/lit/ - Literature

What's the role of literature in society

to be or not to be?

>>7077169
Literature is language charged with meaning.
'Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree'

Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportioned to their
ability AS WRITERS. This is their main use. All other uses are relative, and temporary, and can be estimated only in relation to the views of a particular estimator.
Partians of particular ideas may value writers who agree with them more than writers who do not, they may, and often do, value bad writers ·of their own party or religion more than good writers of another party or church.
But there is one basis susceptible of estimation and independent of all questions of viewpoint.
Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. It doesn't matter whether the good writer wants to be useful, or whether the bad writer wants to do harm.
Language is the main means of human communication.
Han animal's nervous system does not transmit sensations and stimuli, the animal atrophies.
If a nation's literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.
Your legislator can't legislate for the public good, your commander can't command, your populace (if you be a democratic country) can't instruct its 'representatives', save by language.

GREECE and Rome were civilized BY LANGUAGE

>excerpts from ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound

>>7077181

Is there a website that teaches English from k-college. Similar to KhanAcademy is to math? I'm going to try to study as much as possible so I can pass my GED and get high SAT scores.

I've been searching on google, but it's not what I've had in mind. I really want to improve my grammar and vocabulary. I'm pretty illiterate and I haven't been in school for years.

>>7077256
just shitpost for hours. results guaranteed

no but seriously, best way to learn a language is to use it, and internet forums are the most fluid way of doing that. just pay attention to grammar, don't be sloppy with it

Why do all medieval philosophers have last names that start with A

>Abelard
>Anselm
>Augustine
>Aquinas
>Avicenna
>al-Farabi
>Averroes

Is there anything of value to be gleaned from mystic/esoteric texts besides personal satisfaction?

What's the most well written piece of internet literature: be it a shitpost, copypasta or otherwise?

>>7077639
imo the navyseal copypasta.

it never fails to make me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0azhi_w8AD0

>>7077500
Bumping for interest

>read some of kafka's short stories
>have no idea what in the what the fuck it's supposed to mean

What am i missing? The specific stories are conversation with the worshiper and convo with the drunk.

>>7077275
>al-Farabi
>Why do Middle Eastern philosophers all have names with an "al" in it?

Oh and "Ibn Sina" instead of Avicenna and "Ibn Rushd" instead of Avveroes

How significant are the recent wave of 'Internet Poets' like Steve Roggenbuck; do you consider it the next step in literature or silly trash from kids fucking about?

>>7077639
The Blindmute Saga

>>7077500
You'll get better at understanding abstract concepts, and you can always put esoteric allusions in your writing. It depends on the text, but don't be scared away from authors like Pseudo-Dionysius or Johannes Scotus Eriugena or Parmenides just because they get the title "mystic", they're definitely all worth the read.

>>7077817
It's hard to tell its significance right now, considering it's still a relatively new thing.
When you consider the significance of poetry in general, probably not very if at all. If you look at it exclusively in relation to the tradition, on a whole it doesn't show any indication of something worth remembering or having an impact beyond its own sake; that is, the only sort of relevance it could have, in my opinion, is as "internet poetry", otherwise independent of the poetic tradition (of english poetry, that is).

Realistically, I think it's mostly shit and forgettable, but unfortunately I can't wish it away and ignore it if that's what poetry is doing right now. Just cross my fingers and hope it's not what poetry's doing, and taking it into account of the thousand years of poetry it seems unlikely this will hold up; if it does it'll surely be considered only as evidence of the degeneration of the medium.

>>7077815
those are both fragments of the same story, depiction of a struggle

>>7077856
Personally I'm inclined to agree with you, at most I believe it could become a new channel for poetry alongside its more traditional mediums.

While a lot of 'internet poetry' is below average I really believe the emerging scene has potential to create some truly beautiful works.

https://youtu.be/JBOIOlUa9Ok?t=3111

What passages of Lacan is Zizzy citing here? Any other pertinent thinkers or works?

How can I be as literate as some of you guys? Is reading a book the only thing I can do? I wanna be more intelligent.

>>7077964
Don't be fooled; when you begin reading you'll realize most people here aren't as intelligent as they seem

But yes, reading is the best way to be knowledgeable about literature, and can be a great way to be knowledgeable about certain topics

>>7077210
Good excerpt flowerposter. I mostly agree with it, but for the following:
>Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear
James Joyce is (subjectively) a good writer. His language is concise yet clearness doesn't seem to be his forte -- nor his goal.

Could you please recommend me some authors with similar humor as Toole and Heller?

>>7077977
Certainly, it can be argued either way. Perhaps consider that Joyce is clear in what he's attempting to do; Ulysses is accurate in its attempts.
One can interpret "clear" in Pound's statement as "easy to grasp", but maybe he meant it laterally rather than literally; "clear" in the sense that Joyce's language is accurate and efficient in its endeavors and its goals through complexity, if that makes any sense.

