/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6878240]

Literary confession thread

[Anonymous No.6878244]

There is literally nothing wrong with reading translated works.

[Anonymous No.6878249]

>>6878240
I hate everything I write and wonder if I'll ever write something I'm proud of.

Yeah, not really a confession but fuck it and fuck your dancing alien.

[Anonymous No.6878363]

>>6878244
That's not a confession, it's a shitty opinion

>nb4 people calling reading in the original language "a meme"

[Anonymous No.6878368]

I find Pynchon's prose tiresome, but my writing style is a lot like his except with a limited vocabulary

[Anonymous No.6878383]

ayy lmao

[Anonymous No.6878387]

>>6878363
reading in the original language is a meme

[Anonymous No.6878398]

>>6878240
this is my first time on this board

I hate reading anything that has pages other than science or books with tips to self improve

I hate that people now think that "reading a lot" is equivalent to "intelligent" or "cultivated" although the latter is more plausible

[Anonymous No.6878402]

testing

[Anonymous No.6878405]

>>6878387
holy shit totes called it

[Anonymous No.6878412]

>>6878240
I find reading boring,I only read to pretend to be intellectual

[Anonymous No.6878415]

>>6878398
>I hate that people now think that "reading a lot" is equivalent to "intelligent" or "cultivated" although the latter is more plausible
I bet you wouldn't think that if you actually read

You're just a butthurt faggot

[Anonymous No.6878418]

Pynchon sucks. Pretending to understand his rambling bullshit doesn't make you smart.

[The cats No.6878425]

>>6878398
It's a pretty common mark of a complete pigheaded pleb to extoll "I only read non-fiction and history", which almost always means pop bullshit.

[Anonymous No.6878428]

>>6878415
You're right because then I would need to justify my taste for reading with something like "it makes me smarter".
It would make me more cultivated though.

[Anonymous No.6878430]

I only read non-fiction and history

[Anonymous No.6878439]

>>6878418
b8

[Anonymous No.6878443]

>>6878425
Non-fiction, even pop "bullshit", is inherently better than even literary fiction, which is defined as bullshit.

[Anonymous No.6878448]

>>6878428
>You're right because then I would need to justify my taste for reading with something like "it makes me smarter".
Precisely, you're a reactionary retard whose opinions are dictated entirely by his emotions. Maybe you should learn to enjoy life instead of getting mad that other people enjoy doing something you find difficult.

[Anonymous No.6878450]

>>6878240
Even though 95% of the people that come to this board doesn't read and just spout what others said(sometimes making threads to ask people what they "think about a book", then going and spout those people's opinions as if it were their own).

I actually read everyday, it's fantasy, albeit I'm not trying to be pretentious and seem like a well read e/lit/ist, who reads boring old moldy books to foster my sense of superiority because no one actually pays attention to me.

[Anonymous No.6878452]

>>6878443
So bullshit that pretends to not be bullshit is better than bullshit that admits it's bullshit?

[Anonymous No.6878455]

>>6878448
>going full assblast
I said I hate reading, not people who read.
Am I being trolled ?

[Anonymous No.6878456]

>"literary confessions thread"
>nearly all the posts are just people attacking others while unintentionally revealing their own insecurities about fucking reading

[Anonymous No.6878459]

>>6878363
enjoy never reading 90 percent of great literature... Your personal pleb interpretation of an original language work is worse than the scholar/translators interpretation. so in essence you are getting less out of reading original works than you would out of translated works

[Anonymous No.6878460]

>>6878455
I didn't say you hate people who read, Anon. Maybe you should read more! :^)

[Anonymous No.6878464]

>>6878430
>history
>not non-fiction
?

>>6878240
Every thread where there is controversy
christposting
marxism
politics
racism
women
I link to /pol/ and leftypol and then I argue for both sides.

[The cats No.6878465]

>>6878456
I don't know if "I don't like non-fiction" is a confession. There is no reason to not just skim it for the facts or read articles or source texts in the mid 2010s.

[Anonymous No.6878469]

>>6878459
>enjoy never reading 90 percent of great literature
I didn't say I never read translations, but I know enough to not believe stupid shit like "there's no significant difference between translations and originals!"

Anyone who is fluent in more than one language knows how much can be lost in translation. Also dig how you have to imagine me as a complete plebeian trendite so you can cope with the fact that I disagree with you.

