Is it pretentious to read literature?
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>>7635421
Depends on why you're doing it.
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>>7635433
perfect answer
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up to whose opinion we are talking about
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I just finished reading this and I'm wondering the role of the Gods in the story.
From what I've gathered: The existence of Gods in the story is questionable, even in the context of the mystical universe of the Iliad.
The Gods always take the form of someone else, and the characters make assumptions: "You're identical to someone I know, but surely it must be a God in disguise". I can accept that a God could take the aspect of someone else, but in the same way it's also possible, and it's a much simpler explanation, that it really is the person that is talking to them, and not any God. Homer, however, insists that it really was a God.
Another way Gods manifest themselves is to help a warrior in battle. They are always invisible, but Homer swears they are there, whenever a warrior goes on a killing spree or performs one amazing feat. Isn't it much more likely that the warrior was simply "having a good day" or was particularly excited at that moment?
Even though Homer is always talking about the Gods, what they are doing in Mt. Olympus, and how they are the cause of pretty much everything, the way some passages are written makes me feel like Homer didn't buy any of that and in a certain way was criticizing the naivete of the Greeks and their religion.
Is this ambiguity intentional and I'm dumb for taking so long to get it, or am I overthinking this and Homer was just writing some good ol' fiction with some good ol' Gods screwing everyone over?
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I'm slightly talking out of my ass, but I'd wager the Gods (who treat the war as a game) represent how men are merely toys of fate.
But no, Homer didn't do some postmodern "IT WAS ALL IN THEIR IMAGINATION" shit imo.
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>>7635179
Its a fictional tale based on an allegedly real battle, even to Homer.
The Greeks did believe the gods existed and interacted with people in that way.
You are looking at it with too modern of a perspective.
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Your sense of "God(s)" is not greek enough.
To the greeks they are not the transcendent beyond.
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What are you reading today?
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just finished heart of darkness. starting to read notes from underground.
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Gonna try to finish The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien today.
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>>7634409
Snopes
>gods
What was the point? What were they even doing there? The narrative would be improved a thousandfold without literal deus ex machinas out of the ass and muh ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU Zeus bullshittery
Why did Homer use them at all?
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Think of them as similar to a greek chorus. They mirror the action of the central plot using a different set of metaphors and give it another dramatic layer using the relationships between the characters.
Just don't it too literally, man. This is literature.
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>>7634086
There was some awful fucking movie with a big star studded cast that tried to do this.
Turns out the idea is shit.
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>what cut you looking for fa.m?
>OP: Just pleb my shit up
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Post you'res
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can i get the original/template?
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>>7632955
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>>7632920
Hmm read 36. Will maybe one day read most, excluding ameritrash high school novels.
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What do you guys think of Kafka's shorter works, like Meditation and In the Penal Colony? I think the latter is almost as good, if not better than Metamorphosis.
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>>7632870
>In the Penal Colony
nightmares for days m8
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Like Salinger, Kafka shines in his shorter works.
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>that colorization
umm... why are we ignoring that Kafka was black?
Write what's on your mind
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The quality of this board has gone down the fucking drain.
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>>7632546
Vamo Chile argento cagon!!
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>>7632546
I'm wondering if I should stop drinking even if it helps me write.
Is ruining my life for the sake of my own mediocre poetry worth it?
I don't know. I wish I did. But I like drinking, and I like writing, so I guess I'm taking this route all the way to AA.
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Post handsome authors.
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>>7632733
Holy shit I have the exact same nose chin and mouth
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>>7632747
You would be in luck he wasn't ugly as fuck.
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Last one is bloated and stinks. Let's haul it out and make a new one!
Don't you dare poop-and-scoot, if you're posting your work you're also critiquing others.
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Anything worth while here? I've been cycling through a few different ideas for starting a novel taking place in SF:
Here lie the South San Francisco letters sprawled out flat on the hill like some pitiful response to Hollywood, an attempt from the city to frame itself as anything other than a background noise that creeps behind the consciousness of The Bay. The South City is a place for large short buildings that sell tiles or make tires, all sorts of beige in their paints all across the antiscenic views from the roads that cut past it, these roads holding up drivers heading towards cities with more promise and interest. San Francisco provides hills and skyscrapers and great trees and towering landmarks and colossal lobes of fog looming miles in the air and the city plays fully in the third dimension, while the city a ways below sprawls stale and flat across the plain it sprouted on and the plain it spread across and the plain it blankets now.
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>>7630067
>large short buildings
a strange expression for my taste
>background noise that creeps behind the consciousness of The Bay
Background noise is always behind so 'that creeps behind' can be edited out.
>antiscenic
i'd rather describe it differently if it's that important
>the city plays fully in the third dimension,while the city a ways below
..how many cities are there?
i don't understand this. I like what precedes it. I don't like the dimensional description.
>sprawl
you like this word a lot. Me not so much when used twice in 5 lines.
Now, I want to know how old you are?
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>>7630154
It may help to know that South San Francisco is actually a separate city, then again plenty of SF locals I've met haven't even known it exists.
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alright senpai. this book has been around for a while now and i still haven't picked it up. which of his stories do you recommend?
>is he even worth reading?
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Not really.
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DUDE EMPATHY LMAO
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>genre fiction
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haha it's called do androids dream of electric sheep but there are no actual electric sheep in it haha
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What was the most emotional moment in a book for you (describe why)? I'll start; when Raskolnikov dreams of the horse being murdered. Reading that and just feeling completely helpless to what was happening destroyed me for about a week.
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>jude the obscure
the whole book
Anyone here have this? Or any LoA? They seem fun to collect
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>>7636366
i want that, my DICK gets hard when i see a photo.
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>>7636366
they are good. you don't get the chill slipcase unless you are a member though
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>>7636369
It does look nice. It's only 13 of his books though, going for 60 something on amazon
How hard is it to get hired as a writer?
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>>7636340
It's really easy. Send me a sample of your writing and I'll pay you $80K a year if it's good.
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A writer for what? A shitty small town paper? The new yorker? Producting content for 1/10 of a cent for some website?
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>earlier today, talking to my 17 year old nephew
>he's a complete neckbeard STEMlord but to facilitate conversation I ask him what he's been doing in English class
>he says he's been reading a bunch of cool essays and even listened to a speech from an author whose name he couldn't remember
>ask to see what he's, extremely excited that I may be able to connect with him
>he ruffles through his stuff and hands me a packet that looks like it was photocopied from a magazine
>It's "Consider the Lobster"
>mfw there are fucking high school teachers assigning DFW to teenagers RIGHT NOW
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>dfw appeals to stem autists
not surprising 2bh
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>tfw got to read Walden for high school English
>tfw got to read The Birth of Tragedy for high school English
>tfw high school English inspired me to pursue and stay in academia
>tfw now expanding high schoolers' minds like my own was expanded
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>>7636309
>tfw got to read Walden for high school English
is that supposed to be good