Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 2605. page

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Are characters in today's young adult fiction allowed to say "fuck"? What about the rest of the seven dirty words?

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A friend got me this for my birthday ironicly. Should i read? It could be pretty interesting seeing how indoctrination works. Also im kinda scared to read? I see myself as a godlike patrician who is impossible to brainwash of course but there have been intelligent people who have been brainwashed before.

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Do you read more American literature or foreign literature?

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So i guess iv'e been writing a "book" the past couple of months in secret (don't want any of my friends or family to know about it until it's done). It's about my life and me being brutally honest about it and talking about all the fucked up things that happened to me but also the fucked things i have done (nothing illegal). I have zero background in writing, i hardly read any books and the only reason i started doing this is because i see it as therapy and i think it can help myself and other people. Anyways i think i'm close to being done but then i realized something. I don't know how to edit and format and a book. Iv'e just been writing non stop and haven't even been breaking this shit up into chapters. Where or how can i learn to do these things and really polish, format and edit my "book"?

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I see a lot of people interested in Infinite Jest here. Some people are eager to jump in, others are intimidated. I've read the book about eleven times, so I just want say a few words and address people who are thinking about reading it or are just beginning.

Before you embark on your journey into the mind of a genius, you have to understand a few things that are very important. When we talk about David Foster Wallace, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. When it comes to Wallace-tier geniuses, the standard tests simply don’t apply. You see, Wallace could have entered any field he wanted. He was a real-life Will Hunting. He could’ve been a doctor or a lawyer, or both, if he wanted. He could’ve been a pioneer in physics. He could’ve been a codebreaker for the NSA. But no. He decided to be a writer. He decided to devote his life to aesthetic beauty and to illuminating for us the way to live. That was the beauty and the tragedy of his life. In one way, it’s a blessing to have been born in Wallace’s time, to be able to hear his voice in interviews, to hear him delivering his famous commencement speech, which is already transforming people both intellectually and spiritually. On the other hand, I will surely die before we know even half of the secrets buried within the labyrinth of Infinite Jest. That I consider a curse.

It’s been eighteen years since Infinite Jest was published and scholars have only begun to come to terms with its full implications. This is what you must understand. Wallace reverse-engineered not only the novel, but all of Western literature as well as language itself. Packed within Infinite Jest is Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, and everything else. Hell, it even serves as an overview of human history, from dawn to today. It’s a book you could spend a lifetime studying. A lifetime spent in bliss, no doubt. It would be more worthwhile to spend one’s life reading and rereading Infinite Jest than to achieve being “well-read” in the traditional sense.
I don’t say this to intimidate you, but to encourage you. You must understand that, on your first time through, you will not understand everything Wallace is trying to communicate to you. Don’t worry. He knew things about life that we won’t discover for decades. Your job is merely to get on the road. In the decades to come, we may, if we’re lucky, discover scientific applications for the new ways of thinking Wallace gave us. We may have to throw out science altogether. We simply don’t know. For now, we have to be content with our vanguard roles. We are the ones who will break the ground and loosen the soil for Wallace’s future interpreters. This is not only our pleasure, but our duty. And for that, as Wallace famously said, “I wish you way more than luck.”

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What are some of the edgiest classic books out there?

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who is your favorite contemporary female writer?

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Do italics used as conveying certain inflection translate to other languages? I have never seen the text of a non-english latin language play with the text on the page visually, not considering signage.

Like: wtf do brackets around certain words or pieces of dialogue in Japanese manga even mean? What is the Eng. version of that???

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/lit/ what is the best philosophical novel you've ever read, and why? Without revealing the plot please. Pic related is mine so far.

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Mishima seems like he was onto something with being a gay. What by him should I read?

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Is it possible to create a literary masterpiece out of something like Sonic the Hedgehog, or Ninja Turtles? Like if Nabokov came and write Sonic the Hedgehog with all his talents, could it be a masterpiece? Would the literary world be willing to admit it?

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I'm a Christian who is curious about what Atheists and non-belivers of some extend stand with their logic or their wsy of thinking. Can you please suggest me good psychological books that bash God. I read the bible and have read many strong Christian books including "Not enough faith to be an Atheist", but I'm about to start reading "God is not Great", and as mentioned before want other books like this one.

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So, would this be the old school death metal of literature?

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What are some good books about despair? Or themes where things seem hopeless, the boundaries of reality closing tightly around the protagonist and suffocating them? Not looking for emo, angst stuff but I guess I'd still look into it.

Tried reading the killer inside me but it wasn't what I was expecting so maybe I had a bias going into it. Worth a second read?

Also, tess of d'urbervilles. A little melancholic but glad I read it.

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>an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything.

Is this true? Is being self reflective and overtly conscious a curse? I, like I imagine many on /lit. relate to the underground man's ennui, Should we strive to be more Fortinbras than Hamlet?