Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 211. page

>>9947542
I actually enjoyed it a lot. Just a heads up the author, like once or twice, will just go off on random tangents about his individual political beliefs. Another section, an early one, describes how skeletons in Africa imply that some black people today are technically not homosapiens and are of a different skeletal structure or something, and he provides proof of this, but then immediately says something like "but this can't be true because that would be racist." Understand that he intentionally mentions these things likely as a defense against any SJWs who would protest and riot outside his office.

>>9947563
Same guy here. You should 100% read it, aside from the slight virtue signaling to cover his ass fro, the hostile left, it's a brilliant work. It gives a great insight into how humans developed from an evolutionary standpoint and provides a great perspective on how our behavior is very similar to cave men, just with different toys. I think it's esssential nonfiction.

>>9947563
>>9947567
ok im sold thanks for letting me know about the cucking shit beforehand. i'll gloss over it. book sounds interesting

If nobody is down for this idea can anybody suggest me from more Japanese literature? I'm wrapping up Kokoro now and the First Snow on Fuji was really enjoyable (in a melancholy way).

>>9947540
Read more Kawabata

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>>9947505
Doesnt work that way. Keep your autism at your job.

Start with ones that catch your attention, after a while you'll start to get the memes.

The list you posted is not representative. Use the top 100 list.

If you really want to get going read The Stranger then the meme trilogy & go from there.

>I feel an unhappiness which almost dismembers me, and at the same time am convinced of its necessity
.
>My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.
.
>the poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man
.
>If something good has lost its way into you, it will make its escape overnight. I know you.

Why didn't Franz shit on his father and live a carefree life in the Bohemian countryside brosefs?

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>>9947394
Watch it, Chrissy

Different writers have different processes. Faulkner usually started with a single image and built the story around it. Sinclair Lewis on the other hand did tremendous research and constructed the world (for Babbitt he had a complete city map of the fictional Zenith) he worked in before really starting. Robert Silverberg has a great quote (that echoes the advice of most authors I've seen) about forcing himself to write four hours a day, regardless of his emotional state. "No muses involved" he said.

Anyway, point is, just put the pen to paper. You'll work out your own system if you stick to it.

By forcing yourself to just write no matter how bad it is.

Just start writing!

THE Bible

/thread

fpbp

UH HUH THIS MY SH

*canned sitcom laughter*

>>9947332
Good choice, OP.

The Confidence Man
Spinoza's Ethics

The two books that totally altered how I live.

I know some faggot brings this up in every thread but Ernst Junger's storm of steel is a masterpiece and probably the best piece of WW1 literature. If you're looking for something contemporary Rich Atkinson's trilogy has been excellent so far, although I've only read the first book on the campaign in North Africa. Currently reading Hans Von Luck's memoirs and it's meh. I'm excited to get started on Pierre Berton's Vimy.

>>9947298
WWI
>All Quiet on the Western Front

WWII
>The Thin Red Line
>Night

There's definitely way more, these are just ones I liked

my struggle by adolf hitler is the only book anyone needs from the entire twentieth century

>>9947287
You'd probably be better off asking in /sffg/ but I'll try to help. Malazan is in my opinion everything wrong with fantasy, specifically that it's overlong, conflates in-media-res storytelling with depth and sophistication, isn't really developing any deeper themes along the way and isn't remarkably written at all so really all that you get out of it is a long as fuck soap-opera with swordfights and autistic magic-systems. The whole thing is based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign the author played. That should really tell you all you need to know.

If you really know fuck all about fantasy and want to get into it there are far better places to look. Tolkien is one of them. His work draws strongly from his interest in traditional European mythology, his faith, and his background in linguistics. It's all very coherent and beautiful when it comes together. The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion are all worthwhile reads.

