Why did he shoot the arab /lit/? Was it really because the sun was in his eyes? Was it self-defense? If so, why didn't he just back off. The character seems disinterested with causing conflict, he seems like someone who wants life to be as unperturbed as possible. So why did he do it?
Because he wanted to, he was nihilistic as fuck and contrary to popular internet maymays complete nihilism makes people do fucked up shit for no reason, which is why all of philosophy post-1800 has been trying to devise a way to combat it: its dangerous shit that leads to senseless violence and barbarism purely because people don't care.
If your life is ruled by nothing, you'll do things for absolutely no reason.
>>9678278
camus was not a nihilist though, so why would his champion embrace it. He never has a problem with meursaults actions.
>>9678271
>Why did he shoot the arab
If you're asking this question then you've missed the point. What you should be asking is why did the events after he shot the Arab unfold as they did
Is "The Dead" by James Joyce the greatest work of literature ever composed?
No. The dead isnt a short story honestly. By itself in means slim, if taken away separately from Dubliners the whole metaphor of the horse circling around Cromwell or whoever it is and then it snowing means slim. Which burgers probably fail to realise a ubiquitous part of irish cultural identify was skewed and off put for centuries, to which it was only finding its feet at the time of writing
It is the last chapter in Dubliners, Dubliners is a great book. Very underrated. Not the absolute greatest of all time
>>9678239
What the hell are you even talking about? Everything past the first two sentences made absolutely no sense. The Dead is considered a short story, but it's technically a novella. We just consider it a short story in relation to the rest of dubliners: on its own it'd be a novella.
The Dead isn't the best work of literature, but I'd definitely argue for it being the greatest short story ever composed. The last few pages are absolutely sublime, and really bring the entire thing together.
>>9678256
Dubliners isnt a collection of short stories published separately and compiled together. They were written together, depecting the lives of Dubliners which culminates in the last story being Dubliners. Like i said, the symbolism and metaphor of the snow and the horse mean nothing with out the other chapters and without the meaning behind them it becomes a glorified romance novel
I'm poor and my copy got coffee spilt all over it. Where can I finish it online? Y-you know, for free?
It's one of the most popular books ever published. You killed a thread for this.
>>9677970
Why can't you read past it's battle scars?
What's up with this book? I don't get it.
Disregarding fantasy elements, what aspects of ASOIAF are unrealistic?
>>9677862
This ties in to fantasy elements somewhat because it comes back to the stupid unpredictably long winter/summer thing, but food storage.
They can't manufacture food for astronauts that'll last long enough for a mission to Mars without it deteriorating and potentially going bad. The maximum for any goods produced today is 2 or 3 years, and after that you're pushing it and how much do you like botulism?
So, assuming the fear of the winter means people start putting food stores away as soon as the very first harvet of summer arrives, and they continue to store as much food as possible, how does the food remain unspoiled until the end of the winter when at least one winter has lasted like nine years?
I mean, if they were far enough north and dug down below the permafrost I might be a little more inclined to believe it, but would permafrost exist when you can have summers that last seven years?
I do not understand.
Are they importing massive amounts of food from warmer countries with more temperate climates? Does the whole planet go into winter at once because of an unstable orbit, or does the planet wobble unstably on its axis, so when it's winter in the north it's summer in the south?
How do fruiting trees that require a freeze in order to flower work? Do they flower after winter and fruit only once, so fruit is abundant only at the beginning of the summer, or do they repeatedly flower over the summer? Why would they repeatedly flower without the necessary freeze/daylight change to prompt their reproductive cycles?
How do animals' reproductive cycles work? Most mammals have a breeding season that lets them birth in spring, when their young will have the best chance of growing big and strong over summer to make it through the next winter. But if winters and summers are all over the place, how to mating cycles work?
How do small animals like mice survive? They only live a few months or maybe a year at most. A single long winter would be enough to wipe them out entirely, wouldn't it?
And what about animals that hibernate? How do they store sufficient fat to survive however long the winter will be, since the winter is unpredictable? Won't most of them run out of their fat reserves too soon and starve to death?
I mean, I guess all of these questions come back to the stupid winter/summer fantastical element, but still. They bug the heck out of me.
>>9677862
The Iron Bank
>>9677862
The treachery is too compressed in time.
Why did Nabokov disparage literature written for ethical or political purposes when the greatest Russian writers, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, were pretty much the opposite of aesthetes? It seems to me that art for art's sake is a rather superficial and sterile understanding of art, especially considering that the idea was primarily developed in 19th century Anglo-America and nowhere and notime else besides. Nabokov's novels are good, but they are mostly good because of the intellectual puzzle of it, the richness of allusion and mazes of structure, and yet his books have less lasting interest than writers who wrote about more resonant, more humane ethical issues. Puzzles are solved, and the book can be put back on the shelf; and yet one lives with the novels of Tolstoy (or Hawthorne, or Henry James) partly because of its loftier moral tone. Too often Nabokov strays from life, and so his work can be seen as fundamentally hedonistic, and at times (like in Lolita) morally irresponsible.
