What's your favourite budget publisher? For me it's Arcturus. Their books are dirt cheap and often come with tasteful, bright designs, with a wide selection of classics.
>>24976810Dover
The purpose of literature is to entertain. Since time immemorial, from the fireplace to the stage to the big screen, the primary function of the storyteller is to entertain.Grug's tale of the hunt is entertainmentThe Iliad is entertainmentThe Oresteia is entertainmentBeowulf is entertainmentShakespeare is entertainmentFlashman is entertainmentWhy did literature turn away from entertainment in the 19th century? For example, Moby Dick is a patently boring book. It is impossible to enjoy. It is not an engaging story. You could not read it out to someone and expect to keep their attention. Yet it is praised for every other reason than being entertaining. It is praised *despite* the absence of anything compelling.In my view, someone who reads fiction for reasons other than entertainment is a decadent and degenerate. They pretend to read. It is subterfuge. They have ulterior motives. They are liars.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>24975229>>The purpose of literature is to entertain>Sez who?Sez me>>24974777Boy do I have an author for you
>>24974777The claim that “the purpose of literature is entertainment” oversimplifies the entire history of storytelling. Entertainment has always been one function of narrative, but never the only one. From ancient epics to medieval sagas to Shakespeare, stories have served to transmit cultural memory, teach moral lessons, explore identity, critique power, and shape the imagination. Even the works cited as “pure entertainment” — the Iliad, Oresteia, Beowulf — were deeply tied to ritual, religion, and moral instruction. Reducing them to entertainment alone flattens what they actually were.The idea that literature “turned away from entertainment” in the 19th century also misunderstands the period. That era didn’t abandon entertainment; it expanded the possibilities of fiction. Popular writers like Dickens, Dumas, and Conan Doyle thrived, while others used the novel to explore psychology, society, and metaphysics. Works like Moby-Dick may not appeal to everyone, but calling them “impossible to enjoy” is a subjective reaction, not a universal truth. Many readers genuinely find them profound, funny, or moving. Disliking a book is fine; declaring that anyone who likes it is lying is not a literary argument — it’s projection.More broadly, fiction has always been more than amusement. As thinkers like Chesterton argued, stories shape the moral imagination. They help us rehearse virtues, empathize with others, and imagine what a good life looks like. Children instinctively use stories this way, and adults need it just as much. When fiction is dismissed as mere entertainment, we lose sight of its deeper role in forming character and meaning. A culture that stops telling rich, aspirational stories doesn’t stop needing them — it simply forgets how to cultivate them.
>>24976941First of all, the claim that literature’s primary purpose is not entertainment oversimplifies the evolution of storytelling. While ancient epics and medieval sagas certainly served cultural, moral, and historical purposes, they were also created to engage and entertain audiences. The idea that we can simply separate entertainment from deeper meanings ignores how central enjoyment was to these stories’ existence. Saying they were “purely moral” also misses the fact that audiences came for the thrill and emotional impact of these works, which is still true today. Reducing literature to just a tool for instruction leaves out the complex, layered experience stories provide.Secondly, the argument that literature in the 19th century “turned away from entertainment” misunderstands the evolution of storytelling. Writers like Dickens, Conan Doyle, and even Melville expanded what entertainment could be, combining it with deeper reflections on society, identity, and human nature. To say something like Moby-Dick is "impossible to enjoy" is not only subjective—it’s dismissive of readers who find profound meaning in it. Dismissing a work because it doesn’t meet your personal preferences isn’t a valid literary argument, it’s a projection of your own tastes onto others. Everyone's experience with literature is different, and declaring that enjoyment is impossible for others because you don't like something is pretty arrogant.Finally, I have to call out the fact that you’re using AI to write this, which seems a little ironic given your stance on the value of human storytelling. Literature has always been about human expression, emotion, and complexity. Yet here you are, relying on a tool that generates content without the deep human experience behind it, to push your argument. While AI can help with structure or ideas, it can't replicate the nuance, voice, and creativity that literature has always offered. It’s kind of hard to talk about the depth of storytelling when you’re using an algorithm to push your ideas forward. It’s a bit of a contradiction to champion the human qualities of literature while leaning on technology that strips away those very qualities.
