Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 29. page
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>about to pick up pic related
>read blurb
>"...novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel."
Someone please explain the appeal of deliberately re-telling a story that's already been told.
To give a unique perspective.
Marketing meme blurbs very rarely reflect the actual book.
>>8280767
On this principle, OP, youd have no more stories. Theres only seven plot lines for any fiction. We just retell them with different names and slight tweaks.
Hello, all. I really would love to read more and it's a great shame of mine that I don't. I seem to have a problem with picking up books and read very, very infrequently. I find that with a film or documentary one can sit down and watch with ease, but for a book one needs to carefully select the book that's right for that person. A book is obviously different from any other media. If one buys a book, one needs to read it through to be able to say they've read it. And the fact that it's a physical thing that will just be lying on the bookshelf unread puts me off.
If I buy the wrong book, it'll just be another thing I haven't read, mostly because for whatever reason I wasn't enjoying it. For example, I was looking at some hard sci-fi book reccomendations from this board and found a few that were immediatley interesting. I was then put off by negative reviews, despite their being many positive reviews. I understand that everyone will differ in opinion on any medium, but when it comes to a book I feel like it needs to have almost universal appraise to be able to merit buying it and sitting down with it for a significant period of time? Does that make sense? Even if it's not based on reviews I'll just naturally come to the conclusion that maybe I will struggle with a particular book or not enjoy it, so I don't want to risk buying it to then get a few pages in and have to put it on my shelf as another signifier of everything I haven't read. Perhaps I'm being too picky? The issue is I've done this a lot. I recently bought Dune but just couldn't get past the first few chapters and felt really bad. I know I shouldn't feel bad since it's entertainment, but books are different. They require a lot of time and thought.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
>>8280757
get an e-reader
read short stories
get an attention spam
idk
>>8280783
I know you it's a typo, but "attention spam" could be quite clever in the right context.
also short stories are a good thought.
>>8280757
I really enjoy jogging now, but at first I really hated it. I had to set up an alarm to ring every evening that told me when it's time to go out and run. I had to stop what i was doing even it is was more fun than running, and go put my hour of jogging in. at first it felt really rigid and annoying, but after a couple of weeks it became a habit. now I don't even need the alarm for it.
see where I'm getting at?
you've got decades of great reading ahead of you. one month of forcing it is a small price to pay.
if you're into scifi, try this -
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-word-shaped-like-bones/
or this if you feel like something oldschool -
http://www.ebooktrove.com/Asimov,%20Isaac/Asimov,%20Isaac%20-%20Nine%20Tomorrows.pdf
story number 4
>>8280757
If you enjoy a book, do read on.
Apparently, you're also interested in "serious literature" but can't seem to get the same satisfaction from it. Try and read more accessible "serious literature" and move your way up. Reading a book when you're not ready or not yet in the mood for is a bad idea.
>muh garbage
>muh phonies
>muh Ántonia
>muh muh
What author/philosopher makes the besy argument for the concept of "true love".
I've fallen in love and want to believe.
Pic unrelated
I would say Pessoa.
>>8280714
Dante.
>>8280714
Let's instead turn the question inwards on you, anon, and then let's try to bring it back round to the board's topic - literature. Image choices with such scant info are rarely accidental. It is reasonable to assume that you are in a gay relationship. And what's more, you profess /love/ (as opposed to mere rutting). The very idea of a gay man admitting to /falling in love/ is quite rare, quite something.
You sound like a schoolgirl, which doesn't necessarily make for bad lit, but get ahold of yourself. Perhaps you are instead currently enjoying infatuation, for example, which is admittedly a form of love, but older people know to see it coming a bit better.
Another enticing possibility is that this is the very first time that (assuming you're gay) you've happened on a loving gay relationship, which is why you're flitting about for lovey-dovey shit. The very idea that you could have emerged into a loving gay relationship may seem absurdly wonderful to you - if in fact that is what is going on.
You don't need to philosophize, I don't think - assuming the above is accurate. Maybe try a sonnet from Shakespeare?
Looking for good/must read books that are around 100-200 pages in length, that I can read in a couple of days.
Noteable short books i've read the last couple weeks: Machiavelli The prince, Nausea Sartre, The PLague Camus(didn't fancy too much), Communist manifesto, Notes from the underground, Hunger Hamsund.
The Death of Ivan Illych
The Turn of the Screw
What are the best books for fully understanding the human condition and the depth of humans and the essence of being a human being?
I'm not trying to be pretentious or a pseud but i'm genuinely wondering after reading rainer maria rilkes novel and poetry. He seems to have a depth especially in his prose which is so beyond me at times or normal human sight that I wish to be closer to it.
It isn't so much about understanding (rather it expedited my own interest) the human condition scientifically, but I really enjoy Stephen Crane; The Open Boat struck a chord with me few short stories have as far as man v man v nature and all that is concerned.
What is this "human condition" meme?
Can't literally everything we feel, think and experience be told to be part of the human condition? I don't see how it means anything.
Anything by William Golding
What are /lit/'s opinions on Terry Pratchett?
I read a lot of Discworld as a young man and I remember thoroughly enjoying them, particularly pic related.
