/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17862076]

Can we please stop telling people to "read the greeks" - Do you all realize literature isn't just the same 8 books by Plato and what not? There is not a single important concept beside basic common sense today that exists in taking the time to read all 30 books of those dumb charts and sink hours doing so except for historical reasons. There are much better avenues to explore

[Anonymous No.17862092]

start with the greeks.

[Anonymous No.17862103]

>>17862076
I distrust modern literature cause its full of jews. Antiquity is warm and fuzzy, I'm fine with reading greeks and romans till the day I die. I find even get edgy and read the hindus

[Anonymous No.17862106]

>>17862076
Filtered

[Anonymous No.17862114]

How do you propose to maintain standards? In theory, you may be correct, but in practice, it leads to people insisting their trashy indulgences are on par with works of depth and meaning which have stood the test of time. Your good intention is a brick on the path to hell.

[Anonymous No.17862123]

>>17862103
Listen buckaroo

I don't like Jews either and I don't read modern literature either. Just don't read any literature at all buckaroo, whatever you do stop living in the fantasy roman world because it's long gone, nothing is applicable today Jim. If anything read the book of your religion and scholars of your religion. That's it

[Anonymous No.17862128]

>>17862076
Can we please stop telling people to "start with algebra" - Do you all realize math isn't just the same 4 operations and what not? There is not a single important concept beside basic common sense today that exists in taking the time to master all of those dumb laws and sink hours doing so except for historical reasons. There are much better avenues to explore

[Anonymous No.17862131]

>>17862128
Are you retarded? The Greeks are not relevant today. Algebra is

[Anonymous No.17862143]

>>17862076
>he didn't start with the greeks

anon, the longer you put it off the more painful it's going to be.

[Anonymous No.17862156]

>>17862076
Start with Cervantes

[Anonymous No.17862167]

>>17862123
Ok covert communist j peterson larperino

[Anonymous No.17862174]

>>17862156
basado

[Anonymous No.17862178]

>>17862131

[Anonymous No.17862183]

>>17862156
Con base

[Anonymous No.17862185]

>>17862156
Basado

[Anonymous No.17862193]

>>17862076
ikr imagine not starting with AoT

[Anonymous No.17862199]

>>17862076
>There are much better avenues to explore
Oh cool, what are they?

[Anonymous No.17862403]

>>17862199
Read up on scholars from other slightly more recent eras who actually contributed to science and theologians and not meaningless rhetorical debate

[Anonymous No.17862427]

>>17862403
So I should start with airport philosophy books? Or should I start with the Romans instead?

[Anonymous No.17862438]

you are undoubtedly ngmi

[Anonymous No.17862449]

>>17862199
Start with this.

[Anonymous No.17862465]

>>17862076
Start with some shit like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. That makes more sense for most people.

[Anonymous No.17862476]

>>17862403
>who actually contributed to science

[Anonymous No.17862497]

>>17862403
most science and even most modern ideology has its roots in the greeks. what now? is it better to drink from a hose or a clear mountain spring?

[Anonymous No.17862522]

>>17862497
Drink from this dick

[Anonymous No.17862538]

>>17862522
No problem, I started with the Greeks after all!

[Anonymous No.17862606]

>>17862076
The issue is, /lit/'s advice is weird. There's a general mindset in the advice that's given that presumes the recipient of the advice desires to become a Renaissance man, and more importantly, broadly knowledgeable, rather than knowledgeable in the style of contemporary academia, where one knows a lot about only one specific facet of an idea. The Greeks are far enough back that they're the general foundation for much of philosophy, even contemporary philosophy. This is to say nothing of their literary effects as well. In either case, the Greeks are early enough and relevant enough that they're a good starting place, especially since they're generally easy to read, they're foundational, and yet not so far in the past as to be almost worthless.
Having said that, it's advice geared towards people who want to actually wholly understand philosophy and literature as concepts, not just people who want to read books or read just one philosopher. This is especially true for the charts.
What makes this advice odd is that /lit/ doesn't generally read, and what members of /lit/ do read either actually started with the Greeks or didn't need to ask stupid "where do I start" questions, so there's a bunch of people who either never followed this advice or never needed it at all, and it's become a meme given to a board of people who just want to jerk off and talk about politics/morons on Twitter.
All of that said, "Start with the Greeks" doesn't have to mean reading every Greek philosopher or that one can't read secondary sources, it's decent advice that's memed but never explained because explaining it should generally be unnecessary.
The board is stupid and gives shit advice at times, but "start with the Greeks" is one of the few legitimately good ideas this place has.

[Anonymous No.17862608]

>>17862497
this anon is right, removing the middlemen/filters/translators/businesses is extremely important in all aspects of life

[Anonymous No.17862658]

>>17862076
can we please stop posting weird pepes

[Anonymous No.17862668]

>>17862658
whats wrong with bobo?

[Anonymous No.17862740]

>>17862123
>nothing is applicable today
This is your mind on postmodernism.

[Anonymous No.17862743]

>>17862740
ah yes rhetorics are going to bring me one step closer to taking over the world

[Anonymous No.17862755]

>>17862743
Are you implying politicians get their positions through honesty and having good ideas?

[Anonymous No.17862762]

>>17862076
>literature isn't just the same 8 books
It is though.

[Anonymous No.17862796]

Start with F. Gardner

[Anonymous No.17862826]

start with info about plant life in your local area
THEN start with the greeks

[Anonymous No.17862905]

I am really fucking horny

[Anonymous No.17862967]

>>17862076
My nearest library only had the Symposium so I got that one for my first book. What do I read after this?

[Anonymous No.17862975]

>>17862967
Symposium is end-game anon

[Anonymous No.17862979]

>>17862967
whatever aristotle books your library happens to have.

