Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 841. page
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How long until we reach Gene Wolfe singularity?
I don't know what you mean by that.
GW thread?
I can't decide if I should read Long and Short Sun first or the short stories collections.
Already done BOTNS/Urth/5HoC obviously.
>>7791742
I'd go with shorts or Wizard Knight personality
>Genre Wolfe thread
I've been going with the shorts, not impressed yet. They're tidbitty.
I want to read some recent books that address technology as we experience it today. Not like "White Noise": something that deals with technology in the smartphone era directly and reflects the way we actually interact with it. Too many books depict people's lives and just leave out any reference to the fact that we're hugely affected by new, specifically 21st-century technology (specificially smatphones, constant internet access, texting) in everything we do.
2121 by Susan Greenfield.
>>7791627
Bleeding Edge, although it's set in 2001, he's speaking directly to 2016 politicized meme-culture.
Tao Lin has a lot of Google Mail chatting, but he doesn't really explore it
Evgeny Morozov writes nonfiction critical of the Internet hype
Cory Doctorow writes a lot of YA about networked kids, but he can't think straight
I second Bleeding Edge, IMHO yet the best novel about the Internet
Stay away from Eggers' The Circle, it's turbodumb. It purports itself to be *the* Internet novel, but it's just clichés from some guy who's read about the Internet in his newspaper
Where is his father in all this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7kbDQGl5dw
>>7791595
What a pathetic human being.
>>7791595
why are you so butthurt that this whale is being happy?
dont get worked up over his lifestyle, there are literally hundreds maybe thousands more like him. you gonna get stressed out about them too?
> Derrida takes up a teaching post at an American state college (UC Irvine)
> the aura of a big celebrity philosopher should help a lesser known school
> Derrida demands a huge salary
> insists on lecturing only in French (as if any Americans would understand)
> offers UC Irvine library collections the opportunity to document and scan his own personal manuscripts
> this would be a huge boost...
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>>7791577
>Russian studies colleague of Derrida's gets investigated by UC Irvine for the alleged sexual harassment of a 25 year old student
Why would a professor need to harass? unless they are hideous, all things equal, derrida wouldn't be friends with someone hideous. Profs have to spend effort turning horny sluts down who want the easy A. Without a pic, clearly something else was going on.
> be Paul de Man
> make a career repeating Derrida (who only repeated Heidegger)
> "The self is a literary fiction."
> doesn't even have a Masters or a PHD, just weaseled his way into academic teaching posts
> writes a bunch of obscure bullshit that amounts to "Well, it's pretty hard to define 'define'"
> turns out he wrote pro-Nazi, anti-semitic newspaper...
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>>7791591
Listen and believe, you shit lord.
> According to multiple sources, Derrida wanted UCI to halt its investigation of a Russian studies professor, Dragan Kujundzic, who was accused of sexually harassing a 25-year-old female doctoral student. So he tried to use his archives as leverage to derail the case, they said.
> The 2004 sexual harassment lawsuit contends that Kujundzic, who taught a popular class on vampires and signed his e-mails with a colon to...
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any recent book worth reading?
link and explain why
Not super recent but All the Light We Cannot See is pretty dece.
a brief history of 7 killings
I've seen a bunch of his lectures, discussions and explanations and whatnot and he's an interesting man. He has written a shitton of books. What are his best books to start?
They are all the same, try any of them or none of them it doesn't matter either way. I have read some of This is It, some of The Book, and some of Become What You Are. I have never finished any of his books because they are all the same. He just restates his zen philosophy in a variety of different ways but when you get that he is pointing a finger toward the greater truth and that he actually cannot impart that truth directly to you, then there really is no point in finishing his book. He even admits this in his writing several times.
>>7791532
Thanks. I'll pick up his two most famous books The Way of Zen and This is it second hand to see if it holds any sort of value to me and if it's new from his lectures and essays.
>>7791540
No problem. Remember that Alan is only a guide. He is a good guide but he is still just a guide. He can't give you the answer. The nature of reality continues whether you are conscious of it our not. The end result of zen Buddhism is awareness.
I can't come up with a good name for a short story, I'm currently writing. It's a science fiction that takes place in space and is about a ship master who has a horrible personality but is also the best captain in the galaxy. Sorry if this is too vague, I was also wondering where something like this could be posted? It's only three chapters long, a total of about 6 pages.
