Here are some truthy opinions about writing. Some famous writers ranked, in order from best to shit.
God-tier writing:
Dante
Nabokov
Joyce
Proust
Great writing:
The Bard
Joyce
Milton
Blake
Borges
Wolfe
Pynchon
Good writing:
Fitzgerald
Dostoevsky
McCarthy
Lovecraft
Mediocre writing:
Hemingway
Steinbeck
Stephen King
Bad writing:
DFW
Vonnegut
Joseph Heller
Move The Bard to mediocre and I'm pretty much good with this list.
>>9599218
>DFW on "Bad"
>>9599218
Are we to assume that you think these sets aren't mutually exclusive, or did you just copy this list, modify it, and forget to remove Joyce from 1 of the 2 categories?
Plebeian confessions thread. This is the time where you repent for being so shit and everyone else recoils in horror because of it all. C'mon, it's fun.
bob dylan deserved the nobel prize for literature.
translations of poetry are good depending on the translator. you still get the image and depending on the translator also the rhythm of the original poem. just because it's not in italian it's not full of swirley whirley pizza mama mia.
books on writing are fine as long as it's not blatant self-help clickbait-esque trash like "YOUR NOVEL SUCKS 1001 REASONS WHY" etc.
Joseph Campbell is one dry guy, need a tall glass of water to read a quarter of his book
anyone writing screenplays and/or plays in microsoft word should just give up trying. nobody takes it seriously if you don't use finaldraft or celtx.
I have never read a greek, roman, russian or french piece of literature.
My main source of literature is as follows: was there a movie adaptation? Yes? I'll see the movie and then read that book.
>>9599216
this is me t b h
What did you think of his Nobel lecture? http://www.svenskaakademien.se/nobelforelasning-2016
>>9599213
>i like this singer
>i like these three incredibly popular books
>different people take different meanings from art
a true master
>>9599213
I think he should run for an academy award for the best comedy too.
Rule number 1:The Nobel prize is nothing but a leftist award
>>9599282
>llosa
>leftist
What is the best spoken language of all time, and why is it English?
English is the perfect language, in its structure, understandability, adaptiveness, it is truly the one language that god intended for his children to speak.
First of all, it clearly sounds the best. It sounds like perfect creamy buttery almonds to the ear drums, unlike arabic, which sounds like an autistic badger dying, or german which sounds like a 6 billion blue collar manual laborers fixing 6 trillion ovens. Let's of course not forget about french, which sounds like a macrocephalic child with a sinus infection trying to talk backward.
Let's talk about its many MANY features that place it on top for the best language of all time.
First, portmanteaus. Does any language besides English do this? No fucking way in hell. Check it out - Infomercial, which the dirty french fucking stole this straight from the English dictionary by the way. Jackalope. Frappuccino. Tangelo. Breathalyzer. Paratrooper. Need I continue?
Next up, acronyms - and I mean actual acronyms, not initialisms. Examples include SCUBA, RADAR, LASER, Interpol.
Then we have the tmesis. This is when you stick one word right inside a-whole-nother word. It's in-fucking-credible. Try doing this shit with your gibberish fucking japanese startrek memerunes, or heebjew (which anne frankly is embarrassingly incomplete as a language, and naturally sounds like a pig being force-fed bagels.)
A very important feature of English is the dynamic usage of prefixes and suffixes. No other language in use to this day employs these. Let's see some examples: "This shade is slightly green[ish]", "you had best [un]fuck yourself", "That is the cunti[est] shit I've ever heard", "You fucking norm[ie], get the fuck away from my tend[ies]" (This one was a clever combination of portmanteau and dynamic prefixes)
(1/2)
(2/2)
Adaptability. English is the easiest language to use when it comes to adapting to changes, or incorporating new terms, be it contextually or as a major change to the entire language. One of the most famous is "nigger". Know where that came from? Say some guy has a very specific situation where he feels the need to invent or "coin" a term. Perfectly okay. He and his colleagues can then use that term clearly and fluidly in conversation with no misunderstandings. Let's see you try that shit in russian, you'd have to encode that shit into your ancient archaic goblin alphabet, then teach yourself how to pronounce it for 10 hours straight, then have your colleagues teach themselves to say it, and what it means. What a waste of time.
One of the most perfect examples of amazing adaptability of a spoken language is one single word - "fuck". I think you've seen the video or infographic (<--portmanteau) explaining the many numerous use cases for the word "fuck" and it's many appropriate contexts, even in spite of it not even being a homonym, it's actually just that good.
Understandability. This is when you understand the meaning and context of a word even if it's rittled with typos. Even if a sentence is missing many of its letters. I bt ths sntnc is stll ndrstndbl. Supporting example? хлeб. That means "bread" in russian. When pronounced, however, it sounds like it could literally mean "shit"
Perfect structure. How can any other language compete? The use of such a perfectly structured language, with its clever use of punctuation to get the point across so efficiently can simply not be matched.
A more humbling example of the superiority of the English language is the expansiveness of the tone and formality you are free to use when coming up with a sentence. You can be a rude cunt (ay grrl gimme sum pu$$) or sound proper and scholarly - "Salutations, my dear. Would you like to engage in sexual intercourse?" While saying the exact same thing. Only with English.
