What is the best English translation of Kalevala?
The Finnish one
This
>>7814406
Kalevala doesn't really translate well at all. At least not to english.
i know this is the best thing i've ever read, nothing comes close to Joyce in talent and quality, he was truly a genius who squeezed the potential of language and words to the fucking max
however, i would feel like a phony saying this is my favorite book, as i didn't understand what Joyce was trying to say most of the time, i did some preparation before reading it and i knew what was heppening in terms of plot and the whole parallelism with the Odyssey, but the "meaning" of things (if there is such) just went over my head, anyone know this feel?
i...
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I think it's supposed to be like a humanist manifesto... everyday life, everyday banality as somehow epic, Odysseus' struggle as every man's, and the beauty and scope in even the most boring of days..
I'm about 150 pages in so far and I am certain that I'm missing at least 2/3 of the subtleties inlaid in this book. That being said 1/3 of of them is more content and complexity than you find in your average 10 classics combined.
I'm enjoying Ulysses so far more than I've enjoyed any other book and I'm already looking forward to reading some of the material Joyce repeatedly references and then re-reading Ulysses in a year or so.
>>7814245
>nothing comes close to Joyce in talent and quality
Shakespeare does and goes beyond
Can we establish a /lit/ approved edition/cover of Infinite Jest so we don't judge one another in public, and be able to be recognized as an ironic reader?
>>7813348
we already did, asshole
>>7813361
Am I supposed to write that shit on the cover? What the fuck
>>7813348
>in public
????
What would you recommend someone who's looking to dive deep into the experimental side of literature? I'm talking about stuff like Flann O'Brien and Italo Calvino.
i don't think any of these are considered 'experimental' literature per se, but try these guys if you haven't already
borges
barth
auster
gass
nabokov
in case you haven't already read it, the unconsoled by ishiguro
Letters to Wendy's.
what does /lit/ think of C.K Chesterton? I've just gotten into him and I've gotta say, his writing is some of the smoothest I've ever read.
Chesterton is one of the secret final bosses of Western thought. Read his essays arguing against the Modernist thinkers of his day. He's very homely and gentle, yet very magnificent.
Chesterton is sometimes forgotten in our own age, but everyone who's in the know has read him. He's almost part of the secret Canon, along with Kafka and Proust.
His novel The Man who was Thursday is awesome, you should all read it.
>>7813798
>secret Canon, along with Kafka and Proust.
Question from someone who barely reads: why does it seem like literature is so boring? I am asking this in the most earnest way I can. Whenever a book seems to have an interesting or fantastical premise, it seems it's often written off as "genre fiction", as if something too exciting can't be considered literature.
It seems that when, I explore common themes in literature and acclaimed novels, I get a bunch of books that have mundane events, or some book that gets its merit from just referencing a bunch of other, obscure material. It seems that for...
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>Why do people like beer ? That stuff is nasty, mom !
>>7813505
This is like why some people prefer movies such as Avengers over The Witch.
Neither are bad for what they are but one is really just flashing lights to distract you and the other is meant to stimulate and challenge you.
>>7813505
Read all harry potter you want. Kids love magic and wizards.
But dont look at acclaimed novels for anything substantial. Its the Oscars of literature. Go back to your GoT and anime fedora mate
A friend of mine really likes this book, and I've been seeing people keep mentioning it. It looks really gay from the summary, but tell me, possible memes asides, what is it with this book exactly?
Why don't you try and read it instead of relying on anonymous opinions on the internet ?
OP I hope you die t b h no offense
>>7813375
I haven't read alternate history since I was sixteen, I'd rather hear anonymous opinions first
How come books are such rip offs?
It's about how those hours are being fulfilled, not just clogging your time with whatever is cheap and fun.
the ONLY cartoonists you should consider gleaning anything from are Daniel Clowes and Paul Kirchner
Are there any video games that aren't a complete waste of time?
>tfw i just found out this lad solved philosophy even before socrates
Starting with the Greeks wasn't a meme.
>>7813153
Of course mang.
Heraclitus figured it out, Parmenides expanded on that, and everyone else has just been trying to explain to others why Parmigiano was right and everyone else's thinking is wrong.
My biggest revelation when I Started With The Greeks was that nothing was new (I was young).
I thought my age was unique because of reasons x, y, and z. Then I learned it wasn't.
And then I learned not to talk so much about things I didn't know.
>>7813186
I wonder if it was new when they wrote it down though. Someone must have started it.
Anyone else preparing for law school?
And good recommendations?
>>7813071
OP I have a question, how did you figure out law school was right for you?
>>7813071
The Trial by Kafka
finished the book of mormon
how do people buy into this crap?
After you've read books by Alan Dershowitz, Pope John Paul II, Adolf Hitler, Billy Graham, Carl Sagan, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Mormonism makes a lot of sense.
Most Mormons aren't in it for the theology but because they were A) born into it or B) like the community/culture it produces
better question, how is the church not deamed Mormonism heresy? it is the only subdivision of Christianity that says Jesus rose again america or some shit, thats kind of heretical
What was the point of the "Yorick's skull" scene in Hamlet? Like, it hasn't anything to do with the story, and it's about a character that the audience dosnt see or hear of before or after the scene.
What's the point of my life?
>>7812995
He's talking about how funny and jovial Yorick was in life while holding his skull
its a reminder of human mortality
Lol. It's like you haven't even read IJ (Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace*).
*pic related
Thoughts?
>>7812987
>>7812987
It was better than Catch 22. The death of the son was predictable, though.
>>7813003
Was the humor better than Catch 22?
Thanks for the spoilers nigga.
Was he a pedophile?
........................................................................................................................................................................no
>>7812971
Yes but he wasn't a selfish, carnal or predatory pedophile, and knew that by having sex with a little girl he would damage her beyond repair. Part of his love for little girls was their inherent pureness and beauty.
maybe but w.e
he was just a more elegant/an english nietzsche
Any philosophy people on /lit/ right now?
When Hume says all of our ideas are formed by impressions did he really mean that?
In other words without impression of x, there can be no idea of x.
He means that sensory input alone is sufficient to account for the formation of ideas, yeah. Or at least that's what he's usually taken to mean. It's an extreme version of the epistemological stance that there are no innate concepts.
Here:
http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9781138793934/A2/Hume/ImpressionsIdeas.pdf
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hume/section4.rhtml
It might also help you to understand Plato's and Aristotle's epistemology / theory of mind, particularly where each of them felt the "forms"...
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>>7812948
Yes. Keep in mind impression has a different definition than the way it is used.