Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 3229. page

>>8333006
Stephen King, On Writing. Also, Strunk & White.

>>8333012
Thanks man, I appreciate it. do you have any general advice on writing?

>>8333023
>any general advice on writing?

The most important advice is to finish what you start. Don't give up on stories halfway even if they're horrible.

The trick is to enjoy sucking, because you WILL suck at first.

If you suck for long enough eventually you'll stop sucking. And if you keep going long enough after that then you'll end up in a place one day where your work could be worth being published.

Also: read the two books I suggested.

>>8332989
>Is there any book where an abridged version is objectively superior to the unabridged version?

No.

You could perhaps argue that modern translations of older classics do abridge them to some extent. I have an 1887 translation of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, as well as a 2005 one, and they're like two different books with the modern version obviously a lot more suited to modern palates.

Moby Dick. Unless you want to read dry encyclopediac entries about whales for ">muh rich context"

>>8332989
Tale of Genji

K... KEEP ME POSTED

>>8332903
Sorry to hear that. Better luck choosing

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>>8332906
>>8332912
should i read Kafka's Complete Stories or Delillo's Underworld?

my little bro had to read it for a class in high school

maybe talk about apartheid, iirc one character moves to south africa

also she has a book of essays which you can find at a library maybe, compares the behavior of humans to animals mostly

>>8332880
Shit book, I read that my senior year of high school

Its something about Patrice Lumumba and kill whitey iirc
its been a few years

>>8332741
>Is he being ironically edgy?
No. Look up morality in the pejorative sense. It's result of criticising a certain thought process in Christianity thay says something like "there is no need to rise up or fight for everything because Jesus thinks I'm okay and will give me nice things when I die"

>>8332741
he's imparting a valuable truth; no pain no gain

>>8332753

This

Entire new testament basically boils down to resist not evil

I had a similar situation. Took the GRE in my mid-twenties (last year). Had to cram a lifetime of math knowledge in about two weeks. Scored 154~ on the quantitative section, which is at least average-y for libarts fags. Ended up getting into my dream school, but my other scores were way, way better. YMMV.

Background: I never went to high school, so I basically had zero math education past the fifth grade, where I was fumbling with fractions like a dipshit. The one advantage I had was that when I was about 18, I had to do a similar math-cramming marathon to get my GED. At that time, I just sat down and went through an entire 1970s high school math textbook that took me up to precalc and then some. And I did the 500-page clunker GED prep book. Took a few weeks and it was horrible, but I scored high on the (piss-easy) GED math section at least. Then promptly forgot absolutely everything. When I got to the GRE, I had to do the whole process over again. Another marathon, using a similar comprehensive textbook and similar GRE prep book cover to cover.

The test itself: I thought I bombed, and was crossing my fingers or 145-150, but ended up being pleasantly surprised. That said, I guessed on so many questions. I felt really shitty after I took it. You can get some easy ones by drilling your geometrical formulae, but at a certain point I just felt like it was expecting me to know rules I had no knowledge of, even after all my cramming.

You're better off asking /sci/. But there are a lot of retards there who will just say "use khan academy" and leave it at that. Try to dig for fleshed-out answers.

Also, use the GRE software, which gives you free practice tests. Use libgen to get the GRE prep books, and read all their tips - especially the ones on essay-writing. And start reading the essay prompts, which are posted online, and practicing writing one or two a day within the standard time limit.

Seriously, the best fucking advice I can give you, after having taken the test: The time limit is totally retarded. You think 30 minutes is enough time to storyboard an answer on your scrap paper, write it, then review it, but it's not. You'll squander half that time, then be scrambling to get anything onto the screen. Review is extremely unlikely unless you're some kind of god. I type like 160-170WPM and I'm good at spitballing, so I didn't need to storyboard it, and I still felt like I was scrambling and sweating to get fully nuanced, polished answers out. You'll want to have your brain used to the bullshit of this process WELL before you take your real shot at it.

Don't read the practice prompt, go think about it quietly and calmy for 20 minutes, and then try writing it for 30 minutes. It's going to be more like
>UHHH UHH OKAY FUCK UHHH JEREMY WANTS TO OPEN A HAT STORE BUT HE HATES HATS.. UH.. THIS IS A STUPID PROMPT WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO OH GOD I'M NOT GETTING INTO HARVARD OH GOD

>>8332739
Today anon was cool. Thanks anon.

Only advice in On Writing:

When in doubt, use less wording.

John Gardner's Art of Fiction is one of the best starterpacks around

you'll notice lots of truth to his words t he more you practice, and his exercises are excellent

>>8332646
Even though he writes genre fiction garbage, Branden Sanderson's BYU lectures do go into detail that's good for a beginner, as well as a lot of career advice and dealing with agents and publishing.

>>>/r9k/

>guilt

>>8332668
Guilt on guilt on guilt is mine life friendo

>>8332571
Joyce killed romanticism

>>8332598
ill pay you 30 bucks to write this.. 6 pages and only 1 source

>>8332571
western colonialism led to the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century onwards

>>8332520
Finished The Sun Also Rises last night. About a fifth of the way through Portrait now. Not liking it as much as Dubliners.

I finished Lolita yesterday. Loved the writing, although I felt like I was reading an /a/ loli fantasy.
A few of the passages made me a bit sick, and Humbert's revenge towards the end (against a guy who didn't actually do anything to Lo?) forced to conclude that he is indeed fucking crazy.

All in all was a good read, a sick mind, poor Humbert Humbert.
Would recommend

Tend to have flimsy covers and quite a few punctuation errors, but for how cheap they are they're decent quality and usually have good introductions, criticism and lists of further reading

Just don't make the mistake of buying huge volumes like war and peace or collected Shakespeare from them. The letters are printed infinetely small.

Decent for super cheap price, but obviously not of durable quality.

>>8332567
fuck, I just bought collected works of Fitzgerald

thank god it was only 1.50 dollars

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A good short story.

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I've been reading pic related.

>comfy.jpg

M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood.

>>8332472
You mean like is his will still alive as long as we still meme him?

>>8332444
>>>/global/rules/11

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>The Netflix of Books
>libraries don't exist and aren't free
>mfw

Picked a bad name. Doa.

>>8332417
The last part of The Sun Also Rises when he's just chilling out by himself relaxing on the beach.

The middle part of the Stranger when Meursault just goes swimming on a sunny day.

Another Murakami, but I liked Kafka on the Shore when he's in the hotel and going to the gym, library.