There are two groups of people who claim to dislike Tolstoy. Those who haven't read him. And those that were filtered by War & Peace. Anyone who puts in the effort finds a new favorite author.
>>24086090>There are two groups of people who claim to dislike Joanne Knigger Rowling>Those who haven't read her>And those that were filtered by Harry Potter 1-7This is flawless reasoning and because of it she's undoubtedly one of the greats.
I really don't see why I should read him over any other realist author. AK was good, but not exceedingly so. W&P I dropped after 300 pages, the pacing is way too fast, I can't keep up with all the new characters getting introduced.
>>24086098AK and W&P aren’t only good. They’re better than any novel you’ve read. You likely didn’t read them. Part of discussing books with the internet is realizing 80 percent are lying about what they’ve read. 10 percent are skimmers. And the other 10 percent fully grasp the strength of Tolstoy.
>>24086090I've only read Death of Ivan Ilych and it's already clear to me how good he was-- though, not that I ever doubted his brilliance. It took me a smidge longer to see that in like Dostoevsky for example. I'm excited to get into Tolstoy's major works.
>>24086124>DostoevskyIt's been said that Dostoevsky appeals to youth. Tolstoy appeals to the wise. It's always good to experience what life has to offer before you turn to Tolstoy.
>>24086116The best novel I've ever read is Moby-Dick and I can't imagine anything else beating it anytime soon apart from maybe Ulysses.
>>24086098kek you must be an Americanstick to Stephen King
>>24086137> He has the books uncracked and on his shelf.Moby-Dick is the cliche favorite of every person who fell down the Harold Bloom rabbit hole in these parts. It's amazing to see uniformity of opinion on this once diverse board. Mpby Dick and Blood Meridian for 4chan. Hitchhikers Guide and Lord of The Rings for reddit users. Tolstoy is the great equalizer here. He requires someone to have experienced life before he clicks. If you're a shut in, then you're left in the dust to cope with your meme books.
>>24086137Tolstoy>Dostoevsky Faulkner>McCarthyHemingway>Melville
>>24086124That's one of his best works.
>>24086159I think you meantTolstoy = DostoevskyFaulkner = McCarthyHemingway = MelvilleBoth of these authors are equally the same and the right ones were most well-known here on this board
>>24086147>He requires someone to have experienced life before he clicks.Yeah, cause Moby Dick totally doesn't require that, and is universally liked by young people, who still haven't felt hardship. A meme book improvised by someone who definitely had no idea about the experiences of the characters he was describing.
>>24086140Stick to /int/
Tolstoy is a psued filter. Every reddit psued I've met is heavy into Dostoevsky. Dost's books operate as psychological thriller. Tolstoy asks more from the reader and the reader is given more in return.
>>24086090There used to be lively discussion about this man on /lit/ nine years ago. Now it's all posts about Fantasy and literary starter books. It's pretty sad actually.
Tolstoy was retroactively brave new worlding in the beginning of ak
>>24086159True. I immediately distrust anyone who likes mccarthy over Faulkner
>>24087193McCarthy is the nu-metal Faulkner.
every word here is correct i can't believe i ever doubted him, i fell in love with tolstoy and now believe he is not only the GOAT writer but the GOAT artist in all of history
>>24087304I miss Norm so much :(
>>24086140Stephen Kind can actually shovel in new characters faster than Tolstoy, but the difference is it doesn't matter if you forget their names or who they are :^)
>>24087560Trouble with my memory isn't something I can identify with.
>>24086090He's a good writer I will admit but it doesn't make everything he says true. He is really good at relating the big picture to the mundane. I can enjoy his books but I don't have to like him at all. You can't keep insisting that his moral philosophy was "mature" but I will keep dismissing it and I will not elaborate why.
>>24087706It’s not like you matter in anyway. To this board, your parents, the world. Go act like a child somewhere else.
>>24086090He has written short chapters better than other authors entire books, and the chapters themselves are very simple to read. I don't know how he does it. I almost want to say that the nobility of a person's soul is all that matters when it comes to great art. Even if you say something with simplicity it can still be most profound just because you as a person are more profound. I sort of feel the same about Dostoevsky, not really a good writer but still somehow a great writer just because of the importance of what his writings communicate
A lot of Tolstoyfags seem to have this unhealthy, parasocial relationship with his works. An obsession with claiming that he's the GOAT, with a ready willingness to put other authors down, as if different, personal aesthetic standards by which to judge art weren't a thing. I usually see people having a few favourites and struggling to name the "best one", I don't see this much dicksucking going on for other authors, maybe apart from Shakespeare. And the Holy Bible but this is to be expected from religious works.Or maybe it's just one bored underageb& with too much time on his hands.>>24086116>>24086903>>24087710These don't read like posts of well-adjusted individuals.
