>34 >The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft >Finally made it to The Call of Cthulhu after 400 out of 1100 pages or so, and it is awesome. Excited to get to the other known classics, and being anon I do appreciate all that old-timey racism replete in most of his stories, including, but not limited to, Black personman the cat.
5 months ago
Anonymous
bullshit. The story where they ram a commercial fishing boat into an elder god to defeat him? Really? That's awesome?
5 months ago
Anonymous
Call of Cthulhu specifically, is awesome. The rest of his shorts thus far range from good to decent.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I enjoyed at the mountains of madness far more than cthulu
5 months ago
Anonymous
I should have done that. I read the ones I wanted and then random short stories so I'm now fricked trying to remember if I read The Outsider and Dagon or not.
5 months ago
Anonymous
based. i have that right next to me and read some. I liked the dunwich horror and redhook a lot.
https://i.imgur.com/MdFoQFm.jpg
>age >current book >your thoughts on it
>31 >Gormenghast >really enjoying it. a slightly sarcastic gothic novel with fun characters.
5 months ago
Anonymous
The one that stuck with me most was the one about Antarctica (At the Mountains of Madness)
5 months ago
Anonymous
>34 >Lovecraft
What's it like being a complete manchild?
5 months ago
Anonymous
Has its moments! Just got into full-time reading recently so I'm going through a great deal of more than obvious classics.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>full-time reading
the frick is that?
5 months ago
shit thread
19
giles goat boy
not bad, unremarkable, so far
5 months ago
Anonymous
Havent read this but Sot-weed factor is pretty kino.
I’m 29, The Ambassadors and If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. The former takes an incredible amount of patience, but it is well worth it, style is simply the English language meticulously perfected. The latter is okay, easy read, interesting but a little too vague.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Mid 20s
Alejo Carpentier - The Chase >Took some time to get used to the rich language.Almost gothic in its detail.Yet it paints a whole picture.
The plot and the characters head has kept me intrigued as well, I foreshadow a collision later on.
Annie Ernaux - Happening >Just started, enjoying the simple yet exact prose.Nice look at Paris at that time.Subject matter might get darker later on( abortion)
Alternating between these two for now depending on my mental bandwidth and energy.
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
Divine Comedy
Atrociously tedious christgay apologism. Poetry is almost unreadable in translation too (I know, I started it years ago before I was aware of never reading translations)
5 months ago
Anonymous
>28 >Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena by Philomena Cunk
It's funny >The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
It's atmospheric. I read along with the audiobook >Art and Visual Perception by Rudolf Arnheim
This doesn't quite fit this board, but there are considerations on the border between philosophy and design theory.
Read about historical and political context in which this work was created
https://youtube.com/shorts/UKhY2kD4jxI?si=eAA7wILJ9hz4utVE
5 months ago
Anonymous
I‘m very familiar with the Italian late medieval and Renaissance eras. That doesn‘t make it good.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I am talking about Dante's views on the conflict between secular and ecclesiastical power. Alighieri sides with the Emperor and the concept of the primacy of imperial power over any other. Then, secular rulers became similar to the clergy in appearance and behavior. The separation of secular and religious power is unique in history. That's why SPOILER is in the last circle of Hell. So it's not school historical knowledge, but more political and ideological knowledge.
Probably also the fault of the translation. A lot of classics in English translation are terrible shit. For example, I have not read Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Bulgakov in the original, but comparing the translation into my language and into English, it is like heaven and earth (that's why I consider loud American fans of Russian literature grifters)
5 months ago
Anonymous
The Commedia is deeper and denser in meaning than even something like Ulysses. You'd be missing 80% of it in Italian. In English, you'd better have a good guide to go along with it or you're just wasting your time.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>In English, you'd better have a good guide to go along with it or you're just wasting your time.
gonna be pretty hard to get Virgil to get along with this tbh
5 months ago
Anonymous
Do you find it objectionable aesthetically or just morally? Trying to discern whether you are completely moronic or just obnoxious.
