Days 1 and 2 will take place in this thread, allowing a wider range of discussion.
We begin today with the very first two "books" or chapters of the Iliad, gaining insight on how the war began and some of the leaders. Also how pissed Achilles can get. Tuesday we'll get into some action.
Supplementary reading is optional, after we do our read through of the Iliad, I'll fetch some extra readings for those who would care. Sharing your own supplementary reading is encouraged. Even if you've already read the Iliad, come take part in discussion.
Personally. I use the Fagles translation, but it doesn't matter honestly.
Discuss!
Little schedule made by a kind anon.
>https://mega.nz/#F!flYQGbzI!p1AFjtMuCLHQqocJqxV7rg
Here is a link to a trove of historical information on all sorts of Greek era literature or historical background.
Here's 45 gigs of military history. Go bananas
>https://mega.nz/#F!ZAoVjbQB!iGfDqfBDpgr0GC-NHg7KFQ
Thanks for organising the club <3
R8 my garbage. Criticism is much appreciated. Let's get it going
http://pastebin.com/7PwNA0jC
nice too much expostiion tho
just paste it into g translate lmao!
http://pastebin.com/pnwg2G2q
http://pastebin.com/S4DhvZv2
http://pastebin.com/RNAe7AV2
>>8908341
sorry, it's still pretty hard to make sense of it through google translate :/
>>8908378
at least you tried mate, at least you tried
Is there a Southern Gothic-esque equivalent for the American Midwest and Desert Southwest? Not necessarily like Westerns, but like horror or crime or thriller or surrealism, something a bit more contemporary. Think of the kind of imagery conjured up by "Badlands" or "Darkness on the Edge of Town".
Cormac McCarthy is a good example of the kind of thing I'm talking about, but not necessarilly the end-all be-all.
I'm also thinking of something kind of post-apocalyptic relating to the nuclear bomb testing in Nevada.
Eugenides.
Being from Detroit, he incorporates a wistful longing amid urban ruins into all of his works.
>>8879252
Thanks a lot! I'll check him out.
This is a really stupid thing I see a lot of people who take themselves very seriously do and they need to fucking stop. Nietzsche's slave revolt is a necessary step in moral maturation in his genealogy - it's what raises the question of the value of values in the first place, and allows "rationality" and "introspection" to emerge as psychological faculties, and for the consequent development of people who exist as something other than the pleasantly idiotic "noble" blond beasts/masters. "Masters" figure into the Nietzschean moral hierarchy, construed as chronological stages of spiritual development and as a literal historical genealogy, on the BOTTOM, and people who contrast some behaviour as "slavish" in the Nietzschean sense in contradistinction to some "master" ideal are not only making fools of themselves by demonstrating an incredibly narrow reading of his genealogy, but are actually more likely to be commending the behaviour they're attempting to deride if their criticisms are taken on Nietzsche's actual terms.
Fuck you Brian Leiter.
Please elaborate further.
I didn't really understand your post OP, could you reformat a little?
>>8933838
Masters have no reason to question the value of their own values because their values are exactly aligned with the nature of their historical context, in the sense that they get what they want with little resistance and thus have no reason to resent anyone, much less life itself. The development of morality begins for Nietzsche with a slave revolt, and while this path ultimately leads to nihilism, it also leads to creativity, which is the ultimate telos of Nietzschean moral philosophy and is impossible to attain without first engaging in a slave revolt of some form another.
Decrying someone's argument as being a "slave-revolt" or someone's political beliefs as being based on "ressentiment" is an increasingly popular tactic for people who want to invalidate some beliefs. For the reasons mentioned above, this is in fact a bad joke that they are playing on themselves, and the notion that ressentiment is something to be avoided in preference for master morality is not only completely backwards, but Nietzsche asserts is an actual historical impossibility for the historical context in which he is writing.
The basic idea is that you prefer "masterful" self-assurance to the sniveling "ressentiment" of people who are mad about not having what you have: the truth of Nietzsche's position is that masterful self-assurance exists only for aristocrats ruling over a slave-class, and then not as a preferable state of spiritual-development, but as a primordial and intellectually stunted beginning which needs ressentiment to begin the path to creativity.
I was here several months ago, asking advice from you superiors. I didn't accept anything any of you had to say except for the compliments. After writing 40,000 words, I realized it was shit, and started over with your advises in mind. I ceased all writing and spent a month drafting a literary schematic. Now I have 50,000 words written. I am satisfied with it, as are several of my professors. I am, however, struggling to structure my two opening paragraphs. I hope some of you can critique it. Here is a draft of what I have planned.
I want this to be perfect, as my uncle said he'd publish it and give me 40% profit.
http://pastebin.com/6FqymZv6
I have a hard time discerning what is good and terrible. I have schizophrenia. I have tried to contextualize my mind's gibberish in an understandable way, but I'd appreciate feedback.
>>8933462
I barely skimmed it, I'm not really in a reading mood, but I can tell you that as far as your narrative diction it needs polishing. it feels like its propped up on a thesaurus and that may be because the narrative tone is contrived.
I'd loosen it up a bit, refrain from sounding "writerly' and make it a bit more authentic in its voice(were you influenced by Notes from Underground?) because it sounds more like an ostentatious imitation of a distraught character than actual psychological distress.
that's all I can really critique, I just skimmed the first few paragraphs. Good luck
I am also writing a sequel. I work on it when I feel the urge, but I'd like a collaborator; the cowriter of the initial book doesn't want to continue. I'd prefer a Christian, for the protagonist transitions from an amoral man to one that seeks morality. Pic related
What are some books that will teach me how to write stories?
pic unrelated
>>8933332
The Bible.