>>24974777i'm esl so everything is educational even smut since am also a volcel
>>24977012Your causality is backwards. They werent entertaining therefore developed a deeper meaning. They had a deeper meaning, and therefore were entertaining. And I am not separating the moral from the emotional impact. I am saying that they are the same thing. Why id a heroic story thrilling and exciting? Because we get to see someone acting heroically, and we can learn to act heroically as well. You second paragraph agrees with me. I dont know why you though you needed to write it. And as for using an AI, yes, I am busy, so I have my secretary handle my correspondence.You seem to agree with everything I wrote.
I have heard that the Neoplatonists taught the Platonic dialogues in a particular order, but I cannot seem to find any information on said order or anything else there pertaining to.
>>24976428The primary ancient source for the specific curriculum/reading order of Plato’s dialogues attributed to Iamblichus is not found directly in the extant works of Iamblichus himself, but in a later text known as the Anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy, a late ancient (6th-century CE) introduction to Plato’s works that preserves this tradition. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy+1 Key Source for Iamblichus’s Platonic CurriculumAnonymous Prolegomena to Platonic PhilosophyThis is a late antique, anonymous Greek text (often attributed to a sixth-century Neoplatonist in the school of Olympiodorus the Younger) that preserves the reading order of Plato’s dialogues ascribed to Iamblichus. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy+1In this text (chapter 26 in the edition of Leendert G. Westerink), a list of twelve Platonic dialogues is given, described as offering a systematic overview of Plato’s philosophy — a canonical curriculum rooted in Iamblichus’s teaching tradition. Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyComment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>24976428The curricula actually vary a bit, but the AI slop here >>24976457 is mostly right.The thing is, you're supposed to have run through the Aristotleian corpus before the first Platonic dialogue. Things like Porphyry's Isogogue and commentaries on Aristotle might be consulted around this point. The Prolegomena would often be read first though.However, from what I've seen the Philebus is often last.
They also thought you should read all of Aristotle first
>>24976851this kills the average /lit/ user
literature that helps you come to terms with the life you lived ( and regretted )I am in extreme distress because I grew very old and dont have a wife and family that I always wanted. Need some books to help me cope with the missed opportunities in my life
>>24976990Ah I guess it sounds like that, but no I moved out of my dad's place. The image of siddhartha waiting with unwavering resolve to be allowed to join the ascetics was very impactful to me at the time, brother, father, mother each tried to stop me, but unlike the professor, none of their arguments made sense. I found the image of him later becoming an old man working a ferry flot to be very depressing when I read it as young man. Now in middleage, I take comfort in the idea of paddling along at old age. I see my dad's struggles with his frail body, unable to walk more than a block. I'm glad me and my brother took great effort to find a good home for him and I try to find good books for him from time to time.But it's hard to find good books for a man who has read everything.
>>24968465>he made a theleology out of a blind biological drivelemao
>>24976990So, the pretty cathedral is 5 minute walk now instead of 20 it was prior.
>>24968570Whatever family had you as a father would be miserable anyway. I hope you purge yourself and kill all your offspring to save humanity from your genes.
>>24968459You're taking this shit too seriously anon, if you have a decent job just read Carnegie, get lean, and order a mail bride or whatever the fuck, it can't be that bad
Philosophy certified high T
>>24976797You just know a woman made that chart.
>>24976490Philosophy, literally, means love of wisdom, so yes they do.
The Novel really was literature’s biggest mistake. Fucking midwit magnet.
>>24976816Wisdom ≠ Knowledge. Sure you utilize knowledge with wisdom, but wisdom also employs uncertainty ie: most of metaphysics
>>24976816>sterile analytic hands typed this
Was thinking of reading some labor history. Which one of these should I pick and why?
>>24976566I'm just saying, the whole discipline of labor history seems like an explicitly Marxist ideological project.
>>24976545I interned at one of these labor law firms. Shit was repetitive and uninteresting as fuck
>>24976488My employment record desu
>>24976488Volume 1 of the penguin classics translation of Das Kapital covers the working conditions of post-industrial revolution English poorfags quite extensively.
>>24976571It just seems like they'd know what they're talking about
I've never personally found any argument against suicide that really convinces me. The more philosophy I read, the more many common objections seem based on instinct or emotion rather than careful reasoning. When people call suicide "murder" or "unnatural" they often ignore that a right to life should also include the right to give it up, and that nature itself isn't a moral authority. If it were, we wouldn't use medicine to prevent or delay natural deaths. The claim that suicide is selfish also feels very one-sided. It can just as easily be seen as selfish to expect someone to keep living with unbearable mental or physical suffering simply so others don't have to feel grief. None of us chose to be born, and being stuck in a life that has become intolerable is a tragedy, not a moral failure. I think society has a strong optimism bias that makes people assume life is better than it really is for everyone. When someone experiences life mainly as a heavy burden, ending their life can be a rational way to take back control over something they never chose.
