/lit/ - Literature

>>16498124
The Complete Works of Plato. Not in the entire weekend of course... currently at Menexenus. I've read Passion of the Western Mind, which is an amazing book on western philosophy - and then I read The Courage to Be Disliked. Both of these books pointed to the ancient Greeks as the next place to go. So far, Socrates is the hypothetical "man", if you catch my meaning.

>>16498139
Based

>>16498124
I switch too much lol hopefully finish a kant secondary

read the iliad and now i'm over halfway done with the odyssey

that part where telemachus sees odysseus for the first time got me so emotional ;;

>>16498124
I've completed pic related. Currently reading Society and economy in colonial Connecticut, it's dry reading. I will be done with it by the end of the day.

>>16498644
wow anon, what a small reading list

>>16498647

>>16498124
Histories by Herodotus.
I've just finished book 1 and am enjoying it. I like hearing about the different ancient cultures of Persians, Assyrians, Hellens, etc. Also the little stories that intertwine with the greater history are also fun. Like the guy who rode a dolphin to Italy.

>>16498536
Homer always gets me emotional like nothing else

>>16498987
Based, I'm finishing the book this weekend too. It's quite a long book (twice the length of Odyssey) and he can ramble and get distracted, but I came to appreciate him a lot and I really love the book by now.

>>16498124
The Poor Mouth by Flann O'Brien. Joyce be damned, O'Brien is at least his equal. It's a short comedy in his usual absurd style, but moreso a satire on Ireland - especially the Gaelic language and revival

Platon (Theaetetus) and Herodotos (book 3). Finished the complete Sophokles this morning by reading Antigone. The Tragedians and Herodotos give a lot of insight that I wish I had when reading Homer. I think I'm gonna reread the early Plato dialogues and the Iliad once I'm done with the rest of the Greeks

>>16499015
I got an Everyman’s Library collection of O’Brien and did not regret it.surprised he isn’t mentioned more on lit

Im reading Adlers how to read a book, which is really dry but I can definitely feel it having a positive impact on my reading, so I keep reading it at about 20 pages a day or so,

I'm also reading Foucaults the history of sexuality volume 1, which is a pretty interesting read I'm trying to go way slower with,

Finally I'm reading Moby Dick and Smiths Only Forward when the non fictions have given me too much to think about

Une Saison en Enfer by Arthur Rimbaud. This motherfucker simply inverts all christian mysticism's symbols. Incredible. A true masterpiece.

>>16498124
Waiting for Godot, for some dumb assignment.
At first I thought it was hilarious and didn't understand why people think it's boring to read. Now I'm about to finish it and it's giving me a headache.

>>16499106
damn I have it too and you guys make me wanna read it. I started At swim and got turned off because I didn't get any of the Irish mythology. Sell me on him (I do like Joyce).

>>16498124
stoner i dont really read books but i like it

Models, the dating book. I never read a dating book before but I figure I should read at least one. So far it’s talking about how to show emotion when you are around others, I guess as a way of showing your personality as opposed to not exposing yourself for fear of being negatively judged. But in order to be positively judged you have to risk being negatively judged.

The First Philosophers. Really easy, accessible read. Currently on Gorgias


>Gorgias, from Leontini in Sicily, was classified in antiquity (T1) and, if T2 is accurate, thought of himself too, as a rhetorician, a teacher of rhetoric and composer-speaker of model (epideictic) speeches. He was the most innovative orator of his time, and may be regarded as the first true prose stylist. But opinions about his style differed even in antiquity. In his own day, he seems to have been found very impressive, but even a generation later he began to acquire the reputation which has stayed with him ever since, of being overflorid and excessive in many ways. T1 and T3–5 mention some of the rhetorical techniques he introduced, and F1 and F2 1 display some of them at work. And we hear elsewhere of ghastly figures of speech, such as avoiding the everyday word ‘vulture’ in favour of ‘living tomb’. Although most contemporary writers managed to avoid the excesses of his style and diction, certain features which he introduced or made popular were adopted, and are still with us today––things like antithesis, triplets, the gradual accumulation of numbers of syllables in phrases towards a climax, rhetorica questions. But the majority of the poetic features he introduced into prose have vanished.

