Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 4370. page

"bad poetry
o noetry"
- drew

>>7687596
It's my first attempt at a poem. It's too blunt?

For my playwriting class we all brought in a small piece of writing that had language we found interesting. We got in groups of three. I brought in the first verse and refrain of Emily by Joanna Newsom. One guy brought in a small part of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain. One girl brought in a Philip Larkin poem. Then our instructor made us write using the style of the piece we brought in and write from the perspective of the speaker as if that speaker wants something from one of the other two characters. I did this and changed Emily to Eleanor because using the same name would be extra lame.

The frog and old Smiley Webster all say that
The bread of the birch is the base of the belly's beloved
And the whimsical rhymer hoards the riches of Kaisers
As Eleanor sleeps none the wiser but whispers to me
That that man in the bar is a liar, a liar, a liar
Spinning tales of old tadpoles trapped drowning in fish bowls
Who never jump out of the fire, the fire, the fire
So I recruit Larkin and use both our voices to pull good old Eleanor back to good choices
Our lyrical boldness will bound the now-hopeless
With bricks as they sink in the river
Drowning in dampness they'll mildly panic
in stoic acceptance, their efforts invested are sunk costs like ships on Lake Huron
Me and you, Philip, my God what great teamwork
We just put quite a stir of a play on

Top toad, /lit/hren

>>7687425
Which was your favorite part?

Hey, it's Gassposter!
Thanks again, Gassposter

Judge Holden in Blood Meridian

You want cynical coming of age books? There's quite a lot of them to choose from.

>>7686677
/thread

>>7682963
good news! thanks

The biggest book series of all time is back

Where the sticky!!!!!

>>7682963

So who's the new villain going to be?

File: whatisit.gif (6KB, 15x12px) Image search: [Google]

6KB, 15x12px

>>7689701

If space is made of composite matter, how do we perceive simple objects?

>>7689718
I couldn't find the original, antman

>>7688697
Because they aren't as intellectually enlightened and well-versed in literature as you, obviously.

Because wanking is orgasmich hehhhhhaa

>>7688697
Why are there so many Siddhartha shitposters? Or is it just the same guy?

i read a few short pieces by him and was not a fan, sorry OP ;; you seem so genuinely enthusiastic about him...keep fighting the good fight mate

>>7686430
No problem, dude. I think his real genius comes forth comes in his non-fiction. As Orhan Pamuk accurately observed:

>Conrad,Nabokov, Naipaul - these are writers known for having managed to migrate between languages, cultures, countries, continents, even civilizations. Their imaginations were fed by exile, a nourishment drawn not through roots but through rootlessness.

He belongs to that unmarked continent of expat writers who relish on their rootlessness, and the only thing marking them out unfortunately is their "otherness". The fact that they are outsiders looking in, when the litrerary world is dominated by either "cultural insiders" or insiders looking out - viewing other cultures from a familiar lens.

If you're interested in the subject of contemporary Islamism, Jihad and all that, you might want to check out Among the believers and Beyond Belief. You will figure out why all those Muslims in those "Behad those who insult Islam" and ISIS videos behave the way they do. What is the ideological pull of those radical actions. He also has an India trilogy which I've only skimmed, but he has written some very accurate things which way before they became dominant issues on the news articles I read on twitter atleast.

As for fiction, I really liked A Bend in the River, though. It is one of those old-school-ey classic-type novels .Might require a bit of patience, but is rewarding.

I'd recommend reading his interview with Dhondhy, an Indian/Pakistani Muslim. Dhondhy's apparently converted to Naipaul:

> It got into a lot of trouble in places like Harvard and MIT. There are some very wise people in these places who, in their wisdom, had no need to go to a country to find out what was going on there. They already knew what was to be known.

I am from one such place. And yes, I have lived it. I know more than these experts to realize that Naipaul speaks the cold harsh truth. No other writer has changed my life in the same way. And as Steinbeck once said, literature that doesn't change you in some way is no literature at all.

The reason I made this thread was because

a) I'm drunk
b) I've never seen Naipaul being discussed even though he's one of the most talented writers living and even won the Nobel Prize (a surprise, really, given his anti-left disposition)
c) I recently read Joyce Carol Oates, a supposedly respected /lit/-type novelist sucking on Islamism and Jihadists. In the best case scenario, she knows not what she is supporting, that the same people would rape and then stone her 80 yr old self without remorse. She doesn't know what Islamism has done to converted non-Arab peoples and she talks with arrogance and authority as if she's suffered through it all. Such people really need a dose of the truth, and no one put it more elegantly than Naipaul.

It is ideal.

That depends on how old is he.
Maybe he is so old he dosent give a shit about literature anymore and just want the $$$

>>7686449
Late 30s i would guess

He isnt old

because when online you get distracted by porn

>>7684627
Academia seems to be a mostly rotting corpse anyway. I think the internet gives a willing young person the ability to circumvent it entirely.

>>7684627
>>7684662
you're idiots

>>7690183
I think The Aleph or Tlon have the most depth to plumb for 20 double spaced pages, and the most wiggle room to reach your own conclusions without offending the typical undergraduate professor.

>>7690183
Tlon will definitely give you the most to work with, in regards to a writting topic.

>>7690235
>>7690199
I thought so, but in terms of 'discovering' a thesis or something i think most of what's in there is about literary culture, south american/global, owing also to the amount of names he drops.

That might not be a bad thing, but could wind up pretty dry. idk. Funes would be the same thing I think. I suppose I should go through Tlon again and see if there's anything particularly confusing/some questions that stick out about the construction of Tlon/the idea of it leaking into the real world.

Thanks.

My plan B is to create a Borges generator that writes a bullshit short story full of mirrors, infinity, random argentinian street names and obscure european manuscripts.

>>7690149

How the Poor Die

read the sticky

>>7690149
The Maimed

Yet another subject /lit/ has no opinion on, huh?

File: Capture.png (32KB, 846x556px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 846x556px

I prefer new books. They speak to contemporary problems and ideas that I can relate to and there's less of a cultural gap. Though I think it's a severe failing that I'm so woefully underread in the classics particularly Renaissance and 18th ce works.

I would prefer to read a randomly chosen new book than a randomly chosen old book, however, my favorite books are old books.

>>7689882
Intelligence.

>>7689882
Confirmation
Proof
Corroboration

>>7689882
Good question OP. Are you asking for the feeling of realizing someone has already thought of this before? or something more like the actual objective process of reaching the same conclusions of others without reference to their work

>>7689812
Yes

File: 1427661097724.png (79KB, 291x343px) Image search: [Google]

79KB, 291x343px

>>7689812
>reply to threads
>the conversation just goes on without acknowledging my post

Any other to recommend?
Besides the essentials ofc