/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2791016]

>That one book that suited you perfectly.
The one you identify yourself with.
Pic related.

So /lit/, what's yours?

[Anonymous No.2791019]

Why do you identify yourself with that one, OP?

[Anonymous No.2791018]

inb4 Lolita, No Longer Human, some stupid neckbeard fantasy or Catcher in the Rye

[Anonymous No.2791023]

This and Angel's Game, and maybe his new one due out shortly

[Anonymous No.2791025]

Life After God - Douglas Coupland

[Anonymous No.2791028]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

[Anonymous No.2791032]

why will no one tell us WHY they identify with these books

the thread is boring otherwise

[Anonymous No.2791034]

>Oblamov

Too bad I wasn't born a wealthy Russian layabout.

[Anonymous No.2791036]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[Anonymous No.2791039]

>>2791032
Ugh, fine.
I am >>2791025
I identify with Life After God because I am an angsty agnositc atheist and as such can relate to the existential crises of the angsty agnostic atheists in this book.

[Anonymous No.2791040]

The Stranger

[Anonymous No.2791041]

>>2791019
I immediately fell in love with it.
It's the book that got me started on such topics as theology, and made me legitimately interested in phylosophy and semiotics.
Put simply, it was one of the first books I read that actually made me think - And how so!
Not to mention how this all made the story incredibly immersive for me, as I spent a lot of times researching the subject matters Umberto Eco wrote.

[Anonymous No.2791057]

Knight in Anarchy by George Shipway. because fuck you

[Anonymous No.2791060]

Oh god that book was such a drag
I did enjoy the sex scene
>inb4 20 shades of grey's
>you will never be a pure, innocent monk that gets his virginity taken in some medieval kitchen

[Anonymous No.2791064]

Infinite Jest

[Anonymous No.2791066]

>>2791060
>The Name of the Rose
>A drag

Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting something by Michael Bay?

>Not being legitimately interested in it's topics
>Not being captivated by Eco's writing and thoughts
I despise you.

[Anonymous No.2791068]

The Ski Bum, Romain Gary. And Pseudo, by the same author (under Emile Ajar name)

[Anonymous No.2791079]

>>2791068

And it's because I'm Romain Gary reincarnation. And Kristen Stewart will be my Jean Seberg

[Anonymous No.2791081]

Everyone is gonna think I'm boring

Faust Parts 1 and 2, Goethe

[Anonymous No.2791083]

>>2791066
the topic was interesting, some hidden monastery with occult and dangerous books along with a serial killer, the general gayness the monks experience, the different views about god, religion were interesting
I just wished he stopped describing every damn toothpick or stain on the wall the characters saw

[Anonymous No.2791086]

Currently I'm reading this book and it's kind of scary in that seems it's poking right into my brain and coalescing into words all these ideas, fears and obsessions I've had for years. There's even a story ("Glickman the Bibliophile") that is eerily similar to this one story I'm working on.

But I'm still reading it, so it might not count. Last book I read that I felt was tailored for me, so to speak, was Matt Cardin's "Dark Awakenings". Similar reasons to the Samuels book, although while Samuels' is more about language and its place on what we regard as reality, Cardin is more about exploring the idea of the self and how attaining enlightenment (religious or otherwise) might indeed invite a deeper disaster because of how the universe is structured.

Worth noting that both writers are heavily influenced by Ligotti, Lovecraft, and philosophical pessimism.

[Anonymous No.2791101]

>>2791083
But there's more to that - Eco transcribes his studies of semiotics into the book (as becomes aparent towards the final pages).
And certain descriptive scenes, such as the one where Adso provides a detailed description of the monastery gates, are there because they honestly affected the character on such a deep level, that even as he supposedly writes this script, he can't help himself from passionately painting it all over again. It gives you a sense of immersion - Not to place you were there, but to prioritize the fact that this was actually written by him.

They might feel like they're a drag, but they're there for a reason. If you notice, they are described with a certain passion, just as he would write it. Not to mention how his master's influence brought about Adso's will of becoming more attentive, more pensative - much like William.

[Anonymous No.2791110]

The Book of Disquiet - Pessoa
Loneliness, melancholy, etc.

A Personal Matter - Oe.
I have a mentally disabled relative.

Poetry of John Donne
Despite my agnosticism, there is some residual Catholicism in my life, and his meditations on death are profoundly affecting.

[Anonymous No.2791114]

>>2791110
>Pessoa
Are you portuguese? I really don't know much about Pessoa's influence outside my country.

[Anonymous No.2791115]

>>2791081

No, I'd imagine most people just think you're a pretentious cunt, rather than boring.

[Anonymous No.2791119]

>>2791114

Where you been, negro? This is like the forty thousandth thread about Pessoa in the last three days. Fuck DFW, we Pessoa now.

[Anonymous No.2791139]

>>2791119
Shit, I haven't visited /lit/ in literally months.

