Hey /lit/, it's my first time here and I've never read a book in my life. I'm feeling like I'm missing out in life for not reading one. What books should you recommend to me so that I can slowly get into literature?
>>7795706
Boku no Rainbow.
it really depends what youre looking for, but maybe something like brave new world
Finnegan's Wake
>>7795706
Finnegans Wake is pretty entry level.
>>7795706
cat's cradle
>>7795706
Greeks, the stranger.
There's a nice chart of entry-level to ascension level but i don't have it right now.
>>7795724
Op here
I've been taught almost every Greek book from school since I am Greek myself.
>>7795706
Anything pre-modernism.
Literature only got really difficult after modernism (not referring to philosophy), try Don Quioxte.
>>7795714
I'm mostly look for poetry
>>7795731
Ah, then you have a very fortunate basis for most literature.
>>7795731
Do you read the original greek or is it modernized? And how big is the big difference?
>>7795733
>Literature only got really difficult after modernism
(you)
>>7795739
Original and also in the ancient language
>>7795740
Those are some really nice examples of difficult pre-modernist literature.
>>7795735
what languages do you speak fluently? poetry in translation is generally not as good
for english i would suggest keats, tennyson, shakespeare, yeats, whitman, donne, ted hughes and seamus heaney
>>7795751
But did you have trouble with the ancient/original version?
I'm thinking of learning greek
Why is it that when English speakers talk of "the Greeks", they strictly refer to ancient Greece? As if a historic context is always implied.
>>7795759
Mostly greek and english
>>7795769
Because how could modern Greece ever be relevant to a discussion about literature?
>>7795767
Considering that you speak English you are gonna have a hard time learning greek especially ancient greek
>>7795782
Op here I was going to say the same thing. Greeks today are culturally empty
>>7795782
>>7795791
Yeah sure I'll give you that, but the disregard is off-putting to me even if contemporary Greek literature under no circumstances is worthy of mention. Even if the context always will be historical it seems really weird not to specify what era is referred to by calling it ancient Greece, classical Greece or whatever. No matter the degree of specificity, it should be better than implicitly equating ALL cultural history of some geographical area to a certain period in time (even one that is so much more significant than the others).
>>7795868
do you not have idioms in greek?
>>7795880
This wasn't me (op). Yes we have idioms
>>7795880
I don't understand the question. I'm not Greek.
>>7795889
would you be as triggered by reference to the romans believing something?
>>7795894
No, maybe if you called them "the Italians"
>>7795901
do you speak english as your first language?
are you somewhat educated?
then, you call the greeks of ancient greece "the Greeks" and the citizens of the roman empire "the Romans" (with perhaps specific reference to the educated upper classes)
people living in today's Rome are called "Romans" (not the specific "the Romans")
people living in today's Greece are not "the Greeks".
>>7795920
Yes, I realize that the usage you're describing is a conventional one, but it none the less seems to reflect a certain relationship to history and I'm intrigued by that. Honestly I was hoping to get some interesting theoretical replies rather than ending up in debating the actual accuracy of the terms.
Furthermore what I was jokingly getting at in the last post was the contrast in ways of referencing history and the different connotations of lineage that they have, which is something I'd rather not get into.
Saged as I think we're done.
