Books that you hated that were supposed to be "good" lit

pic related

>female writers
lol m8 we just praise female writers so they will shut up and stop complaining, even the likes of Virginia Woolf is worse than Stephen King. Female writers are just in a different class

I agree completely, literally only famous for having a vagina

To the lighthouse is a masterpiece. Woolf had such an amazing comprehension and ability to describe the inner life of her characters in a way I imagine is distinctly feminine-- feeling oriented instead of logic. To dive into the hearts of these characters in such intimacy was great, they all felt incredibly real. Nobody was lampooned or degraded, all were treated with dignity. I love that book. Woolf is one of the great psychoanalytic postmodernists. Also the way the point of departure of the narrative can travel from the edge of a characters thought over a scene and literally move in some kind of mental timespace to the actual place concerned was magical, and the poetry of the prose can really take flight in certain moments. I've seen To the Lighthouse compared with Ulysses for its use of the stream of consciousness narrative, and she does it just as well as James in my humble opinion, and from a distinctly feminine perspective.

Human beings are human beings, they experience things, they have depth, they are capable of profound expression. Quit getting bogged up over gender.

Please stop this.

Jesus Christ if you honestly believe this you should spare us all some trouble and fucking kill yourself. I know this is bait but Time Passes is one of the best pieces of writing of the 20th century.

If you think Virginia Woolf is so bad post some of your writing to show how easy it is to be better than her

Don't tell people to kill themselves even if you disagree with them it makes people not want to care / gives people an excuse to not care - about what you've written

also the "lets see you do better" thing isn't very helpful either

I like Woolf too but you're not helping

>in a way I imagine is distinctly feminine-- feeling oriented instead of logic
>and from a distinctly feminine perspective.
>Quit getting bogged up over gender.
Fuck off, sexist.

no seriously her novels are very shallow, just pontificating on relationships with men and muh vagina why won't men take me seriowssslyyyy

It's all very shallow and only memorable because she copied the stream of conscious thing Joyce was doing, she wasn't even considered much of a writer until the 60s and the feminists went skulking around looking for some female writers to hijack for their cause

> "great psychoanalytic postmodernists"

First, psychoanalysis is a dead meme. Second, she was a modernist and, by virtue of being a modernist, cannot be great. All modernists (and postmodernists) are categorically shit.

Men and women are distinctly different, but neither are better than the other. That is a meaningless idea. That is what I mean.

It seems you didn't enjoy the book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's not a whole lot we can say about either of these things.

if you are this butthurt you must be female or a nu-male lmao

to the lighthouse was terribly boring.
Nice prose and meter, though.

To summarize the woman's trash lit

> muh vagina
> muh depression
> girl insecure about her art
> girls can't make art too! (then makes shit art)
> ugh, men are oppressive
> boring shit about men and women
> women, women, women
> omg muh vagina again
> such sad

>All modernists (and postmodernists) are categorically shit.
That's way too sweeping a generalization. Also many (if not most) of the writers who wrote in so called "post-modern style" were not aware of that concept while writing, they were simply trying to be novel. That idea came after the fact.

>psychoanalysis is a dead meme
Actually its a field of human inquiry. Not sure what books you're reading.

You're super fun at parties, aren't you?

Do you honestly think you've typed anything of substance with this post

every "literary" novel by a woman I've read is this

I enjoy some fantasy and science fiction by female writers but whenever they try to write serious stuff it all just comes down to them projecting their feminism and mental illnesses, they have nothing unique to say

And you're a bit dim aren't you

> ugh im so sick of reading books by lonely white men
> omg yaaaas new young adult coming of age romance sextrilogy

This is a board for literature you dip

Exactly, otherwise it's just super fucking pretentious. Woolf uses the most banal and boring metaphors trying to make everything sound beautiful, but she fails to catch the beauty in anything resulting in cringe trash. Women have no creative faculty, evolutionarily they never developed it. And so everything they do is a shitty imitation of men, but their taste is usually trash too so they imitate the worst of men.

Woolf could write pretty prose I admit that but otherwise she is a bore, has nothing unique to say and her novels aren't exactly strong in characters or themes or plot

I get the impression that some of you are comparing books written by women who take on the victim-hood of being that gender to annoying extents (this does happen of course) with any and all female authors ever. Woolf doesn't fall into that category. You'd know that if you read her, or ought to at least. She's a brilliant author.

Why do I bother.

Can I get a quick rundown on a Woolf tier list?
I need more vagina books on my shelf to grease the slits of my tinder semen demons

>Women have no creative faculty, evolutionarily they never developed it. And so everything they do is a shitty imitation of men, but their taste is usually trash too so they imitate the worst of men.

