Thread replies: 46
Thread images: 12
Thread images: 12
File: 288bc04558d985f79bd496a7e45adae8.jpg (32KB, 736x520px) Image search:
[Google]
32KB, 736x520px
One thing that helped improve my overall appreciation of literature better was learning how to distinguish trees: oaks, beeches, ash, birch, cypresses, hawthorn, rowan.
For example, look at book five of the Odyssey, at Calypso's cavern; a picturesque location of juniper, alder, and poplar trees. After looking at a couple of charts, and learning how to identify these trees while hiking, I feel like I have a better grasp on such scenes, as well as others in literature. Tolstoy and Chekhov, for example, are fond of depicting scenery with specific trees and shrubs.
So I recommend tree spotting as a literary hobby, and something to do while walking outdoors or along park land. It's surprisingly fun to do. The best way is to look at the leaves and bark; the seven lobed broad leaf of the oak, the twinned little opposing leaves of the ash, the white bark and small triangular leaves of the silver birch. Each tree will often have a specific folklore which might offer a deeper reading of an author's work, or provide you with inspiration in your own creative work; knowing the juniper's logs have a fragrant incense-like fragrance when burned, the rowan's traditional use as a ward against witches, the birch as a wayfarers friend due to its drinkable sap and pioneering nature.
What are /lits favourite trees, and poetry and literature featuring trees?
>>
>>9884532
Jesus christ, this board is so far up it's own ass
>>
>>9884545
t. doesn't own a tree
>>
>>9884532
good post
>>
You should read Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants
>>
>>9884545
I know, but he has a point.
>>
>>9884532
10/10 will start doing this
Walden
>>
>>9884545
OP's post might be pretentious, but it offers meaning. What does yours offer?
>>
>tfw used to go tree-spotting and flower-collecting in the woods nearby with my gf
>tfw she left me and a year later she's dating my sister and they're on holiday in Italy and probably fucking like rabbits
I wish a tree would fall on me.
>>
>check out some German books on European trees
>glossary
>common word for hybrid is "Bastard"
I fucking love German.
>>
>>9884615
The point about the folklore behind trees is pretty good. They're a common literary device like OP said and if a tree is called out on purpose there's probably something behind it.
>>
>>9884640
Damn, dude. I once met a guy who actually knew all this stuff. We literally talked hours about the lore of the oak and the meaning of trees in general in pre-Roman Germanic culture.
Good times.
>>
>>9884532
>"Trees in literature"
>chart of leaves
Good start but seeing whole trees as well would be better
>>
>>9884640
I agree. I hope OPs YA fiction series with tree-witches and it's eventual teen movie adaptation are very successful.
>>
>>9884650
What did he read?
>>
>>9884655
If it's something I'd let my kids read/watch, I'm all for it.
(At least it's not based on erotic fanfiction.)
>>
File: 4680f96ce7bf6b19e3179e6db44bb244.jpg (258KB, 1000x1000px) Image search:
[Google]
258KB, 1000x1000px
>>9884653
There are a lot of charts and guides out there, but when you're walking along a copse or in a wood, the shape is lost, but the leaves and bark and fruits are visible. That's why I suggest leaves are a good place to start. It's better to find one with specific native/common trees for your continent.
>>
>>9884661
I have no fucking clue.
It was this German musician, who was obsessed with old instruments (played the harp like a nymph) and was generally a bit out there.
But when we went on walks, he'd teach you all about the local flora and fauna.
Like "if you see this beetle, you know that a linden tree isn't far off" or how incredibly useful birch is for making fires.
Man, I miss that guy. He was like out of a book.
>>
>>9884655
>it's
>it is
>>
>>9884619
Weird fucking post, man
>>
>>9884655
If I wrote anything at the moment it'd be a pastiche low fantasy or weird tale along Lovecraftian lines; thickly canopied forests of beech where lichen-encrusted tombs lie, and where abominations roam the gnarled boles at midnight under a gibbous moon, etc. Well, I'm not a Gene Wolfe or Tolkein.
