Ever feel like you don't get these old books about "alienation" because everything in them appears normal? Maybe the authors lived through a different pre-industrial past but as far as I'm concerned it's normal not to pester others with your inner struggles, to not know your neighbors by name and to engage in faceless trade. I can't really compare it to anything so it feels like the author is complaining about the weather. Kinda dull.

this book is not about alienation it's about a starving man.

>>24517068 (OP)
i think hunger was a bigger problem for him also whats with americans thinking this is a doomer book when it very clearly is a comedy

>>24517079
Very shallow reading. Food becomes available to him in many occasions but he refuses to eat for self-image reasons. E.g. not eating at the homeless shelter because it's "unbecoming" or not asking for money to avoid being seen as a bum.

It all goes back to how his desire to impress other people (from who he is alienated) comes at the cost of his physical wellbeing.

>>24517081
I'm not an american. Also authors in the past didn't care to make their books strictly funny or strictly sad. That's TV programming logic. A book can be both.

>>24517089
>tv programming logic
did you ever read poetics by aristoteles? the founding work of western literary theory

>>24517104
Writers don't care about post-hoc categorizations of autistic philosophers. They just create. All classical works that have been described as "comedies" or "tragedies" involve funny and sad elements. (Dante's Inferno is considered a comedy).

>>24517107
quite a bold move to use the quantifier "all", how many greek tragedies did you read? I'd love to hear what comedic elements you can find in Aeschylus for example. also Dante's epic is actually referred to as the divine comedy (inferno is just the first part of it), he himself named it simply "comedy", but besides maybe a couple lines in purgatorio there is really no comedic elements in the work so we can probably assume the appellation was somewhat ironic so shit point nonetheless

>>24517068 (OP)
These old books? Which others are like hunger from that time period? The book is like a fever dream because of the protagonists derangement.

>>24517120
Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus. Very existentialist and introspective writers but I often don't understand what they're comparing our world against. Herman Hesse did affect me though, he has a timeless way of presenting things.

>>24517068 (OP)
Starving to death because you're unable to let go of your pride and degrading yourself further and further is an every day occurence to you, anon?

>>24517085
you are seeing things that aren't there because you unable to appreciate art. point of a book is enjoying the art not seeking some bullshit fake made up "deep" thoughts that you are taught to seek.

>>24517068 (OP)
Why is no one pointing out that he felt alienated because he's not a Christiania native?
He's a Norwegian in Denmark, of course he felt out of place.

>>24517224
Christiania is modern day Oslo, retard. Not the antifa commune in Denmark.

i found it funnier than depressing, i related very well to his pride and romantic rejections

>>24517085
You have no idea what you are talking about. When you have gone what he has gone through then come back and talk about it.

>>24517085
You are obviously correct

>>24517198
>>24518083
Bait or you didn’t read it

>>24517107
>Dante's Inferno is considered a comedy

i thought i got it fine, but hunger was just an okay book so there wasn't much to get. it certainly doesn't deserve its reputation as a classic of modern literature. the growth of the soil on the other hand is one of the greatest books ever written. there's absolutely no indication of how mind-bogglingly good growth of the soil is in hunger. might as well be different authors.

>>24517198
One of the lowest IQ posts I've seen in 10 years on this board. It's sad because I can tell it's not bait either.

>>24517068 (OP)
That's why I thought it was hilarious: it was remarkably relatable. I recommended it to my dad and he thought it was one of most miserable books he ever read.

Yeah well he would have felt better if he stayed at the anarchist commune, chud.

>>24518083
some people just don't make it. look at this moron >>24519215 10 years of browsing a literature forum and he still doesn't understand what a novel is.

>>24517129
Nothing about what you talked about relates to these other writers. Closest comes dostojewski in terms of being extremely feverish but it doesnt resemble any of the points you made on why you cant relate to Hunger.

>>24517104
Did Knut Hamsun ever read poetics by aristoteles?

>>24519896
>>24517198
>>24519309

Are you all autistic? Do you seriously read a Dostoevsky and walk away thinking it was a "feverish russian doomer aesthetic vibe bro" and nothing more?

The characters are clearly all alienated. The protagonist in Hunger struggles to make genuine connections because he is too vain. The protagonist in Notes from Underground has a meltdown in front of his former colleagues. The protagonist in Camus' Stranger is so dettached from the people around him to the point where he can't even recall when his own mother died. The protagonist in steppenwolf is a divorced man in the middle of a mid-life crisis trying to find connection again

You guys should stop reading books and watch a movie or something. If all you care about is aesthetics then books are a waste of time for you.

>>24520202
>The protagonist in Hunger struggles to make genuine connections because he is too vain.
not wanting people to realize you're a big loser isn't "vain"

>>24520239
also, he is completely honest about his situation when he visits that one woman, which results in she thinking he's insane

>>24519217
kek I can see both reactions as valid. I think I got a new perspective in life because of this book

I loved the parts when he started seething at someone because his pride was hurt by an innocent comment and he immediately regrets it to the point of tears when they show him kindness regardless