Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1349. page

File: plato_1_320x320.jpg (40KB, 274x350px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 274x350px

What relevance (other than historical) does ancient philosophy have to the modern reader?

File: IMG_2851.jpg (154KB, 1265x689px) Image search: [Google]

154KB, 1265x689px

Nobody calls James Joyce bad because they are worried a pretentious libcuck with glasses will call them stupid, even though Joyce wrote things like this

>"I thought we would start with a little full metal alchemist" she said, reaching into a cardboard box and setting a stack of manga on the table "and if there is a little time, we could watch some anime, I brought in some Dot Hack Slash Slash Sign, have you heard of it? It's based on a video game sort of like Fields of Fantasy"
>"Nice" I said impressed by her selections, and here I was worried she would whip out a Pokemon or Sailor Moon in a lame misguided attempt adult effort to be cool.

or

>He ripped down the flyer I had just put up and studied it with narrow eyes. "But, what the hell is a manga club?" he asked, pronouncing it "mahn-jah." "Does that mean 'vampire' in Swahili or something?"
>"Funny no. It doesn't. But I wouldn't expect your pea brain to jnow any Japanese, so don't feel too bad." I was impressing myself with my witty comebacks. Who knew I had it in me? "ooh, you're so smart, Freak Girl. I wish I could be a nerd like you and start a mahn-jah club at school"
>"It's manga." I corrected "Hard-G"

Now I admit that's decent prose, but it's not the best piece of writing ever. Plus there are weaker parts of Ulysses that honestly aren't even as good as some of the writing in Metal Gear Solid, yet that doesn't get praised because it's a video game. What writers do you think are overrated /lit/?

File: IMG_0865.jpg (31KB, 220x329px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 220x329px

Just finished this book, don't know when it was written but by the language maybe 1700s. It's the true story of Mason and Dixon who walked in a line across America. They met George Washington and Ben Franklin and other founding fathers, so it's actually kind of a history of America per se. The world was so much smaller back then, and it's nice to read about when America stood for something. Mostly I think it's a book about being a patriot and the founding of a country where people can be free. There's a part with a talking dog I didn't really like, am I the only one who can tell that part is made up? Anyways I don't read history books a lot, but this one was very good, you should check it out if you're up to it.

File: IMG_9618.jpg (81KB, 474x800px) Image search: [Google]

81KB, 474x800px

>tfw gf has a family with no perspective because of decades spent living off a trust fund

>tfw gf's positive traits outweigh her negative traits, so i have to spend my time around her retarded family every now and then

recommend a book for this feel, litbots

File: carryingthecorncob.jpg (50KB, 324x499px) Image search: [Google]

50KB, 324x499px

The Blood Meme reading group is underway! Come get memed with a bunch of regular guys by Corncobs Tortilla YeCarthy!

Most of us started the past 1 - 2 days, and we're aiming to finish the book by this weekend (~April 16).

https://discord.gg/GfR7jYM

File: 9780802023063-us-300.jpg (21KB, 300x522px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 300x522px

Cross-posting this from >>>/his/2634926

We're trying to think of the earliest written source that unambiguously features someone being introspective. What can you think of?

>According to Jaynes, ancient people in the bicameral state of mind would have experienced the world in a manner that has some similarities to that of a schizophrenic.

>Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person would hallucinate a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands and obey without question: one would not be at all conscious of one's own thought processes per se.

>Jaynes built a case for this hypothesis that human brains existed in a bicameral state until as recently as 3000 years ago by citing evidence from many diverse sources including historical literature.

>In the Iliad and sections of the Old Testament no mention is made of any kind of cognitive processes such as introspection, and there is no apparent indication that the writers were self-aware. Rather, the bicameral individual was guided by mental commands believed to be issued by external "gods". This is exemplified not only in the commands given to characters in ancient epics but also the very muses of Greek mythology which "sang" the poems: the ancients literally heard muses as the direct source of their music and poetry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

File: photo.jpg (35KB, 900x900px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 900x900px

Is he the most emotionallt complex and yet understandable character ever? Does he represent us Humans?

File: GASGASGASGDFG.jpg (138KB, 996x1400px) Image search: [Google]

138KB, 996x1400px

Anybody read this?

It's definitely /lit/-tier. Very similar to The Man Who Sleeps by Georges Perec.

I have a copy at home with a bunch of stuff underlined. I could post a bunch of quotations from it if anyone is interested.

File: s-l400.jpg (34KB, 278x400px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 278x400px

thoughts?

File: V-thomas-pynchon-290.jpg (118KB, 290x413px) Image search: [Google]

118KB, 290x413px

SPOILERS AHEAD

So, uh, what happened with Vheissu? That part of the narrative was unceremoniously abandoned after Florence.

How/why did Veronica turn into the Bad Priest? Seems like a waste of talent.

What's the source of Veronica's obsession with turning (part of?) her body inanimate?

Why all the shitting on Wittgenstein?

Why did Paola pretend to be black, why whore herself out, why get back with Pappy at the end?

File: 14394559221221.jpg (2MB, 2154x3800px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2154x3800px

What are some /lit/ sites? Also, what is the last book you have read and how do you like it?
Picrelated is a recommendation image from a Russian image board.

File: norm.jpg (120KB, 620x375px) Image search: [Google]

120KB, 620x375px

Not THAT surprising but Norm MacDonald is very keen on Russian literature. His favorites are Tolstoy and Gogol and he thinks Dostoevsky is rather overrated.

File: startwiththegreeks.jpg (32KB, 639x175px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 639x175px

Is it true?

File: Patrick_Fischler.jpg (115KB, 400x560px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 400x560px

In the last few weeks I've read three Dostoevsky novels (Notes from the Underground, The Gambler, The Double) and I think by now I'm prepared to read one of his main works but with which one should I start?

File: hegel-phenomenology[1].jpg (71KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

71KB, 1280x720px

You see, the problem is that Bertrand Russell also made actual contributions to the world in useful areas like science and mathematics. What he had to criticize in philosophy was what was left over -- the idealists and their nonsense. What's become "philosophy" needs to hold on to these metaphysical musings in order to justify a large part of its existence. You can't justify entire academic departments with experts on Hegelian dialectics based on, say, funding for research in medicine or something, so you have to make people believe it's about something intelligible.
This is not to say that there isn't much that is useful in philosophy, but you won't find it in Hegel or others of his ilk.