>>24976419How many times must I explain thisDon't commit suicide, go out in a kamikaze strike against politicians, CEOs, critics, insurance bankers, corporate lawyers, lobbyists etcThe argument against suicide is that by only killing yourself then you're wasting a life that could be used to kill actual parasites instead
>>24976672Idk man, seems evil to send people with mental illness or chronic pain to hell for killing themselves after you engineered their existence
>>24976771>bringing new lifeIt's just recycling
>>24976441>>24976529Totally absurd. The Father killed countless times, even, and especially, when banishing Adam and Eve. The Son killed the fig tree, and possibly some demons. The Spirit killed Judas. Angels killed Sodomites. Your salvation is contingent on yourself being, at least partially, killed.
>>24976419About 2 years ago, I was skiing in France and having a blast. Saw a guy zip right past me, turn to me in an effortless 360 spin-move while simultaneously taking a draw from his cigarette. Coolest shit I've ever seen in my life. Is there a convincing argument against suicide? Yeah, right there. Life is awesome.
Privacy by Danielle Chelosky (new story!)>A folder on her laptop held the stories she was not allowed to publish. One boy forbade her because there was an entire paragraph about his dick size (it was complimentary, she didn’t understand the problem). Another was worried his girlfriend would end up finding it. Another said he would cancel her for invasion of privacy. >These were rare instances. Mostly boys were flattered, considered it an ego boost, no matter how they were portrayed. People in general liked to be immortalized. In a way, she resented their narcissism, like they couldn’t appreciate what she’d written because they were just staring at themselves.>The truth was whatever reaction the boys offered was not what she wanted, even if they lavished her with praise, called her a genius, it was never enough. She thought of writing as not just a plea to be seen but a plea to be loved. It never seemed to have the effect that she yearned for, probably because it was impossible. Maybe, she thought, if she killed herself then her words would take on a new, heavier meaning.>She used to think that a boy being mad about a story she’d written about him meant the writing had done its job. It touched a nerve; it was controversial and had a direct impact on real life. Then she decided that mindset was banal, stupid. She thought her writing was at its weakest when it was a weapon.>On the internet she stalked a writer she had once done a literary reading with. During the reading he had spoken candidly about his sex addiction, and his girlfriend at the time stomped off. Now he was dating a different writer and they were constantly writing about their relationship, hosting readings where they read about each other with each other, publishing the history of their love in glossy magazines that paid by the word. She felt put off by this masturbatory spectacle. Like she couldn’t imagine anyone caring about it or finding it as anything other than insufferable. She wondered how one could make interesting art if they viewed their life as a project—then isn’t the project about the project, not about life?
what, you don't like autofiction?
>>24962028Why would releasing a log of her sex life be 'committing herself to art'? Who would read that...Who the hell cares. Women should write about something other than sex, jesus fucking christ.Such narcissism.
>>24975472Sorry chud, but women have been forced into silence by the patriarchy for too long. Shut up and listen. A women is speaking. What she is saying is unfathomably wise, wiser than any man's prattlings.
>shaved pitsWaste of a thread
DANIELLE'S TWITTER GOT DELETEDHOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO GET PICS OF DANIELLE NOW?
We will be reading picrel books, one a month, in the next year. Who's with me
>>24975023you have to supplement it with bom. but i am still preparing the epub.>>24974822i'll be ready in early jan
>>24975053cool cool, excited to read it anon
>>24973020Replace To The Lighthouse or The Waves with Three Lives and probably replace Tristam Shandy, I don't see many here getting through that in a month.
>>24976926i was tempted to replace a lot of the books but unfortunately if it comes to it I'll just never get around to reading some that, it's not like I don't want to read them, but i'd rather be reading something else? so the list is randomly picked, and then further random picks for ones that I've already read
>>24973020Would've participated in something like if the books were chosen by the community and there was no discord tied to it.
Whenever I read literature pre-1960s I kind of amused at how normalized it is for characters to seek out prostitutes. I was just reading lolita and Humbert has many moments with french streetwalkers in the beginning.It's almost like they were a normal facet of men's lives back before internet porn and feminism. It's almost like the concept of casual sex with a normal woman was unimaginable Were brothels really that common back then?
