/lit/ - Literature

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

Read it.

He's a fucking douche who managed to co-opt Parmeniedes' ideas while completely missing the point.

Philosophy used to be the Love of Wisdom.

Plato turned it into the Love of Arguing about Wisdom.

There are some problems that cannot be solved through rational means; some lessons that cannot be taught, but only learned. Plato is the start of Western Culture having a huge problem with this.

We elevate rationality, reason, logic, to the highest pedestal, and yet for all their uses, they are flawed tools. Can you dissect a dream, or put the soul under a microscope?

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

>>899408

...

/slap with a trout

So, rip of Madonna, then?

Not a single book. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Pure epic legendry.

>>899299
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Chris Tolkien). It's the history of Middle Earth from before its creation to the end of the Lord of the Rings. It's not so much a story, as a history. It's kind of dry -- it's written from the point of some sort of loremaster or sage writing a text on the subject of the particular period of time. When I read it, I imagine Elrond wrote it as a history, probably for his own amusement (he has a lot of time on his hands, after all.) It explains a lot of things that are glossed over or mentioned in passing in LotR, such as the Valar, Eru Illuvatar, the History of the Elves, Gil-Galad and Elendil, Numenor's rise and fall, etc. It also has a word list and pronunciation guide for Tolkien's Elvish language in the back, which is nice. I'm not sure what a current version of the book looks like -- I have my dad's first edition copy. It's actually kind of shitty (in construction). From what I understand, the fold-out map in the back was glued on by hand. I've seen multiple copies (a couple of friends also have first editions), and like mine, pages are not always cut uniformly, and the maps are none in the same place. Get a new copy, if you can, unless you want an old one for nostalgia/collection/it's probably cheap.

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

Lots of other stuff.

>>899298
Dune. It's probably the best work of science fiction that's ever been written. Frank Herbert put a very great deal of effort and research into it, and he created a world whose complexity, language, politics and history is on a Tolkien level. I also recommend the other 5 books by Frank Herbert (but not the ones written by his son and Kevin J. Anderson, as they a pulp action Sci-Fi that fail to capture the essence of Dune), though most people tend to give up during the 4th book.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson is a personal favorite, for personal reasons. The protagonist is decidedly unlikeable -- some people would use the word repulsive. The trilogy draws from Wagner's Ring Cycle (as does the Gap Cycle, by the same author, which is more or less the Ring Cycle in Space), and bears similarities to the Lord of the Rings, but sort of as a dark mirror, or an inversion. A lot of people find his style of writing in this trilogy (there's a second trilogy, and he's currently writing a tetralogy, too, if you like it), very offputting -- it's very Tolkien-y. Big words that most people don't ever hear. He's also fond of the words argent and puissan(t/ce).

>>899297

"--All You Zombies--" is one of the greatest Time Travel stories of all time. It basically set the bar for everything else. It is fucking awesome. Read it. It's a short story.

Podkayne of Mars is one of Heinlein's young adult books. At the time it was written, it stood out due to having a female protagonist who was not a stereotypical young girl of the time. It's hard to explain, exactly -- you'd have to read it. There was also a big huhu over the ending of the book -- Heinlein was forced to rewrite it at his publisher's insistence, saying it was too dark. When I was young, I remember the publisher put out a version that had both endings. This book, along with Starship Troopers (another great book) is when Heinlein started to write for adults, instead of writing children's books (such as books like Have Spacesuit, Will Travel).

The Principia Discordia. It's a mental virus.

Stranger in a Strange Land

and

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

These are widely considered to be tied for the Best Novel that Robert Anson Heinlein ever wrote, and he's called "The Dean of Science Fiction Writers."

Stranger in a Strange Land revolves around morality, religion, philosophy, ethics, law, etc; I found it fascinating from an Anthropological perspective.

Equally badass is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- think American Revolution on the Moon. It's similar to Clockwork Orange -- it is from the first person, and the narrator uses "Loonie" -- English with Russian (and Chinese/Japanese, to a lesser extent) influences. Deals heavily with Politics and Theories of Rights, and the purposes of Government and the reasons for its existence. It also has some philosophical subplot.

I may just be emo, but both of these books made me cry for the first time when I read them.

Other Heinlein things you should read, just for Historical Purposes:

God Emperor of Dune... In My Ass

>>855340

Soooo... SAE, then?

English, Latin, Learning German

IT WAS A CHICKEN!

I just got told about this by a fellow Dune fanatic. Laugh at it while it lasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dune_Bene_Gesserit#Anirul

"Do not disturb my circles." - Archimedes

>>837352

Wow. I think that's the one down the road from me.

Most people never learn to touch-type. That's what I blame it on.

>>835975

No, sorry.

Megalomania: A paranoid delusion of grandeur in which an individual believes that he or she is an important person or is carrying out great plans.

>>835958

I fail to see how that's megalomania. Perhaps you'd like to look up the definition.

Dune is probably one of the best researched Sci-Fi novels ever. The sheer amount of research and effort Herbert put into it is astounding.

Yes. But only the six by Frank Herbert. The ones by his son and that hack, Kevin J. Anderson, have none of the depth of Frank's work, and are nothing other than pulp action Sci-Fi.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a first person narrative using a lot of vernacular in a modified form of English.

It's fucking awesome.

Learn to language.

>>835634

This is why I use the word "hepcat".