we all know start with the greeks, but what about the romans? I am trying to create a reading list both for future students, and myself as I go on. so far I have:
epic poetry
ovids metamorphosis
the aeneid
philosophy:
Epictetus discourses fragments handbook
meditations
letters from a stoic
dialogues and essays Seneca
basic works of Cicero
on the nature of the universe
history:
Plutarch's lives
the gallic war
the civil war
drama
the golden ass
(I don't really know any others)
what else to add?
I sure hope you plan to read them in latin, right?
>>7659259
I actually am trying to learn Latin so not right away but maybe at some point
What does /lit/ think of writing whilst on drugs?
I'm writing a novella right now, but I know when I switch between plot lines and characters it won't suffice. That is, I need to change my style in certain chapters to really capture the character's development.
I want to experiment by trying different drugs, then writing pieces of the book while still high.
Who knows, do you think it'd be refreshing having this sort of stylistic change throughout a book? As long as it's coherent.
DUDE
>>7659078
If you're not stoned while you're writing, you're probably doing it wrong.
>>7659099
Checked
So I've read just about every bit of Albert Camus' writing I could get my hands on (save his writing in different periodicals which I'm still getting to) and I've pretty much come to the conclusion he was a full blown syndicalist. He seems to idealize different anarchist figures in Mythe de Sisyphe and L'Homme révolté, and his essays on Algeria (especially his proposed solution) in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death read as if they could have been written by Kropotkin.
Do you agree or disagree? Know of any confirming statements? Feel free to tear me apart.
Stop posting those fucking ugly covers.
>>7658998
no he was a hack
>>7659509
>no
all anarchists are hacks
What is /lit/ reading these days?
not that hideous Russian shit.
I've been really into language learning the last few months, and I'm just starting to read "more difficult" children's books in the languages I'm studying.
>>7658975
Power to you. I keep trying to read Harry Potter and losing confidence after too many uses of the dictionary per sentence. I am pretty sure I know the first page verbatim by this point.
A Canticle for Leibowtiz
I hated it at first but it's growing on me. The prose in the first chapter or so is ridiculously overdone but it's getting better.
Other than that, I'm trying to get into Romantic poetry, so I'm reading some Byron and Keats.
>THE Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and Virgil in Latin; Rhime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian, and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected Rhime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, triveal, and of no true musical delight; which consists onely in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rhime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.
Jesus, we get it, rhyming isn't important, noone is judging your wonderful poem for not rhyming. We also didn't need to get berated by an introduction defending your style permanently. It's ok. Calm the fuck down.
You're worse a sperg than Milton.
>writes epic poem without rhyme
>defends it in the introduction
>steals lines from rhyming epics
milton you hack
>tfw this is old school "muh style"
>that edgy teenager who read the Bible and/or the Quran
>pretended he was treating it like any piece of literature
>kept it in the fiction section
What about him?
that's quite literally me and i shelve them next to my bhagavad and daodejing
>>7658840
>>>/Reddit/
Could one of your recommend anything worth reading regarding German culture, or from German culture?
I need a bit of inspiration to get back to appreciating this country. I keep seeing it as a God awful language and knowing there is something beautiful to look forward to would be grand, beyond the constant wanking over Schiller and Goethe.
I wish I could strangle you.
>>7658783
It´s 6am. I am not on fine form.
>>7658814
Pretty sure he wants to strangle you because you said German was a God awful language.
How did you manage to get rid of all the religious threads with their constant proselytization?
How did you manage to ship them all to /his/
This board has never been better.
>>7658724
Is your pic what you've been eating? Christposters are still here
his took up the pol refugees instead
>>7658724
>This board has never been better.
that mushroom should be a fedora
heh... did anyone read the Jon Shannow series'? Even when I was like 15 I could see pretty well that the first book was a pretty heavy rip off of the Gunslinger. I have to admit the way the last book in the series ended up playing out was pretty cool though...
>>7658600
I read waylander when I was a kid. That was my favorite book for years (8-12 maybe).
I don't remember many of the details now though, desu.
I really liked the Dean Koontz Odd series and Angels and Demons when I was in middle school
>>7658600
Reading the Dark Tower now, having just read the Broken Empire trilogy (also post-apocalyptic fantasy), and this series sounds intriguing. Ordering Ghost King, Last Sword of Power, Wolf in Shadow, Last Guardian and Bloodstone as we speak. Looking forward to some more cool escapist fantasy.
Is writing the beginning of a story the hardest part?
No, what's difficult is the middle.
>>7658559
It is for me I can never fucking figure out what to say at the beginning. I always start with some stupid fucking description
>the car made its way into town
>he sat there
>the room was not entirely dark
Just kill me, I compulsively read the opening sentences of all my favourite authors and desu its kind of comforting to know that their all pretty banal as well.
Committing to routine until routine is habit and forcing all distractions out of your life what may subvert this habit is arguably the most difficult part of writing.
From what you've read, in what situation would you actively kill another person?
I wouldn't kill someone unless it was self defense. But if I were assaulted even in a relatively mild fashion I would kill the shit out of my attacker
>>7658555
is.. is that the jew?
>>7658561
This. If someone ever tried to mess with me, I would teleport behind them and unsheathes my katana. This epic badass gets it.
Which books will help me overcome nihilism?
Matthew.
>what book will help me undo overnight years of negative conditioning and lack of passion for life that have hardened into literally high school: the philosophy
>>7658553
Yes, help. Not magically solve everything.
>read five pages
>put down book and browse /lit/ for two hours
Anyone else?