>>16499141
I'd recommend starting with The Third Policeman, it's a joy to read from start to finish and doesn't weigh so heavily on Irish mythology and satire of Irish life as At Swim. At Swim is fantastic in it's own right, it's not as good a comedy as The Third Policeman, but it's still very enjoyable as an exploration of a young writer trying to make it in the world (a recurring theme which much of /lit/ would find relatable, O'Brien was unfortunately overlooked commercially in his time and never quite got the success he wanted - remaining a civil servant for most of his life). I'd definitely compare At Swim to Dubliners, but with a more idiosyncratic structure as seperate tales from the same culture are gradually interweaved - each contributing to some small, absurd, understanding of what life and the people were like in 20thC Ireland. Anyway, read The Third Policeman, you won't regret it

>>16499140
Godot is one of the greats I hate the most.

>>16498124
I've been reading greek dramas this week, and today I've read "The Clouds". If the other accounts of Socrates that we have are correct then Aristophanes greatly misrepresented him in his work. At least some of the exchanges were funny and it was a more entertaining read than e.g. the stuff of Euripides that I've read.

>>16499257
Also, forgot to post this info I've found on wikipedia:
>There is a famous story, as reported for example by Aelian, according to which Socrates cheerfully rose from his seat during the performance of The Clouds and stood in silent answer to the whispers among foreigners in the festival audience: "Who is Socrates?"
The absolute unit

Got a few books going right now.
Have been chipping away at Les Miserables for a while and just started really getting back into it. I’m about halfway now. The book is sublime.
The Bell Curve as well, which is really just a bunch of interesting factoids about intelligence and its role in American society.
Decline of the West Vol 1, which is really hard to read but incredible when I can actually focus and understand at least parts of what he’s saying.
And finally, I read and take notes on about a chapter of Nicomachean Ethics every night, and I think it has made me a better critical thinker

A pleasant yet slow read. It’s mostly seen from the viewpoint of a middle aged Sicilian Nobleman trying to adjust to garribaldi’a invasion and the transformation of his old Kingdom of Sicily to part of the brand new country of Italy. It’s pretty detailed in his appreciation of the political ramifications and his strategizing to preserve his family’s prestige while recognizing that an awful lot of the changes going on are beyond his control.
I also enjoy Lampedusa’s bittersweet sense of humor.

>>16499141
It took me 2 tries to get through ASTB for the reason you mentioned.on my 2nd reading I got the feeling that the mythology story from the king was supposed to give the reader the “wtf?” feeling as other characters had the same reaction.im not sure if the giant telling a super Irish story while falling asleep and waking up has a deeper meaning regarding Ireland though.the third policeman is one of the funniest, most surreal books I’ve read.>>16499196
This poster elaborates more on it so listen to him

>>16499278
>I read and take notes on about a chapter of Nicomachean Ethics every night
Absolutely based. Can you post one of your notes?

Anna Karenina.

I recently read Resurrection and War and Peace, both of which I adored. Reading Anna Karenina has felt like a chore recently, though there are some Levin chapters that have been a great joy to read. Kinda wish I had spent this time starting War and Peace over however.

>>16498124
>Into the Darkening Fog: Eerie Tales of the London Weird
Women shouldn't be allowed to edit books.
>Zofloya
All women are whores.

Spice melange or something like that

>>16498124
Currently reading Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. So far so good. I'm also looking for a french epub for Hitchcock/Truffaut, the ones i've found have all been in english.

