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/lit/ - Literature

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6090494 No.6090494 [Reply] [Original]

I've been up for 40 hours and I'm coming down from a large head-high.

Ask me literally anything about literature. I will answer until your heart is content.

pic unrelated: some pre-socratic bullshit from wiki

>> No.6090507

>>6090494
Who was the greatest of the Three Tragedians and why was it Sophocles?

>> No.6090512

>>6090494
dude your brain is fried

>> No.6090514

>>6090494

Was Anaximander an alien?

>> No.6090520

>>6090507
Sophocles was the first dramatist or author, really, to make me think about the actual process of death and what death leaves behind. In Antigone, of course. He deserves your praise

>> No.6090527

I am employing a trip for the duration of the thread. I intend never to become les fag du trip
>>6090512
this is falsifiable

>>6090514
I hope so. It would explain many of his peers.

>> No.6090562

where are you posting from and what time is it

>> No.6090570

>>6090562
chicago, il (gmt-6?)
it's 12:10 am, now tuesday

>> No.6090576

>>6090570
shit, took off the trip to post in the >prose thread

maybe i'll just stay here

>> No.6090601

>>6090570
im in chicago too

where do you live

>> No.6090609

>>6090601
west lakeview, southport or irving park brown line

>> No.6090633

>>6090609
hey we live kinda close by maybe

what is your favorite book?

can you get your car out of the snow?

>> No.6090637

>>6090494
Can you recommend some criticisms of G. I. Gurdjieff? Specifically work pertaining to The Fourth Way movement following his death and Beelzebub would be great.

>> No.6090648

>>6090637
self-aware soviet writer? can't recommend criticisms, but can you recommend me some?

>>6090633
my car has been sitting in my mom's garage since I moved to the city a couple years ago, thanking the great demiurge that I don't have to shovel it out

favorite books
>the grapes of wrath
>candide
>one hundred years of solitude
>down and out in paris and london
>winesburg, ohio (written in chicago btw)
>dubliners
>gulliver's travels
>honorable mention HP5

>> No.6090653

What is the most memetastic book written in the English language? (no translations of foreign language work)

>> No.6090656

Is Kafka elite?

>> No.6090659

>>6090653
surely A Clockwork Orange

>> No.6090665

>>6090648
>winesburg, ohio (written in chicago btw)

have never read it

will give it a try out of patriotism thanks

>> No.6090667

>>6090656
wish I could read him in German. I have some of his work but I haven't read it since high school. He's elite.

>> No.6090674

>>6090665
hemingway literally jacked sherwood anderson's style and made a legacy out of it

sherwood anderson bought too much into critics who didn't understand what he was doing in the first place and his work didn't improve save some good short stories

it's kind of a classic of somewhat esoteric american lit, albeit a /recognized/ classic of said tradition

>> No.6090689

Has reading Bret Easton Ellis turned me into a faggot?

>> No.6090698

>>6090689
if you read BEE and he affected your personality, you should read as many other things as possible in the shortest period of time you can. you're supposed to have a quiet respect for him, otherwise you risk an unintentional fedora tip

>> No.6090703

Here are my favorite writers:

Vargas Llosa
BEE
Steinbeck
Kafka
Murukami

Am I well-read?

>> No.6090707

What is Pynchon's project? What is he all about?

Who is the best living writer?

>> No.6090711
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6090711

Why is pynchon so pleb, and why does his work draw so much attention from these fedora-tippers?

>> No.6090718

>>6090703
you'll want to consider adding a few eastern writers who aren't murakami, and possibly some brits

I back steinbeck, kafka and vargas llosa, so you pass with a low D -- or, if you prefer, this critique can be pass/fail and you can say you passed

>> No.6090726

>>6090707
Pynchon is probably working on a frame novel set during different uneventful sessions of the United States Congress. He will then run for office and become an excessively public figure

>>6090711
he's not pleb, he just doesn't say much on his own behalf so he's falsifiable

I have nothing against him even if he is the darling of the academic establishment which I am so ambivalent towards

>> No.6090737

Why hasn't murukami won the Nobel prize yet? Is he a meme?

>> No.6090740

>>6090737
you mean the nobel prize in literature, aka the swedish literature prize?

I feel like he needs to write a doorstopper for that to happen

>> No.6090743
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6090743

What do you think of Ficciones by Borges?

>> No.6090752

>>6090743
>>6090743
*obligatory comment about how wonderful the library of babel is*
I haven't read the entire work but my girlfriend was just reading labyrinths and I liked virtually everything I read or she read aloud from it

>> No.6090760

Am I wrong when I say one hundred years of kek is a meme book?

>> No.6090768

>>6090760
probably

I want to talk about it with a south american grandmother before I make my mind up on it, but it was a really great novel. I gave my mom -- lit major, ex journalist, grade school teacher -- a book of marquez stories for xmas she she agreed that he's wonderful

so idk it's sort of a meme book but it's also such a fun journey. you have to finish it and then it's just there in your mind forever

>> No.6090784

>>6090674
interesting

I do like hemingway

Not the previous guy but I'll give the book a try too

>> No.6090788

>>6090768
Where is contemporary literature heading towards?

