I don't get it. Why do people love this book so much?
>>25614427It's comfyIt's dark academiaIt's making fun of pretensionIt's gay but lesbian style gay
Idk, I haven't read it.
>>25614427i faked having read this once to impress a foyid
it was comfy and wintry and the voice is pleasant. don't remember it that well, been twelve years since i read it
>>25614603What did you say
>>25614429Pretty sure she’s bi and not full on beaver diver
>>25614427Because Tartt is high brow for low brow people.The same kind of "readers" who normally gobble up YA and romantasy and monster porn occasionally read a Tartt or a Sally Rooney book and get the pleasure of feeling smart and cultured. It's another form of masturbation.
>>25614427Dunno, not read it; but I was insulted in another thread for writing like one of the "fags" from the book. How badly have I been done in?
>>25614427It's a good story with memorable characters. That is extremely hard to come by in literary fiction
>>25614427It's comfy. It sits somewhere in the middle of literary fiction and genre fiction. It's closer to genre fiction, but really well done.It really didn't leave an impact of me. I forgot all of it, all of it. But man, I had a really good time reading it.
>>25614429Let’s not forget that she wrote it in her twenties. Imagine being so unretarded in your twenties!>>25614662You are onto something because I remember always being slightly awkward to name TSH when it’s favorite book discussion on Reddit.>>25614939> It really didn't leave an impact of me.This key passage that death is a mother of beauty, and the beauty is terror - I remember re-reading it several times, thinking if any of these words have some additional, not obvious meaning. I ended up concluding that all of these concepts, like death, beauty and terror are equally impactful on person, and that’s what she probably was trying to say, so I moved on. I remember reading her interview where she explained this idea, but it’s was still unrelatable and kinda wtf.
>>25614427I have a confession to make - when I first saw this cover I thought it was a touch gaudy, so I opted for black paperback with Diana medallion. But now that Reddit sub has brainwashed me into thinking that having first edition is some kind of rite of passage, I want the clear cover too :/
>>25614427Dropped this after the first three chapters. It was non-stop cringe
>>25614662>>25614939I think it's fair to call it a really engaging pot-boiler. I'd agree that it isn't the highest brow thing out there (though it deliberately uses those aesthetics effectively) but I would still be delighted if the average popular book was this good. It's funny, all the YA readers who dig the aesthetic only like the first half of the book where everything is more or less cozy, and hate the actual consequences of the second half.
>>25614658She's a practicing Roman Catholic>>25615149In her early twenties at that
>>25614429>It's comfy>It's dark academia>It's making fun of pretensionYes.>It's gay but lesbian style gayNo.
>>25615765>all the YA readers who dig the aesthetic only like the first half of the book where everything is more or less cozy, and hate the actual consequences of the second half.It reminds me how I was reading CnP as assigned reading for school, and so that the Crime portion went pretty cheerful, but then I dropped the thing (somehow I still got away with not reading it in full).I liked the second part because it had quite a few reveals that I couldn’t expect. Funeral part was a bit sloggy and exhausting BUT it’s actually a good thing because I bet it felt exactly the same for the characters, it’s like you literally get to experience that never ending day. Idk, maybe it’s the cozy part that bamboozled me, but I felt sorry for Charles going to hospital and stuff, like idk I still somehow found a way to root for these people. All in all, I’m still to find a book that would engage me as much as TSH. Talented Mr. Ripley comes close, but Tom’s portrayal made me dislike him from the get go, so there was some lightly uncomfortable feeling about the whole thing. So in conclusion, TSH got me back into reading, but for what? ¯\(ツ)/¯
>>25615782>In her early twenties at thatThat’s crazy, but also good thing she managed to pull that off whilst being in her prime looks-wise.
>>25614427It's a pretty fun read and it lets you pretend you too are part of the cool kid's club of smart classic Greek students (+ Bunny, who is totally dumber than you, right)
>>25615869This is a great take though, aspirational characters is a big part of its draw.
>>25614674>>25615869>>25615890So not that badly, then.
I was expecting it to be a great deal more literary. I was also expecting it to be a lot sexier. A sort of half arsed Hellenic orgy is vaguely alluded to but we aren't in on it.
