/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13594800]

Find me someone who lived a more adventurous and /lit/ life than Richard F Burton

>Spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages
>Wrote a translation of One Thousand and One Nights and the Kama Sutra
>Was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India
>One of the first Europeans to complete the Hajj (in disguise)
>Explored the East coast of Africa, the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika
>In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste
>Published over 40 books

Was he the Ubermensch?

[Anonymous No.13594819]

A challenger arises

[Anonymous No.13594824]

>>13594800
He was an übermensch. There's no "the".

[Anonymous No.13594832]

Fitzroy MacLean

[Anonymous No.13594858]

>>13594819
I don’t think an übermensch would allow himself to be sodomized, anon.

[Anonymous No.13594885]

>>13594858
an übermensch has his own set of values. he doesn't care about peasant morality.

[Anonymous No.13594893]

Typical nofapper

[Anonymous No.13594898]

>>13594893
This goes beyond nofap. The dude had to be a volcel.

[Anonymous No.13594913]

>>13594898
>Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the lengths of the penises of male inhabitants of various regions which he includes in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Many people at the time considered the Kama Shastra Society and the books it published scandalous.

[Anonymous No.13594918]

>>13594913
he suffered for science

[Anonymous No.13594941]

>>13594800
You have to read 29 african languages to total one european language in content

[Anonymous No.13594945]

>>13594800
>African languages
Dropped

[Anonymous No.13594997]

that's how everyone was like back then when they didn't have a TV and internet to distract them.

[Anonymous No.13595027]

>>13594997
also when there was world left

[Anonymous No.13595054]

>>13594941
>the untermensch cope

[Anonymous No.13595123]

>>13594800
Let's not forget:
> Wrote a manual for bayonet usage
> Survived a spear to the face
> Murdered someone to protect his identity in Mecca

[Anonymous No.13595162]

>>13595123
The murder is something he denied

[Anonymous No.13595194]

>>13595162
I'd deny murdering someone, too.

[Anonymous No.13596244]

>>13594997
>tfw cut off internet and feel like I'm getting my life back

BUT HERE I AM AGAIN FFS

[Anonymous No.13596255]

>>13594913
>>13594918
I bet the the most frequently used phrase in his travel books was "no homo though".

[Anonymous No.13596273]

Listen up, faggots. I wouldn't expect you virgin pussies to understand the greatness of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (known to you plebians as Lord Byron) so I'll spell it out for you.

This guy was a player. Not like that Chad who cucked you once by fucking your oneitis' brains out, oh no. This guy would fuck your oneitis, your Mum, your sister, your Dad and probably you for good measure. Some of them would be at the same time. He was the last true Greek in any sense of the word, producing classic poetry whilst fucking boipussi and sluts alike.

This fucker gallivanted through Europe, fucking and writing and writing and fucking whatever and whomever he desired. He popularised Gothic literature, inspiring the two most important texts in the genre - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John Polidori's The Vampyre. Without him, Victorian people would have been the biggest bunch of pussies. What else would they have read? Blake's ramblings about how awful industrialisation is? Wordsworth being a little bitch because nature is cool but also big and scary? Thank fuck Byron intervened and instead they read about a revenge-hungry, psychopathic monster tracking down and killing everything that makes this guy happy and noblemen fucking and sucking young sluts in creepy castles.

And he fucking loved animals. Not in an "omgggg I sooo need a pug, they're such cute deformities" way. In a "my dog is getting a mausoleum" way. Because Trinity College, Cambridge wouldn't let him keep his beloved dog with him, this motherfucker found a loophole and kept a bear. A. Fucking. Bear. Most of you pussies probably haven't even seen a bear, but this thing could have ripped off your arm and had it as a snack without a moments consideration. And bears were only the start of his collection, he also kept kept a fox, monkeys, an eagle, a crow, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, geese, a heron, and a goat. He basically lived in a small-sized zoo.

So what did he do when he got bored? Oh, I don't know, join the fucking war for Greek independence.

So yeah, that's why Byron is the greatest of the English Romantics and you're all too pussy to recognise it.

[Anonymous No.13596563]

>>13596273
Go back

[Anonymous No.13596574]

>>13596273
>your Dad
kek

[Anonymous No.13596604]

>>13596273
that's cool and all but what about his poetry?

[Anonymous No.13596623]

>>13596604
So-so, I'd recommend Shelley or Keats instead.

[Anonymous No.13596632]

>>13596623
I thought Shelley was the most minor of the English Romantics. Does he have something on the level of Don Juan or Darkness?

