Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 711. page
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Is nihilism the end of all wisdom?
It's the middle.
Is that all you're going to write?
>>7873772
Is that all you're going to write?
Is this very literary of him?
>>7873723
For some reason, I actually enjoyed this post, just as one can enjoy MTW - to imagine that it was written purposefully to show a sick or broken mind.
I don't know, it just feels like a tale of despair and misery. You lose your manhood, your decisions are totally arbitrary, and there's this lighthearted merryness about this: like a tale you tell at a party, not realising how feeble and disgusting and small and pitiful you appear.
>>7873746
I feel nothing but a sense of dread, as if the future which he represents is encircling society like a black fog
This is very retarded of him
Is philosophy an intellectual form of self help-- of coming to terms with death?
Is philosophy?
Maybe some existential stuff or really old premodern "philosophy". Philosophy today is in the analytic tradition which focuses on argument structure, language, and applying logic to a variety of subjects outside of logic.
>>7873667
It can be I guess
philosophy is pretty much just the exploration of ideas. A lot of philosophy is pretty antithetical to happiness, or at least is "neutral" to it. A lot of philosophers aren't interested in being happy but instead deserving of happiness.
It's a complex field, pal. Lots of interpretations. Lots of butt spanks. Lots of ball twists. Lots of hugs, some kissing, maybe you get figged a little.
>person pronounces it show-pen-hauer
What else makes you immediately know your professor/classmates are inferior idiots?
>people who pronounce it 'lee-oh' tolstoy
>>7873576
tremendous thread op
very temendous
>>7873576
It actually is pronounced with a long open O. It'd be written Schoppenhauer if it was pronounced like you think it is. Also instead of being a smartass online go study.
What do you think is the best or most interesting book of the bible? Not in terms of religious significance.
>>7873021
For me it's Ecclesiastes. Pretty thoughtful wisdom literature. You can also read it in a sitting. Then John's gospel for his writing style
whats the definitive edition to read of the bible?
>>7873050
The one in the drawer of your preferred motel
James looked at Rick and he farted.
Who farted?
>>7872969
James, obviously.
If it was written 'James look at Rick who farted', then it'd have been Rick
>>7872969
smelt dealt it
>>7872978
verily, he saith that whosoever doeth the crime be marked by opening the rhyme.
What kind of books did you read for your English teacher?
>>7872844
man I haven't fapped to Abbey Brooks in ages
wonder how she's been
>>7872844
The same stuff everyone read for their high school English class--The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Catcher in the Rye. On my own time, though, I read a lot of Gaddis, Pynchon, Hawkes, and Gass, who is, and always will be, my favorite writer.
HOLY SHIT. Check out those bazingas. Aaahhwooooooo!!!
Based Karl Ove Knausgård reviews Micheal Houellebecq's Submission
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/books/review/michel-houellebecqs-submission.html?smid=tw-share
Discuss
i say he should stick to describing the turds that he takes
he is no critic
>>7872649
BTFO
“Husymans’s true subject had been bourgeois happiness, a happiness painfully out of reach for a bachelor. ... His idea of happiness was to have his artist friends over for a pot-au-feu with horseradish sauce, accompanied by an ‘honest’ wine and followed by plum brandy and tobacco, with everyone sitting by the stove while the winter winds battered the towers of Saint-Sulpice. These simple pleasures had been denied him.”
Was all this refinement, all this decadence, this misanthropy and disillusionment, were all these religious agonies and scruples merely the sublimation...
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Can someone please make a short non-spoiler review? I finished ASOIAF and I want to start some new multivolume fantasy series. Some Anon suggested this to me on a different board so I wondered what /lit/ has to say about it,
DragonballZ with tarot cards.
>>7872266
so 70% filler?
>>7872270
More like 60% of it is pretty decent than massive power creep that takes place of characters and stories. Bone hunters is the last good one imo
House of chains and dead house gates are pretty top notch modern fantasy, for whatever that's worth.
Which edition is best and why?
shut the fuck up sage
>>7872171
The unabridged version from inside DFW's mind.
>>7872179
can't find it on amazon :/
About a third of the way into Vineland and enjoying it. but so far it feels very similar to Inherent Vice. Was IV a rehash of Vineland or do they differ in more ways?
also which Pynchon should I go to afterwards? I read TCOL49 and Inherent Vice, thinking of going to Against the Day then V, Mason & Dixon and Gravity's Rainbow last.
