Why can't we italicise on this board? Other boards have their own little things relevant to their subject, why not this?
>>9358993
That's a good question.
Bump for interest.
Yo that's a good idea, OP. You smart
>>9358993
Just put ~the squiggly lines~, bereh
>people from the midwest think they're ever going to understand literature
I'm going to tell you nice and simple.
You are too dumb. You are too uncultured. You will never become smart enough, or cultured enough. Go back to watching The Voice, and leave literature to your coastal betters :)
>he made another garbage thread
get a life anon, stop ruining our board
>stem/humanities
>coast/midwest
Strongly consider suicide, autismo.
So I've read BK and Notes by Dostoevsky and found them to be incredible, both with the P+V translation which I had been guided to after brief online research over a year ago.. Now that I've decided to read more, I've done more research to find that Pevear can't even speak Russian. This isn't necessary horrible in that his wife, in theory, wouldn't let him publish anything too far from the original meaning.. So now I'd like /lit/'s opion on both general Dosto/Tolstoy translators and, as I was browsing for info I came across this comment:
"Came across an infelicitous translation while reading the C. Garnett version.
When everyone arrives at the monastery early on, someone asks about Dmitry, and the answer (in Garnett) is "Dmitry Fyodorivich does not exist yet".
Thinking this could not possibly be right, I decide to consult the 'definitive' version by Pevear and Volokhonsky, and I found the EXACT SAME WORDING.
Ignat Avsey renders it something like "Dmitry F. is not here yet."
One of the 'revised' Garnett versions has it changed to something similar, but another of the 'revised' Garnett versions retains the 'does not yet exist' wording.
What's most upsetting about this is that P & V could not possibly have ACTUALLY translated it that way.
The only explanation is that they did NOT produce a totally 'new' translation, but simply picked up the Garnett version and 'tweaked' it, and not very carefully: even a sloppy reader of the Garnett version would notice this; which makes me think they did not EVEN read the Garnett version completely before presenting it to the world as THEIR completely NEW one!"
>>9358959
P&V are a marketing machine. Their methods sound good on the surface -- two is better than one, right? -- but the reality is they introduce twice as much error since her English is so poor and (as mentioned) Pevear doesn't know Russian. They form not a whole but something completely split.
For Tolstoy, the Maudes are the married couple of choice and always a good first pick. They knew Tolstoy personally and he approved of their work. There are others for individual titles, such as Ann Dunnigan for W&P. (I will say this in defense of P&V's work on W&P: they preserve Tolstoy's deliberate repetition of words instead of smoothing it over as many other translators do, and it seems like they have a decent solution to the issue of how French is used. Still I would say just be aware of how they treat things while reading someone else's translation.)
For Dostoyevsky, Ralph Matlaw has done some very good work in revising Garnett's work, such as with Karamazov, and others have built on his work; check Norton Critical Editions for this. Another early translator I like is David Magarshack. The recent translator I would recommend most highly is Ignat Avsey, who translated Dostoyevsky only. David McDuff is good also, if a little rigid for how recent his work is. Andrew MacAndrew did a very good (albeit fairly loose) translation of Karamazov. Oliver Ready's C&P is well regarded.
>spending your time sampling, comparing and double-checking translations instead of just learning Russian
Плeбc.
What's he up to?
>>9358937
He is wrestling against OCD desu.
>>9358937
his ears in audience pussy
He lives a hermitic lifestyle, writing his Magnum Opus, the great work that will change humanity forever and set us on a new course of enlightenment and dicks in our cereal
Hi /lit/, please help me with a problem.
I've spent 3 years working on a novel. I think I have what it takes to complete my first draft.
But I now realize that the story is.... it's okay. That's all. I'm proud of parts of it, but it's a story about modern-day outcasts being lonely, and rejecting each other when they really shouldn't. Pretty... pretty plain,stuff. Sad people being sad. Some half-baked message about the spiritual corruption of living in a consumer society, which I only half believe, since things are obviously better than they've ever been. Stuff about how being a man in today's society is difficult, even though I think it's never been easier to be a man, historically.
tl;dr, I wrote something immature that I only half believe in, and want to start on a new novel. Since I've started on this project, I've conceived of seven or eight great ideas that I'd love to get started on. But all this creative advice I've received says "FINISH IT", which I'm inclined to do because I've worked so long and I'm so close- but what's the point if I'm not very proud of it? It's gonna require probably another year of work to second draft and then receive editing.
What should I do? Any advice? Experience?
>>9358796
Anon! YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER!
>I wrote something immature that I only half believe in, and want to start on a new novel.
Then do another novel! Jeez, you already said it, my friend!
>I've conceived of seven or eight great ideas that I'd love to get started on.
You already said it! You wanted to start writing about it and you LOVE to get started already! Then why aren't you getting started already? A book is not a marriage! You don't love it anymore? Then you don't have a fucking ring to keep in your finger to bind you from saying no!
