/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1612627]

ITT: Best opening lines in all of literature.

"Call me Ishmael."

[Anonymous No.1612632]

"The two of us wrote Anti-Oedipus together. Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd."

[Anonymous No.1612633]

"Call me Jonas."

[Anonymous No.1612638]

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.

[Virginia W00F !!GThm5VqxqDi No.1612639]

"Call me Ishmael"
"Ur a gorilla lol"
-Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

[Anonymous No.1612642]

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

[Anonymous No.1612645]

Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation.

[Anonymous No.1612646]

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

[Anonymous No.1612651]

The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.

[Anonymous No.1612653]

I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the
sleepers in that quiet earth.

[Anonymous No.1612655]

I'd never Given much thought to how I would die -though I'd had reason enough in the last few months- but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

[Anonymous No.1612656]

When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

Or whichever translation you want to use.

[Anonymous No.1612657]

>>1612656
wa’ po Qongvo’ vempu’ ghe’ghor SamSa najmeymo’ SujmoHpu’, tu”eghpu’ QongDajDaqDaq DolHom’e’ choHlu’pu’.

[Anonymous No.1612659]

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.

Well thanks man, I didn't realize that.

[Anonymous No.1612660]

>>1612627
Not so much a /co/ invasion...more like a hit and run.
This is an issue of The Unwritten. A comic that takes choice cuts out of the body literary.

[Anonymous No.1612662]

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly consider'd how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost;—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is likely to see me.

[Anonymous No.1612665]

It was the hurr of times, it was the durr of times.

[Anonymous No.1612669]

From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called, authors do not agree.

[Anonymous No.1612674]

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

[Anonymous No.1612675]

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

[Anonymous No.1612677]

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

[Anonymous No.1612679]

For a long time, I went to bed early. Sometimes, my candle scarcely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I did not have time to say to myself: "I'm falling asleep."

[Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman !!imEIcTjbs/H No.1612681]

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

[Anonymous No.1612683]

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan...

[Anonymous No.1612686]

I have always unconsciously sought out that which will beat me down to the ground, but the floor is also a wall.

[Anonymous No.1612693]

>>1612675
LOL it sounds so lame in English, right
RUSSIAN FOR THE WIN BITCHES

[The Gay Science !!WoWI0TlZBtd No.1612696]

[Anonymous No.1612701]

>>1612693
It's great even in English

[Anonymous No.1612708]

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?

[Anonymous No.1612717]

"When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

[Anonymous No.1612724]

"it was the best of times it was the blurst of times"

[Anonymous No.1612726]

"The small boys came early to the hanging."

[Anonymous No.1612735]

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.

[Anonymous No.1612739]

>>1612627
Okay, Ishmael, what do you think is the best line in literature?

[Anonymous No.1612757]

>>1612665
It is a hurr, hurr better hurr that I go to, than I have ever duhr.

[Anonymous No.1612758]

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.

[Anonymous No.1612759]

>>1612724

[Anonymous No.1612760]

I told my dentist all this.

Local Anaesthetic by Gunter Grass

[Anonymous No.1612763]

"My best friend when I was twelve was inflatable."

[Anonymous No.1612765]

A screaming comes across the sky.

[Anonymous No.1612766]

The night was moist.

[Anonymous No.1612769]

>>1612642
"One hundred years of solitude", FUCK YEAH.

[Anonymous No.1612770]

I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years.

[Anonymous No.1612773]

>Ishmael

dat name... dat name

I'm sorry, but whenever I hear that I think of a kid with braces, sucking saliva every two seconds and breathing heavily, introducing himself to you with a big creepy smile

>Call me... hhhhh... Issshhhmaelll hhhhh

[Anonymous No.1612776]

>>1612773

[Anonymous No.1612788]

Call me Jonah.

Cat's Cradle by you-know-who

[Anonymous No.1612806]

Most illustrious and thrice valorous champions, gentlemen and others, who willingly apply your minds to the entertainment of pretty conceits and honest harmless knacks of wit; you have not long ago seen, read, and understood the great and inestimable Chronicle of the huge and mighty giant Gargantua, and, like upright faithfullists, have firmly believed all to be true that is contained in them, and have very often passed your time with them amongst honourable ladies and gentlewomen, telling them fair long stories, when you were out of all other talk, for which you are worthy of great praise and sempiternal memory.
(The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua)

[Anonymous No.1612807]

the opening to the stranger
something like
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.