>> No.6090797

>>6090784
you'll like it if you like dubliners or thomas wolfe

>>6090788
it will, I am afraid, have to get very intimately digital conceptually. but I believe the adventurous 'manifest destiny' ideal is making a return, at least in american lit

people are getting tired of writers from and talking about brooklyn

>> No.6090802
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6090802

Why can't women write nearly as respectably as men?

>> No.6090805

>>6090797
I do

why were you up so much?

>> No.6090807

>>6090802
because western society makes it almost impossible for them to feel welcome to the table in creative fields

shelley is quite possibly the GOAT, you know

>> No.6090810
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6090810

WI'll traveling make me a more well-rounded writer?

>> No.6090811

>>6090805
I have anxiety and don't fall asleep unless I take medications which slow my whole mental faculty down uncomfortably, so I mostly just smoke my way into a comfy haze and doze off unassumingly at the end of it. not glorifying anxiety or drugs, that's just the answer

>> No.6090819

>>6090810
it made me one, anonymous-san. keep a journal every day -- that way, when you travel somewhere, your trip will be a special five or ten pages out of countless mysterious others, and you'll be able to draw from it in your compositions forever

i tour-manage a punk band most summers, trust me. I still have an entry from the first time I ever got drunk, 18 years old written in a band from kansas city's bathroom

it's not golden literature but the ideas presented can always be transformed into anything else

>> No.6090821

>>6090811
I'm sorry

how can you read if you smoke a lot?

>> No.6090824

>>6090821
I read literature sober, and I read about explorers and sherlock holmes high.

>> No.6090826

>>6090821

not him, but weed is great for reading
I read around 300 pages a day in between toke breaks

>> No.6090829
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6090829

I read as a hobby, which still consumes up a lot of my free time. Will maintaining the current rate at which I at reading make me well-read?

>> No.6090833

>>6090829
most people don't read, so I should say yes
just try to challenge yourself and to take left turns and scenic routes sometimes

>> No.6090842

>>6090833
Could you elaborate more on the latter, the part on challenging myself.

>> No.6090853
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6090853

Why do A Farwell to Arms and To Whom the Bell Tolls share similar plots? Was Hemingway a hack?

>> No.6090854

>>6090842
idk, pick a work from a different cultural tradition or from a different century or one which inspired an author you like or one that you've seen name-dropped in lit crit or something

if you follow your whims all the time, you'll end up reading sort of samey books, so it's important to pick up something really unfamiliar to your sensitivities occasionally

>maybe even a female author

>> No.6090865

>>6090853
Hemingway saw some shit in his life, he had a much clearer vision than you or I and it just lead to some similar concepts recurring. most great writers have binary pairs like that

>> No.6090873

Is Don Quijote worth my while?

>> No.6090876

>>6090853
oh, and writers who are trained as journalists first are seldom hacks when they get into literature too

>> No.6090882

>>6090873
I wanna read it. Apparently most of the humor survives quite well centuries later, and you know I have love for adventure

>> No.6090883

Could I make a case that Latin american literature is GOAT?

>> No.6090889

What book(s) have made you cry?

>> No.6090890

>>6090883
for the 20th century, easily done

the new world killed it last century, even straya

>> No.6090897

Which Stephen King will scare me the most?

>> No.6090901

>>6090889
I read Romeo and Juliet first as a volatile teenager and I was genuinely worried that my girlfriend would commit sudoku while I was reading it. I didn't finish it in that attempt

The Dead by Joyce made me tear up. Dr. Seuss has done it before. The Grapes of Wrath did it, too

>> No.6090903

>>6090901
>the grapes of wrath


My nigga

>> No.6090906

op, why are you so based? loving this thread

>> No.6090909

>>6090906
Op is based

>> No.6090910

>>6090897
I have a friend (a grill) who swears by The Tommyknockers but tbh I haven't heard much about King since high school. not that that should discourage you

>> No.6090916
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6090916

Has reading turned me into a recluse?

>> No.6090922

>>6090916
probably, but you can always read in a quiet coffee shop. it's not pretentious

>>6090906
idk I'm just being sincere

>>6090909
danke

>> No.6090923

>>6090910
Don't listen to your friend (no offense). I like King, but The Tommyknockers is just bad.
>>6090897
Read The Night Shift. It's a collection of short stories and includes several genuinely creepy moments.

>> No.6090936

>>6090923
or just go to Maine and then read King

>> No.6090940

>>6090494
what did you take?

>> No.6090942

How do I know if I truly love literature? Like, how will I be certain that I won't to switch careers when I'm older?

>> No.6090945

>>6090940
today, my girlfriend's landlady gave me a cutting from a pot plant she grew so idk, that mostly

i am currently rolling something

>> No.6090949

>>6090942
literature will distract you from everything you've ever believed to be 'important' to you once you love it

but really, literary love is internalizing your readings and improving your character appreciably in the physical world

>> No.6090950

Could I be a decent writer and balance out a cocaine addiction, at the same time?

