How can you learn to express yourself?
I'm not even talking about emotions.
I notice sometimes if you say the exact same information to someone but phrase it in a certain way that are more likely to agree with you.
I'm sure you've all read a post or an argument and thought "that's exactly what I was trying to say", but could never write something that good yourself.
How do I learn to express myself in a way that other people like?
I have asperger by the way.
I learned through crochet. Which I learned from Molly and the Cumfy couch.
Knit one, perl two. It was a coded message.
>>7651225
Learn classic rhetoric
>>7651225
Think of what express means here
It means to push out, like one would express a cyst, or a bowel movement.
It feels good to express something that has built up a lot of pressure. People call it cathartic.
Art is really the same as popping zits
Why was Charlie Weasley's story the best?
>>7651190
kys
>>7651198
Kys me you fool.
>>7651190
I went to the Yale University bookstore and bought and read a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I suffered a great deal in the process. The writing was dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.
But when I wrote that in a newspaper, I was denounced. I was told that children would now read only J.K. Rowling, and I was asked whether that wasn't, after all, better than reading nothing at all? If Rowling was what it took to make them pick up a book, wasn't that a good thing?
It is not. "Harry Potter" will not lead our children on to Kipling's "Just So Stories" or his "Jungle Book." It will not lead them to Thurber's "Thirteen Clocks" or Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Lewis Carroll's "Alice."
Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
Our society and our literature and our culture are being dumbed down, and the causes are very complex. I'm 73 years old. In a lifetime of teaching English, I've seen the study of literature debased. There's very little authentic study of the humanities remaining. My research assistant came to me two years ago saying she'd been in a seminar in which the teacher spent two hours saying that Walt Whitman was a racist. This isn't even good nonsense. It's insufferable.
What does /lit/ thinks of this book?
i'd love to let you know but the only physical copies are 50$ and I'm not buying that when i can get moby dick for less than 10$ online
>>7651036
Should be /lit/core tbqh familia
Fake and gay
Why is Shakespeare considered highbrow? Dude was pretty much writing for the plebs.
A scholarly life could be built around the study of him. What are you even talking about?
>>7650877
>A scholarly life could be built around the study of him.
though it's a very competitive field which tends to bring very little light to our understanding of his plays, and you're best not getting into it
>>7650885
Granted but it makes the question as to why he is highbrow quite obvious.
Bakunin
>>7650842
nice theread
爆人
bakunin is an idiot
t. marx
>be 24 year old virgo
>everything i write ends up partly dealing with sexual frustration in some way
it keeps happening and i don't mean it to
does your subconscious fuck with your writing too?
Don't put pussy on a pedestal
>>7650669
just b urself
>>7650675
This.
Go get a hooker a few times and you will get confidence. Those pros will help you build up your skills so you know you have skills and you're good to go when potential gf material finally shows up.
Hey there /lit/, posting this from my phone, so I didn't have a better picture.
Comic artist/ theorist here, I was hoping /lit/ could help me answer a question. I'm writing a story for a graphic novel and I've developed a kind of character dynamic that I don't think has ever come up before. Then again, what do I know, I'm a comic artist, I don't read as many books as anyone here probably has.
Anyways my question is this:
My antagonist is public figure that "must not be seen" as far as his antagonistic characteristics are. He is however, secretly capable of powers bestowed upon him by a god.
He has created two puppets that carry out his will, two masked/ cloaked characters that are visually themed on the concept of duality (dark/ light, ying/ yang, etc) that ultimately lead the protagonists exactly where he wants them to be.
The white cloaked character appears to the readers as an ally, helping the protagonists along their journey (by saving them, or putting things in motion that help them)
The black cloaked character appears to be hindering our heroes on their journey (by assisting different antagonists of each subplot)
So my question remains, has that been done? Is there a name for that character dynamic? Archetype?
It does get a little convoluted, so if I'm not being clear or this needs more explanation, please let me know.
Archetype: snoo
Now obviously the fact that the white cloaked character is A.) Cloaked and B.) Visually similar to the Black Cloaked character makes them suspicious.
I do however, have red herrings left and right for the identities of the cloaked figures throughout the story.
I even intend for parts where I "show" parts of their face or other features that will lead the reader to believe that the cloaked figures are actually someone else.
