Thread 24831516

>regular dude
> tough childhood but works hard and finds his way in life
>actually gets to do what he enjoys for a living, even if he doesn't excel at it
>has troubled relationships like everyone
>has problems at work like everyone
>dies of age
I was told this novel was one of the most depressing pieces of literature, it really is just a dude with common folk issues. I get it maybe he struggled and fought more than the average, as well as things not turning out the way he wanted to, but all things considered, his life wasn't awful. He had meaningful relationships and found something he enjoyed. I think it's a very relatable novel but I didn't find that depressing desu

>>24831516 (OP)
I mean you are downplaying it a bit, no? His marriage is a disaster. He gets cucked at work in more ways than one, progress stunted and his one experience of love taken away. His daughter who is his happiness gets sort of taken away at times by the wife who's just out to make life hell with him really. He's made to feel as if he rapes his wife more or less for having sexual urges. His daughter goes astray early and gives him a grandchild, through being an alcoholic essentially and the father of the kid dies. There isn't any extreme tradgedies, just a long line of things not turning out the way they ought to have. It isn't the most depressing, but it is a story of many people living life's of quiet desperation.

Urhmugud if you he got cancer in his pee pee and his wife in the tit and his daughter getting baby cancer, then it would have been real depressing.

>>24831561
Yeah, if you put it that way maybe, but the novel does not do a good job at that at all. This dude barely feels anything or expresses anything or says anything he actually means. He's just numb the whole time and goes throught it, accepting everything shitty that happens to him

Psy op book

>>24831516 (OP)
I notice a lot of literature from about 1920 to 1970 was mostly about people being bored. Like cry me a river dude, you got a wife, children, a home, career and pension. You live in a community of like persons and exist in one the most prosperous eras in history. If you ain't crying about war, or unusually bad experiences, I don't have the time of day for you.

>>24831588
If you're gonna cry at all, that is..

>>24831588
Having prosperity without having prestige or social status to go with it seems to be genuinely traumatic for a certain type of person. This whole genre of literature was made by and for this personality type.

It's depressing because it is so ordinary. Most men and women lead lives of quiet desperation, and that's more or less depressing, so this book capturing it so powerfully makes it especially depressing.

>>24831572
>accepting everything shitty that happens to him
That is also part of the tragedy.

>>24831516 (OP)
If you read Stoner and don't come out of it with anything but contempt for such scum I have no option but to consider you human cattle.

Stoner is the quintessential peasant. That's why he lets life just fly past him, taking no action whatsoever: he has no option, he's human cattle. A peasant cannot be a man of action.

>>24831561

Its depressing because you know things like this happen all the time in real life

>>24831655
>lives of quiet desperation

Where's that from? TS Eliot? Mangling the damned language to make the literary equivalent of a teenaged girl's tumblr post.

>>24831672
Thoreau, another whiny faggot

>>24831686
>>24831672
Yes, it's Thoreau. I see you two lead lives of loud retardation instead, good for you.

>>24831693
Yeah, I don't like to read crybabies, sorry

>>24831516 (OP)
You have to understand that rich cunt who normally "le literature" are fucking nepo baby retards to whomstve this is the most wretched existence known the man, they can't fathom having to actually work or you get evicted, this is worse than death to them.

>>24831672
>>24831686
>>24831693
>>24831725
It's from Pink Floyd dumbos.

>>24831561
>Urhmugud if you he got cancer
Stoner died of cancer thougbeit.

>>24831741
>hANGing ON in QUIet DESperATION is the ENGLISH WAY

>>24831516 (OP)
Most overrated book I've ever read

>>24831628
>Having prosperity without having prestige or social status to go with it seems to be genuinely traumatic for a certain type of person
The only people who would consider that traumatic are narcissists who believe they should have more without having to put in more effort but simply because they view themselves superior to others for acquiring useless knowledge and skills.

God this thread sucks. Stoner is great although Augustus is better.