>>24087757He's really that good. And it's not like the praise he gets on here still comes close to the dickriding of other authors like Dosto or McCarthy that you see on the Internet these days
>>24087778I don't go anywhere outside of 4chan. Dosto and McCarthy seem to receive a heavier dose of hate than love, especially after that one McCarthy video. And the Nabokov pasta spammer.
It's pointless arguing about Tolstoy's prose unless you read it in Russian.Same goes for any translation no matter how good.
>>24087836He worked with Maude directly to translate it. All other translations are memes.
>>24086090>There are two groups of people who claim to dislike Tolstoy.Even tolstoy was less reductive than that.
>>24088003Nigga we’re a quarter into this century and have had one substantial author during that period. He’s dead now so we’re fucked. You owe it to yourself to learn why Tolstoy has been given such high praise.
>>24087968I think he said once that some Maude English translations are even better than the original Russian text.
>>24087818well here's what it's like on tiktok
Tolstoy should be the patron saint of /lit/
>>24088041Why? So far you have said nothing which makes me want to reread him, you have not even demonstrated having read him. If you have read him and he is so objectively and obviously great as you make him out to be it should be simple for you to prove it, or at the very least offer something better than "just trust me, bro."
>>24086642Holy fucking based. I might just start reading Tolstoy
>>24088129I'm not here to convince the stupid people who shouldn't be here in the first place.
>>24088842nta but everytime I go into a Tolstoy thread it just reduces my desire to read him, seems to always be someone like you just saying how great he is and insulting people and never saying anything of substance. I am starting to believe that Tolstoy attracts and/or makes retards.
>>24088864These threads aren't for the people like you who respond in kind. They're for the silent majority to be nudged towards the right path. I know I was. You were never going to make it more than 5-20 pages into his work in the first place.
>>24088868I did not respond in kind, I actually said something and did not insult you. >you called me a retardNo, I said I was starting to think that way, as in don't yet believe it. This did not help, especially your poor comprehension.
>>24088878If you're questioning reading Tolstoy, then that's because of your own inadequacies. This is a thread to remind those who know that they should.
>>24088864I'm >>24086098 this anon. Anna Karenina is worth reading. The pacing is great, it has some really good passages, Anna's final moments are beautiful and are an early example of stream-of-consciousness. But it's also mired in heavy-handed moralistic interludes. The ending in particular was awful with the author's thinly veiled self-insert (Levin-Lev) having a long monologue for dozens of pages Atlas Shrugged-style.Not as artistically mature as Henry James, not as learned and detail-oriented as Middlemarch, not as engaging and stylistically pleasing as Madame Bovary. But it's still a solid novel that does a lot of things well. I wouldn't place it among my favourites but I don't regret reading it.W&P I have a lot more problems with.I did try to understand from Tolstoy anons what they see in him and the answer which stuck with me the most is that he's like your grandfather. Idiosyncratic, a bit rambling, with some questionable opinions (have you seen his Shakespeare essay? Dreadful) but also experienced and with wisdom to share. The kind of artist that doesn't mesh well with me who likes a well-polished piece of craftsmanship but whose appeal I get in theory.I also read him in translation, maybe he's better in Russian.
>>24088938> some internet nobody who believes any criticism he hurls at Tolstoy makes a single difference. Tolstoy is as untouchable as the Greeks and the Bibles in terms of literary importance. Your posts are the howling of someone filtered.
>>24088952The Greeks aren't untouchable either, Persians was awful. 2nd half of Exodus, Leviticus and most of Numbers are a chore to read (Deuteronomy is underrated).
>>24088970You exposed yourself here. There's no educating a dent head. What you know, you know. From this moment forth I never will speak another word to you.
>>24088979What is your favourite Leviticus verse that is not Leviticus 26?
>>24088938Tolstoy is 100% correct about Shakespeare. I see nothing noteworthy in him but crass excitement, whereas in Tolstoy (especially his short fiction and a couple of essays) I see life.
>>24086642What a cucked faggot
>>24087591from what I recall there were many characters in Salem's Lot that were just mentioned once (like their name, occupation and what they did or said in relation to some event) and then they have never appeared again, which can be tricky as you are reading and have no idea if he really just introduced a new character or it is just one of these disposable ones
>>24088881>if you dare ask me to elaborate on my thoughts on tolstoy you're just too dumb to read him!Congratulations, you've pushed that "silent majority" further away from tolstoy. I'm going to stick with dostoevsky.
>>24086090I read 70% of Anna Karenina on my Kindle. There was only one scene I liked: the one where Anna confesses her betrayal to her husband. The rest were totally worthless. Not boring per se, the writing is good, but it has no substance. I probably won't finish it.
