What was Kafka like in his personal life?
>>9096290
He was a shut-in and used to masturbate on bestiality porn. A real creep.
>>9096292
One of us
>>9096292
Did he memepost on /lit/, too?
Any other books on how to make friends? I want a social life, but almost all my attempts at making friends fail.
Meditation and staying in the moment will help you more than anything else
>>9095716
I already meditate and practice mindfulness.
>>9095700
Books aren't a cure for autism.
How do I introduced my complete plebeian friend to philosophy?
He's not stupid, just a pleb.
I'm thinking The Story of Philosophy, but I'm not sure he'll digest it properly.
>>9095657
this tbqh. it's super engaging, easy, and short. Hollingdale's intro will give your friend a broad sense of the history of philosophy, too.
>>9095657
>midget vs 5' 8"
were there any non-manlet philosophers
What's the deal with this book /lit/?
The book didn't blow me away, and I was ready to be blown away. My fault for believing the hype, I suppose. This might be a dumb comparison, but the prose just struck me as kind of sparse, random and awkward, like Murakami (who I can't stand). The plot, such as it was, was okay. I did enjoy the imagery though. Especially in the last section, with her in the mental hospital. That was the only time the book really came alive for me
I also didn't really think there was much cultural commentary, which is what people seem to be talking about; Beyond the social stigma of vegetariansim (which you could find in the blurb/a brief google about Korea), I didn't see much. I guess maybe the way people entered into marriages and approached them as transactions was interesting.
It also seems like people have made two mistakes when talking about the book: written off a lot of the strange/uncomfortable social interactions in the book as being a result of Korean culture, and also taken some of the events/ideas/social situations in the book to typify modern Korea. Both of which I think are mistakes.
Looking forward to Human Acts, which is next on my list, as it is a lot more explicitly political.
Thoughts?
>>9095060
There was a large lobbying push for korean works to capture international literature awards.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/can-a-big-government-push-bring-the-nobel-prize-in-literature-to-south-korea
This is their best shot. I too didnt think it was amazing, but it was certainly unique and had interesting imagery. I didnt see murakami but some interesting transitions between traditionalism and modernity, as well as some really surrealist capturing of mental illness.
>I also didn't really think there was much cultural commentary
The men are all brutal wankers and rapists, the women endure the brutality, I'd say that's some kind of commentary
>>9095167
To be fair to her, I would prefer to avoid living in a Korean family after reading that novel. Maybe before reading that novel.
Is this book good? I'm reading it right now, I'm on page 75. I don't mean "is it pleasing", I mean is it still respected as a source of history?
>>9094834
No. You won't find a history of philosophy in one volume that will serve as a respected source of philosophical history.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385230311/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1YQNKEL9HYDA0&coliid=I3689LNGUIO6QD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198752725/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1YQNKEL9HYDA0&coliid=I20KFDLFZ6ZUTY
Try one of these instead.
>>9094834
No. People often meme it as the worst history of philosophy to date due to bias. You've to understand this was written by a man who thought all philosophy before him was language memes.
>>9094851
His bias seems pretty accurate though, from what I've been reading.
>tfw the universe is my will
>>9094764
And your will is shitposting right now.
>>9094777
>(((your))) will
Who's will? Mine or not mine?
how many times will this thread be created until it's no longer willed?
How come is /lit/ so religious? Maybe my prejudice about rampant atheism on most other boards is wrong (ignore /pol), but people here seem surprisingly tolerant towards, and even interested in, religion.
Is it because of great philosophers? Or is it a bit like poetry - trying to dance around the limits of language? Is it a counter-reaction to the Dawkins-tier fedora tippers?
To be quite honest I'm an atheist in the epistemic and metaphysical sense yet I share your, well, being drawn towards mysticism, for a lack of a more accurate word. As for religion's role in society I'm just extremely conflicted.
It's impossible to have a nuanced understanding of at least the Western canon without an understanding and appreciation of Western religion. Ask your Lit professor what he thinks about atheism and he'll probably at least touch on the decline in bible literacy and subsequent unpreparedness to deal with the imagery in most western literature.
There's also a sizeable contingent of /pol/ shitposters who have latched onto Christianity as an identity talisman and reaction to the death of higher meaning, which they blame on Cultural Marx and the Frankfurt School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
So you have those guys too. At least the bronies stay on their quarantine board.
Religion is important and interesting, especially in a literary context.
