/lit/ - Literature

I tell him to make up his own mind

>>17974945
KJV Bible
Complete Shakespeare
The Very Hungry Caterpillar

>>17974960
No he can't, for whatever reason, defeats the purpose of the hypothetical, only you can choose the books.

>>17974979
>The Very Hungry Caterpillar
based

>>17975048
BASED

>>17974945
>>17975048
>Solitary Fitness
>Shakespeare
>KJV with concordance & apocrypha

>>17975048
I said THREE
https://youtu.be/saaKnLX_qHU

Is ISOLT cheating?

If so, I'd want the complete Borges, the complete poems of W.H. Auden, and War and Peace. I would not take any philosophy or non-fiction, as I think the human touch of literature would be essential and should be maximised.

>>17975096
great film

>>17975100
>I would not take any philosophy or non-fiction, as I think the human touch of literature would be essential and should be maximised.
Sure but that literature can only go so far, eventually you're going to need some philosophy or religion. Practicing prayer and meditation would come in handy too.

>>17974945
>Crime and Punishment
You don't really like this friend do you?

>>17974979
>KJV Bible
>>17975085
>>KJV with concordance & apocrypha
https://youtu.be/iPtC9r4FIx4

>>17974979
>>17975085
Don't want to start a new thread; can anyone recc a particular edition for the complete works of Shakespeare?

>>17975131
https://youtu.be/-3qGEk_zD9M?t=1007

>>17975132
I have the RSC one which is pretty decent, I'm sure there are better editions though

>>17975131
probably the most important scene in the film now I think about it

>>17975126
What's wrong with Crime and Punishment?

>>17975164
Nothing. Just giving this book to friend in jail sounds cruel.

>>17975172
Hahaha maybe
I think that I would like that book to keep me company in a cell, especially if I had done something to warrant me being there, because it'd give me a lot to ruminate on. Which is what I suppose you'd want, which is to occupy your mind if you had to spend some much time alone. Crime and Punishment would help me piece together my thoughts.

>Cambridge KJV reference Bible with Apocrypha
>Meditations
>Moby Dick

A man can live off that chapter about chowder

>>17974945
Bible
A history book about the world
Invincible memory

>>17975228
>A history book about the world
Best history book I've ever read

>>17974945
Infinite Jest
War and Peace
The collected Tao

>>17974945
probably 3 textbooks all mathematics

>>17975306
>probably 3 textbooks all mathematics
Wrong board anon, this is /lit/
You belong here with the other nerds >>>/sci/

>>17974945
>Hemingway Short Story Collection
>Chekhov Short Story Collection
>some omnibus of a writer’s major works

I would want to have a good number of choices

>>17975323
>can only name 2, those being arguably the most notable short story writers

jeez anon, maybe you should read a bit more

>>17975339
I’ve been reading for ~10 years.

>>17975345
>I’ve been reading for ~10 years.
What age are you 15?

>>17974945
>Some massive poetry book with Walt Whitman and other greats
>Tao Te Ching
>In Search of Lost Time fuck you if it doesnt count

>>17975349
Probably older than you. I don’t read for approval so if you don’t believe me, it’s whatever. Imagine getting this mad over a lit post.lol

>>17975204
>Meditations
based choice

>>17975471
i need to read this

>>17975476
>i need to read this
So read it my man

>>17975132
I have the Norton Shakespeare and it's pretty good.

>>17974945
You would need to find a special publisher that makes single-volume editions of books usually published in several volumes. Then you could bring things like the entire Mahābhārata, the entire Sutta Pitaka of the Pali canon, or complete In Search of Lost Time

Enchiridion
In Search Of Lost Time
Anna Karenina

>>17975884
>In Search Of Lost Time
People keep mentioning this book, and I haven't yet read it. What makes it so important?

>>17975317
That image is incredibly retarded lmao

>>17975926
Why?

