Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1484. page
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What book do you recommend?
Fisting Unto Death by Michel Foucault
>>7421350
The sticky, by anonymous.
>>7421350
The Pedigree of Specificity by Walter Bronswut
Just finished the Greeks and I don't feel like I'm an intellectual yet. Where do I go from here?
Stick your finger up a teenage girl's asshole while making out and worrying that she's actually 15 and not 16 like she said and feel a poo and pretend you didn't and lick your finger so she makes a weirded out face and forget about it and then 5 years later remember that you did it and wonder why
The Romans.
Are there any books that you are hesitant to share on goodreads? I've checked out Mein Kampf, and own a copy of The Turner dairies, but I use books like these to further my education and to get a perspective on how some people think. ( A bit of paranoia on my part, but can't goodreads be used as a possible data base?)
if you don't feel comfortable being tracked don't use social media.
also cool literature thread
>>>/g/
I'm just wondering how others feel, I really like goodreads, but I'm hesitate about "questionable books".
>>7421454
Thousands of people have read Mein Kampf on goodreads
I spent the last couple of weeks reading books about reading and thought I'd post some short reviews.
First up: ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound - 4/5
It's the most entertaining of the bunch, but the least useful in practical terms. It's written quasi-aphoristically, in a very informal style. Almost blog-like. Small paragraphs, big statements. Loads of CAPITAL LETTERS for emphasis, etc. The focus of the book is on poetry.
Pound is a highly opinionated elitist and isn't afraid to show it. In his opinion unless you learn Latin, Greek, Italian,...
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The three ways poetry conveys meaning:
>you charge words with meaning mainly in three ways, called phanopoeia, melopoeia, logopoeia. You use a word to throw a visual image on to the reader’s imagination, or you charge it by sound, or you use groups of words to do this.
On ulterior motives:
>Partisans of particular ideas may value writers who agree with them more than writers who do not, they may, and often do, value bad writers of their own party or religion more than good writers of another party or...
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How to Read Literature, Terry Eagleton - 3.5/5
I liked this one, it does a lot of "teaching by example" by providing the reader with a wide range of literary analysis. Somewhat dry style, filled with annoyingly bad jokes. The focus is on novels, and pays almost no attention to the classics, poetry, anything published after ~1950, etc. Eagleton really likes to juxtapose the "realist" novel against the "modernist" novel and constantly brings it up (realist novels do THIS, but modernist novels do THAT) -- it's not always successful. The...
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>Narrative
This is where the structure starts becoming muddled.
Starts off talking about narrators, the various types, how entangled the author is with the narrator, etc.
>If characters them-selves are reluctant to commit murder, the narrative itself may always step in and oblige.
There's a discussion of political/social implications of happy endings, and how they're often ironic. Then some "plot vs narrative" bits.
Realism vs modernism:
>Realism: straightforward plots, beginning-middle-end, there is logic and order to the universe, etc.
>Modernism: all that shit falls apart. WWI? No clear causality, collection of independent mini-narratives, etc. => all narratives must be ironic and keep their limitations in mind. Contra "progress".
>Interpretation
Literary works carry their context within them, which makes interpretation challenging. Fictionality is one reason why literary works tend to be more ambiguous than non-literary ones - good use of the lack of context can be used to generate creative ambiguity!
A realist novel presents (the illusion of) characters and events which seem to exist independently of itself.
Form, genre, etc. mediate content - should interpret in light of them. But ignoring them can make for fun readings.
>One should not make a fetish of personal experience.
>In the ancient Jewish practice of midrash or scriptural interpretation, it was sometimes deemed acceptable to assign new, strikingly improbable meanings to the Bible.
Then there's a long analysis of Great Expectations that spans everything the book has discussed so far. At the end of the chapter he moves into a (thankfully short) fairly bad analysis of Harry Potter...a misguided attempt to appeal to millenials?
