Does something like this exist in Western literature? An amoral main character with no sympathetic qualities, yet whom you're still supposed to root for?All the examples I can think of a "villain protagonist" either are actually an anti-hero, or you're waiting for his downfall.
Bakkers Prince of Nothing
You've been shilling this shit for YEARS now.
you're describing one i read a few months ago... Beyond Redemption. it was alrightit's a common enough trope. you'd probably know this if you actually read.crazy how a MTL'd webseries flipped the world of literature on its head for you though. i wish i were that fucking stupid
>>25176390>i wish i were that fucking stupidwhy? seems like an odd thing to wish for
>>25176393are you fucking kidding me? read flowers for algernon or something
>>25176394you can't just tell me to read a book on /lit/, anon
>>25176367Against Nature
>>25176398ignorance is bliss. do you not remember being a child? this morning? eating the lucky charms your mom bought? fuck you nigger
>>25176402wow, that was uncalled for
>>25176403sorry i was just kidding
>>25176382This, right down to the cultivation arc and abrupt and disappointing ending.
>another innocent youth insta-mindbroken by a Chinese webnovelWe need to ban them.
Western retards are too stupid to separate works of fiction from their social mores. The bad guy is bad and is not to be rooted for under any circumstances. If you root for the bad guy, you are most probably confused and lacking the media literacy necessary to understand that he is meant to be bad. Otherwise, you must be a bad guy yourself.Unless you give the character a sad backstory. Then he dindu nuffin.
>>25176367
>>25176469You think you're fucking hilarious
>>25176444ccp already did
>>25176367Pop. 1208 by Jim Thompson
>>25176367No. There is nothing like it in Western literature, even in the East, in China it was banned. It's one of a kind.
>>25176402Most of the redditards on here are ignorant.I don't think you want to be like them
>>25176367>Does something like this exist in Western literature?Western... Wuxia? Yeah. Cradle series.
>>25178199neither is wuxia
>Reverend Insanity isn't Wuxia Okay, dipshit.
>>25178513Yeah, it literally isn't. You should really look up the terms you don't know before trying to use them.
>>25178515Is it primarily about daoist cultivation in a fantasy setting?
>>25178517Yes, which isn't what wuxia means. Stop doubling down when a google search just takes 5 seconds, you stupid fucking retard.
>>25178517It's xianxia. Wuxia is just a shitty chinese drama.
>>25178521No one cares about making the distinction between Wuxia and Xianxia here, Chang. No one here gives a shit.
>>25178530>finally realizes he's wrong>"w-well, no one cares"I didn't expect the apology I deserve for wasting my time, but holy shit. Actual fucking nigger behavior.
>>25178530What do you care about then?
>>25178548You're not a chink and you thought you know the term, is it that hard to believe one doesn't need to be a chink to get it right?
>>25178555You do have to be a chink to care about this shit enough to ensure that it gets posted multiple times a day, every day for the rest of time, yes.
>>25178561not your boyfriend, whatever the fuck you're talking about. Take your meds.
>>25178561Fang Yuan is too based. It would be a crime not to post in your cucked western literature threads every day, to remind you just how based he is.
>>25176367The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance. Quite possibly the funniest book I've ever read and I intend to reread it this year. You don't need to read the previous book to get it, the real appeal is Cugel and the situations he gets into, not the setting. The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad also probably counts. The main character is a genocidal maniac but he's worshipped as a hero within the story. It's a very underrated book that was obviously the inspiration behind the Starship Troopers movie adaption but nobody talks about it. I think Michael Moorcock had some explicit villain protagonists in his books but I haven't read enough by him to say. Elric is pretty unlikable but he does save the universe from time to time.
>>25176367My book, when I finish it.
>>25178689When will that be?
>>25178832never o'clock
>>25178860
>>25176404If I were you I wouldn't be kidding. Anon needed a thrashing.
The greatest work of the 21st century.
>>25178199Cradle is a parody, it's not a serious xianxia novel.
>>25179545I. Don't. Care.
>>25179736Agreed. Cr*dle is a terrible series. We shouldn't even discuss it.
