/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21846365]

This is going to hurt real bad, isnt it?

[Anonymous No.21846372]

>>21846365
yeah, it's painfully boring

[Anonymous No.21846381]

>>21846365
Yes.
>>21846372
A girl friend (as in a friend that is a girl) said that The Sorrows of Young Werther was bad, so I just assume everyone that dislikes it is a woman

[Anonymous No.21846382]

>>21846372
No I've read enough of it already to know it's quality and that you're wrong and not romantic or learned.

[Anonymous No.21847344]

bump

[Anonymous No.21847381]

>>21846365
I want to kill myself so fucking badly. It's such bullshit that I've actually been force to endure this farce of a world for however long until AI quite pointlessly. Fuck existence and fuck those 'people' who do and will foist it unto unwilling and unwitting victims.

[Anonymous No.21847385]

>>21846365
KLOPSTOCK!! he ejaculated

[Anonymous No.21847413]

>>21847381
Damn bruh, fr?

[Anonymous No.21847424]

>>21847413
no cap

[Anonymous No.21847437]

no it wont, its a book, it cannot cause any physical pain unless I shove it up your ass

[Anonymous No.21847542]

It has beautiful descriptions of nature. It's good for that by itself already

[Anonymous No.21847724]

>>21846365
Great book and >>21847542 is correct. Werther's ramblings about human psychology are also very interesting. However halfway through Act 2 I got sick of Werther and became unable to further sympathize with his Charlotte obsession. He became demented and repulsing. Maybe I can't relate to love having such an effect because I'm a KHV and momentary infatuations when I look at an attractive woman are the closest I've ever been to romantic love. Anyway, enjoy this passage from the book:

>For we are so constituted by nature, that we are ever prone to compare ourselves with others; and our happiness or misery depends very much on the objects and persons around us. On this account, nothing is more dangerous than solitude: there our imagination, always disposed to rise, taking a new flight on the wings of fancy, pictures to us a chain of beings of whom we seem the most inferior. All things appear greater than they really are, and all seem superior to us. This operation of the mind is quite natural: we so continually feel our own imperfections, and fancy we perceive in others the qualities we do not possess, attributing to them also all that we enjoy ourselves, that by this process we form the idea of a perfect, happy man,—a man, however, who only exists in our own imagination.

I also related very much to
>During the severity of rain, sleet, frost, and storm, I congratulate myself that it cannot be worse indoors than abroad, nor worse abroad than it is within doors; and so I become reconciled.

[cockler No.21848039]

>>21846365
it’s fun. if you ever felt a woman’s touch before, you will appreciate werthers childlike approach to love; the intoxicating daze that is ever present when Love forces it’s way into your heart and mind.

if you’re a kissless virgin, you will find it boring and silly.

[Anonymous No.21848052]

I read this assuming he would be "literally me" but even I thought he was an idiot and im a 25 year old khv. What am I missing here?

[Anonymous No.21848063]

>>21848052
Nothing. You passed Goethe's test

[Anonymous No.21848073]

>>21847424
on god?

[Anonymous No.21848078]

>>21848073
on science

[Anonymous No.21848123]

>>21846381
>>21846372
>>21846381
>>21846382
It is just doomer novel about being cucked/beta. It is like incel forum in the form of novel
And I write this as a great defender of Romanticism. Maybe back then it was impressive work, now we have /r9k/ and the internet is full of frustrated men who can't get laid.
The work has linguistic qualities, yes. but other than that I hated this book in school

[Anonymous No.21848159]

>>21848123
>Maybe back then it was impressive work, now we have /r9k/
Christ

[Anonymous No.21848189]

>>21848073
on our lord in christ

[Anonymous No.21848360]

>>21846381
>A girl friend (as in a friend that is a girl) said that The Sorrows of Young Werther was bad, so I just assume everyone that dislikes it is a woman
Girls complain about Werther because he idealizes the woman but he kills himself because she's a bitch who led him on

[Anonymous No.21850140]

Posting more
>She stretches out her arms finally to embrace the object of all her wishes and her lover forsakes her. Stunned and bewildered, she stands upon a precipice. All is darkness around her. No prospect, no hope, no consolation—forsaken by him in whom her existence was centred! She sees nothing of the wide world before her, thinks nothing of the many individuals who might supply the void in her heart; she feels herself deserted, forsaken by the world; and, blinded and impelled by the agony which wrings her soul, she plunges into the deep, to end her sufferings in the broad embrace of death. See here, Albert, the history of thousands; and tell me, is not this a case of physical infirmity? Nature has no way to escape from the labyrinth: her powers are exhausted: she can contend no longer, and the poor soul must die.
>"Shame upon him who can look on calmly, and exclaim, 'The foolish girl! she should have waited; she should have allowed time to wear off the impression; her despair would have been softened, and she would have found another lover to comfort her.' One might as well say, 'The fool, to die of a fever! why did he not wait till his strength was restored, till his blood became calm? all would then have gone well, and he would have been alive now.'"