>>17975954
Just because you're interested in mathematics does not mean your appreciation of literature and other artforms are nuked, and intellectual analysis of a work of a (good) work of art will never make it worse. Though the "a=1" thing in the image is something that no one has ever done outside the head of the person who made that image lmao

>>17975306
If you were my friend, I would have to go back to prison for murder once I got out.

>>17975349
kek

>>17975997

>>17975997
>Just because you're interested in mathematics does not mean your appreciation of literature and other artforms are nuked
I believe that a cold and detached view of art, takes away from the art. Art is intuitive and emotional not rational, art is not a science.

>and intellectual analysis of a work of a (good) work of art will never make it worse.
It reveals the trick, its like when you find out how an optical illusion or magic trick works, you can never really see the illusion or the magic trick the same way again, as you now know the details.

>Though the "a=1" thing in the image is something that no one has ever done outside the head of the person who made that image lmao
It's just to illustrate the point, that fags like Richard Dawkins push, that everything can be quantified.

[...] Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine—
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade

>>17976110
>It's just to illustrate the point, that fags like Richard Dawkins push, that everything can be quantified.
*THAT not everything can be quantified, and to attempt to quantify everything takes away from human experience.

>>17974945
>Your friend is being imprisoned
Thinking about it, I should of just put you instead of friend. The reasoning behind putting friend is, if you've already read a particular book than you may not feel the need to read it again, whereas assuming you're friend had not read that book it may be of use to him. But if you haven't read a book than how can you with any certainty bet on it being worthy of selecting. Especially if you're condemned to only three.

>>17976110
>Art is intuitive and emotional not rational, art is not a science
It is not a science but it definitely is not irrational, nor only intuitive or emotional, proven by yourself by quoting a poem to prove your point. If it was merely intuitive and emotional, your poem would have only served to transmit an emotion, but as it turns out the main IDEA of the poem (ironically enough) is that philosophy detracts from art. The communication of this idea would be impossible without the rational relation of ideas exhibited in the poem, and pretending that the poem would be worse just because you have taken the time to rationally understand its contents (as opposed to the feelings the words on the page ellicit in you without further analysis of what they MEAN beyond that) is just wasting your time and missing the whole point.
>It reveals the trick, its like when you find out how an optical illusion or magic trick works, you can never really see the illusion or the magic trick the same way again, as you now know the details.
That is true if you believe that art is just merely for show and incapable of saying anything of value, which in my estimation a shallow view of art. If you beleive rational analysis detracts from a work of art, so be it, but doing so is reducing a literary work to just showmanship when I can assure you that behind every great work of art is a solid rational foundation of concepts that can and should be analyzed by everyone who has a genuine interest in what they, to put it in words you'd understand, "consuming".

>>17974945
>Your friend is being imprisoned
Thinking about it, I should of just put you instead of friend. The reasoning behind putting friend is, if you've already read a particular book than you may not feel the need to read it again, whereas assuming your friend had not read that book it may be of use to him. But if you haven't read a book than how can you with any certainty bet on it being worthy of selecting. Especially if you're condemned to only three. Also the selection of books, are the books utility is completely dependent upon you idiosyncratic tastes and own personal philosophy. So that which you find helpful and consoling you're friend might rather use as toilet paper.

>>17976304
>rationally understand its contents
The rationale of the poem, is a language game, and its purpose it simply to convey an EMOTION. Not some solution to a mathematical equation, an equation has little to none emotive power.

>and incapable of saying anything of value
The "show" is valuable. Beauty is valuable in it of itself. I don't need some rationale to explain that fact to me.
> work of art is a solid rational foundation of concepts that can and should be analyzed by everyone who has a genuine interest in what they
You are like a dog, that when its master tries to direct it to something in the distance with his finger, you can't help but get caught up with staring at his finger in confusion. You are hung up with the tools used for direction rather than that which you are being directed towards.

> to put it in words you'd understand, "consuming"
Art is not consumption, it is an experience, to be felt, not analysed.

