/lit/ - Literature

ITT: post keyed writers

Who writes the best characters?

What makes movies such an inferior medium compared to literature?

How exactly do you become a "great" writer? Is it a skill that you hone through many years of practice, or just natural talent where you're either born with it or you're not? Take Tolstoy for example: he never professionally studied literature as his career, he was a military man, and already in his 20s was producing works of tremendous merit. What about Tolstoy made him great, and how did he achieve it?

Which century produced the best literature? For me it's a tie between 1800s and 1600s.

>creating art without a blunt moral message is... le bad

The Alpha of Awe. The Brute of Brawn. The Cultivator of Class. The Duke of Domination. The Emperor of Eloquence. The Fiercest of Fighters. The Greatest of Glory. The Height of Heroism. The Imperator of Intellectualism. The Jarl of Justice. The King of Knights. The Lord of Loquaciousness. The Master of Mortality. The Naysayer of Noobs. The Overlord of Obituaries. The Prince of Passion. The Que-hagen of Quixote. The Ruler of Ruination. The Sultan of Smite. The Taskmaster of Trembles. The Undertaker of Ubiquity. The Vaeyen of Vociferousness. The Warranter of Weaklings. The Xenophobe of Xenogeny. The Yardmaster of Yesteryear. The Zhar of Zoroastrianism.

ENTER

LEO TOLSTOY

Believe it or not, Tolstoy was the first major feminist writer

>>18257511
call center employee, i don’t hate it but by the end on the year i want to make art for a living

>>17932535
The Alpha of Awe. The Brute of Brawn. The Cultivator of Class. The Duke of Domination. The Emperor of Eloquence. The Fiercest of Fighters. The Greatest of Glory. The Height of Heroism. The Imperator of Intellectualism. The Jarl of Justice. The King of Knights. The Lord of Loquaciousness. The Master of Mortality. The Naysayer of Noobs. The Overlord of Obituaries. The Prince of Passion. The Que-hagen of Quixote. The Ruler of Ruination. The Sultan of Smite. The Taskmaster of Trembles. The Undertaker of Ubiquity. The Vaeyen of Vociferousness. The Warranter of Weaklings. The Xenophobe of Xenogeny. The Yardmaster of Yesteryear. The Zhar of Zoroastrianism.

ENTER

LEO TOLSTOY

>>15885019

He owned slaves (serfs). I can't respect him.

“I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.”

What was his fucking problem?

> That glad, happy air, that winsome sky, did at last stroke and caress him; the step-mother world, so long cruel- forbidding- now threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck, and did seem to joyously sob over him, as if over one, that however wilful and erring, she could yet find it in her heart to save and to bless. From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.

Holy fuck. This shit made me tear up. Moby-Dick is absolute top-tier literature. What other novels are even on the same playing field as this behemoth? Can Tolstoy even?

I started actually reading this summer after not reading a book for 10 years. Among the books that really rekindled my interest was notes from underground. Since to my surprise I enjoyed it a ton (I was always led to think russian books were big and boring only for people that wanted to look smart), I decided to continue reading more Russian stuff. I enjoyed C&P and then decided to try some other author, starting of course with Tolstoy.

I started with the short stories and novellas and started reading the P&V collection, now read the prisoner in the Caucasus, diary of a madman, Ivan Ilyich and kreutzer sonata. While I enjoyed what I read for now, I honestly can't stand the pervading moralizing tone. I read a bit about Tolstoy's life and thought and Jesus Christ (literally), this guy is obsessed with Christianity and it shows. All his stories feel like they could be parables in the bible. It feels like I'm listening to a priest preaching, just in a well written book form. It's kinda annoying.

Like, Dosto was Christian too but the extent is completely different. This Tolstoy guy is OBSESSED. Is Anna Karenina the same? I plan to read it either way but I'm curious. I know his short stories come in great part from the period where he really went ham with Christianity.

>>12581934
You don’t want being a cheater or accomplice-to-the-cheater on your conscience anon, trust me. You may think yourself an ubermensch and that you can decide for yourself what is right. You’re wrong. Even if you marry the girl (highly unlikely), she’ll know what you are. She won’t have to ever say it, you’ll always be able to see a little sliver of it in her eyes. Maybe one day you’ll have a daughter, and when she gets older she’ll ask you “What’s the worst thing you ever did?” And you’ll know what it is, and she’ll know too, even if you don’t say it, she will. The biggest meme the devil ever pulled was letting us believe we can ever get away with a lie. We never ever really do.