[Anonymous No.6878476]

>>6878418
>his rambling bullshit
>Pirate in the lavatory stands pissing, without a thought in his head. Then he threads himself into a wool robe he wears inside out so as to keep his cigarette pocket hidden, not that this works too well, and circling the warm bodies of friends makes his way to French windows, slides outside into the cold, groans as it hits the fillings in his teeth, climbs a spiral ladder ringing to the roof garden and stands for a bit, watching the river. The sun is still below the horizon. The day feels like rain, but for now the air is uncommonly clear. The great power station, and the gasworks beyond, stand precisely: crystals grown in morning's beaker, stacks, vents, towers, plumbing, gnarled emissions of steam and smoke. . . .

omg, how do you guys even read this bullshit??? bet y'all are just pretending!

[Anonymous No.6878483]

>>6878469
nobody said there is no significant difference... anon just said "there is nothing wrong with it" which is true, there isnt.

[Anonymous No.6878490]

>>6878483
You're just pretending to be dense, right? There is something wrong with it, because there's a significant difference between the two versions.

[Anonymous No.6878505]

>>6878490
dude im cringing right now, I think its time you take a break from lit and go back to reddit...

[Anonymous No.6878516]

>>6878505
The irony is that if you weren't a lost newfag you'd realize that /lit/ always spoke against translations.

[Anonymous No.6878517]

>>6878490
Not that same anon, If it is so wrong how come you do it... While its not ideal its clearly not wrong, as without reading translations you would only be able to read a very limited amount of literature.

[Anonymous No.6878524]

>>6878516
>gets all his opinions from lit memes
Bet ya think Infinite Jest is an all time classic, eh faggot?

[Anonymous No.6878532]

>>6878418
>reads Pychon
>gets bored because short attention span
>Pynchon sucks! You're all just pretending to understand him!

[Anonymous No.6878534]

>>6878517
>While its not ideal its clearly not wrong
If it's not ideal then there clearly *is* something wrong with it. Are you people legitimately retarded?

>>6878524
Oh, I get it, you're trolling me. I would have kept falling for it if you didn't resort to speaking in epic memes, keep that in mind next time.

[Anonymous No.6878539]

The Stranger is actually pretty good

[Anonymous No.6878540]

>>6878534
literally cant tell if you are stupid or just a 15 year old memester

[Anonymous No.6878556]

It took me 2 years to finish Catch-22 because there is no momentum in the story whatsoever to push it forward. But I enjoyed every minute of it because every page is hilarious, and it's still one of my favorite books despite its flaws.

[Anonymous No.6878557]

>>6878240

I'm half way through Blood Meridian and I fail to see why it's a critical darling beyond the fact that it's different than most of the stuff being published. It's overwritten, the dialogue is samey, the characters are barely explored, the good episodes are few and far between (compare it to Quixote), the hoovering comparison to desert landscape being Hell is facile, the descriptions of the landscape themselves are sometimes beautiful but mostly tedious, and brace your self for apoplexy, the judge is a poor character; the judge isn't that interesting as a Devil figure, he's just uncanny like all of them, and he's good at everything. The one thing that distinguishes him, his occasional spouting of some philosophical stuff, falls pretty flat as often as it evokes.

[Anonymous No.6878559]

>>6878450
>Even though 95% of the people that come to this board doesn't read
proof

[Anonymous No.6878568]

>>6878450

[Anonymous No.6878593]

>>6878464
you're an advanced type of evil

[The cats No.6878598]

>>6878557
I disagree

[Anonymous No.6878608]

>>6878415
He's right in that many people, especially on /lit/, wear both the amount and type of books they've read as if that warrants right away a sense of personal betterment.

[Anonymous No.6878609]

>>6878598
I'm trying pretty hard to like it. I still have half the novel to go, so if it snaps into some kind of substance and unity I'll be happy.

[Anonymous No.6878684]

>>6878598
That's just the tides of taste talking. Cormac will fall out of favor as literature a scant few years after he dies.

[Anonymous No.6878706]

I like Looking for Alaska by John Green

[Anonymous No.6878707]

There is literally nothing wrong with genre fiction.

[Anonymous No.6878727]

I was really digging Ulysses but had to quit halfway through because it was too tiring and too long. Despide that I tell people that I read it.

[Anonymous No.6878732]

>>6878727
Pick it back up. Here's a full, professional cast audio recording. I "read" it one section at a time while walking in my quiet suburban neighborhood.

https://archive.org/details/Ulysses-Audiobook..

