/lit/ - Literature

Let's say you boot up Ocarina Of Time. Did the game's universe actually exist, was it real? Saying "I went into the deku tree" is 'real' in the sense that the fact happened, but was the game real? If yes, then that means booting up the game created a "real" universe, but it's just source code created by a being infinitely greater than itself (us). And if Scientific Materialism for this universe is "true" and "real" that means this universe is just source code too, so there is a higher god like entity. If Ocarina wasn't real, then that means what makes something "real" is beyond source code, which means there's something beyond scientific materialism, which means there's some bigger unknownable, leading to god. I think after 31 years I logic'd myself out of Atheism today. Existence and reality is an inherent contradiction. When truly spiritual people have said "this world is not real, everything is an illusion" they meant it and were right. And if that's the case, then whatever this all is is truly magical and amazing and breathtaking and beautiful and if that's possible then there really is good and evil. I still think religions are generally retarded because they're corrupt human institutions but I now realize how someone can genuinely try and live their life reaching out to the great beautiful beyond. I feel like I've just discovered what it means to feel optimism for the first time. Anyways critique my logic and reasoning please bros, I'mma one high nigga playing dark souls right now

Any fantasy novels which give the same feeling as when playing Dark souls? A lone wanderer in an unfamiliar land, exploring the ruins of a once great civilization, rarely stumbling upon another soul.

Are the Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave books any good?

Tried reading the hobbit as a kid found it incredibly boring. I started playing dark souls 3 and I'm in the mood for a fantasy setting. Is this book kino or is it worse than modern goyslop ?

This is my first time on /lit/

I just watched clockwork orange and I love the sort of old english way they speak in the film.
I enjoy speakspeare and I love the way characters speak in Dark Souls.

The thing is, sometimes the wording seems absolutely insane to me. Like there's no way anyone could have said that phrase without being the first ones to have ever said it.

I want to learn how to write that way just to make short fun colorful poems, but I don't know where to start.

>After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight3 in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
>The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

Am i the only one with tolkien fatigue? I used to like lotr and the silmarillion very much but recently i've grown weary of them. They're annoyingly preachy, the characters are cardboard thick, the descriptions are dark souls tier vague, the "magic" is unsatisfying, and i absolutely LOATHE the constant singing. Seriously, why there are so many songs?

post books like Dark Souls, thanks :)

Is this worth reading? I always see it mentioned along with Dark souls. Is it good in its own right or just similar to dark souls?

Socrates: Greetings, my friend. What do you think of imageboards?

Glaucon: Oh, they're just harmless online forums where people share pictures and talk about stuff, right?

Socrates: Ha! If only it were so simple. These imageboards are a dark and twisted place, full of malice and evil.

Glaucon: What? That sounds a bit extreme, don't you think?

Socrates: Extreme? No, my dear Glaucon. These imageboards are a weapon wielded by a great demon to corrupt and destroy our very souls.

Glaucon: What demon? What are you talking about?

Socrates: The demon of anonymity and chaos! It thrives in the cesspool of these imageboards, where people can say and do whatever they want without consequences.

Glaucon: But isn't free speech a good thing? Don't we want people to be able to express themselves?

Socrates: Express themselves? Ha! These imageboards are nothing but a breeding ground for hate and violence. They lure in unsuspecting victims with the promise of entertainment and community, only to trap them in a web of despair and hopelessness.

Glaucon: I still don't see how imageboards are that bad.

Socrates: Of course you don't. You've been blinded by their insidious influence. You've become numb to the endless stream of depravity and degeneracy that flows through these imageboards like a poison.

Glaucon: That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?

Socrates: Dramatic? No, my friend. It's the cold, hard truth. Imageboards are a scourge on our society, a cancer that threatens to consume us all. We must resist their temptation and cling to the light of reason and morality.

Glaucon: Okay, but what can we do about it?

Socrates: We must speak out against them! We must raise our voices and demand that they be banned from the internet! We must protect ourselves and our loved ones from their corrupting influence!

Glaucon: I don't know, Socrates. That sounds like a bit of a stretch.

Socrates: A stretch? No, my dear Glaucon. It's the only logical conclusion. Imageboards are a blight on our existence, a stain on our very souls. We must fight against them with every fiber of our being, or risk being consumed by their darkness forever.

