Svidrigailov is clearly supposed to be a reflection of Raskolnikov, but his character seems to be a lot deeper than just an evil version of Raskolnikov. Particularly, his sudden appearance in the first part of the book while Raskolnikov is pondering his mother's letter (before Raskolnikov would have met him), and his later appearance in Raskolnikov's room while Raskolnikov himself was asleep seem very odd. One of my professors told me that there was a certain reading of the book that he wasn't a real character but a figment of Raskolnikov's diseased mind, which seems like it could be accurate. What does /lit/ think?
I haven't read C&P, but you're wrong.
>>9699540
I didn't posit any theory of my own
more like gaystovsky
Does anyone on /lit/ read outdoors during the summer?
Enjoy your cataracts senpai
>>9699518
no, cause I live in the sweaty gooch of the US.
>>9699518
Every day!
he raped Edith, right?or is my reading comprehension that fucked? The whole relationship between the two, especially in the beginning, felt uncomfortable.
her father raped her. that's why the robotic retelling of her past when stoner first visits her,
that's why she forbids stone and their daughter from being alone together, that's why she burns all her childhood shit and reinvents herself after her dad dies
>>9699503
still no evidence this is anything but a bullshit theory
OK. So I have a little problem with this book.
So Stoner is a complete autist.He has no idea how other people feel so from his perspective he dindu nuffin so why are people so mean to him?
I can understand that. He is just like that and he didn't mean wrong.
What bothers me is that the narrative voice seems to agree with Stoner's perspective and to try to convince us that it is right. Or is my perception wrong?
Any literature on mysticism and language? I've yet to read Letter on Humanism, but I'm particularly drawn to Heidegger's famous declaration that "Language is the House of Being". Would appreciate any anons who could help clarify and unpack this statement, and provide their own thoughts and insights on the mystical elements of language.
heidegger loved his poets desu
but all the good ones seem to go mad
wittgenstein never wrote anything about poetry
wonder why
>>9699327
>"Logos" - Greeks
>Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus/Blue and Brown books - Ludwig Wittgenstein
>Some presentations by Terrece McKenna
>The History of Magic - Eliphas Levi (kind of relevant)
>Nordic sagas - Skalds who predict and curse/bless people
>Irish/Celtic stories - Heroes who manipulate the world with their words/songs
I have only been wondering about the same thing for the last months so I don't have any singular source but these are some of the books/materials that come to my mind when I think about the potential mysticism or power of language.
Although the book by Levi is very superstitious it does give some interesting points about previous civilizations. I think there might be some powerful effect of using language in a ritual or algorithmic way. I have also been learning programming for the last year or so, and it has also made me view the world in a systematic and recursive way. Therefore I wonder if words can be used to "program" people/societies or even the environment (mysticism) for an altered outcome. I know this is starting to sound absolutely insane but sometimes it feels like something I said long time ago, happens to me in a seemingly random way. Also, the effects of psychadelic drugs seem to support this alteration of reality from my personal experience.
Pic related: Someone who changed the course of history with spoken/written words.
>>9699512
the funny thing about this quote is that imho contacts are created and established by *not* speaking your thoughts and isolation is more frequently created by speaking them...
>>9699561
good stuff
How could I miss this writer? This guy is absolutely genius. Just go and read "Permutation City" RIGHT NOW.
>>9699326
Permutation City is the best sci-fi I've ever read. Give Ted Chiang a try too if you haven't.
I have a collection of his short stories called Axiomatic. Waiting till I'm in a science fiction mood to read it, but I've heard a lot of good things.
>>9699326
bought Dichronauts, read it, couldn't quite visualise a world with two dimensions of space and two dimensions of time, felt like an idiot. aside from that it was kind of ordinary.
just finished this and holy shit Dante is a fucking genius. I always mocked the Italians for only having one relevant work of literature (inb4 Eco) but what a work it is. I probably only got 33% of what Dante was trying to express here and I guess you can devote your entire life studying this epic. It so dense and packed with theology/scholaticism/philosophy/astrology/ethics/politics/history and what not.
I enjoyed Inferno and Purgatorio most, I thought Paradiso was a little to heavy on the theology/astrology.
Anyways have you read it? Thoughts ? What would you recommend reading as a follow up/secondary literature?
More Aristotle, Bible, and Virgil
>>9698750
>33%
dont overestimate yourself bucko
but yes it's excellent. read the complete notes in the singleton and hollander editions
>>9698844
this basically. read these and re-read, preferaby with notes
Philip K Dick thread.
I just finished Ubik.Any suggestions as to why Runciter's coins have Joe Chip's face on them?What would be recommended if I loved Ubik?
