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/lit/ - Literature

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2892409 No.2892409 [Reply] [Original]

Essays.
Do you read essays?
Post your favourite essays.
Essays.

>> No.2892417
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2892417

DFWalrus. His essays were generally better than his fiction.

>> No.2892442

>>2892417
I have the collection Consider the Lobster and i really enjoyed the first story, I think it was the Big Red Son on the porn industry. He has this really sarcastic voice to me that makes him a joy to read.

>> No.2892466
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2892466

>>2892442
You found him sarcastic? Okay, but I personally thought he was always against that sort of thing. I also have the book and I enjoyed the Up, Simba most.

>> No.2892471

Montaigne invented the essay and there hasn't been a greater essayist since.

>> No.2892477

>>2892471
Post your favourite Montaigne essay then, I'd love to read!

>> No.2892481

>>2892477
You have to read a lot of them, or else you won't experience the full scope of Montaigne's intellect. I couldn't pick a favorite........ Just read whichever one sounds interesting to you: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3600

>> No.2892496

Hazlitt, idiots.

>> No.2892511
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2892511

>>2892481
Read the OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS; fuck you. Do not waste my time again.

Tackling Hazlitt next, you have a personal favourite of him, >>2892496?

>> No.2892520

T.S. Eliot was an amazing essayist, especially on /lit/ related matters.

>> No.2892612

Not sure if essay really, but posting anyway for reasons of awesome. Kleist's 'On the Marionette Theatre'.

>http://southerncrossreview.org/9/kleist.htm

Camus' 'Reflections on the Guillotine' is also well worth a read.

>http://www.deakinphilosophicalsociety.com/texts/camus/reflections.pdf

And I'll throw in DFW on TV in 'E Unibus Pluram':

>http://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf

>> No.2892627

Mencken could write essays.

>> No.2892637

Guy Davenport is rad

>> No.2892659

>>2892496
Hazlitt, William. Ranked among the ”Great critics and essayists of the English language.” I'm pretty sure I have the guy you meant, so explain my reaction when I read his My First Acquaintance with Poets and recoilled in disgust from this Dear Diary, proto-blog culture bullshit, please. How is this guy among the best of the best? I'm not being rhetorical here, I can't see it. How do you justify it? Is everything else he wrote good?

>>2892520
Could you name a good one from him, I keep running into, what I hope are, the worst essays the authors listed here wrote.

>>2892612
DFW kept his feet firmly on the ground, respect to him for that. Thanks for providing links to those 2 others, I'll dig right in!

>>2892637
>>2892627
Guys, if you'd take the time to find and post links, it'd be easier for me to read your favourite things and we could eventually have a discussion over them.

>> No.2892663

>>2892659
>Hazlitt, William. Ranked among the ”Great critics and essayists of the English language.” I'm pretty sure I have the guy you meant, so explain my reaction when I read his My First Acquaintance with Poets and recoilled in disgust from this Dear Diary, proto-blog culture bullshit, please. How is this guy among the best of the best? I'm not being rhetorical here, I can't see it. How do you justify it? Is everything else he wrote good?

Hazlitt could write like a motherfucker, the man could turn a phrase as well as - well, as well as anything. I think the piece you selected is going to be somewhat more blog-like than most by virtue of its subject matter, but the sentimental/romanticism of the tone is pretty normal for Hazlitt, I think, and a consequence of the time when he was writing. If you can't deal with I guess that's life.

>Guys, if you'd take the time to find and post links, it'd be easier for me to read your favourite things and we could eventually have a discussion over them.

I don't have a d/l link for Davenport, sorry, I don't think any exist really. If you want to read him, I'd recommend starting with The Geography of the Imagination. V good collection.

>> No.2892670

>>2892659

You dislike Hazlitt and Montaigne but enjoy DFW..

There is no hope for you, friend. You might as well just stop reading essays altogether.

>> No.2892673

If you're not a friend of Montaigne, then you ain't no friend of mine.

>> No.2892718
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2892718

>mfw Montaigne

At least some people on here have taste. Also, did anyone else find themselves spitting out their coffee at some of the subjects this guy covered. One minute he's considering the essence of the human spirit, and the next minute; 'On Cannibalism'. Cool guy.