>>24974649He's right tho, catholic countries have historically been less sexually prudish. Protestants don't have the confession sacrament.
Yes, very common, consider how much more widespread poverty was, what was the path of least resistance for a starving woman who was also attractive? Consider also courtesansNowadays we are much less lustful too. Imagine in the past when men were not eating much processed slop, weren't pacified by the internet, and engaged in hard physical labour, their libidos would appear demonic to us, the men of past would make us look like sissy faggotsIn general, the underworld of the past was much more prevalent. Hell even in the last 50 years you can see how much the underworld has disappeared, what was once a place of freedom away from the constraints of "peaceful civilisationn"
>>24976938Not jerking off to porn and always having seed ready to sew because you only cum in pussy. Lots of rape.
>>24974349Zoomer retard
>>24974520one of the old professions, lol
Just finished this. Has anyone else here read it?Basically it was pretty good but it really felt unfocused and meandering often. Maybe this is a skill issue but I had a hard time tying everything that was presented into a cohesive picture.Especially when he moved to word-improvement from the personal focus the book started to feel way too ambitious. I'm really interested in hearing other anons here got from this book.Picrel isn't mine because I'm too lazy to take one
>>24974754>unfocused and meandering oftenthat's just every self-help book. they have to pad the content from a pamphlet to a 300 page book somehow.
>>24974754I've tried reading something by Sloterdijk once and the rambling and tangent-chasing was off the charts. Then I listened to a talk of his and it was even worse. He's like a proto-Peterson, and all the worse for his pretensions and academic acclaim as philosopher.
>>24974782it's not a self-help book dude it's a philosophy book about how humans always striving or some shit
How do i change my life, peter?
Just read it. It sucked. What am I missing?
>>24976584 is for >>24976536 subhuman, obviously.>>24976764Niggers and other faggots are the main audience of capeshit, animeshit and reality TV, especially the celeb one. Anyone who likes P&P is a philosophical nigger.
>>24976839How mentally ill do you have to be to write this in a thread about Jane Austen?
>>24972902>Too much flowery description that takes you out of the story.This is why I cant stand bongistani 'literature' despite knowing only english language in my entire life
>>24977001Bronte in Wuthering height only uses overly verbose language as a way of mocking on of the characters. The rest of the book is fairly matter of fact.
>>24977001>despite knowing only english language in my entire lifeYou're not fooling anyone.
if you don't own this in 2025, you don't love literature.
>>24976446I have a 10.7 inch screen, and it's basically the perfect size. What are you trying to do that you need 12+?
SERIOUS question. I'm looking for an ereader with the possibility of using an instant translation/dictionary stuff for reading in foreign languages, japanese included. Will a kindle be able to do this seamlessly without making me wanna kill myself?Plz respond
>>24966640kindle is owned by amazon, made in chinaworst of both worlds
>>24976825Yes, kindle has a built in dictionary. Vou just need to click on the word.
Rate my reading list /lit/
>>24976147
>>24976184looks like a fag no cap
>>24971735>>24976046>>24976184Imagine the smell.
I would like to have sex with a beautiful trans girl
Crowley did 9/11, look it up.
This is better than War and Peace.The only issue I have with it was not making a small note at the end, one small paragraph even, that the veterans of the War went to Rio de Janeiro and created there the very first Favela
>>24970937>>24972536This board has turned into such a pit. Go read your comic books gay boy
>>24974516He was just a figure head. Vladimiro and the Navy ran everything behind the scenes.>>24974761I enjoyed his essays on the Amazon.
>>24968973I read his comedy book about the army paying prostitutes to have sex with soldiers to keep those soldiers from losing their shit. That was a fun book.
>>24968973I read In Praise of the Step Mother and enjoyed that. Where should I go next with Vargas Llosa?
>>24968973For me it's one of those books that's more enjoyable to think about afterward than to read in the moment. Not that it's badly written, but it's very bleak in tone. Thinking about how the events at Canudos screwed every faction (rebels died, Gall never got to Canudos, republic army humiliated even in victory, baron dispossessed, even Goncalves nearly gambled Bahian autonomy away through his rumor mongering) is more interesting than the book itself was for some passages. Still a very impressive work, good enough for me to consider reading more by Vargas Llosa.>>24970565The baron's reaction to the baroness's breakdown. And ant excuse to write about sex.