>Infinite Jest
The book is a puzzle in itself, which would keep him entertainment for ages. Also, the part on Ennet's house would help him cope.
>The meditations
The only self-help book a man needs. I'd change it for the bible if he is christian tho.
>Complete Shakespeare
But if this one is cheating, I'd say:
>The Lord of The Rings
It's inspiring and it would stimulate his imagination.

>>17976425
I considered LOTR too but opted for Moby Dick. If I'm going to be locked away in a tiny room for years, I want to at least have memories of pleasant things to draw from, like the smell of the ocean or wind through trees. Or the chowder. Man do I love the chowder.

>>17976394
>The rationale of the poem, is a language game, and its purpose it simply to convey an EMOTION
So the words of the poem are merely incidental and secondary? Can you name the emotion? And why is the emotion valuable when myriad of ither things can produce emotions in you?
It seems very cocincidental to me that you used a poem, that on your own terms is only as valuable as its efficacy in elliciting emotions, to prove a rational point.
>Beauty is valuable in it of itself. I don't need some rationale to explain that fact to me.
I am not denying that, but completely ignoring the rational aspect of literature, then Shakespeare and a barcode and a McDonald's ad are EXACTLY THE SAME value as long as they ellicit an emotion in the reader/consumer (And who's to say that the feeling that an educated man gets when reading Hamlet is in any way inferior to the feeling an obese man gets when he craves a mcgriddle after seeing a McDonald's ad, or a shopping addict's dopamine rush when he browses through amazon?)
>You are like a dog, that when its master tries to direct it to something in the distance with his finger, you can't help but get caught up with staring at his finger in confusion. You are hung up with the tools used for direction rather than that which you are being directed towards.
That is only if you think that the ideas of a work is completely divorced from it's form, which is completely retarded. But it's not like you'd notice if you never go out of your way to find out why something is written that way, deeper than just "It sounds nice"
I am pretty sure this is bait but whatever[\spoiler]

>>17976530
>If I'm going to be locked away in a tiny room for years, I want to at least have memories of pleasant things to draw from, like the smell of the ocean or wind through trees.

Reading from Albert Camus The Stranger pg 94

"After a while however i'd learned the trick of remembering things, i never had a moments boredom. Sometimes I would exercise my memory on my bedroom... So I learned that even after a single day's experience of the outside world a man could easily live a hundred years in prison. He'd have laid up enough memories never to be bored. Obviously, in one way, this was a compensation."

The virgin cope vs the chad compensation.

Thinking, the whole point of this hypothetical >>17974945
is to show how one would deal with pure silence. Solitary is to deprive a man of worthwhile experience, so all that remains is the mind and memories, your imagination. But then in the end, you have death to contend with, and your choices, the life that you lived. I think I might make another thread later when this one starts to die, on books one should read before your execution.

>>17976603
>So the words of the poem are merely incidental and secondary?
The words and rationale are tools required to convey the emotion.

> then Shakespeare and a barcode and a McDonald's ad
What separates Shakespeare and a barcode is the intentions behind them. Art can be found in everything, from the right perspective. Art is the expression of ones worldview, through arts emotive power, it reveals to ourselves, purpose and meaning, that which is transcendental.

>as long as they ellicit an emotion in the reader/consumer
Some art requires more skill than other art, intentions behind that which is being created it to important in determining whether or not it is art, or high quality art.

>And who's to say that the feeling that an educated man gets when reading Hamlet is in any way inferior to the feeling an obese man gets when he craves a mcgriddle after seeing a McDonald's ad
I suppose there is a degree of subjectivity, but I think you'd have to be insane or clinically retarded to be as moved by a barcode as Hamlet.

>But it's not like you'd notice if you never go out of your way to find out why something is written that way, deeper than just "It sounds nice"
Its form, is an art in it of its self.

>I am pretty sure this is bait but whatever
Nah, just devils advocate, I see where you are coming from though.

What do you think art is?

