I'm 60 pages into Lolita and i want to quit. It's well written and interesting but it's heavy. Is it really worth the effort? It's agony to read it, but if there's a gem I'm not going to miss it.
>>8085406
So you're saying that you can't handle 12 years old girl you pussy faggot?
>>8085406
I fell in love with the prose from the get go. If you aren't digging the style, maybe you should put it down. Don't force yourself through something you don't like.
Why the fuck is it "agony" to read?
i just finished No Longer Human. Where do I go from here? Who are some other Japanese authors worth exploring?
Yukio Mishima
Natsume Sōseki
Haruki Murakami
Ryu Murakami (although more thriller)
literally just type in japanese authors in google, they're all pretty depressing
Mishima is considered their best modern writer by the Japanese themselves.
Start with The Sailor That Feel From Grace With the Sea and go from there.
I also liked Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. 1920s Writer who managed to roll Gogol, Kafka and Poe all into one.
Shusaku Endo
Anyone has any experience with The Cambridge Ancient History? Is the autism of reading thick 19 books of 14 volume series worth the effort?
Cambridge Histories are good for research and overviews but they aren't great for survey reading unless you are a really particular kind of person
It's really helpful to be able to get an overview of the scholarship and basic contours of a certain topic (like "The Roman Slave Economy" or "Ireland 454-960"), but it's tedious as all fuck to read if you're just looking for history. They are academic articles, so they're mostly talking about scholarly problematics.
I've read certain self-contained single volume ones...
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>>8085250
What do you recommend for holistic reading? Classical History preferred.
>>8085302
Cambridge Histories contain sections that scholars will gush about as best in subject, but they arent very fun for "holistic reading" as you say.
Something like Kagan's series on the Peloponnesian War, The Landmark Thucydides, the Dryden translation of Plutarch's Lives, or some research on your own using oxfordbibliographies would probably benefit you if you are reading for pleasure.
>Norman/Celt Hybrids born ugly as sin
>Spend the next eight centuries overcompensating
>somehow manage to create incredible works of art in the process
How did this happen?
Are you describing Great Britain's rise to power or something else?
>>8085179
I'm just saying, maybe you really do have to be ugly to produce good art. Only great suffering and all that.
>>8085187
Unfortunately most art is made by rich nobles more attractive on average, then and now
I've read about half of this today and I'm waiting for there to be a point. My copy has some quote on the front about how disturbing it is but all that happens is drugs, parties, and movies. And also literally everyone is bisexual.
I guess it's alright?
>>8085078
Someone dies at the end or something. There really isn't a point other than BEE's usual vapid bullshit about how vain and hollow everyone is.
Don't read the spoiler OP, just finish the book, it's pretty good and not that long. It has a point, it's nothing that's going to change your life or anything, but as you said the story is about these people doing drugs and shit, that's not going to change.
>>8085087
>Someone dies at the end or something.nobody dies, but there is a 12 year old sex slave. That's probably the most fucked up thing.
>Lots and lots of felonies
Is there a single author as vapourwave as Murakami? I just finished The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World after reading Dance Dance Dance, and I want to try reading another author before continuing with Murakami, but that vapourwave-y style is very addictive.
Pls help
>>8085056
pynchon douglass adam
>>8085056
Roberto Pinchas is the most vaporware and vaporware author. He even had Macintosh plus lyrics in one of his books.
>>8085056
Read Blind Willow Sleeping Woman.
It's a collection of short stories. It's what helped me get over my Murakami phase
I'm looking for some inspiration /lit/. Are there any stories that: a world where supernatural/metaphysical/"magical" things are common place, but still have the realistic kind of "grounded" of every day happenings. Kinda like urban fiction, but less "W0wza Kazookz magik!?@!" and more, well, Seussian. Nobody bats an eye at The Grinch or a Cat in a Hat or a Lorax, they're characteristics and figures fit in to the larger world even if humans existed in it because of an unspoken acceptance. But saying it's an unspoken acceptance isn't...
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Have you never fucking heard of magical realism? What are you even doing here?
Might I suggest Borges ?
It's not exactly high brow, but The Witcher might be something to look into. Dude does a good job of blending fantastical beasts and fairy tales together.
What is /lit/'s thoughts on objectivism and ayn Rand. I've personally read her book Atlas shrugged. It basically teaches that through the power of yourself you can do anything. I have basically began to live objectivistical now thanks to her and I can say it's quite a nice change for me
I never read this because back in the days of /b/ being subjectively good it was ragged on nonstop, and I really hate books written to elaborate on a single idea that could be described much easier in the form of one well written sentence
>>8084979
I wonder why /b/ hates Rand so much. Probably cuz they're Bernie supporters
I just finished We the Living by her. I have previously read Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.
As a tl;dr of her expanse of fiction (which isn't inclusive of everything she's wrote fiction; just the popular stuff) Fountainhead > Atlas Shrugged > We the Living > Anthem.
The philosophy behind it all, I already leaned that way before I even started reading anything by her. I did not however like her portrayal of it, in particular through AS and FH.
I thought her characters were unrealistic most of the time, though she did manage...
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>be Boffer Bings
>born of honest parents in one of the humbler walks of life
>father manufactures dog oil
>mother disposes of unwelcome babies
>have assisted my father and mother in their jobs
>always have to watch out for cops opposed to my mother's business
>father's business of making dog oil less unpopular
>dog...
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>>8084899
>>father manufactures dog oil
what the fuck is 'dog oil'
>>8084900
Oil of dog is the oil (fatty tissue) from dogs or canines, similar to fish oil.
Ol. can. can cure many maladies including motion sickness, tarcadyia, jenkem dependency, and Alzheimer's
original: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Oil_of_Dog
Will studying Literary Theory make my own writing any better?
When I say "studying" here I mean buying some LitTheory books off Amazon and reading them in my spare time.
Short answer: probably not.
The best writers are good readers so just read prolifically and in a diverse fashion and you'll get there.
No. Reading and writing will always be most effective. Practicing closer reading of the books you like might help, however.
>>8084897
If by "my own writing" you mean "Essays about literary theory" then yes.
WITHOUT GOOGLING IT
What author did Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins quote in his hit song "Zero"?
I want to die of AIDS
who fucking cares
>>8084882
oh shit he died?
This book doesn't make any sense
Oh no! Better go do some algebra lad before you start to go insane from your lack of negative capability.
>>8084723
You've never played chess have you.
>>8084723
What about it doesn't make sense?
So this is the best version.
>>8084670
>gabler
yep
that's the best cover too
Itt: books with autistic protagonists
I'll start with an obvious choice
my diary desu
>>8084661
Top kek
my diary desu
/Lit/erati
How are you celebrating the patrician #NationalWineDay ?
>>8084614
I'll probably have a tender wank right onto ya mum's christmas hams, ya filthy fuckin degenerate
>>8084614
with beer and hard liquor
>>8084614
drinking cheap liquor from the bottle