Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 4597. page

Michael Drayton, "The Paradox"

When first I ended, then I first began;
Then more I travelled further from my rest.
Where most I lost, there most of all I won,
Pined with hunger, rising from a feast.
Methinks I fly, yet want I legs to go;
Wise in conceit, in act a very sot;
Ravished with joy amidst a hell of woe;
What most I seem, that surest I am not.

I build my hopes a world above the sky,
Yet with the mole I creep into the earth;
In plenty, I am starved with penury,
And yet I surfeit in the greatest dearth.
I have, I want; despair, and yet desire;
Burned in a sea of ice, and drowned amidst a fire.

Lord Byron, "Don Juan", 4.xi-xii

The Heart--which may be broken: happy they!
Thrice fortunate! who of that fragile mould,
The precious porcelain of human clay,
Break with the first fall: they can ne'er behold
The long year linked with heavy day on day,
And all which must be borne, and never told;
While Life's strange principle will often lie
Deepest in those who long the most to die.

"Whom the gods love die young," was said of yore,
And many deaths do they escape by this:
The death of friends, and that which slays even more--
The death of Friendship, Love, Youth, all that is,
Except mere breath; and since the silent shore
Awaits at last even those who longest miss
The old Archer's shafts, perhaps the early grave
Which men weep over may be meant to save.

>>7588019
Absolutely beautiful piece

This shouldn't be that surprising. Novels spoon feed you ideas in tiny little bits, spread out over hundreds of pages. It's not that you aren't being fed a lot, but it happens so slowly that an intelligent reader shouldn't have to strain so hard to consume it.

>The best novels don't involve struggle on the part of the reader

But that's just plain wrong.

It's an opinion that I disagree with. There's merit to working through a difficult work in that it teaches discipline, and sometimes there are nuggets of wisdom that can only be uncovered in the right frame of mind. On the other hand, novels that don't challenge could be seen as more fun to read.

Bill Bryson has a book, Into the Woods. Haven't read it but I've read his other works. He's both amusing and erudite. In a Sunburned Country I can recommend. A travelogue. Highly enjoyable.

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiesen
It's half the authors obsession with Zen Buddhism and half about backpacking through the Himalayas with a zoologist trying to study mountain goats and maybe catch sight of the elusive snow leopard.

walden

The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Capital, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism, by Vladimir Lenin
The State and Revolution, by Vladimir Lenin

A decent starter pack.

>>7585548
Anything written by 19-th century anarchist qualifies. Try Malatesta or Bakunin.

>>7585576
Thanks but I already assumed Marx/Engels/Lenin were all a given. Anything written within the last hundred years?

File: 15nufps.gif (685KB, 275x209px) Image search: [Google]

685KB, 275x209px

>>7592154
This is what I was seeing.

>>7592154
I couldn't read beyond the login wall but your prose is very uneven. First you adopt an academic tone which doesn't suit the story using words like: perhaps, assure, chatted, platonic, etc. Then you loosen up and write in a more natural, conversational tone. Compare the narrator's speech to the first paragraph.

>>7592154
>I pulled one out

I mean, the guy is basically an author. Take that for what it's worth. But in my estimation, you really have to take into consideration his ability to write. I can't say my estimation, or the estimation of his author is really and effectively prorated, but I think we'd all agree that there's no reason to shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.

I've never read him, but this quote from "The Iceman Cometh" has always stuck with me for some reason:

>

What's it matter if the truth is that their favoring breeze has the stink of nickel whiskey on its breath, and their sea is a growler of lager and ale, and their ships are long since looted and scuttled and sunk on the bottom? To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It's irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.

>>7591893

Yes. His long form stuff is good, especially Long Day's Journey and Iceman.

His one acts not so much. I was in a production of the Web. That play fucking sucks but it's his first so what ya gonna do.

https://youtu.be/4eu55SupOVk?t=1622

The Vile Village > Miserable Mill > Austere Academy > Bad Beginning > Hospital > Carnival > Elevator > The Wide Window > The Reptile Room > Slippery Slope >> Penultimate Peril / grotto / end

rank the series, you cakesniffers

I liked when they went in that one underground part, and they're all like "oh shit, mufuckas we underground and shit, some nigga get a pickaxe!" and then they get out.

>>7590032
we wuz subterraneans n shit

>>7590056
Dos overworld honkys, yaknowatimsayin, nigga

>>7587185
there are a lot of ww2 instructional videos, a lot

watch those instead

>>7587195
WW2 instructional videos?

>>7587264
yes, you do know of ww2, right?

Fuck off neophyte.

>>7586420
Why? What is wrong with Bradbury? I love the way he writes. I love his philosophy. I think he's a fine human being and a creative mind

>>7586420

Pleb.

>>7592052
capital
wealth of nations
the affluent society
the road to serfdom
general theory of employment, interest, and money
the great transformation
capitalism, socialism, and democracy
small is beautiful
the joyless economy
philosophy of money

if you read all these you know what you're talking about and won't get fucked by the long dick of modeling bullshit

>>7592052
btw not irrelevant at all wtf are you talking about
where you from niggggga

>>7592066
Thx anon

Nah, just stupid

>>7591827
I would say so since the Arabs and Ottomans didn't do a very good job of exporting their culture to east Asia. Much of modern Islam pulls from Arabian Nights like modern Christianity pulls from Paradise Lost or Dante's Inferno for example.

>>7591754
>Is it something I need to read before I die.

Yes, no question. Read it asap

>>7591754
Nah man, there's no need for you to read one of the most popular and critically acclaimed novels of all time.

>>7591764
Yeah I get that I'm just not sure how many more tomes I can take.

>>7591256
Democracy, Henry Adams

>>7591256
Lolita , t b h

>>7591256
Yoshida, Takashi. The Making of the "Rape of Nanking"