When Wannabe Intellectuals Feel Stupid, They Write Books...

[Brando @$$ Fat]

Gigantic waste of trees.

[Juliet Bravo]

Originally Posted by Brando @$$ Fat

Gigantic waste of trees.

From the looks of it, I agree with you. Who cares if people are pretentious in the literary world? No need to write a whole book about it.

If he got published, then I think I'll try with my:

"A Slacker's Manifesto: An Attack on the Condescension of the Working Class"

I mean sheesh, the nerve of that guy to reference Marx.

[vesaker]

Isn't writing a book about writers being pretentiuos a little bit..... well pretentious?

[KcMsterpce]

It's not even a "growing pretentiousness". That's what annoys ME.

It's been there all the time.

[Scarfather]

Now Dave Eggers. A while back James Joyce. A long while back Voltaire.

Every generation has someone pretentious being pretentious. Whoopy. Print is a large enough medium to read what you want. Nobody's cramming anything down your throat (hopefully, that might be most eminently grievous (HoW PrEteNtIoUs [How pretenious, amigo! {Wha-t a pretentionus cutlicking shitfucker he is, friend. <omg>}]).

[Buck Turgidson]

I wouldn't really call Voltaire or Joyce pretentious. That word suggest that you're trying to be something you're not. While neither of those two (Joyce in particular) wrote in an overtly accessible style, they were both quite highly literate and knew what they were talking about, even if often nobody else really did.

[Scarfather]

Right after I posted I realized that Dave Eggers was the only writer mentioned who actually falls in line with the actual definition of pretentious. I think I was leaning on obnoxious ways of writing instead.

Though it should be noted that Voltaire, and to a lesser point, Joyce, actually had things to say and did say them. I shun my dictionary and pour out the hate when I read prose that comes off as sleek by way of twelve drafts.

Though on another hand, something that is pretentious and/or annoying to one person could be the most profound goddam thing in the world to someone else.

Dave Eggers is a shitty, pretentious fucking writer though.

[The Heart Collector]

If Dave Eggers is your idea of pretentiousness in the literature world, you need to read more.

What's pretentious about "What Is The What"? Goddamn Dave Eggers and his goddamn straight forward, somewhat funny prose.

[Brando @$$ Fat]

The book itself mainly attacks Cormac McCarthy and Anne Proulx. Someone told me about it when I was writing my research paper on McCarthy, and found that the criticisms of his work are all the same. Most of his critics seem to believe that it's somehow impossible to fully understand his books, which is hilarious for the following reasons:

1. It is not so much a criticism as it is a revelation of personal frustration.
2. This kind of criticism is always applied to contemporary authors, otherwise Shakespeare-be-damned if someone attacks an incomprehensible book from another era, like Finnegan's Wake.
3. Two stoners apparently understood one of his books well enough to make it into an Oscar winning film.

The only book of his I ever had difficulty with was Outer Dark, but that was only because he was really vague when it came to describing the villains, which is no surprise because vagueness is something that can be found in most of his books.

[Scarfather]

Originally Posted by The Heart Collector

If Dave Eggers is your idea of pretentiousness in the literature world, you need to read more.

lol

Okay then Betsy.