You've read in a weird order.
Read V., then GR or M&D (both, but in either order), then AtD, then BE, then SL if you feel like it.
>>7871876
I'm not looking for his best first, I'm just going through it by feel. but I can try it your way. is there a reason for it?
>>7871888
I think its generally thought that you are wasting your time with anything other than V. GR, M&D, tCoL49, and AtD
So, did Werther actually have a shot at Lotte?
I'm of the thought that he most definitely did, their last meeting was pretty much "Oh Werther, I love you too, but I'm dating this other dude atm".
His sorrow was pretty much the same as Elizabeth Bennet/Jane Eyre, by splitting Lotte and Albert apart he would have made her "impure" and into someone he didn't love.
Or was it just a lost cause? Would she never love him?
Werther's love can hardly be called love, in a sense. I hate to go all Lacanian psych-bullshit but Lotte is the 'objet petit a' - the ultimate object of his desire, but one that cannot be attained because to attain it would be to compromise or change its qualities. His love for Lotte is rarely described as physical, but one could argue that Werther would be unable to express physical love due to its being so taboo. Werther is downright obsessed with her.
I'd probably argue that Werther is a depressive. He is able to keep it together most of the time...
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>>7871909
>I hate to go all Lacanian psych-bullshit but Lotte is the 'objet petit a' - the ultimate object of his desire, but one that cannot be attained because to attain it would be to compromise or change its qualities.
This seems very interesting. Where can I read more?
I don't think he had a chance.
Lotte may or may not have loved him, but I don't think he had a chance regardless.
I find the most heartbreaking thing about love, to be the uncertainty. Whenever I fall in love, I get two different voices in my head, where one is encouraging and positive, and the other negative and discouraging.
The result is a kind of limbo, where you don't fall out of love, but you're still too afraid to make a move.
This is what happens to Werther, and then it just intensifies over the course of the story untill Lotte...
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I had a guy in my literature society bring up a theory on whether or not the monster in Frankenstein was representative of 'transgender' (Don't worry, he isn't one of those 'thousand-gender' Tumblrettes).
How far would you guys argue that Frankenstein's Monster lacks a gender? The Creature is presented as the "modern Prometheus", yet Shelly consistently labels Victor's creation as "it".
Then it is genderless, isn't it?
>>7871591
Well it specifically wants a wife at a certain point so It wouldn't be too hard to argue for it being a male. Ultimately it's a fucking monstrosity but I think implying that it is representative of transgender is kind of reaching.
>>7871630
genus=!=sexus, just fyi
i think it's ridiculous to retcon classic works of literature to fit contemporary issues, it's the same as replacing the word nigger with slave in huckleberry finn and making hermione black (well larry potter is not a classic work of literature, but you catch my drift). this is just pandering to a certain audience. also >>7871654
Ok c/lit/s, I'm in a weird state about the project I'm working on at the minute:
I wanted to do something existential, along the lines of Siddhartha, but with an ancient Gaelic guy going through Rome???
But I'm still not sure how well my prose is flowing, I still want to keep some of the character that comes from some of the more convoluted phrases, but it still sounds a bit strange altogether
http://pastebin.com/XjGacmba
Feedback is genuinely super appreciated
It's got an amateurish vibe to it, sadly. Good effort though, never stop trying.
>>7871544
I get that, why though? Language, narrative, tone or a mix of different things?
>>7871550
(not that anon)
commas used like haphazard oral pauses,
inconsistent tone with archaic syntax or turns of phrase tentatively spread here and there inbetween standard modern ones,
sentences where "[one thing happens] as [something completely unrelated is described]" (or the reverse) = illogical uses of a besides 'writing style'-cliché structure
Keep at it but read more too and you'll start to see it.
Are we living in a world of hedonists who lack any sort of foresight or is hedonism itself the problem? How important is foresight when it comes to the practical application of hedonism? Is hedonism a "valid" philosophy as long as the person practicing it has enough foresight?
Hedonism is the cancer of the soul.
>>7871535
Not really an answer to my question but thanks anyway I guess.
Hendonism is the problem. Even if you have foresight you will be craving fore something that you can't fulfill. You can see the problem coming but you can't avoid it.