[Anonymous No.1612813]

They sent him to Dallas to kill a nigger pimp named Wendell Durfee. He wasn't sure he could do it.

-- "The Cold Six Thousand" by James Ellroy

[Anonymous No.1612815]

>>1612806
This book is hilarious. Thelema ftw

[Anonymous No.1612821]

>>1612807
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

[Anonymous No.1612833]

En algún lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme...

[Anonymous No.1612841]

Theodore is in the ground

[Anonymous No.1612850]

"Have you ever looked at the online photos of Britney's peesh?"

[Anonymous No.1612858]

>>1612627
Too bad the rest of the book sucked balls.

[Classic_American_Liberal !8RGETRUjdI No.1612861]

>>1612858
One of the top 5 greatest novels ever. Deal with it.

[Anonymous No.1612875]

>>1612861

not according to anyone who reads for fun.

[Anonymous No.1612880]

>>1612875
Sure it is. Spooning with cannibals, cracking them oars, eating that whale stake, preaching them sharks, hunting that white whale. Fun.

[Anonymous No.1612892]

I love Moby Dick and find it highly entertaining, even funny at times.

Anybody else appreciate the humorous writing style?

[Anonymous No.1612952]

>>1612892
Maybe I would if it weren't drowned out by constant digressions dealing with THE HISTORY OF THE FUCKING COLOR WHITE

[Anonymous No.1612994]

>>1612952
It's like the book is obsessed with everything white whale.

[Anonymous No.1613025]

"Man," said Char, "is an endangered species."

[Anonymous No.1613026]

>>1612627
From Nikolski, by Dickner:
Mon nom n'a pas d'importance.
[translation: My name hasn't any importance.]

A favourite, from Ulysses:
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing-gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
- Introibo ad altare Dei.

[Anonymous No.1613028]

>>1612892
>humorous writing style
>sperm squeezing

Think you missed the elephant in the room, bro.

[Anonymous No.1613032]

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Haters gonna hate

[Anonymous No.1613048]

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

[Anonymous No.1613050]

>>1612892
I'm reading it in the metro. I really like the large range of tones, and the humorous parts, like Ishmael's defence of whaleship or Queequeg sitting on that sleeping guy. But way too many digressions.

[Anonymous No.1613054]

Of arms I sing -- and a man.

[Anonymous No.1613080]

"Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure."

[Anonymous No.1613082]

Hwæt wē Gār-Dena in geār-dagum Þēod-cyninga Þrym gefrūnon, hū ðā æÞelingas ellen fremedon.

-Bēowulf

[Anonymous No.1613083]

>>1613080
the stranger right?

[Anonymous No.1613103]

>>1612683
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU

[Anonymous No.1613112]

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

[Anonymous No.1613114]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away

[Anonymous No.1613115]

>>1613103
it's not exactly a hard one

[Anonymous No.1613117]

>>1613048
Good choice, anon. Good choice.

[Anonymous No.1613118]

Looking down at the mini-gorilla on my doorstep, I knew the deliveryman had confused my house for Mr.Belgium's again.

[Anonymous No.1613140]

a way a lone a last a loved a long the
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, by swerve of shore and bend of bay, by commodius vicus of recirculation, brings us back again to Howtch Caste and Environs.

[Anonymous No.1613156]

"The marquise went out at five o'clock."

[Anonymous No.1613159]

"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one. Or at least as close as we're going to get."

[Anonymous No.1613168]

>>1612675

"All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike," says a great Russian writer in the beginning of a famous novel.
Ada or Ardor - Nabokov

[Anonymous No.1613179]

See the child.

Blood Meridian

[Anonymous No.1613222]

>>1613168
>"All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike,"

So Nabokov translates it like that?

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613240]

>>1613222
Nabokov translates it so it sounds better.

[Anonymous No.1613255]

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the arm lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

[Anonymous No.1613265]

>Initiating God Mode.

"See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a last few wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him.

Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.

The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed. He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man."

[Anonymous No.1613269]

He was not to do anything in bad taste, the woman of the inn warned old Eguchi. He was not to put his finger into the mouth of the sleeping girl, or try anything else of that sort.

