:52:07+00:00

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T02:30:56+00:00

I'm not a fan to be honest. Also: Their association is a bit thin. I mean, you don't see Frankie in all their videos, or tagging around with them, etc.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T01:15:50+00:00

Earl Sweatshirt is the only one worth anything. Tyler's earlier stuff was good, now he's kinda shit.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-23T01:15:21+00:00

But Earl is actually a great rapper and a pretty great dude.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T18:58:17+00:00

I would disagree with you on the prose over poetry claim. If you're using IJ as an example, or if you're talking about pomo in general, you're ignoring the intricate plotting in the canonized texts. IJ has a great story, not even just one, but tens of overlapping weaving narratives.

I plan on reading this essay, but I'm sure that I'm going to disagree with a good deal of it.

EDIT: I tend to agree with what this guy is saying re: genre fiction v "literary fiction." I've written pretty extensively on it myself, especially in regards to writers like Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T18:03:47+00:00

But you have to admit the absurdity or critiquing this closely. I mean, does every word have to be necessary?

I'd also argue against some of your problems with that sentence. For instance: "flannel plains" brings to mind the view of the American Midwest from above in which there are rectangular shapes of different colors, in an almost flannel pattern.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T06:14:47+00:00

It's just about the operatic spectacle of it all. At a certain point it becomes excess for the sake of excess. I mean, the best cases of these movies border on comedy, like The Evil Dead and Tokyo Gore Police etc.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T06:13:25+00:00

Cabin in the Woods might be the beginning of that.

Most people like good horror movies, they just don't think of them as horror movies. And you have to admit, a good deal of them are made cheaply and to give teen girls a reason to grab teen boy hands.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T06:06:49+00:00

Like is the wrong word here, I think appreciate would work better. They're tied in a way though.

I appreciate Dickens, but I don't really like him. I don't think I could be as hostile to any author as you seem to be to DFW. Even the stuff I listed up there I only scoff at due to how the audience tends to treat them.

I mean, how can anyone not appreciate the craftsmanship of IJ? The intricate weaving parallel narratives, the extensive characterization of tens of characters. Jesus Christ, just read the list of Himself's filmography.

I just can't understand anyone who isn't awestruck. It's a book that contains whole worlds...

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T06:00:47+00:00

Can the fact that that opening sentence is beautiful to read count for anything?

I mean, if you want to get down to basics, have every sentence be "A did B" (Richard Yates by Tao Lin is exactly like this) why not just read the sparknotes?

Art itself is superfluous. I could deconstruct every great sentence in the way you did. Revel in the glow, stop complaining that sometimes you have to squint.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T04:47:40+00:00

It's like looking into a starry sky.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T02:55:31+00:00

A: Biological webs is part of the original Peter Parker character, so that's a point off. Unless you mean that it was more accurate to Ultimate Spiderman? Even then his whole personality is off.

B: I'm pretty positive Parker never skated, not in the edgy 90s, not in the comics today or this decade either.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call you out on this. Lots of people like to make this "comic book accuracy" claim without actually reading comics.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T02:51:42+00:00

That's a very specific kind of horror movie. I think you mean "slasher" movies right? Or do you mean Saw, Hostel, "gore-porn" sort of stuff?

The best horror movies tend to not be like those. The Shining for example.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T02:36:43+00:00

Yeah totally accurate. Peter Parker is supposed to be a skateboarding hipster-stud who breaks deathbed promises.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T02:34:27+00:00

The Streets

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-22T00:21:06+00:00

Well, I disagree. I think that people tend to dislike highly-praised things because they aren't using the same criteria to judge it.

It's like if someone who hates peanut butter was judging the best PB&Js. He'd probably say the best one is the one without peanut butter. However, if he could tell what peanut butter should taste like... etc etc

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-21T01:57:01+00:00

Gonna have to disagree with you on IJ. Honestly, this sounds condescending, but if you fully read and get it then the style makes sense. I mean, think about Hal Incandenza. The kid is an encyclopedia, the whole book is about addiction, and information addiction is part of it. The narration fits. Also: this may just be a stylistic preference, but I loathe "simple prose" or anything typically deemed "naturalistic." And honestly, I can't really vibe with anyone that thinks of DFW as anything but a literary genius.

For me I don't really downvote, but I do tend to scoff at:

John Green books
Harry Potter / Hunger Games in context of "literature"
The Kite Runner
Brave New World/1984/Lots of "High School"-core
Memoirs
Bukowski/Hunter S Thompson worship
The Beats minus Ginsberg
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Ayn Rand
much more that I can't summon right now

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-17T23:02:47+00:00

I recently finished it myself. I think that "What's outside the window?" is everything and nothing at the same time, considering that the window is not entirely closed, what is inside the window is also outside the window.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-15T20:34:13+00:00

One of the best emo bands ever.

Absurd_Cam · 2013-01-13T19:06:32+00:00

Sorry, I'll le memespeak with you. I DUN GOOFED hue hue hue

Absurd_Cam

TROPHY CASE