[Anonymous No.13596676]

>>13594800
Bill Tilman
>decorated soldier in both world wars
>coffee farmer and gentleman-explorer in Africa
>pioneering mountaineer in the himalayas
>first man to penetrate the nanda devi sanctuary before climbing the mountain thus establishing a mountaineering record that lasted approximately 30 years
>one of the first westerners to explore nepal
>explored afghanistan in search of the source of the ancient oxus river
>became an expert sailer later in life
>actively avoided the company of women
>wrote 16 books recounting his adventures and travels
>disappeared at sea at old age dying a viking's death

[Anonymous No.13596728]

>>13596632
Don Juan isn't that great. Shelley's poetry is far better, more lyrical and less stilted, and far less likely to be shat out for fame or money. A lot of Byron's stuff just isn't good because he never had to force himself to get better. Shelley's not the best, but he is better than Byron. Byron is less twee than Wordsworth, but the reason we still hear of Wordsworth and people can recite him more easily is because he's technically better and less dependent on fads, or content over form. Shelley's Love's Philosophy is probably better known than the pronunciation of Don Juan, because its words resonate better across time than jokey time pressured works. A lot of what makes Byron great is that he rejected Wordsworth's twee vision and surrounded himself with poets who wrote more deeply than he could, and his absolutely rockstar lifestyle. He sought out Shelley because Shelley was making a name as a dangerous writer. Byron knew Shelley was a greater writer but he was the stronger personality. They have this weird codependent relationship, where Shelley gives him the sense of poetic legitimacy he can't get from being popular with women readers of bawdy couplets. It's much like how Byron wishes he had TB when Keats was dying of it, but accuses Keats of mental masturbation. Keats is a better poet than Shelley or Byron, but also far less obsessed with social image and validation or masturbation. Byron accuses him of it purely because he knows Keats won't give him legitimacy as easily as Shelley would and did.

[Anonymous No.13596767]

>>13594824
>an

[Anonymous No.13596797]

>>13596767
sorry, ELSfag here.

[Anonymous No.13596826]

>>13596728
Fair enough, I'll check these guys out after I finish what I'm reading. What's your ranking of the Romantics? Wordsworth>Blake>Coleridge>Keats>Shelley>Byron?

[Anonymous No.13596865]

>>13596826
Blake>Keats>Coleridge>Shelley>Wordsworth>Byron
I'd rank Coleridge above Keats on personal taste and meter, but he lacks the vision and depth of Keats. I like him for that too (such as the lie about the man from Porlock which is better than the truth he simply didn't have the poem). Byron's life is amazing though. The whole period is awesome for poetry, but the weird relationships and lies between the group are worth reading about too. Byron's letters are savage. They're probably his best writing and if we included those he'd be above Wordsworth.

[Anonymous No.13597141]

>>13596767
don't get it

[Anonymous No.13597443]

>>13594885
Then the peasants will kill the "Ubermensch" and have many times already.

[Anonymous No.13597451]

>>13597443
you want to kill homos? suit yourself

[Anonymous No.13597769]

>>13596563
>>13596604
>>13596623
>>13596728
A couple of limpwristed virgins who think the "romantic" in English Romanticism means baking muffins for the girl you have a crush on who's never noticed you before. >>13596728
in particular exemplifies the type of needle-nosed academicism that effeminate literature professors have used to try to jettison LORD Byron from the canon in favor of pussies like Wordsworth. Truly a fucking revenge of the nerds.

[Anonymous No.13597813]

>>13597769
>irgins who think the "romantic" in English Romanticism means baking muffins for the girl you have a crush on who's never noticed you before
Literally no one here thinks this.
> 13596728 in particular exemplifies the type of needle-nosed academicism that effeminate literature professors have used to try to jettison LORD Byron from the canon in favor of pussies like Wordsworth
Their lives are irrelevant. It's their work that matters. We want content, not celebrity worship. And I really like Byron btw.

[Anonymous No.13598000]

>>13595162
He goes back and forth on that. Someone asked him whether the aforementioned story was true, and he replied, ‘my dear man, I’ve committed every sin in the Decalogue,’ or words to that effect. He also wrote an essay on pederistic spots in Asia and The Middle East, calling this supposed region ‘The Sotadic Zone.’ And when he was young, his officer asked him to report it n local reports of male brothels, and he wrote an extremely detailed piece on the practises, locales, types etc of these place, and how both locals and British officers looked in on them, thus ruining his military career.

He and Speke discovered Lake Tanganika, the Nile’s mouth, and he discovered all manner of other things. He Swinburne, and a number of others had started a club, of which one of its many aims was to shock Victorian society.

The man lived the life of a hundred men, from a hundred different cultures. And his poetry wasn’t too bad either. This particular stanza has stayed in my mind:

> Do what thine manhood bids thee do,
> From none but self expect applause,
> He noblest lives and noblest dies, who
> Makes and keeps his self-made laws.
> All other life’s a living death —
> a place where only phantoms dwell,
> A song, a speech, a sound a breath,
> A tinkling of the camel’s Bell.

I’ve probably gotten the poem wrong, but it’s from memory, so yeah.

[Anonymous No.13598038]

>>13594997
>most people in the past were faring explorators
Most of them were busy making food for the explorators

[Anonymous No.13598217]

>>13594913
So he was a degenerate and spent most of his time in third world countries. I certainly don't envy his life.

[Anonymous No.13598461]

His cunt wife burned his papers after his death.

He also did not like Jews.