[Anonymous No.1613281]

"Who is John Galt?"

[Anonymous No.1613283]

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash."

- dat Ballad

[Anonymous No.1613293]

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Yes, that's one line so FUCK YOU.

[Anonymous No.1613316]

Apollon Apollonovich Ableukhov was of venerable stock: he had Adam as his ancestor.

[Anonymous No.1613328]

>>1612638
;_;

[Anonymous No.1613334]

>>1613293
There is a difference between sentences and lines.

[Anonymous No.1613344]

"Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice's Lenten fast in the desert."

[Anonymous No.1613349]

>>1612717

Hell yes.

[Anonymous No.1613359]

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

[Anonymous No.1613376]

"The thing being of itself something so phantasmically abhorrent as to render forth the insanity of any which mind may have beheld its gross and unfathomable form and in which sleeps the untold secrets of vast vistas of cosmic terror and oblivion which alone caused me to effect my own salavation via self-annhilation. The End."

- generic Lovecraft story

[Anonymous No.1613382]

You guys have Kim Peek'd my interests

[Anonymous No.1613388]

"The place I like the best in this world is the kitchen"

[Anonymous No.1613424]

I just love this sentence:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea.

/brofist to anyone who knows where it's from.

[Anonymous No.1613431]

It was a pleasure to burn.

[Anonymous No.1613433]

>>1613359
That is intriguing. I'd forgotten it was Neuromancer till I just googled it.

[Anonymous No.1613434]

>>1613424

That's Dylan Thomas, specifically "Under Milk Wood", and no, I didn't google it.

[Anonymous No.1613436]

People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles.

[Anonymous No.1613440]

>-We are dead.
>-We are dead.
>-You are dead.

[Anonymous No.1613442]

From the zombie novel, "Patient Zero" by J. Maberry:

"When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there's either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world. And there's nothing wrong with my skills."

[Anonymous No.1613454]

>>1613440
it´s "we are the dead". moron

[Anonymous No.1613531]

>>1613240
>Nabokov translates it so it sounds better.

But the meaning is kind of different, don't you think. Just compare:

>"All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike,"
>Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

[Anonymous No.1613535]

>>1613436

Bi-sexual drug antics in California?

[Anonymous No.1613537]

"She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue."

dat consonance nd assonance

[Anonymous No.1613545]

abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words as bust pulls up, the advertisment for Les Miserables on its side blocking its view, but Price who is with Pierce and Pierce and twenty six doesnt seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "be my Baby" on WYNN and the driver, black, not American, does so.

[Anonymous No.1613555]

>>1613082

Hwæters gonna hwæt ...

[Anonymous No.1613556]

>>1613555

faggots gona trips

[Fab !iiA80eLVpY No.1613614]

>>1613556

Shut up.

[Fabulous !!GXZe+d0RTva No.1613619]

>>1613614
srsly

srsly

[Fabulous !!UFEvGhKxyAZ No.1613638]

>>1613619

u mad, faggot?

[Anonymous No.1613639]

Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n'avais pas le temps de me dire : « Je m'endors. »

[Anonymous No.1613647]

>>1613614
>>1613614
>>1613619
>>1613638

TOO. MUCH. GAY.

[Anonymous No.1613649]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

[Anonymous No.1613689]

>>1613649
cant believe that was not said earlier

[Anonymous No.1613696]

>>1613689

[Anonymous No.1613711]

"Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery."

>trollface

[Anonymous No.1613735]

>>1612693
Russian is awful. Get out.

[Anonymous No.1613739]

NO 1984?

THAT WAS THE AWESOMEST FIRST LINE EVER

[Anonymous No.1613745]

Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of the Bonaparte family.

-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

[Anonymous No.1613751]

who's there?

[Anonymous No.1613776]

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.

[Anonymous No.1613785]

>>1612665
I'm having a horrible day and that made me smile.

[oreo !!AAIM3VRC42x No.1613788]

>"to wound the autumnal city.
>So howled out for the world to give him a name.
>The in-dark answered with wind."

none of you faggots can contemplate that shit

[Fabulous !!GXZe+d0RTva No.1613793]

>>1613788
>cliche nature soul-searching
>deep

[Anonymous No.1613794]

Who is John Galt?

