/lit/ - Literature

>>9907331
john gardner's grendel. if you're into the idea of a monster wandering the scandinavian wilderness and monologuing about the insipidity of human life, there you go

>>9907331
The Secret Agent, definitely.

Tristam Shandy

>>9907338
I have that book sitting on my desk. I borrowed it from the library on a whim. Is it as good as the critic endorsements make it out?

>>9907439
Epic, foreboding, but also kind of hopeful? Made me think of Robinson Crusoe.

>>9907322

/lit/ is a Catholic board and has been since it's inception. Redditors need not apply. No migrants allowed.

>>9907318
100% this. NT is not story-oriented at all, and it's hard to appreciate it from a literary perspective since Jesus is literally a "can do absolutely no wrong" kind of character.

OT has tons of flawed protagonists, and even the proto-Jesus characters like David had genuine flaws or suspicious circumstances around their greatness.

>>9907306
Old Testament has funny stories. And Jesus is totally a bro.

>>9907318
>>9907448
>Mosh Steinbergowitzgreenbaum

Bible is a 50+ book mega series that is beyond epic and beautiful. Meanwhile the Quran is like a very shitty novella .

i've only ever read philosophical texts out of my own volition

i think german idealism is cool

>>9907241
t. frogposter who shitposts in every thread about poetry
>yo poetry is for dumb people everyone can write a poem lol suck my dick yo

Endymion was a mistake

>dude I'm in love with a messiah who's literally cucking me with the entire cosmos lmao
>dude the Shrike getting beat up by a girl lmao

>>9907224
But she wasn't. She was completely faithful to him. She cucked him with his future-self in any case. It's Rachel whose the whore.
>cucks Melio with Kassad

>>9907215
Robertson Davies' What's bred in the Bone- or why not the entire Cornish Trilogy? Clearly, youve got the time.

John the Posthumous by Jason Schwartz

>>9907215
also
>new england
>neighbours
nice try guy

Essential geriatricore

English translation is ''Ancient Tillage'', by Raduan Nassar. There's other great Brazilian novels but this one is particularly neat.

/lit/ would love this book

>super dense, difficult and poetic prose
>incest
>is a lot about being a weirdo and a disappointment to your family
>the author is a reclusive mysterious figure who quit literature after writing 2 books
>it's also about incest

>>9907172
My take is that "show, don't tell" means, instead of writing "John felt sad", you expand and unpack the "felt sad", to make the sad-feeling vital, palpable, real.

A lot of children's stories, as well as stories that are over 800 years old, tend to tell a lot more than more contemporary ones. For good examples of telling, folk tales, Dr Seuss, the narrative parts of the Bible.

Good examples of showing can be found in modernist fiction, though some people would say that some modernists go overboard. To The Lighthouse, imho, is an excellent example of showing, without showing too much.

I hate wise men because they are lazy, cowardly, and prudent. To the philosophers' equanimity, which makes them indifferent to both pleasure and pain, I prefer devouring passions. The sage knows neither the tragedy of passion, nor the fear of death, nor risk and enthusiasm, nor barbaric, grotesque, or sublime heroism. He talks in proverbs and gives advice. He does not live, feel, desire, wait for anything. He levels down all the incongruities of life and then suffers the consequences. So much more complex is the man who suffers from limitless anxiety. The wise man's life is empty and sterile, for it is free from contradiction and despair. An existence full of irreconcilable contradictions is so much richer and creative. The wise man's resignation springs from inner void, not inner fire. I would rather die of fire than of void.

>>9907216
>>9907225
Its normal to be self-conscious about such a tender post anon, the spelling won't matter to anyone else though.

My grandfather died a few days ago. He was in his 90s and had Alzheimers, and I regret, maybe too conceitedly, the way people in my family, loving as we were, treated him as a bit of an oaf and a fool. I can't imagine what it was like to live the life he did. He was so erudite and articulate before his dementia set in apparently, though I never really got to know him that way. All I knew was the silly old man who mumbled words, said embarrassing things and would close his eyes and conduct with his hands if you played classical music for him. I remember a framed sketch he had of Goethe, and all his busts and books of Churchill.

