Why don't we have any literary geniuses anymore?

women =/= femininity. the feminization being complained about herecis largely the combined result of male domination of the representation of women combined with unrefined reaction formation against the norms propounded by those representations.

>not all women
Why does someone always feel the need to point this out?

It's like if I said that people are born with either XX or XY and you said "nuh uh there are people with Down's syndrome that have an extra chromosome"

Post-Modern industrialization of education has crippled western culture and the cultivation of potentially great minds. Capitalism has become a hulking, monstrous, parody of it's own self, and now humanity is it's main food source. Things could definitely be worse, but as far as expecting the cultural environment that creates artistic genius to exist anywhere in the west is foolish.

There may be one or two in this new generation coming up that may be such an individually driven intelligence that he transcends all trends and influence to create something that can lead a new way.

He's just a pedophile dude, chill out

What are you trying to say? Feminity is a real thing and is mainly biological. The fact that women raise children and get fucked cause an entire web of psychosexual traits that are basic expressions of the mating process. Everything revolves around sex. Culture can be changed, the underlying reality of sexual dimorphism cannot.

>Tao Lin
>Murakami
>Ta Neheisi Coates

Check m8 OP.

Kekd

They're just good, not genius.

>Tao Lin, Murakami
>good

gtfo

>women are emotional
Can we end this meme? Women are thought to be more sensitive because they like to fake emotions to manipulate people. At their heart, women are sociopaths and most of them are not capable of the type of deep feeling men have.

I agree.

t. women

I sense a red pill circle jerk's formation.

I'm sure there are but it's tough getting published. John Kennedy Toole, who had a lot of potential, killed himself after ACOD, and he didn't even manage to get it published.

this is what i think of whenever i see that pic of rimbaud

They all became musicians

I dont care if you hate his message and general flavor of niggerdry, Kendrick Lamar is the greatest millennial word-writer-and-sayer (since music isnt literature and you contrarians dont think rap is music), period.

lel no

Kendrick is just a trendy nigger who regurgitates safe, mainstream politics for an audience of milquetoast liberals who want to consider themselves tolerant

He says nothing that hasn't been said before.

Continental philosophy has wasted many capable minds.

Okay

We do.

You can say the same thing about analytic philosophy

Philosophy in general has been a waste of thought and effort but it's littered in the past with figures like Plato, Descartes, and Nietzsche. 20th/21st century philosophy is a special type of shit

>literal 19th century evopsych

back to your phrenology charts

Tao Lin will write a Great Novel someday.

Name some.

Do I have to?

It's true though
>inb4 everything is culture and humans are rational and we can make social progress to deny natural facts etc etc
Pure ideology

Well, if you know any genius writers you should want to share them.

Not exactly hard to be noticed as a genius poet in an environment where education is limited and the population is low whereas today you have millions of professors all publishing their work in journals and books etc. so it is harder to sift through.

Because DFW died in 2008.

Cormac McCarthy.

1. He's not THAT good
2. He's 83. Not really fresh blood.

there are many literary geniuses. But societal pressure makes these would-be amazing authors into average engineers or lawyers. thanks a lot STEM

And he's still writing books.

The inevitable result of global capitalism is to eliminate wonder and beauty and turn human beings into cogs in the machine and slaves to the demands of ever-progressing technology.

We REALLY need to fix this. People are idle and depressed because they are pacified by distractions. Western society is so weak now that Muslims could very likely come in and conquer us because they actually have the will to do things.

We do. All the time. They just aren't special no more.

You can tell things are shit for literature when the only great recent writer you can think of is 80 years old

>"these are not times of strong change"

>Obama presidency 2008 (based primarily on change)
>Trump presidency 2016 (based primarily on change)
>the middle east is imploding, possibly creating the scene for WWIII.
>atheism hits the mainstream, more than doubling in size and causing a new existential panic
>climate change is destroying the planet
>alienated young men going on shooting sprees
>the economy is at a rate of stagnant growth and the falling rate of profit could mean an end to capitalism
>automation sure to come in the next decade or 2
>Mars colonization planned for the next 5 to 10 years
>cyber technology invading everyone's privacy and changing the face of warfare

Not times of strong change?! Who are you? Howard Dean? Bill Maher? Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Mitt Romney?

false

All I read was
>globalism has continued on its course
Our society is characterized by boredom and general continuity. Nothing stands out. Art, like the rest of the world, is continuing on the expected path. It's not like the Industrial Revolution. Even the Internet hasn't done much but pacify us. Also
>presidency based on change
>implying anything changed or will ever change unless we overthrow the retarded, corrupt American political system
>implying Trump will be allowed to change anything

Mmmm… fair enough. Although, could it be said that the best among the many are geniuses? And, by proportion, there will always be literary geniuses? Or has genius status been something that has eluded the global population in recent years?

What bout Junot Diaz? He´s great and not that old

>just saying false xD without giving any examples
Let's face it. Art is shit now.