>>24090627I don't get this board. Just astonishing to imagine someone reading hundreds of pages of something only to say they didn't enjoy any of it and outright say it had no inherent value at all
>>24090639>h-how could you not like it?!?!??! >it's a BIG book!!! I thought you liked reading?!?!?Some people can talk for hours without saying a single thing. Simply writing a lot does not mean any of it is worth reading.
>>24090646What's the point of even reading then? Why waste your time on something you either don't like or don't get?
>>24090639I kept reading to see what Tolstoy was all about. Can't judge a writer without reading his work, right?
>>24090649That's why I said I'm thinking of giving up on that book. I already got spoiled anyway.
>>24086090War and Peace. A little too long. A rollicking historical novel written for the general reader, specifically for the young. Artistically unsatisfying. Cumbersome messages, didactic interludes, artificial coincidences. Uncritical of its historical sources.
>>24090659If you're worried about spoilers then literature isn't for you. Consider sticking to standard pop fiction.
>>24090837At least quote it properly>Tolstoy’s publicistic forays are unreadable. War and Peace, though a little too long, is a rollicking historical novel written for that amorphic and limp creature known as “the general reader,” and more specifically for the young. In terms of artistic structure it does not satisfy me. I derive no pleasure from its cumbersome message, from the didactic interludes, from the artificial coincidences, with cool Prince Audrey turning up to witness this or that historical moment, this or that footnote in the sources used often uncritically by the author.
>>24086090>go to Anna Karenina download page>see synopsis>"infidelity">close tab
>>24086090Most of this board are larpers these days. I mist the old days of /lit/. Now the users are here for the reputation of the board. But, you have to consider, as the new generation enters /lit/ they statistically read less and less. Zoomers are quite literally the least literate people since the cave men.
I was considering reading him. But seeing how retarded OP is, I might not. >>24088938"worth reading" doesn't convince me at this point. The synopsis of the book just doesn't catch my attention. Is about a woman, cool I guess? Not my thing.Now, war and peace? Whatever other shit he wrote? Nobody is singing him praises about being flawless, the topics do not interest me, and the style seems to be heavy handed on lecturing his own morals. If OP is a representation of the author, kek. You will have to try harder to convince me. Like, what the fuck is this >>24086642 shit?
>>24090950>The synopsis of the book just doesn't catch my attention. Is about a woman, cool I guess? Not my thing.Having a horrible synopsis doesn't necessarily mean that the book is going to be bad.
>>24090971The fantasy thread dominates the board now. You’re wasting your time responding to midwits.
He is a solid author. Not my favorite because I’m not big into realism, and Tolstoy’s moralism is tedious, especially when forcefucking his realism, but I enjoyed War and Peace, especially the War Scenes and the Pierre parts
I like wp but it hurts my soul
:/
>>24090971>Having a horrible synopsis doesn't necessarily mean that the book is going to be bad.I guess I'm missing out, but there are like at least 10 other books that catch my attention, from the synopsis alone. So why try to push my luck while I have things on my list? You think one should read one book you seem to like and another random recommendation from the anon that calls everyone a retard?>>24091002>if you don't like my favorite author you're le reddit fantasycuck
this thread is just 2 astonishingly pretentious faggots going back and forth over books they likely haven't even read
>>24091090It’s always the schizo posters who think they’re all alone in a room with two people. Nigger this thread has been up for days.
>>24090649The point of reading is to enjoy the written word. Somebody who can analyze literature can understand that some works master the written word better than others.
Only youtube morons think Anna Karenina is about infidelity. It has way more stuff packed in it which they find boring. Thank God this place has some serious readers.
>>24091090OP is the only consistent anon and the primary anon with his hand down Tolstoy's pants making up half the posts itt. I would guess there are at least a dozen anons who have but I did not pay close attention or count, just close enough to follow the thread. If you can't identify style well enough to follow a thread you should lurk more and read more. OP has samefagged itt and did not go further than plotfag tier level of trying to hide it, identifying OP's samefagging is a decent first step towards understanding style.
>>24091809The disrupters in this thread should genuinely fuck off. There are a lot of other posts shitting up /lit/ made just for them.
>>24091998>this is a worthwhile thread even if nothing worthwhile has been said!
>>24092001It’s being shitted up by meta-posters like yourself.
>>24086098>I dropped after 300 pages, the pacing is way too fast, I can't keep up with all the new characters getting introduced.Unironically use a chart. Tolstoy wrote for his peers, for whom remembering the extended lineage and relations of every ass they need to lick was the central part of their actual job, so they were more used to it. Once you visualize that it's literally just two and a half families plus their connections (and also Pierre, and also Dolokhov) it becomes a lot easier to process.
>>24090627Now read Madame Bovary.
hm
