why is medieval literature so comfy? even when they do degenerate nasty stuff
>>25412511Because you've got the mental capability of a medieval serf
>>25412747And you have the mental capability of a modern serf. Grim!
>>25412511I love it too. Especially becouse my national literature (czech) is extremely rich in medieval stuff - until hussites came and fucked everything up. My favorites are: Life of saint Catherine and Chronica Boemorum. >>25412747Medieval literature was as elitist as it gets you retard, written by people who have devoted their lives to literature for people who have devoted their lives to literature. It's the only literature where you need to be well-read to start understanding the books, becouse of the nature of medieval thought - when monks wrote it was like web/labyrinth of all books that were written and the author could possibly read (starting with Bible and Aristotle). Only toppest of top of post-modern literature comes close in it's intentional obfuscation. But when you "make it" and open medieval book it's extremely comfy (as OP said) feel unlike anything else, like being lost in endless labyrinth yet somehow knowing the true way out as if you are guided by some greater power.That reminds me:>Why should I read medieval crap? People were dumb-dumbs back then!!!! XDTo be able to read Baudolino and love it and at the same time to hate Name of the Rose for the correct reasons (not becouse it is in muh latin and it's muh boring but becouse it is only shallow 'pro-forma' copy of medieval literature unlike Baudolino)
Recommend me some good ones.
>>25412923Song of Roland
>>25412804I don't think that characterization is true. Many monks were not that widely read for the simple reason that books themselves were not widely available, and even then the focus was overwhelmingly on the Bible and the church fathers. Philosophy was not that widely studied, with usually Boethius available but not necessarily Aristotle, let alone Plato, whose dialogues were mostly lost until they were reintroduced from the Arabic world. Many of the most prized medieval writings today are usually the more worldly ones, like the arthurian/karolinian cycles and the chivalric romances, and these were usually composed in court settings and only later written down and preserved in monasteries.
>>25412940Entiriety of Scholasticism was based on Aristotle and medieval culture hits peak at 12th century onwards...And of course to the greeks in Byzantine Empire he was never lost.>Many monks were not that widely read for the simple reason that books themselves were not widely availableThis is flat out wrong. Silent reading basically didn't exist in middle ages, all reading was mostly loud reading, you don't need that many books when one monk reads to all the other. Academic peregrination was also part of education and most of the popular authors did it. And when they didn't read there was someone who has read and who could retell the book.>Many of the most prized medieval writings today are usually the more worldly ones, like the arthurian/karolinian cycles and the chivalric romancesThat's your opinion, minnesang and chivalric romances are just a part of medieval literature, chronicles and legends are far wider. All medieval literature is multi-dimensional and all medieval literature contains philosophical and religious teachings, even stuff like Beowulf - a pagan epic (becouse it was written down by christian monk who filled it with christianity and it's very schizophrenic as such).Most of medieval travelogues (Like the travelogue of Mandeville, which was the most popular travelogue back then) are based on biblical version of earth and not the real one. The minnesang I mentioned already is also multi-dimensional as the true meaning of the poems is hidden in symbols (dove=lady, blooming grassfield = sex etc.) and even it's performance was only symbolic as the bards did not really mean them (they did not want to seduce the women they are singing about).
>>25412971Are you making the argument that listening to an audiobook while doing chores is the same as reading it?
>>25412974No. The monks were not doing chores when they were listening to loud reading. They were paying attention and memorizing the shit out of it. They didn't listen to one reading but multiple.
>>25412511>traductionAnon...you've got to read Chretien in the original...
>>25412804Give me your top choices, looking for something new to read and I’m not well versed in this stuff anon.
>>25414655Where are you from? Medieval literature is heavily dependent on your country of origin - becouse reading medieval books from your country you at least have the context of knowing your culture and your history. The medieval books written in national languages are usually far easier to read.When reading medieval book you need to learn something about the historical context surrounding it.I recommend looking up one of the medieval chronicles from your country (if you are english or american - Britain has tons of those and all are top notch).As I recommended above Song of Roland is always good read imho and Beowulf is also good.Reading Marco Polo's Million and Travels of Sir John Mandeville is also funny as hell - becouse one of these authors went into jail for spreading lies and the other was bestseller (you will never gues which).
>tfw too stupid to read mort d'arthur
They were better people. They saw the world in fundamentally religious and organic ways. They were closely to the soil, to their own humanity. And they lived, and wrote, with conviction and certainty of the poetry in things. They were just better than us so they wrote better books.
>>25414623in German?