There will not necessarily always be geniuses or great art. People tell themselves this due to the just-world fallacy but genius is partially crafted by the environment. Make a constricting environment and genius will not flourish.

We all know what this means, comrades.

Feminization prevents people from taking risks in favor of a cushy Last Man lifestyle. Fuck this. We need some kind of stimulator, like a real conflict, or a famine, or a revolution. Conflict and struggle is what makes us great and is the only thing worth pursuing. Everything atrophies without struggle.

>black man writing about being black #2234242
>good

I think you mean:
Tao Lin "will write a Great Novel" someday

you are a postmodern moron

The types of people who used to become poets in previous generations now become musicians due to the extreme ease of recording music on your own, relatively recent emphasis on artful lyrics in more countercultural genres of music, and the explosion in breadth of music genres, record labels, "cratedigging" culture, and internet reviewers. But then they become entrenched in the music world and never move on to writing novels. Also, the younger generations' brains are retarded by technology and they lack the concentration to sit down and produce something meaningful, much less consume anything meaningful. Finally, the last big counterculture, hipsterdom, was based on irony and re-appropriating older culture. It isn't ingrained in people's heads that new art is on the horizon, save for perhaps in music. Capitalism is to blame.

relying on a wikipedian understanding of evolution to justify your misogyny is what is ideological—calling you out on it is merely critical. i haven't endorsed any of the positions you're at pains to ascribe to me.

Thank you, I try my best.

Music has had the same thing happen to it as other forms of art, a kind of homogenous diversity. The music now is usually regurgitated and sensationalistic. Especially postmodern hipster "experimental" music.

But I do agree that poets are likely to become songwriters. Poetry always had a musical quality that academic literature types are fine with ignoring, even though poems of the past were meant to be read aloud and sung.

>misogyny
I have yet to hear a coherent argument other than that you got your feelings hurt. I'm not a misogynist. I just recognize differences between the sexes and provide an explanation for why they exist. That's not ideological. Your fanatical support of egalitarianism doesn't hold up to scrutiny or you would have used a real argument.

Is Ben Marcus a genius? Probably not but he's pretty good. Is Joshua Cohen a genius? He probably is honestly but his attitude is kind of grating. DFW was a genius. Vollmann is a genius for sure. Is Tao Lin a genius? No but he has a ton of natural talent and is probably the first person to do something new with prose since DFW.

>Philosophy in general has been a waste of thought and effort
possibly the most pseud comment I've ever read on Veeky Forums. Like how can you be this retarded?

it's true tho, philosophy as a project has basically run its course, and amounts to 2000 years down the drain

>these are not times of strong change

dog it's 1968 Pt. II

>We need some kind of stimulator, like a real conflict, or a famine, or a revolution. Conflict and struggle is what makes us great
i agree with this 100%
the 'struggle against capitalism' doesnt count either

Will computers generate the next genre-defying piece of art?

well u could try moving out of ur mom's basement for stimulation, before you call for world war 3 and nuclear armeggedon to save us all from feminization, try moving out first

Are you 10? Do you seriously not remember life before smart phones? That alone has created a significant change in how society functions.

Be glad you live in a world so comfortable that you can be bored.

>Implying Detroit isn't the exact situation you're talking about, complete warfare and downfall of society

Where are all the great Detroit artists and philosophers user? Where are all the great Somalian and Sudanese Renaissance men to lead the new millennium?

The idea that hell and destruction creates great artists and thinkers is an old pleb meme that never had any connection to reality. Plato lived a cushy silver-spoon life and the biggest trauma he ever experienced in his life was watching a loud homeless guy getting arrested once

Most of the modern "memes" on this board are undoubtedly geniuses.

What you're looking for are the writers who won't be either recognized or discovered until after their death. Don Delillo wasn't known at all until one of his fan boys befriended someone on the National Book award Committee.

If you want to find someone like that, you have to look. You can't search among the lists of Macarthur fellows or browse through articles in the New Yorker.

You immerse yourself in all the self published trash on Amazon. You buy books you've never heard of at used book stores because they look interesting. Do this for months, even years, and maybe you'll find this one writers who's good, really good, the desk they wrote a being exhibited at the Smithsonian in 100 years good.

But this might not happen either. I've been around for twenty-three years and I've found two people that can really think for yourself. The first thing people do now when they hear of something interesting is to look up the opinion of someone else, find someone who sounds smart and then regurgitate whatever they said, whether it's accurate or not.

Why don't we? we have nigger culture now. Where NWA gets inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Where equality trumps exceptionalism. We have no standard of excellence because "everyone is great in their own way" and nobody is bad for any reason whatsoever.

Fuck this gay earth. Hemmingway would roll in his grave if he only knew what has become of us.

I've also been looking for the next don delillo. have you come close in your searches at all?