>>7791460
To a Void
The ass who could also fly a plane very well
Picrel, the entirety of Voltaire's work
Go back to your sepulcher, Jean-Jacques.
>>7791416
But Rousseau was right about everything.
>>7791410
wow enlightening post OP I'll be over here cultivating my garden
/lit/,Which would you rather choose, living a normal long life and dying with the 50% chance of an after life and 50% chance of no after life, or immortality and never finding out the answer to what comes after death?
Can I just die now instead?
>>7791367
50% chance of an afterlife are some good odds.
I'd have to choose immortality though. Then I could spaghettify myself flying into a black hole.
Once you have afterlife the concept of dying just doesn't make any sense. You're just extending your life--you continue to live, but in another dimension.
The odds too are unrealistic: after all, there's more reasons to think that there is no afterlife. And immortality as a concept only makes sense if the Universe too will expand indefinitely.
But given the choice, I'd go with the latter: I'd have all the time in the universe to do batshit crazy stuff ranging from the degenerate (sticking my member into anything that moves without worrying...
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Thoughts about this issue?
Considering all the virtue signaling she did before, it's weird her subjects now attack her.
http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/family/article/2016/03/09/jk-rowling-faces-backlash-cultural-appropriation-new-book-north-american-magic
>Beloved author J.K Rowling has announced "a series of new writing", however several fans are less than pleased about it, claiming the series profits on cultural appropriation.
>The series, titled History of Magic in North America,...
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>>7791310
Meh.
>>7791314
I guess yeah, strictly speaking it's of little importance alone. Just another example of the fickle and volatile nature of the progressive crowd to add to the list.
literally don't care about either side
I'm a completely inexperienced guy who's always wanted to get good at writing. What top-tier books are there on the subject?Preferably online and free.I'm worried about picking up some shit-tier book like Elements of Style out of ignorance and not realising it's giving me awful advice. --Any other ways to learn how to write well would also be great.
Sorry for newfaggotry.
>>7791266
In order to write well, you must be well-read.
There is no other way.
Two good ones I always reccomend
John Gardner's Art of Fiction (read this first)
Lajos Egri's Art of Dramatic Writing (centered around plays but it applies to all stories)
From there its just practice and being well-read. Always challenge your current reading level and study everything around you, not just books, ex. people, plants, general environment, etc. Just like an artist would.
e-reader discussion
>tfw been reading e-reader only for 5 years now
>download any book I want, free
It sucked back in the old days walking to the library and having 2 weeks to return the books - or worse buying the book
>external light source
>casting shadows with your body
>can't read literally under the covers during the winter
>can't effortlessly switch between books
>can't effortlessly look up words
the only downside is you can't show off what you're reading
i bet they'll come up with something to change that though since it's literally the only downside
I've also used an e-reader for about 5 years, precisely because I can download books for free, but that doesn't make it better than reading an actual book. I always prefer to have the real copy if I can get my hands on it, either through the library or by borrowing it from parents.
all trolling aside, there's something restraining about actually holding the book. You don't get the same urge to look for something else.
E readers are to books what browsing youtube is to listening to a CD on a long car ride. With CDs you listen to every song in the full, because it's that or silence. Monastic.
to be honest, I think e readers are a mark of lack of control of the impulses, caracterised by a childish temperament and foul anal leaking.
just watched the film network and loved it. had never heard of chayefsky before.
anyone who's read this book or the screenplay, is it worth checking out?
I love that movie, didn't even know it was a book. Feels pleb
Where do I get started with Norse mythology?
>>7791204
Somewhere comfortable where it's not too loud so you won't get distracted reading.
The Eddas, Voluspa or any number of sagas
>The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings
is a good introduction.
> Prose Edda
is the most accessible of the original sources
>From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths
is a good overview of the impact of Norse myths on Western culture
My aim is to compile a list of all the important fictional books from history and read them in chronological sequence. The reason for this is that I would consider myself fairly well read, but I feel that what I choose to read has no structure, and Id like to have a goal, and just a better understanding of the history of the concepts that are repeatedly used and referred to.
Obviously this list could be infinitely long, so im looking for the most influential authors, and the most important of their works.
Im going to do the research and compile the list myself, but am...
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http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html
>>7791208
Thats exactly what Im looking for, many thanks!
>>7791208
this is really beautiful. Thanks a ton OP.
