>spoiler in the introduction
Knowing what happens allows you to enjoy the technique, method, and story more.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/newsrel/soc/2011_08spoilers.asp
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists
I'd even go so far as to say most literary texts purposefully have spoilers in the introduction so that you are forced to focus on the mastery of the work rather than just wondering what happens next. They're trying to make you not so pleb, whether or not that's actually working.
>>7516725
>reading the introduction first
>spoiler in the outroduction
In this thread we post the best and worst publishers.
Let's start with the obvious.
Penguin is an amazing publisher. You're a fucking retard if you think otherwise.
>>7516657
Is this then some RPG character kind of deal where you traded your ability to fly for that to type?
>>7516653
I don't keep track of Le publishers track record, but explain what Penguin has done wrong.
>teacher pronounces it as show-penhauer
>the professor looks confused when i mention the meme trilogy
>doesn't use the IPA to convey pronunciations
>>7516582
show as in 'show me the money'. now you can appreciate my professor's buffoonery
I'm really interested in the philosophy of perception in particular and knowledge in general. I've been told to read Hume and Spinoza. Would you know of any works in particular, and any other writers who address these themes and quandries in general?
>>7516283
> philosophy of perception in particular and knowledge in general.
The big innovations in thinking that became popular due to Hume are largely a result of how he related his general philosophy of perception to his skepticist epistemology. If perception ultimately yields only a sequence of overlapping events, only sense impressions of objects and scenes flowing with countless others always into the past moment, and no sense impression of any necessary connection of causal links by which to rationally account for each perception's relations to other perceptions, and no sense impression of what this "self" is that is doing the sensing and thinking to begin with, I don't know how Hume's brand of skepticism makes way for much ambitious speculating about how the first-person experience of perception and consciousness relates to the body and its sense organs and their surroundings.
Spinoza's Ethics also gives a very generalized overview of how a human's perception relates to their intellect and its knowledge, but generalized for a different reason; he operates at such an abstract level, combining and clashing concepts that are lifted so much from vivid sensory data and easily understandable examples, that he doesn't talk too much about how things outside the body can affect the mind through sensation and perception. In fact, he doesn't truly accept that physical objects in space cause reactions in our thinking minds, because he separates the domain of thinking from that of extension, conceiving them as two parallel but non-interacting domains, among an infinity of others that humans have no knowledge of. Spinoza's epistemology is significantly more reliant on rational argumentation for what it counts as "knowledge" compared to its skanter reliance on sensory perception and induction.
>>7516453
So, would you say that Spinoza's thesis is that each man is an island to his own perception, whereas Hume suggests that the world hurtles past each person rather than the other way around?
>>7516283
Locke and Berkely
So, I'm babysitting my 8 year old cousin.
Being the introvert that I am, the only thing I can actually do with him is read for him, and he being dyslexic he enjoys it a lot. But I'm running ou of books, so help me anons!
The ones I have read:
Little Women
The Secret Garden
Alice's Adventure in Wonderland & Through the looking glass
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Is he too young for Harry Potter, Narnia and Brums of Avalon? Also, he says my choices are ''too girly'', so any help with that?
Other children's classics that I'm not remembering, please.
Does he like dogs?
Read him Where the Red Fern Grows
harry potter sounds about right
>>7516222
As much as any child. Thank you, anon! It looks cool, putting on the list.
So? Is it good?
le nope
I grew up playing videogames, so I was actually really surprised when this whole story is told in journal entries and audio-logs, which is the lazy videogame story telling method.
So? Why don't you read it and find out?
is there a site like goodreads that doesn't look like complete shit and isn't controlled by jews?
librarything.com?
librarything
>>7516049
nm you have to pay for it apparently and that's bullshit
Hey /lit, I apologize in advance for the meme-ing, but how does The Recognitions weigh up to Gravity's Rainbow in terms of difficulty?
Somewhat related:
Is Infinite Jest easy compared to Ulysses or Gravity's Rainbow?
>>7516007
yes
very much
>>7516007
Yeah, IJ was a breeze compared to either of those. The first 200 pages or so might take you a little longer, but it's a pretty fun, fast-paced read overall.
Is reading classic scores /lit/? Anyone else here like to read along in the score to their favorite Baroque gargantua or Wagner score to look for architectonic details that only a deep reading will reveal? In short, does anyone here read scores and libretti like books?
Pic related. Notice the dotted rhythm in the bass, like a heartbeat. It's a lament, of course, from the intro to the St. Matthew Passion. But notice that the most stunning lament of the piece, Erbarme Dich, has a perfectly metronomic, clockwork bass instead. Why does lament with the most vivid pictures of heaving sobs and tears have a heartless bass? The dotted rhythms return later, in other, less arresting laments. Maybe the lifeless, machinelike bass of Erbarme Dich suggests to you the paralyzing, stone-like shock of the first stages of grief?
