So, just finished Broom of the System, and I don't understand why it is so praised by everyone. I'm not trying to be edgy or similar, I really hope you could tell me all the good aspects of the book. Maybe I'm too stupid or not simply used to this post-modernism stuff, but I have also bought Infinite Jest and I don't know what to expect. Is there any way for me to gradually understand this genre?
I was also expecting to laugh many times, but I have only chuckled a bit during some instants. And maybe could you please explain me the ending, under spoiler?
How well read are you in Hermeticism?
Much of the influence comes from DeLillo's debut "Americana", including the head-shaped-city thing which comes from a reference in DeLillo's novel about how John Wayne (IIRC) was so big in town that there was talk of building a city shaped like him or something.
DFW claims not to have read Pynchon but he also claimed not to have read BEE and people have called him out on that saying how influenced he was by BEE being so young at the time of publication etc.
There was actually an ex-student of Wittgenstein's affiliated with Amherst and who lived nearby that DFW knew about, which was obviously an influence to him when thinking up the plot.
Two of the main influences in terms of prose were Nabokov's Lolita (which influenced Rick's objectification of Lenore: the detailed "romantic" parts being superficially endearing but also somewhat creepy in their being so superficial) and Run, Rabbit by John Updike, which DFW thought (and later suggested in his novel about old authors close to death, including Updike, and solipsism) was misogynistic but also pretty entertaining. The character of Biff Diggerence is based on Updike, and like Updike Biff comes from Shantilly, Virginia (or whichever obscurish town/city Updike is from).
The essential theme of the book IMO is the nature of personhood in relation to language. Is the parrot a person for being able to mimic the reverend and Lenore's crude housemate? Is the psychologists's doll a person since he carries it around and talks to it? Is the city itself a person since it's shaped like one and has in its brain a switchboard (albeit a malfunctioning one) connecting the city? Are the babies who are fed the special babyfood people (babies not typically being granted the kind of full personhood an older child otherwise has) for being able to precociously verbalize etc? Lenore is twinned with her Gramma (most obviously by name) because like her grandmother she feels that she lacks a function and therefore is in a weird gray area in terms of being a person, since as Witt-chan says the meaning of something is associated with its function. Like the city swithcboard shaped like an actress's head (an actress herself associated with her grandmother), Lenore's thoughts are misdirected, and like a character in a fictional novel Lenore's story is told throughout by a rapid, obsessively detailed narrative voice much like that of Rick, her obsessive and jealous lover. The only chapter really in which we get any different style of dialogue is the childishly-written first one, where Lenore refuses to sign herself away to the men (and thus forfeits a function in the way women at the time often found one, namely by marrying).
>>7612012
>I don't understand why it is so praised by everyone
it isn't
Aeschylus was a great poet. Sophocles was a master of character and plot. Both were thinkers of the highest order.
Why do only seven of their plays survive each, while that talentless hack Euripedes pollutes bookshelves in volume everywhere?
>>7612004
>"Euripedes"
>Talentless Hack
>>7612006
Euripides isn't fit to sniff Aeschylus' farts.
>>7612004
late last night laying in my bed
thinking
Hello /lit/, I've been considering on doing a compilation of /lit/ knowledge on writing, tips, screencaps, book lists on anything writing related and all sort of neat knowledge, put them all on a zip file and re-post it here every now and then.
It seems the warosu server has failed and the owner is on vacation or something, and that server was the only legit archive that had /lit/ threads dating a fair more then two years ago, maybe they'll be back but now I can't search for anything related to this goal.
Still, do you wish to collaborate?
I'll bump once at least.
Hey people, is there any kind of Pynchon reading chart floating around?
V. might seem intimidating, so l suggest you start of with Lot 49 instead. After that feel free to read some of the Pynchon-lite novels. Or not, and go with V. Just make sure that you follow up V. with Gravity's Rainbow. That's the way they're supposed to be read, imo.
What is Stoicism in practice?
try to live a life being logical by avoiding being passionate and don't let your emotions cloud your judgement
they did not ban emotions per se, they just thought it gets in the way of clarity, a bit like vulcans
>>7611828
>try to live a life being logical by avoiding being passionate and don't let your emotions cloud your judgement
sounds a little like Asperger's,no?
