/lit/ - Literature

where does literature go next? what will be the next big movement? is po-mo dead? is new sincerity real?
opinions?

Are there any free uni courses I can take online in literature?

I want to learn and read all about the different literature movements throughout the ages.

Dear /lit/,
Have you ever read a book that woke you up, pulled your head out of your ass, motivated or inspired you to elevate yourself out of whatever situation you were in at the time? I'm not necessarily talking about some philosophy or self-help book, but rather something you related to on a deep enough level that precipitated positive change in the way you went about living?

What is literature?

What isn't literature?

hey /lit/, how about a literature thread?

I need help /lit/
It's my senior year in highschool, and I'm taking AP Lit. Unfortunately, in order to get a good understanding in the subject, I'll have to understand pentameter. This includes iambic pentameter, iamb, trochee, spondee, etc. I know their definitions, I just don't understand them. Can someone please explain it?

/lit/, I come to you today with a serious request. I am facing a crisis over pursuing the arts (mainly writing, painting, poetry) as opposed to the sciences (mathematics, physics). Can you recommend any books/texts/essays that are persuasive in giving value to the arts as a perfectly wonderful pursuit, and not something 'fake' or useless. When placed against the logic and rationality of the natural sciences, the arts need a very good defense--and that's what I'm asking you for, in the hope that it will convince me of the value (of writing, say), and the value of the "truths" that are obtained through it.

Any short texts, essays, etc. will be fabulous. Even books that you think really bring out the value in arts (esp. literature) and are convincing. Or, if you have the time to, please write down your opinions and try and convince me? Thanks a lot, /lit/

Why do we study literature?

I'm having a hard time answering this question adequately, and it's making me want to kill myself.

Every answer I can come up with is self-serving or pointless, and the more I think about it the more I hate myself as a human being for choosing to study it.

Is there ANY legitimate reason to study literature, or are we just being brainless hedonists masturbating en masse?

I want to strengthen my grasp of English.

To be specific, I want to improve my writing skills and my ability to analyse and criticise books.

What are the best ways to do this?
Any text book recommendations?

I would take a college course in English if I wasn't already in a computer science course. I have started writing a diary to practice and I read a lot but I have yet to notice any improvement. Perhaps I'm simply being impatient; I really am ignorant of the learning process.
I should also mention that English is, in fact, my first language.

Even Kings
wipe their asses,
and put their pants on
one leg at a time

Need help with an assignment for school. I need to take 2 works of literature and pull 5 plus sentences from each and then make the pulled sentences into a coherent text which i can then turn into graphics. Any ideas or suggestions would be wonderful

When we gaze up into the milky way, something touches upon a very sensitive part of us. A girl had her hand on my genitals. It was good. The universe feels you with a great sense of wonder and dread. Would I be able to hold off cumming into her mouth momentarily? I hope so. For my sake and hers.

Hello, I've always read books, but they were never anything with real substance. I've been trying to get into real literature, but,unfortunately, I am not very smart and fail to find deeper meanings in books and truly enjoy them the way other people do. This may be to me being relatively young, I am about to become a sophomore in high school, but I still want to get into literature. I don't know where to start though. If some of you would be so kind to recommend me some books that would be a good place to start. If anyone cares about what preferences I have in book, I do prefer science fiction books, but I do no want to limit my self to new experiences. So here is a list of some books I am currently reading or recently acquired:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ( I thoroughly enjoyed this, but I hear it is a mediocre Phillip K. Dick novel so I am looking into some other of his works)
Dune
The Road (I just started this and Dune.)
1984
The Odyssey

Please no trolls. I am looking for some serious help.

As long as it's summer I have lots of spare time.
I decided to start a reading crusade.
>I already have Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses
>Steinback's Grapes of Wrath
>Whole Lovecraft literature
>Mein Kampf. wat? yes.
>Also willing to get Dante's Divine Comedy, -Kafka The Metamorphosis and The Trial, whole Poe's literature, etc
>What should I add to my to-read list? I'm expecting Proust, Hemingway, Faulkner amongst others.
TL;DR if such thing exists in /lit/ what classic books to read before I die.

/lit/, this is it, i don't think i can come to this site any more, especially this board. Not with the shit i'm facing right now. I am getting fucked over for something i didn't even fucking do. So I'm sorry /lit/, i know you all love me and for many i was a shining beacon of hope, justice and truth. Something of a role model, a Jesus figure if you will, but i'm going to have to leave for a few weeks at least.

