what did you think of it? did you love it? did you hate it? and why?
>>8347987
why is this Elmer's glue bottle holding our book
A much, much, much shittier Chekov. Holy fuck Munro is garbage.
Okay, sorry for remaking this thread again, I just accidentally uploaded the old picture without the typo correction again, instead of this new corrected one. So, once again I would like to share some of my work.
>>8347921
It's horrendous.
Get off the internet, you're a weirdo
>>8347927
Why is it horrendous? You left out the interesting part of your critique.
Why is it shit? You left out the interesting part of your critique.
>Best book you've found in a thrift store.
Maybe in big places like NY or LA you guys can find lots of cool books in thrift stores, but out here in the Midwest, it's mostly religious vomit and shit written by people from Fox News.
I also recently found the selected letters and journals of Eugene Delacroix but have yet to read it.
>>8347913
>it's mostly religious vomit and shit written by people from Fox News
you hate the redpill, kid?
Anyway, I found a physically very large The Divine Comedy with Dore's illustrations. Quite chuffed with that
>living only once
>not living in a big city
I live in a small state and found Borges' Labyrinths and GR on the same day. Good day.
I'm 21.
I read The Castle, The Stranger, Cain (by Saramago), and Siddharta these last weeks. I enjoyed all of them very much (And didn't find them challenging). Then I tried reading Steppenwolf and found it very fucking hard, I have to slow down way too much to try and understand something and it frustrates me and doesn't seem worth it. I read a paragraph and say to myself "there is no way I'm going to decipher the meaning behind this."
I got interested in reading later in life, and I'm scared my brain has developed in such a way that it may never understand more difficult text and literary ideas.
I imagine Steppenwolf isn't even supposed to be hard.
Anyone relate? Anyone got anything to say that may clear my mind? I'm leaving Steppenwolf for now and reading simpler stuff to develop my skill before trying again.
>>8347889
How was The Castle?
>>8347916
I liked it a lot, loved the atmosphere. Also read Amerika and found them similar and enjoyed it for similar reasons. Amerika was more tense and that made it fun. I feel like seeing Kafka's characters react to the situations they're put in (not necessarily with their actions but also their emotions) in a way makes my life experience grow and makes me better suited to face life's emotional challenges. Also for this reason I liked the books.
>>8347889
Steppenwolf is entry-lvl literature, but it's still literature. The themes are mostly deeper than that of those other books, so it's natural you feel blocked.
Your brain can develop to understand difficult texts and ideas, it will only take some time. You gotta read more books and become more fluent in their literary themes before tackling more difficult works. And this proccess is repeated each time you find a harder book.
The Conquest of Happiness.
is it self help garbage?
or has /literature/ approval?
Fun fact: Wittgenstein hated that book and said it made him vomit.
>>8347888
Fun Fact: who the fuck is Wittgenstein?
How about reading it yourself?
Anyway,
>self help
>garbage
only if you sheepishly follow what those piles of crap say. Reading them as some sort of inspirational thing works pretty well, sometimes they've got decent practical tips in them too.
When I was moving, that KonMari thing helped a lot at acquiring a neat mindset for discarding old things and so on. Her way of folding clothes was neat, as well.
Is there a writer similar to Nietzsche minus his contempt for democracy and defense of social-Darwinism?
>>8347801
Margaret Hammerstein.
>>8347801
>defense of social-Darwinism?
?
>>8347807
He did have a contempt for all darwinsim...? Is that it OP?
>it kills me
>it kills me
>it kills me
>it kills me
Is Holden the most punchable character of all time? I think so.
haven't read it but im going to agree with you so you can feel better! :3
>>8347765
shut up fag
you guys are smart and shit right? this is /lit related because it's like writing and shit and how to do writing gooder. can someone explain this to me. I just finish watching butthead and beavis in america.
Agent Bork: Chief, you know that guy whose camper they were whacking off in?
Agent Fleming: Bork, you're a Federal Agent. You represent the United States government. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
Agent Bork: Oh, uh... You know that guy in whose camper they... I mean, that guy off in whose camper they were whacking?
bump English is seccond language. film was very funny. are American teens really like this?
"In" is a preposition.
There is a grammatical "rule" that states "the final word in a sentence or question should not be a preposition".
It's an outdated rule and is not observed very often anymore.
Bork's second line is him trying to figure out how to rephrase the sentence so that it doesn't end in a preposition.
It's a variation on the Churchillism “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”
It's also never been a rule, it's just dumbasses confusing Latin grammar rules with English.
Who is the literary Hitler?
Stop making these fucking retarded threads
Given he wrote a book, I'm 99% sure that Hitler is the literary Hitler.