Glaucon: Well, I suppose I can see where you're coming from. But still, isn't it a bit extreme to say that imageboards are the worst things ever to exist?

Socrates: Extreme? Ha! No, my friend. It's the only rational conclusion. The demon of anonymity and chaos is using these imageboards to wage war on our minds and our souls. We must be vigilant and ready to fight, lest we fall victim to its wicked schemes.

Glaucon: Okay, okay. I get it. Imageboards are bad. But can we talk about something else now?

Socrates: Very well. But remember, my friend. The demon of anonymity and chaos is always watching, always waiting for its next victim. We must remain ever-vigilant against its insidious influence.

Lotr is pokemon of fantasy genre
Asoiaf is evangelion of fantasy genre
Tbotns is dark souls of fantasy genre

Ah, the Dark Souls of literature.

What are some good dark fantasy books similar to Berserk or Dark Souls?

I don't mean fantasy as a whole, in the sense that I can't understand stories with fantastical elements. I'm talking about the widely accepted "fantasy", the Tolkien-inspired, sword & sorcery type of genre, where every book has 5 sequels, 2 encyclopedias, a wikia for the lore and so on and so forth. What I don't understand is why so many such books exist, and how so many people read them. It's literally made up "histories" and "mythologies" which are always a riff on some actual historical accounts and cultural tales. But people don't read those. They don't know about the real world's history, people of renown or have any desire to learn a language and get into any of the world's mythologies and religions (believing is besides the point, I'm talking about research). Instead they'll drop hundreds and thousands of hours into some made up world that's usually Medieval England with some slight differences, plots that are meandering, trite, and mostly lifted from real historical happenings, and learn the tongues and histories of said made up worlds. Why? Why waste all that time? If you like the "feel", then I guarantee you the actual history and culture that inspired it has more to mine.

I just don't understand it. I get in movies and mostly games. You want to play as a cool wizard doing some epic stuff, or a knight slaying dragons. You are the one doing it and being part of the world. But why care about the lore beyond the superficial aesthetics? Why waste all that time with useless info? The Fantasy genre has a very specific autism with this endless barrage of useless info that drags down the story, and I've never gotten into it for this particular reason. I got a LotR pack for example, and half the RotK book is the appendix. On and on and on about genealogy and historical accounts and literally what happened each day. I admire the dedication, but it's too much for something I'll forget two days later. And LotR is the pinnacle, so you can imagine my distaste for the rest. I can obviously pick up and play some Dark Souls, I can read about Medieval Germany, I can read the Song Of Roland, I can brush up on some Persian Myths, but why would I drop the time on any made up world?

>dark souls as an 80s fantasy

I left this site around mid 2021 I got married and it was also few months later that I got off my medications for good. Thing is since I got married, I haven't been able to get any reading done and I mean absolutely none. I stopped mid-way Aristotle's organons then started Anna Karenina then literally an entire year without reading a single book while before I had the will to reread the entire aristotle corpus and actually had reading plans and knew what to read next and was excited to do so. Even my desires to watch lectures, videos about occult stuff, biblical themes videos/readings, conspiracies etc.. went through the fucking gutter.
Everything went to shit and my desire to learn was done for the day I got married. At first I thought maybe I don't have much time for myself anymore but I realized that there must be more to it than that.
Why did it have to become like this, she saved me from my dark passenger and helped me get back on my feet and quit meds after years of suffering and two trips to a mental hospital while I got abandoned by everyone else but she sucked away my desire to learn. Now my library is just filled with dusty books and notes in my reading room which literally has broken lightning system that I still never wanted to fix in fucking months.
I even dropped writing my book at around a 100 or so pages. And btw my wife never read it despite me asking her to give me her opinion and fuck her for that.
How do married anons manage it? Are women that much of an evil influence on our souls? Were they sent by the devil or demiurge to prevent us from peeking outside

Previous thread is dead and OP is nowhere to be seen. No matter, I shall take take his mantle and guide this pilgrimage like Virgil.

We read 3 cantos every day, except the first day which is 4 cantos. Today we focus on the 8th to 10th cantos but if any anon wants to join us and comment on previous cantos he is welcome to do so.

I should say that this is my first time reading Dante so I am not particularly knowledgable. If any anon has more experience with his work, he is more than welcome to share his wisdom with us.

