Why are these books so popular? Everyone knows the prose is awful, but the narrative is boring and padded out as well. It's not enjoyable reading this for aesthetics or story, so who exactly does it appeal to?
>>9654287
The appeal is discomfort and comfort. Humans get bored of doting, comfort, niceness. They also like feeling superior, and the idea of progression, so a historical setting being brutish eases their discomfort in the real world.
The story moves at a good pace, dialog is witty and it doesnt require much concentration to follow the plot. Ideal to spend some time being entertained without investing much thought.
>>9654287
They are popular because, whether you like it or not, they are a breath of fresh air. You can no longer assume that ANY character will survive.
Do you not give a shit what condition your books are in, or do you try and keep them relatively spotless?
I used to be completely autistic about it. then i realized it's insane and i was driving myself insane, so I stopped. now I'll read trash if the words are legible.
I leave books in worse condition every time.
>>9652810
this is me
What is the greatest work of literature you have ever read?
>>9652356
Followed by Metamorphoses
>>9652356
mein kampf
fiction? Moby-Dick
history? The Iliad
philosophy? The Bible
I would say there is *not* a universal morality that one would benefit by both preaching and practice.
First, I do think it should stand that a person should benefit from their way of living - or else their way of living is illogical. We experience life through our individual bodies. Not through the bodies of all humans. Not through the bodies of all life on Earth.
In the most logical way of living, one would first and foremost seek to propagate their own happiness. Second, one would seek to cultivate power (to best ensure beneficial outcomes and happiness).
Capital is the most tangible form of known power, but humans are the biggest source of power in the known universe.
So - morally and logically (which should be one and the same) - one should seek mastery over other humans.
>>9652025
To disspell some bullshit one may come up with regarding the above:
Seeking happiness wouldn't mean doing a bunch of heroin, for example. Heroin addiction would ultimately lead to a very unhappy outcome.
Seeking mastery over other people wouldn't mean doing so in a way that makes people hate you, as that ultimately wouldn't give you mastery over them.
Bump
Is this not good enough to get a reply?
OP pic is from a .gov site on a project the preceded MKULTRA
>>9652025
>one would benefit
>>one
there's your problem.
Actually good conservative literature that isn't /po/-tier?
I'm bored of reading leftist propaganda.
>>9649086
Pic unrelated
>>9649086
The Waste Land
Graham Greene
Is Spanish better than English to read books in? Is it really that much more flexible than English as some people say? How long do you think it would take an Anglophone to be able to read Don Quijote in Spanish?
>>9645648
As a native spanish speaker I find english much more flexible, but I still preffer spanish
>>9645656
>I find english much more flexible
What makes it more flexible?
>>9645648
>How long do you think it would take an Anglophone to be able to read Don Quijote in Spanish?
I've studied Spanish for 2 years and can read contemporary works fluently. I still can barely understand a thing in Don Quijote. To use an analogy: Don Qujiote is to modern Spanish what Shakespeare is to modern English. It can be difficult to read even for native speakers.
You are better off reading a translation if that is your only goal for learning Spanish. Or, look at the other good authors of Latin America and see if they interest you enough to bother learning it.
As for your other question: I find Spanish more pleasing to read, but it is very frustrating to write in. You are basically a slave to the dictionary, and, after being raised on English, it is annoying to not have as much freedom. English is called the language of ideas for a reason. I have no idea wtf >>9645656
is talking about
How does one step out of the pleb zone?
And before you sayStart with the Greeks, know that I find them unbearableNot saying they're bad, it's just that I can't force myself to read them.
I really enjoy reading but I don't know if the enjoyment of actual literature comes with age.
As of right now, I can pretty much only read Science Fiction and Fantasy without feeling bored.
I just think that the real world is boring enough already.
Are there any good books that will help make a transition to actual literature?
as long as you're asking questions like this, you will always be a pleb.
>>9645483
>How do I get in shape when I ONLY want to eat sweets?
I've no pleb attitude, I picked up reading seriously only 1-2 years ago. Any suggestions?
What's the difference between an object and a process?
>>9660677
the definition
>>9660721
Is sound propagating through space a process or an object?
>>9660721
Whoa, we got Mr. Aristotle in person over here.
I just saw this article in the guardian website. Jesus Christ. What started off as a load of already trivial and banal ruminations over a new term, "anthropocene", took a turn for pure charlatanism.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/15/timothy-morton-anthropocene-philosopher
Even the first part, relating to "anthropocene" was bs. "Dude, humans affect the environment a lot now and that makes me feel different stuff!" Not only the content was dumb but the perceived importance of needing a label for this and who named it is just a result of academia caring about who gets the citations or who gets to write the definitive NYT best selling flavour of the week book.
