/lit/ - Literature

>>4978215
>or chart if one is available
go back to /mu/, faggot

>>4978215
I'll start, I guess.

>Interested in Novalis, Schiller, Carlyle, and Ugo Foscolo

will do my best to help others out

>>4978216
>not knowing /lit/ flowcharts are just as home here as on /mu/
>never having gone to the sticky
hello newfriend :^)

>>4978219
>hello newfriend
summer...

>>4978222
>>4978219
>>4978216
please contribute to the thread guys

I really want to get into Harper Lee, if anyone could help me i'd be terribly grateful.

>Barth
>Faulkner
>DFW
>Schopenhaur

>>4978254
you're by far my favorite post out of this thread

mcelroy

>>4978215

I don´t know why but these sort of pictures fascinate me, as much as i hate using that pretentious word.

pic rulutud

>>4978268
The Letter Left to Me, then Cannonball

>>4978254
to kill a mockingbird would be a good start..I guess if you like that you could read her magazine articles/essays? that basically everything shes done

>>4978260
>Faulkner
only really read As I Lay Dying, but I enjoyed it, I think its a good intro to his style. Switching between southern vernacular and moments of beautiful, tender prose.

>Schopenhauer
Essays On Immortality and On Suicide are a must. The rest are ok too (on noise, on education, aesthetics, etc). I would read the Upanishads before you delve into World as Will though, if you will be so inclined.

>>4978254
lold

>>4978260
A Light in August is Faulkner's most structurally and syntactically conventional novel that still has the depth of his more experimental novels.

From there I'd got to As I Lay Dying, then The Sound and the Fury. After those, if you enjoyed them, try Absalom, Absalom!

>>4978215
I would like to get into Donna Tartt. If you know what I mean.

I would really like to get into Charles Bukowski, poetry in preference, but open to everything really

>>4978280
Taking the Harper lee post seriously, /mu/ pls go

>>4978301

>>4978311
>Saves Donna Tart

>>4978272
>>4978215
Jesus christ... that picture.. is beautiful.

Do you know where it came from, google yields жан поль гийото, but more info would be greatly appreciated.

>>4978358
check the filename...

hemmingway

>>4978358
Jean-Paul Guilloteau is the photographer

I want to devour Wittgenstein this summer.

Secondary literature welcome.

Hippo kept in a Moscow swimming pool

>>4978473
I've never read him, but I want to and I've saved this image from a thread long ago, hope it helps.

>>4978525
Thanks man, this seems perfect.

I'd like to get into T. S. Eliot.

>>4978260
>DFW

Fiction or nonfiction?

Fiction: start with a story collection; I recommend Oblivion. This gives a good sense of his fictional style (well, it *is* his fictional style). Keep in mind that some things are by design unclear but are clarified later on.

Non-fiction: my personal rec is A Supposedly Fun Thing since I think it's overall a bit above Consider the Lobster, but either will do. Both Flesh and Not has some gems but overall is ... a quickly-assembled posthumous cash-grab compared to the other two.

>>4978455
>>4978358
For what it's worth, 'жан поль гийото' is 'Jean-Paul Guilloteau' in Cyrillic.

>>4978218
die räuber is a nice introduction to schiller

What are "the Greeks"?

>>4978735
People who are born in Greece.

Hegel
Aquinas

>>4978732
Philosophical investigations. It's not that difficult to get into: the language is natural and simple and he uses a lot of examples.

>>4978454
the old man and the sea, a farewell to arms, for whom the bell tolls, the sun also rises

>>4978215
Hegel + Marx

I'm expecting mostly Intros and secondary lit. I especially want a good introduction.

>>4978800
Add "For Hegel," to the beginning of the first sentence.

>>4978454
oh and also hills like white elephants
>>4978682
the love song of j alfred prufrock, the hollow men, the wasteland
>>4978735
homer, sophocles, aeschylus, euripides, plato, aristotle, epicurus should do you well
>>4978788
>reading aquinas
well you can try summa theologica but it's like 45 volumes

>>4978804
http://www.basilica.org/pages/ebooks/St.%20Thomas%20Aquinas-Summa%20Theologica.pdf here's the four thousand page manuscript of summa theologica

Balzac
Shakespeare (yep)
Joyce
Proust

>>4978868
proust literally only has In Search of Lost Time to read, it's quite accessible just long
shakespeare - hamlet, macbeth, othello, merchant of venice, romeo and juliet, much ado about nothing, the tempest, julius ceasar
joyce - dubliners, a portrait of the artist as a young man, ulysses and finnegans wake if you are brave enough
dunno much about balzac

>>4978260
>Barth

I'd probably just recommend you start chronologically.

The Floating Opera and The End of the Road are his first two and are short and fairly easy. Opera has it's moments, though it's comparatively weak, and Road is more successful as a novel, but is less characteristic of his work in general, being less funny than sad.

The Sot-Weed Factor is the tits. You don't have to have read the poem it's based on to get it, it's funny as hell, and it's exquisitely written. It is long, however, and there are many narrative digressions, so that scares some folks off.

