This is how I discovered BotNS. The cover and title stood out to me so much that I had to check it out. One of the most beautiful things that has ever happened to me
Nice to see Stoner on the list too. And also, nice to see Anna Karenina above War & Peace. It's the better novel.
Little disconcerting to see Cormac McCarthy ranked over God, but ok I guess.
While also having its fair share of idiot contrarians, /lit/ is probably the best place on the net if you want to discuss literature without mainstream shlock being held up as great works too often instead.
Tells you how bad everywhere else really has become in the post smartphones + social media internet. I want the old internet back god damn it.
Is it though? I haven't been there in almost a decade but back then it was easy to derail diacussion and neonazis and incels were in every thread. It was still better than most subs here which kind of speaks about the quality of reddit subs that aren't niche fandoms in general.
The main thing that makes /lit/ better is that actual literature is being discussed. There can be a lot of shitposting in the threads, but there are a good number of on-topic posts as well. And the people have authentic opinions.
Most other places on the net are a non-starter if you try to discuss literature. It's all mainstream garbage and parroted opinions. Corpo shill hellscapes.
A lot of /lit/ are English grad students so that would check out. Also, like, this is the Gene Wolfe sub. Everyone here's at least a little bit of a snob.
Brave New World I found almost unreadable, prose was abhorrent. I get it as assigned reading in school but as far as classic dystopians go, it ever getting compared to 1984 is insane to me, the difference in quality of the writing is night and day.
I also respect Kafka but find reading him a slog. I get the significance of The Trial and Metamorphosis but I don’t think I’d ever want to re-read either and them being in the top 100 of all time just feels like a shout out to his influence, but I’m sure there’s plenty of people who do really enjoy reading him.
Glad to see Mishima getting some love, but some other big Japanese authors would have been cool. I prefer Kobo Abe as someone who feels inspired by Kafka and I think his work surpassed, and that the one book by Murakami fell off is kinda disappointing, especially when I don’t think Kafka by the Shore is the best of his work (I’d put any of the trilogy of the rat, wind up bird, or hard boiled wonderland all above it without a doubt).
I agree about Brave New World. I think it is a seminal work, but not to my liking. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" is the superior - and most accurate - dystopian novel.
Stoner is a masterpiece, I'd recommend it to anyone, but is getting some incredible love sitting 11/100 GOAT. It's a very quiet work, surprised to see it strike such a chord.
It was rediscovered a few years back by the literati, so perhaps recency bias as a supremely well-written book that a lot of 4chan posters have read.
There are a lot of good books on the list. Maybe... some of the guys posting there have good taste in literature even if we don't share the same views on everything?
None - but there’s a cartoonishly glaring lack of women authors. A list like this without _Beloved_ at a bare minimum in the top 10 is fundamentally a joke on some level
I'm not sure what you mean. Neurodivergent is a wide spectrum and most authors probably won't disclose or identify by their divergence. It isn't really a representation issue like excluding women, who are half the world's population, and generally self identify as such in passing.
Well my fellow man of culture _tips fedora_ you might be interested to know that the book of the new sun was actually a manuscript from the future and even contains a real play! It too is not a “book” in the proper sense, despite the ironic title!
Also, pretty sure when I read Hamlet, it was in Book form.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate that BotNS beat out the other two “fantasy” books, by some guy named Tolkein.
/b/ and /pol/ deserve to be isolated but any redditor trying to play holier than thou against 4chan for simply existing as a platform has some learning to do imho
I found out about Gene Wolfe on 4chan's /lit/ years ago. BotNS hasn't gotten any worse with age, so no surprise it is still highly regarded.
This is how I discovered BotNS. The cover and title stood out to me so much that I had to check it out. One of the most beautiful things that has ever happened to me
BotNS has been sitting on that top list for a decade now I think, no surprise really.
Nice to see Stoner on the list too. And also, nice to see Anna Karenina above War & Peace. It's the better novel. Little disconcerting to see Cormac McCarthy ranked over God, but ok I guess.
Secularism at work.
