/lit/ - Literature

Ok ONE last thing: I already posted about this in someone else's thread a few days ago, but just in case there are other college educated users on who can give me some valuable input I'm going to ask again.

Here's my dilemma: Sep 2014 I'm starting Uni and I am going to major in classical studies, but I need to choose a minor. Here are my options:
1. English lit . Most accessible because it will be in English, my native language, but I'm not so big on English literature (besides Shakespeare)
2. History. Will not be in my native language, so it might be hard to follow (I'm studying out of the states)
3. French studies. will probably be studying literature I like (Hugo, Dumas, Voltaire, Montaigne, Stendhal), get to learn a language which my family speaks but neglected to pass on to me. What I'm worried about tho is that it will be too many languages (ie Latin, Greek, French), and my studies will be too difficult and unmanageable . Do ya'll think this is doable?

Damn ya'll

>>3870557
JFK was such a boss

>>3871108
:3

>>3871123
Big pimpin with Frank

just shootin' guns with Gore Vidal & Tennessee Williams

OP here. I am totally cool with this turning in to a JFK thread.

vive l'empereur

hey /lit/ did ya'll know JFK is a published author?

straight mac daddy

Oh, we're a JFK thread now? Okay, I'll join.

Bros.

>>3871234
would you like a mint? perhaps some binaca?

>>3871238
resevoir bros

This is pretty damn cute.

The Co-Presidency

JFK Reckless Youth is one hell of a book. If ya'll haven't read it then get on it immediately.

>>3871255
I heard it was pretty good. I may check it out, just got done reading Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero (kinda meh).

Glamour Couple.

Aristocracy.

Bearing the Burden.

Dat dog.

>>3871255
speaking of which does anyone have bio reccs. i need more JFK

The worst day of Bobby's life.

>>3871272
they had to leave it behind after their trip in Europe :(

first person to name her gets to be VP when i run for the presidency

>>3871273
I dunno about strictly biography. If you wanted a great bio on Bobby I could help (more of a RFK guy myself). Brothers by David Talbot is great on the Jack and Bobby co-presidency and why it was important.

The only straight up bio on Jack that I've read is Elusive Hero by Cris Matthews, which was okay but nothing special.

>>3871284
It's Mrs. Landingham

Just kidding, is it Mary Meyer?

Country club.

>>3871292
nope
>>3871288
I am decidedly not an RFK guy, but the co presidency book sounds promising

>>3871300
Whats wrong with Bobby?

>>3870557
What languages do you know already? Going from a Romance language to Latin isn't so hard, but in my case I studied for four years posterior to Latin as opposed to one or two. Latin isn't easy but it isn't too hard, and by the time you get to Greek you should probably be finished learning French, I think. History complements a classical studies major pretty well, but if you have a personal interest in French it's just as well.

>>3871273
Rush to Judgment, Best Evidence, Six Seconds in Dallas, or Forgive My Grief
You should check out my book; I've been talking with my publisher at this small press and I was thinking of calling it something like Profiles in Cowardice or something, or Conspiracy a-Go-Go
this is actually just a dumb reference don't wait for it to come out

>>3871302
LOL Slacker was a great movie.

>>3871301
Nothing, but JFK is a once in an age type of personality.
>>3871302
aight, so I speak Hebrew and English (yes, I'm Israeli, but I didn't want to say because sometimes that's enough to turn things political)

I plan on studying Latin until September 2014 on my own to get a head start. I've already received some recommendations on textbooks, but if you have advice I would appreciate it. Here is the thing though. I think they might be giving me the Greek and Latin courses at the same time. It's a 3 year bachelor's degree...I don't really understand how this university stuff works so maybe it's more flexible than that. Do you, in your personal experience or observation find that it is perfectly manageable for a person to study three languages at once if they apply themselves?

>>3871326
Fair enough. I really recommend you give Bobby another look though. The mix of compassion and empathy with anger and ruthlessness makes him a really interesting character in his own right.

The speech he gave on MLK's death is still the best I've ever heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCrx_u3825g

>>3871368
god, America was just not ready for the Kennedy's. their deaths are really unforgivable

>>3871156
>dem pants & shoes
/fa/shionable moffucka

>>3871382
We never recovered. Bobby dies and then Nixon wins, and we get Cambodia, Watergate, and Malaise.

And of course, we never find out who killed Jack and unquestionably we would have at least gotten closer if Bobby had become president.

>>3871391
yeah, this country has many sins it is yet to be clean of

I cant believe we lost such paragons of real vital humanity, but a clown like reagan somehow survives his whole term.

>>3871411
It's a really shit country.

>>3870557
>>3870524
Check the essay on the Republic in this book, OP. There´s also a nice one on Aristotle´s Politics in there.

Also, why not major in philosophy? Classics/ philosophy is the GOAT, although I would pick phil for the major.

>>3871596
Yeah, I was already planning on picking up some Strauss books, should have mentioned that.

Classics will give me the opportunity to study history, philosophy, and literature from various periods that have appealed to me since my youth, AND in the original languages. Not an opportunity I want to pass on.

