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/lit/ - Literature

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17161218 No.17161218 [Reply] [Original]

>Modern literature is devoted, in great measure, to a courageous, open-eyed observation of the sickeningly broken figurations that abound before us, around us, and within. Where the natural impulse to complain against the holocaust has been suppressed - to cry out blame, or to announce panaceas - the magnitude of an art of tragedy more potent (for us) than the Greek finds realization: the realistic, intimate, and variously interesting tragedy of democracy, where the god is beheld crucified in the catastrophes not of the great houses only but of every common home, every scourged and lacerated face. And there is no make-believe about heaven, future bliss, and compensation, to alleviate the bitter majesty, but only utter darkness, the void of unfulfillment, to receive and eat back the lives that have been tossed forth from the womb only to fail. In comparison with all this, our little stories of achievement seem pitiful; Too well we know what bitterness of failure, loss, disillusionment, and ironic unfulfillment galls the blood of even the envied of the world! Hence we are not disposed to assign to comedy the high rank of tragedy. Comedy as satire is acceptable, as fun it is a pleasant haven of escape, but the fairy tale of happiness ever after cannot be taken seriously; it belongs to the never-never land of childhood, which is protected from the realities that will become terrible known soon enough; just as the myth of heaven ever after is for the old, whose lives are behind them and whose hearts have to be readied for the last portal of the transit into night - which sober, modern Occidental judgement is founded on a total misunderstanding of the realities depicted in the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedies of redemption. These, in the ancient world, were regarded as of a higher rank than tragedy, of a deeper truth, of a more difficult realization, of a sounder structure, and of a revelation more complete.
Can someone help me translate this, clause-by-clause? Is the entire book this masturbatory? Do people actually care about ornate prose in a work of non-fiction?

>> No.17161257

https://youtu.be/BGrfhsxxmdE

>> No.17161283

>>17161257
thanks for the bump, but i am going to need help translating this reply as well

>> No.17161493

Modern literature likes to focus on themes of tragedy and misery. Rather than denounce these themes, the writers choose instead to keep it realistic and zoom in on every abhorrent little detail. There is no attempt to offer consolatory promise of a better future; instead, today is bad and tomorrow is worse: eat shit and die. These stories of desolation completely drown out the happy stories; comedy in the world of writing can only exist as satire or puerile fiction. So is with religion: the ideas of redemption, of heaven, of being cleansed from the original sin may have been popular many centuries ago, but not today. Today they are seen as childish naivete, not a profound take on life and meaning.

>> No.17161535

>>17161493
thank you, oh wise old man, i will now attain greater heights past the grassy river yonder

>> No.17161547

>>17161493
why didn't campbell write it like this?

>> No.17161602
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17161602

>>17161547
what im more curious about is why society has morphed the ancient archetype of
>thank you, wise old man
into
>ok, boomer
and what does this mean for the human race and its consequences?

>> No.17161644
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17161644

>>17161602
it means that either
1. the older generation has failed to live up to the wise old man. they have no wisdom to pass down and so the youth are skeptical and dismissive of them
2. the younger generation is too degenerate to appreciate sage wisdom. they openly mock the wise old man because they think they are smarter than he.
I suspect in actuality it is a combination of the two. My parents generation is spiritually dead and very materialistic. My grandparents were a bit better. On the other hand zoomers are brain dead retards who wouldn't listen to wisdom if you shoved it up their asses.

>> No.17161764
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17161764

>>17161218
>Is the entire book this masturbatory?
Yes.

>> No.17161899
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17161899

>>17161644
>is spiritually dead and very materialistic
this is true also. my mom is astonishingly dumb, but at least she's not afraid of cliches. she eats up Facebook inspirational quotes. dfw said something like,
>cliches are cliches because they are so obviously true
and there's a Tao Te Ching passage that goes,
>Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
>When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
>When justice is lost, there is justice.
>When justice is lost, there is ritual.
>Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty
>The beginning of confusion
It seems like my parents generation is pure Ritual, without any cognizance, and our generation has only confusion left

>> No.17161929

>>17161764
Who farted? Every damn time.

>> No.17161931
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17161931

>>17161764
baste butterfly

>> No.17161934

>>17161764
Butterfly is a great example of how college is wasted on women. Even the ones who want to be men.

>> No.17161966

>>17161602
>>17161644
>1. the older generation has failed to live up to the wise old man. they have no wisdom to pass down and so the youth are skeptical and dismissive of them
Mother-fucking this. Old people love to talk, and as there are many oldies in my city, I have found myself pulled into many lectures disguised as conversations. Not about philosophy, but their family. Johnny made the football team and all that shit. They want to sell me newspapers or they ask me about something that has been out of style since the fucking 60s. It used to be that the elderly wanted to see newer generations prosper. The elderly are now those people who danced in the streets while listening to the Beatles on LSD; those who were part of the most selfish generation in American history.
Few are the sages of the world.

>> No.17162067
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17162067

>>17161899
oops just realized i fucked up that quote, ignore the 3rd line obviously

>>17161966
checked. this is true. a single teenage mom and no father, what could i possibly know? luckily boomers had the presence of mind to realize you can combine reading into consooming: scholastic book fairs were the shit. and they're the only reason i ever started reading and learned anything of value

>> No.17162213

>>17161934
You are a good example of why oxygen is wasted on incels. Have Sex

>> No.17162339

>>17161602
boomers are old in years but childish and immature in spirit and brainpower. The generation after boomers is actually both older and wiser than boomers.

>> No.17163003

>>17161934
I didn’t read Campbell for a college course