Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 707. page
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What is some good nonfiction literature that I can read quickly and then name-drop in public to look smart?
nonfiction... literature?
The Secret
Look into Gass
With bookshops dead, what's a good way of discovering new releases? Amazon is dogshit at curation and discoverability.
(Pic unrelated, although they're just about sexy enough to justify them dumping the classic designs for the hardback rereleases)
>>7859572
Conversation.
Goodreads
Why would you care about new releases?
Unless you're a normalfag and want to talk to your work mates about the latest dystopian YA release, I can't really imagine any scenario where it'd actually matter.
What are some realistic post apocalyptic novels? I don't care what the actual apocalypse is (zombies, disease ect.) but how the author deals with how humans act when society shuts down. Here are some examples:
How do people deal with the inevitable mass raping?
After all the tampons run out, how do women deal with their periods?
Pregnant women?
Tooth decay?
Retarded people?
I basically want a story that's everything the walking dead isn't. The closest thing I can think of is WWZ but as I recall not a single person got raped nor were there teeth being pulled do to lack of brushing/flossing.
you can read fiction that takes place before the modern age and just pretend its post apocalyptic
>>7859508
A Canticle for Leibowitz is post apocalypse and about how humanity deals with the end of civilized society and such. It's not super realistic in the minute details like tampons running out and tooth decay but it's a great book that's definitely worth a read.
>>7859508
The Road
Alas Babylon
Earth Abides
On the Beach
thats literally it
As a senior in high school, for an "honors class" we are required to do book reports. I did The Stranger by Camus and Crime and Punishment. I want to read something that will challenge the audience.Any ideas for novels that will shock/and or awe my classmates?
The Decline of the West - Oswald Spengler
Genealogy of Morals - Nietzsche
Oh shit, you said novels.
Hm.
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea - Mishima
Call of the Wild - London
Lord Jim - Conrad
All of those will trigger people.
>>7859242
Better to Never Have Been
Do it you won't. Faggot.
Camp of the Saints
Celine
>go to local book store looking for Dubliners
>three different versions
>one has deckled pages
>one has a typo on the first page of the introduction
>one is really bent and beat up yet is being sold as new
Why do physical bookstores exist again?
Also, can anyone tell me the best versions of Dubliners and Heart of Darkness? I love them both so I want to buy a copy of each.
>>7859120
deckled pages are cool you fucking weirdo
>>7859126
They just make it a pain to precisely turn pages.
>>7859120
You passed up the deckled edge one just for the fucking autism of it? Unless the decked edges cut into the text itself, who gives a shit.
Fuck off.
What is your favorite work in the Kid Diddler's bibliography?
well diddle me pink and call me samantha
Pale Fire, if you disagree go post on the bad place
I want to read Ada or Ardor
Do you personally agree with the usage of "emoticons" in conversations between two people through a text based client? (an example, IRC)
[Will post my personal opinion a few posts down.]
As long as my schlong is getting sucked it's fine by me
>irc
ayy hows it going : )
i personally find them deeply appealing. those who turn up their noses at them are bores. >:3
Thought I'd throw a few weird but interesting reads this time, mostly experimental stuff and science fiction.
Exhalation - Ted Chiang
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/
Ted Chiang works are probably the platonic embodiment of short science fiction. The writing is normally only satisfactory, but his ideas are always breathtakingly original. Exhalation is a short and beautiful metaphor.
"For most of history, the proposition that we drew life from air was so obvious that there was no need to assert it."
The Northern Caves - Nostalgebraist
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3659997/chapters/8088522
I put this here for it's unusual format. The Northern Caves is a story about a group of dedicated fans trying to wrestle some meaning from the insanity of their favourite author's last book. Tinged with Lovecraft, and formatted largely as an online forum conversation, The Northern Caves is pretty unique, and probably worth reading.
"Don't go into the caves."
Three Worlds Collide - Eliezer Yudkowsky
http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/
Much lighter on pedagogy than the God-fucking-awful Harry Potter fanfiction for which EY is best known, the writing of Three Worlds Collide still leaves a lot to be desired. If you can ignore the cringe-worthy references though, TWC will make you think, telling the story of humanities first contact with extraterrestrials with utterly alien value systems. You may not agree with the authors answers, but you will probably find it an interesting read.
