/lit/ - Literature

This thread is for people with majors in english, journalism or communications. Do you have a degree in any of these fields? If so, what do you do for work? I have worked a couple jobs since graduating for real estate offices doing their social media and running their web content copy. Both have been boring as fuck and I felt like I was extremely expendable most of the time. It seems the best communications jobs are ones in government where I live, where your writing isn't intended to sell a product but to promote awareness around public services. All experiences welcome

Ironically, both Tolstoy and Shakespeare share one enormous talent in common: the ability to create fictional characters that feel like real people. Consider all the characters of Tolstoy's novels, and all the characters of Shakespeare's plays. They don't feel like "characters," do they? Instead they feel like living, breathing human beings, subject to their own judgment, full of doubt and fear, courage and cowardice, selfishness and gratitude.

Tolstoy and Shakespeare are alike in this talent. It is the mark of the great writers, the true geniuses. To create with words characters who feel as real as if they were flesh and blood. So I don't begrudge Tolstoy his disagreements with Shakespeare. One great genius may have his disagreements with another.

>>19875262
You have us, Anon. We love Shakespeare too. What have you read, and what are you currently reading? And what are your thoughts on it all?

>>19082942
>second most quoted English writer
I only have time for winners.

Was Bolingbroke in the right, bros? Did Richard go too far? Was it a justifiable usurpation?

Can you write a sonnet, /lit/? Can you write a sonnet of which Shakespeare would be proud?

Were the Shakespeare plays really written by William Shakespeare?

>>18582688
cuz dis nigga based

>"Greatest writer in the English language"
>wrote 0 books

What's his best play?

>>18486276
Kind of this.

Think about Shakespeare. Nobody would deny that Shakespeare is high culture, right? But did Shakespeare's own contemporaries view him as "high culture"? Was Shakespeare recognized as this groundbreaking genius in his own time? It really seems like not. Shakespeare was popular and recognized. The King's Men were the most popular theater troup in England by the time of his retirement from playwriting, and Shakespeare even had a reputation on the continent. But was he considered truly great? Was he considered "high culture"? Or was he merely considered clever and entertaining, and perhaps just a particularly interesting example of the long line of Elizabethan English dramatists, along with Marlowe and the rest?

Basically, even artists who are popular in our own time might not have their true value recognized until some decades have passed, or even some centuries. Shakespeare was absolutely popular in his own day, but he was not really considered "high culture" in his own day. Indeed, when he was alive the tastemakers might have even considered him "low culture" because of how popular his plays were with the common people. He did not become "high culture" until more than a century after his death.

Why did Shakespeare portray the assassination of Julius Caesar to be a bad thing? It's pretty obvious that he was ambitious, and needed to be killed

What's a Shakespeare play I should read? I've read a few of them already.

Plays you've read ranked from favorite to least favorite.

>Go, gentleman, every man unto his charge
>Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls:
>Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
>Devised at first to keep the strong in awe:
>Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
>March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell
>If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.

I will never learn another language. I am a proud monolinguist and I adore my Mother tongue above all others, finding her rhythmic mode to be the most immaculate of sanctums.

I pity those not born to this language, the greatest of them all. The envy of all the world (who is obliged to make use of her to have any hope of universal relevancy). Yet how more purely pitiful, yes, and to be scorned, are those born to my language and who then discard this prized possession away to gain knowledge of inferior tongues. A precious pearl, one of a kind, one that is an indefatigable treasure—and these sad cretins decide to trade it for what they think are stores of coin. Keep your filthy lucre. I will do as Shakespeare, Milton, and all great speakers, the masters as I like to call them, of this glorious language have done and keep my priceless English language utterly unsullied.

In light of this, what are the best literary works of the English language so that I might enjoy the linguistic pinnacle of literature's untarnished zenith? Obviously, translations are disqualified; the book must have been created ex-Englo.

Non-native English speakers need not attempt any recommendations or even replies, for they are not truly initiated into the wonders of this glorious language and fail to understand its inherent, absolute beauty.

>>13138510
>learning multiple languages

Yikes
http://theconversation.com/there-are-also-drawbacks-to-being-bilingual-56726


>However, monolinguals were better able than bilinguals to discriminate between when they were right and when they were wrong. In other words, bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolinguals. This went against our initial predictions, as we expected to find a bilingual advantage in metacognitive processing. These results indicate that bilingualism may be associated with cognitive disadvantages as well as benefits.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4865492/

learning additional languages turns you into a fucking NPC

>In other words, bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolingual

Thanks but no thanks.

Let's settle the debate once and for all: Is Shakespeare better read as literature or performed as a play/film?

A genie appears, if you choose an author you magically gain all their writing powers. Who do you choose and why?

screenwriting. do I really need to go into screen writing to become financially successful as a writer? I really just want to write for the stage, beautifully and poetically, but it seems like a dead industry. I will be honest and say I haven't read or seen that many contemporary plays. The only modern playwrights I know are David Mamet and Harold Pinter.

I am a proud monolinguist and I adore my Mother tongue above all others, finding it to be the most immaculate. I will never learn another language.

Non-native English speakers need not attempt any replies, whatsoever, for they are not truly initiated into the wonders of this glorious language and fail to understand its inherent, absolute beauty.

I pity those not born to this language, the greatest of them all. The envy of all the world. Purely pitiful, are those born to my language and then discard this prized possession away to gain knowledge of inferior tongue. A precious pearl, one of a kind, one that is a treasure— and these sad cretins decide to trade it for what they think are stores of coin. Keep your filthy lucre. I will do as Shakespeare, Milton, and all great speakers, the masters as I like to call them, of this glorious language have done and keep my priceless English language utterly unsullied.

I am a proud monolinguist and I adore my Mother tongue above all others, finding it to be the most immaculate. I will never learn another language.

Non-native English speakers need not attempt any replies, whatsoever, for they are not truly initiated into the wonders of this glorious language and fail to understand its inherent, absolute beauty.

I pity those not born to this language, the greatest of them all. The envy of all the world. Purely pitiful, are those born to my language and then discard this prized possession away to gain knowledge of inferior tongue. A precious pearl, one of a kind, one that is a treasure— and these sad cretins decide to trade it for what they think are stores of coin. Keep your filthy lucre. I will do as the Shakespeare, Milton, and all great speakers, the masters as I like to call them, of this glorious language, and keep my priceless language utterly unsullied.

I will never learn another language.
I am a proud monolinguist and I adore my Mother tongue above all others, finding it to be the most immaculate.