Was he born a genius, or did he make himself one? He does say that he doesn't believe in the maxim that geniuses are born.
Thinking about it is depressing.. He's just an example. Can someone of average intelligence "make it"? By that I mean not being someone who reads a lot, but is a total imbecile. Someone who can deliberate and evaluate, criticize and innovate. You know, a proper intellectual. Is ambition deadly!? Sorry, please don't be too harsh on me.
>the trite american conception of intelligence and the eternal worry about mental abilities
just do what you feel like doing and don't think, you dumb kid
will this board ever grow up?
sage
>>9228044
His education was much greater than the average European/American education today. He probably read more by age 16 than you did your entire life. Reading and writing was the only thing he did.
He also had a lot of emotional intelligence which is extremely overlooked in these academic communities because it comes from real hands-on work and experience. When you're emotionally intelligent you can think more rationally and carefully. It's safe to say that by age 16 he was more emotionally intelligent than your average Ph.D student (and just as well read).
And of course he was one of the most brilliant people to ever write, he likely had a very high IQ. But many people have an IQ like his but it's the emotional intelligence that is a true differentiator.
anyone have the braaaap pasta?
>Can't read De Beauvoir without reading Sartre
>Can't read Sartre without reading Marx & Heidegger
>Can't read Heidegger without reading Husserl & Nietzsche
>Can't read Marx without reading Hegel
>Can't read Husserl, Nietzsche, or Hegel, without reading Kant
>Can't read Kant without reading Baumgarten, and Hume.
>Can't read Hume without reading Locke
>Can't read Baumgarten without reading Leibniz, and developing some grounding in formal logic.
>Can't read Leibniz, or Locke, until I've read Descartes.
>Tfw
How many years is studying philosophy going to take off of my life, /lit/?
>>9227955
START
WITH
THE
GREEKS
For fuck's sake, it's not a meme.
>>9227955
don't study philosophy. why would you want to?
>studying things that have absolutely zero utility
why did he kill the bear
I don't know either, killing civilians are understandable for their scalps, but a bear, no excuse!
Because thats just how it is.
>>9227937
because the bear was a metaphor for the giga nigger
who are your waifus from literature?
Your waifu is a whore.
Natasha from War and Peace.
Fuck Anna, what shemwas horrible. What did Alexey (both of them) ever do to her?
>>9228291
Same.
I'm heading to Portugal, any advice on what to read on/from this country ?
Woooooooo that bitch ugly
>>9225343
So?
Southern Portugal is nothing but drunk British scum, gypsies and AIDS. Visit Sintra, run aroud Lisbon, eat on overhyped pasteis and abandon this dump for Porto and glorious North. Be prepared that everyone is incredibly slow and English situation is sad - there are about 5 people who can speak it in the whole country and 3 of them are autistic /lit/ basement dwellers. French helps a lot more. The local language is Spanish with heavy Polish accent, so maybe try that. Overall 7/10 country.
Hey /lit/ what books are you reading right now?
George Orwell is cool.
>>9225305
Seven Manifestes Dada of Tristan Tzara
>>9225305
I was required to read Burmese Days as punishment once. I don't agree with your assessment.
>>9225423
Burmese Days was a good book. Flory was a true hero
Why does /lit/ hate self-help books?
1. Reading them isn't patrishun.
2. Admitting you aren't infinitely smart philsophical intellectual and need help isn't patrishun.
3. Most of them are trash.
>>9223654
I don't hate self-help books, I hate the people that read them
>>9223672
It's spellt "patrician," anon.
Lazy Man EditionSince nobody was in the mood to make a Thread last time i'll just do it now so when I wake up the general isn't 404.
>what are you reading?
>how is it so far?
>expected releases?
>buyers remorse: what shit book were you shilled?
Fantasy
Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg
General:
>https://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg
Flowchart:
>https://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg
Science Fiction
Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/IBs9KE8.jpg
General:
>https://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg
NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://i.imgur.com/IJxTQBL.jpg
Previous Threads:
>>9212630
>>9202214
>>9189440
>>9180806
>>9168106
>>9156349
>>9141959
Gene Wolfe is objectively the greatest living American author.
