Thoughts on this website and its userbase?
>>23300552lel, this. Moby Dick has like 3.5 stars
>>23300376I like it. That's it. I don't care about it's userbase. As far as I am concerned, I am the only user and the app was made for me alone.
>reading a review>suddenly orange man bad rant out of nowhereUhh okay?
>>23300489Lmfao this has to Notes from the Underground
>>23301463Orange Man! Planting orchards in every mind! Have not the globes of your succor been the bane of scurvy and every craven villain! O, Lemon Woman! Squeeze for us thy tender mercies! Let the juice of your tender rind banish every woe! Lime Brother! Friend! Twist your citrus into our hearts that we may in time feel the comforts of your nativity! Yea, Grapefruit! Our sister! Most generous of all! Perhaps the pink heart of your tender flesh shall appease every furtive underhand! For shame! Ye enemies of the Citriquart! Let Vitamin C burn out your eyes in their sockets!
Thoughts on Ashbery? Any favorite poems or collections by him that you want to recommend or discuss? What do you think of some critics' accusations that his work is meaningless?
>>23299171Yeah, different species of rhyme, each word as if a tree (the first stanza could be read as a model for reading this poem in particular, but of course it doesn't need to be read that way) and tossed off what seems so effortlessly. I love the concluding defense of (one's) vanished days in their quiet particularity-- as if they need defense! Beautiful poem
bump
>>23287218I don’t really understand what he’s saying but he is one of the few poets that I read a lot of over and over again, alongside Eliot and Pound. My favourite poem by him is “City Afternoon.” Any recommendations for good secondary lit on him?
>>23289564Honestly I was surprised when I first learned he was gay
>>23288438oshit ive been digging into ohara this semester. i love the idea of poetry being nothing special. i think more people should take that approach to poetry. holding every poem on a pedestal like its a piece of fine art or some sacred incantation makes poets seem pretentious and unapproachable. ohara wrote poems and discarded them like they were grocery lists. i find grocery lists and think of them as poems.havent read koch or ashberry or leroi but im excited to after this semester.haiku4u:black plastic bagsnagged on a naked tree limb;first leaf of spring
what are the funniest books ever?
>>23299969You should read this.
>>23292111Ass Goblins of Auschwitz
>>23292111The Good Soldier Svejkthe author of catch-22 was inspired by it
>>23299969>>23300063Alcestis is one of the strangest things I’ve ever read. I don’t know what to make of it
Can we have ONE Balzac thread without people making that tired joke?
>>23299846>except for Péguyt'as un problème avec son socialisme ou son nationalisme ?
HONOR THE BALLSACK >HONOR THE BALLSACK HONOR THE BALLSACK >HONOR THE BALLSACK HONOR THE BALLSACK >HONOR THE BALLSACK
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>>23300417No it's just that the description of his writing given by the characters in Soumission hardly inspire in me a desire to read his writingsHave you read Bloy?
>>23300826it happened again KEK
went from 50 books a year to 1 book a year.really enjoyed pomo/maximalist novels and haven't read any in a big while.want to get back to reading and would like something short in the 200~400 page range, so that's quick to finish and to get back in shape.really love gass' writing and prose but at the same time never read anything by mcelroy.
>>23300703Read Omensetter's Luck last year and really enjoyed it, so it gets a strong rec from me, but on the basis that I've read none of the other four. And not on the list, but I followed Omesetter's Luck with Absalom, Absalom! and also enjoyed it, so that's another rec if you haven't already read it.Have you read the Tunnel? I'm nearing the end finally and also enjoying it, so I'd be curious to hear your take.
>>23300703I would also vote for Omensetter's Luck, it is great. The first part might be my favorite bit of Gass' fiction writing.
Books worth reading from the current decade?Shirley there must be a few
>>23299426Sérieusement?
>>23301453HAVE YOU READ IT?
>>23300161YOU HATE AUTOFICTION, BUT LIKE «FANTASY» SCHLOCK?OK.
>>23301559No, but your recommendation has given me interest. I like the actress well enough.
>>23297394I have negative interest in reading anything from this decade. If I could spend a dollar so that every time such a book crossed my field of vision it would be automatically thrown in a fire, I would.
Post em
>>23291166Why did you expect Beard from Hotline Miami to appear in "Roadside Picnic"?
>>23291388also some guy melting of heat
>>23295942it was so corny
>>23290973>nothingnessBehold the results of your modern public school education
>>23291699qrd? syrian diaspora here
What’s the great American road trip novel?
oh man an anon said he was gonna write a road trip novel and he posted an excerpt here. i thought it was really good. anyone know what i'm talking about? was it ever published?
Bump
No map, no knowledge of what to eat, dies.
>>23301535
>>23301537Was he the ultimate based retard?
Books on east asia's combination of social collectivism and hypercapitalism? I recently awakened to the horrors of South Korea and want to blackpill myself some more
>>23283235purupururinpurinpurupururin
>>23283235what is "hypercapitalism"? private property but more?
Chinese grandpas grew up in the sino-japanese war, then civil war and then Mao's Communist ruleJapanese grandpas grew up in the fire bombing and nukesKorean grandpas grew up in the Korean warYoung "people" are fucking pussies and wouldn't last a single year in any of the generation prior
I wonder if there’s any books that cuts through all the horseshit and deals with the topic in real terms: low-IQ peasants being exploited as slave labor, the corrupt elite / government system and the various social control mechanisms to keep the peasants in line and not falling into the hands of competing elites attempting to seize power.