Giles Goat-Boy is really good, but not for everybody. Don't start here. This is from around the time John Barth started to get 'weird' (metafictional). It's funny, it's long, it's a lot more 'academic'

If you are more interested in Barth as a tricksy metafictional writer though, you might dive into things with Lost in the Funhouse. It's a short story collection (mostly) and while some stories are better than others, the good ones are really really good, and the ones that aren't as much are at least over quickly. If you like what he was doing with his mythic reimaginings at the end, check out Chimera. It's also fun.

If you get through all of those above, maybe check out LETTERS. It's about Barth (the writer/the character) writing letters to character from or related to his first six books.

It's worth noting that Barth's sense of humor is transgressive, so if you are offended by rape being played for laughs (like a lot,) or adultery, or suicide, ect., he might not be for you. People (like John Gardner) have long accused him of being Immoral for the sorts of reasons I think the average c/lit/ would really like him. I'm surprised he isn't mentioned here more, but I guess his sort of novels went out of fashion like 30 years ago- maybe that's why I've never really met anyone who's read anything but the ones I've listed.

>>4978807

..whoa

>>4978868
>Balzac
Start with La Peau de Chagrin and Le Père Goriot. If you like them pick at your heart's content into the La Comédie Humaine
>Joyce
The Dubliners > Portrait of the Artist > Ulysses > Finnegans Wake
>Shakespeare
You can't really go wrong with his plays. Arguably, Othello, Macbeth and Hamlet are his best works though The Tempest is my personal favorite. Don't forget his sonnets though, they are amazing.

Asimov
Roth

>>4978788
>Hegel
Hegel - Frederick Beiser (Routledge Philosophers)

>Aquinas
Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction - Fergus Kerr
Selected Philosophical Writings (Oxford World Classics)

>>4978218
heinrich von ofterdingen is the only novalis i've read but i definitely recommend it.

die rauber + kabale und liebe is good schiller

I want recommendations on authors from nontraditional continents/countries; Africa, south America, eastern Europe etc. As off the beaten track as possible while still being quality. No Achebe, marquez etc. let's get edgy here, people

Saul Bellow

>>4979062
>Saul Bellow

Most people start with The Adventures of Augie March, but that's one of the few I haven't read, so I can' comment. I hear it's really good.

I think Seize the Day is a great entry point. It's short and stupendous. His Collected Stories are also worth checking out if you're looking for something quick.

If you enjoy those you'll probably also like Herzog, Mr. Sammler's Planet, and Humbolt's Gift. Henderson the Rain King is.... interesting. I liked the main character, but the African setting was- while less Heart of Darkness than The Lion King- still maybe not the sort of thing that gets taught in most liberal arts colleges these days.

Alexander Dumas

Seneca

>>4979361
Do Dangling Man before Seize the Day. It's close to the same plot but they're written in that order.

>>4979378
...which one? Older: Three Musketeers is a laugh, then Count of Monte Christo. Younger: Lady of Camellias.

>>4979378
He's hardly an author you have to "get into". The only difficulty you may find is the french historical backdrop—which is never awfully complex. Perhaps The Count of Monte Cristo is a good starting point, though La Reine Margot & La Dame de Monsoreau are favourites of mine.

>>4978788
can highly recommend aquinas: a portrait by denys turner, which came out just last year. very good at delineating between thomistic and augustinian thought.

Émile Zola

>>4979666

>>4979919

Germinal is obvious. Nana, I think, is less so, but it's pretty good.

>>4978881
Thanks for this. I'll look into lost in the funhouse when I catch up on my backlog some. He sounds wonderful.

>>4978716
I'd second starting with a short story collection, but I found the Oblivion collection to be the most difficult thing he ever published. I'd recommend starting with Brief Interviews, but that's just me, and I suppose it's not as if anything he published is crazy hard or anything

pynchon

I have been seeing people mentioning Proust on /lit/ lately. Is he good?

>>4980027
I was gonna say the same. Hope someone replies to this.

>>4980027
>>4980113
The Crying of Lot 49

>>4980111
He's considered one of the greatest of the 20th century. If you want to read him, I'd recommend starting with his short novel The Lemoine Affair before attempting Swann's Way

>>4980027
>>4980113
>>4980130
The Crying of Lot 49 is shorter, but V. is a better starting point.

>>4980158
Crying has a more linear plot though, so it should be easier to follow

>>4980152
Alright thanks.

>>4980152
Sorry, but do you recommend any particular translation?

>>4980178
>not being able to read French

Get a load of this pleb...

>>4978215

Looks like Russia from the 90 and early '00.

>>4980185
I suppose I am a pleb considering I was given the chance to learn French. Oh well

>>4980027
>>4980113

This isn't quite relevant but it doesn't deserve it's own topic for sure.
I am a pleb who hasn't read fiction in like a fucking decade (since HS).