>>25179545So is Reverend Insanity, though that fact is generally lost on western readers.
>>25179990Currently reading it, have not read other chinkshit, and I think it's hilarious.
>>25179990To be honest, reading any translated Chinese text without at least cursory knowledge of random cultural artifacts is difficult. Every other sentence is an idiom or a reference to an obscure (in the west) piece of classical poetry or literature. Every saying, or even word, has multiple readings which are often intentionally baked in. Most languages have these features, but few use them so often.This is made worse by people who see that RI is popular and read it without knowing anything about Xianxia in general.
>>25178600The ending is so fucking funny, I really need to re-read that book.
>>25180151>reading any translated Chinese text without at least cursory knowledge of random cultural artifacts is difficult. Every other sentence is an idiom or a reference to an obscure (in the west) piece of classical poetry or literature. Every saying, or even word, has multiple readings which are often intentionally baked in.Maybe classical Chinese texts are like that, but most modern writing isn't that deep.
>>25180507That’s just how the language is even in casual conversation. Every other phrase is an idiom. Classical texts are far worse
>>25180723>Every other phrase is an idiom.Of course it's not, lol
>>25181185you are a frog in a well
>>25181210You are courting death!
Perfume by Suskind sort of
>>25181295>sus
>>25181295I read Perfume, it's not the same.
>>25179990While it is parody of certain elements of Chinese culture, it also contains many original ideas.
I've got a question: why hasn't R.C. Waldun uploaded a video for almost 12 days now?
>>25185851He got banned by ALP.
>>25176367Just go to Reddit or Amazon and look for female erotica novels under the genre "Dark Romance"
AHAHAHAFuck you Reverend insanity fags, it’llNever be finished, you will never get your ending. All those thousands of chapters for nothing!
>>25187460Perhaps the along the way
This entire genre of "literature" is nihilistic as fuck.
>>25187859I've read plenty with moralfag MCs
>>25176367No
>>25178600I like elric.
>>25176389proof?
>>25189770Trust me bro
>>25176382cool
>>25176382It's very different novel
>>25176444Ban what? Chinese webnovels or the innocent youth?
>>25176367Pretty much every decadent novel.
>>25194423Reverend Insanity is peak literature, it is not decadent.
>>25178600>does a oppsie and kills the entire village via failing a curse ritual >he saves the girl>they travel together across the continent >he sells her into slavery at first opportunity
>>25195324
>>25195324This is bait, right?
>>25196731Do you think that it's decadent? Why?
>>25196734https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decadent_movement
>>25196738>an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificialityNot that anon, but how is Reverend Insanity like that at all?
>>25196742>>Does something like this exist in Western literature? An amoral main character with no sympathetic qualities, yet whom you're still supposed to root for?>Pretty much every decadent novel.
>>25196731RIspammer has been doing this since 2019.
>>25196748Why do you randomly assume I'm talking about a post from a day ago?This guy >>25196734asked if you think RI is decadent, and got that wikipedia link as response.
>>25196748>An amoral main character >with no sympathetic qualitiesAmbitious, competent, hard working are sympathetic qualities
>>25196942>Ambitious, competent, hard workingHow does that apply to des Esseintes or other protagonists of decadent novels?
>>25196962I don't think it does, and that's another reason why Reverend Insanity cannot be considered decadent.
>>25187460It's forever ongoing
>>25176367No. There is nothing like it.
>>25176367The Darth Plagueis novel, weirdly enough.
>>25176382>>25176389>He's breaking containmentAt least stay out here, we don't want you back.
>>25201121No, take him back to /sffg/ please.
>>25196738Thank you for spoonfeeding me.
The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay (friend of Jonathan Swift), and its remake the Threepenny Opera, by Brecht. Part of the humor in each work is that the audience is expected, due to convention, to root for the protagonist, Captain Macheath, or Mac the Knife, and want him to have a happy ending, even though he has zero redeeming qualities but we keep getting told how much we should love him
>>25201121Bakkerfag and RIfag should kill each other off for the betterment of /lit/.