Not a single obscure book ITT. Sad.
lol
5 months ago
Anonymous
The atheist is unable to enjoy good art. Many such cases!
5 months ago
Anonymous
Christcuck cope
5 months ago
Anonymous
Stop being illiterate
5 months ago
Anonymous
Illiterate? What even is that response? Lmao omega christcope
5 months ago
Anonymous
I’m sorry your parents made you go to church. I will pray for you.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>Poetry is almost unreadable in translation
So read and listen to it in Italian...
20
The Odyssey
I'm having fun. I want some bronze-era weaponry and armor now.
I genuinely think this is the only way to appreciate literature. You get a lot out of generating similar things to the experiences being described.
26
Reading Moby Dick for the first time right now
I just finished chapter 3 last night and met Queequeg. Loving it so far, absolutely captivated. I don't know why I thought it was going to be a difficult boring (but rewarding) book, it is so captivating and easy to read. Can't wait to keep going
I kinda drifted off a few more chapters in. I find it very rare for a piece to keep me. That said, I listened to the entirety of The Water Margin.
25
Don Quixote
funny
It's like reading an insane IQfy greentext from the outside.
24
Hadji Murat
Definitely Tolstoy’s most difficult work of fiction I’ve read so far because the language is more verbose than usual and he uses a lot of Caucasian terminologies that aren’t translated. But so far, it’s still sublime. So efficiently written and spectacular. The opening pages are beautiful especially, where he narrates how he got the idea for the novel and then segways into the story itself
What has stuck with you from Tolstoy?
https://i.imgur.com/HTRQzxo.jpg
35
Pic
I think I bought a shit translation
This is dreadful hippie shite
My experience with it was already having the psychological shift, and then discovering this text that matched.
I think it's more like "Oh shit someone else has experienced this psychology".
5 months ago
Anonymous
There is nothing that hasn’t stuck with me. I’m deeply invested in everything about the man and his work. The sincerity of his soul is greater than most other artists that I have encountered combined.
5 months ago
Anonymous
23
Stoner >Damn, this homie is dumb as frick
reddit is that way son, Inferno is genuinely hilarious fanfic about hell with genuinely interesting fancanon and great worldbuilding.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I don‘t know why I would listen to your worldbuilding critique if your read on actual mental communities is that dilute judaism is awesome because some annoying morons on another site said it wasn‘t like 15 years ago.
5 months ago
Anonymous
you win the internet today sir! have a gold
upbote
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
Serotonin by Houellebecq
Enjoying it so far, has the usual Houellebecq feel which I am completely in love with
5 months ago
Anonymous
I think it's my second or third favourite of all his novels. I've read it twice. Quintessential Houellebecq.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>31 >The Pale King >it's some kind of clever meta-fictional titty-pincher
5 months ago
Anonymous
20
The Odyssey
I'm having fun. I want some bronze-era weaponry and armor now.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>I want some bronze-era weaponry and armor now.
based
5 months ago
Anonymous
feet
5 months ago
Anonymous
39.
Poesía completa (the complete poetry) of Alejandra Pizarnik.
I'm not a poetry reader, but I can relate with the imagery created by Pizarnik. She was a poet of the night, the silent despair, the loneliness. Her work is quite minimalist but linked with surrealism and the french literature from the 60s. Pizarnik was and argentine writer, lived in Paris and killed himself at the age of 36.
5 months ago
Anonymous
41
Hugh Trevor-Roper “Crisis Of The Seventeenth Century”
Comes off as an entire refutation of conflict theory in historiography, taking apart the thesis set forth by Max Weber on the origins of capitalism and proceeds to point to the causes of discontent in the early modern period to be motivated more so by political and ethnological considerations than anything remotely having to do with money or even materialism at writ large. It’s a good clear pill cleansing after Christopher Hills book.