I recently got a job teaching Eng Lit to students in a high school a few times a week, more work experience than anything but it came with a decent pay which was a bonus. I've been doing it for like, maybe 6 months max so far? So i got a job at this private boys school which had the best pay and wasn't too far from my University.

The other people in the English department were fucking idiots, they had just tons of shit books but i tried to make do, the thing that irritated me though was that the kids started to love the class when i was teaching them! And i wanted them to be reading 'better' or 'more advanced' stuff so they could enjoy it even more, stuff that would actually challenge them. Before I showed up, these boys couldn't speak for themselves. They just followed whatever their rich parents told them to do and were being trained to be the country's next so-right-wing party they would think they shat marble. They only thought in politics, math, science, and history.

They thought literature, poetry, and art were basically for faggots, with no real meaning in the outside world they were hurriedly preparing for. I changed that in them. They couldn't get enough of it. Then one of my students revived one of the school's old clubs and from there the shit really hit the fan.
(cont)

/lit/ I need some help

What is a good American poem I can do research on?

Thnkz

Hey /lit/
I'm trying to write a short story concerned with the idea of belonging and not belonging for an assignment. This is what I have so far. Feel free to provide your evaluation and any tips on how to improve it.

The alarm didn’t echo through the suburban pit.
The wife didn’t nag for her pills.
The kids didn’t avert their gaze from a hypnotic cartoon.

I didn’t rush to the office and smirk at the sarcastically topical comments of a morning paper.
Nor was I caught in the inevitable jams which ensure even the freeway isn’t free anymore.

The signs didn’t direct me.
The billboards didn’t perplex me.
The gravity defying pants of today’s hipster youth didn’t confuse me.

But a mother still cooked, cleaned and embodied the future.
A newspaper still connected the alienated.
A company still killed the imagination.

All without my help.

Do you write /lit/?
If that is the case, how do you do when you just sit down and write?
I usually cook up a lot of short stories in my mind, word for word and think that they sound interesting but I just never try to write something, it feels like that if I would try to write it down it would all just fade.

Maybe it is because that when I actually do write it down I become disappointed in how extremely shitty the stuff that i write is.

Hey /lit/ can you guys suggest some books (preferably fiction) that will make me think, teach me stuff, possibly change my views on things, and/or make me reexamine my life. Two random examples would be Sophie's World (interesting story and teaches about philosophy) and 1984 (introduces the concept of Big Brother, and makes me paranoid). I looked in the recommended reading link, but it doesn't really discuss this kind of thing. Your suggestions are appreciated, thank you.

So, /lit/. A couple of questions.

If you are in the middle of reading a book, which one?
What is the last book you read in it's entirety?
Which book is physically closest to you right now?

Do you guys know if anyone over at demonoid took down the torrent for the giant ass 100GB collection of books?

Any of the links I click on just take me to a page that says It was deleted by the owner or moderator.

There are two literature courses I'm considering taking next semester, but I'm not sure what to except in terms of the reading. Could those of you who have taken these classes or ones similar to them tell me what books I'll most likely have to read?The courses are: Modern Asian Literature and Science Fiction. I assume Haruki Murakami for the Asian Lit one, but I really don't know any other modern Asian writers. And the science fiction class would probably be writers like Philip Dick and Arthur C. Clarke? I don't really read science fiction, but I'm interested in the class.

tl;dr: What can I expect to read from a course entitled Modern Asian Literature and a Science Fiction course?

Thanks guys.

Hey /lit/ I'm a long time lurker and a first time poster. I'm looking for a nonfiction book that has "social, ideological, historical, scientific, political, economic, or psychological implication." I'm looking for any piece of nonfiction. I don't really care about the length because I love reading as long as it is written well. It would be really helpful if you can give me some reccomendations. Thanks.

/lit/ I have no fucking idea what to read next.
please give me suggestions

here are the last 10 books I've read:

steppenwolf by herman hesse
the illustrated man by ray bradbury
the beach by alex garland
white noise by don delillo
atlas shrugged by rand
the time machine by hg wells
welcome to the monkey house by vonnegut
the diving bell and the butterfly by bauby
white fang by jack london
the call of the wild by jack london
into the wild by jon krakauer