/lit/ - Literature

you have to be retarded to be a great man and make your mark. thinkercels are stuck in their big heads, never accomplishing anything
case in point: nap conquered europe, you're reading his memoirs through teary eyes and whining on a mongolian throatsinging board

Post excerpts

>>22929346
If he's so retarded why'd Goethe like him so much?

I remember feeling like this when I decided to read up on Alexander after years of admiring him as a wee lad. Turns out he was just a gay (albeit charismatic) retard who conquered the world almost by pure chance

>>22929396
Nepo baby, too. He used his daddy's army. At least Napoleon rose through the ranks.

>>22929399
I find that the older conquerors seem to be the most interesting. Maybe it's because a lot was lost throughout time or never recorded in the first place, but when you read about Ashurnasipal II and his thirst for books, Sargon and his humble beginnings, Shamshi-Addad restoring Assyria and turning into an empire, and even Cyrus' rise against the Medes, it's just so much more captivating to me because we barely know anything about them, and it makes me wonder if things really were different back then to produce such incredible men, or if we did more about them, they would just feel like gay faggots just like everyone else who ever existed

>>22929346
Might be the single greatest portrait of any man.

>>22929346
Looks nothing like jewquin phoenix
wtf

>>22929346
Consider being disillusioned with all of Europe that was, at one point, under the thumb of what you call a "retard"

>>22929436
You mean to tell me they weren't le heckin based like in my vidya and tv shows?? How can I wewuzz then?

You are just an immature manchild who hasn't gone through enough experiences to emphasize with him. Or just the usual run of the mill 4chan midwit who can't imagine what it feels like to be at the top.

>>22929346
>I slowly realize he was retarded
Tell me more. Why do you think so?

Why are people assassinating his character lately? Since I was child I idiolized him and it hurts.

>>22929509
>Why are people assassinating his character lately?
Are they?

>>22929399
Napoleon inherited the french republican army which had been considerably reformed by his predecessors during the 1790s. It was a similar situation. He started losing more when the veterans of the 1790s wars slowly died off and he was calling up more and more green recruits from like 1806 onward

>>22929519
hollywood just shat out a movie where he's an autistic incel granpda instead of a chsrismatic 20-something but nobody watched it so it's alright

>>22929509
he has always been a target for criticism because of his historical influence. same way he will always be admired. but if there is a reason it's probably because of the Napoleon movie came out a few months ago, and maybe that is leading to a rehashing of the usual criticisms, possibly because the new movie can be read as anti-napoleon

>>22929346
He was basically just hitler before hitler

>>22929396
? Kings and generals made him look like a bonafide badass

>>22929973
>He was basically just hitler before hitler
go back

>>22929973
>He was basically just hitler before hitler
are you british

>>22929955
It's not at all similar. One was given power just by existing. The other had to seize it.

>>22929989
>defies jewish overlords control of his country
>creates a golden age
>blitzkriegs around europe
>gets his plans fucked by russia
What’s the difference

>>22929955

What Napoleon inherited was Berthier and the idea of the idea of the Corps system developed by others like Saxe, Broglie, Bourcet, Guibert, etc.

>>22930000
>nazi germany
>golden age
for colossal fuck-ups maybe. fawlty towers ass regime

>>22929958
>>22929962
>hollywood just shat out a movie
I mean, they stressed the fact of him being a cuck. Right?

It makes me wonder that you might conquer the world or the heart of a woman, but not the both at the same time.


Since you gotta to put the same quantity of energy into it. kek

>>22930000
Napoleon emancipated the Jews.
What he supported were also the precursor to modern liberalism and faggotry -- the absolute opposite of National Socialism.

>>22930020
He refused to set up a central bank, and personally supervised the bankers

I'm not sure why everyone was so excited about the Napoleon movie. As soon as I saw they had cast an old Jew as Napoleon I knew it was going to suck. Everyone was like "Dude it's by le heckin Anglo boomerino!". I was proven right once again and everyone thought I was a negative nancy.

>>22930020
Telling a Jew that he has to join humanity and leave his ethnic enclave is a big insult.

>>22930030
>Everyone was like "Dude it's by le heckin Anglo boomerino!"
I don't remember anyone that I've talked about the movie to saying this. Ridley Scott used to make good movies before he got old and senile, why would him being a boomerino make the movie good? Who was saying this?