>>17976734
>Art is the expression of ones worldview, through arts emotive power, it reveals to ourselves, purpose and meaning, that which is transcendental.
And why is emotion superior to ratinality in expressing meaning and worldview (philosophy)?
>I suppose there is a degree of subjectivity, but I think you'd have to be insane or clinically retarded to be as moved by a barcode as Hamlet.
Say, you were sleep deprived one day and decided to read Hamlet and the experience proved tedious, unintelligible and overall bad. The next day you slept well, and you cracked open your copy of 101 Hamburger Jokes and you chuckled at least once and it made a better impression on you than Hamlet. By your theory 101 Hamburger Jokes is better than Hamlet regardless what the book says, because the ideas presented in the book are completely irrelevant if they failed to make an emotional impression on you.
It is more than just "a degree of subjectivity".
>What do you think art is?
For literature: The rational and aesthetic expression of human thought in the written form through fiction.

>>17976947
>And why is emotion superior to ratinality in expressing meaning and worldview (philosophy)?
What is the purpose of rationality? To discover the truth? What is truth? See picture

>It is more than just "a degree of subjectivity".
Art is subjective, but we can state that it takes far more creative and artistic skill to create the works of Shakespeare than some burger joke, we don't solely define art on what it elicits, but by what it sets out to elicit and as to whether or not it achieves this. This is what what separates quality art from poor art.

>The rational...
Why does the rational part matter so much to you? Again whats the purpose of rationality?

>>17977077
>To discover the truth? What is truth? See picture
Forgot to attach

>>17974945
1. The Bible
2. The Arabian Nights (complete)
3. some book about nature or something

>>17977077
>Again whats the purpose of rationality?
The relation of ideas with each other, which can endure beyond the lifespan of any intended (or unintended) feeling the work can effect on the reader. What Homer wanted the reader to feel (if he had a particular feeling in mind even) is impossible to verify, since we cannot live in greece thousands of years ago, nor do we know the exact psychological makeup of the greek reader on that age, but we can understand the set of ideas and statements the Odyssey uses and produces based on anthropological knowledge.
The contemporary reader may be puzzled at old epics, emotionally, because nowadays the idea of honor is so foreign actions may seem retarded, and if we take emotion to be the primary value of a work of art then the work of art turns more worthless the more the cultural context on which the work was written erodes, BUT if we take the work's value to rest on its rational ideas which we CAN analyze at any point in time (aided by anthropological and historical records of the context of the work), you can always, at any point in time, consider the work in the terms of its concepts and ideas.
Basically: ideas are timeless, emotion is subject to anything from a good night's sleep to your hormones.
And even then, if you cannot rationally understand something, your emotions are not corresponding to the work.
You cannot claim a work on a foreign language is of value or not if you cannot understand it. You cannot say if a sentence is accurate if you ignore the meaning of half of its word. You cannot also say that a poem is good if you cannot explain the ideas it exposes. At that point you are just responding at an emotional state produced by something which is not even the work itself.
So even if you hold emotion as paramount, the rational analysis of the work itself is necessary to be able to begin considering the feelings it aroused in you. And that is if you are in the same wavelength as the author was, which is unlikely if it was written more than five or ten years ago. So in any case appreciation of a work of art is incomplete without any rational (critical would be a better word desu) examination of it beforehand.

>>17975048
Genuine question is this good?

>>17974945
Bible
Divine Comedy
Summa Theologica

Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow

>>17974945
>Solitary Fitness by Bronson
>Montaigne's Essays
>Complete Shakespeare

>>17974945
there are no books allowed

>>17977316
>but we can understand the set of ideas and statements the Odyssey uses and produces based on anthropological knowledge.
Yes, but why should one care for these connected ideas? Why should I care for the contents of the Odyssey? I care for its emotive power, I don't just analyse for the sake of analysis. What is the point to that?

>consider the work in the terms of its concepts and ideas.
Why should I care? So you say emotions can't be analysed, nor Homers intentions in what he wanted to elicit in the reader, in terms of emotions. That only rational ideas and concepts can be analysed objectively. First the line between emotion and that which is empirical are harder to draw that it may seem.