[Anonymous No.6878747]

>>6878732
Thanks, anon. I'm not too used to audiobooks but I'll give it a listen.

[Anonymous No.6878805]

I re-read boks many times because I hate the feeling of taking a chance when I start a new book. Silmarillion 4 times, Harry Potter 5 times, Atlas Shrugged 4 times, Matilda 3 times etc.

[Anonymous No.6878810]

>>6878805
You remind of the tripfag who claims to have read Oscar Wao 30+ times.

[Anonymous No.6878851]

I'm one who doesn't believe in the supernatural but, I've enjoyed reading the works of St. Augustine, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, Lewis, and Schaeffer.

[Anonymous No.6878861]

>>6878557
his style is fairly unique and encourages lax reading while the allusions to mysticism (tarot, which serves as basic foreshadowing in the book), impeccable research (credit is due), and unusual vocabulary obscure the lack of interesting development or depth of meaning. and when i said unique style.i meant his tendency to write terrible run-ons, pseudo-biblical syntax, and generally prose that reads like bad poetry.

the one aspect i do like is the research into the time period and locations.

but i agree that mccarthy is overrated. some posters here like to claim any negative critics simply havent grasped the deep meaning of his works but they never deign to explain anything about the meaning and its development.

[Anonymous No.6878867]

>>6878456
Go back to reddit, then, you enormous faggot

[Anonymous No.6878912]

>>6878861

Yeah, half-way through the novel this is my opinion. As for "deep meaning" I can see that a lot of the novel is using words and episodes in a symbolic way, but it comes across as portentous rather than meaningful. It's sort of like modernist poetry in that way, except a lot of it doesn't have the same aural virtues, and it also certainly isn't innovative in the 80's.

I would be less bothered by what, to me, is shoddy symbolism so far if there were other virtues. It seems oddly lacking in scenes between characters for something that is essentially the account of a group of people wandering around. The scenes there all seem to serve this symbolizing, and they don't reveal a talent for the texture of speech. He suffers because I recently read Henry Green, who writes in great slabs of dialogue and interaction broken up by Flaubertian descriptions.

Meridian fans speak up? Should I keep reading this? Are the final two quarters of the novel where it kicks into gear? Or is it just going to be 150 pages of murdering Indians with brief philosophical interludes instead of scenery description with brief philosophical interludes?

[Anonymous No.6879001]

I lurk in all of the novel title/discussion/ideas threads and take whatever looks good. I had this idea about a year ago, that I was sick of trying to write anything of depth, that the sequence of failures that's been my writing life has sapped not only my will, but the wills and pockets of my friends and families. I've been transforming them into YA novels, it's hard, but that's where the market is going to stay for a while. Hopefully I get lucky for once in my goddamned life.

[Anonymous No.6879042]

>>6878398
Language extends the range of thought.

For self-improvement, you can still find ideas in heavy literature. You don't have to stick with dale carnegie.

If nothing else, reading long texts will increase your attention span.

[Anonymous No.6879045]

>>6878240
nah

[Anonymous No.6879076]

>>6878912
you might as well finish it since youre halfway already and the book is an easy read. the ending is predictable.

thank you for mentioning henry green. i had no awareness of him. do you have a recommendation for an entry to his writing?

[Anonymous No.6879111]

>>6879076

His novels come in often come in little bundles of three, I'd suggest you get one with "Loving" in it, which I just read, and which became an instant favorite. There is a subtle allegorical dimension to the book, about the impending World War, but it is mostly an intimate portrait of the service class in England. (If that sort of thing isn't for you, then avoid it.)

[Anonymous No.6879120]

I'm over halfway done The Aeneid and I think it's a fucking waste of time. I can barely pay attention it's so lifeless. Homer >>>>>>>>>> Virgil.

[Anonymous No.6879155]

>>6879111
i'll look out for "Loving". thank you!

[Anonymous No.6879252]

>>6878684
says the retard that can't understand him.

I read The Road and Suttree before I knew how popular he was and I loved them both.

[Anonymous No.6879296]

>>6879252
That's less a defense of his writings and more an indictment of your tastes.

[Anonymous No.6879378]

>>6878450
Fucking fantasy. This post is so far up your own ass its unbelievable. Thinking your an elitist simply because you read everyday, and to validate your own shit judgment by saying that people who read books you don't have an interest in, or haven't read boosts their "superiority". Wow.