>> No.2892722

Sontag.

>> No.2892823
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2892823

relevant

>> No.2892840

>>2892670
I also enjoy Orwell's works and these two >>2892612 essays (thank you anon, these were great, especially Camus') listed here, if that's of any condolence. Perhaps you see something in the comma-semicolon soup that I don't, but then again I'm a simple man and I don't study literature.

>>2892673
I'm sorry to hear that.

>>2892663
>I don't have a d/l link for Davenport, sorry, I don't think any exist really.
Ah shame!

>>2892722
Sontag, Susan? Wiki said she protested against the Vietnam war, was she affiliated with Chomsky et al? I thought some leftist conspiracy theories would do good this evening, but then I read, and here quote:
>The white race is the cancer of human history.
Fucking hell.

>>2892823
That's a load, thanks, but do you have one favourite I should read as soon as possible?

>> No.2892848

>>2892840
sontag was more of a provocateur than a critic, but to dismiss her based on that snippet is more than small-minded. keep in mind she's also the one who called the soviet union "fascism with a human face."

>> No.2892855

>>2892718
montaigne: "How does he know, by the force of his intelligence, the secret internal stirrings of animals? By what comparison between them and us does he infer the stupidity he attributes to them?

When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?"

>> No.2892856

>>2892612
Long lists of names that give no other information are never relevant. There's a reason we ask humans for recommendations, not a predetermined algorithm.

>>2892823
I just read "On Marionette Theatre" and really enjoyed it. I'd like to discuss it having just read it though. What are your thoughts on it?

>> No.2892865

>>2892840
so you're a conservative asshole who also can't stand the western tradition, aka the entire fucking justification for being a conservative asshole

jesus christ

>>2892855
ilu montaigne

>> No.2892871

>>2892840
>That's a load, thanks, but do you have one favourite I should read as soon as possible?

One favorite essay or collection? Off that list, I'd really recommend Yoshida Kenko's Essays in Idleness.

>> No.2892911

>>2892865
>so you're a conservative asshole who also can't stand the western tradition, aka the entire fucking justification for being a conservative asshole
I'm sorry I can't follow your trail of through here, you'll have to elaborate a bit more. I'm interested in how you derived that.

>>2892856
>I just read "On Marionette Theatre" and really enjoyed it. I'd like to discuss it having just read it though.
Neat. I think it's one those text's that cater to the ideas that glorify nature's elegance, innocence and inherent effiency, promoting a more utilitarian approach to life, doing, not thinking; the Flow state and the Zen stuff. To realize this is to eat again from the tree of knowledge. It resembles, in a way, Wittgenstein's views on the world. How was your impression?

>>2892871
Okay, I'll mark it down.

>> No.2892921

>>2892612
>>2892856

Are you from Germany? I read this for a course at university and I didn't know that it's well known abroad.

>> No.2892922

>>2892921

Sorry, Im referring to Kleist.

>> No.2892923

>>2892911
Hm yeah I got a similar impression. The point that grace comes with the lack of self-consciousness was fairly obvious, similar to the fable of the centipede who was unable to walk after questioning how it can walk at all.

The structure of the two gentleman talking and sharing stories was a nice way to express the theme also, it made it very charming and engaging.

What I found was that it seems to distinguish mankind as the graceless middle of history between two points: no consciousness/innocence and infinite consciousness/enlightenment. Although I feel the latter wasn't really explored that much in the discussion and is just brought up at the end rather suddenly.

In any case, it gave a lot to think about and was an interesting read.

>> No.2892948

>>2892923
Yeah, the presentation was refreshing.

Currently I'm trying to locate that Yoshida Kenko's essay, he seemed interesting in wiki and I haven't read any eastern essays ever, but my google-fu is failing me.

>> No.2892955
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2892955

a remarkable essay

>> No.2892963

>>2892948
Kenko's not available online as far as I've searched, and I've searched quite a bit. The ebook available to purchase off of Amazon is the inferior, non-Keene translation, so it wouldn't be worth it to buy and strip the DRM off.

You could always use the library.