Agree with a lot of what you said but DFW wasn't a genius. He was talented, exceptional, pretty close to a genius, but i don't think he was.

He took a few half-assed ideas and ran them 1000 pages into the ground. He was too caught up with the literary tradition to really think for himself; and it shows in his work.

That's what bothers me. I doubt has this board has read infinite jest all the way through, probably a few short stories, maybe Oblivion, wasn't Good Old Neon so sad ?? :'''(.

All he did was take negative character attributes and try to turn it into something literary. Everything he ever wrote could've come from the macbook of some really smart 14 year old had they read everything ever considered post modern.

Im the new literary genius, if everything goes right you guys should be hearing about my novell in about two years
AMA

Ray Torkelson

Don't know if i spelled the name right cause i don't have the book with me.

he self-published two books on amazon. One was about a small town supposed to be the small town where he was a school counselor. The other one is set way back in a Colonial Puritan town and is absolutely mind-blowing.

Found him on Amazon a while back. I don't know if he's still on there. Google Ray Torkelson and see if you find anything. He's from Kansas, Augusta or something like that.

>Only one enemy left; Two if you counted God.

There is.

Public schooling, mono-culture, ideas have been exhausted and everything is DROPPED when your sensibilities are offended.

Yeah, I mean Krasznahorkai, J. Erpenbeck, Jacques Roubaud, etc are all chumps. Give me that old boy school shit.

>Why don't we have any literary geniuses anymore?

We do.

We don't have kids who can read anymore.

who are your two?

I agree entirely, circle jerk formation or not.

I wish experience had taught me otherwise.

>i doubt this board has read IJ all the way through

can we stop this meme, I read it when I was literally 15, its not difficult and it only takes a modicum of interest of discipline to get through, especially if you go on Veeky Forums often and see people referencing it. I think the reason so many people perpetuate the "IJ is hard to get through" meme is so they can feel better about their own "accomplishment". Its just a book.

Also, as much as he was a meme he was also a genius. There is no other writer who so perfectly captures the ennui of the pomo cancer. He was a pathetic loser, but IJ is a masterpiece.

can someone explain this meme please? I googled the phrase and the only thing that came up was a reddit post referencing the meme.

because of his time in harar?

everything worth saying has already been said, often dozens of times over

There no standards anymore.

Here's a smiling David foster Wallace to my express my gratitude for this response.
Well earned, user.

I think you mean:
Tao Lin will write 'a Great Novel' someday

You're such an idiot saying this, lyrical content in music is at an all time low, even in indie music or non mainstream, you're not gonna find it anywhere in rap either.

Pick up a fucking book, maybe a poetry book

>The really talented writers of this generation are writing in that other genre variously theory, criticism, or continental philosophy.
I roughly agree, but I think instead they are busy writing memes and shitposts on the internet. Anonymous is the new Joyce. The new Ulysses is my diary desu.

>no more latin emphasis

>no more focus on the Greeks and Romans and the pantheon with all its glory (Ovid, Virgil,)

>no more philosophy taught in schools when children hit 13/14

>no more theology taught

>0 emphasis placed on nature by any modern ideas and thus one of mans most important novelistic and poetic connections and spiritually is all but severed

>1000 distractions abounding in technology and entertainment, why read when you can play and play for your whole life

Other people have said it as well but education being dumbed down and all the cultural and philosophical aspects being butchered for more practical purposes kills any hope of having young artists with immense skill at a massive level.

I disagree with you for exact reason you consider him a genius.

I'm not detesting Post Modernism as a whole. And i don't know how you can call PoMo cancer and still hold that opinion of DFW.

He was so embedded in the Post Modern tradition that his work became trite and uninspired. His work contains very little literary innovation. He took the catalogs of Pynchon and Gaddis, set them to a formula, tweaked it a bit, and set it at the base of everything he ever wrote. At least Vollman added a little bit of new depth to his works. DFW comes across as a student who wrote a book for a class that was taught by Gaddis and Pynchon.

But go on, I'm interested in what you have to say.

You know he kept writing after girl with curious hair, right?

I read it when i was about that age too. I didn't say it was difficult, i just said that most people haven't read it. But i also get the impression that most people on this board don't read a lot in general.

DFW honestly got me into literature. But when i decided to go back and read it again, i was tremendously underwhelmed. Maybe you hold this high opinion of DFW because you read it so long ago. You might go back and reread him.

And what led me to say most anons on this board haven't read it is because i almost never see it discussed. But i also never click of DFW threads cause they're mostly memeing, so there may be some observation bias there.

I know that you should get your head out of your ass and say something worthwhile.

A guy I've met here at uni in philosophy club and one of the girls i dated in high school and my dad. So three i guess. I guess maybe i should start talking with older people.

Yours?

Excellent post.

Why should I when your post reads like a stephen a smith rant about david foster wallace? You use absolutely no evidence in your post and show no substantial knowledge of literary theory or conception of postmodernism.