Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 975. page
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Is anyone here into Fredric Jameson?
Where do I start with him? Are his theories useful for understanding literature/lit type things in 2016?
I've decided to get into literary theory, and I like that he's marxist, but also seems to be beyond some of the easier marxist ideas like just looking at who is rich and poor or w/e in a text)
wasn't he the cultural marxist who dropped marxism like a hot potato and switched to nationalism after the creation of israel? lol why would u study any shit but a scumbag like that
I'm not into him, but he's nonetheless influential and should be studied if you want to go deep into theory. His essay "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," is incredibly influential. It was quite controversial when it was first published, but looking back, I think he was very prescient on certain points.
>>7716183
he petitioned Duke to divest from Israel, i think you're thinking of someone else, maybe Hitchens?
I definitely see the merit in criticisms of his work for being repetitive/derivative. However I have to say that this is one of my favorite books. Read it once in high school and again in college. Each time it seems to offer something different. The way Murakami blends Eastern symbolism with Western literary structure gives the book a lot of mystery while still being really interesting. It's basically DFW without all the self-doubt and pretension.
I find a lot of parallels with Siddhartha in the whole physical/mental journey aspect. But after all I'm just a linguistics major, what do you think /lit/?
Japanese Borges is pretty ok.
>>7716156
I like it too but I still think the ending is a huge anti-climax.
Also, Hard-Boile Wonderland and the End of the World is his real masterpiece.
>>7716162
Definitely agree with the ending being anti-climactic, but I think that's part of it. Just reread the last page to remind me of it. I think it's all part of Kafka realizing that he's just a normal teenage boy. He went on the same sort of emotional/mental journey that everyone has to go through. Even if his background isn't typical (Oedipus allusions), he's symbolically killed all that. He's got the painting and the music with him on the train back to the real world--the keys to realizing his identity, which is what he set out to do in the first place.
Sorry /lit/, i don't get the meme.
>>7715891
It's Pessoa's worst. Don't worry. The only people I've encountered who enjoyed this mediocrity are tumblr trash.
>>7715891
Then you're normal and have no mental or personality disorders. Congradulations.
It's a great book, although repetitive. If you don't "get it" you're likely not a narcissist and / or don't suffer avoidant personality disorder
What do you guys think of IELTS?
I'm temporarily an ESL teacher to support my studies abroad and as part of my job regularly prepare students for IELTS. Before I start any prep with my students I talk about how bullshit the exam is, how little it correlates to English proficiency, and how opaque IELTS the organization is. I like to think it removes some of the mystique and makes the exam more approachable, but it's mainly for my own selfishness and desire to vent. Performance on IELTS is determined by how well you can memorize long lists of advanced phrases and piece them together to create a narrative.
In my experience, the people who do best on exams of this category are those who have the least need for it; they are chatty and charismatic, able to sustain a conversation about any topic without much help. The people who do need a good grade because they're trying to go abroad are often STEM students/professionals with great analytical skills. This demographic uniformly struggles.
>>7715735
I concur with teach anon
I haven't participated in an IELTS examination, but a CAE(Certificate of Advanced English)
and from my point of view, it's the same old gibberish - a tonne of phrases and vocab to be memorized so that you can state your opinion or defend a point in a convo or in essay.
In the end, everything is owned to chance. The exam will surely have vocab/grammar that is, not unknown, but uncharted by you and you will end up guessing the thing.I got a B on my exam (that's,what, 7, 8 in IELTS grading?), yet I pretty much devoted more than the required time for study to get an A.
Pretty pissed off about it.
My advice, don't take yourself too seriously. You will end up burning yourself out.
Has anyone read/are familiar with the web serial Worm? A friend of mine keeps recommending it, applauding the world and character creation. I read the first chapter and it seemed like reddit tier genre fiction. Does it get any better?
Reviiiive
![41Q-p2N1neL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/vk0CMqj.jpg "41Q-p2N1neL. SY344 BO1,204,203,200 [1]")
I've only read Demons, The Gambler and White Nights. My favorite is Demons. The next one I'm reading is Crime and Punishment. What are your favorites?
>>7715125
Dislike him. A cheap sensationalist, clumsy and vulgar. A prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian.
>>7715149
Notes from Underground
Hey I've kinda been on a kick lately and I was wondering what /lit/ thought of Brett Easton Ellis? So far I've read American Psycho and Less Than Zero, I'm currently reading The Rules of Attraction. I think his writing style is neat, his characters seem to be very detached from humanity which is depressing and interesting at the same time. I would also welcome recommendations of books similar to Ellis'.
>>7714876
Ray Carver, only he's not an edgelord.