Some other good bits and pieces of fantasy
>Robert E. Howard
Great Depression era /r9k/ poster who wrote lots of short pulp-hero stories. Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane are his most well known works, there are lots of great stories in these as well as a lot of mediocre stuff.
>Peter S. Beagle
The Last Unicorn is one of the best modern fantasy novels ever written and is also remarkably easy reading.
>Jack Vance
His 'Tales of the Dying Earth' series of short-stories and novels was one of the biggest inspirations behind D&D (Malazan wouldn't exist without Vance) and while the wordiness of his prose might rape your brain at first if you stick with it enough to get used to it you'll find his work remarkably funny and light-hearted.
>Gene Wolfe
Final boss of fantasy. His 'Solar Cycle' (Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun) is probably the greatest fantasy/sci-fi (it's both) series ever written. If anybody deserve the title of 'American Tolkien' it's Wolfe. His style can be confusing so if you want to try him I'd recommend looking into his earlier and shorter works first.

Check /sffg/ if you want to know more.

I'll offer a more moderate take than >>9947351 although I don't feel like typing a wall.

Malazan isn't art (like LOTR is) but it is a cut above most other swords and sorcery novels. Its biggest strength is Erikson's ability to whip up characters and situations that despite not screaming originality somehow feel fresh. Perhaps its biggest weakness is that after four books or so you start to see that his fountain of good ideas is not exactly limitless and new characters are falling into the same mold as the old ones. The repetition of character archetypes is really not as bad as it sounds-- he's making a smart authorial decision here and taking the things he is self-aware enough to know were working (the quick talking crazy guy, the strong and silent leader with integrity, the beautiful traitorous woman, the all-powerful god in beggars clothing) and hammering them home, which is better than moving on from your best ideas and writing a series of five crap novels to finish off your series. Some of the later iterations are even superior (Tehol and Bug stand out of course).

Anyways, they are very enjoyable novels for some people, particularly people who think they're too smart for the bottom 95% of high fantasy crap (me), so if you're one of those, give it a shot.

>>9947351
To offer another suggestion, I'd say read any of Moorcock's Eternal Champion books. He builds up a pretty decent mythology as it goes on, and hes pretty good at writing books with energy behind them, so they're easy to get through. As well, his fantasy is a lot weirder than modern fantasy, as he was writing before a lot of the conventions were solidified. He's also where people got the whole law vs chaos thing, and popularized the idea of a multiverse.

His books are also surprisingly deep at points, dealing with subjects such as isolation, despair, morality, the cost of heroism, and continuing in the face of overwhelming odds. He writes some of the best tragic heroes as well.

Don't worry about where to start, as any version of the Eternal Champion is a good starting place, but I'd recommend either Corum or Elric as those are my favorites.

i think it has to do with the inflection in his voice. also idk if this was intentional but it helps to identify him in unattributed dialogue.

Geordie accent

>>9947343
This. It's a trick he uses again in Inherent Vice, though without the ellipses. A "?" at the end of declarative sentences to represent California inflection.

>>9947174
La part de l'autre

Fiction about Hitler's life and Hitler's would be life if he had become an artist. Not sure if that's what you are looking for.

Also it's in french.

>>9947174
Why not read Freud

>>9947174
Read Freud's case studies, especially The Wolfman.

didnt even know what this was because you didnt use the original cover

what is it

>>9947150
slint - spiderland

>>9947128
That's nice, dear.

>>9947128
Read Philip K. Dick and you can still be cool.

Just be yourself.

>>9947031
>pretentious
>romance novels

What are these? My impression is they are mostly the opposite of this.

>>9947031
Those books are the reason I'm into goth chicks

>my massive cargo pockets

i hate to break it to you but people think you're autistic if you wear cargo anything

“It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.” - Michel Houellebecq

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." - Edgar Allan Poe

"Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never" -Kafka

Fake plastic pussies

>>9946941
The Vegetarian

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tfw a shity kpop group made a bunch of songs and videos based on Demian

isn't it kinda late in history for whitemen to be writing doorstoppers? he's not even jewish, why the hell do the publish his shit?

>>9946755
Wait, is he finished with the seven dreams series?

>>9946797
No, but he writes stuff between those books.