>>9094397
A very strange author from my country, Mircea Eliade actually wrote about the history of religion.
>>9094500
Posts like this are why I haven't abandoned lit entirely yet
So I've put together a handful of books. I'm open to suggestions. I've read all of these in full except for The Illuminatus! Trilogy and The Once and Future King, so I could also act as a guide to the discussion. What does /lit/ think of reading through one of these?
Where's the poll man?
>>9092602
My apologies m8y
http://www.strawpoll.me/12319291
C'monnnnnnnnn
What's the political philosophy of Harry Potter?
>>9092295
Histrionics
>>9092295
The desire to become the dullest franchise in the history of franchises? Seriously each episode following the boy wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they fight assorted villains has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy imagery, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of special effects, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.
Perhaps the die was cast when Rowling vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; she made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody?just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for her books. The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.
a-at least the books were good though
"No!" The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs."
I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
>>9092295
Cuckism
>be me
>be in lit class
>the professor gives us some ten minute assignment so that she can read her new book
>ask what the book is called
>she shows the cover
>'Shakesqueere'
>https://www.dukeupress.edu/shakesqueer
thinking of dropping out or switching
>A teoria queer, oficialmente queer theory (em inglês), é uma teoria sobre o género que afirma que a orientação sexual e a identidade sexual ou de género dos indivíduos são o resultado de um constructo social e que, portanto, não existem papéis sexuais essencial ou biologicamente inscritos na natureza humana, antes formas socialmente variáveis de desempenhar um ou vários papéis sexuais.
seems pretty interesting to me
Jesus Christ
What's the deal with the Frankfurt school? Are they really the Cultural Marxist boogeymen everyone makes them out to be? Are any of their theorists worth investigating? I've enjoyed the bits of Walter Benjamin that I've read and want to go deeper.
Richard R. Weiner - Cultural Marxism and Political Sociology
Lawrence Grossberg and Cary Nelson - Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture
Dennis Dworkin - Culutral Marxism in Postwar Britain
Fredric Jameson - Conversations on Cultural Marxism
Frederic Miller and Agnes F. Vandome - Cultural Marxism
>>9089769
>Cultural Marxism
Literally Nazi propaganda.
>>9089769
this irrelevant school people obsess about for some reason even though it had little to no effect on art, music or any of the other shit people claim it did
>Narralogues, Ronald Sukenick
>Sinking Odradek Stadium, Harry Mathews
>Satantango, László Krasznahorkai
>Pinocchio in Venice, Robert Coover
>Maps of Meaning, Jordan Peterson
>guns, germs and steel by Jared diamond
>The god delusion by Richard Dawkins
>The Martian by Andy weir
>Color of magic by Terry Pratchett
>The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by Douglas adams
>>9088471
>Dead Souls, Gogol
>A Hero of our Time, Lermontov
>Roadside Picnic, Br. Strugatsky
>The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
>Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky (Have not finished yet)
>Bourdieu, Les héritiers: les étudiants et la culture
>Camus, The Plague
>Heraclitus, Fragments
>Sartre, No Exit followed by The Flies
>Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
Thoughts on Mishima?
5'1"
THROBBING
>>9088386
Yukio BTFO
Fantasy
Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg (embed)
General:
>https://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg (embed)
Flowchart:
>https://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg (embed)
Science Fiction
Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg (embed)
>https://i.imgur.com/IBs9KE8.jpg (embed)
General:
>https://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg (embed)
>https://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg (embed)
NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://i.imgur.com/IJxTQBL.jpg (embed)
Previous Thread:
>>9073425
I've heard mixed things on the Foundation series.
Should I fall for the meme and read them?
>>9085855
I read the first book and it was pretty enjoyable. Its a series of inter-related but kinda self-contained stories about building a nation IN SPACE. Its kind of like if you played a game of Civ and had a story written about the people and culture of your civilization every 50 turns.
Also Asimov's prose is pretty comfy
Does Tau zero get better?
Not all that into who is cucking or fucking who.
Guys. We're never going to escape this cycle if we keep fetishizing the isolation and self-destructiveness of the writerly life. Take John Green, for example. Now there's a guy who found a happy medium.
>>9085633
>ugly wife who only married him for his money (literally rejected him in high school, iirc)
>living with the knowledge that you write nonsense for children that will be forgotten soon after you die
>happy
>>9085649
Shit, he may suck, but that motherfucker makes more scrilla than I do
>>9085657
>money is most important
No wonder you idolize green. Moron