I don't really read at all. I mostly just play video games and post on here and a few other chans.
REPORT ALL NON READER POSTS
HIDE ALL NON READER POSTS
SAGE IN ALL FIELDS
You can't browse this board for two hours. It's too fucking slow. Especially now until oz time is over.
Post your collections, /lit/.
>Fables of Aesop (translation by S. A. Hanford)
>The Chinese Machiavelli by Ching & Dennis Bloodworth
>Cheating: Deception in War & Magic, Games & Sports, Sex & Religion, Business & Con Games, Politics & Espionage, Art & Science by J. Bowyer Bell
>The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione (translation by George Bull)
>On War by Carl von Clausewitz (translation by Michael Howard & Peter Paret)
>The Court Society by Norbert Elias (translation by Edmund Jephcott)
>The Power of the Charlatan by Grete de Francesco (translation by Miriam Beard)
>The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ and Other Essays by Jay Haley
>The Complete Works of Han-fei-tzu (translation by W. K. Liao)
>The Histories by Herodotus (translation by Aubrey de Sélincourt)
>Kissinger: A Biography by Walter Issacson
>Life, Letters and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de Lenclos, The Celebrated Beauty of the 17th Century
>Bismarck: The Story of a Fighter by Emil Ludwig (translation by Eden & Cedar Paul)
>The Prince and The Discourses by Niccolò Machiavelli (translation by Luigi Ricci & Christian E. Detmold)
>Selected Military Writings of Mao Tse-tsung
>Monstrous Regiment: Women Rulers in Men’s Worlds by Millan Betty
>The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne (translation by M. A. Screech)
>The Art of Winning Wars by Col. James Mrazek
>Hustlers and Con Men by Jay Robert Nash
>The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzche (translation by Francis Golffling)
>Talleyrand: The Art of Survival by Jean Orjeux (translation by Patricia Wolf)
>Makers of Rome by Plutarch (translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert)
>The Rise and Fall of Athens (translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert)
>Foxes and Lions: Machiavelli’s Confidence Men by Wayne A. Rebhorn
>Memoirs of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
>Cha-no-yu: The Japanese Tea Ceremony by A. L. Sadler
>Amoral Politics by Ben-Ami Scharfstein
>Mirrors, Masks, Lies and Secrets by Karl E. Scheibe
>The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer (translation by T. Bailey Saunders)
>The Book of Stratagems: Tactics for Triumph and Survival by Harro Senger (translation and edited by Myron B. Gubitz)
>The Craft of Power by R. G. H. Siu
>The Art of War by Sun-tzu (translation by Thomas Cleary)
>The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (translation by Rex Warner)
>The Con Game and “Yellow Kid” Weil: The Autobiography of the Famous Con Artist as told to W. T. Brannon by “Yellow Kid” Weil
>Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution and Conformity in Early Modern Europe by Perez Zagorin
>>7658433
>translations
>anime
Infinite Jests - David Faster Wallace
>>7658433
There's already a bookshelf thread.
What makes for entire artistic mediums to be regarded as second citizens?
by that I mean writing for cartoons.
Why the stigma?
would you consider stuff like evangelion to be well written?
I'm probably going to get shit on for this, but: Good writing can come from anywhere. Good fiction is good fiction my dude.
We learn the basics of story writing and literary technique in school, and if any form of creativity (story telling for example) has these present, executes them well and then attempts to differentiate itself, I'd consider it good writing.
The stigma is that often times cartoons DON'T have these things. They're funny and flashy and cheap and good for entertainment. That's what they're made for. If you watch a cartoon that's clever, makes witty jokes, shows logical progression of character arcs, plot, has interesting themes and messages, then yeah, it can be well written.
>would you consider stuff like evangelion to be well written?
Yes.
I talked a lot about how good writing includes needed literary elements, but I also take things like tone into account too. Fuck, I consider TTGL good writing. It's a lot more subtle, but the entire message is wrapped up beautifully in some hard driving robot action that has me out of my seat screaming for the good guys to win. It doesn't leave you blue-balled from a literary standpoint either. This can be good writing too.
Or consider this: The Stranger, by Camus, is a Nobel Prize winner for literature. Yet you read it and Camus' prose is rather droll and boring. It get's by on it's messages. And then you re-read it and realize that the boring and dry prose is intentional and beautifully befitting of Meursault and of the world he inhabits, that you come realize that the slate-gray world Camus created is so vibrant and perfect, even just the little splashes of color he adds in are like being shot to the moon.
TL;DR: Write well in any medium you can, combine your setting and style and tone and blow a kneecap off the world.
>>7658225
I have watched lately stuff like South Park and the simpsons and It's clear the writers of those shows know their shit.
>>7658233
Anon this is what I'm saying. WE recognize good writing. Even children do.
I went to go see The Good Dinosaur with my gf and obviously there were kids there. But at the end it had the kids crying and my gf crying and I was trying to pick apart the characters and themes.
The point I'm trying to make is: We recognize a well told story even if we're young. We need to be made to care about our characters, we want to know what they stand for and why they do it. The author wants to tell us something important and he needs to harmonize his message between the underlying mechanics of his writing and his themes.
South Park is alright, it's very very blunt in what it does, but it can be enjoyable. The Simpsons are decently funny, and I can tell you, it takes a lot more talent writing to write a consistently good show (until like season 9 that is) than it does to shit post on /lit/. Even being able to flesh out characters and the world of springfield in such flowing subtly is the hallmark of decent writing.
Good fiction is good fiction wherever you go man.
