/lit/ - Literature

>>20300211
It is one of the very few works that is both.

>>20300211
Genre with good mastery of literary techniques.

How do O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels compare against Le Carre's Smiley novels in terms of literary merit?

I'm a massive fan of these books. I'm in the royal navy and live on a base, I feel so cringe reading them but I can't help it. They're just so based

>>20302353
why would it be cringe?

>>20303863
It's not cringe at all desu. It is actually pretty based.

How is Navy life, anon?

I’m reading the first book and it seems to lack a lot of continuity between scenes and skips through a lot of the details
Does the feeling of the writing change between books?
Also I like stephen and james a lot but idk about jack

>>20300211
He wrote a shitload of books. Some are great. Proper literature, showing real human emotion in a historical setting. Some are just shitty genre fiction cranking out sequels by a formula.

Also, Hornblower did it better.

>>20304247
The first book is pretty different from the rest. It's a lot more action-heavy. The rest are more slow-paced.

>>20304511
Better at what?

>>20302353
I dont see the cringe here. I am going to join the US coast guard soon.

>>20304511
>Hornblower did it better.
wrong

>>20300211
does it matter? it's kino and there's like 22 of them

>>20303863
>>20304657
Because if you are seen enjoying anything navy related you're called "throbbing". Which basically means you love the job and culture of the RN too much and make It your whole life. Obviously I'm not throbbing, I just love the age of sail.

>>20300211
if you like it it's literary fiction, if you don't like it it's genre fiction

>>20304154
I enjoy it anon. I served on the QE aircraft carrier as my first training draft, then onto a type 23 Frigate for 2 years. We were basically on russian ship/ submarine patrol, and any time a ship got too close to the UK we had to escort them away again. It was a boring draft, with barely any foreign port visits (mainly due to covid). One benefit was that as I got my coursework and exams out the way, it gave me a lot of time to read on watch. My favourite watch was the "first" which was between 0000-0400. I actually read moby dick while periodically going to watch the northern lights when we was in the Arctic circle, and it's probably the most /lit/ my life ever was kek

>>20305272
Yeah ok, I’m not applying to the navy I guess thanks anon
t. Ship autist

>>20305312
I like us coast guard dudes, we actually had one join our ship on a transfer scheme. He was so typically American, with his 70's porn stache kek

It's definitely proper literature. Specifically the characterization of the two main characters, Aubrey, and moreso Dr. Steven Maturin.

>>20304511
>Also, Hornblower did it better.
I love Hornblower, but it Forster just flatly is not the same caliber writer as O'Brian.; he's not even in the same league desu senpai.

>>20305296
>I actually read moby dick while periodically going to watch the northern lights when we was in the Arctic circle
Wonderful anon. I am sure that one will stay with you for the rest of your days.

>>20305818
Thank you, It definitely was one of my favourite memories onboard

>>20300211
>is it proper literature or genre fiction?
An arbitrary distinction. In what basis is genre fiction not "proper" literature?

>>20306577
No it really is not arbitrary and if you weren't mentally a child you would know that.

>>20305296
Absolute kino. Cannot imagine the bliss of reading "The mast head" whilst whaling away the hours on watch. I'm very jealous lol. Have any other /lit/ stories from your service?

>>20306709
How would you draw the line then? You can either specify some feature or cluster of features that distinguish proper literature or be reduced to the relational view that proper literature is simply the literature that you like.

>>20306756
It was a great experience, and I know the military gets a lot of shit but it definitely sorted my life out. I'm not sure if I can think of anything lit related, but one time on deployment to Florida we had a load of US marines join our mess for a week. They were telling us all the ways we could sneak alcohol onboard (they didn't realise we are one of the few navies to still allow alcohol). We let them finish their story, then showed them the beer fridge. We got them absolutely shitfaced and their Sgt came in around 2300 screaming about how they're not allowed to drink at sea, they're us navy etc etc. Everyone laughed and started throwing beers at him, reminding him that he's on a floating piece of England, and not in America when he's onboard. The us marines were a real good laugh, and a pleasure to host in the mess. We then did a port visit to Florida for 10 days and that was probably my favourite ever foreign run ashore. I've never been bought so many drinks as I did going ashore there, all they had to do was hear the accent and they knew we was from the QE. As much as we give each other shit online, the Americans were really friendly when we visited.