[Anonymous No.1613796]

>>1613793
>>1613788
I agree. That's some phony shit.

Unless the intention was to strum pretty words together because the feel of certain words together feel nice. But in terms of actual contemplative ideas to be looked at, no.

[Fabulous !!GXZe+d0RTva No.1613797]

>>1613794
this comment is worth reading

it hasn't been posted before and never will be posted again because it's a gem in a coal mine

whoever posted this is probably extremely fun to talk to and generally get along with

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613805]

>>1613797

>american attempting sarcasm

[Fabulous !!GXZe+d0RTva No.1613810]

>>1613805
>implying it wasnt a done well
you're just dull

[Anonymous No.1613811]

>>1613805
Truman what are you doing with women!?

[Anonymous No.1613812]

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

[Anonymous No.1613813]

When a day you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

[ZiggyMeister !THUCK2SfO2 No.1613820]

Aujourd'hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613821]

>>1613810

>american fanning his own ego

>>1613811

you jello?

[Anonymous No.1613823]

>>1613805
most europeans are dull and all on 4chan show undeserved contempt for americans, will someone explain this

[Anonymous No.1613825]

>>1613823
I love everyone. I love Americans and Europeans.

Mostly because I'm Canadian and being nice is the only way you'll acknowledge me and I'll feel validated.

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613826]

>>1613823
usa is a big place. most dont travel outside it so they have sheltered world views.

[Anonymous No.1613827]

>>1613821
but arent you "fanning" your own ego by talking shit about american sarcasm by implying you or everyone besides an american is more skilled and then asking if he is jealous

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613830]

>>1613827
american comedy is notoriously bad tho.

[Anonymous No.1613831]

>>1612821
>>1613820
Hivemind.

[Anonymous No.1613832]

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613835]

>>1613823

There's nothing sinister about it.

Americans just notice criticism more because they are so insecure about their stagnant culture. Americans can't do humour very well at all.

Comedians who fail in britain often move to America where low bro, slapstick humour is appreciated.

[Anonymous No.1613836]

>>1613823
Nobody couples pride with ignorance as well as America does.

[Anonymous No.1613841]

>>1613826
so the reason according to you is that americans have sheltered world views, this is a genuine question

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613844]

>>1613827

Only an american would assume that.

Czech humour isn't very sophisticated either.

Very cynical, however.

[Fabulous !!GXZe+d0RTva No.1613847]

>mfw europeans start EU vs USA arguments because they feel inferior

[Anonymous No.1613851]

>>1613844
Someone who knows very little about Czechs detected.

[Anonymous No.1613858]

>>1613836
but that is just an opinion about a minority or possibly a majority(hehe) and therefore would be incorrect to assume about every american and then saying this would make you prideful and ignorant

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613859]

>>1613847

>mfw americans actually believe this

>>1613851

I think czech humour is quite cynical and dark, no?

[Anonymous No.1613865]

>>1613859
what is your basis of disliking americans i would really like to know

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613872]

>>1613865

I generally love America and Americans.

But the vast majority of American humour really sucks.

[Anonymous No.1613876]

>>1613872
ok i respect that, you dislike it because its not "smart"?

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613877]

it really sucks and it but it's a symptom of the crass patriotism which pervades American culture, but I think it's inevitable since America doesn't have the security of real historical tradition/culture.

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613889]

why did you delete a good post Truman? i was about to back you up bro.

[Anonymous No.1613890]

>>1613344

why trollface? this was a boss novel

[Anonymous No.1613891]

>>1613877
so basically you find american humor to prideful and generally americans to prideful without having a basis to have pride?

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613896]

>>1613876

It's often very low bro, yes.

But it's also very scared to be cynical and self-depreciative, and I think it's a symptom of the crass patriotism which pervades American culture, which is inevitable I think since America doesn't have the security of real historical tradition/culture.

[Anonymous No.1613901]

>>1613859
Varies from person to person, but in general - cynical and dark, sure, but also (and mainly) absurd and self-deprecating.

[Anonymous No.1613902]

>>1613896
ah, there i think you are wrong we have a lot of jokes about our president, past presidents,other politicians, celebrities

[Anonymous No.1613909]

>>1613902
That's not really self depreciating. It's little teasers, but nothing serious.