[Anonymous No.17862999]

>>17862975
Ah shit. I guess I can put it on hold until then. I'll see what guides this board has, thanks for warning me.
>>17862979
Symposium was the only Greek they had there I'm afraid.

[Anonymous No.17863050]

>>17862999
>Ah shit. I guess I can put it on hold until then.
I'm joking, you can just read it

[Anonymous No.17863055]

>>17862999
any descartes?

[Anonymous No.17863089]

>>17863055
Not even that, no Descartes, Kant, Schoppenhauer, Albert Camus or whatever, just some bunch of international stuff that I couldn't find any background on.

[Anonymous No.17863155]

>>17862076
WHAT THE FUCK
I CAME HERE TO GET AWAY FROM YOU

[Anonymous No.17863179]

>>17862076
>>17862128
>>17862668
Don't worry brothers. They expect one of us to be in the wreckage:
>>17863155
>>17862658

[Anonymous No.17863235]

>>17862076
>Do you all realize literature isn't just the same 8 books by Plato and what not
There are more than 8 pieces of literature people recommend when referring to the greeks
>There is not a single important concept beside basic common sense today that exists in taking the time to read all 30 books of those dumb charts and sink hours doing so except for historical reasons
Or you know, wanting to branch out from what you normally read. Currently doing that with the bronze age chart and supplementing it with John Campbell's Hero of a thousand faces and Masks of gods. After that I'll branch out into mythological literature of other civilizations as well. And it's all thanks to some help from a chart.

[Anonymous No.17864130]

>>17862658

[Anonymous No.17865081]

>>17862123
>"One should not study contemporaries and competitors, but the great men of antiquity, whose works have, for centuries, received equal homage and consideration. Indeed, a man of really superior endowments will feel the necessity of this, and it is just this need for an intercourse with great predecessors, which is the sign of a higher talent. Let us study Moliere, let us study Shakspeare, but above all things, the old Greeks, and always the Greeks." "For highly endowed natures," remarked I, " the study of the authors of antiquity may be perfectly invaluable ; but, in general, it appears to have little influ- ence upon personal character. If this were the case, all philologists and theologians would be the most ex-cellent of men. But this is by no means the case; and such connoisseurs of the ancient Greek and Latin authors are able people or pitiful creatures, according to the good or bad qualities which God has given them, or which they have inherited from their father and mother." " There is nothing to be said against that," re- turned Goethe" but it must not, therefore, be said, that the study of the authors of antiquity is entirely without effect upon the formation of character. A worthless man will always remain worthless, and a little mind will not, by daily intercourse with the great minds of antiquity, become one inch greater. But a noble man, in whose soul God has placed the capa-bility for future greatness of character, and elevation of mind, will, by a knowledge of, and familiar inter- course with, the elevated natures of ancient Greeks and Romans, every day make a visible approximation to similar greatness."

[Anonymous No.17865123]

it's threads like these that categorically justify the class/wealth gap.

nothing but pleb filth here.

[Anonymous No.17865140]

>>17862156
Particularmente basado

[Anonymous No.17865159]

>>17862076
ngmi

[Anonymous No.17865311]

>>17862076
What do you mean by "important concepts"? Do you mean important to literature, the subject of the board that you're currently on? Or do you mean important in some bizarre, soulless productivity way? If the latter, then no, I guess not. Though even then I'm not sure why you don't think people read them because they enjoy them. I mean I know this is bait and all but I have met people who think like this.

[Anonymous No.17865318]

>>17862076
I didn't start with the Greeks, so now I am here with the Greeks, because reading literature will eventually lead you back to the Greeks and you will feel stupid for not just starting with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.17866787]

>>17865318
this

[Anonymous No.17867678]

Shut up and read Homer.

[Anonymous No.17867705]

>>17862076
You should start with the Egyptians in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.17867718]

START WITH THE SUMERIANS

[Anonymous No.17868252]

Start with the Yamnaya

[Anonymous No.17868266]

start with the halo franchise

[Anonymous No.17868333]

start with yakuza 0

[Anonymous No.17868341]

Start with Pokémon hentai in the original

[Anonymous No.17868486]

>>17865081
Note that the OP never replied to this post because he literally cannot, it completely refutes not only his point but his entire perspective. Do not read past this point the thread is over.

[Anonymous No.17868538]

>>17868486
I replied like 5 times in this thread

[Anonymous No.17868547]

>>17862076
start with the Greeks and ends with the New Sincerityists. After that just read books that come out every year and make your own judgements about their quality.

[Anonymous No.17868572]

>>17862606
Here's a (you) for the clarification

[Anonymous No.17868614]

>>17865081
Goethe should have listened more to Spinoza who said you shouldn't value old wisdom just because it's old.

[Anonymous No.17868778]

>>17868614
That was a big thing in the day. Bacon touched on it in his Novum Organum. Just because a book is a classic doesn't mean we should let it exercise any authority over us.

[Anonymous No.17868791]

>>17862076
what should be the consensus on where to start for the flood of newfags that ask WHERE DO I START?

[Anonymous No.17868806]

>>17868791
If we were actually going to spoonfeed newfags, the right answer is to ask where their current goal is. Since this isn't a board to spoonfeed retards, the answer is "the Greeks" and hope that the newfags either learn or leave

[Anonymous No.17868818]

>>17868806
exactly, and that is why op is a dunderhead and why spamming start with the greeks is good fun with many great returns.

[Anonymous No.17868847]

>>17862076
start with Herodotus' Histories, provides a good backdrop of the world around the other books.

[Anonymous No.17868856]

>>17868791
not the Greeks cause the greeks contribute absolutely no meaningful message - I'm convinced the only reason people say read the greeks is because they were white nothing more