>>22929999
>It's not at all similar.
It's not 1:1, but wasn't Philip already grooming Alexander for kingship? Didn't he give him command at Chaeronea? What I meant though was that Alexander inherited a well-oiled military machine and, to his credit, he used it properly.
Napoleon also took control of a state which had already been at war for a decade, had plenty of battle-hardened veterans, experienced commanders, and new military doctrines and organizational principles, which he himself further refined.
>>22930008
Why just narrow it down to one or two things. He inherited the military of the French revolutionary state.

>>22930030
Who gets excited about movies, not me or my friends, I don’t even know how people find out about movies, I haven’t seen an ad for one since streaming took over. Sometimes I find out about a movie that sounds really interesting to me only to find out it was in theaters years ago.

>>22930046
Many people thought it was going to be great because le legendary director was involved or something.

>>22930062
Also, if you think Macedonian dynastic politics was as simple as "inheriting" kingship, then you definitely are not familiar with the politics of the previous hundred years of the Macedonian kingdom, which was filled with intrigues, civil war, and assassinations of kings. Conversely, Napoleon toppled a decrepit authoritarian regime which almost no one gave a shit about, including the people, like Barras, who ruled it.

>>22929346
I got some of this reading about Rosseau. Can’t get his relationships straight, whines about how to educate children when he doesn’t have them. Has some bizarre mommy fetish with a whore.
Pivotal for philosophy unto this day.

There’s only a handful of people who genuinely seem to have lived what they preached.

>>22930080
What did Napoleon preach?

>>22930067
People who see the trailers, for example, get excited. Even though the trailer for this movie was cringe. But you must follow a movie account or community on social media to learn more easily about upcoming movies.

>>22930080
Rousseau was Jordan Peterson of his day.
Died poor and alone and a joke too

>>22930107
I know a lot of Philosphy fags shit on Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, etc. and while they may be retard grifters, there is no doubt they have actually gotten people to do shit more than 99% of philosophers.

>>22930107
No
>>22930118
kys

>>22930080
>Can't get his relationships straight, whines about how to educate children when he doesn't have them. Has some bizarre mommy fetish with a whore.
Wow he is literally me

>>22930130
You know I’m right, Andrew Tate has influenced more young men than Nietzsche and Jung combined. Not to say he isn’t a huge faggot, but the evidence is undeniable

>>22930142
>pic
Counterpoint

>>22930138
>>22930080
>Has some bizarre mommy fetish with a whore.
Just look at the flower the french dedicated to Joséphine.
They must be joking.

What does it remind you?

Even her rose is stretched, bro.

>>22930200
labia

>>22930107
So? Still like Rousseau. Stop being an NPC and following flavor of the month internet opinion and identify likes and dislikes with our own discernment. Fag.

>>22929362
Bullshit, the ones who I know who don’t think are lazy cunts who do menial work that means nothing. They like to smoke weed out all day so being lazy and eating food feels better.

Jordan Peterson is a grifter who siphons power from the elect. Imagine being a dragon slayer but having an unattractive or plain face.

>>22929396
What the fuck is this take? Who the fuck thinks like that???

>>22930279
>t. Alex fanboy

>>22929509
>Why are people assassinating his character lately?
It's the republican instinct in overdrive, they hate the idea of great men.

>>22929955
>Napoleon inherited the french republican army which had been considerably reformed by his predecessors during the 1790s.
This is such a misleading statement. Napoleon was given command of the French-Italian forces after proving himself with prior success. However the Italian theater was by far the least important and had made no progress in years. The army he "inherited" had no money, no food, most barely had uniforms or ammunition, and it was full of criminals and idiots who were all on the verge of mutiny. He converted this shambling force into an effective unit which immediately began winning victories and taking territory which no one in the position before had managed to do.

This thread is so vulgar, it's full of revisionist lies and modern rehabilitations of one of the most incredible people to live.

>>22930572
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw0X1f6-iqM

Here, I don't expect anyone on this board to actually read so here is a fairly credible youtube channel corroborating this. You're all a bunch of fucking liars itt completely making shit up to seem knowledgeable and contrarian.

>>22930572
Im obviously talking about after brumaire, not in italy obviously. That is why i said he inherited THE STATE, which he only controlled after 1799

>>22930688
Please shut the fuck up, you are too retarded for words.

>>22929362
True, well not retarded but somebody who acts first and thinks later. If you are obsessed with thinking then you can’t understand such a person since you’re analyzing the shit out of them. But also the fantasy we have of heroes may be better applied to our own life than others. We don’t know what drove these heroes to actions, it might be something lame in our view. But we can consider our own actions to spawn from a worthy reason

>>22930722
Are you ok anon? I said nothing wrong. And you've said nothing in this thread to justify the high opinion of you have yourself.

