Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1618. page

>>9213168
Do what you think is best. What you feel like writing.
You will probabl lose, but that doesn't matter, keep trying, keep writing.
Or just give up now faggot

>>9213168
>creating art to express yourself
>doing it with the sole purpose of impressing people you don't even know nor give a shit about

ok. ok. wow. just... ok.

Share some of your poetry with us

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>>9212905
Behold, a Man.

Honest question I've been wanting to ask for a while but didn't want to start a new thread for it:

When I was 13 I walked into the restrooms and saw a grown man standing in an open cubicle jacking off in my direction. He saw me come in, but didn't stop.

I respect Diogenes a lot, but what really separates Diogenes from a pervert or a vagrant. I mean, he had a philosophy behind his actions, but externally men who play with their dicks on subways around pretty girls have a kind of animal abandon, it'd be hard to tell them apart unless you knew the person.

>>9212910
Kek

>>9212770
yes, love fronk

Hello Frank.

>>9212770
yeah.
best combination of a normie + weirdo

I dog-ear every book I read, partly for the convenience of having the exact page and line preserved for when I next read but also partly because I know it makes my books look well-read which is something I really like.

I don't want people seeing my book collection noticing the spines haven't been cracked at least a little bit so when I read a book I'm a little rough with it around the half-way point, just enough that the spine is creasing but not enough that the book will fall apart.

It's three months into 2017 now and I've only finished reading one book. I read 40 books in 2016 and I wish to read around 20 this year so I can focus on much larger novels but I tend to forget how long a lengthy door stopper will take me to read.

There's nothing wrong with studying at university - as long as you can find support available for your subject to help with understanding - but more often than not you can study for yourself through the books you can buy. The only downside is you don't get a nice shiny degree to put on your CV (t. recent graduate).

I have failed to read more than 20 books from the past decade. I tend to stick to classics because my pseudo-intellectual outlook makes me think "well, they are classics for a reason."

>>9212513
I trash (more accurately, recycle) books I don't like to make room for books I haven't read/books I enjoyed more.

>>9212543
Give them to a charity shop, man.

>>9212192
also
>inb4 pedophile
okay, got it, how's the book though?

>>9212194
any takers? or did I use dry up all the possible thoughts that /lit/ has about it when I said inb4 pedophile?

reading babel 17 now

kind of interesting because of all the language biz

i am surprised how much ted chiang was influenced by it

Hell

>>9212093
Constantly going in circles and very erratic.
Also tends to get wrapped up in emotional loops

Heaven

Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy is arguably the first really paradigmatic cultural history and it's known for being picturesque and beautiful.

Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II is also known for being "panoramic" though rambling and not really tied together, more concerned with the picturesque depiction of everyday life and the subtle rhythms and beats of history, and Braudel is known for being a great literary stylist in general.

Gibbon's history is known for having some of the most beautiful prose ever in the English language but I think you'd probably find its view treatment of history to be desiccated. That's part of the appeal and Gibbon is archetypically British in a way that is snide but not too cunty, but you might not like it.

Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms is a microhistory which is in the same sort of traditions as Braudel, coming out of the need to reproduce the real "stuff" of life as it was lived, but taking a totally different perspective.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Gibbon is an excellent writer; I haven't read the rest of these authors so I'll do so now.

i'd be hard pressed to say there's a single historical book I've read that is perfect.. the problem of history of course is that, after all, one can be educated in facts and how the present bears relation to the past... or you can do some digging and find out the majority (yes, many) historians in fact do no question their precious pre-conceived notions of a yet-to-be-history. and let's not forget, most history books I've read in my life also contain large amounts of nostalgia which seem to harbor a pretention towards "meaning of the past" and a complete ignorance of how to access the future. the problem with this is history becomes a tool for the oppressive and historians tend to defend what they believe to be progress (but in fact doesn't question the temporality of history, which is how history begins!)
there are also those furtive/innane "historians" that seemingly at will write (compound) large sections of history without a hint of strong disciplinary techniques (say, histriography, or meditating on better techniques to write a history with.) nowadays, history in classrooms is taught as an oppressive tool I'd say, and in fact, i believe it was nietzsche who noted in "untimely meditations", the temporal relations of history is fundamental for understanding just how much history is amiss from what *can* happen when one reads a historical document (or historical book.) the methods that humans find necessary for history is precisely what I'm rambling about: we want to feel transformative in history (not controlled by it.) tl;dr: history provides both context and decontext, many historians are missing the decontext I'd say, and you can see it most clearly with the bombastic and orgiastic images the media portrays.. which overwhelms and eradicates any sense of historical transformation.


I have found some good ones over the years so allow me to share with you some suggestions:

Routledge has an excellent history collective, in fact Routledge's canon which will require a google search will give you all the details. (i recommend reading routledge's wonderful book on philosophical history, 10 book volume i believe.)

if you're looking for a historian that does the "broad stroke" of historical narratives with strong dilection towards a future: Lewis Mumford is your savior. he tends to write with such force and attention of scale/magnitude that I often wonder how someone can write like that.

i read a history book on the holocaust recently that unwinds any representation you may find yourself accepting over a course of a lifetime (and doesn't do it as a caution, but as a mere way of unknowing history perhaps.) it's called "holocaust, trauma and memory" and I can find the PDF if you care (or can't find it yourself.. it's quite rare... highly recommended.)

>>9211553
Its difficult to read. Its much easier to watch tv or scroll through your phone. People see a novel and immediately go "no thanks, ill pass." Its sad because its the highest form of art imo and the least pursued by the general public

>>9211569
I still wonder why he was wearing that bandana though.

I mean even if he knew about DFW, it would be completely autistic to wear it.

>>9211578
likely just an autist. Could be going with an axl rose look just as much as DFW

>>9211392
also what did you guys think of Resurrection? I just finished it and absolutely loved it.

>>9211392
Obviously not, prison and punishment exist to deter future criminals.

>>9211392
Yes, all criminals should be executed

Cum Town

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>>9210795
I'm 27 and I honestly feel like I'm too old already. Who the fuck has time to listen to podcasts? Read a fucking book for christ sake. Don't get me started on YouTube either jesus christ. If anyone was worth watching they would have their own show. What even worse is shit like twitch tv. R U FUCKED JUST GO PLAY THE GAME YOURSELF. I am going to be one miserable old man holy fuck.

>>9210413
wheres Maximum Stirner?

>not having Thoreau checked off
That's the first thing you read. Walden is essential litcore

Also,
>Pythagoras
>no Archimedes, Eudoxus, Eutocius, Apollonius, or Euclid!

No Euclid? Seriously?

now why would a cat use a pipe?!

https://youtu.be/NAh9oLs67Cw

>>9210042
The same way we survive the fact that without human civilization there would perhaps be no Garfield. We persevere.

>Call me Ishmael.
It's so simple, yet so effective.

>Bitch be spitting teeth out afta they done sucking on my dick.

>>9209870
A Wrinkle in Time:

"It was a dark and stormy night."

>>9207611
samuel delany's isn't a thinker. that said, every english-language writer should read dhalgren.

>>9207618
*delany
feel free to disregard everything i said

>>9207731

>Wizards of the future

he's not wrong

what do you want to know exactly?

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>>9204549
I'm mostly confused when i see diagrams like these, because i can't see where they piece together the story's end (including the final scene with Orin) when it all seemed so open-ended and ambiguous to me

>>9204611
The book is the infinite jest itself