And as I said before, I am studying in Israel and I don't know how competent I feel to attend lectures in Hebrew at an academic level. Classics partly solves this issue because I will be learning a new language which other students will know just as well as I do, so the playing field will be somewhat even. I shouldn't jump to conclusions though. I will certainly meet with people from the philosophy departments and see if they think my Hebrew (which is pretty damn good, but not as good as my English) will pose any difficulties for me.

The same thing I said with regard to Classics applies to French. Level playing field, and as I also mentioned I like the literary selection in the French language (not to mention that the French Revolution and Napoleon constitute one the most fascinating periods in history for me)

>>3871596
IJ reference? If so what does the G mean?

>>3871382
What the fuck is with liberal hard-ons for the fucking Kennedys? They were fucking bastards just like the rest of them.

>>3871596
And I guess I might as well mention just for conversation's sake that I am currently reading The Closing of the American Mind (seeing as Allan Bloom is part of the same intellectual vein as Strauss).

Damn fine book.

Aaaand has no one figured out who this is?:
>>3871284

>>3871691
GOAT didn't originate with IJ, it was and is a semi-common acronym on its own.

>>3871694

ooooooh look what I found

http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Leo+Strauss%22

alright, its getting late folks (1:40am here) time to hit the sack

>>3871702
Seriously though, what separates him from Clinton, Carter, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Obama, etc aside from his charm and obligatory nominal liberal concern for fig leaf 'civil rights'? 40 years from now people like you will be stroking their dicks about Obama the same way you're doing it for JFK.

OP here. Apparently they offer Italian as well at the university closest to me, so I might take that up instead of moving cities...hmmmm Italian or French?

Also I'm starting to reconsider the difficulty Hebrew will pose for me on an academic level. I'm sure I can handle it in most cases. I'm wondering if Philosphy classes will be too dense for me in that regard tho....

>>3871747
Maybe I'm just starstruck by luminous being that was Jack Kennedy, but I see him as quite a heroic and exceptional being, and I am full of admiration for him. I love him for all his virtues and his many faults.

So does anyone have thoughts on The Closing of the American Mind? I'm on the last section and I like the cut of this man's jip....or the jip of his cut...or jit or however that rustic American expression goes.

>>3871747
>40 years from now people like you will be stroking their dicks about Obama the same way you're doing it for JFK
You couldn't think of an adequate comparison so you pull up someone so recent that sober judgment is impossible? You can do a little better than that.

>>3871326
buh I didn't notice this until now, sorry
Greek and Latin at the same time might be tricky, and adding French will certainly be a challenge. If you start studying some basic Latin now to get down grammar structures and so on (I'm not sure if you learned any of these with Hebrew), it should still be manageable. There are more than a few studies that say learning multiple languages damages comprehension of all of them, but I don't think that makes it impossible. Wheelock's Latin is, um, standard enough, but there are probably better texts for learning by yourself.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ is good for Greek and Latin texts; I know there are websites for learning but I don't recall what they are. Maybe try reddit as I'm sure they have resources for some kind under Latin or Ancient Greek or whatever nonsense they have

>>3873417
I'm a fluent Hebrew speaker, but it's more along then lines of conversational Hebrew than academic Hebrew.

>reddit
Oh god, I haven't gone down to that abysmal place since I was like 16. I guess, much like Odysseus, I will have to journey to the underworld and wrest knowledge from the damned....

Do you think Latin will complement studies in Italian more or in French? I've heard from some that French is in some ways closer to it's Latin roots.

>>3871747
Fuck JFK, that cliche of American liberal heroism. If you are going to have heroise and it has to be cliche, go all out. Che Guevara was a thousand times the man that bourgeois creep was.

>>3873470
Sounds like you're trying to become a modern day Ezra Pound.

>>3873470
Well, if you've never learned a language formally it might be a little more difficult to learn the grammatical structures. I've only learned a smattering of Italian and really no French at all, but it seems like French is closer (though maybe a little more silly looking).

Yea, I'd just suggest reddit for the links they have; the people are like whatever I don't care
also apparently even more white-male dominated than 4chan, somehow

>>3873474
>liberal heroism
It's more his character and personality I find heroic and compelling. Not that I neglect or am ignorant of his politics. Given what I know about the man I find your use of the word 'creep' to be blasphemous, uncouth, and in extremely bad taste.

>>3873476
Until a few weeks ago I had no idea who he was so I don't understand your reference, but you have piqued my interest. Could you point out these parallels that you see?

>>3873476
Someone might as well.

>>3873495
After 4+ years of classicism, the tricolon starts to get on your nerves, and that's a pretty nasty example.

>>3873505
Complete idiot. Tried to learn everything. Half-succeeded too. Was probably one of the worst poets of the 20c. Missed his real vocation as a teacher or founder of a school. Like I said, complete idiot.

>>3873543

>>3873476
>>3873543
His kind of depth of reading seems rare in writers these days, which is a shame.

>>3873568
Yep. There needs to be more idiocy in the arts. Every great artist is a great idiot who shuts himself off the easy path.

sup /lit/