"...and they all lived happily ever after."
Please feel free to post some free short stories you've found that are better written, or to just bitch at me.
Solitary bump, for my own sanity,
I love you
>>7858947
Aww, thanks, which one did you enjoy?
What are the books that could not function in digital format due to either their substance or form?
I was reading most of english books in digital format lately, mainly because of kindle's dictionary and the secondness of english as my language, but now I'm getting some physical copies and wanted to know whether /lit/'d recomend me some mandatory ones. Things that come to my mind immediately are William Gass's The Tunnel and Danielewski's House Of Leaves. Obviously only books written in english interest me, post what you want tho.
/I plan buying one after someone covinces me, but that's good subject for a thread anyway/
>>7858658
Actually, there isn't much of a difference between the digital and physical versions of The Tunnel, as the former is just a photocopy of the latter.
t. Gassposter
>>7858658
IJ was pretty shit on my glo
>>7858702
Yeah, there isn't, but I suppose it could feel strange to read a book about books not being a book really.
pic related is mfw reading first chapter of If on a winter's night a traveler on e-reader.
Any good works on the nature of causality and events? And does /lit/ have any thoughts on agent causation?
bump
What are the major philosophical things on causality?
Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
>>7858632
Causality is addressed by just about every philosopher ever.
It goes back to the Unmoved Mover, Inherent causes, Aim Towards the Good, etc. Aristotle
Then you've got the Medievalists trying to prove God via causal chains and necessary causes. This is Augustine, Avicenna, Anselm, Aquinas, etc.
Then you've got your standard modern guys with Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, and Leibnitz and the whole issue with determination vs free will.
THEN you've got German idealists fucking everything up with notions of causation being an a priori, human representation (Schopenhauer), or causality being denied as in the traditional sense of change over time, for time is merely a way in which humans perceive things (Kant). Then you've got Fichte, Hegel, and Neitzche saying some shit about it too.
I mean, causality is pretty broad.
What's your favourite Bible book, /lit/?
I love Ecclesiastes but I'm reading Job for the first time now and it's great.
>>7858108
Old Testament: Psalms
New Testament: Gospel of John
>>7858113
>john
good taste lad
The favorite of the non religious: Revelation
The favorite of the non religious intellectual: Ecclesiastes
The favorite of the religious: One of the gospels
The favorite of the religious intellectual: Job
What was the best year for literature?
2005
>>7857973
why
1913 because of proust, gide and others
1857 because flowers of evil and madame Bovary
1969 because tournier and Albert cohen
No, he fried his brain with too many amphetamines. Even he knew that.
>>7857536
No.
But he was probably high all along.
>>7857536
Yes. But few will notice.
>Plato, I think, was ill.
>Plato was still young when he watched mob justice kill the greatest, kindest, and wisest man Western civilisation may have ever known
>Plato sat and wrote painstaking, loving accounts of the days leading up to Socrates' death, as he talked with his friends, defended philosophy without any hope of saving himself, declined a coward's flight from his execution cell, and slowly and gracefully died from the hemlock
>tfw you realize while reading the Phaedo that Plato probably cried onto the scroll as he wrote it
>tfw you slow down your reading and think of Plato, carefully choosing every word, as he described his hero slowly nodding off to sleep forever
>tfw ut te postremo donarem munere mortis et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem, quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum
>tfw atque in perpetuum frater, ave atque vale
>>7857469
>socrates
>great
>kind
>wise
>shiggy diggy
>>7857469
> tfw you finally realize that Socrates was evil and Athens was actually right to execute him
I've read these books over 10 times and I still have some questions.
>Why did the most low god's plane of existence crumble?
>Why did Air Able lose Parka's love?
>Why did the Archangel Michael keep searching for Sir Able when he already found him at the pool?
>What is the relevance of the she-demon that Sir Able found while his troops were scavenging?
>Were Mythgarthr Able and American Able the same person?
>>7856419
Try to summon Marc Aramini
>>7856661
>look up Marc Aramini
>"[Gene Wolfe] operates on a level of symbolic allusion"
>"concept of variance reduction techniques applied to a plot"
Please no. I don't want to forever ruin my memory of Wolfe's books with faggy post-modern deconstruction.
>>7857159
Marc passionately hates post structuralism and postmodern philosophy in general.