>>7611832
NO!
Asperger means they can't express it properly
don't be mean
Write What's On Your Mind
>>7611577
i would literally live in that ass (on the right)
am about to end my nofap streak
>>7611577
Well shit, now butts are on my mind, OP.
What does /lit/ think of Crime and Punishment?
One of the best works of philosophy ever written.
It's very good.
The greatest novel ever written. Trumps Tolstoy, better then Brothers K with the exception of The Grand Inquisitor, as a stand alone chapter it's nearly perfect. I'm a Catholic. That chapter was soul crushingly well done.
I've recently decided to get started on philosophy and decided to start by reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
However, as I'm a total n00b in philosophical thought, and advanced literature too, desu, I think I may have missed much of the deeper understanding of the book
Is there any work that'd be better for a begginer? I've heard that the greeks are a good start, but I don't know much about them to actually choose a good starting book
>>7610719
>I think I may have missed much of the deeper understanding of the book
>I think I may have
>I may have
>may
Start with the Pre-Socratics.
Parminedes and Heraclitus
>>7610739
As I've said before, I'm a complete begginer on philosophy
Do I start with Parmenides' biography?
And Charles H. Kahn's book on Heraclitus?
>>7610763
You start with the stanford encyclopedia, read the whole thing, then look in the bibliography
How many pages should be left in the book you're reading until ordering another book from Amazon?
>>7609828
>buying your books from Amazon
Fucking faggot, I'll fucking kill you
>buying any books
>ever
Are you being serious right now?
>>7609828
I have a backlog that's like 20 books deep. I've bargained with myself that this year I'll read 4 books on my backlog before getting a new one.
thoughts on this book?
also, post other works similiar with this one
its good but reddit jerks it too much. humorous and executes well on what it set out to do. funny scenes, memorable moments. not really "literature"
>>7609677
Literally Reddit: the book.
>>7609677
it isn't Lem.
I'm reading Ficciones. So far, the book is great, but am I the only one who finds most of the references unnecessary?
For example:
>En la literatura de este hemisferio (como en el mundo subsistente de Meinong) abundan los objetos ideales
Why was the reference to Meinong's ideal objects necessary? It provides no further clarification of what is going on in the text.
>De esta estructura cabe repetir lo que declaró Schopenhauer de las doce categorías kantianas: todo lo sacrifica a un furor simétrico.
Here the names Schopenhauer or Kant hardly matter, it's hardly saying more than "like X said about Y".
Is there anything specific I should read before getting into this? Do I need to understand certain specific references or can I just dive in?
Mexican knife fighting gauchos lmaoooooo
Borges sometimes likes to write in a pastiche of academic styles. I think you can figure it out from there...
They may also serve the same purpose as the contradictory details he often throws in. Not exactly misdirection, nor confusion... relativism, something in between all these.
>>7609212
No need to understand any references, beyond perhaps the basics of mythology in a couple cases. They enrich, but aren't required.
Was the Buddha a theist?
Yes.
Apatheist.
Yes and a misogynist who enforced class oppression. He was far more violent than Confucius, Jesus or Muhammad.
What's up with all the has for Atlas Shrugged? I'm planning on reading it sometime soon. Will it turn me into a rich capitalist swine?
Writing is pretty bad.
What being said, most of the hate it gets is due to this board being filled by Marxist leftcucks.
>>7605730
>Marxist leftcucks
Why are they ruining this board? They're essentially redditors.
It has fucking epic characters and writing dude. Pete don't like it here because they're fucking get cuckoos
How does one learn to write well?
>>7602119
By reading.
study and practice grammar and rhetoric, read a lot of non-fiction
bibliotik freeleech on retail ebooks
request that hard to find book you've been looking for and if it's there I'll upload to mega
collected fiction by hannu rajaniemi
>>7582051
all 3 volumes of "Die Ästhetik des Widerstands" in german because only volume 1 has been translated into english since duke univeristy press is autistic
Gaddis - Recognitions