>>25176382If you have to recommend genre slop, at least reach for Cugel here. Although he is a bit of a mix since we root for him despite his being hedonist with no conscience who sells a woman into sex slavery for directions, we also derive considerable Schadenfreude from his misery, and his defeat at the end of the first book is as satisfying as his victory at the end of the second
>>25203500Reverend Insanity is more or less anti-hedonist.
>>25176367Is this that one chinese fetish story about a guy who turns men into women so he feels less gay about lusting over them?
>>25204753He has no issues with homosexuality (including becoming a homosexual himself) as long as it is beneficial to goals.
>>25204753>Lord of the MysteriesNot really about that, but does seem the be the authors fetish
>>25206586this isn’t true though
>>25204753His rival gets turned into a woman, but it's played for laughs and he's into her. He holds the key to turning him back so he uses it to order him around.
Yellow by Aron Beauregard. It's splatterpunk so its really nasty but the main character gets wronged horribly and gets an equally vile revenge but is so fucked up I hesitate to call him an anti-hero.
>>25209054*he's NOT into her, fuck
>>25209207He may not be into her for romantic purposes but they do dual cultivate together (because it gives him benefits TM), and it leaves bai ning bing trembling, screaming, and moaning in bed.The author definitely has a fetish for this sort of thing, there's way too many characters who get sex changed. Then there's the gay orgy arc and when the (male) leader of the inkmen becomes pregnantFor those of you unfamiliar with reverend insanity inkmen are a variant species of humans, it's not explicitly mentioned but they are basically described as being black people lmao
>>25209983She is his waifu
>>25178600Starship troopers as a movie has almost nothing to do with the book.
>>25212320What does that opinion have to do with anything I posted?
Even a basic bitch good-but-ruthless Xianxia mc induces pearl clutching and moral outrage. The west simply isn’t ready to put morality to the side when reading fiction.
>>25212404Western literature is irrelevant. Nobody cares about it anymore.
>>25209207How do you know he is not?
>>25215969Because it's mostly narrated from his point of view.
>>25216229What about those other 5 guys he turns into women?
>>25216665Iirc there are only three people he turned into women>Bai ning bingHe turned her into a woman so that he could blackmail him into helping her, because he held the key her back into a woman>Hei lou lanThis one doesn't really count, she was originally a woman who turned herself into a man, he just forced circumstances forcing her to revert to being a woman and becoming his subordinate >Ying wu xieHis body was dying, so fang yuan had to transplant his soul into another body. The body it made most sense for him to do this too was femaleThe author definitely has a fetish for it but not fang yuan himself, he just does everything for benefits. It just turns out that turning men into women is often beneficial for his cultivation
>>25212404Immoral protagonists are pretty common in western literature, but they tend to be more sexual/insane in nature, e.g. lolita, instead of the cruel ruthlessness of fang yuan.I think this is more because a ruthless, cold hearted rational protagonist doesn't make for a profound novel. It will give you fun to read web novel action slop but that's about it
>>25219069>a ruthless, cold hearted rational protagonist doesn't make for a profound novelNo.
>>25176367>no sympathetic qualities?Huh? He is ruthless, pragmatic, decisive, hyper-intelligent, singular in his pursuit of what he wants. Doesn’t give women the pussy-pass, and he is unbeatable in a fight.
>>25219808Sympathetic is not a synonym of admirable.
>>25176382Pretty much
>>25219900Yeah, in the case where it's someone being disabled mentally or physically. That's sympathetic. Not fang yuan being a psychopath unless you consider that a mental disability
>>25219808Those are toxic qualities in the west.
>oldest thread on this board is about a troll/smut Chinese cell phone novel about a guy who turns men into women so it's not gay to lust after them, and that named characters after CCP officials for the gags/lit/ is dead
>>25224298You are wrong.
I like Fang Yuan because he said that if virtue was the ruling force of the world he would've been a peerless saint, but since the world is evil he himself must become evil otherwise he'd be swallowed whole by it.
>>25226271Based Fang Yuan enjoyer.
