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/lit/ - Literature

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4146983 No.4146983[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

What is the finest example of essay writing you have come across?

(other than your own, of course)

>> No.4147008

>>4146983
Hitchens.

>> No.4147010
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4147010

>>4146983
Obviously Suspiria de Profundis. Probably one of the greatest essays ever written (stylistically, of course).

>> No.4147016

>>4146983
Parerga und Paralipomena

>> No.4147023

When should I stop reading literature and start with essays?

>> No.4147034

"Authority and American Usage" and "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" by David Foster Wallace are impressive essays.

>> No.4147035

>>4147023
when you become mature enough to think for yourself

>> No.4147040

>>4146983
Since it's only a matter of time till someone mentions it, DFW has some of the best essays I've ever read. I think that's where his true genius lied (lay?). They're never about what they're ostensibly about, they always end up being some brilliant meta-analysis of the phenomenological experience of what they're ostensibly about.

>> No.4147042
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4147042

>>4146983
DFW's essay on Federer:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

>> No.4147044

>>4146983
is dat mf doom??

>> No.4147058

>>4147035
#REKT SHOTS FIRED I REPEAT SHOTS FIRED

>> No.4147168

Life Without Principle

>> No.4147178

Samuel Johnson
Addison and Steele

>> No.4147212

De Oficiis by Cicero

For 100s of years it was the most popular piece of writing in Europe and the second book to be printed. The first was the Bible.

>> No.4147245

Orwell and Trilling

>> No.4147345

>>4147044
Yes, in his Gladiator cameo.

>> No.4147519

>>4147212
>.and brave he surely cannot possibly be that counts pain the supreme evil, nor temperate he that holds pleasure to be the supreme good. (No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.)

What a faggot

>> No.4147753

>>4147035
>read someone else's opinion presented as fact
>be mature enough to think for yourself

I cannot quite follow this train of thought.

>> No.4147765

>>4147519
No U!

>> No.4147778

Milton's Areopagitica.

>> No.4147894

"You and the atomic bomb" (Orwell) or "On computable numbers..." (Turing)

did I win?

>> No.4147900

>>4147042
>and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled

This gave me feels...

>> No.4147903

>>4146983
Why is that white guy wearing MF Doom's mask?

>> No.4147949

>>4147016
I second that.
the second tome of it, I believe, is a mightily fine collection by schopi.
http://www.drehbuchwerkstatt.de/Fachtexte/schopenhauer.htm

>> No.4147991
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4147991

>ctrl+f emerson
>phrase not found

>> No.4148053

"DA BEST EVA!" doesn't exist, but there are good recent and good classic essays.

>> No.4148081

Im surprised Montaigne hasn't been mentioned yet.

>> No.4148117

>>4148081

Are you, Granddad?

>> No.4148221

>>4148053
>there is not an objectively superior essay

Profound.

>> No.4148923

>>4147008
agreed, I love Hitchen's essays and epistolary collections

>> No.4148977

Edward Said in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays probably

>> No.4148987

>>4146983
Kant's Enlightenment essay. Short and precise. I wish more 20-21 century writers would opt for that style.

>> No.4148996

>>4148987
"Ausgang aus der selbstverschuldeten barhamgargamkeit! Also, these polacks are effin savages. So, someone, get me out of here!"

>> No.4149017

>>4148923
Actually bothered to read 'Arguably' cover to cover. Wonderful essays.

>> No.4149025

>>4148987
Oh yes. Almost forgot about this one.

>> No.4149028

>>4147753

>read someone else's opinion presented as fact

And this is why you are a child. (Fact)

>> No.4149090

Politics and the English Language by Orwell is pretty nice.

>> No.4149094

>>4149028
Stop being an asshole. Learn how to use parenthesis correctly.

>> No.4149100
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4149100

>>4149028
>hurr durr I'm an adult

If you have to laugh at people on the internet, you haven't matured yet.