[Anonymous No.6879389]

I honestly fucking hate plebs. If I see any author from the past century beside Joyce being praised, I'm sent into a blind rage.

[Anonymous No.6879422]

>>6879378
>what is reading comprehension
Maybe you should have finished English in school before coming on this board kid.

[Anonymous No.6879572]

>>6878557
>>6878861
just curious, are you american?

[Anonymous No.6879652]

>>6879572
i am american. >>6878861 and >>6879076 are my posts

[Anonymous No.6879834]

>>6879572
I'm also American.

Posted:
>>6878912
>>6878861

[Anonymous No.6879860]

>>6879572
I posted the other two posts and I'm also American.

[Anonymous No.6879868]

nothing seems much fun anymore to me.

Nothing subliminally grabs my attention. I was not used to have to put the conscious effort into being interested in things.

Except going on /lit/. The sessions are never satisfying per se but it still manages to pull me here. Maybe just to get the experience of being unsatisfied, the thrill of the good reply, the sight of something interesting, the disappoint at someone's stupid opinion, etc. etc.

Or maybe just an excuse to write and read. Books are so individualistic. Discussion makes them a community thing. But they we don't talk about books, because the books are individualistic. The act of reading is a act of personal experience. So we discuss opinions, not books.

I can't think of anything to say, I can never think of anything to write, but I do anyways, slightly against my will. I count that as a mistake, to write and not knowing where I am going. I count that as a mistake, not to know the purpose of a word I introduce, or the purpose of that comma I just wrote, to write automatically. We get used to the keyboard and we write automatically. We write a lot because we can. In the age of the feather-pen words were respected, and cherished. Calligraphy was their way of respecting their work. And now?

I wish I could speak the things I write. When I speak, using my vocal chords, it seems like all my opinions and readings and etc. disappears. I could write a dissertation on a topic of interest if it is for myself. If it is meant to be read, it is difficult because I feel like I'm not doing the topic justice. But when I speak, all vanishes. To discuss the style of James Joyce's prose is stupid when I am speaking. Or contrived, or it seems fruitless. Or whatever.

I am growing used to letting go of all my crazy train of thoughts and intuitions and ideas because I have no medium fast and efficient enough to register them. Or maybe I just have to trust my memory...

random pic

[Anonymous No.6879885]

>>6879868

For some reason I have to force myself to really get into something. Aside from going on 4chan like you said. For some reason this website is so addictive and enjoyable, and yet it takes actual mental effort to get into a new book.

[Anonymous No.6879886]

>>6878244
there is if the translation sux

>>6878363
some books are worth learning a language to read. others are written in polish

>>6878459
agreed

my confession: I never translate poems that rhyme because I think coming up with rhymes is a stupid waste of effort

[Anonymous No.6880375]

My favourite writer is Tao Lin

I am not Tao Lin

[Anonymous No.6880391]

>>6880375
I greatly enjoyed his books and his Bookworm interviews with Silverblatt. Do not take /lit/'s obvious jealousy of him into account when reading his works.

[Anonymous No.6880529]

I'm changing majors to English

[Anonymous No.6880564]

>>6878240
>I'm 1/3 of the way through Ulysses and I barely understand the plot. I'm catching none of the symbolism and that frustrates me.

I feel like I should be smarter than this. I expected to miss some stuff, but not this much. I sometimes wonder if it's worth it to keep reading, because I'm not getting anything from it. But at the same time, I want to finish it just to prove I can and also because the prose really is beautiful. It's the first time I've noticed how beautiful prose can be.

>I didn't start with the greeks.

>I really don't know if I should continue to read literary fiction at all anymore. If I give up on Ulysses, it'll be the 3rd work of literary fictiom in a row that I couldn't finish. (After the Trial and the Castle)
I'm beginning to wonder if I should just go back to reading genre fiction, because I don't feel like I'm cut out for literary fiction.

[Anonymous No.6880589]

>>6879868
It sounds like you need some time away from the internet.

[Anonymous No.6880603]

My favourite writer is a woman

[Anonymous No.6880604]

>>6880564
>I'm beginning to wonder if I should just go back to reading genre fiction, because I don't feel like I'm cut out for literary fiction.

Hey dude, stop reading modernism ASAP. Modernism is not for beginner readers. Try 19th century novels, which often have strong plots, especially stuff that inspired the genre traditions. Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander Dumas, H.G Wells, Burton's Arabian Nights. For straight up literary fiction, try Dickens and Conrad.