[Anonymous No.21850178]

>>21846365
Werther is such a fucking drama queen

[Anonymous No.21850211]

>>21846365
There is no one to blame but yourself for buying Penguin.

[Anonymous No.21850213]

>>21850211
For me it's the Project Gutenberg version

[Anonymous No.21850240]

>>21846365
It's like the 18th century analog of Kurt Cobain, except his fictional, and isn't nearly as cool. He IS, unlike >>21848052 says, a literally me character deep down.

The important thing to recognize is that Werther kills himself because he has no place in the world--with his all-consuming love for Charlotte being something irrevocable, and something that is certain never to be sated, he is damned to walk the earth with great bitterness and alienation for as long as he lives. He simply chooses death, above that.

This is the mechanism of the story, and if you believe that Werther's love for Charlotte is silly and fatuous instead of irrevocable and all-consuming, then you aren't going to be able to appreciate the mechanic of his suicide. It's okay if you don't think love can be as powerful as Werther (and Goethe) makes it out to be, but you are going to have to suspend disbelief and assume the love is THAT deep in order to appreciate the reason why Werther kills himself. It is certainly a love story, but Werther's death is about his alienation from the world and his self through the crushing impossibility of achieving either his object of desire or a suitable substitute.

Now, as to the whole applicability to matters of unrequited love in the real world (what the book is actually famous for), that really does depend on your conception of love. You will probably like the book if you have experienced a deep unrequited love or infatuation, but as to driving you to the point of suicide, it really shouldn't, although apparently there were plenty of copycat suicides after it was published.

[Anonymous No.21850251]

One of my favorite moments in any book is when Charlotte tries think of a romantic match to put Werther off on but ends up unsatisfied with all of the options and is heavily implied to be jealous at the thought of him paired with another woman.

[Anonymous No.21850305]

Reminder that Goethe regretted writing this book because it's all anyone who met him wanted to talk about.

[Anonymous No.21850382]

>>21850305
I'm only warming up for Faust

[Anonymous No.21850387]

>>21848123
What does Werther have to do with romanticism?

[Anonymous No.21850388]

>>21846381
>A girl friend (as in a friend that is a girl) said that The Sorrows of Young Werther was bad, so I just assume everyone that dislikes it is a woman
A friend of mine years ago said it was her favourite book, funnily enough.

[Anonymous No.21850407]

someone told me Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is anime harem schlock bullshit
is that true?

[Anonymous No.21850644]

>>21850407
No, as it is not an anime.

[Anonymous No.21851554]

>>21850387
>what does the velvet underground have to do with punk rock

[Anonymous No.21851571]

>>21846365
Nah, I read it when I was heart broken myself and my reaction was "wow, this guy is being such a fucking bitch, I should stop being like him lmao" and it worked.
Thank you, based Goethe

[Anonymous No.21851643]

>>21850240
>Kurt Cobain, except his fictional, and isn't nearly as cool
how is Cobain cool? His music is as disgustingly simple as his boredom with American life. Edgy mediocrity is not 'cool'. You need to read more.

[Anonymous No.21851790]

>>21850240
>Now, as to the whole applicability to matters of unrequited love in the real world (what the book is actually famous for), that really does depend on your conception of love. You will probably like the book if you have experienced a deep unrequited love or infatuation
Definitely one of the most memorable reading experiences thanks to it. I still feel that unrequited love, but oh well, I'll just keep living until it someday dissipates

[Anonymous No.21851863]

>>21851643
Cobain was the self-status-loathing icon of his generation. He was able to merge the alternative aesthetic (not appreciated by the mainstream at that time) with the catchy power of pop-style songwriting. His lyrics resonated with his generation by being simple, abstract, and nihilistic, and it allows you to relate to the song on a personal level very easily because each song is essentially a blank slate as far as concrete meaning is concerned.

I'm not trying to say Cobain was a good icon or was a saint or was otherwise some super genius, but he absolutely influenced heavily the modern archetype for cool.

[Anonymous No.21851867]

>>21846365
Great book, it's still my favourite and the most beautifully written book Germany has ever produced.

[Anonymous No.21852179]

>>21850305
that’s why i never release my work. i know it’ll be TOO successful for my mental health.