Thoughts?
>>9677595
>Why did Nabokov disparage literature written for ethical or political purposes when the greatest Russian writers, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, were pretty much the opposite of aesthetes?
Just because Nabby was Russian doesn't mean he has to like other Russian authors.
As to why he hated didactic authors - it was because he read for prose and puzzles, and he probably thought morals distracted from prose.
Nabby has different opinions from you OP because he read for different reasons.
And that isn't a very satisfactory answer, but its the only true answer.
>pedo intellectualizes morality away as triteness
color me surprised
Since we have a Nabby thread, I've got a question. I've read Pnin, the Eye, Sebastian Knight, and Laughter in the Dark, is this enough Nabby to read Look at the Harlequins?
What crazy nonsense esoteric bullshit are you currently reading, attempting to synthesize philosophically, or do you sincerely believe in?
Is Rene Girard a prophet? Was Eliphas Levi really the reincarnation of Alexander the Great? Do you need to have properly aligned chakras to read Mystical Dimensions of Islam? Tell me your secrets.
>>9677460
>/x/
>>9677465
But I want to talk about books.
No very esoteric, but I am thinking of developing a Taoist commentary on the Gospels and Books of Moses. I don't want to give any ideas here, because I think it is the most original thoughts I have had.
Who's interested in doing a group reading of Dostoyevsky's Notes From The Underground?
To make things interesting I threw together this website for annotating the novel as a group:
http://174.138.60.204/
(just the Project Gutenberg text with an annotator plugin, you can see annotations other people have made, pretty straightforward)
Schedule in the pic. It's a short book (~100 pages physical). At one chapter a day I think everyone will be caught up and so we can focus on critical discussion.
Who's down
>>9677438
i am
sure, why not. I bought the ebook ages ago, would finally be a good time to actually read it...
>>9677450
We startin this Monday June 26 2017 boiiiii
Can /lit/ tell me what are the greats books in brazilian literature? Beyond Machado de Assis, because he is already too popular.
Vidas Secas (Graciliano Ramos)
>>9677363
O Tempo e o Vento
What are some essential novels that explore the nature of reallity, schizophrenia, paranoia?
>>9676743
Dostoyevsky's The Double. While reading it I felt like I was going insane. It's elegant and insidious and it makes Pynchon's stream of consciousness look leaden and contrived.
gravity's rainbow
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is okay I guess
Lmao what a piece of shit of a book. And there were people saying he should have won the Nobel baka
>author sucks based on one work
hmm
>>9676275
Ok, no kidding right now? are hist best works significantly better than this? Because this was avarege as fuck.
>>9676285
Murakami is weeblite lit. He's as worthwhile as any other jap "genius." Take that as you will.
Post the name of your favorite book, but replace one word in the title with "dick"!
I´ll start:
>Moby Dick
>>9675361
I don't get it.
The Lord dick the rings
The Lord of Dick Rings
Dick
Bonus: The Dick
>>9675007
Drumpf.
Because it's the acceptable face of misandry and they made it into a tv show.
>>9675007
There's a television show, starring that chick from Mad Men that's ugly in an attractive way.
What are some good books on the Constitution?
Was hoping for something more modern/relevant but I'll take some "classics" as well.
>(((Mark Levin)))
wooo lad
Start with Joseph Story's Commentaries on the Constitution
The Federalist Papers is still very relevant today.
>next 5 books you plan to read
>age
>how long you have browsed /lit/
Rate
>A Confederacy of Dunces
>Dracula
>1984
>Fahrenheit 451
>Anna Karenina
19 with 5 or 6 months on /lit/
>>9671461
nobody reads like this
>something by mary oliver
>something by robert greene
>short story collection by LAG strong
i'm 20 and i've been popping in and out for 7 years
>>9671461
Fuck off, Reddit. We already have one of these threads
>>9671461
>Also Sprach Zarathustra (currently)
>Moby Dick (also currently but on the side)
>Fathers and Sons
>If on a Winter's night a traveller
>Buddenbrooks
couldn't give you any more.
>age
20
Gormenghast Edition
Fantasy
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21329.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21328.jpg
Flowchart:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21327.jpg
Science Fiction
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21326.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21331.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21332.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21330.jpg
NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21333.jpg
Previous Threads:
>>9661015
>>9651041
>>9635513
>>9623674
>>9613892
>>9603606
First for warlock of the magus world.
>Starting off with a book that isn't memed on
and ironically trashed/praised every single thread
Careful. We might actually have to discuss things.
>>9669860
Do you guys think I'm going to crash and burn if I pick Titus Groan as my first fantasy book ever? I've been getting tired starting with the Greeks and Romans lately and i need a break. I don't think i will be spending as much time as you guys reading fantasy and sci-fi so I want to go straight for the very best. On the other hand, I'm afraid I might be prematurely put off if the work i pick requires some prior familiarity with the tropes--some already acquired taste, if you will. Whatcha think, fantafags?