8th canto : More obvious fanfiction by dante with one of his personal ennemies drowning in the styx and Virgil praising him. The trip to the city with the flames lighting up from afar and the many devils appearing is very kino though. Kind of feels like enrering a new dark souls area.

9th canto : Virgil speaks about the circle of Judas, I know this is supposed to be the deepest pit of hell. The Furies appear from afar in a terryfing display. Would also be very kino in a dark souls game. The people burning in their tumbs is a striking picture.

10th canto: So the Epicurians are burning huh ? I had no idea they were considered this badly by medieval christians but it makes sense. I have no idea who tf Farinata is and I am too tired to research it; Probably another italian political ennemy. Some more namedropping of ennemies burning in hell, Dante was a based /lit/ autist. The prophecy of the dude in the tumb was pretty kino. Seeing the future but forgetting the present leads, it seems.

Don't let this one die too fast again, I would like to check the answers when I wake up tommorow without having to use the archive.

Post the
>last book you read
>current book you're reading
>next book you plan to read

>Dark Souls: Masque of Vindication while I completed the Xeelee: Resplendent short story collection
>in the last 30% of Xeelee: Redemption now
>Maybe The Lost Metal

Is this the Dark Souls of fantasy literature

And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and
We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, and winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
Then sat we amidships, wind jamming the tiller,
Thus with stretched sail, we went over sea till day’s end.
Sun to his slumber, shadows o’er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands, and peopled cities
Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.
Here did they rites, Perimedes and Eurylochus,
And drawing sword from my hip
I dug the ell-square pitkin;
Poured we libations unto each the dead,
First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with white flour.
Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death’s-heads;
As set in Ithaca, sterile bulls of the best
For sacrifice, heaping the pyre with goods,
A sheep to Tiresias only, black and a bell-sheep.
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead, of brides
Of youths and of the old who had borne much;
Souls stained with recent tears, girls tender,
Men many, mauled with bronze lance heads,
Battle spoil, bearing yet dreory arms,
These many crowded about me; with shouting,
Pallor upon me, cried to my men for more beasts;
Slaughtered the herds, sheep slain of bronze;
Poured ointment, cried to the gods,
To Pluto the strong, and praised Proserpine;
Unsheathed the narrow sword,
I sat to keep off the impetuous impotent dead,
Till I should hear Tiresias.

what are some books with dark souls aesthetic?

I have seen pic related recommended a lot, to people who enjoy the lore of Dark Souls. What am I in for? Is it worth the read?

172
Tragedy and music. - Men whose disposition is fundamentally warlike,
as for example the Greeks of the age of Aeschylus, are hard to move,
and when pity does for once overbear their severity it seizes them like
a frenzy and as though a 'demonic force' - they then feel themselves
under constraint and are excited by a shudder of religious awe.
Afterwards they have their doubts about this condition; but for as
long as they are in it they enjoy the delight of the miraculous and of
being outside themselves, mixed with the bitterest wormwood of
suffering: it is a draught appropriate to warriors, something rare,
dangerous and bitter-sweet that does not easily fall to one's lot. - It is
to souls which experience pity like this that tragedy appeals, to hard
and warlike souls which are difficult to conquer, whether with fear or
with pity, but which find it useful to grow soft from time to time: but
of what use is tragedy to those who are as open to the 'sympathetic
affections' as sails to the winds! When the Athenians had grown
softer and more sensitive, in the age of Plato - ah, but how far they
still were from the emotionality of our urban dwellers! - the
philosophers were already complaining of the harmfulness of
tragedy. An age full of danger such as is even now commencing, in
which bravery and manliness become more valuable, .will perhaps
again gradually make souls so hard they will have need of tragic
poets: in the meantime, these would be a little superfluous - to put it as
mildly as possible.

Also, stop listening to music if you are a pussy:

- For music, too, there may perhaps again come a
better time ( it will certainly be a more evil one!) when artists have to
make it appeal to men strong in them selves, severe, dominated by
the dark seriousness of their own passion: but of what use is music to
the little souls of this vanishing age, souls too easily moved,
undeveloped, half-selves, inquisitive, lusting after everything!

Can someone explain what the fuck this shit is and why people consider it good?
>it's actually set in le future

I can't relate to the braindead protagonist or the weird empty characters whatsoever. I guess the world is Dark Souls-ish which is kind of cool. But the pacing of the plot is just not engaging whatsoever.