/lit/ - Literature

>>2357006

Um…

You know The Book of Five Rings is popular among corporate types, too, right?

>>2357652

It wears good after a second reading. My copy of their translatsions of C&P and The Brothers Karamazov look like hell, though.

>>2353324

I'm not a frequent cigarette smoker, but the American Spirit Organics are pretty nice, and the Periques are a nice change of pace. I only maybe smoke about 3 packs a /year/, so YMMV if you're a heavier smoker.

I smoke a pipe maybe twenty times a year, my nicotine consumption comes in bursts, but ever since I started taking Adderall, I've been less compelled to smoke for concentration. The pipe is a social thing, now, and the cigarettes are a "drinking on the back porch with friends" thing.

>>2343986

http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/no-mans-land/

Misogyny galore.

>>2351717

Read from "The Gay Science" through "Ecce Homo" and in that order. That's Nietzsche's mature philosophy, and the most interesting part of the corpus. "The Birth of Tragedy" is a fun read, even if wholly disregarded by classicists today.

I don't really use Anglicisms, but it does crack me up when my accent makes persons think I am British. Do they know anything about accents? (No.)

I was not an English major because English as a major at most universities now provides no intellectual challenge or useful toolsets. I took upper division English classes for fun in college, which only reinforced my suspicions.

(I majored in mathematics and philosophy.)

>>2350684

You mean, skip the part that (in the Coverdale & Authorized versions) probably had the most effect on English–language rhetoric and allusions?

>>2350591

>Reaches the same conclusion I reached, except including Maiar as a possibility, which I reject.
>I read it a long time ago, though never in the usenet group.

It's still a good read. The Encyclopedia of Arda entry on Bombadil is basically the cliff's notes version.

>>2350581

The figure of Bombadil is ambiguous, but definitely /not/ evil. Even though there's the famous exchange regarding Aragorn, Tolkien sees corrupt spirits and powers as wholly malicious, even if deceitful. This comes from the Christian idea that angels fall and cannot be redeemed, and when they fall they fall "all the way", so to speak. The thing to remember when reading Tolkien is that there is nothing in the corpus that violates Catholic moral theology as he received it.

I read that a while ago, and thought it was awful. I mean, it's funny in it's own way and clever, but not useful for figuring out what or who Bombadil is.

It doesn't work with Tolkien's moral universe, much less with his actual statements on Bombadil.


'And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).'

However, in another letter:


'Do you think Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside, could be made into the hero of a story?'

It seems that if Tom is anything, definitively, he is some sort of nature spirit/minor god attached to the Old Forest and its surrounding countryside. Tolkien explicitly rejected a common fan supposition that Bombadil was Eru (Middle–Earth is pre–Incarnation).

>>2343175

A Princess of Mars

>>2349751

I don't disagree in a way, but I would assert that the "scientific community" that is best informed about the Paleolithic does not accept many of the things the ev–psych and general public do.

And what does that say about the science of paleontology? Do you know anything about it?

While there are speculative outgrowths to paleontology, they are largely stated as such. But the data, its collection and much of its interpretation are real science. Paleontology finds oil. Paleontology uses comparative anatomy to great effect. Paleontology yields real data about the ancient world. It is not remotely a "speculative science" in the fashion of ev–psych.

>>2349731

Paleontology is not a speculative science, though there are speculative narratives based on its data.

There is some real data behind ev–psych, but most of it is based on speculative narratives that come out of anthropological paleontology. Its power of compulsion is its ability to provide pseudo–scientific justification for many truths which used to be common sense, giving some protection to its proponents for violating modern academic sensibilities.

Albania— Ismail Kadare, "The Seige" (Kështjella)

>>2349706

Yes, if you were compelled to use a non–standard abbreviation Xian would be correct. It also looks stupid because the two were never two words like "Cristes mæsse".

>>2349701

No one has none it before.

>>2349681

It isn't similar to X–mas, because then X–mas would be Xt–mas. Xtian doesn't make sense because the χ stands in place of "Christ" so it's like saying Christtian. Maybe everyone who uses it stammers?

>>2346174

GRRM must be an amateur; Heinlein covered wanting to fuck his mom in the last fourth of one book.

>>2346454

And do tell me: What was the meaning Sartre created?

My point stands.

>>2345727

The inaccuracy of the KJV is overstated. The opinion over this has been formed around the the preeminence in modern scholarship to the Alexandrian texts over the Byzantine. A lot of recent scholars are turning back to Byzantine priority, so the KJV is looked at more fondly again.

In the OT, the critique of the KJV is its insufficient priority given to the Hebrew versus the Septuagint and Vulgate. If you are Jewish, this may be offensive, but (most) of the places where the KJV favors the Latin and Greek it is more reflective of the Christian heritage of Europe, and thus more useful for understanding its literature.

>>2345717

There is a somewhat attested ancient tradition to an Aramaic Matthew, but that is it. There is no evidence for any other book of the NT having a Greek autograph. Certain books, like the Johnine works or the letters of Paul could not have been written in Aramaic, and bear unmistakable evidence of Greek philosophical training (which was more common in 1st c Palestine—there was a Stoic school at Capernum, for example—than a lot of 19th/20th century Protestant scholars assumed).

The "Hebrew NT" is a constructed idea for the use of modern Messianic Jews to reconstruct Christianity on the basis of rabbinic Judaism.

>>2345669

For Albania, the novels of Ismail Kadare are really good. I'm fond of "The Seige". I wish his novels weren't translated (usually) at twice remove, but Albanian is a tricky language— I was there for a month and only got an elementary grasp.

The "Prayers by the Lake" of Nikolai Velimorovich are nice religious poetry from probably most loved modern saint in Serbia.

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon as mentioned above is fantastic.

A friend really liked Misha Glenny's history of the 19th and 20th c Balkans, but I can't vouch for it myself,

Either get something dirt cheap or invest in something nicer like Rhodia. Since I use a fountain pen, I hate those cheap memo books, but Rhodia paper is wonderful.