Emotion is not the best word to use, it is better to say perspective, but perspective is not entirely abstract, abstraction is the realm of numbers and concepts. Whereas perception is the realm of emotion and instinct.

>Basically: ideas are timeless, emotion is subject to anything from a good night's sleep to your hormones.
All we are, is our perspective, and this is subject to all the factors that effect life, not just sleep, but the whole contents of our existence. To dismiss emotion, perspective and instinct is to dismiss reality itself. All ideas are, are our abstractions, these are airy fairy, and devoid of value, unless they effect our perspectives, which is why we think, why we care for abstraction or "truth".

>Basically: ideas are timeless
The only reason you believe they are timeless is because ideas summon emotion within you, and alter your perspective. Its that which gives ideas and rationality there value to you.

But it is not the idea that is important, in it of itself. Its what the idea represents, and that is the intention of any writer, no matter if what is written is from ancient Greece or the present day, the writer is trying to get you to think his thoughts. Which is what we do through the act of reading, to think anothers thoughts. Why? To see things from that writers perspective. Why? To feel the emotions, the beauty, and to most importantly understand the writers, philosophy. That philosophy is not just a matter of the abstract, to be solved as one would an equation, but of the human soul, and that cannot be quantified, only directed towards through the tool that is language, and the concept (which is all it is) of truth. See pic >>17977082

Now I'm not dismissing the utility of truth and rationality as a tool. I'm just pointing out that, that is what they are, tools.

1/2

>>17977465
>Montaigne's Essays

very good choice.

>>17974945
>ethiopian orthodox bible
most content of any bible
>the sayings of the desert fathers
they lived in isolation for most of their lives, hopefully it'll make the sentence seem easier
>1001 arabian nights
good stories, plus the unabridged burton translation is long for rereadability
I was half tempted to say a journal, but I'm not sure if the effects of being stuck with your own thoughts would be diminished or amplified by journaling

>>17977528
>All ideas are, are our abstractions, these are airy fairy, and devoid of value, unless they effect our perspectives
To expand on this. I say abstractions are airy fairy, because they are just one aspect to existence and art, to focus upon that which is rational is to forget to take what is required in philosophy and art, which is a holistic perspective.

>You cannot claim a work on a foreign language is of value or not if you cannot understand it. You cannot say if a sentence is accurate if you ignore the meaning of half of its word. You cannot also say that a poem is good if you cannot explain the ideas it exposes. At that point you are just responding at an emotional state produced by something which is not even the work itself.
Without understanding a work, it would have no emotive power, it is through understanding that we are moved, because it is understanding, that changes our perspective, which moves us.

>So even if you hold emotion as paramount
Emotion and the changing of perceptive, is the intention behind all art, philosophy and works of literature. Which is why we use rationality and conceptualization to help convey our perspective, art is showing others, our view of the world.

>the rational analysis of the work itself is necessary to be able to begin considering the feelings it aroused in you.
I didn't say that it wasn't.

>which is unlikely if it was written more than five or ten years ago.
Are any of us? With any piece of writing? We all have our own idiosyncratic perspectives, because we all occupy our own existences, no one can ever truly reach another wavelength.

>is incomplete without any rational (critical would be a better word desu) examination of it beforehand.
"Appreciation of a work of art is incomplete without out a rational examination". Yes I believe a rational examination is important to fully squeeze out the juices, so as to get to the core of what is being written, and get as close as humanly possible to the writers "wavelength", but we do so FOR its emotive powers. Which you reuse to admit.

2/2

>>17977465
>Solitary Fitness by Bronson
Why do you care so much about being fit in a cell? It makes sense for Bronson because he liked fucking people up, but if I'm in prison I see no need to constantly be kicking peoples heads in and getting my head kicked in.