My friend, you've answered your question. If your book is starting to feel like a chore, take it out. Put it in the trash can where it belongs. Write another fucking amazing story that an amazing person like you could fucking do! Never put yourself in a stress that would probably lead you to depression just because you want to finish a chore that you believed to be a garbage!
Think of one thing:
1. If I publish this, would /lit/ like it?"
If the answer is no, then that's fine. But if the answer is yes then you're doing something great.
>>9358796
It's like you're asking: "What is 1 + 1? I know the answer is two but my friend, Benedict, says its 3? What should I do?"
First of all, you are not Benefuckingdick! FUCK YOU BENEDICT AND YOUR STUPID ASS ADVISES!
Do what makes you feel alive! /lit/ will probably think its stupid but that's because you're not Vladimir Nabokov.
Even if you, the author, has lost faith in it, that doesn't mean it won't mean something to someone - for example someone in the same condition you were in when you started the novel.
3 years is also an incredibly long time. How many words is it?
I ask you today, O men of /lit/, whom may be considered greater: Those who control a state, or those who topple it?
Why Socrates, those who topple it, of course. We're those in control the greater men, they should not lose it.
>>9358670
>O men of /lit
Did you just assume my gender?
Dear /lit/,
I've heard this term before but I've forgotten it before getting around researching it a bit. It's a cross-genre of literature which, semantically, sounds a bit like "academic fiction". Basically, from the name, it seemed like a genre where you include some literature-like prose in one's academic writing.
Is there such thing? Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Is there a name for writing that is mainly academic but a bit cheeky and fun to read?
>>9358621
I know one where you include some academic-like writing into a heap of bullshit prose. Called humanities research papers. HEY YOOOO. STEMLORD OUT. *drops mic postironically*
>>9358632
You lost me the relationship between humanities and STEM
>>9358621
creative nonfiction
Redpill me on Walt Whitman, is he any good?
>>9358616
You should try reading him, first.
No. Skyler is even worse though.
>>9358622
Shit ain't free
>have thought
>try to put it into words
>can't
books for this feel?
>>9358592
Then you have no thought.
>>9358605
>Thinking only in words
Pathetic.
You're a monolingual anglo I suppose.
>>9358605
>implying thoughts consist entirely of language
wew
Which are some non cognitive, mystifying writers with good prose like Hesse?
>>9358523
>non cognitive writers
What do you mean by this?
>>9358533
Writers who use concepts beyond possible human understanding as if they are verifiable and concrete. Like immortality, spirit, perfect.
>Hesse
>non-cognitive
>Glasperlenspiel
I'd recommend you actually read Hesse instead of shitposting.
ITT: post your goodreads ratings curve
I give everything 5 stars because I don't care, and neither should you.
>>9358450
then why do you even rate?
>>9358448
how do I find the curve? it's not in "stats"
I've only read one book released post-2000. Recommend me some 2000s books, I'm tired of reading crusty shit written billion years ago
What are you generally into? There's a lot of stuff out there these days.
>>9358420
Their pic tells you what they are into, bitch.
this guy sucks. he's dan brown for people who think they're smart. if you like him you're a pleb with shit-tier taste.
I haven't read any of Eco's fiction but he's like the pre-eminent medievalist of the 20th C and has made major contributions to literary criticism and aesthetic theory.
Having read his much of his academic work I can't imagine that his fiction would be lacking, honestly. I can always be surprised though.
What don't you like about him,specifically, or are you just here to shitpost?
>>9358341
I've never read him, I can just tell.
>>9358341
>implying OP is not just a shitposting brainlet
come on m8
What does /lit/ think?
It seems this book is overlooked quite a bit since you mainly see posts about Brothers K, Notes from the Underground and C&P.
I actually prefer the matter of fact way he describes the inmates to the dramatic and restless style of Dostoyevstky's later works.
Tolstoy named this book as his favorite work by Dostoyevsky.
>>9358332
I haven't read it but I will bump this thread because it deserves better than to be buried with no replies, while threads filled with childish "ironic" posts go on for days. I haven't seen this book discussed here, as far as I can recall.
>>9358332
I'm also interested.
Anyone here who read it?
I think it's well written realism but there's too many characters present. He doesn't dwell deep enough in any of them for it to be really interesting. His meditations on the topic of harsh or light punishment for criminals turned out correct though so I'll give him that much. Harder punishment does nothing to halt crime, Dostoyevsky realised in the 19th century what the US still hasn't grasped today.
>write a novel
>rejected by mainstream publishers for being too weird
>rejected by weird publishers for being too mainstream
fuck
>>9358321
>>rejected by weird publishers for being too mainstream
lol what a pleb
>>9358321
Then stop writing Harry Potter fanfiction.
>wrote an experimental novel using new techniques over the span of 2 years
>nobody wants me published because I haven't published anything prior to
Jesus Christ. . . guess I'll start publishing stories or something gay.
What a joke