But the article gets better/worse. The subject, creator of the term "anthropocene", speaks:
>“You wouldn’t believe how many philosophers are afraid of movement,” he began. He went on to discuss two strands of thought in the work of the philosopher Hegel. One problem with Hegel, Morton said, “the problem I call macro-Hegel, is that macro-Hegel makes the slinky moveupthe stairs, improbably. And at the top of the stairs, like the killer in Psycho, is waiting, drum roll, you guessed it, white western patriarchy in the guise of the Prussian state.” (I had not guessed this; should I have?) “So macro-Hegel blows it.”
> The Morton detractors with whom I spoke accused him of misunderstanding contemporary science, like quantum mechanics and set theory, and then claiming his distortions as support for his wild ideas.
I know that anti-OP edginess will cause you to proclaim this guy a genius and I could see you guys agree with me if I had stated the opposite of my opinion... but I can't bear that.
>>9660593
Anthropocene is a term which has kind of been hijakced (arguably for good reasons) to try and help convince the public of the seriousness of climate change. It's not really a geological epoch, although the "anthropocene extinction" is very, very real and is set to be one of the biggest loss of species in the planets history.
The words misuse annoys me too.
>>9660593
Oh wow, that's almost as egregious a reading of Hegel as the frogmen from /pol/
>>9660593
>a new term, "anthropocene",
how is your community college summer reading course going?
How the fuck does literature goes from a nobility thing to a psychiatry thing? Why did we had so many writers experiencing madness and different types of obssession in the last century? Is the aliance madness-literature dead by now? I mean, now is just about finding a good publisher and that's it.
>>9660482
People prefer reading things that at least somewhat apply to their lives, or have relevance to the time they're living and the experiences therein.
The last century has been pretty shit in most parts of the world, some more so than others, so there's been plenty of shit to write about, coming from people with mainly shit attitudes brought about by the shittiness of the world they've lived in.
>>9660482
>personal demons
>current year
just be a hipster
>>9660482
It hasn't. "Madness" and other obsessions just make for a more dramatic story. The real thing that's happening is that literature with a more dramatic backstory gets promoted more by the masses, who have become increasingly literate and educated over the course of the 20th century.
It used to be that the leisure and scholarly and religious classes were the primary audiences for literature. Now literature is a commodity for mass consumption. (I mean literature as distinct from genre stories. People want to feel smart without having the refined faculties and leisure for the consumption of genuinely challenging and intellectual literature, like, say, Milton.)
The quiet and contemplative or difficult strain of literature persists, it's just fallen considerably into the background. Look at how John Williams was neglected. Look at how the high modernists and postmodernists have been received versus The Joy Luck Club and that kind of garbage.
I'm very inarticulate. Bad with words.
just use the adjective 'good' to describe things, like Hemingway did
>mfw words are socially constructed so they don't exist
>mfw people don't speak, they just wail, scream, babble and sputter in slow motion for 80 years
>>9660299
Words are a metaphor for your described phenomena.
1818 or 1831?
read em both and decide for yourself
both to be honest. if you can find the more recent one that restores her original where percy edited it, get that too. 1818 if you can only get one, because the 1831 one is designed for normies (literally, the story was shifted for what was meant to be a popular edition)
who else here reads books while listening to the audiobook?
dont lie
I listen to audiobooks while washing the dishes
I listen to the sound a blood pumping through my massive glowing brain while reading
>>9660135
I'm currently going through Re:Joyce while reading Ulysses, but that's because I don't want to miss out on any of the dank references I'm missing.
Besides that, the sweet sounds of silence.
>anyone else need someone to read the book for them to combat their ADHD
>>>>>>/v/ is that way friend!
Was Sancho a bad or good friend for enabling Don to do all the crazy shit he was pulling and favourite stories? Mine are a tie between the Sierra Morena adventures or when they are in the cave.
>implying Don Quixote wasn't bullshitting everyone the entire time
>>9660082
>implying the narrator wasnt bullshitting everyone the entire time
If you became a writer would you fall this hard?
Probably.
>>9660008
Adult coloring books are where the money is at
>>9660008
Ken Nordine is fucking based and he released a picture book.
And Palahackniuk was a hack from day one, he's the sloppy second, the left overs, the scraps of Bret Easton Ellis at his best and absolutely adolescent trash at his worst.