Let's talk about music and poetry. Singing is a pretty neat concept, but only if it's done correctly. If you're going to try to rhyme, the words that rhyme have to make sense. This is why all foreign translations of originally English songs that use rhymes all either sound like shit, or have been so butchered, they lost all meaning. Secondly, let's go back to my first point. It has to sound good. Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ay5OOxRTTE It's literally durka durka. It sounds like it belongs in the fucking loo.
Imagery. English is the most powerful tool you can use when trying to convey emotion or invoke your reader's senses with imagery. Words that when put together in just the right way can actually bring you to the very setting using only your imagination.
One of the most important reasons - Popularity. Thanks to many of the reasons stated, English is and will be far into the future, the most popular, efficient, useful, pragmatic, and beautiful languages ever spoken.
> justifying inconsistency and impurities
> "I read book past and present"
learn italian, its a god-tier language, LITERALLY
Will I go crazy if I read his book on synchronicity?
Only one way to find out ;)
>>9599178
but it's very spooky and this guy looks smart
dr broscience
Does anyone else primarily read books about serial killers? Also, true crime thread.
>>9599082
Bump because I'm interested, OP. Never really delved into true crime books before but I remember a week ago or so some anon was suggesting a couple that were worth a shot and said they disturbed him more than any literary horror could.
Really the only one I know is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Been meaning to pick that one up for a while.
>>9599287
I was going to say in my OP "why read horror when you have true crime?" Truly more thrilling than most in that genre.
>>9599082
No, but I've watched every single serial killer documentary since I was 12. Tried to read the BTK one and the one... Preston coauthored? Where the french police thought they were suspects? Neither of them were particularly decent, at least not in the way the documentaries were. Are there any you recommend?
Why this board is mentally and cultural and IQ unable to have a proper discussion to define what constitutes good writing (prose/poetrhy) from poor writing?
>>9599001
Because none of us are as smart as you. ._.
>>9599001
>Why this board is mentally and cultural and IQ unable
Is this English?
>>9594757
You really expect people like the one I linked to have an idea about good writing?
Peter F. Hamilton Edition
http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk//index.php?page=timeline
http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2014/10/paul-di-filippo-reviews-peter-f-hamilton/
http://www.tor.com/tag/peter-f-hamilton/
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/ajc-cwt-001/episodes/2016-04-28T00_00_00-07_00
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hamilton_peter_f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton_bibliography
Fantasy
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21329.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21328.jpg
Flowchart:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21327.jpg
Science Fiction
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21326.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21331.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21332.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21330.jpg
NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21333.jpg
Previous Threads:
>>9593093
>>9587110
>>9577079
>>9564901
>>9556572
>>9548752
>>9543080
>>9535547
>>9526856
Can someone post the How to read Dune chart?
>>9598862
W-who's Canada?
>>9598954
Who is the reddit fag that hijacked our general?
Why does he do this theme shit?
Why did he (and we allowed him to) change the source for the charts?
Is it legal to write an entire book based on someone's life and then just change the names? How many details do I have to change?
I'm in a difficult position because I want to her about the work but also don't want her to tell me not to write it.
Who cares
As long as it's not slanderous it's fine, legally. I'm not sure why you'd want to though, what's your motivation here?
>I want to her about the work
Pardon?
>>9598943
I want to tell her about the work, but I have a feeling she's going to be pissed off at how I've portreyed her, and/or ask for royalties
Is this worth getting? Some people hate the Fagles translations. What's wrong with them?
I bought that same copy of the aeneid yesterday.
>>9598912
>Some people hate the Fagles translations.
Contrarian hipsters. It's a popular translation so now therefore it sucks.
Fagles is god-tier. For Homer, its the story that is important, less so is how literal or poetic the translation is. You get no extra meaning from different translations of Homer. Fagles reads really well, those editions have great introductions and the average person will find them enjoyable to read.
>100 pages left in the book
>Can't even finish it
>Just want to move onto the other book I have waiting for me
>>9598896
Just start it. and read the rest of the other book whenever. It's not worth starting a damn thread over, you nincompoop.
>>9598896
Hegel too, huh?
>browsing 4chan
>Start doing Meme Peterson's Self Authoring program
>Re-read what I wrote about my childhood
>It reads exactly like My Twisted World
Is the program worth it or should I go full supreme gentleman?
I forgot to ask: as anyone completed the whole suite? What did you think of it?
>>9598851
You should take your own life.
>>9598879
That's plan S.
Why is postmodernism the new boogeyman when postmodernism was dead by the 90s?
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_end_of_postmodernism.html?id=Z3UaAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
Because /pol/babies are too dumb to research what postmodernism actually is and find out that their youtube guru of the month is talking complete bullshit.
>>9598821
>>9598844
Nobody cares about labels. Post modernism, post structuralism, or any other contemporary garbage - the name does not matter, philosophy has died together with Germany. I can only pity the mongoloids who take the likes of Foucault (an aids ridden degenerate who wrote utter bullshit) seriously. It is sad what we have come to.
>>9599041
kill yourself
What comes after the Romans?
The Bible, Aquinas
the muslims
>>9598589
the Byzantines, duh
What does /lit/ think of RationalWiki?
The funniest site ever.
autism
A new atheist remnant of a bygone age.