>>22930688
Who could forget when the Directory made the Napoleonic Code.

>>22930777
You've said nothing, I cited actual historical events and specifics. You are just a moron with diarrhea of the mouth.

>>22929346
he was a sensitive young man

>>22929362
The only great men are thinkers and it’s only them who are remembered in the long run. Men like Napoleon are just monkeys who serve as fixtures in the theories of great minds (e.g. Hegel). You know Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, I assume, but how many greek generals can you name? You know of Achilles only through Homer, and it is Homer who gets all the glory ultimately. Late Antiquity was a period of great tumult, borders were redrawn, empires toppled, etc., and yet the only people that we know well from the period with some exceptions are the thinkers like Augustine.

>>22931442
huh

>>22931442
bot post

>>22931442
Biggest cope I've ever read on this board.

>>22929346
Care to explain why, or you won't, since you haven't really read anything on the man and just want to get replies in your shitty thread?
Napoleon was good at math and geography as a student, and would often spend entire days locked in his room reading (I believe he mentioned Rousseau as a favorite author)

>>22931452
>>22931455
>>22931456
ah yes, the instant seethe and total absence of arguments definitely proves me wrong

>>22931481
>no argument
>thinks other people need to argue against his non-argument
lol lmao even

>>22931481
what arguments, retard? You're just pivoting to muh greeks instead of talking about Napoleon proper. Unlike the ancient Greeks, we have plenty of information and records on Napoleon.
>The only great men are thinkers and it’s only them who are remembered in the long run.
Completely false. We remember the great many in many fields.

>>22930572
Anyone who argues Napoleon wasn't a genius or somehow didn't merit his place in history is always either a cretinous monkey with an agenda, British, or some combination of the aforementioned.

>>22931511
>We remember the great many in many fields
Only insofar as they make a nice story. Hylics really think the shuffling around of matter has any matter. Humanity really only has a few beautiful pages to show for itself, and that’s all it ever will have.

>>22931442
>but how many greek generals can you name
I can name several greek generals and important political figures. Just because you're ignorant it doesn't mean that greek history is some obscure subject, what the fuck is this projection

>>22931562
I can name several too, each as inconsequential as the next. The collected lives of each worth less than a single preserved line of Plato. You’re just a hobbyist. Don’t conflate that with any sort of wisdom.

>>22931578
You remind me of that retarded critic who said that without critics works of literature don't exist.

>>22930146
That pic is so fucking retarded. Experience>>>books

>>22932126
cope

>>22932133
Experience is all that exists and all that shall ever exist, and it's unique for us all and only attainable by ourselves. Without the feeling of failure, "learning" that something is a mistake only makes you afraid of that something, it doesn't equip you with confidence and strength that you find after rising above a failure or setback you suffered. So at best you stay as you are because to be afraid if making a mistake is to be afraid of having to change, which means you're afraid of life itself.

>>22932141
You don't have to get aids by fucking a street whore raw to know the consequences of that act. Whether you like it or not, the world is built upon many such cases where wisdom derived from mistake-learning comes from second-hand experiences. You likely couldn't survive in the world without that. That's how animals live. Every time one of them is born it starts from scratch. Humanity is different because it preserves knowledge and wisdom in the form of literature. The fools ignores this corpus of wisdom. Anyone telling you not to read books or not to go school is far from wise. It's simply a fake guru selling you his product.

>>22932214
Of course, I don't hate books not am I the original Tate shitposter. I am a Wittgenstein shitposter though, while books are good experience is far superior. That quote by Bismarck I reacted to is not a counter to Tate, it's a counter to change.

>>22932250
Nobody is a bigger proponent of change than Bismarck. All quote implies is information better than no information

>>22932290
That quote implies a fool learns from his mistakes. Wrong, the fool doesn't learn from his own mistakes, that's what makes him a fool. A truly wise man knows he's not above erring as he is a man like any other, and is open to growing from his mistakes, ie changing.

>>22932299
That sounds like quibbling over semantics. Whether you learn from mistakes or grow out of it is the same thing, because it just means you won't repeat a bad experience and understand what you reap out of it i.e. knowledge & information

>>22932310
The quote literally states, word for word
"Fool learns from his own mistakes".
Meanwhile I said "fool doesnt learn from his mistakes, he repeats them."
I don't find that to be pure semantics, I simply disagree and I believe I explained why in multiple posts already. At first I was just shitposting, but I have elaborated afterwards and if you still disagree I'm fine with that.