Donate to my charity anon
Second Gentleman Bastards book. Only a few chapters in but so far I'm enjoying it as much as the first - which is to say it's perfect for killing time, but not something I feel the need to pour through in a single sitting.
Trying to come up with a list of "good" writers that did an MFA in Creative Writing
So far I have:
DFW
George Saunders
Flannery O'Connor
Who else?
Well, so far we have Flannery O'Connor.
Saunders' only novel is fucking horrible. DFW should have written actual self-help books.
I'm content to stay at one.
>>9231172
Saunders has some pretty good short stories. Pynchon has endorsed them
>>9231178
>Pynchon has endorsed them
lol
yes, that reminder is on everything he publishes. Sometimes, himself is even on there too!
If only Bulgakov could write a gripping story for more than half the book.
Also fuck the jesus parts
Heart of a Dog is p gud.
>>9230998
honestly it's probs just because i have the P&V translation. The second half is just monotonous and long-winded. Is the Glenny translation any better?
>>9231011
GLENNY is meant to be shithouse, apparently burgin is the route to go down. Currently reading P&V translation on Nikanor Ivanovich's dream, pretty good so far but in the back of my mind I'll always wish I had the burgin copy but can't find a copy to steal and too broke to afford to import a copy zzzzzz
>Get in mood to write
>Start in on that chapter you been ignoring for a while
>Get a good rhythm going for a few minutes
>Suddenly get to a point where you need details, either a (how does character get from point A to point B), or (well who is this other character, what is their name, what role are they going to play in this part of the story)
>start getting hung up on the details
>Lose the rhythm
>Lose motivation
>Get frustrated and walk away
EVERY
FUCKING
TIME
I don't know how to curb this. I honest to god don't.
I know the major events I want done, I know what I want my main character to accomplish and relatively at which time points in the story for certain events to take place, but I am horrible at getting him to these points or making the in-between characters that help him get there.
It's so fucking frustrating and I don't know how to fix it.
>>9230966
Start with writing the incorrect thing, something you know to be completely off-base or wacky.
sounds kinda like you dont really have an idea, just scenes.
Remember that characters represent ideas and if you know what your theme is find the inter-relation until the characters start to mingle and a plot falls out.
Getting hung up on details is your brain's way of quitting the difficult task while saying "well I tried really hard, just not my day"
If a detail isn't coming out, do what >>9230972
said, or leave it out, and move on.
If you focus so hard on the trees, you're gonna paint a bunch of trees instead of a forest. Keep moving, keep exploring how things go, and you'll probably find yourself answering a lot of those early questions you're getting stuck on.
Are songwriters and ghost writers a meme?
>>9230951
What the fuck are you even talking about?
>>9230964
They don't get any love.
>>9230994
Songwriters are an embarrassment. Ghost writers can't be appreciated, nor do they deserve to be.
You can go away now.
mfw unpublished yet again.
shouldn't that be "still"
>>9230991
I haven't been in /lit/ for awhile.
Been working too much. Editing ain't as awesome as writing but stealing people's work apparently doesn't work either.
What are some good novelizations of television shows?
I don't know; I've never read one.
>>9230894
Then don't post in my thread you fucking faggot.
That's probably real too. Always good for a kek. I wish her daughter would come back to life and kick her in the dick. She's not even promoting a power broker in her post or anything.
Is Arabian Nights the first book to have an entire story based on people getting cucked by BBC
>>9230753
We do have evidence of a non-extant tract from a psuedo-Homeric author of the 6th century in Greece noting how an "ashen" slave had sodomized his son and wife in Eudemus' History of Geography.
>>9230753
Herodotus wrote about BBC as well, he wrote that Ethiopians are the most beautiful men in the world.
>>9230784
He also wrote that the Ethiopians have black-colored sperm