Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 18. page
Images are sometimes not shown due to bandwidth/network limitations. Refreshing the page usually helps.
Gravity's Rainbow or Mason & Dixon, which one is better?
son & xon
Against the Day
I prefer GR, though they are both equal in quality.
Picked these up at a couple yard sales over the last couple of days. Which should I read first? Keep in mind that I read Call of the Wild on my kindle about a month ago.
Read the short stories. I hate movie adaptation covers
>>8285797
Oh, trust me, the short stories book is going to get picked through over and over. Love short story collections, but I'm more interested in the novels at the moment.
I hate movie adaptation covers as well, but does it really matter? It's a paperback. I'm not worried about the cover.
>>8285789
Books with their movie cover. I can't stand that.
Critique thread?
Go easy on me.
It was cold and quiet in downtown Dublin and all around the church, the air rang midnight.
From the squeaking halt of a polished black Porsche stepped Shanice. She was tall, thin and pale. Her glossy black hair seemed like an extension to her car and her lacy, crimson dress shone like blood against it. She took out her phone.
‘Jonny’ she said. ‘Do you have the shit?’
‘You bet…’ Jonny replied.
Shanice was respectable. Nothing could ever get in her way. She was what her mother called ‘a REAL woman’. She’d never been one for the mob business, but after marrying to a drug lord on her sixteenth birthday, and then murdering him after he’d raped her, she soon took over the family business. Now, vulnerable and timid Shanice went by the name of Mrs Carson, the ultimate force in drug trading.
‘It’s all prepared Mrs Carson’ called a young man nearby, who soon emerged from a dark alleyway with a large bag of cash.
‘Thank you’ she said, slipping five fifty pound notes into his pocket. ‘Here’s a tip.’
The young man fell back and smiled. ‘I’m Danny, by the way!’
‘Look after yourself, Danny boy’ said the confident Mrs Carson, as she drove into the night.
Danny watched her leave. ‘What a woman’ whispered.
>>8285782
>>8285782
Your dialogue is far too stiff. The description of Shanice's personality is, to be frank, rather too heavy on somewhat cliche'd mobster nonsense backstory. You should show character through action, not a biography. There's also very little tension, characters just zoom about this barebones set, and the pacing of just one paragraph is pretty all over the place.
Don't ask people to go easy on you with critique. You shouldn't...
Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>8286054
I've been intentionally trying to write poorly for an experimental story I'm workin on. This is very good criticism. Thank you.
>>8286068
Well you succeeded, but if it's satire then I think the humour element needs to be drawn out slightly, perhaps made a slight bit more heavy handed on the bullshit of your scene.
Why on earth are you trying to write badly anyway? It sounds like an easy way to cement bad habits.
Here's something from a short story I'm working on if someone wants more, I've another three or so pages to show but they're still a bit rough and I'm trying to decide if I want a decisive difference...
Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Which of Xenophon's works are worth reading?
>>8285649
all of them tbqh
>>8285649
Xenophon
>they killed our sensei. I will write his vindication as the best man ever. That will show them.
Plato
>didn't you listen to sensei? He taught us our souls are immortal. He may have been the best of us, but he was always the most modest. I will remember him modestly.
Xenophon
>Sensei!
Also, how come literally all his works, even the most minor ones, survived, while tons of Aristotle was lost?
I am looking for "masterpiece" or iconic books and poetry written in Northern Germanic languages (particularly Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic).
Looking for books/poems in original text that have also been translated. I want to compare the source with the translation for phonetic similarities and differences to better appreciate the uniqueness of the individual languages, their relationship to English and learn how their writers convey their craft.
So, can /lit/ give me some suggestions?
>>8285630
hamsun ibsen knausgard kierkegaard snorri
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
any of a number of Strindberg works
There are loads of ancient sagas and shit out there to from these regions
Check casual haul compañeros
Por qué leer a Toole y Brönte en español cusndo puedes leerlos en inglés? Por qué leer a Brönte at all?
>>8285611
Los encontre en una tienda a 2 cada uno y no puee resistirme
Ademas, la prosa de Toole no es su fuerte por lo que tengo entendido
Lo de Bronte es porque habia un 3x2
>>8285611
Agreed, Confederacy of Dunces is a comedy and features Southern dialect. Might not translate well.
I have no idea what's going on.
Stick with /lit/ for a little while and you'll gradually see through the thick meme fog.
>>8285554
I was talking about the book!
Was it the beard?
Just finished this. Meh. Not impressed.
It was an easy and enjoyable read but it didn't lead much to anything. I guess that's a good summer read.
Is American Pastoral much better? This was my first Philip Roth novel
American Pastoral fucking blows. That was the only Roth I've read but my god, who makes such a riot over this guy? He's so narrative driven and even then the plot sucks.
>>8285514
This is what we call minor Roth. American Pastoral's pretty good, but it's overrated. Try Sabbath's Theater or Zuckerman Bound for some top Roth.
>>8285559
Thanks for the recs, I'll try to read at least one other book, not really fair to judge an author basing my opinion on one of his minor works
>>8285553
I'll reckon the story flows quite easily though, he certainly is a good storyteller. You can read this in one sitting. But the ending is really underwhelming to say the least
I was just wondering, if I have watched the show and followed many book theories up close, can I skip over the first and second book and go to the third or should i start with the second? I read some of the first book, is any of it really any different?
>>8285471
you should start with the last one and ideally not even finish that one
Bump hoping I can get a better answer
If you have followed most book theories you'd probably know most of where the plot goes. But honestly, you'll still miss a lot of little things and if you're going to read the series, you might as well read it all. I'm rereading one chapter a day and so I'll be finished in about a year. Maybe TWOW will be out by then
Why are people so keen to tear his theories apart?
Is it because he strikes a nerve in many even in this day and age?
Everything should be examined to the most minute core. Don't you agree?
Because retards keep bringing him up
>Discovered The Unconcious
>Discovered the importance of sexuality
>Discovered that talking alleviates stress
>Discovered defense mechanisms
>Discovered that your personality is 100% dependent on your upbringing
Most of his theories are proven and are taken for granted today in modern psychology and psychoanalysis. Dunno what you're talking about OP.
What books are the most classic and essential books of all time, books which are referenced throughout all other books and parodied and other books stand on the shoulders of? Probably Ulysses and Paradise Lost, stuff like that? I never read those.
(In Western Civ.)
The Bible
The Illiad/Odyssey
Canterbury Tales
Divine Comedy
Hamlet
Don Quixote
Paradife Loss
Moby Dick
Ulysses
>>8285477
nice list
>>8285477
>Paradife Loss
Which one should I read, /lit/?
I have no mouth and i must scream
I'm sure you already have an insight into the mind of an autist
>>8285418
Everyone raves about how good I Have no Mouth is, but 2bh I thought it was pretty meh. The premise is okay, but the writing is very sloppy.
>>8285464
So... autismo general then?
Do you ever wonder who created your character and why your life is a computer simulation?
Pretty sure I did
It's because my parents fucked and from there on a combo of nature and nurturing.
When I was 10 I thought of my life as that of another child's doll and my world as their doll house.
That's about as far as I ever got with philosophy.
Thoughts?
>>8285381
It's shit.
this is superior
>Protestants
top kek
>Brexit
>Austrian election results
>Turkish coup
>Increasing terrorist attacks
will you finally admit he was right?
You know the Turkish coup wasn't a reactionary or conservative movement.
>>8285337
it's still indicative of fragmentation and fundamentally anti-demotist
>Turkish coup
Is erdogan out?
B A S E D A S S A D
Also,
>plebs looking for some ideologue to worship
another day on the most intelligent board.
