Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1030. page

>>9569348
I notice this a lot on 4chan lately: people asking the most inept questions about great books, as if there were some deeper meaning in parts that were supposed to be funny, interesting, emotionally resonant, add layers of realism to the story, etc.

Do you want some allegorical essay brilliantly pinpointing how each of these chapters related to Melville's readings of Spinoza, Plato, and Shakespeare?

Will that make the book any more enjoyable to you? If I rationally over dissect and analyze it, if that's the only way you can care about it, what every part of it means, then hasn't the book already failed for you?

It's this trite attitude on /lit/ that the only purpose of a book is to make trite high-school tier essays about it talking about the political significance, the psychological significance, the philosophical significance, etc., of what certain parts "mean", why did the author write this part, that betrays the complete ineptitude of people on /lit/.

What was the significance of the fucking book, if you want to ask why the cetology chapters, why those descriptions? Do you think this is an equation, with a reasonable part for everything? What if you took out the cetology, took out the details about working on a ship, took out the detailed descriptions and every attempt to add realism in the book? Then you wouldn't have a book.

Did the book satisfy you? If not, then who cares? No explanation could satisfy you, the book has already failed. It's as if us two were standing next to each other as friends and I were telling you a joke or a story and were trying to recreate the scenery of the place with a few details, and you wondered why I mentioned those details. They're as much part of the story as anything else.

In short, you are a fucking idiot

The point was to show how, despite all the scientific knowledge we have on whales, there's still holes in this scientific knowledge, and still forever a philosophical inscrutability in wondering why Moby Dick did/does what he does ... despite all the attempt to rationalize everything, to be encyclopedic, there's still something subtle, elusive, and irrational in life that perpetually escapes our attempts to put it in order. The overly detailed nature of the chapters is meant to contrast against what we DON'T know about life --- why we're alive, why we do anything, the existence of God, and everything. Dumbass.

>>9569348
knowledge on whales wasn't easily accessible when Melville wrote the book, so he decided to compile encyclopedic information about whales in order to help the reader understand just what they were. since we live in an information age and most people have been to Sea World, feel free to skip these chapters

>>9569382
Thanks!

War and Peace

The Catcher in the Rye

>>9569152
with his first novel like you would with any author

thai

>>9568876
no look at the alphabet its not thai

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here's the alphabet

>>9568852
>>9569103
Serious question, do you think posting this everyday here is going to somehow get your genius noticed?

You're legitimately awesome, I connect with you in ways I haven't really done so far in reading novels for my entire life.

I really love your style and would like to see more, but you should send this to a few publishers.

>>9569169
Nice use of satire

Weird neck

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>>9568707

Darkened one.

>>9568612
No philosopher has changed my behavior.

>>9568612
Yes he completely changed my life.

>>9568622
Please elaborate.

>>9568301
>>9568301
>How do you do read books when there's no achievements at all in them?
cuz it's fun

>Take me seriously or not, but I really do have a hard time caring about reading books, and I feel like the reason for that is that they don't have achievements that you can unlock.

Your brain has been programmed to only respond to gamification.

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Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations.

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And if you want these kind of dreams - it's Californication.

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It's the edge of the world and all of western civilization.

>>9568182
Half the board are pseuds, the other half are English teachers.

I'm sure this thread is going to go fantastic.

>>9568182
Not a specific story but in 8th grade I had an English teacher who was a total hardass. I was always the "I'm smart but don't apply myself" type and he wrecked me the first few weeks. I had never had such a demanding instructor. In his class we read boys to men shit like Sherlock Holmes, Hemingway's short stories, Jack London, etc. He was old school and a devout Catholic. My older brother went into rehab during that year and this guy basically functioned as my dad. He made me a better man and a better reader. He still crosses my mind desu. A good English teacher is unironically one of life's greatest joys.

>>9568182

My (swedish) high school teacher only ever made us read one book: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

quality education

Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein

look up ZFC. if you think the axioms don't representing being though, the it is just a symbol game. but then you could come up with axioms that do represent being and go from there

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logocentrism

>>9567645
There are more than economics to Marx; his work has elements of political economy, but he is also very much one of the fathers of sociology and his philosophy of history has been influential as well.

As for the economic side of marxism, the orthodox marxist belief in the labour theory of value is a mythic idea by now in its original form anyway. Find some small primer on it, and read some newer critiques of the theory, like marginal utility theory of value.

I think Kevin Carson's book on 'mutualist political economy' does a pretty interesting job in renewing the LTV and answering to marginalist critiques. If your interest lies in the economics, then this is the place I would look if you want to treat the labour theory in a serious manner in the 21st century. Don't bother with Piketty, he's not a real marxist, he's a social democrat advocating progressive income taxation based on inequality statistics.

With regards to the sociological side of Marx, I find the most interesting out of every aspect of marxism to be the potential for critique of ideology in theory of alienation under capital. I would atleast read the Paris Manuscripts (alienation of labour) and the first chapter of Das Kapital (commodity fetichism, and then move on to newer, 20th century theory like Lukacs (reification of social relationships) and Debord (the total alienation of all aspects of life).

As for his philosophy of history, the orthodox marxist view is fucking moronic to hold today, and only orthodox tankies living in a phantasmagoric dream world do. The course of history does not guarantee your revolution, dear comrades. But a lot of western marxism has btfo'd the old school. Adorno is the GOAT.

>>9567708
Yes, i'm looking for the economic side.
I'm not particularly interested in sociology (tho i have basic knowledge of it). And i've watched a lot of Memezek as i stated previously.
How does the marginal utility theory of value differ from law of diminishing marginal utility?
Also, do you have anything else to recommend on the economics side. Thanks for the reply.

>>9567645
Why are you seemingly under the impression that you can learn about the jewish ideologies of communism and Marxism and avoid hearing anything overt about jews? These things cannot be separated. You're never going to understand communism or Marxist until you understand the jew. Period. That's how it works.
>>9567708
This individual is jewish. He's trying to make you believe Marxism is something other than a method of jewish subversion against the goyim. It's not.

>>9567534

FIX YOUR HEART OR DIE

>>9567534
He does strike me as a lesbian trapped in a dude's body.

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>>9567534
no, her saying so made me so mad

ur a faget

>>9567288
Sometimes I really love this stupid fucking board

>>9567288
and dubs to boot.
>fpbp

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>>9567049
>have multiple addictions
>none are the cool ones

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Jokes on you, if you catch me without a book in my hand, it's probably a bottle of booze instead.

>>9568759
it's probably your micropenis you effete lout

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>>9567026

There's an overwhelming amount of explanatory notes and critical essays in this one.

>>9567029
you didn't read it.

the commentary only goes up to genesis and exodus. a shame really. but it really does need a multi-volume edition for more comprehensive coverage.

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>>9567029
>>9567112
>overwhelming amount of explanatory notes and critical essays
>the commentary only goes up to genesis and exodus
wtf lit