/lit/ - Literature

>>23353603
>Unprovided with original learning, unformed in
>the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of
>composition, I resolved to write a book.
You missed the next tier after Tolkien, OP.

Which non-fiction writers had the best prose?

>>22419711
I'd love to agree, however I'm afraid that this is what he looked like.

>*is the superior fatty in you're path*

*mogs*

>>21590008
>dude christianity caused the death of Rome!!! OMG those pesky christian chads fucked my girlfriend too btw

Is the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire worth reading?

Even though Gibbon disliked Christianity, he probably provides some of the best criticisms for paganism in his works.


> Pagan superstition lacked a systematic ideational structure and hence was not philosophically defensible. Gibbon characterized the "temper" of polytheism as "loose and careless," while of its substance, Hume says, that it "seemed to vanish like a cloud, whenever one approached to it, and examined it piecemeal." (NHR, 75) Since the attachment to the ancient superstitions was based on tradition rather than on an arguable rationale, the vulnerability of this attachment became obvious with the appearance of rival religionists, armed not only with polemical weapons but with a superior confidence in their faith born of a fanatical intensity of emotion. Moreover, paganism was less suited than Christianity to endure persecution since the efficacy of idolatrous pagan worship was tied closely to its visible symbols and its rituals. These symbols and rituals, as Gibbon notes, while useful in translating the abstractions of religious belief into a more concrete object of worship, are also vulnerable. "The popular modes of religion that propose any visible and material objects of worship have the advantage of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the senses of mankind; but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is exposed. It is scarcely possible that, in every disposition of mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence for the idols or the relics which the naked eye and the profane hand are unable to distinguish from the most common productions of art or nature; and, if, in the hour of danger, their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priest, and justly derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious attachment." (DF-28, III, 213)

Edward Gibbon was a Freemason. That says it all.

> spends most of his book on the Roman Empire shit talking the Catholic Church for being intolerant and how it caused the fall of the Roman Empire
> later gets shocked and upset by the French Revolution and the resulting overthrow of the Catholic Church and declaration of religious freedom

>>18402148
>where is it
Declined and fell after converting to Christianity.

When and why did historians forget how to write well?

Is this peak historical writing?

Is there any great historiogaphical work like Gibbon or Mommsen's Rome in the Spanish language?

Perhaps something like the Expedicion catalana a oriente, or the Araucania but more (neo)classical and scientifically historic?

>>16551048
I think old Gibbon beats him

>>15947932

Is experience needed for great writing? Could Melville have written Moby Dick without experience as a whaler? Could Dickens have written about poverty without being in it? Could Dostoyevsky have written about suffering so much if he was a happy guy?

What are your views on 'instapoetry'? I'm not expecting anyone to actually enjoy the poems (they're objectively dreadful), but how about the impact it has on literature as a market and movement? Let's be honest, poetry is dying and becoming something only written by pseuds, so maybe the mass-media bullshit is saving poetry from an early grave.

Thicco Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

What are the most /lit/ non-fiction pieces, philosophy and religious texts not included (so no bible-posters).
I'd probably guess The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire or one of the Greek/Roman non-fiction pieces (maybe Herodotus').

As far as beautiful prose goes, Edward Gibbon almost has Johnson beat. Check out the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" some time, it's a masterpiece.

Really, that whole era, the English Enlightenment, was a golden age for style.

>>12012878
What you want, OP, is Gibbon.

Apparently it's just a histrionic rehashing of the stuff Gibbon wrote in his Decline and Fall more than 200 years ago. And Gibbon has better prose.

>>11175734
I'm saying the West has been reduced to nihilistic barbarism and emptiness of spirit, just as it was in the waning days of pagan Rome. And so it needs to be destroyed in the name of preventing further evil, just as pagan Rome was destroyed.