While also having its fair share of idiot contrarians, /lit/ is probably the best place on the net if you want to discuss literature without mainstream shlock being held up as great works too often instead. Tells you how bad everywhere else really has become in the post smartphones + social media internet. I want the old internet back god damn it.
Is it though? I haven't been there in almost a decade but back then it was easy to derail diacussion and neonazis and incels were in every thread. It was still better than most subs here which kind of speaks about the quality of reddit subs that aren't niche fandoms in general.
The main thing that makes /lit/ better is that actual literature is being discussed. There can be a lot of shitposting in the threads, but there are a good number of on-topic posts as well. And the people have authentic opinions. Most other places on the net are a non-starter if you try to discuss literature. It's all mainstream garbage and parroted opinions. Corpo shill hellscapes.
For real, the times I've looked at it there was no substantive discussion, just weird politics.
Very interesting, because that list mostly reads like a list of "books my professors told me were great."
A lot of /lit/ are English grad students so that would check out. Also, like, this is the Gene Wolfe sub. Everyone here's at least a little bit of a snob.
Little bit of a snob? Username checks out.
What books on the list do you see as undeserving of the term?
Brave New World I found almost unreadable, prose was abhorrent. I get it as assigned reading in school but as far as classic dystopians go, it ever getting compared to 1984 is insane to me, the difference in quality of the writing is night and day. I also respect Kafka but find reading him a slog. I get the significance of The Trial and Metamorphosis but I don’t think I’d ever want to re-read either and them being in the top 100 of all time just feels like a shout out to his influence, but I’m sure there’s plenty of people who do really enjoy reading him. Glad to see Mishima getting some love, but some other big Japanese authors would have been cool. I prefer Kobo Abe as someone who feels inspired by Kafka and I think his work surpassed, and that the one book by Murakami fell off is kinda disappointing, especially when I don’t think Kafka by the Shore is the best of his work (I’d put any of the trilogy of the rat, wind up bird, or hard boiled wonderland all above it without a doubt).
I agree about Brave New World. I think it is a seminal work, but not to my liking. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" is the superior - and most accurate - dystopian novel.
Stoner is a masterpiece, I'd recommend it to anyone, but is getting some incredible love sitting 11/100 GOAT. It's a very quiet work, surprised to see it strike such a chord. It was rediscovered a few years back by the literati, so perhaps recency bias as a supremely well-written book that a lot of 4chan posters have read.
There are a lot of good books on the list. Maybe... some of the guys posting there have good taste in literature even if we don't share the same views on everything?
None - but there’s a cartoonishly glaring lack of women authors. A list like this without _Beloved_ at a bare minimum in the top 10 is fundamentally a joke on some level
Yeah, there's also not enough inclusion of neurodivergent authors.
I'm not sure what you mean. Neurodivergent is a wide spectrum and most authors probably won't disclose or identify by their divergence. It isn't really a representation issue like excluding women, who are half the world's population, and generally self identify as such in passing.
No one has cut to the chase yet, so: *New Sun* is placed at #26, right between *Faust* and *Dubliners*.
Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow deservedly in the top 10.
Why are plays in there? Hamlet is not a book. It is a play.
Well my fellow man of culture _tips fedora_ you might be interested to know that the book of the new sun was actually a manuscript from the future and even contains a real play! It too is not a “book” in the proper sense, despite the ironic title!
Also, pretty sure when I read Hamlet, it was in Book form. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that BotNS beat out the other two “fantasy” books, by some guy named Tolkein.
Btw There is a published version translated by Gene wolfe. He got three things wrong but other than that it's solid.
And the Iliad is an oral history, not a novel by a reputable publishing house! What an outrage!
As much as I hate to say it, the point of these lists is to seem cultured. Putting Shakespeare on there will do that for you.
Titus Andronicus is a better pull. Or Coriolanus. 👾
[удалено]
It's /lit/, not /b/.
/b/ and /pol/ deserve to be isolated but any redditor trying to play holier than thou against 4chan for simply existing as a platform has some learning to do imho
Stoner at 11 and the fucking Odyssey at 17, what is the point of posing in this way?