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613910]

>>1613889

I posted too early by accident, sorry.

>>1613891

>without having a basis to have pride?

Not really, I think America needs to be comfortable enough in the knowledge that it is a proud country without having to constantly remind itself and subsequently everyone else. But that is difficult since it doesn't have a history which can speak for itself like so european countries.

Not only does it mean that the faults of America are ignored but it also cheapens it's merits.

[Anonymous No.1613912]

I am Sam. I am Sam. Sam I am. That Sam I am. That Sam I am. I do not like that Sam I am.

[Anonymous No.1613915]

It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.

[Anonymous No.1613919]

>>1613909
well what would be self-depreciating according to you we make jokes about going to war in Irag and Afghanistan and about Vietnam is that not self depreciating?


brb eating dinner 10 mins, i would like to continue this dialogue to better understand european contempt of americans

[Anonymous No.1613926]

>>1613919
Dude I'm not European and I don't hate Americans. But I feel that those jokes make fun of popular culture (celebrities) and political figures which do not represent the nation as a whole. I feel usually American humor does not attack itself as an idea.

[Anonymous No.1613938]

>>1613926

America's satirists seem to speak from a source of national idealism, too. The absurdity isn't with America, but in how, as Americans, they should know better.

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613939]

>>1613919

Why do you think there is such an obsession over the creation of the constitution and why there is an absurd reverence about your founding fathers?

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613945]

>In Britain, where national cultural identity seemed linked to monuments of high culture – Shakespeare and the tradition of English literature, for example – the very fact of studying popular culture was an act of resistance, in a way that it isn’t in the United States, where national identity has often been defined against high culture. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, the work which does as much as any other to define Americanness, ends with Huck Finn lighting out for ‘the territories’ because Aunt Sally wants to ‘sivilize’ him. His identity depends on
escaping civilized culture.

>Traditionally the American is the man on the run from culture. When cultural studies denigrates literature as elitist, this is hard to distinguish from a long national tradition of bourgeois philistinism. In the United States shunning high culture and studying popular culture is not a politically radical or resistant gesture so much as a rendering academic of mass culture.

- Jonathan Culler

[Anonymous No.1613974]

>>1613945
Well, yeah. And that's fine. That's cool. It doesn't make either any less awesome.

I just love everybody.

[Anonymous No.1613979]

>>1613240
L'on, au Canada, apprend de lui à lycée. Ça me fait vouloir lire sa «recherche»...
>>1613222
Une bonne ligne, non?

[Anonymous No.1613980]

>>1613939
why did you answer my question with a question, in answer to yours i would say it is mostly taught in schools to create extreme nationalistic pride and reverence for the founding fathers but that is just grade school and getting into higher education it is taught more in depth and more truthfully

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1613987]

>>1613945

I quite like the anti-elitist and anti-intellectual aspects of American culture sometimes.

For humour though, it doesn't work out.

[Necrobrotent No.1613991]

Only one Fahrenheit 451?

I am so disappointed in you all.

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1613995]

>>1613979
>L'on, au Canada, apprend de lui à lycée. Ça me fait vouloir lire sa «recherche»...
speak real french please.

>>1613987
>I quite like the anti-elitist and anti-intellectual aspects of American culture sometimes.
>I quite like the anti-elitist and anti-intellectual
>anti-elitist and anti-intellectual
>Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ
>anti-elitist and anti-intellectual

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1614002]

>>1613980

Because these guys: >>1613926 , 1613928

Answered it as well as I could have.

American satirists usually criticise individuals or individual issues and not the concept of Americanness as a whole, in fact their satire usually comprises of criticism for not adhering adequately to American values.

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1614013]

>>1613995

Sometimes it's good to be dogmatically democratic about things, ty.

Even I can see that.

[Anonymous No.1614026]

>>1614002
give me an example of a joke that you would consider a criticism of americanness, please i would like to understand i think i am too localized to fully understand and maybe i am an example of what you said about the american people not being worldly enough

[Anonymous No.1614078]

>>1614026
>>1614026
will anyone give me an example??

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1614082]

>>1614078
compare UK office to USA office. idk.

