which philosophers take history real seriously and are into it and write about it but also philosophy and literature and poetry
Me
Foucault
>>8843029
casanova
what is some literature that will make me believe in beauty, the good, and make life worth living again.
literally tolkien desu
Is Life Worth Living by William James. It's only 9 pages or something and it's free on Wikisource
>>8843007
kek
I thought /lit/ was memeing me when they said Tolkien is garbage.
It's true. His writing is truly awful.
>>8842886
boring and longwinded. didnt even get through half of the fellowship of the ring
>I prefer style over substance
>I've never read beowulf
>>8842886
No, you're just raised on modern stripped-down prose. If you're used to late 19th-century novels, his writing seems be comfy as hell.
Are there any GOOD novels about truck drivers? Seems like it'd be perfect subject matter for a really good book.
bump
Just watch the movie big trouble in little china.
>>8844559
Came here to say this
pleasantly surprised
you're alright, anon
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/5i8pes/i_became_an_avid_reader_like_three_months_ago_and/
Which one of you memeing fucks did this?
just seeing that website makes me *puke* so tell me how many serious replies are there
>>8842865
I really like malevich
>>8842895
Loads. They're all too fucking nice.
Philosophy is garbage.
are you saying philosophy is garbage
or are you berating people for calling philosophy garbage
what did he mean by this
Are you trying to say that philosophy is ideology?
What IS garbage?
if humans lived forever, we could read an infinite amount of books
>>8842826
no because at some point it would become impossible to create new books thus creating a limit for the maximum amount of books to be read
>>8842826
>implying actual infinity
>>8842826
The vast majority of which would be unintelligible gibberish and 90% of the remainder not worth while
Don;t bother with sauce either
What are the best books on writing?
I don't mean books on story, or on character development. I'm talking purely about improving style and prose. Particularly when dealing with non-fiction and essay writing.
>>8842787
What is introductory college English how-to-write books for 1200, Alex
Stephen King's On Writing. Advice from the master.
>>8843124
the problem is i've read the obvious ones, they all give the same advice about avoiding adverbs and varying sentence length. I'm looking for thinks that get a bit more into the nuance.
Good read about comparing Millenials to the Lost Generation.
http://pastebin.com/Vw3i3zqK
Agreed. I was at work today and thought about how fucking nice everyone is.
You go to Copenhagen and they're not that phoney.
>>8842774
Conveniently letting out the fact that the lost generation was mainly the male part. Can not put my finger on whether the author willingly refuses to draw obvious parallels here.
The comparison is still pretty far fetched though, most people nowadays actually are complacent, contrary to what the author assumes. There seems to be a lot of rationalizing at work here, I see where this guy is coming from, but the people he describes are a minority, hardly enough to represent a generation. The fact that mass media is able to give a clearer insight into the actuall amount of social dropouts there is, does not mean that there is anything exceptional about the current generation. We are not even close to the amount of desperation those guys back then must have felt, feeling so out of place that they let themselves get dragged into another horrible war to end it once and for all.
>>8843566
>The comparison is still pretty far fetched though, most people nowadays actually are complacent, contrary to what the author assumes
Are you implying most people during the Lost Generation weren't also complacent
Has anyone ever experimented with shunning technology for a few weeks? No phone, Internet, TV, etc.
I'm 5 days in, and I've never felt better. I don't have to force myself to read anymore, it just happens naturally and smoothly, and my concentration is at 100% effortlessly. I mean, this is crazy. I actually enjoy sitting down and learning Spanish now. It's effortless. And a walk outside feels amazing.
I'm becoming convinced that technology has had sinister effects on us. Or overstimulation, or watever it is. This is why, compared to our predecessors, none of us are polyglots, none of us are well read, etc. It's because it was easier for them due to the fact that their minds slipped into these things more easily, because these were sufficient stimulation in their time. It was either these things or sit and stare at a wall. But now, it's not like that.
It's as if without these temptations and overstimulation, my brain is more fine tuned to pick up more subtle pleasures, like when you don't eat all day, and then take a bite of food, and the flavour is overwhelming.
