/lit/ - Literature

>>9791336
"The Dead" by James Joyce. It is arguably the one of the truly great short stories in the English language.

>>9789020
People want philosophy to be easy; to be made out of easily remembered maxims and small wisdoms. To ask for a favourite Nietzsche quotation is like asking what is my favourite sentence by Joyce. I could name you one, but it is a petty question, and I would much rather tell you what my favourite book or short story would be.

>>9792942
>>9792982
Oh so it's one of these sort of books. I hope you wrote it well because books with similar premises are dime-a-dozen. Perhaps, instead of rushing to the publisher, spend some time asking for critiques and refining your work, because from your premise alone, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself from the multitudes of similar genre fiction.

>>9792536
Kafka did not write for high literature. He wrote largely for himself, and did not expect to be remembered after his time. A simple analogy that hides a deeper metaphor, such as this case, where Gregor essentially commits suicide because of his burden to his family, is representational of the sad lives of men that Kafka knew; men who had no self-worth and were forced into subservient labour within a bureaucracy with no hope of escape.

>>9792909
Postmodernism is the questioning of the foundations of value systems, and has understandably, for example, eroded the basis of aesthetic value in favour of cultural representation because of its claim that the value of aesthetic merit is a Western concept, and hence has no basis when comparing works of other cultures. In essence, it is a black hole.

>>9791818
Discipline is key. Take breaks at first, and slowly build your attention span. Read the book with an audiobook recording to keep a steady reading pace, and x2 the speed if necessary.

>>9793031
The Beatles, for example, took drugs such as LSD and were hence inspired to produce albums such as Magical Mystery Tour. (Though they obviously did not record while high) However, other musicians such as Frank Zappa, who was arguably just as creative as the Beatles, swore off the use of drugs as enhancers of talent. The common element between them is that both groups possessed talent beforehand. Drugs may enhance creativity by relaxation, as did Eddie Hazel on the titular Maggot Brain guitar solo (one of the greatest guitar solos), but talent has to be native first. Otherwise, there's nothing to enhance.

>>9792240
I disagree. Compare him to the banalities of pop, both now and then, and the band exceeds either. As far as songwriters go, few have beaten him, and those who have, genuinely reflect a greater skill.

>>9792499
I have enjoyed reading Moby Dick, and its length has never intimidated me. It's a harpoon, so to speak, into the world of whaling that has long passed, and the metaphor of the whale, with its terror and strength projected by Ahab as monstrous, is a metaphor that will persist for centuries beyond its publishing.

>>9789756
He has read nearly every book of conceivable value, and far more than anyone, whether academic or layman, will ever read in five lifetimes. Instead of shrugging the worth of the man because of his weight, consider shrugging him for his dogmatic love of Shakespeare as an infallible deity of literature.

>>9789082
I usually listen to audiobooks if only to speed up my reading. Going on YouTube and listening to an 8-hour 300+ page book, and pressing x2, I can guarantee that I will finish the book by that day as long as I hold my reading. It ensures that you'll read at a steady pace, and it's a good technique for wanting to clear books because both audio and visual senses are tapped into.

>>9791411
Lear is overrated. Macbeth and Hamlet are superior plays. However, his greatest play is Othello. If the Ancient Greeks assembled the skeleton of drama, Shakespeare added the organs and the muscles. And if Shakespeare added the organs and the muscles, Eugene O'Neill added the skin and the texture.

>>9789470
Word of advice: do not skimp on the production and ensure that your lines are original and not too derivative. Step one foot ahead the rest. Best of luck.

>>9789462
The questions for a good thread have to be broad enough to incite a variety of replies, and yet specific enough such that the thread does not devour itself in confusion. But what is more important, however, is that the questions be vital and pressing, and that they open possibilities to how they might be answered. Happy that you enjoyed the thread :)

>>9785266
I'll take that as a compliment. The trick is to ask good questions, and once they're answered, ask more good questions.

>>9780069
>>9780097
>>9780142
>>9780116
>>9780167

What I am more interested in is what it will be in service of. It is not simply exploring what the medium will have to offer in terms of presentation, but what only the medium can capture. If the Internet is a new artistic medium, do we have any conception about what it will be able to capture? Something distinct from any other medium?

For example, will the Digital Age make the canvas obsolete because it can be rendered on a screen? Will the cursor replace the brush? Will the screen replace the canvas?

>>9780006
What are the tangible benefits of writing only for the Internet? Where do you think the next revolution in presentation will be, and in what form?

What do you think of public ignorance with regards to literature and art? If we are to commit ourselves to any movement or belief on how to move forward, should we pander to the tastes of the illiterate and the unexposed?

This is not a plea for elitism, but should we not attempt to raise standards than bow to the lowering of them? We would become conformists and not visionaries.

>>9779456
I intend to write something about it. I just need to know where we are.

>>9779280
Are there any contemporary writers who have confronted such issues?

>>9777448
>>9778761

>>9778560
>>9778717

The embrace of multiculturalism VS the retainment of ethnic identity

Pop Culture VS the Counter-Culture

Are these dichotomies the two great challenges of our age?

>>9777256
>>9777281
Have novels become obsolete because of the limitations of their expression? Or are they becoming obsolete because people lack the time to read them at length?

What genres do you think will emerge in the 21st Century? What is our great movement? Where will literature go?

The flourish of genre fiction is a dead end and will lead us nowhere. If anything, it may encourage wider readership but not a deeper readership as books by writers such as James Patterson and J. K. Rowling continue to dominate the market.

The truth is that most people don't read very deeply, and there is little education to point them towards greater literature. With all the talk about Post-Modernism in the universities, would we see a decline of interest in the Western Canon by the public in favour of multi-cultural literature regardless of aesthetic merit?