Is that your pick up line at bars

nah I distinctly remember points in her novels where a male character would tell a female character "you can't write" and other instances of men putting women down

also one of her novels is literally a man turning into a woman

Reading her now for class. Still think she is shit, mate. Nothing interesting to say. Boring style. End of To the Lighthouse is all "muh vagina"

I do pretty well with women actually haha but only because I can humor them. I don't go to bars, that's degenerate.

Have you even considered the culture / period in which she is writing? Men put women down. She experienced that first hand all the time. It didn't matter how obviously talented she was. Also why is everyone on this board obsessed with the idea that men are superior. Obsession with superiority is an indication of anxiety. I get that there is a big ol liberal agenda that want's white males to feel shit for being white and being men, yeah, got it, but this is neither here nor there now, we're talking about a genuinely talented author.

No she is honestly a very overrated writer, a Joyce copycat but with none of the humour, none of the warmth, none of the rich characters and details of Dublin, none of the references to other literature, just banal family and relationship melodrama.

If you want a good female writer try Flannery O'Connor, at least she has something to say other than "I have a vagina and get depressed I wish chad would recognise my uniqueness"

>End of To the Lighthouse is all "muh vagina"

Are you aware that doesn't act as an even remotely meaningful critique

Good for you

Men put men down, that's like one of the most universal aspects of being a noticeable force in any society: someone gives you shit, even when you're the best

I like her prose, but nothing substantial can come out of her stupid philosophy. Reading her essays really turned me off.

>dude life is all about engaging in meaningless acts of vanity and justifying it through art

Usually I would tell to either post your tits or get the fuck out, but you seem to really enjoy and connect with TTLH, book I didn't really enjoy that much, it was also a shitty translation
I want to give her a second chance... Should I try to the light house again or should I get The Waves? Tw seems really interesting

all writers get put down, it's part of the profession it's all banter and criticism

Woolf bringing her vagina into it is classic female victimhood and it makes me respect her less

To be fair, I think Jane Austen is a good writer. But I really hate Virginia Woolf, and most female writers /are/ shit. There is no doubt about that.

The so called "banal family relationship melodrama" is precisely what people praise Joyce for, for bringing the common class everyman to the fore and ascribing mythical significance.

There is nothing wrong with writing about so called "boring normal people". In fact, if you can write about them and keep the readers interest then I would call you a master of the art.

If you didn't like her work that's fine enough. But just say that. No need to exaggerate things.

Flannery is great too btw, I've read.

I read the first 20 pages or so and couldn't manage the rest. Truly the definition of insufferable.

She was an upper class English girl who never did anything interesting in her life except have mental breakdowns so she had little interesting things to write about

If you compare her to Joyce he lived a very colourful life which enriched his writing

>In fact, if you can write about them and keep the readers interest then I would call you a master of the art.
Woolf fails at this

Yes all writers get put down, and male writers get put down, but usually because of the content of what they've written, not simply dismissed for being male. Do you get the difference?

That's your opinion
My opinion is the opposite

You'd be write if her books weren't absolute snoozers, she doesn't keep interest at all

female writers don't get put down for being female, they get put down for feminine writing which is shallow and insipid

Yeah, if a man had written To the Lighthouse I'd still fucking hate it

The problem is that she is part of a trend: women writing shitty stuff

Men don't get critiqued for that trend because we have examples of good male writers

the only good female writer ever might be Jane Austen and even then she isn't that great

You should have said this from the start. "Woolf's stuff is absolute snoozers." Then you'd have a perfectly respectable opinion.
How could a person who is female avoid writing "femininely" as you put it? That doesn't make a lot of sense. You are being bigoted, by the way. "Feminine writing" isn't a very established idea, there's only been a handful of successful female writers (classical literature wise).

.>How could a person who is female avoid writing "femininely" as you put it?
by ignoring her vagina tingles?

I'm not actually against feminine writing by principle, I'd read a feminist book if it was interesting but they just aren't, it's dull safe mediocrity

'feminism' and writing a book as a female have absolutely nothing to do with each other

since about 1970 they have

They shouldn't, but all women have to make shit political, might as well write a book titled "muh vagina" every single time

I'm sure there are plenty of examples where a female author "takes advantage" of that but Woolf wasn't among their number.. her themes are universal and human. If they have a "feminine perspective" then its because she's a goddamn female human being. You can't not be what you are. The critique here seems rather absurd.

I'm sorry but I don't find "I don't need a man I am going to dedicate myself to my art" to be a universal theme

Dude, I think you ought to re-read To the Lighthouse, tons of gender politics, very boring. Virginia Woolf is not only among their ranks, but she might be the first to say "muh vagina" in literature, which is why shitty feminists have adopted her as a hero .