>>8933332
do you want to be taught by example or instruction?
>>8933371
Both. Just give me anything you have.
Would you ever skip a philosophy introduction?
Pic unrealated
>>8933326
All prefaces atleast could be skipped but Hegel's
Yes.
>>8933368
Even then.
I despise non-author written introductions of all sorts. Only exception I've made is for Gaddis's The Recognitions, since that one was written by Gass.
>>8933326
You should read philosophy, but never under any circumstances ever take a class in it.
"Wild eyes were another sign. It is something I have seldom seen — the expression of an ecstatic state — though much is foolishly written of them, as if they grew like Jerusalem artichokes along the road. The eyes are black, right enough, whatever their normal color is; they are black because their perception is condensed to a coal, because the touch and taste and perfume of the lover, the outcry of a dirty word, a welcome river, have been reduced in the heat of passion to a black ash, and this unburnt residue of oxidation, this calyx, replaces the pupil so it no longer receives but sends, and every hair is on end, though perhaps only outspread on a pillow, and the nostrils are flared, mouth agape, cheeks sucked so the whole face seems as squeezed as a juiced fruit; I know, for once Lou went into that wildness while we were absorbing one another, trying to kiss, not merely forcefully, not the skull of our skeleton, but the skull and all the bones on which the essential self is hung, kiss so the shape of the soul is stirred too, that's what is called the ultimate French, the furtherest fuck, when a cock makes a concept cry out and climax; I know, for more than once, though not often, I shuddered into that other region, when a mouth drew me through its generosity into the realm of unravel, and every sensation lay extended as a lake, every tie was loosed, and the glue of things dissolved. I knew I wore the wild look then. The greatest gift you can give another human being is to let them warm you till, in passing beyond pleasure, your defenses fall, your ego surrenders, its structure melts, its towers topple, lies, fancies, vanities, blow away in no wind, and you return, not to the clay you came from — the unfired vessel — but to the original moment of inspiration, when you were the unabbreviated breath of God."
-William H. Gass, The Tunnel
What's the "wonder if these guys would let me use their shower" joke about.
The rest I know the reference for
>>8933191
tl;dr "oops, I farted"
>>8933191
literally any sentence in The Waves could qualify
I am alone. They have gone into the house for breakfast, and I am left standing by the wall among the flowers. It is very early, before lessons. Flower after flower is specked on the depths of green. The petals are harlequins. Stalks rise from the black hollows beneath. The flowers swim like fish made of light upon the dark, green waters. I hold a stalk in my hand. I am the stalk. My roots go down to the depths of the world, through earth dry with brick, and damp earth, through veins of lead and silver. I am all fibre. All tremors shake me, and the weight of the earth is pressed to my ribs. Up here my eyes are green leaves, unseeing.
Woolf is the master of conventionally beautiful prose.
Which literary publications critique the current uneducated populist wave and put it in to historical perspective?
>Trusting elitist publications to tell you why populism is bad
>>8933135
The Jew York Times
>>8933135
All of them lbh
>>8932830
Unironically read Hitler instead and after that pick up Schopenhauer's 'On Women' if you want to really learn about how the world works
I found the book mildly entertaining. Of course, however, I majored in philosophy at uni so I found most of the information regarding the history of philosophy to be lacking depth. It would probably be a great book for beginners to the subject but I was unable to finish it because I got bored with the rehashed information and the main plot didn't grab my attention.
>>8932830
I read it when I was 11 and it was a great ride, to be honest. I found the story entertaining - it certainly has elements of meta-fiction and likewise reflections in the storyline alone. The philosophical parts are quite shallow though, that's why I consider it a children's book.
Grow up, anon :-')
What are /lit/ thoughts on this?
looks literary
Should these books be mandatory in every school worldwide?
>>8932668
Can you give me a summary of his economic thought and social philosophy?
>>8932673
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokirvECNdk
Maybe but they should probably be contrasted with some left-wing or centre-left views. Especially when it comes to economics the world is only getting one point of view.
What are your thoughts on The Witcher book series by Sapkowski /lit/?
the games r gud :Ddddd
Very good dialog and characters, mediocre rest.
>Not for amerifags
Manchildren should read actual literature.
Dylan's Nobel should have been his. ;_;
>>8932501
Anyone else really hope it'll be a nonwhite woman next year? We can make threads about it for months. Up to 300 every day
I'll be preparing some now.
You are joking right? Mediocre. Fakes realism with easy platitudes. Second-rate. A tense-looking but really very loose type of writing.
>>8932508
omg are you serious.
he deserves it for anthem alone
>But if it is true that human minds are themselves to a very great degree the creations of memes, then we cannot sustain the polarity of vision we considered earlier; it cannot be “memes versus us,” because earlier infestations of memes have already played a major role in determining who or what we are. The “independent” mind struggling to protect itself from alien and dangerous memes is a myth.
Stirner B T F O
>>8932451
I was born without memes and I mastered the memes that came to me, or I cast them into the fire. Shitlord Dennet is projecting
>earlier infestations of memes have already played a major role in determining who or what we are
But what exactly is stopping people from becoming something other than that?
If we couldn't change ourselves we wouldn't be able to learn.
Where is the boundary of this metaphysical essence that cannot possibly be reprogrammed, unlike the rest of the psyche?
>it is not that the ego is all, but the ego destroys all, and only the self-dissolving ego, the never-being ego, the — finite ego is really I. Fichte speaks of the “absolute” ego, but I speak of me, the transitory ego.
>>8932486
>i'm not addicted, i can quit memes anytime i want!
lel