They are genuinely funny.
read the first two and two others years ago and was indifferent to them
>>8280678
t. reddit
Man, I'm sick of seeing everyone saying "DUNE NEEDS A MINISERIES" or "HBO SHOULD ADAPT DUNE". I've been reading Dune books for two thirds of my life and the series is just not that fucking good. Nothing in the original books would really translate outside of a novel written in the 1960s. What draws people to these awful fucking books
An unparalleled achievement of imagination
Dune is good but perhaps a little heavy on the worldbuilding. It's not "awful" by any stretch.
The onely dune I care about.
Anyone else see cliches in their poetry? It might be original to the field at large, but something that you personally overuse,
My worst ones:
-writing about writing
-writing about drugs
-starting every poem by telling the reader its "4 AM again"
y'all got any of your own that you cant seem to break?
I think in both my prose and my poetry I tend to be overly compact; hardly taking the time to build an image.
I always compare manmade objects and nature. Or girls to fire/light its bad.
Are there any good ways to get out of writing habits?
>>8280657
Once you're aware of them, just try different things.
what's the chronological reading order of bible books?
Start with the Greeks
>>8280609
bible is greek iirc
>>8280619
Bible is false. Platonism is where it all came from.
Help me write a better first page, /lit/? I'm trying to write a high fantasy, dark story about an optimistic man and a pessimistic girl looking for purpose in a cruel world.
Any tips about the writing or how I could better streamline things would be appreciated.
The world blurs around me, in favor of the ever increasing tunnel vision that seems to be overtaking me, and i’m not sure how much longer I could keep my consciousness. I don’t feel anything as my movement slows, and I fall down. I shield the body of the girl as we tumble down the small hill that felt mountainous, with my glaive frequently digging into my back. I begin to reconsider my glaive carrying methodology, but my short lived contemplation is shattered as the pain searing through every part of my body further reinforces abandoning consciousness in favor of a sleep i’d regret for the rest of a very short life..
As snow white trees speed past me, reminding me of the ever looming threat of frostbite, i’m left slowly falling into slumber, and I feel my heartbeat continuously slow. I refuse the honey sweet voice of death with every last bit of my willpower, and keep resisting as we reach the bottom of the hill. The girl seemed to have succumbed to the very unconsciousness I was so bitterly fighting against, and likely has been in such a blissfully ignorant state since I saw her being forcefully carried off by the very same who were chasing us now.
Desperately searching for a solution, and rest, I slide onto the frozen lake, and place the dangerously cold girl on a nearby patch of grass. As the gallop of their horses comes into hearing, I take the chance to examine the injuries I couldn’t feel. My hope was quickly shattered as I saw deep cuts on my thighs and calves. I have to make the most of the adrenaline from the hill still pumping through, I think to myself, before the pain catches up and i’m left immobile.
The horses reach the edge of the lake, but refuse to continue forward. At least that’s going according to plan. No time to gloat on my minor victory, there’s still the problem with the 6~ or so vengeful men who were sprinting onto this frozen arena. A large gust serves only to remind me of my wounds, but I refuse to be hindered by simple wind. I take off my cloak and wield the very glaive that had caused me a fair bit of discomfort on the run from potential death.
I think of the long years i’ve practiced this glaive, I think of the many hours travelling with this glaive, and I think of the minutes to pass in which I will survive with this glaive.
I've also never been good at writing any sort of action, and as I was planning to proceed with confrontation of the two parties, I would like tips/tricks/whatever on how to write proper, or at least enjoyable, action in fantasy.
I copy pasted from docs, so the formatting was destroyed.
>the ever increasing tunnel vision
why always ever
>I shield the body of the girl as we tumble down the small hill that felt mountainous
have you ever tumbled down a hill? how would you shield a body and how does it "feel" mountainous? wouldn't you know already since you walked on it?
>I begin to reconsider my glaive carrying methodology
you got me have a nice life
>>8280505
Glaives. So many glaives in that one sentence.
Keep fight scenes short unless you know what you're doing, it being long has a point, or you're getting off on it.
Is this guy a fucking oracle or some kind of insider? It's fucking scary everything he writes about starts materializing after a few years.
Also scary Russians thread.
JC Denton?
>>8280473
what has he got right?
any other contemporary russian stuff you can recommend? in translation obv
>>8280473
The guy who wrote that weird pokemon porn cover book?
Who is the Antonio Machado of English language poetry?
>>8280451
Probably Nicolas Cage.
I'd say Robert Frost because of their similar register in regards to diction, although their poetics are not that similar.
Show your /lit/ filters.
>>8280429
>being biasedly exposed to discussions based on your prior interests
>>>/reddit/
>>8280429
I don't even get on /lit/
INFINITE JEST.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACEEEE.
Infinite Jest or House of Leaves?
>>8280419
If you slammed them together repeatedly I think Infinite Jest would hold together before blowing apart, then again House of Leaves has a thicker cover so you may have to just try it yourself
>>8280419
Women and Men
Infinite jest
House of leaves I got the impression that it used gimmicks to hide the fact that the core story is only so so.