>>20305312
>t. Ship autist

I am a ship autist and choosing the merchant navy as a career choice is something I will always regret to some degree

Just don't do it and find a way to make ships a hobby or something and not your life

>>20306987
Good times dude. I was on Lusty before it got scrapped (yes, old fag). Yank sailors use to get a photocopied handout before going on board a British ship:
>DO NOT DRINK WITH BRITISH SAILORS
>they will out drink you
>DO NOT GAMBLE WITH BRITISH SAILORS
>they will beat you

>>20307103
Illustrious? Damn, that was the good old days wasn't it. Good to see a fellow RN sailor, even an old boy. I was thinking if putting my chit in, but now I'm shore side it looks like I'll be going on course for leading hand next year, so I decided to stay in.

>>20307015
Why do you regret the merchant navy?

>>20307330
Loads of memories from Illustrious. Most /lit/ for me was in the south Atlantic, I'm on the flight deck tethered to the wire when a freak wave curls over the ramp and breaks on the tower. Like a black wall falling on the deck. Pure Joseph Conrad, man against the elements. They fished me out of the holding net an hour later, much piss was taken

>>20307469
Keeek I'd have cried. Was you stuck?

>>20307349
Because it's a dissapointing job, you're spending vast amounts of time confined with a bunch of people you will probably dislike and have no connection to. The non-officer crews are for a majority of ships made up of philippinos or indonesians that I could write 40 posts about... at best they are just tolerable. The officers will be russian, ukrainian, bulgarian, romanian, etc. often irresponsible and will 100% abuse the fact that they outrank you and behave arrogant. Good luck convincing a russian they are in the wrong... they most likely outnumber you and they'll stick together and hold grudges.

The whole job is reduced to greedy deadlines and administration so the companies can lawfully wash their hands in case an accident happens because of the 3rd world irresponsible crews they employ because it's cheaper to do so. The job itself has been reduced to being a glorified taxi driver as the (in layman terms) systems to operate the ship are modernized which is why retarded indians can operate them. I wonder how many officers even know how to use a sextant anymore... let alone use celestial navigation to get a fix.

In the name of greed crew numbers have been going down to save on salaries and the number of OS and AB are low but the same amount of work has to be done so when you are first starting out as a cadet instead of learning your job you're going to be chipping and painting for 8-10 hours because you're more useful that way.

The "travel" part of the job is a scam, time spent in port is short and you have a shit ton of work to do so when you do get shore leave you're sacrificing sleep to maybe have 3 or 4 hours in some place often bumfuck nowheres because you're in industrial zones often in 3rd world countries where it's not even safe or recommended for you to stray too far. Tankers (not that I work on one) don't even spend time in port because they load/offload cargo on terminals far away from land or ship to ship.

>>20308512
Even if I wanted to not work with russians and philipinos and with my own I'd have to find an opening in "smaller" national companies where I'd first have to be "demoted" and take a pay cut and then I'd have to deal with drunks and arrogant retards that think they're more capable because they've spent X years with said company. Maybe it would be a bit better overall but not that great.

Majority of guys I know either do not have families or are divorced because they are just ATMs for wives that'll cheat on them. Your children (if you do have them) will not have their father home half the time and will 9 times out of 10 be spoiled and ungrateful for how you're earning bread for the family.

Thats all at the top of my head I could go on more... you quickly realize you're going to spend half of your life confined to a metal prison with drunks, losers, maniacs and retards looking at manifolds/containers/bulk holds waiting to go home then once you're home frantically try to make up for the time you spent away and hope you get to be the lucky one whose life doesnt fall apart (statistically it probably will) because you're not home also exhausted from work.

But hey atleast some people think it's cool when I start talking about cargo we carried and some of the places I've been to.

>>20300211
Sea stories, no matter the quality, are always of greater merit than whatever fart sniffing "literature" you basedjak over.

>>20300211
Both. Aubrey-Maturin is not for the impatient or plebs. Patrick O'Brian literally has a scene where a char tries to explain the rigging of the ship that basically mocks the reader with how confusing it is. Based