>>8347651
Me desu desu
>Get good feedback on critique threads
>Get told I have a talent for writing
>Always enjoyed writing since I was a young buck
>Only written one thing I actually like
>Its less than 1500 words long.
>Its genre fiction
>Its genre fan fiction
>Whenever I try to write I get stuck 200 words in with crippling self doubt that what I've written is shit.
>Struggle to write if I don't feel it will be great
>Even shit I feel is mediocre gets good feedback
This must just be a matter crippling self doubt with what I write.
I'm tempted to start writing drunk but I don't want that to be a crutch in my growth as a writer.
tl;dr How can I get past self doubt about my writing so that I can actually get better by writing more than 200 words in a day.
>>8347615
Get off 4chan and work hard.
But we both know you'll keep posting 'le feel man' here instead of making something of yourself
>>8347635
Okay so let's break this down.
>"work hard"
Hard? How do you mean hard? Just keep churning it out even if it feels like absolute, and sometimes unrelated, shit?
Honest question. I want to find a way through this and thinking alone hasn't helped.
>>8347664
>Just keep churning it out even if it feels like absolute, and sometimes unrelated, shit?
Yeah, nigga. Practice. If you don't feel like putting it up on public view, you can just stash it somewhere and review/revise it after you've forgotten about it. Clearing your head of the ideas and emotional states that influenced the writing of a piece helps with author's blindness to a surprising degree.
Just remember that if you ever make the big break, your descendants or the holders of your estate are most definitely going to publish all that horseshit you never meant for anyone to see. So plan accordingly.
are books good?
Nope.
Its literally not possible to meme any more than this.
>>8347587
I can beat that meme stack
How does it feel to live during the only time in human history when being a straight white male is a hindrance to one's literary ambitions?
>tfw minority writer
I can smell the awards already.
>>8347484
It's not though. Read Delillo and be glad that plebs don't care about literature anymore.
Doesn't much seem like a hindrance judging by the contemporary authors people on here read. They're almost exclusively white men.
Is this happening in countries outside of the US?
Stirner opens with a line from Goethe...
>I have taken up my cause without foundation and all the world is mine
But for the life of me I cannot find what poem this is from, do any of you know?
I'm interested in just how contextually faithful such homage to Goethe. I am hoping someone better read than me can point out the source for the Google has not availed me.
Picture unrelated.
>Vanitas! vanitatum vanitas!
Is the name of the poem.
>>8347471
>>8347510
Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
Translation of John Sullivan Dwight
I’VE set my heart upon nothing, you see;
Hurrah!
And so the world goes well with me:
Hurrah!
And who has a mind to be fellow of mine, 5
Why, let him take hold and help me drain
These moldy lees of wine.
I set my heart at first upon wealth;
Hurrah!
And bartered away my peace and health: 10
But ah!
The slippery change went about like air,—
And when I had clutched me a handful here,
Away it went there!
I set my heart upon woman next; 15
Hurrah!
For her sweet sake was oft perplexed:
But ah!
The False one looked for a daintier lot,
The Constant one wearied me out and out, 20
The Best was not easily got.
I set my heart upon travels grand;
Hurrah!
And spurned our plain old fatherland:
But ah! 25
Naught seemed to be just the thing it should,—
Most comfortless beds and indifferent food!
My tastes misunderstood!
I set my heart upon sounding fame:
Hurrah! 30
And lo! I’m eclipsed by some upstart’s name;
And ah!
When in public life I loomed quite high,
The folks that passed me would look awry;
Their very worst friend was I. 35
And then I set my heart upon war:
Hurrah!
We gained some battles with éclat;
Hurrah!
We troubled the foe with sword and flame— 40
And some of our friends fared quite the same:
I lost a leg for fame.
Now I’ve set my heart upon nothing, you see;
Hurrah!
And the whole wide world belongs to me: 45
Hurrah!
The feast begins to run low, no doubt;
But at the old cask we’ll have one good bout—
Come, drink the lees all out!
The original sounds kinda sarcastic compared to the English translation.
What does /lit/ think of Yukio Mishima?
I just read his long-form essay Sun and Steel, which was really amazing and well-written.
>>8347397
he's a fucking nut
crazy in the coconut
>>8347406
How so? He was a very committed nationalist, but a nut? I don't think so.
He is one of our top 5 memes. Don't pretend you don't know what we think of him.
Hey /lit/, I tried reading Wuthering Heights, but couldn't finish it. I reached ~page 130, but found it just got boring. So, should I continue?
OP here, should probably say that I finished about a quarter of it rather than how many pages I read.
Read this first so you realise why it's so important: http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/03/on-wuthering-heights/
>>8347305
If you don't understand why Wuthering Heights is good, then there isn't really much hope for you, anon.
The characters are some of the best literature has to offer; and with masterful prose, finding the book boring is extremely plebeian.