How do I cope with the bullshit that permeates everything in modern society?
People tell you that you should read shitloads of boring as fuck novels. I see novels as entertainment, not some tool for gaining "profound philosophical and psychological insights". You can make infinitely many unfalsifiable extrapolations by using anything. People, usually charlatanic academics or pseudointellectuals, choose pompous books for this purpose to try and deter questioning of their pathetic "wisdom". Or if the books aren't used to promote"insights" they are used as alleged evidence of good taste or intellect. And not only are you pressured to pretend to like boring as fuck classic books, it is looked down upon to just go and read them. You have to pretend to have almost randomly come across them. Of course this propaganda tactic is to promote the false idea that the pseudo intellectuals' judgement was not influence by other pseudointellectuals.
Similarly with philosophy. I clearly see that there are infinitely many possible philosophical axioms. Everything from there is pretty fucking trivial. And no, I don't put science on a pedestal separate from Hegelian bullshit or anything like that. I see that science is part of philosophy. The promotion of certain parts of philosophy is based solely on arbitrary fashions.
>>9974743
All of philosophy agree on most things.
Why we don't really have any big philosophers after the 50s.
It's settled.
>>9974755
>All of philosophy agree on most things.
which version is the best? I was thinking of getting the king james version but I heard almost all versions of the english version are bad
>>9974742
>remember not to covet your neighbors ox, Jim
Bumping this. When I asked before I was told KJV, NRSV
>>9974742
pic
related
But where do you start with the Greeks?
What authors, philosophers, and works are both beginner and must reads?
>>9974663
I would start with Plato's Gorgias, then read his Republic.
Then go to Aristotle read his Ethics, and Politics
The go to Xenophon read his writings on Socrates and Cyrus.
Obviously also a goos idea to read Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian war and Herodotus's Histories.
After you read all this give Leo Strauss's "The City and Man" a read.
Histories, the Homeric epics, Mythology by Hamilton... Pre-socratics and sophists, then Socratic dialogues via Plato
>>9974663
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Prometheus Bound
Oedipus Rex
Antigone
Lysistrata
Is anybody else here jealous of how talented Jewish writers are?
I mean, how can such a small group of people be this talented!?!?
Pic related.
>>9974609
Superior culture if you aren't a jew supremacist you're living wrong
>>9974609
>>9975491
Superior genetics.
Superior nepotism.
Pick one, /lit/.
>>9974584
I just finished The Savage Detectives. Is 2666 any better?
>>9974623
It's very, very different from basically anything else Bolaño wrote. It has some recurring themes from him in the first 200 pages, but becomes pretty different afterwards.
And yeah, I do think 2666 is better. I assume you didn't like TSD?
>>9974628
I thought it was just ok. The second portion felt thrown together in a few parts. A lot of the interviews felt like they were all written by Bolaño at the same time. Others, right in the middle, felt like they were added on later to add depth.
Also it felt like part 1 was almost kind of unnecessary, after finishing the whole thing (which is funny, because that was my favorite part). It just didn't contribute to the incomplete picture painted in the following two sections.
I'm reading this enjoyable novel at the moment. Is it good?
>>9974559
You should know, you're reading it.
>>9974563
I need an opinion of obscure internet majority to define the quality of my enjoyment.
>>9974559
I'm actually always surprised to see this referenced as one of his best book. I've read almost all of King's stuff, and I personally thought it landed somewhere right in the middle. Not terrible by any means, but less fun, thrilling, and/or interesting than about half his books.
I think folks on here recommend it just cuz it's long and it's got an orgy with 12 yr olds.
Hello /lit/
Trying to get into literature so I have borrowed some books from my campus library and some that I borrowed from my father.
Many of them are in swedish so I'll just translate it:
>Karl Popper - The Open Society and its Enemies
>Vi Tolererar inga Förlorare
Some biography on the Kennedy clan in swedish.
>The Divine Comedy
>Statsrådet i Tiden
Hugely iconic swedish comedies about a minister (the political kind) solving murders, it's supposed to be hilarious
>The Karamazov Brothers
>Crime and Punishment
>Tom Jones
>Clausewitz - On war
>Piketty - Capital in the 21st Century
>Essential Chomsky
>Machiavelli
>Mao - The True Story
>Underbara Dagar Framför Oss - Berggren
Biography of the swedish JFK, Olof Palme
>Putnam - Bowling Alone
>Confessions of an English Opium Eater
I am an ADD kiddie, unable to focus for a long time on one specific thing which has hindered my reading. Now on Ritalin I am able to concentrate a bit better.
I am in med school but paused that a semester due to poor results and not being sure if I want to be a doctor, now studying pol. sci. for a semester.
Second image.
Help me /lit/, help me discipline myself in this art.
Depends on how much free time you have or are willing to devote to reading.
If it's a fair amount you could pick a fiction book and a non-fiction book and divide your time between the two. If it's less time then you could alternate between fiction and nonfiction.
Machiavelli is a classic for politics, if you want to start with that. Confessions of an English Opium Eater is a book I'll probably read soon. It looks very well written and the subject matter seems interesting. Go with whatever captures your interest the most.