[Anonymous No.6880622]

>>6880603
Which one?

[Anonymous No.6880623]

>>6880564
read other writers. you jumped straight into a couple of fairly difficult writers

steinbeck's shorter works such as of mice and men or tortilla flats would be better. the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers. winesburg, ohio by sherwood andersoon. >>6880604 too

[Anonymous No.6880999]

>>6879868
did you like that movie?
here's a relevant quote from Anne Frank:
>The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles
I don't know if it could be useful to you, or not.

I'd like any person who could conceivably write the words you wrote.

[Anonymous No.6881042]

The only book I've completed in the past 5 years in American Gods. I've read it 3 times. I can;t explain why, but its just an easy read for me. I can finish that shit, but not of mice and men. wtf is wrong with me?

[Anonymous No.6881096]

I actually hate reading philosophy because it makes me feel dumb when I don't get it.

I wrote better when I was depressed because I was concerned more with expressing myself .

[Anonymous No.6881669]

This board is probably the worst place for any aspiring writer to be

[Anonymous No.6881688]

>>6879572
Is finding out they're both american going to bring about some sort of shitpost-tastic "Aha!"?

[Anonymous No.6881698]

>>6881669
why?

[Anonymous No.6881746]

>>6879868
you've conditioned yourself to respond to instant, mild gratification and to feel daunted by the prospect of committing to something that doesn't promise you satisfaction away. you've traded quality for safety for fear of possible failure.

get off 4chan, write the first thing that comes to mind, push through the fear of sounding like an idiot. you're being limited by bad habits more than by genuine concerns.

[Anonymous No.6881771]

Im in the middle of The Crying of Lot 49, and if I understood 30% of what I read I'll be happy.

How do I into Pynchon? He's the first writer to make me feel legitimately dumb as hell.

[Anonymous No.6881950]

i bend the spines of my books and put them back so it looks like i've read them

[Anonymous No.6881954]

I read far more manga than I do novels and up until age 18 basically the only literature I read was hard SF

[Anonymous No.6881961]

>>6878240

I read so little it's not unfair to say that I don't read anymore.

If all goes well, I'm going to start learning Russian with a few friends of mine and work my way through Russian literature.

[Anonymous No.6881968]

>>6878402
unconfirmed
testing

[Anonymous No.6881991]

>>6881968
retesting
testing

[Anonymous No.6881997]

>>6881991
testing

[Anonymous No.6881999]

>>6881997
gnitset

[Anonymous No.6882002]

>>6881991
recieved
testing

[Anonymous No.6882012]

Didn't think I had any until 10 minutes ago when I got to see some unique e/lit/ism in another thread, so here goes:

I like to listen to music while writing.

[Anonymous No.6882018]

>>6882002
testing

[Anonymous No.6882020]

>>6882018
testing

[Anonymous No.6882021]

>>6882012
I seriously hope it is instrumental music

[Anonymous No.6882028]

>>6882021
No

[Anonymous No.6882031]

>>6882020
testing

[Anonymous No.6882101]

I never read a book...

[Anonymous No.6882116]

i like murakami

[Anonymous No.6882572]

>>6878415
You are everything wrong with this board.

[Anonymous No.6882610]

>>6878450
Lol, comments like this always make me feel good. It feels good enjoying books that people with a seemingly normal intelligence think can only be enjoyed because of ulterior motives.

Stay pleb

[Anonymous No.6882636]

I treat reading as a competition.

[Anonymous No.6882648]

>>6881096
Practice practice practice, youll get less and less prideful

[Anonymous No.6882736]

>>6882636
How does it feel to know that you're losing?

[Anonymous No.6882778]

I didnt finish The Power Elite by Mills and still claim hes a great sociologist. I read the first half of the critic of pure reason 3 or 4 times but could never go farther.
I think usefullness is overrated and Im doing a sociology major. I enjoy reading Marx and Henry Kissinger.

[Anonymous No.6883121]

>>6882012
If you can concentrate, all power to you. I enjoy doing that when reading manga but I can't for the life of me listen to music while reading novels, it sucks.

[Anonymous No.6883130]

>>6882736
Compared to /lit/'s 5 pages a day, I'm Usain Bolt. But to my impossible standards, it's an unbearable pain. I'm slowly giving up more and more of my life to just read.