>>7077964
Well it's not like all the people here have read every book mentioned. There are lots of us posting here, just post in whatever thread interests you or are knowledgeable about.

W-what are some well written books about BDSM

I need to know for some research.

>>7078033
Maybe Marquis de Sade or Foucalt's works on sexuality?

>>7078033
Also The story of the eye, by Bataille. and his poems.

>>7078036
>>7078049

ty for the recs

>>7077982

Bumping in anticipation.

I have a bunch of old /lit/ threads bookmarked, all of which are in the archive at this point. Are there any extensions or methods of browsing them that's more streamlined than the native archive method?

Isn't the word "should" useless and even harmful in some situations when "would" and "will" fill the same usages?

Could anyone recommend any decent introductions to music theory?

What shall I read next

Just finished The Spider's House (Paul Bowles) and the Holocaust Industry (Finkelstein)

Sitting on my shelf I have....

>Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago (abridged)
>Joseph Roth - The Radetzky March
>Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
>Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
>Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
>Mike Martin - An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict

/r/ing the how to get into philosophy chart

>>7077139
Who put the bomp in the bomp shoo bomp shoo bomp? And on a related note, who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? I always wondered but I never thought it was worth making a thread to ask but now... well I guess here we are

How can I improve my prose and sentence structure?

>>7078725
Practice a lot. It might be worth learning more about grammar, especially if you're interested in writing more complex prose. Also, read. Read writers with exemplary prose, and you'll eventually write more like them (unconsciously).

>>7077982
John Barthe

>>7078201
Meditations

>>7078199
The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine

also check out this free online textbook

http://openmusictheory.com/

>>7077922
bumping my question

How's the second Foundation Trilogy? Any good?

>>7080317
yeah it's pretty good, not as good as the originals

>>7077139
How do I write something that's funny?

>>7077670
I like this music. Is he imitating someone? If so, who? This is my question btw.

How should a fictional constitution be written?

One sentence articles or numbered paragraphs?

I've been doing the latter, mainly due to my OCD, but also to make it look nice.

Has anyone bought any books from this website? Is it any good?

http://www.alibris.com/

>>7077639

Fresh off the boat, from reddit, kid? heh I remember when I was just like you. Braindead. Lemme give you a tip so you can make it in this cyber sanctuary: never make jokes like that. You got no reputation here, you got no name, you got jackshit here. It's survival of the fittest and you ain't gonna survive long on 4chan by saying stupid jokes that your little hugbox cuntsucking reddit friends would upboat. None of that here. You don't upboat. You don't downboat. This ain't reddit, kid. This is 4chan. We have REAL intellectual discussion, something I don't think you're all that familiar with. You don't like it, you can hit the bricks on over to imgur, you daily show watching son of a bitch. I hope you don't tho. I hope you stay here and learn our ways. Things are different here, unlike any other place that the light of internet pop culture reaches. You can be anything here. Me ? heh, I'm a judge.. this place.... this place has a lot to offer... heh you'll see, kid . . . that is if you can handle it...

>>7078944

> John Barthe

Any works in particular? Where should I start with him?

>>7082247
Floating Opera, Giles Goat Bpy, Lost in the Funhouse. Pynchon is funny too but in a different way.

>>7082252

Thanks anon, very much appreciated.

What is the /lit/ guide to reading Stirner?

What is it called when somebody no longer takes pleasure in something and continues to do it out of a sense of obligation?

>>7077210
>Pound

>>7085101
What are you implying, lad?

How difficult is it to read Proust in French?

>>7078201
Read the Gulag Archipelago.

I've been tossing around this premise for a novel and I'd appreciate reactions or suggestions.

It's an alternate history focusing on the U.S. AIDS epidemic and the Reagan presidency. A terrorist group gains knowledge of a prostitute that Reagan solicits every month, and they pay the main character to infect that prostitute with AIDS, thus infecting Reagan himself.

The scheme succeeds. I haven't decided if the news immediately leaks or if it is covered up for the majority of the epidemic. Either way, the public perception of AIDS and homosexuality is drastically altered, and a cure is likely found before the disease kills Reagan.

Thematically I would focus on medicine, activism, conspiracy, and of course, gay panic.

Whats wrong with reading for the plot?

>>7085174
>Reagan gets gay AIDS

you're gonna need to handle the politics of it

i like it tho

>>7085132
it depends on whether or not you speak french. If you do then it's still moderately difficult. If you don't it's almost impossible.

I am currently taking a cource on the pre-socratic philosophers and would love to discuss them with someone here.

Who is your favourite Milesian philosopher/ what is your favourite theory on archee? Why?

What do you think of Parmenides? Do you consider him to be rationalist? Why?

And so on.

What is the name of the dilemma where exacting justice on a criminal just hurts the victim even more?