You might want to grab a decent anthology (Swedish or English) to expose yourself to a variety of different poets. Some poets you might like, others not so much. I've heard that Strindberg is meant to have done some important things in the Swedish language, but I haven't taken much of a look yet.
my experience:
try to not overdo it and borrow a shit ton of books right at the start. if you've got time you can read 2 books at a time like the poster above said, 1 fiction 1 nonfiction is good, the variation will help you maintain interest.
regarding planning ahead what books to read, for me the best way is to keep just a few books on the horizon, instead of making an immense list which would take me months and months of reading. i've managed to get a decent routine lately, reading 1 or 2 books at the same time while having 5 or so books on my to-read. now of course i could name loads of books i want to read /eventually/ but thinking too much about that distracts me from the reading i'm currently doing.
if you want to be efficient you can look for books that work as commute-reading (that is to say something that you can pick up for 15 minutes or so) and have one of those with you at all times.
btw if you've never read dostoevsky before i'd advise you to read notes and c&p before tackling the idiot & kara bros. notes is short and a good book for getting into reading fiction.
>"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards"
*tips*
holy fuck what an edgelord
epbin meme fellow redditor
>>9974506
It's a beautiful sentiment, you loser.
Damn... so that's why he wrote The Man in the High Castle...
Hello everyone. I am a bit nervouse, because English is not my native languauge. I thank a lot all of you, who sent here their insightful thoughts. And I want if it is acceptable to find foreign friends to talk about culture, philosophy and etc. via Skype to share the most interesting things in their native cultures according to their opinion.
I am from Russia and I can call myself well-read. I have watched a lot of cult and classic movies and also I hope I know some interesting stuff about great russian music, that is not well-known abroad.
Also, I have almost no communication with foreigners, except some rare cases when studied in University.
So if this idea will be thought acceptable on the anonymouse board I would like to continue conversation.
Will bump with nice music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpKh3asKTbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsexWkb3uSA
Alliance - At the dawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwFC626lRT4
Why was killing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern so important to Hamlet that he needed to be told that the job was done in his last moments? Was there nothing better to discuss as he lay dying? I don't understand
>>9974464
Read the play (hint: NOT the one by william)
they were fucbois. I'm glad they're dead.
>>9974464
I was the next step in his master plan.
If there were no animals other than humans would cannibalism still be immoral?
yes?
I don't really understand your question. cannibalism isn't bad because we have other options. It's bad because you're denying that person their humanity.
>>9974440
>he still believes in objective morality
WTF are you 12 or something?
The moral axiom is arbitrarily defined whether there are animals or not
I don't want to be a speedreader, the opposite I want to read as slow and better as possible but how do I do it.
>>9974362
read with a dictionary
take many pauses to think about what you just read
take notes
Opposite question. I take pauses to think about what I just read, but it's involuntary. I think I may have ADD. Tips for speedreading pls
>>9974362
You have to sound out each and every word in your head.
>50 pages in
>Paul is still literally laying around the training room chatting with every other character
When does something happen?
When you place the barrel to your temple and pull the trigger.
Nothing happens until the end of the first 'book.' Then something AMAZING happens. I assume it keeps up a faster pace from there, but I stopped reading so I'm not sure.
I finished Dune but didn't really enjoy it. Didn't bother reading any of the other books.
>wake up feeling awful due to using my phone for hours in bed last night instead of reading an enjoyable book
>realise there are 140 pages of Great expectations left I need to read for the pseud cred
>read 30 pages and get really fucking bored
>stop reading at the end of a chapter and decide to start reading Superintelligence because it's a book you're supposed to read but it's a modern one so maybe it won't bore me
>quickly flick through it and realise my intuitions were correct: it's some overly wordy information dump that could be summarised in ten pages; a load of baseless word-smithery exploring exploring trivial possibilities
>realise I will find it boring and my flawless bullshit detector sees the pointlessness in reading it
>tell myself: maybe I'll read multiple old 19th century books at a time. They were serialised and people read a little at a time
>know that it's useless because I'll still be wasting shitloads of time on books
Can someone recommend a book that will rekindle my faith in books? I'm so damn bored of almost all books I read.
I was googling for like-minded people who dislike Dickens and I came across an article by a literature professor who told a bunch of bored kids that they should read Dickens to learn about "themselves" or "the human condition" or something like that. That sums up the pseuds
The Dice Man
>>9974281
Lmao, normally I suggest Great Expectations to flagging readers so, your must be a retard or a child OP, could luck with that (((Uni Education)))
Hey /lit/, I need some help with course selection.
I already have a BA in Philosophy. I'm taking some extra classes to boost my GPA so I can apply to a graduate program. I have a few options, but I can't really decide. What would you pick in my situation?
1) A full year course called Contemporary Literary Theory. The readings are all from "The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism".
2) Two one-semester courses, both in the first semester, on Plato and Kant. It's going to be early Plato, several dialogues, and the Critique of Pure Reason.
3) Not likely, but if I find a prof willing to supervise me I can do an independent study course.
>>9974229
4)Pick which ever is relevant to the graduate program you're trying to get into, and write papers on it like your career depends on publishing
>>9974235
it's a professional grad program, the undergrad courses are not that important. they do, however, want work experience that is relevant, which I am currently acquiring.
>>9974237
yeah, you're gonna work off that extra debt in no time with that ethic