What does /lit/ think of Anne Rice? I like her writing, but she's popular so idk if you guys are hopeless contrarian or not.
Pic related is my favorite Rice book.
Why am I not surprised
>>7785716
I read all these as a kid, up to Blood and Gold.
They're awful, only the first few are even entertaining. They quickly devolve into basically "safe" porn for women, where men with no sex drives just want to please them in MMF threesomes.
Reminds me of shit like Dexter and Twilight today that feature "dangerous" men who would never hurt a woman, lack sex drives, and just want to appreciate them while having sex.
I'm the only straight male I know of who has ever read these and that's because I found them at my grandmother's house. Middle age and older women/gay men are the real demographic.
>>7785813
The most informative and unmemey post on /lit/ all year and it's a review of horny grandma threesome fiction.
Say the last words of a famous book and let the other person try to guess it. I'll start
He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said
>>7785615
That would be Ulysses by David Foster Wallace.
Too easy need try a harder one...
LoTR
>And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers—shrivelled now, and brown and flat and brittle—to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.
>>7785643
Are those the flowers Weena gives to the Time Traveler in that HG Wells book?
Books about this subject matter in fiction/non-fiction.
>>7785324
the confession by tolstoy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(book)
camus myth of sisyphus
Let's have a Moby-Dick thread. It's arguably the greatest novel ever written, after all.
Is there any figure in literature more miserable than Ahab when he see Fedallah lashed to the side of Moby-Dick? What complete existential despair. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!" isn't a cry of defiance, it's a last shout into the void. It's sobering.
>>7785258
was fedallah even real? or just some sort of ahab's alter-ego, demon?
>>7785551
i questioned the reality of a lot of the characters, the whole story was told by Ishmael anyway, so it could all be a tale woven by a mischievous old sea salt.
how did Melville got away with all the gay parts
How do I become a Body without organs?
>tfw you're just her buddy without orgones
It is not the slumber of reason which engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality
>>7785151
Get an autopsy, stupid.
Trying to have an existential crisis here /lit/ give me your best books to induce this feeling.
Why the hell would you WANT an existential crises, ignorance is bliss anon.
>>7785098
Being and Nothingness
>>7785106
To see what all the hype is about.
what do you guys think of white noise by Don Delillo?
I personally found it really boring and did not finish the book.
Finished it yesterday. Absolutely fantastic novel, a very interesting and fun look at American society/culture. I will say that I doubt it would appeal to non-Americans or Americans born after, say, 2000.
It's one of the most dreadful novels I've read. It's got boring prose and is more like a horrible essay stating the obvious with a bit of a symbol somewhere around there. I don't understand why this is a staple novel for late 20th century literature.
it's the most trite analysis of american culture i can think of.
Alright /lit/, a lad I want to bone is going to be coming in from another city in a couple months.
I've read a decent amount of philosophy but it's mostly technical and painful reads (Kant/Wittgenstein/Analytics) that don't take up much space on my bookshelf and hence don't impress.
What are some easy philosophers (who naturally, aren't complete crap) that I could blow through (compared to Kant) and fill up my shelf.
I know most late Stoics (Aurellius, Seneca, etc) are quite simple to read (Meditations, Letters from a Stoic), anything else?
Secondary texts that look fancy (i.e. don't have names that give away their simplicity such as "the basics of philosophy" or something) also appreciated.
Yes, yes, you can judge me for being a filthy pseud but all is fair in love, right?
Also, I'm sure there are other anons who are extremely interested in getting an answer to this, I'm sure easy mode philosophers would even help ease them into the field.
TL;DR: What are some easy-mode philosophy books that can rack up my bookshelf while maintaining its integrity?
Pic related
How is Problems of Philosophy by Russell, easy read?
>>7785008
Fill it up with lots of Dawkins, random sci fi, a john green here and there, and some feminist lit. Next, I want you to add "per se," "as if," and "I can't even" into your vocabulary. Watch some Bill Maher and adopt his humor as much as best you can.
I fucking promise her snatch will be wet, m8
>>7785176
>Dawkins, random sci fi
>her snatch will be wet
That's not how it works, reddit.
Do i watch the movie or read the book first?
You're asking this question in /lit/, right?
Also that looks more like timothy hutton than tom hanks.
