I """completed""" the duolingo spanish tree like a year ago, meaning I took the placement test and basically passed the whole thing so I only had to do like the last five subjects. Nevertheless, I can't understand spanish worth shit and it is my understanding that grinding on online courses and reference books is worthless after a very early point, and I want to read don quijote in it's native language, so I need to build up to that. Can /lit/ rec me some good beginner, and I mean beginner spanish literature?
Read Aesop's Fables in Spanish, or El principito (look it up like that).
Completing the Duolingo tree just means you tried enough times to make it gold. It's like a video game; it takes no skill to reach the end if you're given infinite chances to get there. The tree isn't a "placement test," it's just a "fun" way to learn very, very basic shit.
Reading even "beginner spanish [sic] literature" will only frustrate you when you're looking up every other word. You need to engage in serious study before you can play.
Also,
>it's native language
You can't even English.
Fair warning that Don Quixote is difficult even for native speakers, so I would unironically recommend classical literature translated into Spanish that you've already read.
That said, read some easier works by Marquez like The General in His Labyrinth in Spanish beforehand, I would also recommend The Shadow of the Wind by Zafón, and Pedro Páramo which is pretty pop on /lit/
So I got both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged for Christmas. Which should I read first?
>>8929682
Dunno
>>8929682
Read up on how to get better relatives
>should I read this pamphlet or this dictionary first?
Do you read the introductions or get straight to the story?
I usually give up reading the introduction by page 5
>tfw your copy of Meditations has the introduction comprising 1/4th of the whole book.
If it's a work I know the plot to, I read the whole introduction first.
If it's a work I don't know the plot to, I read only so far in the introduction as to where the author begins talking about the story. Then I stop and read the story, then go back and read the introduction.
Do you have the Penguin Classics one? I'm working through the same introduction. That has 3 pages of footnotes for the fucking introduction.
Usually I'd say its whatever.
But for Meditations, read the fucking introduction if you don't have a basic understanding of Marcus as a person, and Stoic philosophy + the other influences.
Just finished this. Can anybody please tell me what the fuck is wrong with the women is any of Dostoevsky's stories? Is their caprice reasonable and I'm just a fucking retard? It made for an unpleasant reading experience due to how unrealistic the women seem.
Nastasya and Aglaya were pretty fucked up. Neither of them was a decent candidate for marriage and they both deserved their fates.
>>8929649
Just like his male characters they live their "philosophy" to the extreme and act according to it, even if it is disastrous to themselves and everyone else.
For nastaysa fillipovna it's the contradiction between her essential innocence and her (and others) belief that she is irredeemably morally corrupt.
Aglaya is just a pretty realistic girl.
>>8929718
Upon some reflection, I see that you're right about Aglaya being a believable character. The way she was portrayed however had her alternating between a state of rage or juvenile love seemingly every scene though, which I suppose made me think lesser of her character design. Also I'd argue against the point of her "essential innocence", as to the extent she's embraced her baseness it may as well be her defining characteristic, no matter what her ground state is.
Can we discuss poetic theory?
What are some good works on it? I haven't found much on theory
>>8929517
Just read poetry. Would "theory" kind of go against the idea of poetry? Are you going to reduce it to math or material?
>>8929742
illiterate post. go back to r/books
>>8929742
This is the most annoying idea I've ever heard. There's nothing special about words on a page – nothing ethereal. They're subject to analysis.
>People think writing is hard
Alright fagathors, you wanna write, here ya go
>write pretentionly as fuck
>use normal floaty or meaty adjectives depending on tone
>structure your sentences weirdly to make them seem poetic
there you go gaylords go write shit and don't get too caught up on using your first idea you can always improve it
it was /LIT/ERALLY that easy guys, why didn't you try this sooner
>>8929478
I don't get it?
>>8929489
are you gay or somthinge there's nothing to not get. stupid.
>>8929478
btw guys this is a surefire way to not get your manuscript picked up by anyone
How was this guy so right?
He was rich, powerful and never had to struggle.
>>8929464
>suffering is objective
Ayy lmao
tangentially related on stoics - i've read none of seneca so far
which of his works are worth reading first?
After having solved your philosophical inquietudes you have done nothing but merely set the things to do something. Go be a painter, a musician or a poet. If you damaged your mind too much in your philosophical quest, be a writer or something else. But just move on from intellectual play.
>Let the Philosopher always be the servant and scholar of inspiration and all will be happy.
>Study Sciences till you are blind. Study intellectuals till you are cold. Yet Science cannot teach intellect. Much less can intellect teach Affection.
Being a poet, that's just producing a million pieces nobody will ever want to consume. Same with music, except there at least you get some pussy wet. Nobody paints, that's for lonely ladies.
