/lit/ - Literature

>>18105031
He's like China's Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe put together in cultural impact. Definitely the most important fiction writer of the early 20th century for them.

Beyond that, his stories are short and funny and pretty easy to read without context. "A Madman's Diary" is like a spooky Poe story, while "Ah-Q" is a brutal satire of China at the time: just a peasant version of Ignatius Reilly going around getting owned while also thinking he is way better and smarter than everyone. Eventually the 1911 Revolution makes it to their village and... you can guess what happens from there.

Both of those are easy places to start, and his most famous stories.

Also read Lu Xun's corpus a little while back, which rocked too.

Favorite East Asian literature? I recently read "Tales of Moonlight and Rain" (a collection of Japanese ghost stories from the 1770s) and was blown away.

Preferably pre-1950, but feel free to post modern stuff too.

>>15818327
You can tell by her facial expression that she's dumb whore

>>15817304
I think the way feudal tradition is holding China back, but I also think that there's an implication that it's the imperial powers (esp. Japan) tearing China up into spheres of influence/colonies.

>>15817245
Lmao fair. Gl friend. I just don't think I'll be free this weekend and I wanted to hear your thoughts.

>>15817205
This

>>15817231
Lmao don't read Shapiro. He's a lawyer and public debater who really doesn't know shit about the period. Just read Peter Adamson's books or listen to the relevant episodes of his series, The History of Philosophy without any Gaps. They are academic level but also beginner friendly.

If you want something a little more difficult, I'd recommend Anthony Kenny's A New History of Western Philosophy, volume I.

>>15816828

>>15816810
What do you think the main theme is? You don't have to give details until the weekend

>>15816879
>Let's have the outcome of socialism without the mean part where people fight
Damn I've never thought of that one.

Also, the small proprietorship shit didn't really work in pre-industrial societies; it would absolutely not work in our lives. Just having tons of tiny firms means extremely inefficient production (think: Greece over Sweden). Just do what the succdems do and use wealth funds, work co-ops, and universal programs to ensure roughly equal access to the income of society and then let the market consolidate to its most efficient point from there.

See: Matt Bruenig, esp. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/projects/social-wealth-fund/

>15815543 (OP)
It fucking rocks. Best book I've read in years. I completely agree with your description of the setting: I truly feel like this is a world which is filled with untold millions of years of history, and the effects that would have on a civilization. Nessus was definitely my favorite part.

If you want a good companion but don't want to read, check out the Alzabo Soup podcast. They're a bit onions but they are true Wolfe fanatics who are great at giving a spoiler-free deep reading/reading group simulator. It'll really help you understand how to pick up when Severian is being unreliable.

One of the most interesting things I got from them is the fact that the book has several lens it must be read through:
*Literal adventure story of Severian
*Psychological profile of Severian the narrator
*Political tract to legitimate Severian's rule as autarch, as mentioned in the first chapter
*Catholic understanding of humanity (with Wolfe's idiosyncrasies thrown in)
*Philosophical explanation why there is something rather than nothing
*Thematically on coming of age, war, love, technology, myths, and everything else of course

One more thing, Wolfe began writing it about his experience of being a soldier on his way to war (but not about the war itself), so try to understand things like the Feast of Catherine in the context of a manhood ceremony, and Severian's journey towards the war with the Ascians by wondering what Wolfe experienced on his way from the US to fight in Korea as a young private(?).

>>15815823
>Jolenta best girl
God I feel so bad for her because Severian raping her and then Talos, etc. leaving her to die. I remember her first agreeing to come with and I was like "in real life I absolutely would not do this this is sketch as hell" and then it was as horrible as I guessed it would be.

>>15815855
I've explained to people the "top level" before and like 75% of it goes over their head. If you want to use spoilers to share what you know I'd be happy to help add things around the edges. I'm not sure how much you consider "the first plot".

>>15815865
This is good analysis

>>15815887
Absolutely. Especially once it's implied he has a twin sister I'm like "okay which girl he had sex with is she going to turn out to be

>>15815934
Oh that fucking rocks. Good on him for just going for it. I assumed this was some essay stretching a bit.

>>15816175
There are definitely a lot of one-off scenes (the third(?) book had like four really egregious ones), but the vast majority are connected to past and future plot points but usually only opaquely. Definitely fun to read without picking up on those, though.

>>15816894
I still need to read New Urth

>>15815543
It fucking rocks. Best book I've read in years. I completely agree with your description of the setting: I truly feel like this is a world which is filled with untold millions of years of history, and the effects that would have on a civilization. Nessus was definitely my favorite part.

If you want a good companion but don't want to read, check out the Alzabo Soup podcast. They're a bit onions but they are true Wolfe fanatics who are great at giving a spoiler-free deep reading/reading group simulator. It'll really help you understand how to pick up when Severian is being unreliable.