When in fact, they are merely puppets made by the godlike powers of the antagonist, who capable of shape shifting.
>>7650582
>>7650616
Alright OP, I do like the idea of the two cloaked characters as extensions of the same agent, but I'm not sure about the public figure thing or how he's an antagonist rather than a neutral presence, given the duality of the cloaked characters.
If you want a book recommendation, the closest thing to this that I've read is... Probably Steppenwolf? Hesse was a fan of Eastern mysticism so his writing is often aware of these dualities. In the story, the main character, a recluse (the "steppenwolf"), begins going out with a young woman, whom he realizes is connected to his male childhood friend. Near the end everything sort of dematerializes, the woman is a genderless demigod who helped prompt him into enlightenment, and his antagonist is kind of the creator of the universe. It's hard to explain, but it might give you an example of what you need. Good luck!
Also, if you're less familiar with Eastern philosophy, I would highly recommend Alan Watts. First listen to his lectures, you can find all of them on YouTube, he talks often about the necessity and neutrality of duality.
This was my first McCarthy. Enjoyed it a lot and want to get into some of his other, less accessible stuff. Where do I go next with McCarthy?
hate to break it to you, but mccarthy is pretty accessible
you try-hard
Blood Meridian
Suttree
Child of God
Border Trilogy
Ordered from best to worst imo. Read in any order you want.
>>7650218
Blood Meridian is incredible.
Is it "muh escapism" that you don't like? is it the tired conventions? Of course I'm aware most fantasy authors tend to produce entry level work but I've even seen swiping statements such as "fantasy is not even literature". Or is it all just the no fun allowed dank memes at work?English is not my first language, sorry for errors.
>>7649915
All of them really, fantasy is just an exhausted genre and most of the time is just escapism and badly written .
I like Wolfe fantasy thought.
Fantasy, detest it. By the numbers childish garbage. Grew out of it by seven. A cold porridge of a genre.
>>7649915
Because, with the exception of writers like Wolfe and Tolkien, it is poorly written, extremely derivative, and, in my opinion, really boring.
What are the most underrated science fiction books?
Cyrano de Bergerac's
depends on your taste I guess since the good ones are by consensus
>>7649910
The stars my destination
4 that rage fuelled main character craving
I finished Mansfield Park today and it was a little shit. ¿The other books of Austen are worth read or them all are shit?
>>7649687
All of them are shit.
emma seems really neat to me, but my mom who is all-in on jane is mostly about pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility.
i've picked up mansfield park and persuasion at different times and i can only imagine i went the wrong way with austen at the start
Forget Austen. Read Eliot.
Has anyone gotten any amusing insight into the life of a used book's previous owner?
makes me sad
why'd you sell a book yer son got you?
or
maybe he's dead, poor Tom
>>7648488
Quite a few, pictured is letters to the author found inside the pages, so I assume I have the authors copy as they are addressed to him and one side of a conversation about a reference.
I have an 1850s copy of Wellington's Dispatches and Orders that was originally purchased by a Lord's daughter for her brother, it has the Private Library stamp of their family in it. I looked up the family and iirc one of them is still a Tory peer.
Several bookmarks, the best being from a bookstore in Kodiak found inside an Asimov book bought in the Australian outback at a junk store, now with me in England.
when i buy used books there's often high school tier notes in them in a scribe that looks more like a pensioner's
What does /lit/ think about this book? Is it biased or worth reading?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_the_Future_of_Tolerance
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25151238-islam-and-the-future-of-tolerance
I find it wierd how Sam sticks up for Islam whem he hates Christianity
Read the Qu'ran instead if you want a clear understanding of Islam. It's only like 500 pages of instruction and prayer.
pic related
As someone who is devoutly religious, I'm always suspicious of the liberal-bourgeois virtue of 'tolerance.' Why should I tolerate someone who is wrong, and wrong about such a fundamental thing?
How the fuck did I avoid this book for so long?
What an amazing diamond in the rough.
Laugh-out-loud literature is rare...
>>7647948
suck my cock
>>7647948
You were on Reddit.
>diamond in the rough
This works in none of the context you mean it to.
Whats a reliable website to download books from?
hnnnnnggggg
>>7652069
>fantasy pic
Im not helping you, sorry
Fuck you
>>7652077
its kvothe from the kingkiller chronicles series you bloody twat