I read Less than Zero a week ago. I loved the majority of the book but found the climax extremely heavy-handed. What did you think?
And how is Rulea of Attraction going? I was thinking about picking it up.
>>7715019
The issue I've got with Less than Zero is that it's got three different climaxes-- the snuff film at the beach, the date with Julian, and the child sex slave-- and only one of them is any good, with the first and third being obnoxiously obvious and BEE's first dalliances into grotesquity without cleverness. And that part where Clay just tells his psychiatrist the theme-- wew.
Unfortunately, it's still probably his best book. AmPsy comes close, but Glamorama and Imperial are both kind of shit.
Haven't read RoA sadly.
Fun exercise if you've got time-- get the audio book for American Psycho and listen to it on shuffle. Actually enhances the experience and makes the munatie much more bearable and fun (the chapter where Bateman spends the evening failing to make reservations elucidated genuine laughter instead of oblique boredom).
How does someone go about becoming a political columnist?
There's a lot of people who have opinions, but what about those of us who want to share them in writing? It's not even something I'd want to make a career out of or necessarily prioritize in my life, I just want to have a voice that fills the deep void in media wherein the opposing opinion is becoming increasingly absent.
1) I'm not a completely shitty writer, and I like to think that I have enough self-awareness to know this
2) I have at least decently well informed opinions -- even so, I would never glibly opine about bullshit I don't know about -- I can into research, datum, etc.
Do I start with the local papers? Email pieces to small online journals? Barge into the campus media studio and demand someone print my work Kaczynski style? What do /lit/?
>>7714562
pls respond
>>7714562
Start a blog. If you can update it with a reasonable periodicity, and the content isn't complete shit, then I think you can apply for job as freelancer in a small news site even if you don't have a large following.
>>7715945
How to start blog? Should I learn some kind of webdev, pay someone to do it, or is their a site already set up for this kind of thing?
Post books you've never heard someone mention online or off
>>7714555
Judging by the cover this book is complete and total garbage
>>7714559
Here's your reply
I thought it was pretty good, nothing like Demons or Crime and Punishment, but I'm sure it's regarded as Dostoyevsky lite
What is the best book you've read that was published in the 21st century?
Pic unrelated
>>7713293
>>7713293
A time for everything
What was the last book you read?
What are you reading now?
What will you read then?
Judge others or give em recs.
>What was the last book you read?
Apology by Plato
What are you reading now?
The Odyssey and El Libro De Arena by Borges
What will you read then?
Maybe a greek comedy and The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
>>7713138
>last
The Lime Twig. I really enjoyed it, though I struggled to understand some of Hawkes' ideas.
>Now
Mason & Dixon. Probably the comfiest thing I've read in a long time.
>Next
Larva: a Midsummer Night's Babel.
>>7713138
Just finished To The Lighthouse
Starting One Hundred Years Of Solitude
Next will either be finally getting around to Ulysses or The Idiot.
thoughts on bukowski? (anyone wanna recommend writers similar to him?)
edgy shit
>>7710412
his work is good
don't let his fanbase of pseudo-intellectual, existentialist teenage girls convince you otherwise
>>7710457
>bukowski
>teenage girls
Bukowski is reddit incarnate
/Lit/erary confessions thread, or: How The Average Man Learned to Love Showing YOU as The Pleb
Pic related, it's anyone on /lit/ who doesn't read at all.
>>7716479
Poor form, her name and face really ought to be blurred. How would you feel, anon, if your privacy were stolen from you?
>>7716488
>privacy
>stolen
?????????
Could anybody recommend me some nonfiction books pertaining to any time period in United States history? I looked in the sticky but couldn't find many specifically for the USA
The Unwinding, or The Power Broker
You won't regret it
So where do all the settings and characters in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion fit into Mishima's fascist, samurai-era ideals?
Kashiwagi - A personification of Mishima's own insecurities, or the degenerate spirit that led the Japanese away from the glory of their past?
The Temple - Obviously representing pre-war Japan, and its spirit.
But what about all the other elements? Was the girl that fell in love with Kashiwagi's feet a symbol for how easily people are led towards degeneracy?
>>7715931
Mishima's fascist ideas developed near the end of his career, so they're not necessarily formed here.
The Temple represents beauty. Whether pre-war japan also represented beauty is a separate consideration.
>>7716261
This. It's like analyzing Hitler's landscape paintings with Mein Kampf in mind. Mishima's early work is mostly autobiography like Forbidden Colors and Confessions. Golden Pavilion is significant because it's one of the first where he's projecting his ideas about beauty, which is THE major theme in his work, onto events that happened.