One of the most interesting things I got from them is the fact that the book has several lens it must be read through:
*Literal adventure story of Severian
*Psychological profile of Severian the narrator
*Political tract to legitimate Severian's rule as autarch, as mentioned in the first chapter
*Catholic understanding of humanity (with Wolfe's idiosyncrasies thrown in)
*Philosophical explanation why there is something rather than nothing
*Thematically on coming of age, war, love, technology, myths, and everything else of course

One more thing, Wolfe began writing it about his experience of being a soldier on his way to war (but not about the war itself), so try to understand things like the Feast of Catherine in the context of a manhood ceremony, and Severian's journey towards the war with the Ascians by wondering what Wolfe experienced on his way from the US to fight in Korea as a young private(?).

>>15815823
>Jolenta best girl
God I feel so bad for her because first time using spoilers so I am still going to be cryptic, but you fucking know what I'm talking about. I remember her first agreeing to come with and I was like "in real life I absolutely would not do this this is sketch as hell" and then it was as horrible as I guessed it would be. Severian and Talos and all the rest just treat her so horribly

>>15815855
I've explained to people the "top level" before and like 75% of it goes over their head. If you want to use spoilers to share what you know I'd be happy to help add things around the edges. I'm not sure how much you consider "the first plot".

>>15815865
This is good analysis

>>15815887
Absolutely. [Spoiler] Especially once it's implied he has a twin sister I'm like "okay which girl he had sex with is she going to turn out to be[/Spoiler]

>>15815934
Oh that fucking rocks. Good on him for just going for it. I assumed this was some essay stretching a bit.

>>15816175
There are definitely a lot of one-off scenes (the third(?) book had like four really egregious ones), but the vast majority are connected to past and future plot points but usually only opaquely. Definitely fun to read without picking up on those, though.

>>15816894
I still need to read New Urth

>>15815010
He's right, here's why that's a good thing.

>>15816036
Uh just so you guys are clear. I love cock. Love it. There is not a single day where I don't wake up with my prostrate pulsating with desire for penis. If there is a heaven it's me being spit-roasted by 2 massive portuguese men. I live for cum. It is my Philosophers stone. Through white spunk I become immortal. Animal. It awakens in me my ontological faggotry that I try so hard to suppress. I literally turn into a madonna whore with a penis. BTW straights, men suck crazy good penis. Like its incomparable.

>>15816493
Imagine not believing this

>>15816424
>My chinese first name is 寒
That's cool! For those unfamiliar, Han Han's name is 韩寒 so anon shares a given name with him.

How accurate would you say my description of him is? I'm not Chinese and don't know any Chinese so I am going off of what I get second or third hand.

>>15816413
Is it possible to have a name w/o a tripcode and be okay or does it inevitably make you a clout chaser?

>>15816543
What did you not like? Was it just boring/pretentious, or was there something else?

>>15816528
Damn that sounds great. Thanks for the suggestion, anon. I might check it out.

>>15816449
That seems fair and probably right. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

>>15816118
That's neat. I'm a fucking idiot so what is an "Argies"? Im trying to figure out if it's Port. for German (which seems to be Alemão) or just slang for Argentina (but why wouldn't that just be Spanish?) or...? Sorry for being a moron.

>>15816151
Fiction has a weirder cadence, and has more focus on varying forms than being clear; you're more likely to have words elided or unusual grammar constructions. I've noticed this in other languages too.

>>15816167
Thanks for the recs! I'll check them out. Would not have guessed Voltaire was easy. If I have $$$ in the future I'll look into a kindle too.

>>15816180
elaborate on that

>>15816272
Thanks for the rec! Will check out

>>15816209
In general? You are allowed to criticize the CCP, it just can't be dangerous or piss off anyone important (like pointing out how anyone's kid is stealing from the state). He's popular enough that they just periodically soft censor him. I remember an incident where they banned talking about his books, but you could still talk about his racing so his racing became a proxy for his books.

He doesn't talk about democracy or anything which is dangerous to them, I think he mostly talks about how the culture can be stifling and things should be better for more people which many Party members don't like obviously but also helps other Party members (including President Xi, who is basing his rule off of purging corrupt party members): what I don't think people get is that the CCP is pretty popular, it's just the ethnic tensions (which are very much two-way) and corruption which are the main gripes of the population. We'll see what happens if they lose a war (doubtful) or stop growing economically (more likely), but without either of those happening I can't see the CCP being in trouble any time soon.

>>15815997
Starting at almost exactly page 200 it became much, much more readable with more consistent characters with a plot that made sense. Given what I posted above, though, I'm not sure if I would really recommend it.

I've never read BotS. What was your takeaway from it? Was it interesting?

>>15815963
>Based Black Cat.
>realizes that I have just kept letting the name keep autofilling this whole time without really thinking about it
>realizing no one else except Butterfly has a name on this board
>don't know whether to back out now or keep going
>dont want to be that annoying guy but kinda like having people understand which other posts I made in the thread

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