/lit/ - Literature

>>20437025
It's been a long time since i've read any fantasy, but i remember Gormenghast and Mythago Wood being pretty good. For high fantasy, maybe Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. For christiankino, Saint Augustine's Confessions if you haven't already.

ppl r replying to anything i post rn

>>14715537
>read contrarian literature
>become sincere
problem solved

>>14430725
if you're so smart, tell me where in the brain the soul resides

What are your top 10 philosophical works?

>>14328456
the end note of my edition suggest it comes from the myth of the phoenician hero cadmus, who founded thebes. but that isn't really important. the part you are currently at is called "the noble lie", which is an interesting part of plato's republic. there can be many interpretations of the section, because the republic plays fast and loose with it's conceit of the city as allegory for the individual. the mythology itself is clearly based on hesiod's five ages, but that too isn't really important. The lie itself is suggesting that the philosopher king is infused with gold, the guardians with silver, and the craftsman/peasants with bronze & iron. you should also precisely note that socrates is explicitly calling it a lie, which makes it more interesting. in this case, you should ask: what is the meaningful difference between someone believing that their selection and education was an institutional process of deliberation, or whether that was merely a dream and that their position in society is actually a result of intrinsic characteristics (being infused with gold, silver, bronze & iron) ordained by god? the answer, of course, is that people need some form of justification for accepting their place in the social hierarchy: the noble lie is a deliberate deception to produce social stability. the further implication is that a form of justification based on what is "natural" or "divine" is far better at creating long-term, or perhaps any, social order than one contingent on reason and rationality, and hence scrutiny by the self-same method (whereas what is natural or divine is inscrutable). what plato essentially presents is an ideology, suggesting that it is necessary for a political community to function. the ideology serves to unite the city as a single people (all brothers derived from the earth), who accept their position in society and work for the betterment of the city rather than just themselves. what is interesting in this is the knowledge that this is a lie: quite the contrast with the supposed "rule of reason" which the philosopher-king is meant to represent, it seems contradictory. actually, i'm not quite sure what to make of that, i'll have to think about it. anyway, i hope that rambling helped clear up some confusion (it probably didn't).

no worries king, got a kick out of your posts. see ya tomorrow