Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 2195. page

(((Mendelsohn)))

>>8908408
>The abuse that Yanagihara heaps on her protagonist is neither just from a human point of view nor necessary from an artistic one.

I don't understand how this is acceptable criticism.

>>8908457
It's not an acceptable criticism on its own, but coupled with the idea later in the passage that the book's audience sees the world as just a place of victim-hood, and the writer is pandering to this, it is a more robust criticism, because the idea of a book that reduces the world to that in order to pander to college kids is something that doesn't appeal to most people. Haven't read it so can't comment on how fair the accusation is, but from my experience of university culture I can believe it.

I didnt read a book this entire year unless you count a moral and political philosophy textbook.

Probably won't read anything next year either.

>What books did you read in 2016?

Too many to count, but probably the most memorable would be Men Without Women by Ernest Hemmingway

What do you think about them? (optional)

Short stories are very entertaining. Even the long ones can be finished in under an hours or two. Granted, I read slowly to get more enjoyment out of it.

What will you be reading next year? (optional)

idk

>The Bible
Very varied of course, parts were great, literary too. Well worth the read.
>The oxford history of greece and the helenistic world
Pretty good.
>The oxford history of the roman world
Ok, could gone more into details of daily life IIRC.
>The oxford history of medieaval europe
Same as above.
>Mythology, Edith Hamilton
Comfy read, contains alot of knowledge. Well written.
>The Iliad, Homer
Surprised me in how similar the people in the poem are internally to people today. Is very rich in what it touches on. Not just war. Also surprisingly balanced and nuanced in showing both
"Positive" and "negative" aspects of war.
>The Odyssey, Homer
Cosy read, exciting infact.
>Works and Days and Theogeny, Hesiod
Works and Days is interesting for insight into how people lived and thought in greece back then. Not comparable to many other classics though.
>Three theban plays, Sophocles
Great.
>The Stranger, Albert Camus
As a work of literature, very good.
>The book of disquiet, Fernando Pessoa
Very good.
>The Myth of Sisyphys, albert Camus
Pretty Shallow, the philosophy and the insights faded quickly for me.
>Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, Plato
Good for getting historical and literary background on Socrates and ancient greek philosophy. Not that relevant for actual philosophy though perhaps, arguments aren't exactly rigorous. Conclusions seems irrelevant today.
>A midsummers nights Dream, Shakespeare
Had some trouble with the language, english isn't my native one. Didn't give it sufficient preparation or dedication.
>Don Quijote, Miguel Cervantes
Great. Very rich. Posesses a timelessness like Homer which surprised me. Doesn't feel like it's four hundred years old. Alot to digest.
>What we talk about when we talk about love, Raymond Carver
Didn't like it. Reminds me of the "ideal" short stories they showed us back in HS that we ought to emulate to get good grades on our writing assignments. Well crafted but uninteresting,
doesn't seem to contain much depth. Doesn't feel truly original.
>Invisible cities, italo Calvino
Alot of promise, didn't quite live up to it. Should have gone more indept on each city.
>Stoner, John Williams
Very good, made me reconsider some very naive utilitarian opinions by showing the depth and value in even seemingly not too good lives. Extremely well written.
>Whatever, Michel Houellebecq
Very good, the scene with tisserand on christmas eve was very strong. A bit too unrestrained though perhaps.

1/2

>tfw too intelligent to shitpost

Writing a novel is not the endgoal, actually having something worthwhile to say is.

I've been on 4chan for about 9 years and only discovered that tfw was *not* 'their face when' and was infact 'that feel when', the other day.

I prefer my version.

>>8908318
There will be a Jung revival.

There will be a revival of Modernist styles in the 2020s petering out with a masterwork by a writer of a nationality which has previously produced no major literary works.

This will transform into a more distinct and purely 21st century movement whose form we can only guess at in the current moment. Though we can be sure it will feature a return to realistic characterization as one of its fundamental features, with heavy reviling of the postmodernists for their treatment of the human subject.

The best writer of the 21st century will be one who obstinately continues to write anachronistic postmodern bricks, well into the new movement in which this is unfashionable. Their talent will go unrecognized until after the arrival of (highly cultured) Neo-china from the future.

