Did he sell out?
That book inspired me than anything else i've read. The Road is good shit OP
>>7604582
>proceed to peal Oprah's Book Club sticker off
>mfw it's not a sticker
>>7604582
I did not care for The Road.
Blood Meridian on the other hand is incredible.
What other McCarthy is god tier?
>I don't understand how, up to now, an atheist could know there is no God and not kill himself at once. To recognize that there is no God, and not to recognize at the same time that you have become God, is an absurdity, otherwise you must necessarily kill yourself. Once you recognize it, you are king, and you will not kill yourself but live in the chiefest glory. But one, the one who is first, must necessarily kill himself, otherwise who will begin and prove it? It is I who will necessarily kill myself in order to begin and prove it.
>I am still God against my will, and I am unhappy, because it is my duty to proclaim self-will. Everyone is unhappy, because everyone is afraid to proclaim self-will. That is why man has been so unhappy and poor up to now, because he was afraid to proclaim the chief point of self-will and was self-willed only on the margins, like a schoolboy. I am terribly unhappy, because I am terrible afraid. Fear is man's curse...But I will proclaim self-will, it is my duty to believe that I do not believe. I will begin, and end, and open the door. And save. Only this one thing will save all men and in the next generation transform them physically. for in the present physical aspect, so far as I have thought, it is in no way possible for man to be without the former God. For three years I have been searching for the attribute of my divinity, and I have found it: the attribute of my divinity is--Self-will! That is all, by which I can show in the main point my insubordination and my new fearsome freedom. For it is very fearsome. I kill myself to show my insubordination and my new fearsome freedom.”
Was Kirilov right?
What did he mean by this?
>self
>God
>freedom
>unhappy
>will
Spookiest thread in ages
>>7604463
is this in the fucking book?
I heard Dosto did bad pseudophilosophizing in his dumb novels but holy shit
Hey lit, I've been on a Latin American binge for the last few months, but the only contemporary writer I've found I liked is Cesar Aira and I feel like I'm missing out. Who are the great Latin American writers of the 21st centuy?
>>7604254
Bolano
I am from south america and I have no idea about the books that were published in the last 15 years
>>7604257
Shit biscuits, how'd I forget Roberto?
I have brought shame upon my family.
Hey /lit/, do you have a favorite journalist? What is a good journalist to you? How can journalism combine with literature?
My favorite journalist is Ernie Pyle, famous WW2 War Correspondent. He wrote this days before he was shot, just before the war formally ended:
>But there are so many of the living who have had burned into their brains forever the unnatural sight of cold dead men scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows of hedge throughout the world.
>Dead men by mass production-in one country after another-month after month and year after year. Dead men in winter and dead men in summer.
>Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous.
>Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come almost to hate them.
>Those are the things that you at home need not even try to understand. To you at home they are columns of figures, or he is a near one who went way and just didn’t come back. You didn’t see him lying so grotesque and pasty beside the gravel road in France.
>We saw him, saw him by the multiple thousands. That’s the difference.
>We hope above all things that Japan won’t make the same stubborn mistake that Germany did. You must credit Germany for her courage in adversity, but you can doubt her good common sense in fighting blindly on long after there was any doubt whatever about the outcome.
You can read the whole thing here, and I advise you do: It's beautiful
http://mediaschool.indiana.edu/erniepyle/1945/04/18/on-victory-in-europe/
Other /lit/ journalists: Camus, Twain, Hemingway, David Foster Wallace wrote magazine articles.
It's a /lit/ profession, is it not?
>>7604204
Ernie was definitely a great one. I don't know if I would call it a lit profession, though. These days, it is totally corrupt. The time to be a journalist (or, better, a reporter) was in the 40s to the 70s. Woodward and Bernstein really destroyed it, not because they were wrong, but because they turned it into a collegiate level job. Give me the old beat reporter who raced around town chasing the cops and firemen covering the crime beat when they weren't stuck with sitting in a City Council meeting for four hours. H.L. Manken was a legit newspaperman, although more on the editorial side. I can't think of any at the moment, but it was certainly a great job once upon a time.
Seems boring. What's great about this?
>muh brave men
Die cis scum
I like Peter Taylor, BBC correspondent who wrote a lot of critical material on the british states role in Northern Ireland. He also came out against censorship and bias in the BBC
Also Ed Maloney, probably the single most important investigator of the IRA alive.
i'm dense
what are the jesuits supposedly doing? all this jesuit hatred, and jesuit spies, and jesuit plots, but to what end? this isn't clear to me as a non american with no knowledge of early america or inter-religion politics
>Jimmy J went to a Jesuit school
>Tommy P hates Jesuits
>The Pope is a Jesuit
[noideth intensifies]
>If they ain't WASPs, they ain't human
That's basically what any WASP author would say 1900-1970. Jesuits were the "Da Joos!" of that era; you can find these kinds of Others everywhere throughout history if you look hard enough.