>>
>>9884694
Write the Mistborn but with trees anon, it'll sell.
>>
File: 95dc546c5ac8e45094dd446fcb144eaf.jpg (57KB, 500x712px) Image search:
[Google]
57KB, 500x712px
>>9884560
tfw don't own a tree
>>
>>9884729
Hakuin is bae.
>>
who else /audubon/ here?
>>
File: sad-kingfisher-bird-free-download-beautiful-new-desktop-wallpapers.jpg (51KB, 900x506px) Image search:
[Google]
51KB, 900x506px
>mfw I started studying birds and not trees
>>
>>9884560
t. isn't a stirnerian-egoist tree that owns itself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_That_Owns_Itself
>>
>>9884755
never gonna make it
>>
>>9884755
Top 3 bird books - go!
>>
File: gnarled oak.jpg (166KB, 640x426px) Image search:
[Google]
166KB, 640x426px
>>9884700
Somebody else can run with that idea, I'm more familiar with Brandon Sanderson's youtube lectures than his books.
>>
File: Cherry Beech.jpg (380KB, 1680x1050px) Image search:
[Google]
380KB, 1680x1050px
>>9884764
That's neat. An oak tree, King of the native English forest - Beech being the queen. Pic related is the cherry variety often seen in English rural villages and suburbia.
>>
>>9884822
>cherry beech
'copper' beech
>>
>>9884770
GOAT
Anyone who says otherwise is a liar and a faggot
>>
>>9884545
Nothing wrong with talking about trees m8
>>
>>9884619
Maybe she's doing a herbarium of your family.
>>
File: deciduous_trees.jpg (102KB, 685x533px) Image search:
[Google]
102KB, 685x533px
Bumping with a chart. Of these common European and British trees, the Ash may eventually become extinct due to a fungus.
>>
>>9886497
Ashes ashes they all fall down
>>
File: 1496307778539.jpg (26KB, 731x565px) Image search:
[Google]
26KB, 731x565px
>>9884619
What kind of scumbag would betray their own sibling like that?
>>
>>9884532
Did this with my parents and sister in Spades along with bird- and sky watching throughout my childhood. Great help for literary studies.
>student walks into Nabokov's office during office hours at Cornell, I believe
>sits down, says he wants to be a writer
>Nabokov looks at him, then looks out the window
>student also looks out the window
>Nabokov points at a tree, what kind of tree is that?
>i don't know, sir..
>you will never be a writer--
An absolutely great book on the subject if you live in the states is A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America by Donald Culross Peattie. He also wrote a volume concerning western trees. These books are classics.
>>
>>9884545
You mean because he actually reads, enjoys those works, and is capable of interrelating meaning?
No, you're the one with a tree limb up your ass.
>>
File: 1477086739006.jpg (45KB, 711x669px) Image search:
[Google]
45KB, 711x669px
>>9886138
>>
>>9884545
>tfw you keep a big list of books on landscape gardening and trees and /lit/ likely hates you
>>
>>9887129
Post it, please.
>>
>>9884532
This is actually some good advice, hadn't even considered it desu. I recognise some trees but I certainly couldn't name all of those trees from the leaves in your pic.
>>9884545
Oh just fuck right off you fucking nonce. What the fuck is wrong with his post? Why is it considered being 'up your own ass' to have a genuine interest in, or appreciation of something, or to improve yourself as a person? I bet you're a fucking kike. You want people to be these deracinated, de-cultured, nominal, rootless individuals with no sense of identity, value or stake in the world beyond product preferences and media consumption.
>>
>>9887123
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that she hides an album with various body hair samples from your sister and you. People are weird.
>>
>>9884755
What did you use / have you used to study them? Good book about birds? I love birds
Thread posts: 46
Thread images: 12
Thread images: 12