Could this be considered post-structuralist?
I don't know
>>7673520
dumb frogposter
I want to get into modern based poetry. Something written post-1980, that is respected by critics but not too hard to read for a sophomore-fag. What do you recommend?
>>7673473
Jay Wright
Geoffrey Hill
WS Merwin
John Ashbery
>>7673514
Yeah those are definitely some easy poets to get into
Realistically speaking, what the fuck do I do with a BA in English? I'm in my Junior year and just now realize that I'd rather not be a teacher.
Literally nothing
Should've gone into journalism senpai
>>7673471
Flush it down the toilet.
Or get an MA in something that'll make you at least marginally more employable.
>>7673471
Not American, but based on its name I'm guessing Junior year is first year? Why not just switch to another degree then?
Is anyone a fan of Dante's Divine Comedy?
If so, can anyone tell me some of their favorite/most interesting cantos?
I need to analyze any random canto for homework, but since we haven't read all three parts yet, I don't know how to choose one.
Never heard of it
>>7673440
no, nobody is a fan of the divine fucking comedy
purgatorio XXX is the GOAT canto
Would it be fair to call this the Taxi Driver of literature?
>>7673413
Would it be fair to compare a book to a film?
>>7673413
That's White Noise. But nerdier and middle aged.
>>7673413
no.
the book is a criticism of the french people for so easily being completely steamrolled by the germans and co-operating with them so readily during WW2 era vichy france.
what did you think the book was about?
So I read the first two chapters of this, up to the point when Hitler decides communism and jews are the root of all evil. However, I still can't understand why does he hate those two things so much.
On communism, he certainly seems concerned for the workers' rights, yet says communists are hideous. Maybe it's because they're not as fanatically nationalistic as he is?
On jews, I really haven't got a clue. He somehow concludes they're behind all the "lies and degeneracy" he can see around himself, but I don't understand how he gets to that conclusion. At least Varg Vikernes makes a point saying they're not really European, but mongrels who pollute his precious race.
Anyone can explain this to me a bit more?
>>7673367
Bump. Perhaps I'll get a better insight in the next few chapters?
He says communists are hideous because he lived among them and saw how a few bourgeois rabble-rousing cocksuckers whipped up these morons with trash pamphlets, while he was putting actual effort into reading and figuring out the ideology. Communist workers were footsoldiers for an evil cause. The people controlling them were the true evil.
The people controlling them, from what he observed, were Jews. Everywhere he looked. He even says he resisted believing his initial findings as long as possible in order to confirm them, but that ultimately he had to admit, Jews were overrepresented in everything that was eating away at the dying heart of his country.
He doesn't just theorize that Judaism is conducive to evil. That's not his interest, at least not at first. The first encounter with Jews is in Vienna, when he observes that, for whatever reason, they're the ones responsible for a lot of evil.
I just found out that the sixth book is due out end of May.
Might be good. Enjoyable, at the very least.
>>7673353
literally who?
Any other good historical fiction?
Graves' other books, especially Count Belisarius
Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian
Gore Vidal's Julian, and Creation
Sienkiewicz's "Seriously, fuck Germans" series
Clavicle's Shogun
Ursula le Guin's Lavinia doesn't really fit the bill but still good
Wolfe's Latro in the Mist
Bengsston (?) The Long Ships
All of the above are generally considered good/~literary~, but Sinkiewicz is old romantic nationalism so YMMV, le Guin is a bit more obscure than the rest
>>7673318
Steven pressfields stuff is good
>other
Lets say you had a small room to build a library/study in. You only have modest budget to fill it but you have the rest of your lifetime to do it. What books and curiosities do you fill it with?
The sections of the bookself are divided as so: (note that if you hate a section you don't have to include it)
Encyclopedia set
Dictionary
Scholarly mathematical or scientific texts and journals
Psychology/Psychiatry
Economics
Nonfiction
-narrative
-memoir
-travel
Fiction
-literary
-comedic
-war/military
-historical
-romance
-new adult
-erotica
-thriller
-mystery
-horror
-sci-fi
-steam/diesel/biopunk
-high fantasy
-low fantasy
-urban fantasy
Religious
-mainstream
-small religions
-extinct religions
-neopagan, heathenry
-occult
There is also a small glass door cabinet built into one of the walls. You can either remove it to make room for more books or you can fill it with curiosities.
>>7673251
it would just be a lot of philosophy, religion (mainly abrahamic but some zoroastrian, hindu, buddhist, and maybe sikh stuff, too), and history. maybe some stuff on economics, politics, and "science." i don't really read a lot of fiction anymore unless it touches heavily on religion or war.
its called my phone which has all of that already
>>7673278
>no fun allowed
/lit/ likes Gene Wolfe, right? I've never read anything by him. Is this a good one to start on?