The Jesuits were building DARPA and a high speed worldwide non-public communications system before the Americans could fumble fuck things all basackwards for the next two hundred years.
Are there any English translations of De Vigny besides Penguin's "Servitude et Grandeur Militaires"?
Harold Bloom lists his poems and "Chatterton" in his canon but I can't seem to find them.
Servitude et Grandeur Militaires isn't worth reading imo
Just read his poetry (which is absolutely fantastic)
Chatterton isn't that good but quite short so, yeah why not
One anon said that Cinq-Mars was good, but I haven't read it yet so I can't really confirm
>>7604024
Yes:
http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-de-Vigny/e/B001HPIX1A
What are some works of literature that have changed your life and your perspective of the world? What are some works that have been the greatest inspiration to your own writing?
>>7603610
T H E S T R A N G E R
>>7603610
Dubliners.
Made me pay more attention to the people around me and how they interact not to mention the beautiful prose.
>>7603610
the god delusion
Do you guys listen to music or anything while reading or do you like it in complete silence?
>>7603478
Complete silence, unobtrusive ambient, or white/pink noise. Anything else distracts, and therefore detracts, from the reading experience.
>>7603478
I live next to a large street so I need to put something on to drown the noise of the cars. I usually put Steve Roden or something similar if I want to focus
>>7603541
i never understood white/pink noise. they just make my ears ache and make me tense. what am i doing wrong?
Are there any other good philosophical fiction books like starship troopers? Doesn't have to be Sci-Fi.
Of course there are.
>>7603461
Can't find anything, tried Old Man's war, it sucked.
>>7603463
Most literature is 'philosophical'
If i am writing a book with some foreign myth characters, is it weird to refer to only the main characters of each respective country with the foreign characters of their name, and everyone else with romanized names? I would not do this for more than 1 characer of their respective language/etc.
Ex:
黄帝 went to visit Кoщéй and they ate breakfast with their friends Ivan and Xiao-Hua.
This is also for aesthetic reasons. Some romanizations look stupid, like 'wang'. What do you think?
I dunno, sure.
>>7603428
Cool thanks. I rather like how the foreign names look in their original state but I dont want to be super confusing to a reader, ( its not confusing to me though so i'm not sure)
>>7603441
alright, whatever.
where should I start start with Soeren Kierkegaard?
>>7603241
start with the greeks
If you want to start relatively simple and small, The Present Age.
Otherwise, Either/Or and Fear and Trembling.
>>7603241
Try The Concept of Anxiety, not really easy for a first reading but worth it. It's one of his most interessant concept.
Which is the best order to read the Nietzsche works?
>>7602597
chronologically
don't
>>7602597
i read antichrist first, then geneology and gay science then twilight and beyond good and evil. this is a pretty good sequence. kind of like when a movie starts with the final scene.
Has anyone here genuinely committed themselves to a life of asceticism and self-imposed detachment from life (as far as is possible without dying from starvation etc)?
Which books deal with characters of this sort?
>>7602169
Siddhartha deals with pure asceticism, but it doesn't endorse it.
I've definitely been planning for it. I'd like to save up enough for some land out in the woods and one of those ten by ten prefabricated cabins, or even a storage shed. I'd use a wood stove and cook beans and rice. I'd scrub my own damn clothes. I'd grow veggies in my garden. Prayerful meditation every day, write every morning and evening.
I've been thinking very often about hermitage, and it's a rather attractive looking lifestyle desu. Renouncing the world for a life of simplicity, humility, and possibly service depending on the type of hermitage I follow. The Russians have it right with theirs, a minimal life and constant availability to help others through listening and work. Share what they have, seeking wisdom, etc.
>>7602947
Anyway, regarding books.
My Side of the Mountain, kind of along the lines if Hatchet, but way comfier.
Oh no, your house is on fire !
You have the time to grab only one book and save it, what's its name ?
OP here, pic related is mine
Plato - Complete Works
the one i'm writing
Michel Tournier died today.
One of the best french authors ever.
Can we have a memorial thread?
http://www.afp.com/en/news/french-author-michel-tournier-dies-91
Literally who?
>>7601841
>Michel Tournier
Au cinéma
1996 : Le Roi des aulnes, film germano-franco-britannique réalisé par Volker Schlöndorff, d'après le roman éponyme publié en 1970.
À la télévision
1990 : La Goutte d'or, téléfilm français de Marcel Bluwal, d'après le roman éponyme publié en 1985.
ça vaut le coup ?
Recommend me something mate.