>>25615868Definitely a cute
>>25615944Chad only
>>25615854They are all compelling people, and their failures are part of that. There's a ripoff called If We Were Villains that's basically the same plot with theatre students, but written by a golden retriever. The murdered member of the group is unambiguously awful and it's basically self defense. Absolutely no teeth at all.Without the fantasy of who these people are and who Richard could be with them falling apart, there's no story.Unrelated, but I wonder how much Tartt was inspired by the Kansas Integrated Humanities program.
>>25615944Nah, she peaked in her cute tomboy era or whatever it was
>>25616003>The murdered member of the group is unambiguously awful and it's basically self defense. Absolutely no teeth at all.Relatable
>>25616003>Without the fantasy of who these people are and who Richard could be with them falling apart, there's no story.As a Greek group apologist I don’t even know what to say
>>25615765>hate the actual consequences of the second halfFrom what I learned ITT second part can be comfy as well if you ignore a thing or two.
>>25614429But lesbians are the worst kind of gay........
>>25616032They are all attractive and loveable, but they all fail themselves and each other in some way. There's also that underlying tension on whether Richard was ever really accepted by the group, or just tolerated, and even if the group was ever what he thought it was. It says something that he ends up the most scholarly out of all of them.>>25616083The whole thing is pretty comfy for the reader, but Richard goes through it. Part of the comfyness is how Richard aesthetisizes his pain.
>>25616011I guess it just depends on what you're after
>>25616114>It says something that he ends up the most scholarly out of all of them.He couldn’t afford to fail, there’s a passage addressing that when he berated himself for choosing an impractical degree on a whim. And there was also passage on how each of them could be a better classicist if it wasn’t for one reason or another.
>>25615944And smol :3
I thought it was pretty disappointing. I wanted kinky elitism, nowhere near as dark as I thought it was going to be.
>>25616245Here’s kinky elitism for ya, as dark as it gets
>>25614427Have you tried reading it?
Okay, now that we have TSH General, let’s establish once and forever: was Richard an unreliable narrator at the end of the day?
>>25616179Great pic
>>25617145She’s such a bae in that one (◠‿◠)
>>25614427Well, it's basically 'what if we took the fun, aesthetic first-half of Brideshead Revisited, stripped out any of latter parts about sin and disenchantment and catholic grace, and instead appended a potboiler thriller in their place.'This anon >>25614662 mentioned it being high-brow for low-brows, and I think that's basically right. It can also be considered low-brow for high-brows (but honestly the real high brows who want to slum it just read actual pulp because they're secure enough to not need the high-brow trappings that make them feel better about themselves). Back in the 80s, these things were much more common (pot-boilers in high-brow settings), especially on television, so there's substantial precedent for what Tartt does, though it's fair to admit that she does it well.
She taught me that orange is the color of insanity. Now, if I eat an orange, I literally go insane.
I will never forgive this woman for stealing the title from my beloved Procopius. I still feel embarrassment from when some litthot told me she liked TSH and I got all perky that I was dealing with an understanderer and started talking about the Empress Theodora. Never again.
>>25619103Anon.. he became the Procopius of the Byzantine world as a result of that scandal sheet; only scholars read his mammoth legal masterpiece *now*>TheodoraMost who read that thing are nutz for Belisaurius, e.g. Robert Graves..*I too had been aware of the similar title but it moved me not at all
>>25619122I was referring to the "scandal sheet", which I would have described as "a masterpiece of satire" but I see the overlap. I didn't expect her to have read "The History of the Wars".
>>25619155Many errors in my too hastily offed missive to you, anon. Meant to say that he became the 'Suetonius' of the Byzantine world, which, strange to say, I think you gifted me without comment. Also, I garbled Justinian's Legal Code with Procopius' major work, somehow. Finally, instead of 'read' I should have instead typed 'are even aware of'There is overlap (as you say) but whereas Suetonius' tabloid bits seem to have been written with snarky levity, Procopius' writing is done obviously in fear and loathing
>>25619400*the entertainment value of both (I feel) is about the same