Also general subjects for discussion: Which are people's favourite Philip K Dick novels? Which is his most underrated? Any favourite short stories?Best movie adaptation?
bladerunner > do androids dream of electric sheep
>>9698716
The Man In The High Castle > The Man In The High Castle
>>9698700
Read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch it's basically Ubik part 2
>author addresses the reader as "dear reader"
"My beloved readers..."
>>9698640
How anybody can read Nabokov is beyond me. The most condescending prick of an author in the history of western literature.
>>9698640
"My delicious readers, whose hands now tremble upon their tiny engorged intellects as I roughly insert my long, hard novel into their crania."
Why aren't you reading the best XXth century French philosopher ?
>Catholic and monarchist
>agregated in philosophy at 23
>liked Aquinas a lot
>translated and commented Plato, Dante, Blake, Poe, Chesterton
>BTFO the fuck out of Sartre in one of his book
>BRFOed Deleuze & Guattari in an other one
>liked to do arm wrestling while quoting Plato, Dante, Pound
>banned from the education system in France until he was 51 because he insulted de Gaulle
>Lacan, Deleuze and all the clique were butthurt as fuck because he got the Metaphysics chair in la Sorbonne
>destroyed Hegel with Vico
>said that Wilde is a disgusting fag
>fucked a lot of hoes
>liked Proudhon, Pareto, Sorel and Sowell
>father of the guy who made the documentary "Deleuze from A to Z"
And so on...
seems patrician but i'm monolingual pleb
What should I start with? I can read french
>>9698009
Les Abeilles de Delphes / La Source Sacrée is great for literary critic and as an introduction to his oeuvre since it also contains texts on theology and political thinkers ;
Sartre est-il un possédé ? is a small yet very good pamphlet against the sartrian thought ;
If you understang French, I'd suggest you to also watch this presentation of a memoirs book by one of his students
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTshvNiADGQ
But also this dialogue between Boutang and Steiner on the myth of Antigone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVWAmEOjDF8
is going to community college /lit/ tier or am I just trying to make up for the fact that I am too poor and stupid to go to university first?
The stupidest thing to do is not studying just because there are richer smarter people than you elsewhere. Would you rather be mediocre or absolute shit in three years time?
>>9697842
College is fucking retarded regardless of where. It's a complete waste of life.
>>9697842
Go to a public college
What book holds the most sentimental value to you? It could be a trusty, durable paperback you took everywhere around town and annotated, or nice leather bound classic passed down for generations. What book of yours has "character" and why?
>>9697801
I still have the first book I ever read (I Like Books - a present from my kindergarten teacher).
And I still have the first novel I ever read (the 1950s Disney edition of Swiss Family Robinson, the only book in my dad's collection that interested me at 6), although
I can't find it AGAIN, but it's somewhere in my house, so I'm not worried. Those two are the most important books I have, because they shaped the person I am.
>>9697801
The first book my father ever leant me from his ridiculously large sci-fi paperback collection of unpredictably varying quality. It's an anthology of Romanian sci-fi short stories from the 60's. The cover art is atrociously good (and this post is horribly bloated by adverbs by now, I know): it features robots, coloured laser beams in space and some figures on a display like one of those old desk calculators used to have even before the advent of lcd technology--you know, one of those that forms figures out of straight, neon-blue light-emitting rods with pointy tapered ends articulated at right angles. The font face they used for the front cover and spine is equally "robotic" and follows the same strict right-angles-only policy and a shifting stroke width. Half of the stories went even bad, though I haven't read it in a long time. Of all things, it's this thick, smudgy paperback that reminds me most of him, these days.
>>9697948
Isn't it funny how ol' Mnemosyne distorts and idealises everything? It turns out the only thing accurate about my recollection of that book was the techno font face. It's not even from the 60's, it's from 1983. Oh well...
Is a used book with highlighting/underlining/etc. even worth keeping?
Ever notice how with school books they always stop underlining/taking notes after a couple chapters? I've literally never found a used book where they kept up that pseud charade for the whole text.
>>9697625
People who underline with pen should be drawn and quartered.
Disgusting savages.
>>9697634
When you care enough to mark up the whole book, you're probably not interested in selling it for pennies on the dollar.
Has there ever been a more embarrassing interview in the history of television? I don't know how he can still live with himself having this interview up for everyone to see
>>9696866
he couldnt lol
>>9696866
Behold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BJSV8Q1Yw
>>9696866
>he can still live with himself
I have some bad news for you, buddy.
Will he write another one ?
>>9695037
I don't know, Tom. Will you?
i hope not
pls no
This is Evelyn Waugh. Say something nice about him.
>evelyn
>him
faggot
He wasn't a woman.
next time you make a thread say something interesting instead of filling out a template and other people might reply to it