>>9907220
Thats what existentialism is all about. Its about action, not solid contemplation. Although thats not bad in of it self. But those rotten nihilist in their NEET solitude who in their existential depression do not see a purpose or point of life, you are not gonna find it in your books. You are gonna find it in your personal struggle in your personal life. Who knows what would have happened if you had taken upon your self the mission of sorting out your personal relationships and all that bad karma in your life that you are both the receiver and creator of and being a moral upstanding guy.

People are simple creatures with simple needs (although there are individual differences in temper and traits), and if you get your needs covered chances are that you are gonna be somewhat happy or at least content instead of bitter and depressed. If you as an animal can get resources, secure a mate, get some social status and all that, its gonna have positive effects on your hormonal and chemical systems and you are gonna feel good.

Get your shit in order in life and maybe its not that bad at all. The real challenge of life is not letting the shit get you corrupt and resentful. I wish someone would have told me this years ago.

>>9907203
nobody likes to hear excuses

>>9907170
>just being a generally solid dude with good moral values and a good social circle
that's all positively correlated with intelligence though.
if what you're saying is that intelligence (and some superficial understanding of philosophy, literature or whatever) ALONE isn't sufficient for living a good life then yeah, this is obviously the case.

>>9907159
OP, do you have the "virgin religion vs chad spirituality" edition of this meme? It's similar to this

>>9907159
>>9907342
Kill yourselves

>>9907349
Shut up bitch

>>9907263
Try the Pickwick Papers

>>9907268
>stay celibate for 7 years only to emerge on the scene a stable, emotionally healthy adult who is ready for love

>>9907274
when i said wait, i didn't literally mean sit on your ass for 7 years

>>9907274
It's actually easier than you think

Get good at something, become a tutor, pick up younger uncorrupted qt's and shape them into your waifu

Also look good

If you don't then suck a fuck

>>9907237
>? would you date your betamax ass i
This is a retarded cop out, though, only used by persons who actually have to try desperately hard to get laid, which is not far above being a virgin imo.

The fact is that the two sexes are constituted differently and, therefore, societal checks are necessary to maintain a balance between the virtues and vices of them. In a too male society, women are treated as second rate men and their rights are abridged. In a too female society, men are thrust into an anarchic competition for female attention and what ensues is the degeneration of romantic love into lust at worst and mere practical compromise at best.

>>9907109
Despite that it's fairly base and plebian by /lit/'s standards, Bad Behaviour, by Mary Gaitskill, cuts deep into dysfunctional relationships in 80s America, with grace, power and depth that I've not seen anywhere else.
Also: depictions of BDSM relationships that do not glorify or demonize.

The characters in Dubliners are more real than most people I know.

>>9907105
The Idiot is probably the most under-appreciated Dostoevsky novel

nothing matters bro so have to make everyone at comfortable as possible and you do that with profit

>>9907105
Holy fuck, I'm into slave morality now!

>>9907608
Believing in the myth of progress is the new slave morality though...

I am just interested about your opinions on this subject. So I will put some art to up the thread, if you don't mind. Btw English is my foreign language.

Actually my own opinion is that the edge between real things and illusions is very subtle. So you can say, that there is the great world behind your room, but in the same time the same great world is inside the same room.

I have almost nothing to do so bump.

Here are my most recent stacks

>>9907059
Being and time is kino, also not nearly as hard as people make out.
>>9907463
If for some reason you know french, pick up en entant Godot, i think the humor rings through a bit better in that.

My current stack, it's about 3/4 finished.

If hard drugs make you happy, yeah.

hard drugs can't and won't make you happy

Shit, that file size is stupid. Have a lightweight jpg.

>>9907039
What are the major differences between the denominational editions? The text is the same but the notes are different?

>>9907072
The Shiite and Salafi translations rely heavily on commentaries from their respective traditions to translate the meaning. But the biggest difference is the notes, the Shia one has notes on Shiite doctrine and observance and biased notes on Islamic history. The Salafi one is similarly biased, but towards Salafism of course. The notes of the Sufi translation reflect more mystical interpretations though the translation itself is relatively non-biased.