[Anonymous No.1614090]

>>1614082
meh i dont watch either so the only difference to me would be the accents thanks though

[Anonymous No.1614144]

eh if any of yall are still here i take you not giving me an example as you dont have one

[Anonymous No.1614156]

>>1614026
america is pig disgusting

[Anonymous No.1614354]

>>1612675
>>1613168
>>1613222
>>1613240

Ok, I was the samefag who posted the Tolstoy and Nabokov quotes. Nabokov was not translating the Tolstoy quote, he was taking the piss. He took one of the most famous and well recognised beginnings and bastardised it for effect. For anyone too unread to understand: Anna Karenina and Ada or Ardor are separate novels. My advice: lurk more.

[None !WvWWh.l.CE No.1614381]

>>1614354
this might be the first time ive embarrassed myself on /lit/, thanks for bumping this an hour later bro. much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.1614397]

“What’s it going to be then, eh?”
There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter basard though dry.”

[Anonymous No.1614407]

>>1614381
>this might be the first time ive embarrassed myself on /lit/

Maybe the first time in the past 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.1614417]

>>1614381
Nothing wrong with saying it sounds prettier.

[Anonymous No.1614465]

A screaming came across the sky

[Anonymous No.1614514]

>>1614381
Ain't no thang, brother. I've respected your posts in the past, and still will in the future. I wasn't trying to call anyone out really, just clarify. My thought was to point out the ways that Nabokov plays with the reader, which is so prevalent in Ada b/c he writes his own glossary under a pseudonym, but it's all wrong! Cheeky bastard!

[Truman Capote !!cO9KVBDtkqQ No.1615255]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SLG-4cetz8

[Anonymous No.1615264]

to wound the autumnal city.


Fucking awesome opening line.

[Anonymous No.1615266]

Over-rated opening line, especially given how epic the book is.

[Anonymous No.1615286]

>>1612627
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit

[Anonymous No.1615292]

>>1612642
Marquez is so good with titles and first lines. And second lines, and third...

Nabokov too.

[Anonymous No.1615297]

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man restore us, and regain blissful Seat.

[Anonymous No.1615300]

"Most noble boozers, and you my very esteemed and poxy friends—for to you, and you alone my writings are dedicated."

[Anonymous No.1615302]

>>1612675
"All happy families are more or less dissimilar, all unhappy ones are more or less alike..."

-Ada or Ardor

[Anonymous No.1615307]

>>1612735
Thank god, you quoted the whole line, and not just the first half.

[Anonymous No.1615313]

>>1612806
Yes! The Confed. of Dunces fans don't know what they're missing with Rabelais.

[Anonymous No.1615319]

>>1613222
No, Nabokov starts his masterpiece with a reversal of Tolstoy's opening.

[Anonymous No.1615321]

>>1613240
No!

[Suasage Roll !kSxJ8Wqhm2 No.1615322]

"At a certain village in La Mancha, which I shall not name, there lived not long ago one of those old-fashioned gentlemen who are never without a lance upon a rack, an old target, a lean horse, and a geryhound."

I hope no one has posted this yet...

[3rd No.1615324]

>Even Camilla had enjoyed masquerades, of the safe sort where the mask may be dropped at that critical moment it presumes itself as reality.

[Anonymous No.1615327]

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save all link's to new doc.txt before 404's and download after time!infoindoin

[Anonymous No.1615331]

>>1613751
Yes!

[Anonymous No.1615400]

On the day the armada went off to war, on the last day of life as we knew it, I was invited to a party.

[Anonymous No.1615473]

>>1613739
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

Probably my favourite opening line, it captures the book perfectly, excellent choice.

[Anonymous No.1615480]

>>1612656
Certainly this!

[thedash !DPTEjK9PcE No.1615556]

Once upon a midnight dreary!

[Anonymous No.1615558]

>>1615556
Quoth the raven "Eat my shorts"

[Anonymous No.1615584]

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

[Anonymous No.1615590]

>>1612657
MFFW Klingon.

[Anonymous No.1615591]

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

[Anonymous No.1615596]

>>1615584
>insect
Fuck you with a rake.

[Anonymous No.1615619]

>>1615324
Awesome

[Anonymous No.1615649]

It began the night we died on the Kamikaze.

[Anonymous No.1615660]

I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. But a man's character is his fate, says Heraclitus, and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.