Decided to try and get my literacy on. I went to half-price books and just got cheap stuff that I knew had some sort of merit.

I'm not completely illiterate but my brain has definitely atrophied, reading level slipped, drank myself into a stupor, etc etc.

Could lit tell me in which order to procede? Rank the books least to most difficult?

Or at least tell me what I should start with.

>>4980882
>those shitty, uncared for paperbacks

>>4980890
I don't care about anything but the text contained within. If my choices are a 20 dollar, beautiful, hardcover, new edition... Or a 3 dollar book that has exactly the same text... I'll take the 3 dollar version plz.

Also, I give all my books to the library after I read them, so whatever

>>4980910
B-but then how are you supposed to demonstrate how well read and cultured you are?

>>4980910
so why didn't you just pirate all of them

So even though Pynchon has already been posted I have a question
I started The Crying of Lot 49 last week (yes I'm slow) and once I'm done with it where do I go from there?
I was planning on reading V. and then taking on Gravity's Rainbow

>>4980927
I'm not either of those things.

>>4980944
I like to hold books in my hand, and flip their pages and stuff. Plus, they smell good and give me nostalgic thoughts about going to the library as a child.

>>4980882
>Could lit tell me in which order to procede? Rank the books least to most difficult?

No, fuck off.

>>4980882
start with the greeks
or cormac

>>4978682
Read Old Possum's Books of Practical Cats
Watch Cats the Musical
Read Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock
Read Kierkegaard then Murder in the Cathedral
Read The Wasteland
Read analyses on the Wasteland

>>4980882
They all have their own difficulties. Tolstoy for his overt moralizing. Kafka for his opaqueness (though he probably has the simplest prose out of all of them). Dostoyevsky for his passionate ideological rigor (incidentally he was my own path to literature. After being reinvigorated into Lit by Catcher in the Rye I decided to tackle C&P and blazed through; though it depends on how patient you are reading him). Lowry for his experimentalism. (I've never read Heart of Darkness so I can't talk about Conrad)

>>4980963
Sounds good.

Personally, I went:
V. ---> Lot 49 ----> Gravity's Rainbow ------> Against the Day ------> Vineland -----> Bleeding Edge -----> Mason & Dixon

There is nothing in the latter books that will "prepare" you for Gravity's Rainbow, so your path is similar to mine.

Enjoy V. I've read it numerous times, and I'm certain if there was a book I could read over again for the first time, this would be it.

>>4981316
But I would start with Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Illych. If you like it move to Dosto. If you hate it move to Kafka.

>>4981302
>Watch Cats the Musical

Don't do this.
What the fuck.

>>4978215
J.k. Rowling. All of my inches.

Henry James (should I try to get through early stuff before going to his later big 3 or should I aim straight for Wings of the Dove or Golden Bowl)
Wallace Stevens
Yeats
Bachelard
French Symbolists (Valery, Mallarme, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud etc...)
French Surrealists (Breton, Aragon etc...)
Lord Byron
Roberto Bolano
Blaise Cendrars
Jonathan Swift
GB Shaw

>>4981348
I forgot Thomas De Quincey (as recommended from Borges. Don't reccomend Opium Eater)

>>4980882
I would say The Road of those
>that movie cover

Where do I start with Thomas Mann?

>>4980882
Crime and Punishment got me "into" literature. I read a bit here and there before, but C&P really catapulted my interest in lit to new heights. It's really a wonderful read, and a good introduction to Russian literature (which is awesome). I would start there.

>>4982042
>>4981325
>>4981316

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably go with Kafka (due to the "simplest prose") and move on to either Tolstoy or C+P.

Appreciate in anon.

Is there a particular collection of William Blake's poetry that people would recommend? I would like a bit of commentary, but it's not like I'm doing a course or anything. If not then are there any companion texts that have more of a biographical or contextual bent than an analysisy one that people could recommend?

>>4978215

How do I Kafka?
I think I know the names of the most important books/short stories, but which ones would be "read that, that's what he is about"?

>>4983291
The Penal Colony is a good starting point.

Lacan

I want to read everything about philosophy. I know what you will tell me "start with the greeks", but i want to know how would i continue then.

>>4983408
start with the greeks, the path after that will be clear

>>4979919
Therese Raquin

>>4983408
The history of western philosophy by Bertrand Russell has a timeline i enjoyed following

>>4983408

This is a got start: >>4983505

But also, do you have any idea about what you like about philosophy and what you are interested in reading? ("everything" damn too vague).
If you have specific interests, you may get better pointers. But seriously, for any pointers given, you will at some point face Kant, Descartes and the so called greeks.

Patrick White

I was thinking Voss or the Vivisector?

>>4983621
Voss seems to be the recommendation I see most often, and it's where I'm planning on starting. I'm wiling to start with first of his books I see in a bookshop that isn't The Hanging Garden though.

Starting with posthumous, unfinished novels seems like a bad idea but it's all I can find in the tiny little Australian Literature sections I find in most bookshops.