[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 69 KB, 464x654, St. David.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6432275 No.6432275 [Reply] [Original]

Is English the most amenable language to literature?

>> No.6432277
File: 51 KB, 524x600, eliot_main_lg.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6432277

Please respond.

>> No.6432278

>>6432275

German and French are similarly malleable

>> No.6432283
File: 1.94 MB, 230x175, 1405398792274.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6432283

>>6432275
>not french

>> No.6432285

>>6432275

It's as limited as any form of linguistics. In many different ways. It's complex enough for arrogance and unwarranted self importance seen throughout history.

>> No.6432301
File: 218 KB, 500x374, yablewit.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6432301

>>6432275
>to

>> No.6432326
File: 1.74 MB, 1318x1852, chaucer.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6432326

>>6432285
u wot cunt.

>> No.6433435

I have no idea since it's the only language I can read in besides Hebrew, and Hebrew, if it isn't biblical, is an awful language for literature.

>> No.6433441

>>6433435
You don't like Yehuda Halevi, Ibn Ezra, Yehuda Amichai? I don't know Hebrew myself but it's clear there's good stuff out there.

>> No.6433442

>>6433441
They're premodern Hebrew. They might not be biblical in the strictest sense but they aren't Modern. I meant post-Ben Yehuda Hebrew.

>> No.6433449

>>6432275
There is no 'most amenable language to literature.' You can create literature in any natural language, even pidgins.

>> No.6433457

>>6432283
lebluedefwacrawleblahblahblahweeweedelacrosaw

>> No.6433505

>>6433441
Also the general attitude to the Modern Hebrew language makes it difficult to ever develop any kind of literary potential for it. It's not a language that changes. Other languages change, for example English absorbing so many Latin words. This is basically FORBIDDEN for modern Hebrew. The general attitude is that the language must be preserved exactly as it is because it is OUR language (as the Jews), and we must preserve it. Language is supposed to change over time through usage. Not so with Hebrew. Extremely idiotic. But this really shouldn't be surprising coming from a people whose religious practices haven't changed in thousands of years, and whose only collective aspiration is to merely survive (ie no positive goals).

>> No.6433515

If Nabokov knew french, english, russian and german, why did he choose english if it's not the best language? checkmate atheists

>> No.6433597

Linguist here.

No.

>> No.6433613

>>6433505
I mean God forbid that it might acquire (in an officially recognized capacity, not merely on the street) some words from French and Russian (lots of those folks around these days), and - gasp - even ARABIC. Unthinkable.

>> No.6433614

>>6433457
accurate

>> No.6433635

>>6433515
If Beckett knew English and French why did he end up writing everything in French in his later life? Why was Waiting for Godot first written in French then translated and not the other way around?

>> No.6433661

>>6433635
cause beckett is a pleb

>> No.6433670

>>6433597
Is that your job or something? Or just a self proclaimed title.

>> No.6433855

>>6433661
Your mom's a pleb

>> No.6433880

>>6432285
>you will never sound this pretentious

Feels good

>> No.6433895

>>6433635
Beckett wanted to write without style and felt it was easier to write without style in French and it was less poetic than English ...
http://samuel-beckett.net/309_beckett.html

>> No.6433903

Why nobody talks about spanish?

>> No.6433941

I only read books in Mandarin.

>> No.6433991

>>6433880
Can't say I understood the post either. Maybe I'm not smart enough?

>> No.6434007

>>6433903
Porque es un idioma superior y temen enfrentarse.
Simultaneamente, porque nos van a mandar a hispachan y nadie quiere ir ahí.

>> No.6434038

My French is mediocre but I feel like as a language it's both more logical and euphonious than English. On the other hand, there are no French writers that I'd rate above Shakespeare, Milton or Blake, or even Keats, Shelley, Donne and Marvell.

>> No.6434254

Yes, I feel the grammar is highly flexible and nuanced, and obviously the vocabulary is vast. Shame anglos waste such a fantastic language on shit philosophy and aesthetics

>> No.6434283

>>6434038
Rabelais, Racine, Baudelaire?

>> No.6434310

>>6434283
you're talking to someone who's probably only read camus, sartre and celine

>> No.6434340

How could anyone ever judge that?

>> No.6434365

>>6434283
Baudelaire is actually my favourite French poet that I've yet read and I guess I'd place him on a similar level to Keats and Shelley. I read Gargantua and Pantagruel in translation (M. A. Screech) and it definitely didn't strike me as a transcendent work of art.

>>6434310
I have indeed read those three and found each of them mediocre. Well, Celine is excellent in parts but can't seem to sustain it for the whole course of a novel.

>> No.6434386

>>6432326

Hey! Welcome to /lit/. I hope you enjoy actually understanding any kind of vocabulary that you didn't learn in High School and applying those concepts.

>>6433880

Good.

>> No.6434639

>>6433895
English haters BTFO

>> No.6434988

>>6432285
Howcome everyone else in western Europe has gotten a hang of English except for Frenchposters

>> No.6435018

>>6433505
>people whose religious practices haven't changed in thousands of years

And that's how you tell someone is ignorant about his own cultural history. Is the Talmud 6000 years old ? Are all Jews accross the world following the Talmud in the exact same way as it was first written ?

>> No.6435028

>>6434310
>celine not above Shelley

Negre pls.

>> No.6435034

>>6434365
>Baudelaire is actually my favourite French poet
>I read Gargantua and Pantagruel in translation

Entry level French reader much ?

>it definitely didn't strike me as a transcendent work of art.

Ah, highschooler.

>> No.6435080

>>6435018
>Are all Jews accross the world following Talmud in the exact same way as it was first written ?
Pretty much. The only other Jewish movements are Conservative and Reform, and they don't count since they aren't a genuine attempt religion. They're social clubs for American/European Jews mostly. You can't really find them in Israel.

As far as the thousands of years comment, I never suggested that it was six thousand, and in fact I highly doubt it. I was just using the word 'thousands' for a cheap dramatic effect.

>> No.6435099

>>6432285
I like you foucault. You and [Butterfly] are probably the best tripfags on here.

>> No.6435113

>>6432285
how many languages do you speak?

>> No.6435140

>>6434007
>>6433903
Can somebody recommend a Spanish bookstore which accepts paypal and ships to Germany?

>> No.6435268

>>6433457
tu quoi, pote

>> No.6435278

>>6435140
Mh...
bookdepository?