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/lit/ - Literature

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23181896 No.23181896 [Reply] [Original]

What constitutes a good introduction to a book, in your honest opinion?

>> No.23181972

>>23181896
A brief dialogue with the reader written by one of the author's friends and contemporaries that has little or nothing to do with ensuring a new copyright on the text and a lot to do with presenting the book to an audience who may already be aware of it but not why it now needs an introduction.

>> No.23182000

>>23181896
Good intros tend to make plotfags seethe, so I guess a good intro requires superficial plot sploilers.
>>23181972
Adding an introduction has zero effect on the copyright status of the text, they are separate works under their own copyrights.

>> No.23182004

>>23182000
>hey are separate works under their own copyrights.
Hard to argue with clean trips like that.

>> No.23182182

comprehensive essay going through the historical context of when it was written that runs for 60 pages and the book is a 40-page novella

>> No.23182788

>>23181896
Imagine a work of literature like if it was a finished painting. Before starting to read the book, it's like a blank canvas. The introduction would be the equal as the first brush strokes, The first brush strokes should be something key to the painting, something that would make you imagine how the rest is going to be.

To put some examples, look at Moby Dick. It starts straight out introducing the protagonist, which will be the narrator through the book "Call me Ishmael". Then it tells you how he's done with life and he decides to go on a journey on a ship to hunt whales. That's literally all of the plot for the next 500 pages.

>> No.23182799

>>23181896
Someone who knows the book well or can inspire someone to read it writes about it

>> No.23184453

Introductions suck, I skip them. Introductions are almost like a tutorial in a game - proof that you suck as a creator. Just make it part of the book if it's that important, or put it at the end and I'll read it then. Just let me get into the book for goodness' sake.

>> No.23185823

>>23181896
I like when it’s written by the author but 20+ years after the book was written.

>> No.23185894
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23185894

>>23182788
>art analogy
also, isnt it more analogous to seeing a painting for the first time (as opposed to how the painting is formed)? the first pages of a book are more like seeing the thing that grabs your attention when you first see the painting.

>> No.23185900

what game?

>> No.23185924

Short biographical treatise on the author, history of the work: how it came to be written and published, differences between the editions, etc.

>> No.23185927

>>23185894
But... you can see the entire painting - which is like seeing the entire book.

>> No.23185946

>>23181896
>Written by Author's family/friend
>Gives insight into the author's method or thought
>Doesn't spoil the fucking plot

>> No.23185951

Good art needs no introduction. Good art speaks for itself. It needs no context. It needs no explanation. It sure as shit doesnt need the ending given away. It doesnt need some greasy kike interjecting with "actually, there's some antisemitism here and here!"

>> No.23186530

>>23185894
You cannot see all the words of the book at the same time the first time you look a it.

>> No.23186553
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23186553

>>23185927
>>23186530
you only see the painting visually. but like a good book, the more you contemplate a good painting the more its story and meaning is revealed to you.

>> No.23187633

>>23186553
How do you contemplate a book? Read it more than twice? Slowly read it from beginning to end, while taking notes and so on?

>> No.23187637

>>23181896
A blank page. Maybe a dedication.

>> No.23187646

>>23187633
Are you really asking that?

>> No.23187670

>>23187646
I am. I don't know what you guys mean by contemplating a book. Maybe I am retarded, who knows. Help me understand.

>> No.23187706

>>23187670
You think about what you read and why it may have been written. How the parts accentuate some central theme or themes and what characters represent and what purpose, if any, they serve in relaying some kind of greater, more subtle information that cannot be expressed directly without losing the full extent of its meaning.

Possibly related to your issue, I have a coworker who is extremely sheltered, more than a little narcissistic (no wonder why he doesn't know anything about other people), and has a very limited ability to pick up on information in his immediate surroundings because he either doesn't know what he's looking at or doesn't care. You have to want to know and care to the utmost level.