/lit/ - Literature

>>14163193
Well, why should it be bad or juvenile that they stand in for concepts? In fact it seems the best and most intelligent way to write, since universal ideas have more value than particular individuals.
>To venture out and conquer or to make peace with the forces of good so they can conquer the baddies...
Why should this be bad, or shallow? One might say, that this is not how virtue and vice appear to us in reality, but a work does not necessarily have to explain how to distinguish between the two - it might instead focus on how vice is overcome, as Tolkien seems to do.
>It’s okay. I like LotR fine.
Personally, I was never a fan - but that's neither here nor there.

What are the best epics to read? I've read the Iliad, Gilgamesh, and the Shahnameh. Where next?