Literary confession thread
>>7581905
This board is shit.
I constantly post. I reply to every fucking thread. I can't stop posting. 40% of the posts you see are me. I post all day long, every day.
>>7581912
>newfag detected
>Try to read Lovecraft
>Slog through the shitty writing of At The Mountains Of Madness
>Finally builds up to a big monster reveal
>Reveal happens
>The monster is literally a penguin
>It's not even a hostile penguin
>The penguin completely ignores the explorers the whole time
Fuck man, is this the fabled spooky cosmic Lovecraft horror I've been told about? ,
>>7581854
I couldn't get through that book. Weren't the monsters like black things...? Something about being barrel shaped and with spikes? I don't know but it sucked
>>7581854
>he thought the penguins were the monsters
senpai you gotta work on your reading comprehension
How do you guys give your characters motivations?
This is something I struggle with (partly because I'm not a very motivated person myself personally). I always feel like the classic motivations are trite; revenge, jealousy, social status.... I don't really feel a lot of these things personally (at least not strongly) so I struggle imbuing my characters with good, strong motivations that drive them to act.
Anyone have any ideas, suggestions, or similar struggles?
...give them complex motivations? Multiple things? As a most basic example; wanting to be good people but also struggling to provide for their family when legal means aren't enough? This isn't complicated.
>ask yourself what your character wants
>ask yourself what your character fears
Ta-da
>wants to write literature with characters
>apparently has difficulty understanding a fundamental part of the human condition
Huh?
Let's break the meme cycle and do something new.
What do you guys think about Italo Calvino? What book is your favorite? Who do you compare him to?
Personally I never know what to expect from him, every book is different.
I love Calvino but holy shit you're exposing yourself as a newfag. Calvino is very commonly discussed, probably top ~20 - 25 (counting "the greeks" as 1 for purposes of this ranking) if you ranked the most talked about authors on /lit/?
anyways if on a winter's night is mad comfy
The only thing I've read of his isn't really by him but adapted by him, Italian Folktales. Fucking surreal, really loved them. So, there's that.
Let's break the meme cycle and do something new.
What do you guys think about [an author discussed daily on 4chan /lit/]
"okay"
anyways, he's great, obviously.
Rate it for me /lit/ beginners collection
be nice pls
>>7581605
>Homer meme
holy shit kid
left to right
Hannibal by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Alexander by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Hellenism and the rise of Rome by Pierre Grimal
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey translated by Fitzgerald
Livy book IX Oxford edition (in latin)
Tacitus' Annals also oxford (in latin)
Caesar's war
Julius Caesar's Gallic wars (in Latin)
Cambridge Latin Anthology
Greek to Gcse by John Taylor
Oxford Classical greek dictionary
Latin Dictionary
Oxford Latin Dictionary
then my nice clock which needs new batteries
Should I learn French or Russian?
I have no practical reason to learn either.
I was thinking french because even the Russian to English translations of literature I read have random paragraphs of french in them(Why do Russians do this?).
>>7581578
things to consider
1. Are you planning to ever hold a job there, do a lot of traveling there, or just live there?
2. Are you planning to get a wifey from there?
3. Are either relevant to your career or lifegoals
4. Which has literature that you enjoy more?
>>7581584
I have no real reason to do either lol
>>7581588
Strawberries and linen tbqh familia
Source: She is my gf
If you are generically interested in literature or philosophy or the humanities, German and French are (arguably) tied for the most economical, with German edging French out quite a bit (IMHO) unless you have specific reasons to learn French. Russian is cool but very niche by comparison. Don't learn it unless you have a specific reason - economic, family, or you know for sure you love Russian lit. And I don't mean you have some vague idea that you like it. You will seriously regret wasting time learning a fairly difficult language if you didn't commit to it going in.
>>7581588
Girls don't shit you fucking idiot.
What are some good books for a Third Positionist?
>>7581520
I gotchu senpai
lmao
>>7581541
thread/\/\
Wanted to start reading Faulkner, which of his books do you consider the best, and which do you suggest to begin with? I'm just getting through modernists and lurking /lit/ at the moment.
I like As I Lay Dying best.
