Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 179. page
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How to get into Saul Bellow?
>>8216430
My intro to Bellow was Herzog which is considered his tour de force i suppose. It was decent enough and i'm glad I read it -- if only to have an opinion on Bellow. Whether it will stand the test of time I don't know. At one point, Augie March was considered the next Great American Novel. That claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny in 2016.
My advise is to start with herzog -- if you like it then work backwards to Augie march. Like everything else he wrote, it's effuse in jewish neuroticism...
>>8217337
Bellow is in eclipse for reasons other than the quality of his work.
OP read Seize the Day. It's a novella. If you don't like it you can move on desu
>>8217337
I just finished Herzog last month and rather enjoyed it, despite (or perhaps because of) the slow, introspective disquiet that the book essentially is. Should I just jump straight into The Adventures of Augie March, or are there a couple of other books I should read along the way. I was recently recommended Humboldt's gift by someone who's taste I don't entirely trust, and it'd be nice to get a second opinion.
for soemone who wanted to write more 'sincerely' and directly about actual issues - why does he waste so much time on 'postmodern' wankery and dumb humor?
this goes back to infinite jest too. if you watch his interviews on the book he presents a very different image than you'd get from reading the novel. he explains it like a very sad, straightforward cultural commentary. then you read it and you end up getting a shotgun scatter of quirky scenes that need to be decoded and spend half your time reading about all these characters' silly hobbies...
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Actually the po-mo stuff in this book supports the central theme of the book, which is that valuable work is often boring, tedious and apparently without purpose. The legal shindigs with the authorship and the chapters full of IRS terminology is designed to place you, the reader, in the seat of an IRS employees whose work is mind-numbingly boring but is nonetheless (so his thesis goes) valuable and in a way heroic.
Tl;dr
But Wallace is keeping with a long literary and philosophical tradition of saying one thing and giving another when he had your attention.
Whitman
Kant
Proust
Heidegger
McCarthy
Your conflating sincerity with honesty
>>8216501
but he doesn't do this! he never really explores boredom in this book. it's just one big joke or tragedy after another
the closest he comes is exploring the idea of exploring boredom
/lit/ I have to do a narrative for this creative writing course and there's a cuck word limit of 800 words, I feel like there can be hardly any character development & events taking place pls help
>cuck
pls noone respond this man is an idiot
>>8216387
>there's a cuck word limit
Kill yourself
What is it about the human mind that makes seeks meaning? Doesn't it seem sort of absurd that there's a meaningful and meaningless dichotomy in our heads? Does something cause this in our society or are we innately wired to have this feeling?
>>8216382
>Doesn't it seem sort of absurd that there's a meaningful and meaningless dichotomy in our heads?
Not at all. We have evolved to be pattern-seeking, problem-solving creatures. We find solutions to our basic problems (how to locate tasty animals; where to find reliable water sources) by a process of selection and discrimination.
Meaning emerges naturally out of a sea of solutions and non-solutions; of patterns and noise. Multiply this enough times, and you gain an intuitive...
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>>8216382
This is the literature board.
You should go to /his/
sage and report
>>8216420
It makes a fair bit of sense, when you talk about human beings being pattern seeking creatures. How else would human beings be able to function without these pattern seeking functions? It's hard to imagine.
What were his final thoughts?
I could really go for some tortillasssssssss
fucking lol
>>8216372
"RIP William Gass"
>yfw you write something and its really fucking bad
lets hear what you got, anon. no judging on this board, that's rule number one :^)
Post it asshole
just like this post
Critique thread? All types of literature is welcome.
Do not critique something just because you want yours to be critiqued, critique it if you genuinely have something constructive to add.
Here is my short story.
http://pastebin.com/gds3CyKB
About a school.
http://pastebin.com/28TgF2T4
First Wil and Testicle
1/2
I'm lying down on my synthetic, cat skin, sofa, smoking type O positive laced ketamine, and listening to an audio recording of domesticated penguins having sex.