>>16498124
Bertrand Russell's history of western philosophy, I'm through about Aristotle, finding him kind of tiresome, I was hoping for just a history of ideas, but he keeps on trying to criticize guys like plato and write things off as "silly," and he keeps making references to bigots and hitler that are remarkably shitlibby for the time he was writing.

I’ve been reading Sun Tzu and I just finished the actual text. I can certainly see the value of his strategies in war, but what’s applicable to the average person could be condensed into maybe two pages. It wasn’t bad, but it confirmed exactly what I suspected- the Sophomaniacs who praise it are just trying to pretend they’re intellectuals. There’s not one complicated idea in the entire text and honestly, the introduction essay in my copy by Samuel B. Griffith was more interesting than the actual Art of War. It’s also got some pretty brutal ideas that would appeal to the sort of people who have no sense of ethics such as cutting off your own army’s escape routes to manipulate them psychologically into fighting harder because it’s life or death now. Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about Sun Tzu because he promoted the destruction of ethical Chinese warfare in favour of all out war, but at the same time his most important guideline was to cause as little damage as possible and win without fighting whenever it was an option.

>>16498124
>Fagles over Lattimore and Fitzgerald
I suppose this is supposed to advise someone just starting who might not be able to take the other translations, but man, L & F are so much more rewarding to me than Fagles.

Ecology of Mind by Bateson. He’s Margaret Mead’s husband, and is an infinitely more rigorous thinker and anthropologist.
He said that the 2 most important events of the 20th century were the treaty of Versailles and artificial Neural networks.

He opens the book with metalogues between him and his daughter, focusing on language games and ontology.
Have you ever seen the anime Baccano? The opening between the newspaper owner and the little girl is practically lifted from this book.
It’s really interesting and easy to read.
Reading the dialogue between father and daughter on the topic of “messiness vs tidiness” is actually very interesting. As he makes the point that while everyone knows if a thing is messy, a tidy thing can take many forms. For instance, if your books and toys are strewn about the room it’s messy. However if they are all on their shelves they’re tidy, no matter the order they’re put in. You can become more anal about of course, but that’s not the point of the metalogue.
It’s good. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in anthropology and futurism

>>16499317
I don’t claim to be an expert on reading philosophy or anything so they’re nothing special

>>16499278
What translation/edition of decline of the west are you reading?

>Why yes, I am reading the collected works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the greatest sonneteer of the 20th century, how could you tell?

>>16499645
The OG one

>>16498124
Is there a boxset of those tragedies? I have Euripedes II and I love it, but I don't want to buy them all one-by-one.

>>16499639
Solid stuff, anon

>>16499571
Not sure why you picked that book up, it's really not a good overview. I mean, every book is biased to an extent, but Russell overdoes it. Read Kenny's four volume series instead.

A very interesting read so far.

Breaks down how through calculated philanthropic investments, early industrialist elites formed what now exists as our medical system.

Major focus on the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations.

Only partway in but i'd already recommend it.

>>16499257
How is Aristophanes?

>>16500306
Pretty good, I find him more enjoyable o read tthan Euripides and Aeschylus. Not more than Sophocles, though.

>>16499571
Russel is a notorious idiot

>>16499609
No idea why people think Fagles is easier. I read all 3 at different times and never noticed a difficulty difference? What do you mean?

>>16498124
Gilles by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, a book on decadence. Starts in 1917, ends in Spain during the civil war where the MC joins the nationalist faction.

Reading what fellow anons are reading this weekend and enjoying their thoughts about it

>>16500379
based and comfypilled

>>16500379
Adorable. You're so cute, anon.
May I suck your dick? No homo.

>>16498124
>India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 by Richard M. Eaton
A really great look at India before the BEIC. It kills a lot of the modern myths about Hindu/Muslim relationships during that era. Gives snapshot of the many kings, the political and religious evolutions that happened.. Deep enough to be interesting for someone who knows very little about the subject without feeling like it is aimed at idiots. It is also not hilariously biased like many books written about heh Indian subcontinent.