>>17975132
The Norton Shakespeare is good (expensive though) especially if you want a scholarly approach to the texts

Shakespeare's Complete Works, In Search of Lost Time and Jorge Luis Borges: Complete Stories. You could read and re-read these for years.

>>17978213
>Jorge Luis Borges: Complete Stories
this would not be good for your long term sanity, but I support it

>>17977667
>>17977528
>Which is what we do through the act of reading, to think anothers thoughts
So you're not even disagreeing that the transmission of ideas is fundamentally the point of writing, but merely stretching the definition of emotion so thin that it encompasses almost everything and ig turns meaningless

>>17978745
>stretching the definition of emotion so thin that it encompasses almost everything and ig turns meaningless
I wouldn't say that I'm stretching the definition, just pointing out what emotion really is, and what the purpose of art and literature really is.

>>17974945

>>17978772
Just because someone has an emotion at any given time and that something may cause emotion does not mean it's whole purpose is an emotion

Is Solitary Fitness actually any good?
>>17977683
If you're not fit you'll get buttraped

the complete works of the westorn canon

>>17979163
in three volumes

>>17974945
Complete Montaigne
Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
The Odyssey

>>17975290
Only history book you need

>>17975471
>Even an emperor can be a cucktard

>>17974945
>KJV Bible
>In Search of Lost Time
>Complete Shakespeare

Under 1000 pages is a more intersection question imo
>The Brothers Karamazov
>Moby Dick
>The Iliad + The Odyssey

>>17979100
>If you're not fit you'll get buttraped
Bronson spends all his time, 23hr a day, alone, in a cage (at least he used to for a long time). No one is butt raping him.

>>17979365
>The Brothers Karamazov
Was torn between The Brothers Karamazov & Crime and Punishment. Thought Crime and Punishment would be more fitting.

>>17978939
>that something may cause emotion does not mean it's whole purpose is an emotion
Than whats the purpose of art if not to bring out emotion? Whats the point of aesthetically expressing yourself?

>>17979440
You're not Bronson

>>17979595
But I am butt raping

>>17974945
>years in solitary
I don't think even amerifats do this, honestly. It would be better to say someone is going to self-isolate for an extended period for some kind of spiritual journey.

>>17979480
To communicate ideas nigga

>>17980323
>nigga
ebonicsposters deserve death

>>17980339
Bruh
Fine, "To communicate ideas nigger"

can some one of teeou (thats my way of writing "you") help me find this book? uwu pls

>>17980429
Be my bf anon

>>17975306
Springer publishing's
HANDBOOK OF MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE
is a very good choice, indeed. But I'd add an engineering book instead of another math book. The third book would have to be A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ methinks.

That sucks OP, do you have a friend that's in the situation? I'm sorry

>>17980429
What the fuck is wrong with you

The Bible
Some long book with a lot of sex that is somehow written for straight men
Something long with a lot of violence, preferably fantasy (I can't think of anything I like that I or the author have finished)

>>17975132
As far as reference books go...this one is pretty great.

>>17975132
that too

>>17975317
cringe

>>17974945
The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Portable Jung

>>17980383
Which ideas are worth communicating and why?

>>17976104
kek

Are you allowed to read in solitary? I thought the whole point was to torture you through boredom

notes from underground
siddhartha
any of celinés pamphlets so he knows who to complain about once he's released

>>17981471
im a provocadorr
>>17980739
maede me blush... uwu

>>17975926
>>17982956
this image was made to piss you off, dumb cunt comp sci majors. your degree is made to prep you for base level programming wage slavery

>>17974945
The Bible, the Philokalia, and the Way of a Pilgrim.

Spinoza's Ethics
Moby Dick
The Poetics of Space

>>17984728
>Are you allowed to read in solitary?
I doubt it, in this hypothetical you are, they gave this dude a ball.

https://youtu.be/wRO9BHbF9GA

>>17985379
lol i have a job and you dont

>>17974945
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The King James Bible by God
Complete Works by Shakespeare

>>17985596
Unoriginal