>>7784778
I'm also asking on /tv/
>>7784782
OK. I think the answer is always read the book first. Unless it was a book adapted from a movie. Like Gremlins.
From most patrician to least: Reading for:
themes > prose/form > plot > characters
>>7784650
Wrong
Prose > plot = characters = themes
Though if you make such distinctions you are surely a pleb
If by "patrician" you mean "desire to represent superiority", then yes, you're correct.
For people who actually understand art, it goes plot = character > themes > everything else.
>>7784659
/thread
I already know what the literary world thinks of Stephen King, and I mostly agree with Harold Bloom. But that's not the point, really, as I am trying to learn to write horror that people would like.
I thought it'd be best to start studying Stephen King's works to find out what he does that makes him sell by the gazillions. I read through wikipedia synopsis of his books and picked one that interested me - The Girl Who Liked Tom Gordon.
Pic related is the first two pages of the same. I read the first two chapters and it is all like one big useless infodump. I am not even sure if I want to continue.. is this because I am not American /lit/? I just wanted to reach into the book and slap the shit out of the author and tell him to get to the point. Yet, I hear all the time he is the greatest storyteller, if not the greatest writer.
From the representative sample of pic related, can you tell me what you like or dislike about it? Why is it that from finding the synopsis interesting I went all the way to nope after the first forty pages or so in a damn 150 page novel. I just wanted to learn how to scare readers effectively, keeping them gasping for breath. That's all.
>>7784600
It's a big booku with characters being lengthily introduced and fleshed out and interacting, isn't it? Not a creepy short story which are usually better anyway unless all that fleshing out makes things more horrific.
>>7784617
Where does your pic come from?
>>7784635
tumblr
Now that the dust has settled, what is /lit/'s consensus on Bolaño?
>implying the dust ever settles
newfriend pls go
>>7784478
He's perfect
>>7784481
>implying you are not made of dust and will continually rise and settle, that life is not a billowing series of circle, and that this thread isn't a beautifully desperate take on marking a fixed point on the continuum
Hi /lit/, so a while back my friend recommended that I read some Murakami and following this my mother bought me Norwegian Wood for Christmas.
So far I'm about 200 pages in and in all fairness I'm not being blown away. I trust my friend's literary knowledge and taste as she's an intelligent and well read person but I'm not convinced here.
What does /lit/ think of Murakami in general and would you recommend any more of his stuff? Cheers.
I wanted to make a thread like this too.
I see him getting shit on a lot on /lit/ but I'm nearly finished with WUBC and have really enjoyed it so far.
Is his other work just not as good?
I read Wind Up Bird in 2012 and didn't care for it.
>>7784429
Yeah, I'd been thinking about posting this for a while but i'm a bit of a lurking newfag so ya know.
I'll give it a go as I've heard pretty decent things and I don't want to just discard literature that is celebrated and important just because I disliked one text.
I'm just not convinced by it, the imagery seems incredibly secondary school level and Catcher/Gatsby wannabe if I'm honest. So far I'm sat here anticipating a colossal change in quality which I'm starting to think isn't present.
Does this book get any fucking better /lit/?
Just started The Part About Fate and honestly it reads like a first draft.
>>7784340
just curious, OP. before you get btfo by /lit/. what exactly were you expecting? you clearly had something in mind and it did not meet your expectations.
bitch please; ya must be smokin' rocks! real shit for my people and it just don't stop
>>7784377
Honestly I was expecting something epic in scope and style. I've so far gotten a bunch of intellectuals on Pynchon-esque quest for a German who, for reasons never properly explained, is in Mexico (maybe), and the bored ramblings of a neurotic professor who talks to the homophobic ghost of his father for... some fucking reason.
Does it start to tie together into something more than "Hey look how /lit/ I am!" or should I stop now?
Why this sudden attendance /r9k/ robots into /lit/?
What should we do to stop it?
>>7784225
Currently reading this, it's hilarious.
>>7784238
Fo shizzle. I think that when it comes to russian 19th centure literature, once you pass the "muh deep themes muh nihilism" phase you start diging on other authors like Chekhov, Gogol, or pic related, who turn out to be hella funny.
On behalf of the /r9k/ manbabies who can not, I apologize for their autistic behavior and hope this will blow over.