Leo Strauss' Natural Right and History

>>16499283
Read it three times. A brilliant portrayal of the conflict between man and modernity

>>16499713
Very nice

Just finished Dune - Messiah having read Dune yesterday after seeing some 'guide' posted in /sffg/. Nothing like as challenging as I was expecting, and I think I can understand a little about some people's disappointment with Messiah and the characterisation of Paul in particular, but certainly some of the better and more enjoyable books I've read this year. Plan to read Children and God-Emperor tomorrow and Monday.

Just started picrel, reading a book by Seyyed Hossein Nasr on the side.

>>16498124
Is there a chart like this for the Romans? Or a combined Greco-Roman chart?

Started reading The Stand today. The German version has 1700 pages, got to 130

>>16500952
There are some roman charts but they're not as good as the greek one in the OP. It's the gay one with colored lines and secondary literature instead of properly showing them neatly by categories and roughly chronologically and without secondary materials

>>16500952
>Or a combined Greco-Roman chart?
Don't

>>16500379
Basado

>>16498124
The System of the Antichrist by Charles Upton.
The idea of ufo's and aliens in a traditionalists view seems interesting, but someone on here suggested getting this since it deals with more than Cracks in the Great Wall.

Not sure what I should read desu senpai

>>16498647

>>16498124
Here's your full resolution chart, mate

>>16498124
Just finished I am legend before yesterday, and today I start Animal Farm.

>start with the Greeks
What a midwit take, holy shit

>>16504572
It's the same resolution but it has a brainlet anon post who says you should "suffer through Homer"

>>16504877
Dimwit detected

>>16498124
Pilgrim, by Timothy Findley
The plot seems marvelous but I'm put off by the prose.
It might be due to the translation but it's bad, sometimes dreadfully so. A lot of sentences could be removed from the book.
I'm wondering whether I should continue or read something else, because the story is so interesting

>>16499615
This sounds tight, thanks

>>start with the Greeks
>What a midwit take, holy shit

>>16498124
How is Herodotus' Histories? Quick summary of it says it's a blend of history and mythology, which I don't know what to make of. Did you guys enjoy it?

>>16498124
I'm reading 2666, really cool and original, people saying fictions dead are retarded.

>Can't believe I was nearly pursaded into thinking this is young adult by psudes on here.

>>16498124
More Plato

>>16505709
It's hit and miss, he's a bit of an unique writer in the canon. People like it or dislike it for different reasons, so not sure what to tell you really. He's definitely not a good writer in the literary sense, he's not the best historian by most standards, and the stuff he talks about is so diverse it may bore you to death or fascinate you depending what you're into. I liked the book because it helped me a lot in understanding the Greeks, but not really due to his explanations, but rather my own interpretations of what he was talking about. I think the most objective and universal positive feature of the book is that he is indeed "the father of history" so a lot of the things that we know about major events like the Thermopylae battle, the Marathon battle, the expansion of the Persian empire, etc. are really from him, so you may get to understand the study of history better. He's also a bit bizarre in terms of where his bias lies when it comes to the Hellenes, which can make you think a lot about historiography / philosophy of history. Personally, I thought it was a great book, but I wouldn't really recommend it to any of my friends just because it's so peculiar (and long: 300,000 words). But of course if you are serious about reading beyond a fun hobby, then it's obviously a must read regardless of how much you may or may not enjoy it because it's monumentally important.

>"Here in our hands were the last flickers of a form of possession which stretched back to the Vikings and which predated any modern understanding of land as a market commodity. We were touching the outer edges of an ancient past at the very moment it was coming to an end."

>>16505709
I enjoyed it but it’s not easy reading. At least the everyman’s edition that I read wasn’t. I think it’s the Rawlinson translation. It reads like the Bible. There are tons of amazing little stories in it but don’t expect to be able to sit and read it for hours at a time if you’re at all like me

>weekend
>monday

>>16508270
>thread was posted 2 days ago

Hey guys, I am starting reading with lit. I was advised to start with Greek philosophy, any book recommendations preferably in their sequential order?