>> No.6090954

>>6090950
I don't do cocaine, and I don't think it will help you compose a work. But you might have some good coke ideas which you can use later, I don't know how that works, really. It seems sort of uphill but that's an uninformed opinion

>> No.6090958

Is The Economist patrician-tier?

>> No.6090963

>>6090958
if you're from a STEM field or majored in econ or poly-sci, it's probably a good thing to read? I mostly don't read about the economy, and I can't explain what happened in '09

>> No.6090972

>>6090958
>>6090963
It's not really that great of a publication and it's aimed pretty exclusively at people who took Econ 101 and stopped. There are real economics journals for the serious stuff...or at least like the Financial Times.

It's not a bad publication but it's pretty much Scientific American for people who can just barely define "liquidity trap."

>> No.6090977

How do I further develop and define my own style when writing prose?

>> No.6090981

>>6090977
try composing in pen so you can't too easily get ahead of yourself

it's a lot of fun if you're okay with only writing three paragraphs at a time

>> No.6090983

I've read Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes and I have The Iliad, Plato's Republic and The Histories of Herodotus at home to read.

What should I read first, if any, out of those?

>> No.6090985

>>6090983
Edith is GOAT

if you're familar with translated verse, I'd suggest the Iliad. The Histories is kind of a nightstand book and Republic requires a lot of focus

>> No.6090987

When should I avoid using obscured, unnecessary vocabulary words? When does it stop being stylish and becomes forced pseudo-pretentious drivel?

>> No.6090990

>>6090987
>do you know the exact meaning of the word
>does it fit
>will it negatively affect the meter of your sentence

three questions to ask oneself

>> No.6090994

Best dystopian novels?

Pls no 1984/brave new world

>> No.6090996

>>6090494
how to get gf?

>> No.6090998

>>6090994
Fear and Loathing is a dystopian novel about drugs. The FBI convention is basically Hunter's own worst nightmare.

>> No.6091001

>>6090990
>meter of sentence

How would a word be able to throw off the meter? I guess if it just doesn't sound right, right?

>> No.6091007

Storm of Steel is the only memoir I've read. Did I do well?

>> No.6091012

>>6091001
five syllables out of nowhere, for no questionable reason -- things like that

>>6091007
you should consider also reading nonfiction about things that aren't war

>> No.6091017

>>6090996
leave your house sometimes
find social circles you feel comfortable in

repeat forever

>> No.6091018

i want to read a book about bdsm or where bdsm is a central theme or something what do you recommend?

>> No.6091020
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6091020

Thanks for answering all of my questions, op. You're a really cool guy. I hope you have a great rest of the week. I hope we can be pals :3

Ps: how do I woo a jewish girl?

-zeeburg

>> No.6091024

>>6091018
the marquis de sade? he invented consentual sadism

>> No.6091026

>>6091020
read a bunch of michael chabon books and talk about private east coast universities you know produced a lot of good authors

maybe develope a nuanced opinion about a two-state solution in gaza

>> No.6091030

>>6091020
$$$

>> No.6091044

Is reading a book a woman recommends a good way to impress her?

>> No.6091045

>>6090985
>Edith is GOAT
Agreed.

I've read the three theban plays and eumenides so that's as familiar as I am with translated verse.

Is there any point reading the Iliad without reading the odyssey afterwards?

Also what's best to read to get into metaphysics?

If it helps I've read Fear and Trembling and beyond good and evil.

>> No.6091052

>>6091044
selecting worthwhile passages to read aloud is such a good skill in a relationship

>>6091045
you dont need to read the iliad, you don't need to read the odyssey, you don't need to read them in a certain order either. but they're waiting for you the rest of your life and it's worth a stab

i want to read the iliad, the aeneid and kind of also the odyssey when my late 19th-early 20th century phase ends, but not because of anything /lit/ told me to do

>> No.6091057

>>6091045
as for metaphysics, it would do to find an introductory text on the subject and then just pick and choose. there are only like eight questions to answer in metaphysics, really. if I were about to study a bunch from that field, I'd probably start with shit regarded for its literary content and prose style

but a self-acknowledging introductory text, for sure. always a good idea.

>> No.6091064

>>6091044
I answered that wrong because I'm, well, you know.

yes, reading recs is good but you can always be like 'sry I wanna read [insert whatever book here] first' in case you don't want to read something. then you choose something else better from their shelf later

>> No.6091091

>>6091064
Thanks. I'm taking 2 books 2 different chicks recommended to me. I'm hopeless either way, but thanks for absent my question.

Also just out of curiosity when did you start reading as a hobby, what got you into it, etx. Always interested in people s stories

>> No.6091104

>>6091091
I was really stubborn in school and didn't read more than a book a year or so outside of class until someone recommended me Lolita in 9th grade. Then I went through the whole Fitzgerald, Brave New World, Dorian Gray, 'catching up' phase and then I found a grill in high school I could take a lot of english classes with and by the time I was moving out for college I had a couple shoeboxes of books I was content to read through. Then it all just grew.

I'm 21 now and I work jobs for three months at a time, stop showing up, and study humanities and journalism part-time usually. I just want to write creative nonfiction.

>> No.6091174

any more? I might have sixty minutes left in me