POETRY WILL ARISE ANEW
THE TIME OF THE NOVEL IS FINISHED
POET UPRISING REEEE

>>8908467
Revival of epic poetry when

Behead those who write lyric poetry

I cant wait for the new virgil

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also, and potentially worth thinking about: isn't it weird that there were no art critics in ancient greece? everybody goes to the theatre together and gets their faces rocked off by sophocles. but there are no roger eberts or pauline kaels or alex kierkegaards (and yes, i went there: fight me).

that's what fucks us up today, which is a longer story: the victory of criticism over myth. but maybe it's too soon to get into that. deep down i think people want a myth, but we know that myths are scary and dangerous. so we like seeing them blown up on screen or watching the old ones. GRRM is writing a good one but it's going to end in a very dark way.

also ayn rand couldn't separate between being philosopher or novelist and so we got a less satisfying mix-up of both. but it still sold twelve billion copies in burgerland

anyways w/ev. lets talk about myth and mass unconsciousness and cinema & stuff

differences > similarities

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>>8908454
come on, don't be stingy. share your thoughts. i want to get out of this ridiculous prison-hotel of overthinking, not stay in it. why are differences better than similarities?

i actually think to some degree that differences are illusory, but that's my inner mystic-despot speaking. give me an alternative to despotism. tell me about deleuze or guattari or whoever you're referring to. i can't know what you mean unless you're explicit

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>>8908285
and his dad

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thomas pynchon

>>8908275
2000s/

: _________ :

>>8908275
Me but I haven't written it yet

Pop it. Don't lock it. This is your chance now shock it. Ooo yeah. Do it. This is your time! This is your night! YEEEEEEAH

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>>8908254
>we've

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>>8908254
>mfw every single person on the list is a non cis-white male

It's beautiful

start with the greeks

>>8908211
Why do you want to read the Canon? The canon mostly refers to books which reference other books that came before, it doesn't include all good books. The best way to read is to mix in any books that seem interesting to you. Try reading a Great Work then some current non-fiction, some short stories, and some historical non-fiction.

Many people reading Don Quixote stop to read shorter books then read more of Don Quixote.

Just get a foundation and then you can jump off wherever

Foundation:

Early shit:
Homer's Works
Herodotus and Thucydides
Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides
A bit of Plato and Aristotle
Virgil and Ovid and Apuleius
Plutarch
The Bible (the Gospels and other important ones, you can skip leviticus and shit)

Middler shit:

Beowulf
El Cantar de mio Cid
Parzival

Later shit:

The Divine Comedy
Donkey hoytey
The Prince
The Decameron
The Canterbury Tales
Shakespeare

by the way this is a list I just whipped up out of my ass

you don't really need to read chronologically, nor must you force yourself to read something because its canon

don't start a book, pause and read another though, else you'll never get back to the first

>>8908169
>but reading Plato and the like only makes me feel more overwhelmed by knowledge, as I will never know what is truly right.

Don't worry because Plato is right and almost no one else.

>>8908277
/thread

>>8908277

Plato was wrong about almost everything, including his retarded "forms".

it's kinda cute

used to teach kids racism is bad and retards aren't scary
otherwise its not that great

>>8908023
Yes, like Toy Story.

>>8907929
That's not Middlemarch

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>implications

That's not a Russian masterpiece.

I'd rather tell you to watch The Pervert's Guide to Cinema and The Pervert's Guide to Ideology.

Once you realized how fucked you are, you'll experience some good horror.

>>8907806
Ligotti

>>8907819
Thanks anon, which books should I start with? Are there common themes in all of them, or is he diverse?

That was terrible
Sentences don't hold up, and it doesn't feel like the "author" came up with anything other than what was already on the page

I read Tennyson's "Ulysses" and memorized the first five lines to it. Will probably memorize the rest of it today, I guess.

The Iliad is by far my favorite poem.

I bought a copy of Bloom's poetry anthology, and I'm currently reading his essay 'The Art of Reading Poetry' which is hard to follow at times but interesting.
I don't know much about poetry but one that always stuck with me:
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

>>8907729
Look up the writings of Pierre Berton.

free quebec

>>8907729
>a fucking leaf