[Anonymous No.2791148]

>>2791114
Do you know a little country called Brazil?

[Anonymous No.2791163]

>>2791148
>I did say "outside my country".
As in, I'm portuguese.
As in, Pessoa was portuguese.

[Anonymous No.2791170]

>>2791114
American. Just saw him on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.2791176]

>>2791170
Well, always nice to know portuguese influences still spread out.

[Anonymous No.2791178]

Ulysses

Spare the invectives.

[Anonymous No.2791183]

Because I came from /r9k/

[Anonymous No.2791200]

the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson

[Anonymous No.2791215]

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

[Anonymous No.2791218]

>>2791215
You're a homosexual japanese nationalist?

[Anonymous No.2791233]

[Anonymous No.2791237]

>>2791018
Is there something wrong with No Longer Human, or is it's themes related to humanity in general? I'm thinking of reading this book.

[skipdivided !!cPnXrwrZ96z No.2791240]

Steppenwolf

I like to think I'm an unique snowflake. I've first read it because a girl recommend it me saying it reminded her of me

[Anonymous No.2791296]

Somewhere between Mathieu and Boris.
Ivich is mai new fictionfu.unless there's confirmation of her dikehood in the next two books

[Anonymous No.2791375]

>>2791240
Sorry to break it to you snowflake, every 20-ish male has probably read this book and related to it thinking they are unique snowflakes.

[Anonymous No.2791399]

100 Years of Solitude

[Anonymous No.2791419]

I'm fully serious. Coming to discover that there was this guy who has roughly written down what I've been thinking myself all this time felt great. It's the book closest to my own convictions and character that I know. Before that I had to make due with Nietzsche's wobbly idealism and Sade's materialistic naturalism.

But Stirner's doesn't fall for these kind of traps. He remains his untouchable Pyrrhonic selfist self.

[Anonymous No.2791451]

>>2791375
According to Hesse's view of things, and it's pretty well-formed in the book, we really are all special snowflakes. Haller's transformation is a confirmation of Hesses' ideal, that we are the uniqueness of the spirit constantly in flux, its facets forever multiplying and interacting in sections and conditions-- you are the sum of things which will never again be summed in such a way again.
And I think he makes a wonderful point. Quit being such a downer.

[Anonymous No.2791458]

I don't have one currently.

I was previously enamoured with Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Generation X by Douglas Coupland. I know, you needn't say anything.

[Anonymous No.2791504]

>>2791451
It's been some time since I last read Steppenwolf and I don't remember him going into this so thoroughly. Guess I'll have to read it again.

[Anonymous No.2791592]

>>2791504
It's laced throughout, and culminates in the climax with Haller's hallucinations in the Magic Theater. Haller is certain he's special, but the _why_ and _how_ of his uniqueness is what's at issue, not that he is or is not unique.
I'm just going with my take on it, though, but it seemed to me that was very much the point of the somewhat sociological commentary playing on the psychoanalytical. Haller's not nearly as different as he seems from other people, but he is of a different cast or type which he exaggerates distinctly, and this is a significant point to make, especially so if you agree there's a Jungian dialogue in the novel and its symbolism.

[Anonymous No.2791611]

holes by louis sachar

OP, I dont know you, but I feel that you would annoy me irl.

[Anonymous No.2791641]

>>2791451

Not that guy, but I fail to see how not believing in individuality is a downer. It's just as likely to be liberating, isn't it? Not having to feel that pressure of having to distinguish yourself from everyone else etc.

[Anonymous No.2791652]

Crime and Punishment.

I was in a rather similar position then Raskolnikov when I read the novel. Well ok, I wasn't broke, I didn't have a money lender and I didn't think about commiting murder. But other than that I shared a lot with him. I was pretty depressed back then and I spent most of my time at home thinking what I should do with my life and didn't really find a solution to this. And I think I am a rather narcissistic. The book kinda showed me, what could happen if I kept this shit up. Hard to explain to anyone else, but I could identify myself with Raskolnikov a lot.

[Anonymous No.2791695]

>>2791641
I was saying he was being a downer because of the way he was talking to the other guy and addressing the subject. Like it's somehow terrible for a 20-something to find a little shimmer in a shiny thing.
I don't honestly agree or disagree with your point or his, or Hesse's either, but that's because I think about it without much emotional investment. It doesn't really matter anyhow, you'll do as you do or change what you do as you want, or you are determined to do or change or want or blah blah blah, blah blah blah.
Hesse's view, while wonderfully extrapolated, doesn't add up if you consider these characteristics of individuation meaningless or so trite that they are a poor basis for viewing people as unique. So there's a point in your favor.
On the other hand, it's easy to see how that's inspiring to someone who doesn't view these things as meaningless, or would rather accept that what is trite does not have to be left alone at that, they find courage or hope in the idea that this can be re-assessed.