Book of the New Sun or Fifth Head of Cerberus tend to be the starterpacks
You could i guess, but its very different than what he's usually known for. Still excellent though
>>7673227
It was my first Wolfe and remains one of my favorite books of all time. It's absolutely brilliant, and a real treat if you're interested in Greek history.
Hey /lit/, could you guys give me your opinions on this opening excerpt?
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/04/michael-dimartino-rebel-genius
Fucking hell he's actually going through with it. I remember finding out about what Mike and Bryan were going to be up to on /co/.
Anyway, it reads like George R.R. Martin for kids. Mike's prose is boring and workmanlike, which I suppose isn't the worst thing in the world. We get a huge lore-dump right away, which I hate, and for some reason this fantasy setting having a person say 'Yeah, right' is extremely annoying.
It's YA, so it's not for me. But I don't like it, even so.
>>7673250
>Anyway, it reads like George R.R. Martin for kids
Remarkably dead-on
There's something that bugs me about authors using the character's name over and over instead of pronouns.
Can you guys suggest some afro-centric/afro-latino-centric novels?
>>7673204
oscar wao
>>7673205
I'm Dominican, so I respect Diaz as a person for putting us on the literary map. But fr, Drown is his only good book desu.
Are there any novels, poems, or short stories that I should read before reading Andre Breton's Nadja?
>>7673199
Some lighter surrealist works would probably be helpful.
>>7673199
Why would there be dumbass
Found some of my teen poetry, not as shit as I remembered. Teenage poetry you wrote that you're secretly not ashamed of.
A long summer in a short spring
I often feel I store myself in sunlight
Each summer beaming back to it quite as much as it to me.
And in winter I forget my cache as it rests icy, flung to airless seas
Autumn is to trundle through with footstep barley bold to break the leaves.
But in spring myself returns to me, each ray an older homesick summer.
On years leave until with bright finger tips it lays a hand on me.
And with my weight as anchor pulls back summer through the trees.
Noise bombs throw down newspaper stands
The mayor he throws up gets it on his hands
Infants run screaming down train station hallways
We'll never get home cause we can't work the subways
What's in my water and why can't I taste it
What's stuck in my throat that won't let me say this
Piss drenched sneakers and bedazzled adolescence
Couch rugs and bulking throws no that doesn't make sense
My eyes they are magnets facing the south side
Turn them toward northwards and fears will subside
Lounged out lakeside I lay on my side
Grass green and bright white dandelion
Smells like summer sounds like bees buzzing
Wake up in Lysol to just about nothing
Plastic benches shared between strangers and friends
Shoot the shit wait for this ride to end
With numb guts and tight throats we speak of past lovers
But for me there's no plural I've never loved another
Infectious infatuations define my situation
Rainy soft smiles bring bitter elation
Grainy indie romance only in my dreams
Then not even,
when my dreams, they all snap at the seams
my dreams all snap at the seams
>>7673184
nah it's awful aha
Among books flung--
I reviled in her mouth naked
A mother long brown eyed
On the little beaches in july
With nothing to do
So I've been writing for about a year but only taking it seriously, 3-4 hours a day everyday. For the past few months. I feel like I've finally written, or will have after the edit, a really decent short story. But it is a MASSIVE rip off of raymond Carver's style with a pinch of lyricism. How much of an issue do we think this is?
>>7673129
Post it
Not one.
I don't know how to google docs and it's not edited. Here's the first scene.
On the drive up the fug of skunk smoke made talking difficult. It gummed up minds and made Paul cough into the silence.
“This isn’t the best driving conditions” he said.
Someone laughed but the road ate up all his attention and he couldn’t work out who.
He wound down the window.
“Oh my God” Pete said.
“Shut up, it’s nice” Pam said.
“Yeah I know it’s just a bit of a culture shock”.
“Were not in a culture” Tom said.
People laughed, they said a few more things about being in a culture: petri dishes; road trip movies, not many people caught on to each other, but everything got a little better.
Paul eyed the road.
Before all the noise his mind had been somewhere else, long didactic mixed media experiences.
Through the open window little strains of seagull calls got blown in with the wind.
“Were nearly there,” Paul said.
“Are we there yet” Pam said.
Pete laughed.
“We’ll be there in about 5 minutes” Paul said, he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
The wind rushing in pushed the silence outside.
“I’m gonna make a Zoot for when we get there then” Tom said.
“Oh my God” Pete said.