>>16508320
https://4chanlit.fandom.com/wiki/Charts#Genres

>>16508392
God bless you anon, I will check this soon.

I'm reading the Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek. I've only seen it mentioned on /lit/ twice but it's incredible so far. Its picaresque and so obviously nods to Don Quixote but Svejk is a great look into Czech national feeling during WW1. Svejk is a lovable misfit who bumbles his way through the war. Its 752 pages in my edition but it reads so quickly, after 3 days I've read 370 pages already. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the book is unfinished, and Hasek died before finishing part 4 of a planned 6 so I'm worried that the book will leave me feeling unsated after putting so much time into the life of Svejk.

>>16508392
Do you have any other recommendations?

>>16498124
Reading Plato's Five Dialogues, got to Phaedo. I'm sort of a slow reader and haven't gotten into Phaedo yet, but the other dialogues are very interesting, and I think it reinforces the idea that we should not be dogmatic about our beliefs, and constantly question ourselves and others to ensure that what we know is as true and rational as possible.

>>16508498
That link is absolutely packed with charts and recommendations. As far as Greeks go, I've only really read Herodotus extensively so I can't give any good pointers there. As for general suggestions I'd say you can't go wrong with Lolita. Incredibly fun(?) to read and not too hard to follow.

>>16508528
kys tripshit

>>16508528
I only asked for greek philosophy recommends, thank you anyways.

>>16508542
>N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT THAT FEATURE! I HATE THAT FEATURE!!!!!!!!!!
How about you recommend something for our newfren, nigger?

>>16498124
>reading song lyrics
why do people do this? imagine reading bob dylan lyrics 2000 years from now, translated dylan lyrics no less, and trying to get enjoyment out of them.

>>16508571
Is that sumerian in your name? It looks cool af.

>>16508589
Almost as if aesthetics are historically emergent that our standards have developed atop a 'mistake', you would have to surrender so much anon. But, ultimately, you're just a shitposter aren't you? Another cretin who thinks knowing what a few words mean has equipped him with the ability to demolish whatever is brought before him, but you are just the baby in his high-chair delighting in his new-found ability to knock his food on the floor.

>>16498124
Slow burn through Brothers Karamazov, rereading Dune with the wife, and rereading 1984.

>>16508592
Yea it's Assyrian (Akkadian) cuneiform. Sumerian was a language isolate so the S*mites around them couldn't easily use it without chopping it up and making loads of changes, which is why there were so many variants.

>>16508633
cringe

I got city of god by St. Augustine.

>>16498124
idk...is reading a biography considered /lit/? reading Serving the Servant ( remembering kurt cobain) by danny goldberg

i’ve been reading some greek tragedies. i just finished prometheus bound and almost cried, what a great play

>>16509882
based

>>16505709
I listened to it and loved it. It took a bit of getting used to his style as it was all over the place because he gets sidetracked by literally everything (XYZ stole these jars, the jars were claimed to have been gifted to Delphi by the ABC but really they only gifted the base, ABC gifted the base because...).
It's a very human book. He'll tell you when he thinks someone is full of shit or when he has heard multiple accounts of the subject. It's both mythology and history and its not always clear whether he believes or cares about whether something was fact, mythology, story or otherwise.
If you are interested in History or the ancient world its a must read.

>>16508392
Has anyone read that Stephen Fry book on Myths? Is it any good?

>>16508571
You're a tripfag and a soijack poster?

Don't order any new editions of Loebs Classical Library, Bros. It's print on demand garbage of old page scans instead of properly typeset

>>16513744
lol
something comfy about those types of errors, long as you dont pay a lot for it

>>16513760
I don't care about that, I hate the fact the text is so fuzzy, reeeeee