[Anonymous No.13598502]

Bakunin's life is really interesting too
>born into Russian nobility
>used to fight his father because he was against serfdom (his family had 500 serfs)
>joined the imperial army
>deserted because he was against the mistreatment of poles
>the whole thing with Marx
>fought side by side with Richard Wagner against the Prussians
>lost his fortune for criticizing the czar
>went to fight a revolution and got arrested
>sent to Siberia
>escaped and ended in Japan
And this is the resumed version. I think he fought 2 or 3 revolutions and reappeared in Italy, for some reason.

[Anonymous No.13598505]

>>13596273
is there a name for the type of writing where the author makes up for lack of content and coherence by just swearing a lot

e.g. The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck, and this post

[Anonymous No.13598520]

>>13598505
Nu-Lit
Just like Nu-Metal and Nu-Rap

[Anonymous No.13598581]

>>13598461
>The Board of Deputies of British Jews was last night reconsidering its decision to sell one of the most notorious anti-semitic documents in English literature after the manuscript failed to reach its reserve price of £150,000 at auction.

>It had been feared that the document - partly in the handwriting of its author, the Victorian adventurer Sir Richard Burton - might be bought by far right extremists to exploit the explorer's wildly virulent attack on Jews and his acceptance of the so-called blood libel whereby Christians were supposedly sacrificed so that their blood could be used in Passover festivities.

>The board bought the manuscript and associated documents 90 years ago to prevent publication. Previously, the board had allowed the manuscript to be seen only by a few scholars.

Lmao the fucking kikes literally fucking bought it and tried to prevent the thing from being published for a century

>"I have seen the manuscript and I think it should be made available only to bona fide scholars. I was shocked that a man of Burton's intelligence should believe the blood libel, but I think his allegations still have resonance for far right groups today." He added that the auction had been advertised on US Nazi websites.

Oy vey, only let people guaranteed to agree with me read it!

>The manuscript was bought by David Lindo Alexander, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which has possessed it since 1911. A spokesman for the board said: " We do need the money."

>A spokesman for the board said: " We do need the money."

hOW CAN THEY BE SUCH CONSISTENTLY HORRIBLE FUCKING PEOPLE?

[Anonymous No.13598600]

>>13598581
Here's Burton's wife describing his recall from Syria by the British government:

Another way in which we made enemies was because Richard found it necessary to inform the Jews that he would not aid and abet them in their endeavours to extort unfair usury from the Syrians. Some of the village Shaykhs and peasantry, ignorant people as they were, were in the habit of making ruinous terms with the Jews, and the extortion was something dreadful. Moreover, certain Jewish usurers were suspected of exciting massacres between the Christians and the Moslems, because, their lives being perfectly safe, they would profit by the horrors to buy property at a nominal price. It was brought to the notice of Richard about this time that two Jewish boys, servants to Jewish masters who were British-protected subjects, had given the well-understood signal by drawing crosses on the walls. It was the signal of the massacre of 1860. He promptly investigated the matter, and took away the British protection of the masters temporarily. Certain Israelite money-lenders, who hated him because he would not wink at their sweating and extortions, saw in this an opportunity to overthrow him; so they reported to some leading Jews in England that he had tortured the boys, whom he had not, in point of fact, punished in any way beyond reproving them. The rich [Page 456] Jews at home, therefore, were anxious to procure our recall, and spread it about that we were influenced by hatred of the Jews. One of them had even the unfairness to write to the Foreign Office as follows: "I hear that the lady to whom Captain Burton is married is believed to be a bigoted Roman Catholic, and to be likely to influence him against the Jews."

[Anonymous No.13598707]

>>13598581
>>13598600

Remember guys, it's all a conspiracy.

[Anonymous No.13599997]

>>13598600
>>13598707
That Jews played a role in his recall is undeniable; that they were the sole cause of it (as you imply) is intellectually dishonest.

“Fortunately, in searching for the true reasons of Burton's recall from Damascus, I am not dependent, like Miss Stisted, on a mere opinion of my own, nor am I dependent on the testimony of Lady Burton, which, though correct in every detail, might be refused acceptance, on the plea that it was biassed. The true reasons are to be found in an official Blue Book, which contains a review of the whole case. This book publishes the complete correspondence, official and otherwise, for and against Burton, and comprises a review of his Consulship at Damascus from the time he was appointed, in November, 1868, to the day of his recall, in August, 1871.

It is impossible to read this correspondence dispassionately without wondering how it was that Burton was not removed from his post at Damascus before. In the brief space of two years he seems to have managed to set against himself almost every creed, nationality, and interest in Damascus. From the time he went there to the day he was recalled it was little but one long strife. Complaints to his Consul-General at Beyrout, to his Ambassador at Constantinople, to his Chief at the Foreign Office, were incessant; and as they came not from one part of the community of Damascus only, but from several, it is a marvel that the authorities at the Foreign Office, who love nothing better than that things should run, or seem to run, smoothly at the embassies and consulates, were so patient and long-suffering.”

[Anonymous No.13600009]

>>13599997
"Book II, Chapter XVIII." by Isabel Lady Burton (1831-1896)
From: The Romance of Isabel Lady BurtonVolume II, by Isabel Lady Burton, edited by W. H. Wilkins.
New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1897

[Anonymous No.13600057]

>>13594997
Is that Teddy K? I was at a museum in D.C that had his cabin and it looks similar