Jesus what is the issue here? I'm a dude and I think to myself often "I don't need a woman I will dedicate myself to my art", and there is nothing sexist about this, it's a simple dedication to my craft that I don't want some outside force to dictate..
How many times are you going to type "muh vagina" before you think it actually means something

If feminists have co-opted Woolf as some kind of hero to their cause then that still doesn't change the original content and character of the author, look how Nietzsche was used in the reign of hitler, people can be used and interpreted and modulated to fit people's agendas, that's not important concerning the actual content

And I hate to break the news to you, but women are generally considered intellectually inferior to men. I'm not a "feminist" but it does bother me when some meathead faggot is patted on the back by his culture for simply being a certain gender without ever establishing the proper respect due to an individual, claiming rights to intellectual or creative superiority over women while doing fuck all to gain it.

>I'm a dude and I think to myself often "I don't need a woman I will dedicate myself to my art"
lol, virgin

Women are intellectually inferior to men. Never met a brilliant woman in my life.

god you really are a snivelling worm aren't you

protip: writing is the same as any other job and you can do it with a wife and kids like most other writers, Woolf was just being salty and going "muh vagina" when she put that into To The Lighthouse and it's shallow self-indulgence

I am a virgin yes did you have something to add to that?
Point in case

Of course you can do it with wife and kids but you can also do it without if you want to, there is nothing wrong about that regardless of gender. I happen to be among those who would prefer solitude to peruse my craft. It's not indicative of gender politics or anything.

Jesus man, consider suicide

m8 you're a virgin loser defending women on the internet, you don't have any craft

Oh my gosh, the white knight is a virgin hahahaha fucking hell

Mate, you gotta stop white knighting

Here's how to get laid: be real about what women are- the inferior sex, read Schopenhauer's On Women for an instant red pill. Then embody what it means to be a man and women will become what they're meant to be in your hands- servile, feminine, etc. Don't bullshit them and tell them you think women are equal but instead do this: tell them you think women aren't equal but that she is superior to the other women you've met and she transcends the feminine species, because women hate each other more than anything so denigrating women but telling them they're special makes them feel amazing, it's what they do in their own heads 24/7. Also take care of yourself, get strong, etc. and you'll get it in soon

Everytime you tell someone to kill themselves on the internet you yourself die a little inside, remember that
I have plenty of craft what do you know about me from this shallow syntax medium, and yeah I am defending 3.7 billion human beings because you are assuming something general and negative about 3.7 billion human beings.

I don’t understand how this comment is constructive, or encourages the reader to think more deeply about anything. It appears to me that this comment’s only purpose is to display the cleverness of the author. Unfortunately, despite the collective efforts of the commentariate, we do get infiltration from those who are apparently determined to give the impression that they are incapable of parsing an entire piece of writing and reading it as a whole.
As has been previously noted (regular readers will be aware) we (that’s the “Royal we” — fellow commenters, occasional contributors such as myself and the moderator team) are engaged in an ongoing attempt to keep the quality of comments at its former impeccably high standard. Sadly, this is more of an effort than it should be.
And as a writer, it is rather tiresome having to try to explain to the occasional numpty who happens across a post basic reading comprehension skills, how to follow an argument when it is constructed long-form and the ability to master data interpretation.
And I’ve just caught up on all the subsequent comments on this page. All the other commenters have managed to make coherent and intelligible contributions that furthered my understanding or gave me something to think about, because they took the trouble to type more than a single sentence. I don’t agree with everything that’s been said in other comments. Quite the opposite in a couple of cases. But at least I understand what was expressed and the intention behind it.

*aren't equal, fml haha

don't tell them you think women are equal xD tell them you don't even think women should vote

I'm genuinely not interested in getting laid but I doubt you can wrap your head around such a state of consciousness. But feel free to assess people's value in relation to that, if you want to remain controlled by social standards.

holy fuck that was pretentious

bro, kill yourself, you're a shit writer and a try hard

that was mind numbing

I found 'To the lighthouse' /comfy/

I understand people getting butthurt about the cliche of a young, struggling artist who suffers from depression, and the poorly inserted Freudian and feminist stuff. But compared to other female authors she's pretty good.

The novel also made me want to be the mommy. I was really attracted to, and desired to be, the mommy all the way through.

Because writing is auto-biographical in nature and if you haven't had sex and some basic intimate relationships with women you're doomed, you just don't have the life experience to be successful writer

Nah, I've been there, sometimes I want to get away from all women but I'm just saying, if you're going to make love to a woman someday you gotta stop white knighting

That's fair enough as your opinion, sex is an important experience. I want to point something out to you though that is also important. Nearly everyone has sex. This doesn't make them smarter automatically. There is still the mind behind the experience which can integrate it into something more poetic or profound. Rednecks fuck like rabbits. That doesn't make them the intelligentsia of the world. And sexless people are still alive, their hearts still beat, they feel and experience. I get tired of arguments like yours.