Also, check out the first act of Don Giovanni. Seriously, fucking Mozart knew what he was doing. Right after the Commendatore dies, the lament is a minor version of Donna Annas protests when Don Gon was chasing her. In fact, notice that she's musically taking the lead their, and he follows (he's chasing her)- everywhere else in the opera he usually takes musical command. But here, he's off his game.
>>7515987
Your passion about reading sheet music is highly contagious. It makes me a bit jelous for not being able to see it the way you do
This is a PoMo board, motherfucker!
The bass reminds me, not of a heart, but of something else throbbing, behind me
My current goal is to understand Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and Nietzsche. However, I want to understand where they are coming from. What Greeks should I read? What other works between them and the 19th century do they reference most? I don't want to have to spend a decade building up to this but what five to ten books would give me the best shot of getting something meaningful out of the Existentialist bunch?
>>7515971
For Kierkegaard, Plato and Ockham will be helpful.
Read Plato. Almost all of him, in fact. Read him, then Aristotle's Metaphysics, then Anselms Proslogion plus the sections in Aquinas' Summa Theologica on time, nature, and mans essence in general.
Then read Descartes Meditiations, Leibniz's Monadology, Hume's Treatise (just the first book will do), Kant's CPR, and then Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.
Then, while you read Kierkegaard, be sure to always read the Uplifting Discourse meant to be paired with with whatever work you're reading.
He intended these discourses to be part of an ongoing dialectic between him and his pseudonymous personae. Speaking of dialectic, if you read NOTHING else of the above, read Plato.
Kierkegaard - Muh Faith helps with my confidence problems.
Sartre - Existence precedes Essence, that is, we can alter ourselves to great extents.
Camus - Artists are allowed to engage the despair and even encourage it if done positively, for the pursuit of audience pussy.
Nietzsche - Sure embrace the fact of nihilism, but don't be a slave to it, the glory of being a great man is all there is, promote every man becoming great and you are alright by me.
They reference nothing other than the decline of christian morality. You really want to understand existentialism just become homeless and become hated by everyone.
What does Nietzsche mean when he says 'deep'? He'll say something like:
>"Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood."
but then there's:
>"Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity; whoever would like to appear deep to the crowd, strives for obscurity. For the crowd considers anything deep if only it cannot see to the bottom: the crowd is so timid and afraid of going into the water.”
What does he mean by this?
>>7515950
He means people who think in a very deliberate, careful, or extensive manner.
e.g., Socrates or Plato could be considered "deep thinkers" due to the extensive critical thought and analysis of their own ideas and sounding them out through extended dialog.
>"Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood."
Not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say it has to do with the conclusions of that sort of thought aren't always palatable to others.
The second one seems pretty obvious on its own. I'm not sure how it ties together with the first one though, sorry. Maybe someone else will.
All his quotes "go with" other quotes of his. That way you have to read him more.
Your first goes with "That which is explained ceases to concern us" which is really a condensing of what Schope says in more words somewhere.
The second one goes with his stuff about women, "Women are not deep, they are not even shallow." He is just referring to the psychological depth of knowledge/anguish/self-awareness and nuance of behaviour/will more prevalent in men and great men. He also goes on to say that he himself doesn't really wish to be understood presumably because of the quote I wrote above, i.e. he wants to be read.
an idea should be easy to absorb but difficult to assimilate. so if the writer cant come up with something original, he will choose obfuscation.
Does anyone have the Russian Literature Download from the wiki? The anonfiles link is dead.
Also, Russian literature tends to be quite dark, but you rarely hear people complain about "forced drama" or "edginess". What determines if 'darker' themes are well established in a book?
>>7515919
Another bump
>>7515919
Where's Pushkin? He influenced all of those writers.
Russian literature as well as Russia itself are truly disgusting!
What's the woman version of this?
>>7515762
My diary desu
Good question
Or really anything with a female villain protagonist.
write something in the style of mira gonzalez
Ok.
There you go.
Am I authentic yet?
it's another Mira thread
in 20-15
eating pizza in bed
wishing
I
was
dead
should i shave my legs today or wear long socks?
i want somebody to hate fuck me and call me
their
little
taco slut
>>7515659
is tao becoming too good to remain a meme or something?
Why is existentialism so gloomy? I'm taking a course on the subject and all the notable existentialists seemed not to live a "happy" life, including the father of existentialism. He even made his Christian life seem depressing even though it was his "passion". Camus seemed to be the most "human" and even he despised being labeled an existentialist.
happiness is for normies
>>7515603
Only modes of thinking that can give you real happiness are strict practice of a real religion, esoteric practice of a real religion, and pure egoism. Christianity is a bastardized, diluted religion so Kierkegaard never had a chance.
>>7515625
>Christianity is a bastardized, diluted religion
Aloha snackbar, my Muslim friend.
![2446896_05[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/GV5Qxms.jpg "2446896 05[1]")
