/lit/ - Literature

Probably Finnegans Wake. Good luck comprehending a single sentence.

>As K. now started to speak, he was convinced that he was expressing their thoughts.
Cool, Kafka.

Demons

Does there need to be a philosophical justification or objection to fucking smoking? Philosophy cannot solve everything, and the conceit that it can produces monsters.

My objection to smoking is that I don't want to get lung cancer. I would rather preserve my meaningless existence than embrace the inevitable in a potentially pleasurable gesture.
I have no objection to others smoking. Live and let live. Happy?

The best book on death is The Death of Ivan Ilyich, without a modicum of doubt.

>>3755172
If you believe that conspiracy theory-esque bullshit, you should get out of /lit/ and back into /pol/.

>>3755165
Physical strength is so irrelevant in today's world that it does not even warrant a mention. Besides, already we have seen bleeding of traits between the sexes in this regard. Female bodybuilders are increasingly common and males are much more likely to be weak than ever before.

No sensible reader will deny that translation is a fundamentally destructive process. However, if a translator is particularly competent, the translation takes on a life of its own and may even equal the original. Sadly, this is rarely the case.

>>3755132
If raised as one. Most social differences between the sexes are due to nurture.

>>3755108
Friedrich Nietzsche. He was brilliant in many ways, but his concept of masculinity strikes me and many others as nonsensical and somewhat masturbatory.

>>3755079
Translations vary. Again, much of this is due to the fact that Japanese is a dry language. It simply lacks euphemisms as we know them.

>>3755050
That is a silly word, but ultimately, yes. One cannot judge one's own gender, as one can never understand another standpoint. Unless one is a master of introspection, the sexes are better fit to judge each other than to judge themselves.

Read more. Remove all distractions and focus only on the book. Place yourself in a meditative state of mind.
If you still have trouble, read less complex books and work your way up. It is neve too late.

>>3755018
Good point. Still, this is a much more intelligent board than /pol/ ever hoped to be when we aren't being invaded by /pol/.

The only decent books on the subject are feminist essays. This is due to the fact that "masculinity," like "art," has no definition. Rather, it is a nonsensical cultural phenomenon, and evaluating something based on it should immediately destroy anybody's credibility.
If you would like to know about the differences between genders, read up on science, not social theory. It should tell you all you need to know - there are slight differences in attitude, but no hopeless gap.

>>3754936
I would disagree with that. You may as well say that all experimentation is pointless. Finnegans Wake is not readable or even comprehensible by any conventional definitions. Instead, it is a book written in pure "thoughts." Its conventional readability does not matter in the slightest, what matters is the state of mind it instills in the reader.
This being said, Finnegans Wake threads are nearly always horrible.

Do not bother arguing against /pol/. If you fancy yourself an intellectual, you are fit to be here with us. We discus politics and philosophy in a much more civil manner than /pol/ ever dreamed of doing.

I'm afraid that you may very well be out of luck. Japanese literature reads in a strange way, and will initially seem very dry and boring to those used to western literature. I could never get used to it myself. However, if you must read Japanese literature, I Am a Cat comes highly recommended. It is a book concerning a housecat's musings on humanity. It is simple and dry, but very relaxing to read, which is more or less the ideal form of Japanese literature.

>>3703410
Pathologic, for all its awkwardness, points towards the brightest possible future that video games could possibly hope for. To achieve artistic merit, they must abandon the concept of having to be "fun." Fun video games are not bad, but as it is, we have had few games with more depth than a summer blockbuster. Pathologic is a Tarkovsky to the average game's Michael Bay: it is nowhere near as entertaining as the latter, but it is worlds more enriching. It's not for everyone, but it's one of the very few games I can call a masterpiece.

I don't go to /vr/ because I find the idea of worshipping old video games ridiculous. Video games have had a short history and dividing them into "eras" is wholly nonsensical, as there has been very little conceptual change since the 2600 days. Also, it is a blatant misuse of the word "retro."

Hardcore Gaming 101 is great. I have not heard of the other. I will check it out.

I may investigate 4ch____o___n's /v/. I may not.

>>3703407
Perhaps it was an exaggeration to say that they read like children's books. If you have ever heard a speech of the Dalai Lama, that is what they sound like.
Japanese novels are often very simple. There is little to obscure the main idea of the work - you are simply supposed to consider the idea yourself. The Japanese never viewed literature as a separate entity from thought in the same way that western society came to, and thus, the reader is meant to simply take in the information and ponder on it. It is no coincidence that the Japanese invented Haikus - their literature can be very similar.

>>3703395
I don't actually mind that very much. Had I wanted to hide the fact that I am Bowtie Guy, I would simply not have typed that. I just don't want people immediately saying, "Oh, that guy is from /v/." Also, I do not believe anyone on /v/ would understand the allusion to Dostoevsky.

Genre fiction is limited by nature. By proclaiming, "This shall be a history novel," or, "This shall be a science-fiction novel," the writer immediately limits the work to a very narrow set of possibilities, and thus, the work often ends up being rather formulaic. If a work of genre fiction ends up a masterpiece, it is because it has transcended its genre. No writing can ever be a masterpiece if it limits itself to a specific formula. The same goes for genre films, genre music, even genre games (yes, these do indeed exist).

>>3703375
It's not my name. Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin was the main character of The Idiot, my favorite book from Dostoevsky, my favorite writer.

>>3703322
I am Bowtie Guy !![numbers that I cannot recall] on /v/. The fact that I feel the need to use an identity especially for /v/ so as not to be associated with that place on other boards should say enough.
The problem is that nobody on /v/ views video games as an art, and thus masterpieces like Pathologic are shoved to the side. The majority of the community would much rather pursue childish fun than artistic merit. Of course, this is a problem with gaming as a whole, but /v/ is infested with this mentality to a much greater degree than most communities.