>>24831516 (OP)
Which Harry Potter saga character is he?
I rather don't know HP from heart, never read it as a child BC my parents were ass broke and I had to keep to Asimov and other r*ssian classics instead of fancy YA of the day.
I met a girl in grad school with profound pubes who thought HP was a 5D chess. If ur reading this I still miss you, G.D.
Anyhow, Stoner gets what he deserves. If you rather not agree, consult 'the art of motorcycle maintenance' which is the 'first person stoner', its pretentious to the extent its impossible. Although the archetype is C.Wright Mills, quite interesting object of study.

i couldnt finish this book on the account of the BITCH wife

>>24831516 (OP)
>Work life ruined by resentful cripple
>Home life ruined by bitchy, self-absorbed wife
kinda based desu

>>24831516 (OP)
>His father finds a proper son, who is a nigger.
Whiteboys lose AGAIN.

>>24831516 (OP)
Dudebro literature, misogynist drivel and ableist propaganda.

>>24831516 (OP)
>I was told this novel was one of the most depressing pieces of literature
real life is depressing

>>24835284
>dude I'm like, so cool I used to BUTCHER ANIMALS but I'M ALSO SUPER SMART BRO
>all my problems are caused by stupid women who don't understand how good I am at sex and deformed people who are evil because they're deformed

>>24835285
The book does not blame anyone for anything or imply that what happened was bad. In fact, the moral of the story was that a failed life can still be a good one.

>/lit/ goes out of its way to misunderstand Stoner, again
The whole book is about the intense difficulty of authentic communication, and the cascade of petty tragedy that often results from our failure to truly reach each other.
It couldn't be more fucking obvious yet you faggots never pick up on this. I can only conclude you're all autistic.

>>24831659
Would it be less tragic if he hopelessly fought against things he can’t control?

>>24831516 (OP)
his wife is not a bad woman, she's confused and doesn't understand, she tries to replicate a schema for living that isn't appropriate and hurts her husband in the process

stoner himself can't speak for himself. it's truly astounding that he can't actually prosecute any sort of personal conviction ever in his life. the first few sentences of the book give you all you need to understand the magnitude of his folly- he is of little interest to those who follow.

that's sad, if you care about a legacy, if you care about creating something that endures, if you care about your life having some "meaning" which we all are biologically incentivized to believe

>>24831516 (OP)
You are right - it’s pretty overrated. The problem is that every life has its ups-and-downs. Choosing what “lens” to view it will obviously colour how depressing or enjoyable it will ultimately be remembered. The author clearly wrote Stoner’s perspective from a stoic passivity, with a cherry picked lens that trended toward the negative, and hence it seems like a life that simply passed-by; as a result, it doesn’t seem “realistic” - as you’ve suggested.
Perhaps it’s better read less as some great tragic commentary on modernity, and more as a warning of viewing one’s life through (and as) one perpetual state of banality.

>>24831572
Wow he is literally me except I don't rape my wife

>>24831516 (OP)
I think it's beautiful. Alas, it was written too late for it to be considered a masterpiece, but it is a realistic portrayal of a man's life, his contrivances, his folly. It doesn't dress it up in any fancy way, and though I do not give a damn about sincerity, it quite literally is a pellucid oculus into human life.

You might as well transition, faggot, because neither you nor foids will ever get it.

>>24831655
I thought the guy that killed himself and many of the other characters expressed this more than Stoner. Perhaps my own bias, but his end and everything leading up to that showed his life as difficult but ultimately more fulfilling and meaningful than those around him. I honestly see Stoner as one of the most misread novels I've come across.

really confused how anyone could view Stoner as a "depressing" novel

literally one of the most life affirming things I've ever read

that life is endlessly frustrating, boring, confusing, and at bottom, meaningless, but nevertheless, still worth it

If only he had a concessional moment.

>>24833409
NTA, yeah but his death wasn't melodramatic. It was a serene acceptance - "yeah, this is what I accomplished (a pedestrian, mildly critiqued book) and the person who brought light to my life still remembers me..." and that was all he had to leave the world with. That's why the book is so quietly depressing, also taking into account Williams himself never saw his success and his name will forever be mentioned with "no, not that John Williams, a different one"...