>>22932318
What do you think of this quote?

>>22932327
I think that's a significantly different quote, one I could get behind.

>>22932382
They look like the same meaning to me

>>22929362
>>22929346
He was hard working thats what counts in life

>>22929417
It’s like the definition of patriotism. The inscribed sword is just such a kino detail as well. Truly portraiture was never the same after the invention of photography, or maybe we just ran out of men great enough to inspire great portraits. Just look at contemporary US presidential portraits, just utterly demoralizing

>>22930080
Just an autist trying to make in the 18th century really, no more than that

>>22931088
What have you cited besides a youtube video that is called Epic TV LMAO. The Italian campaign is more nuanced than "he took criminals and turned them into an army." It's like you're so intent on upholding the great man theory that you forget that the French revolutionary governments before Napoleon in Italy had already been holding their own against the European Great Powers since 1793.

>>22931442
>how greek generals can you name
If you read Thucydides, Plutarch, or Herodotus you would know their names, retard.

>>22930224
> Him: All great men are or were retards.
> (You): Bullshit, I know retards and they aren't great men!
You sound like a great man, Anon :^)

>>22930279
Contrarians.

>>22932918
>holding their own
>zero territorial progress in the Italian theater for years
>Napoleon gets results in literal weeks
>"uh but what did he accomplish?"
based retard

>>22933116
It was a matter of poor leadership, not competence. Napoleon was awesome in Italy though I don’t deny that, its his greatest claim to fame in terms of sheer brilliance

>>22933113
It's true though

>>22933246
Fake

>>22931442
>great minds (e.g. Hegel).
it's funny how atheists say a bourgeois sex addict is a great man

>>22930000
>no genocide, mass death camps or le JOOS boogeyman
He's more of a Caesar or Alexander the Great-esque figure, as opposed to being a Stalin or a Hitler.

>>22933959
The jews considered napoleon as big an enemy as hitler though

>>22933960
Did Napoleon take away their citizen rights, their human rights and sought to genocide them? No, then we have nothing to speak off regarding the two, other than the river of corpses running behind them.

>>22933964
Maybe napoleon not doing that is why hitler did

>>22933968
Maybe you ought to read more of history, rather than browse 4chan all day

>>22933973
Maybe you should stop being such a lefty cocksucker that you hyper focus on bigotry instead of real aspects of history

>>22933978
Read more, post less, also try to actually put some thought into your posts. Would make them better. :^)

>>22933985
You are probably a socialist, what do you know about anything

>>22931517
Brits don't tend to hate Napoleon anymore unless they're the weird "guys I'm a hardcore conservative but YOU BETTER NOT SAY THE N WORD OR THAT IMMIGRATION SHOULD BE LOWERED YOU NAZI" types. I know more who like Napoleon than dislike him.

>>22933978
why do you assume that if someone doesn't subscribe to one particular reading of history, a fringe one at that, that they are leftist

>>22934286
>implying thats wrong

>>22934292
>you are not right-wing if you do not subscribe to my retarded, inconsistent antisemitic reading of history
cringey retard

>>22934318
Yea

>>22933904
Hegel was a theologian and a mystic.

>>22934002
Nah decades of conditioning aren't undone just like that, it's literally part of their cultural fabric.

>>22929973
>youtube """""history"""""
ngmi

Embarrassing thread, everybody in here should kill himself, including me

>>22935898
Atheists can't be mystics.
Hegel was an average coomer lawyer spouting word salad to be part of the bourgeois elite after being exposed as fraud physicist.

>>22931442
i agree man a lot of times the conquerors are aided by clever strategists etc
just like the dumb cowboy flying off to space is only doing so with the help of a fleet of clever people