Really makes me sad to think about.
really makes you stink
>>8842769
>I'm doing such a great job at not being on 4chan!
>Better go tell 4chan!
>>8842782
Well I haven't been perfect, I'm taking a 15 minute break, but you still get the idea
What does /lit/ think of Osho?
>>8842713
nah
a
h
Rolls Royce spirituality
>I do not ordinarily make prophecies, but about this I am absolutely prophetic: the coming hundred years are going to be more and more irrational, and more and more mystical.
I think about this sometimes. From the looks of things so far I agree with him.
http://culture.vg/features/art-theory/on-the-genealogy-of-art-games.html
What do you think about this art essay if you've seen it before? (I doubt you'll read the whole thing because it's so long). I really love it. It talks about how new art forms are dismissed due to their use of new technology, and judgement by criteria of other art forms. It also talks about dead art forms used as social status symbols. It talks about all new endeavours as being essentially hobbyist / manchild activities.
It's the best work on art made in the modern age and will retain this title until it ends. People will look back in the future and ask, "How?".
We live in a time when Donald Trump can become PotUS, but Alex Anthony Icycalm Zirbas Kierkegaard is not yet recognized as the greatest philosopher that our age, or perhaps all ages, has produced.
Why is this?
Games are art but this essay is garbage.
what's his hamartia boys? He's too good to be true. Very insightful, logical, helpful in understanding philosophical works.
Is he secretly a nazi? a psychopath? alt right?
idk he knows a lot of crap but he doesn't seem very wise to me and he's fat makes me question the value of philosophy
>>8842663
He's just the real deal. It has to happen every so often right? The only thing I can think of is that he plays up how badass he was in his youth.
>Is he secretly a nazi?
That would be /lit/ as fuck
Any anarchist literature suggestions?
Hi.
>>8842653
Daniel Guerin's No Gods No Masters is good as it exposes you to many great anarchist thinkers and gives you samples of their work. Also a lot of obscure stuff like leaflets that used to be passed around and small essays that aren't otherwise broady published.
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
Hello friends,
I've written a short story (1300 words): http://pastebin.com/vMGhgT7C
I have drafted and edited to the best of my ability. I think it is quite good.
Can anyone give it a read and let me know their thoughts/criticisms?
If you stopped reading, can you let me know where you stopped reading and why?
I would greatly appreciate it!
>>8842627
first reminded me of 'no exit,' kind of like some sort of existentialist stuff, then turned me around to auden...post wwii kind of feel and collectivization of the populous. interesting but i think you could flesh out the first couple of lines and make it a bit more clear where he is (got a little confused when he suddenly turned up at the census bureau)
>>8842627
I thought the first part (before the conversation started) had some strange prose honestly. It seemed like you tried to do something on a few sentences, but it just didn't work. I was wondering whether I should keep going. Once the conversation started, I enjoyed the story a lot more. I got totally absorbed until the end, so you clearly did something right in the dialogue section.
Overall, I thought it was quaint. I'm not sure what the story is really going for. This is quite possibly my failure, though, because I'm not sure how much effort I was/am putting in to thinking about your story. I could say more, but I'd think it be better if you told me your mindset while writing it. I see this as a success if you had an idea you thought was okay and took maybe an hour writing this just for fun. If you are trying to "say" something or have it be extra stylish, I don't really see any success here. Maybe my interpretation is too greatly effected by my thoughts on the normal curve. That curve is not "found," it is forced by statisticians. Things do not fall along a normal distribution. Statisticians force them to just so their field doesn't fall apart. With this in mind, I'm not sure if you're speaking as the character or commenting on the character and their beliefs. Either way it seems trite to me. So I don't really see a strong message or style, but I had no problem reading it. Overall it just seems really in one-eye-out-the-other.
How can they pronounce all the equations?
It's decent. However, the idea of a "normal man" doesn't work in all cases, e.g. for hair colour.
"since time immemorial" made barf a bit too.