/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>20215660
I suppose you're right. In that case, I'll wear my pride with pride! Though I should do my best to avoid the Dunning-Kruger effect, as well. "All I know is that I know nothing" and such.

My primary focuses are Gnosticism and Discordianism, which I find very relevant in Umineko. From the Gnostic side of things, there's Witches as embodiments of Platonic ideals who make a game out of playing Demiurge, and how the Meta-World ties in with the World of Ideas, for example. On the Discordian side, Umineko's magic fits within a chaos magic framework, and Eris as presented in it isn't exactly unlike a Witch herself. It's a big read even I haven't finished yet but the Nag Hamaddi scriptures are the closest to a "primary source" for Gnosticism. I've been reading Marvin Meyer's revised translation. For Discordianism I'd recommend Principia Discordia, its "holy text", to set the stage. I put it in quotes because Discordianism is, for lack of better words, full of shenanigans. It's more of a work of metafiction that makes itself a holy text through its own rules, much like Umineko itself. After a certain point I find my /lit/ and my /x/ to be one and the same. It seems you've already read The Neverending Story, which is more influenced by Crowley's writing (which was inspired by Gnosticism anyways) so I'd recommend the Illuminatus! trilogy and The Invisibles. While it's more of a quick read at only ten pages long, Pop Magic! (also by the author of The Invisibles) is worth reading as well.

I'll admit that most of what I've read is on the subject of "practical use" of this knowledge, so to say, rather than the history or philosophy of it, but that just means I have more to read and more to learn. There's something fun in always having new knowledge to chase after!

>>20215265
Oho! Thank you, dearie.