“Ignatius J. Reilly—the godfather of the Internet troll, the Abraham of neckbeards, the 4chan edgelord to rule them all—was no anachronism,” Tom Bissell writes. “He was a prediction.” The Uneasy Afterlife of “A Confederacy of Dunces” The book has long been considered a classic. But, forty years after its publication, its virtues seem inextricable from its flaws.

 

“Ignatius J. Reilly—the godfather of the Internet troll, the Abraham of neckbeards, the 4chan edgelord to rule them all—was no anachronism,” Tom Bissell writes. “He was a prediction.”

The Uneasy Afterlife of “A Confederacy of Dunces”

The book has long been considered a classic. But, forty years after its publication, its virtues seem inextricable from its flaws.