And I'm writing my masterpiece. My first Wil and testicle. Or, “My First Wil and Testicle”. It's a cop buddy screenplay about a testicle, who after being amputated from an aspiring castrato, leaves his fellow testicle to become a cop. His partner? Former child star, Wil Wheaton.
But all of this writing is giving me jaundice, so I throw the manuscript...
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>>8216953
2/2 (start of next scene)
Nine in the morning like three bowling pins knocked down by a thunderous God leaving the remaining nine for the great unwashed to aim for to pick up the spare to pick up the toasted french pastries that papa and I prepare every morning spared a morning of empty bellies as they go about their business in businesses or with business partners on their busy days of byzantine barbiturate fueled mock battles while papa has been here since last night painting today's specials on...
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How do I write a book in this day and age that becomes a classic? What are some recent books over the past couple decades that you would deem classic either right now or in a few decades and why?
Blood meridian
Lolita
Probably last two true classics
American Pastoral
infinite jest
How can I distinguish well written prose from overwritten purple prose? examples would help.
HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Anything by Lovecraft
>>8216101
well written prose should give you chills and make you feel a little heady, or at the very least leave you in a state of pleasant reflexion while you unweave and examine its construction and meaning at length
purple prose should make you make you feel like the author is trying way too hard to accomplish the former, usually you should instinctually cringe or feel a very natural, almost pleasant, kind of contempt for the author--if it is particularly bad or you are particularly squeamish then embarrassment is...
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>>8216112
is lovecraft the overwritten purple prose?
One of my poems just got accepted for publication to a literary journal. The publishers are asking for a short bio and I'm way too autistic to know what to write. The fuck is my bio supposed to be? I've never been published before and I have 0 previous writing credits.
>>8216096
Congrats.
And relax man. Look in the journal and see what other poets bios tend to include.
They probably want to know your age, location, experience, background etc. in as much detail as the wordcount warrants.
Anon lives with his 14 year old daughter in California. In his spare time, he contributes to his local lepidopteran society and art house cinema.
>>8216104
I literally have zero experience in literary ventures which is what I'm concerned about. I googled what a good bio would be and the first page had this as a good example: Karina Sims is a 26-year-old writer from Beaver Falls, British Columbia, Canada. She is the author of many short stories and an unpublished novel. Her interests include: long walks on the beach, candle lit dinners, world domination and cannibalism.
Which tells me this person has no idea what they're talking about.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Palestrina, Mass
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami - Liszt, Le mal du pays
>>8216057
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler - Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory
>>8216057
My Diary, To Be Honest by OP - Crawling, Linkin Park
There was a YA book i read at 13 called Struts and Frets that had a pretty great soundtrack
I'm sick of reading comics I want some great contemporary books
On The Edge by Rafael Chirbes
>>8216017
There are none.
From the question of which you are asking, it seems to me that you are inquiring about some literature written after the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Yes, I suppose I could recommend such a thing, albeit your reading prowess is obviously not that of my own considering your delve into... comics...
No worries, I am here to save the day, and to which book I recommend, is of course, the God Delusion.
Nowhere else will you find such a magnificent portrayal of arguments against the existence of "God".
This book has been my guiding hand,...
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sup /lit/ what do you think?
>>8216001
>>8216007
I'm interested in fiction that is chock-full of esoteric references and terms. In other words, authors who do a lot of name-dropping. Books like The Recognitions, Ulysses, Against Nature, or Pynchon novels come to mind (though preferably not as esoteric as Ulysses, please). I enjoy books like this because A) there's an undeniable satisfaction I get when I understand the reference, almost like a reward for reading about the reference in the past and B) it is a great way to become familiar with new topics and ideas. What have you got, anons?
>>8215996
Dante
>>8216004
Of course, should have included him with the names mentioned :p
Moby-Dick
The Waste Land
What are the essential readings in politics? I've already read Republic, Laws, Politics, Leviathan and The Prince.
>>8215927
Greeks & Econ
Figure it out.
>>8215934
Also, finance (if you didn't include that in econ).
find syllabuses from good schools online.
