Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 2861. page

Yes, for pseudo-intellectuals like you we call those books "the classics". You could also try some epics like The Illiad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Paradise Lost, Dante.

>>8514819
>actual literary merit
What do you mean by that?

>>8514840
He means whatever would make him feel special for reading something that others don't. He just wants to read something like genre fiction except it should be regarded as literary so he can feel good about himself because no one likes him.

>>8514798
I don't know about the translation, but the original Witcher books are excellent.
I'm Polish

I liked the first two, haven't got around to the last one yet though

>>8514798
decent short stories followed by an increasingly meandering fantasy saga. i have no memory of the second half of it. the dude's biggest strength is his ability to write clever dialogue with inventive/archaic swearing. the books are popular in various parts of europe so i assume they managed to localize the "ye olde polish + swearing" prose style successfully, but i've heard bad things about the english translation.

same guy also wrote a trilogy of historical novels set during the hussite wars and it's like the witcher squared: even more funny banter with colorful characters, even more meandering plot. no english translation.

are these the trilogy books covers ? they are amazing

Thos are some nice legs.

>>8514758
Horrible.
No one waste their time on them.

He explains the human need to believe in God is caused by the human need to be immortal.

I call bullshit.
But
Maybe Im missing something. Probably.

Don't bother, if it's not some anglo postmodern tripe, /lit/ has not read it

>>8514728
Yea thats probably right.
But there's a possibility, maybe some anon has something to say about it.

>>8514689
Fiction adjusts itself to respond to the widened limits of possibility

>more interesting

IMHO US politics is so shabby, if a writer came up with this you'd call him lazy and his writing a hamfisted satire

>>8514716
Thats the fucking point of OP, keep up

>>8514664
I wish I could have Sylvia Plaths ashes so I could eat them so that our bodies are forever one

>>8514664
I'd fucking smoke them with the stickiest icky fathomable and get maaaad whacked out of my gourd with Capote's ghost, obviously. This is really the only valid answer.

Try to glue the ashes back together and get a life size Truman Coopote

File: hoid.png (238KB, 570x658px) Image search: [Google]

238KB, 570x658px

>its true

>he thinks words whose definitions have changed still carry their meaning from hundreds of years ago.

>>8514667
>he thinks op thinks words whose definitions have changed still carry their meaning from hundreds of years ago.

Bump despite the fact this is a slow board

>>8514578
Yes.

>finnish "literature"

lol no

>>8514571
Google "goodreads magical realism" you dip

>>8514571
I tend to write "magic realism" then. To me its all fiction and genres like this are retarded concepts to divide fiction into sellable categories.

Any who people you should read: Borges, Marquez, Calvino, Rushdie, Murakami, Bulgakov, and to a lesser extent Pynchon, Jim Dodge, Kipling and Morrison

>>8514571
The novels of Miguel Ángel Asturias are one of the first clearly distinguishable works of Magical Realism as a genre of it's own, El Señor Presidente is a great book for getting the whole concept. Really good book. It even got a Nobel, not that it means much these days, though.

>>8514534

False problem. Try Marxism.

>>8514556
This

>>8514534
the holy bible

sorry to interject but what is the difference between a lowbrow and middlebrow writer?

I read the plot summary of the handmaidens tale and see Atwood as a joke.

Read surfacing and it was pretty amazing. She's accessible, if that's what you mean by middle brow, but still pulls off some great critiques of North American culture.

Also Surfacing had the best description of the experience of psychedelics that I've even read.

BIBLE POWER RANKINGS

Genesis
Revelation
Job
Isaiah
Matthew
John
Ecclesiastes
Proverbs
Psalms
Judges
Exodus
Acts
Daniel
Jonah
Hebrews
Romans
James
Chronicles
Corinthians
Deuteronomy
Numbers
Leviticus
Song of Solomon

>>8514371
skip nothing when you lead the path of righteousness. leave no stone unturned.

>>8514766
daniel is critical reading for reading Revelation

Ottoman literature, except for Tanzimat era, is poetry. And poetry is worthless if you are reading a translation (especially stylistic, strict poetry like Ottoman) so I am skipping that. Just one example though, if you still wanna look into it: Fuzuli.

Tanzimat era novels are very weak in form, our guys didn't yet know how to write a novel properly. Yet, Namık Kemal's Cezmi is a quite moving historical novel, despite it's faults in its shaping.
In 20th century people learned how to write sshit properly. You can look into Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar and Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil.

Then comes republic. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's primary work, Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü is quite complex, but it can get a bit boring. Still, a very good read as it references both Ottoman era and Republic era from the perspective of a guy who lived in both. Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu is also a good author that reflected the Turkish society of the time, try Sodom ve Gomorre if you can find it.

Sabahattin Ali's works are probably more easier for you to find. Kürk Mantolu Madonna is the most popular of his work, though what I really recommend is Çakıcı'nın İlk Kurşunu. It is something between a novella and a short story, but it's great.

Nihal Atsız: An ultranationalist who wasted his talent on nationalist propaganda (self-motivated). Ruh Adam, his main novel is a masterpiece. It still has fragments of nationalism, but is far away from being some nationalist babble. Definitely read it if you can find it.

Oğuz Atay's works are very sophisticated. Definitely search for his books. Tutunamayanlar is his main work, but his short stories are also great (I think they are more valuable then Tutunamayanlar)

Abbas Sayar is a pastoralist. You porbably can't find his work, but if you come across Yılkı Atı, give it a go. It is a novella about a horse, but it reads as if it was written for horses (animals, non humans, whatever you want). It was a great experience.
Reha Çamuroğlu's İsmail is a decent historical novel, about Shah İsmail Safavid. İkiilebir is also good.

Also, search for Dede Korkut's Stories. They are not a great literary work, but they reflect the Turkish (ethnic Turkish) society during it is transformation from paganism to Islam.

I can answer your questions about other authors, but these are the ones I recommend.

>>8515041
I have a limited but working knowledge of modern Turkish. How well would I be able to understand/enjoy Tanzimat poetry?
Also, is Orhan Pamuk's stuff worth reading?

>>8515096
you wouldn't understand it. a regular turk wouldn't understand it without a vocabulary.
I only read one work of Orhan pamuk, Beyaz Kale. It was fine, it didn't bore me, the prose was decent, but i wasn't really intriguing. I think -from what i heard from my friends- this may apply to all of his works.

>>8514294
Can't find one, but it's pretty cheap here.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0143039490/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1474005448&sr=8-2

>>8514305
I would buy a copy if I didn't live in africa for the moment.

I guess it's easier to upload it than track back its source just to complain about you not looking there...
>http://www42.zippyshare.com/v/fi9pYJRo/file.html

>>8514265
>fishing for essays to resubmit with your own name on them

>>8514269
>fishing for essays

My essay is already written. It's on near eastern ancient texts and chiasmus.

>>8514290

it doesn't really matter since if your work gets plagiarized you're penalized just as harshly for negligence, and anyone could take stuff posted on 4chan

this really makes me doubt you have a PhD