Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 2412. page

Leo Tolstoy, 1906: "I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium... Several times I read the dramas and the comedies and historical plays, and I invariably underwent the same feelings: repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment. At the present time, before writing this preface, being desirous once more to test myself, I have, as an old man of seventy-five, again read the whole of Shakespeare, including the historical plays, the "Henrys," "Troilus and Cressida," "The Tempest", "Cymbeline", and I have felt, with even greater force, the same feelings,—this time, however, not of bewilderment, but of firm, indubitable conviction that the unquestionable glory of a great genius which Shakespeare enjoys, and which compels writers of our time to imitate him and readers and spectators to discover in him non-existent merits,—thereby distorting their esthetic and ethical understanding,—is a great evil, as is every untruth."

More Wittgenstein:

"I could only stare in wonder at Shakespeare, never do anything with him . . .

"Beethoven's great heart" - nobody could speak of "Shakespeare's great heart" . . .

I do not think that Shakespeare would have been able to reflect on the 'lot of the poet.'

Nor could he regard himself as a prophet or as a teacher of mankind.

People stare at him in wonderment, almost as at a spectacular natural phenomenon. They do not have the feeling that this brings them into contact with a great human being. Rather with a phenomenon."

"It may be that the essential thing with Shakespeare is his ease and authority and that you just have to accept him as he is if you are going to be able to admire him properly, in the way you accept nature, a piece of scenery for example, just as it is.
If I am right about this, that would mean that the style of his whole work, I mean of all of his works taken together, is the essential thing and what provides his justification.
My failure to understand him could then be explained by my inability to read him easily. That is, as one views a splendid piece of scenery."

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Orwell identifies Tolstoy's chief quarrel with Shakespeare as "the quarrel between the religious and the humanist attitude towards life." The exuberance with life that characterizes Shakespeare, his interest in everything, the poetic brilliance - the very qualities for which people tend to admire Shakespeare - are precisely the qualities that make him unendurable to Tolstoy, who preached austerity and whose "main aim, in his later years, was to narrow the range of human consciousness. One's interests, one's points of attachment to the physical world and the day-to-day struggle, must be as few and not as many as possible." Since Shakespeare's attitude to life threatens Tolstoy's, Tolstoy is incapable of enjoying Shakespeare and mounts an assault on him in order to try to ensure that others cannot enjoy him either.

>>8785906
The fiction section of that list looks fucking great.

>>8785906
thanks for reminding me to get on nostromo anon

the screwtape letters are pretty good

basically anything else by conrad would fit here too, not just nostromo and the secret agent. Lord Jim is very good.

>>8785906
>Storm of Steel
>Fiction

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>>8785775
For what purpose does this "best" entail?

KJV for maximum aesthetics. Accuracy doesn't matter because it's a fairy tale anyways.

>>8785790
I was thinking accuracy.

I swear I will never buy used again in my life after the horrors of library stickers, missing dust covers, dog-ears, warped pages, etc.

>>8785638
u just got to know how to shop used...i can always tell on ebay when u gonna get a pristine copy with a remainder mark or some fucked up shit with three different pen colors highlighting it

>Book Condition: Very Good.
>Book is very clean.
>Crisp pages.
>Tight binding.
>Appears unread.
>Light shelf wear on dust jacket.
>Personal dedication written on the inside.

THEN ITS NOT FUCKING GOOD ITS CONDITION IS R U I N E D HOW DENSE CAN THIS PEOPLE BE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

heard he is a dick.

>>8785599
yeh

>>8785619
Pseud detected

His prose is complete shit and his ideas can be recycled but he has some interesting shit. I would recommend starting with Ubik, despite how cliche that is becoming

u applied to the new yorker? lol i hope u went to an expensive undergrad

>>8785554
>wanting to publish your work through a liberal echo chamber

>>8785554
Does anybody else read the New Yorker?

I feel like most of what they publish isn't really very good.

>>8785527
>i really hope they're not lying.

They are or if they're not, they lack objectivity and are only supporting you because of your friendship.

Good luck!

>>8785539
You're right. I need to give it to some who doesn't know me.

Is there anyway to get objective feedback on my work.

Would anyone here mind taking a look at a sample and telling me what they think of the style? I'll send it over email for obvious reasons.

if they're not too long/bad I'll take a look at whichever you think is your best

>>8785421
still waiting for an update from c fanwise on Cliff's newest vid

>>8785425
cringe.

saw his Recognitions video and dropped it at him reading the most popular quote he found on a quick google search. Also that unread copy he uses to fucking flex.

his short story about the man given refuge in the secluded schoolhouse left the biggest impression on me, even though ive forgotten the details of narrative

the fall

>>8785251
The Rebel, by far. Considering the political climate, he gives vast amount of information regarding both the metaphysical and the historical side of rebellion

if the bumper for the novel says something about it being the most ambitious, creative, unique, remarkable, etc. of our generation or time, I tend to stay away from it.

>>8785113
i think they're on the bus for like 400 pages

>>8785113
Turn back now, OP. It is literally the most desperate attempt I've yet come across to write an "epic novel." Idiots who are impressed by a large page count will flock to it as another book to say they have read, but it is a very mediocre read. I only got about halfway through before dropping it. And I'm not just saying this because she's a woman: Rebecca West's epic is a million times better than this tryhard trash

>>8784986
I would stick it out, can't imagine it is terribly long. I've only read Neuromancer myself, so eventually planning on reading this one. Hope it gets better.

>>8784986
>>8785045
Its kind of shitty, Mona Lisa Overdrive its better desu

>>8785102
hmmm alright
but knowing that mona lisa overdrive is better, i guess ill get through this so i at leasty know what's happened beforehand

>>8784979
You feel very special and unique hence this thread

>>8784994
Am I not entitled to at least one selfish thread once in a while? All threads on this site go into oblivion in a week. Why does it matter if I complain here or not??

>>8784979
Catalan has a much richer literary tradition with regards to its size than probably any European language with 40+ million speakers; sure, most Catalan writers won't achieve the readership of popular English, German, or French language writers, but arguably any given Catalan writer has a higher chance of some recognition than any of the others. It's like Faroese literature: barely 66k L1 speakers but an undeniably solid literary tradition. If you were to divide up other languages into regional variants, 90% of, say, German speakers would have a fraction of the statistical probability of recognition for anything written in their native language than you. If you're really butthurt, just refine your English like every other contemporary European writer seems to be doing nowadays.

>>8784835
why anon

just why

No? He was a staunch leftie who admired Marx and Guevara and endorsed George McGovern back in '72.

>>8784841
His writings seem to not really base themselves on any kind of moral system, so it seems odd that he would be interested in politics as anything more than a pastime.

>>8784734
A series as well respected as Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series.

I have a cute sci-fi short story I hope to get published.

a sentence that makes people die when they read it

>>8784710
The Torah

>inb4 it's a 'le epic /pol/ bait' thread

>>8784710
mozzart

>>8784710
the bible
the protocols of the learned elders of zion