>>22930200
rectal prolapse

/// Crimp the edges to seal them tightly /// The result is that people have exalted expectations and are shocked when they don't materialize /// It is reserved for those who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty" while in action /// The soldiers were ready at a moment's notice /// Additionally, about 96 percent of the land is under conservation easement, meaning it can’t be developed /// He's a mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry /// The army has been whipsawed by a shrinking budget and a growing pool of recruits /// It’s been really hectic here. When things settle down, I’ll give you a call /// He had developed a reputation as an automotive savant and tinkered on cars in his spare time /// Although exports are in this sense an epiphenomenon, they are the most measurable of the two /// She strapped the children in and drove away /// The lotion alleviated the itching /// I'm sure they will charge up the wazoo for tickets /// Farming may seem bucolic, but it is an inherently volatile industry, subject to the vicissitudes of weather, disease, and disaster /// Kept the truth from their unwitting friends /// The wily City veteran is rarely caught on the wrong side of a trade /// He saw no fulsome eulogies carved upon the headstones, often nothing but a name and the two dates of birth and death /// Everyone loved her for her blithe spirit /// He's alternately warm and accommodating, then irascible and prickly /// All the world can now peddle its wares on the internet with few restrictions /// In at least some of these alternative ontologies, the visions that come to us unbidden, in the liminal states of insobriety, hypnagogia, or theurgic ecstasy, are not to be dismissed out of hand as obstacles to our apprehension of truth, but may in fact be vehicles of truth themselves /// That practice kept the dynastic line pure but it also increased the risk of passing on congenital defects /// Of course the hoarders' obstreperous attitudes are due, at least in part, to their various illnesses /// Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead /// Members from both parties should repudiate his comments /// The project was flawed from the outset /// What they researchers found questions the image of pliosaurs as the rapacious big game hunters they're often portrayed as /// Shrapnel from the bomb ripped into the side of the airplane /// The new evidence clinches the case /// He will be loath to leave via the back door, quietly /// Things can change in a heartbeat /// We investigate the issues of inductive problem-solving and learning by doxastic agents /// The ship docked at long last /// If a chief constable takes umbrage at a man and fines him, there is often no promotion for him /// They spent much of the time reminiscing about the war, as old soldiers are wont to do ///

>>22930146
based

>>22930572
Only good post in this whole thread.

>>22929417
2nd, maybe

>>22929409
I imagine a 130 IQ individual with resources and a square jaw back then could accomplish significantly more than today.

>>22929346
Damn Napoleon looks like an anime protagonist here. I never knew he was chill like that. Anyway Napoleon always bothers me because he's like this precursor to Hitler who while horrible by the standards of his day was rather weak tea compared to the modern age. Idk where he really fits in to all this

>>22930279
Very weird to read someone doing the histrionic tumblr voice who is also a Carlyle great man theory kool aid drinker. Not that he was wrong, just an odd combo

>>22939778
Hitler and Napoleon are nothing alike. Hitler was a genuine moron. Napoleon was a bonafide genius. France still uses much of the Napoleonic Code today. Germany spits on Hitler today.

>>22939784
Napoleon was a destructive Tyrant, the blueprint of Hitler. I don't give a fuck about some gay legal code in what has become an irrelevant country. I mean, granted, yes, it makes you better than Hitler, but my point is that his meaning in history is to be this awkward intermediate step between kings or whatever and Hitler. Hitler was great, his whole meaning is that his greatness was as absolute as his lack of goodness. This upsurge of the infernal in humdrum bourgeois history, that's gonna keep coming until we find a new paradigm.

My hero is Casanova and reading his words just makes me love him more

>>22939797
>>22939784
compare also Justinian and Caesar. If you were a pedantic pissant you might argue that Justinian is more significant because his code was the groundwork for stuff. But Caesar stands head and shoulder above him, and would even were he not the black blot who toppled Rome from republic to empire.

I had that happen when I first watched I Claudius and Nero appeared in the last episode as a very stereotypical limp-wristed faggy gay guy. From reading the ancient sources and modern books about the early empire, I always envisioned Nero as a very intense Daniel Day Lewis-like thespian aesthete. The show completely ruined that image I had of him.

>>22939784
Hitler and napoleon were both antijewish movements that the jewish world forced war upon

>>22939870
Why are the jews so good at provoking war?

>>22929346
cool drip

>>22929420
Looks nothing like Napoleon either.

>>22933904
>it's funny how atheists say a bourgeois sex addict is a great man
You're in a Napoleon thread

>>22939784
t. has never spoken to a German in the privacy of their home

>>22929973
>>22933960
Napoleon was almost singlehandedly responsible for the extension of civil rights to Jews in Europe. He was a republican who believed in freedom of conscience, so he was admired by nearly all religious minorities

>>22929396
Retard take desu. "Pure chance" was King Zeus being with him. He always fought right up in the front with his men and took the daring tactical options because he knew he had a divine mission. You see this with many great men all the way up to modern times.

>>22930018
They did and implied it was because of his tiny penis that couldn't pleasure Josephine. I'm one of the five people that enjoyed the film, I found it very touching.

I don't get how "Alexander inherited an army" is some kind of argument against his greatness.
He kept control of it at 20 and inspired them to conquer an entire empire.

>>22930142
Napoopan was a voracious reader though

>>22941754
Well I do get how that’s an argument against his greatness. What now, faggot?