If you think me saying an author can be a woman and also good is "white knighting" then you're really mixed up.

you will never be able to write about love or sex as well as someone who actually experienced it, if you avoid it any attempts you make to write about it will come across as fake and awkward

Prepare for a bunch of dumb people to be peeved at your simple honest opinion.

no he admits to the books flaws, he just likes it anyway

It's like you're unaware of the concept of imagination.

It's useless trying to convince them. This is merely a thinly veiled incel thread

woah
>66 posts
>no images until

m8 the incel is the one DEFENDING Virginia Woolf

The most powerful parts of fiction are from the heart, drawing on your own life experiences

you don't have that, and you won't be able to write as well someone who does, your imagination is nothing compared to real art

Thanks for the "reality check" bro.

it's just how it is, even reclusive guys like Kafka and Proust had relationships and experienced the highs and lows of life

Yeah, you can't just imagine how a vagina feels, it's a totally new feel man. Love too. hahah good luck using your imagination though, bet you watch porn every night as "research"

Once again you show your shallow nature by ascribing intercourse as the apex of human experience, by which anyone who is deprived of it as lowly and incapable of understanding their own humanity or the humanity and common compassion of others.

Assumptions are fun though so, have at it. It's a free country. I'm clearly just a wash out virgin who knows nothing about life or suffering or the nature of life. Yeehaw. There is only one experience which confers wisdom: intercourse. Everything is base and meaningless in comparison with that monolith. (sarcasm)

we never said it was the apex, but yeah it's pretty important

from all my sexual experience, I prefer asceticism now and sublimation (using my sexual energy for better things) but still, sex is important and sometimes I want it. It's good for the soul

And white knighting like a bitch won't get it for you

If you were wise you'd listen to people with more experience than you

You're not nearly as clever as you think and have A LOT to learn about life

I'm plenty open to people who've experienced things that I haven't but not if they display themselves as proudly bigoted because of some reaction to this or that political momentum.
Encountering people with genuinely unique experiences beyond my preview is exciting, I don't feel assaulted by it. This website however tends to nurture a certain kind of mind.

I wonder if you realize that the soul, when considered as such, is not very concerned with the temporal sexual releases of our biology. Yes, they matter, but only in relation to the depth of the mind which experiences these things. Most people (okay I'm being judgemental now) aren't at that level. They have sex and make children and send them to school and go to church while remaining at a level of consciousness which is "asleep".

...Idk what I'm getting at again but

It's really dumb to say "you havent had sex yet hahah you're an idiot thereby haha"

I mean go ahead if you need the ego boost and compare yourself to me, have at it I will comply with your need for an ego boost, but I'm well read enough, I know myself, I've created a nice metaphysical map of existence for me. It's always going to be an approximation, but that is all knowledge. I can only have faith in my own approximations of existence. I should like you to as well.

But you know, make your jokes. Jokes are fun.

>Encountering people with genuinely unique experiences beyond my preview is exciting, I don't feel assaulted by it.
your reaction suggests the opposite

Well that's up to the replies to make concrete. Tick 0 to 1 with you.

hahaha never made that argument, way to put words in my mouth. I just said to stop white knighting.

You're obviously not dumb. But basically, you somehow ignored all the gender politics in Virginia Woolf, and your defense made you look like a white knight, and white knights don't make love with women, they're abused by women xD

please stop talking about yourself, we have enough pseudo-intellectuals on Veeky Forums

I just want to confer to you a simple idea.

Men and women are like Black and White.

They cannot exist without each other. Their existence in the mind of God, or whatever the fuck congruent new age principle you want to substitute that word for, is as absolute as yours.

I happen to think that things repeat.
Life, consciousness, forgetting,...
Namely re-incarnation. You've incarnated once without any recollection of past. You were nothing once, and now you are something now.

...right so, ...what was your thing? Right women. Women are the otherside to men, guy. They are both in equal standing.
Our history doesn't declare this. But there is probably another history on another planet where the female factor takes hold and dominates the male.

Regardless, forget these things. Humanity is beyond gender, or rather it is both. Acknowledge the female in you. Jung was keen on this. And he was a smart fuck.

I know stuff.

Not beating a dead horse here, the only reason why I enjoyed it is because I was a middle school kid with a wild imagination that wrote a good book for him in a mediocre one. This book is a good example of valuable ideas but mediocre writing. He's simply the first, not great or good, and he's not even the first, just the one noticed.

>He

dude..

> believes in reincarnation

okay, you're a meme now

George Orwell

No, I'm glad someone is finally following the thread hahaha

do you believe in rein-season-carnation?

fuck that fat fuck

This was just Nabokov jerking himself off for 600 pages. A bunch of pretensions quips, writing in different languages every page (we get it Vlad you are multilingual) and the main characters are huge douches