>Value
Originality: not necessarily great, and in some ages it was viewed with a lot of suspicion. Then the Romantics came and their individualism, etc. was packaged with a reverence for originality. Pomo sheds originality again, instead going for something like creative recycling.
Are all great works timeless/universal? Opinions differ. Probably.
>A literary classic, some critics consider, is not so much a work whose value is changeless as one that is able to generate new meanings over time.
Is it well executed, judging by standards of excellence?
Complexity: not sufficient for greatness, not always good.
Some more examples, this time of a more general analytical nature + an evaluation of "literary worth".
>If we are inspired only by literature that reflects our own interests, all reading becomes a form of narcissism.
Name a better publisher.pro tip: you can't
Easy: NYRB.
>>7421076
Penguin books, friend.:^)
What are the qualities of a great screenplay writer?
>>7420992
They write great screenplays.
>>7420992
How many scenes you can set in a strip club even though it doesn't add anything.
>>7420996
thanks anon
I would like to contact Slavoj Žižek by email- but how does one go about finding their email?
Are there any other literary figures like this guy that is easier to contact? I am trying to get a hold of them for scholastic purposes.
>>7420946
I found his email on the site of Philosophical Faculty of university of Ljubljana, but I think it's outdated, nobody uses arnes as their email anymore.
>>7420946
He has pretty good hearing. Just yell really loud.
I emailed him at his NYU german professorship email address but I haven't heard back. the best way to get in touch is buy a ticket to his show or go to a book signing.
>This world was created from God's fear of solitude. In other words, us, the creatures, have no other meaning but to distract the Creator. Poor clowns of the absolute, we forget that we live dramas for the boredom of a spectator, whose claps have never reached the ears of a mortal.
Probably would have been astute over 200 years ago. Now, just seems like quaint rephrasing of a highly famous line in King Lear. Not remarkable in today's world. In fact, quite mediocre.
>>7420839
>>7420847
The phrasing of Cioran's thoughts is where the substance lies entirely. You're missing the point. The authorial intent is not to philosophize.
What's the point of an author referencing previous works of literature? It seems lazy to me.
>>7420803
It's to keep the plebs out.
>>7420803
the whole system of 'literature' kinda depends on reference and meaning being assigned retroactively
Conversation.
Does anyone know of any other good literature forums on the internet? I don't have many problems with /lit/, and I have a few with /his/, but they're both fairly slow – so I'd like extra sources of discussion someplace else.
Get some quality goodreads friends
>>7420725
/r/books
>>7420725
I don't have anything good but this post reminded me of the poetry forum I frequented back in high school
http://www.emule.com/2poetry/phorum/list.php?5
Some of these poems don't even make me cringe Tbh fà m
Hey /lit/,
Let's get this thing rolling!
Template
>>7420722
So it's good? From what I read about it here it's got some war propaganda. Your thoughts?
>>7420782
It's good, but it's indisputably pro-fascist.
>It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future. The locked and rusted gate that stood before us, with wisps of river fog threading its spikes like the mountain paths, remains in my mind now as the symbol of my exile. That is why I have begun this account of it with the aftermath of our swim, in which I, the torturer's apprentice Severian, had so nearly drowned.
>>7420712
>tfw
Who /Latro/ here?
![catholicism-sample-image[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/w3IZ82U.jpg "catholicism-sample-image[1].jpg")
Anyone here is christian? Can you justify your faith or at least help me understand it?
Grew up with it. Parents passed it on like a gene.
>>7420666
Stop lying Satan.
The only justification for faith is "I have faith"
So /lit/, which is better, cheap happiness or exalted suffering?
>>7420563
Exalted suffering.
Exalted happiness.
Memes are always best.
>Handsome
>Athletic
>Highly Intelligent
>Artistic
>Loved by the mass public
Why did he kill himself /lit/?
>>7420492
Severe depression.
>inb4 career move/publicity stunt
>>7420492
The insincerety of the (post)modern world drove him to despair.
career move/publicity stunt