As for where to start, I don't know. None of his stuff is "easy." I started with The Sound and the Fury.
sound of the fury
just dive right in
also dont come to /lit/ it's trash
>>7581453
Of the three I've read, As I Lay Dying was easiest- I'd start with that, then Sound and the Fury (definitely one of the best novels I've ever read), then Absalom, Absalom!
I haven't read Light in August though- that's generally named among his best, and I think it's supposed to be the easiest of the four.
His short stories could be another option. The Bear is the one I've seen getting critics hot and bothered.
thoughts on the literature of George R. R. Martin?
He has to be some sort of rapist. Once they get cosby sorted out, shits going to come out about him.
>>7581448
He actually wears a replica chastity belt (based on the middle age designs) according to his blog.
one of the greater literary minds of the 20th and 21st century to be honest family
What is the cinematic analogue to Infinite Jest?
PTA's Magnolia seems pretty close. Both have a convoluted plot, both feature a number of sad people prone to sudden revelatory outbursts, both have drug abuse/addiction as one of the prominent themes, both have tons of seemingly unimportant detail, both are very long for their respective mediums, both were released in the 90s, and it can be said that both are pretty damn similar atmosphere-wise (think 'hysterical realism').
I'm of the opinion that it's Magnolia too, and I posted that here once, and you owe me money.
What's funny is that DFW actually hated PTA's Magnolia. He trashed it in a letter to DeLillo as pretentious and grad-schoolish. I thought, that's funny, since Magnolia is basically a cinematic Infinite Jest. Can't eat what you serve? Then I found out that PTA was actually one of DFW's students at Emerson. Yikes.
>>7581409
>pretentious and grad-schoolish
Wasn't that one of the more common criticisms levelled at DFW h(H)imself?
It don't detract from his books, though, in my opinion. Some of my friends are pretentious and grad-schoolish, and so am I.
What does /lit/ think of Alain de Botton?
/Lit/ most likely doesn't like him because of his incomplete and often inaccurate account of other writers and philosophers. However, I think he plays an important role in at the very least exposing the public to the people he documents.
I haven't read any of his books so I can't comment on that.
He was cucked bald
A long time ago I tried to read his Proust book and I could not get through it, and I don't put books down readily. Something about this guy rubs me the wrong way.
How do you do this? I can't do this.
Tips?
Do you too have to run when a passage gets too intense? I read Proust when I jog and Baudelaire's poems make for exhausting sprints through the woods.
My advice to you is to slow down intellectually and read each word separately. Glancing off the book to the scenery around you also helps (similarly to, when masturbating to pornography, you sometime have to click on the bottom right of your screen and in a moment hangs the possibility of your cumming to desktop icons).
Good luck.
>>7581281
go slow
>>7581281
MOM'S GONNA FREAK
Is there truth in mass market literature? Are we the plebs for not reading the hunger games? Are we not in on the joke that everyone else is in on? Is Pynchon less culturally relevant than John Green? Is poptimism necessary in literature?
I can't stand lit snobs who only read pynchon and joyce and whatever.
I read just about anything, it's all good. Life's too short to be a stuck up, unlikable faggot.
I think you can do an interesting analysis on something like the hunger games, even if you don't agree with it.
It's about a totalitarian system with many good characters, after all.
>>7581285
hello reddit
I remember a year ago some anon wanted to read Das Kapital. He started a thread asking what should read before the actual Das Kapital. I took note from all the tips. So I already read "The essence of christianity" by Ludwig Feuerbach and "Phenomenology of spirit" by Hegel. But problem is that Kant's "Critique of pure reason" can rarely be found in where I live. My question is can I start reading Das Kapital without Kant?
Kant's Pure Reason can be found for less than £5 online.
>>7581251
Wow, gee thanks for the insight.
>although my question was entirely different
>>7581183
i'd say thatyou kant
I want to buy a bunch of books from Everyman's Library. Which books are definitely worth buying?
None of them are worth it at retail. Those things are everywhere. Just keep your pants on and go to a few library book sales.
Is someone trying to make a meme of this? I'm seeing a lot of Everyman threads -- they are very good though.
Really mate just buy the books that you want to read.