Besides, I don't think you ever finish the process of figuring out which philosophical line of thought fits and is most convincing to you.
>>8929374
those activities are not meant to be done with praise or worldly intentions in mind. they are the achievement and realization of the mind, its merging into the oneness of the universe.
>>8929374
You don't understand art faggot read some John berger may he rest in peace
>consuming art
Why am I being told I have to read lots of boring novels and told that these books have "incredible insights" when all these insights are seemingly unfalsifiable theories made up by people in order to give faux-intellectual credit to authors and justify the existence and continued funding of English Literature departments?
Why are people discouraged from using enjoyment as a criterion for which books they read?
Why am I constantly being told to praise a philosopher's completely unfalsifiable chain of reasoning (when the space for unfalsifiable ideas is infinitely large) and told to stop being sceptical of all philosophies by famous philosophers of the past or professional philosophers of today?
Why am I constantly being told to read contemporary non fiction books about the latest psychology findings / China / the economy etc. and threatened with a reputation as an idiot when the breadth of areas for the expression of human intelligence and the cultivation of skills and discoveries is much greater than whatever the academia-media-publishing industrial complex happens to consider marketable at that point in time?
Why is it that non-STEM philosophers actively avoid trying to answer questions that involve mathematics at a greater than high school level when the scientific method (or seductive mathematical method) is merely one method out of infinitely many?
>unfalsiable
stopped reading there
go back to your containment board for virgin STEMlords
>>8929330
Frogposting positivist shitting out a wall of empty rhetoric, truly you are the cancer that's killing 4chan
>>8929341
/thread
How do you guys read your books?
I find I can only really read something if I've got a movie going on in the background, so I often watch a couple of movies while reading through a book, this gives me a little something to go back to when I finish a chapter or need a break to think
I soak my underwear in gas station bath salts, then put it in the dryer to warm them up, then put them on.
I don't really read, nevermind.
I lay in my bed and read
>>8929320
we actually don't read. /lit/ is all just a conspiracy where we all pretend to have got through every major book in the Western canon when really we're just going off Wikipedia summaries. The purpose of the board is to stroke each other's egos and make ourselves feel smart. You now know our secret.
Why is this considered a "difficult" book?
Because retards can't appreciate Ishmael's wisdom.
>>8929300
tell us what you want to hear first, bub. You want a bunch of (you)'s telling you Americans are stupid? Here ya go.
It has almost no story, the occasional events are watered down by the narrator's endless poetic digressions. It's pretty difficult if Harry Potter and ASOIAF are your favorite books.
where do i start with him?
>>8929192
the cookbook.
>>8929291
needs more meat
>>8929297
>eating calamitous food
I just got some bad news and I feel the need to wallow in some poetry. Which portions of this are most beautiful and poignant?
>>8929149
Just read these, Ezra Pound's best.
>http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pound/radio.htm
>>8929149
>I just got some bad news and I feel the need to wallow in some poetry.
Stop it right now. Read Rilke or shit like that if you think poetry is supposed to be sentimental bullshit to cry to
With Usura. Look it up on Jewtube. Pound reads it himself, rustles me every time.
Is the bible interesting from a literary point of view? Or is it nothing more than a compilation of hebrew fables that could only interest people who believe in it?
Is it worth reading?
Some of the character archetypes, conflicts, and themes in the Bible are used persistently throughout European literature. You've got to figure there's some enduring value there. If nothing else, it's valuable to read as source material for what you'll undoubtedly be reading elsewhere.
I'm a non-Christian and I still find a lot of Biblical narrative and poetry extremely evocative.
>>8929139
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: The Bible is a foundation text for Western civilization and you're going to see references to it all over the place, even in works by non-Christians. Knowing what's in the text will be a great help to understanding these references. In addition, many parts of the Bible have stories or poems that are worth reading by themselves.
However, it is a very long book, and many portions of it are concerned with genealogies, ritual laws, lengthy allegorical prophecies, or other such matter which can make for dull reading. Here are the parts that are the most worthwhile as literature
Genesis, Exodus (up until the ten commandments, then it's Jewish legal minutiae), 1 and 2 Samuel (for the story of King David), Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jonah, All the Gospels, Acts. Romans, Revelation
As for versions, the King James Bible has a reputation of being the 'ultimate' from a literary perspective, but lots of people have their own favourite. If you want something with lots of notes, get the Oxford Study Bible
>>8929139
I find it interesting for literature mostly because of the amount of commentary it has spawned. I'd recommend Karl Barth's "Epistle to the Romans," which I knocked out last month, if nothing else.
I have a $25 amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket
Recommend me works of fiction in this price range. What's the first book you would get if you were me? English language lit preferred but translations welcome.
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone
>>8929104
This. It's a great book.
>>8929104
uh don't you mean sorcerer's stone