>>23298565They had a whole shopping mall collapse and kill hundreds because of one of their aristocrat capitalists negligence. They used to crash planes all the time because of the elder respect bullshit. Truly an insane country.
>no great Russian authors supported communism>no great American authors supported capitalism
>>23300939
>>23300942>>23300946
>>23300860>GorkyOnly lived in the USSR four years before dying, most likely poisoned>RandBorn in Russia and spent the rest of her life seething that she couldn't be an aristocrat, just like Nabokov
>>23301419Nabokov was a literal aristocrat.
>>23301419Gorky pretty much followed/inspired the revolution through theatre and literature
Confucian morality makes no sense. So Liu Bei is righteous for quietly obeying the Emperor even though he was disrespected, but Song Jiang is also righteous for rebelling so long as he doesn't actually try to overthrow the Emperor, but Cao Cao is bad because he cuts out the middleman and takes power from an Emperor who sucks? What makes the Yellow Turbans bad but the Outlaws of the Marsh good?
>>23287446Women and children are like garments to be used and discarded. They repeat this in the book multiple times. If you have any honor or filial piety you’d understand this fundamental truth
>>23281843Confucianism at the end of the day is primarily about ultimate surrender to authority. The more you prostrate yourself to authority, the better of a person you are.Its literally the most cuckolded philosophy ever created, and Chinese governments have been wielding it as a sword to threaten its subjects and maintain obedience for centuries, even today.
>>23298821that's pretty heckin problematic
If Cao Cao was so great, why couldn't he conquer the Western half of China?
>mfw pang tong dies
Favorite book of the Odyssey? For me, it's Book 14 where disguised Odysseus shoots the shit with the swineherd.
What are some books about guilt?
>>23298917>>23298917I look like this
>>23301196You on the rightMe on the left
>>23298917even the dog is obese
>>23301202imagine reaching the age of comprehension and reason and discovering that you're attached to a land whale
>>23298309>>23298499Sus
>No Happy /lit/ chart>No one usually talks about books that bring them real happiness when it's overLet's change that, post Happy Books, and a nice pic>Example Winnie the Pooh (pic above)Long Side Note THIS IS MORE THAN JUST ME NEEDING HAPPY BOOK RECS DUE TO THE STATE IF MY LIFE. ALL OF US DESERVE THE CHANCE TO BRING OURSELVES AND OTHERS HAPPINESS THROUGH COMRADRY, EVEN FOR THE MORONS (ME), ASSHOLES (ALSO ME), THE FAILING OPTIMIST'S, AND THE ANNOYING SMART ASSES (ALSO ALSO ME). WHATEVER BELIEF YOU HAVE ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD. WE CAN ALL AGREE HAPPINESS IS A GOOD THING AND FINDING A WAY TO PRODUCE AND SHARE IT TO OTHERS THAT NEED/DESERVE IT IS GOOD. SO HAPPY POSTING, WHETHER IN THIS THREAD OR OUTSIDE IT
>>23297444I thought he only wrote short stories and biographies/history
>>23297456think I'll read la poétique de l'espace
>>23292659"Alfanhuí" by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio is pretty comfy and joypilled
>>23296160It's the best. No question. It fully captures the oceanic bliss of the original and renders it in beautiful English poetry. I've read literally every available translation of the Tao Te Ching that I could find and Wilhelm/Lau is still the best one.
>>23292678I prefer the Arthur Waley translation...
A big family, a beautiful and loving wife, a small house in the countryside and a library full of classics. That's all you need to be truly happy.
>>23301200>$80,000 to raise a kid for 18 yearsIt's closer to half a million
Books?
>>23301478Check out Houellebecq
>>23301439I really don’t care about what’s been gone for generations. I am a traditionalist and am thoroughly resolved to renounce all modern ideas. I’m interested in the objective Good, which is eternal and comes from the Creator. I have spoken to my wife-to-be and have laid out my expectations and she has agreed with me in full. She knows I am a man of honour and not a petty tyrant. She knows I will do all that is in my power to secure a decent income and allow her to be a stay at home mother. We have no friends outside of each other. We are both virgins. In the event that my marriage fails and she leaves me, I will resignedly say: God’s will be done. Though I would wish for the abolition of feminist laws and culture, I firmly believe in the power of marital devotion. And even if Love fades, Duty will remain. All a man can do is submit himself to the will of God and try to live an upright life. Whatever evils I must suffer will be synthesised eventually into a greater good, the greater harmony that will be made clear when we gaze directly upon the divine essence, comprehending His world-historical symphony, seeing our lives as a minuscule part of it, weeping at the absolute beauty of the resolution of all things, the purity and rightness of it all in retrospect. Then the reason for all my afflictions will be made clear to me. But for now I can only stick to what has been given to me, by reason, by revelation, by tradition, by moral intuition.
>>23301526>I will do all that is in my power to secure a decent incomeWhenever she feels like it, she can go out-earn you. It sounds like that won't be very hard either. You said you have no friends? So you are unemployed yes? Nobody is coming to this wedding either?