Ezra Pound - “Selected Poetical Works”
Very indicative of postmodern poetics, I can see parellels to Joyce’s wordy style
Leo Tolstoy - “What Is Art”
Just started. Nothing jumps out at me yet
John Locke - “Two Treatises Of Government”
Reads more like literary criticism than political philosophy proper. Starting to understand why Wittgenstein saw philosophy as word games, the meaning of phrases wholly dependent on interpretation. Helps I read a work of hermeneutical theory before this.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Not being facetious, seriously asking, have you read a ton of political philosophy so that people who are widely disregarded today like Locke are still on your radar simply because you’ve read all the others? Or are these more of boomerism you’ve clung to for a long time?
5 months ago
Anonymous
I’ve never really fit into the left honestly. Always felt alien to me. As far as “widely disregarded” it really depends on whom you ask. Likewise, I’ve never truly an affinity for people like Debord or Deleuze so the feeling is mutual. I find Freud and Schmitt illuminating and feel that a syncretic union between the two could shed light on the current sex crisis the west is facing. Likewise I also find interest in Nietzsche, Weber, am looking into checking out symbolic and interpretive anthropology like Geertz and Turner.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>I find Freud and Schmitt illuminating and feel that a syncretic union between the two could shed light on the current sex crisis the west is facing
huh, please explain anon
5 months ago
Anonymous
In Civilization And Its Discontents the driver of neurosis is a state which acts as a mitigating mechanism to ensure that sexual activity does not cause the state to fall, unfortunately, these neuroses end up directing the behavior into other means, often violent to which in order for the state or community to increase its health, the sovereign government must oppress the urges of female sexuality and loosen up the sexuality of males, with all things considered that women are birthing sex to ensure birth rates rise to above replacement levels
5 months ago
Anonymous
the subtext is that men are just naturally predisposed to violence, so letting them have unmitigated sex with respect to the properties of other men, again directed by the sovereign leader, would at least attempt to lower the chances of violent behavior by men by giving them and outlet and a purpose for life outside their own, instead of causing upheavals like civil war or revolution or mass murder.
in short: women need less rights not more and in order for this to happen men's sexuality must stand unopposed considering that women turn their anger inwards and it would be no cost to anyone but themselves if they acted upon it. men do not, so if the sovereign allows a pressure value to release on sexuality, there is a chance physical violence on a mass scale will be reduced.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Well, how do you explain the myriad warlike periods of history where whoring was a commonplace social institution?
5 months ago
Anonymous
Not exactly the point I was making, it's not the act of sex itself but the institution of institutionalized reproduction that is the suggested teleology. Without the incentive to reproduce we are faced with unproductive labor. Like fine art, the penis is a paintbrush on the canvas of the womb, it must not be used to create abortive Hackson Pollock paintings but something on the level of Michaelangelo, and not only that, something of use to society. Sex for pleasure only benefits the two people engaging in the act. I'm aware that orgies exist but again, that's just something that is a fleeting experience. Procreation benefits the community and tribe.
5 months ago
Anonymous
the subtext is that men are just naturally predisposed to violence, so letting them have unmitigated sex with respect to the properties of other men, again directed by the sovereign leader, would at least attempt to lower the chances of violent behavior by men by giving them and outlet and a purpose for life outside their own, instead of causing upheavals like civil war or revolution or mass murder.
in short: women need less rights not more and in order for this to happen men's sexuality must stand unopposed considering that women turn their anger inwards and it would be no cost to anyone but themselves if they acted upon it. men do not, so if the sovereign allows a pressure value to release on sexuality, there is a chance physical violence on a mass scale will be reduced.
That’s sounding eerily similar to the impact tiktok is having on people 35 and under.
There is so much allusion to sex but actual pursuit of it is forbidden. They’re trying to reshape our natural instincts to lower birthdates to a sustainable but reduced rate for the state, and control all avenues of social interaction. Soon it will be more normal to meet a girl on tinder than to just talk to one on the sidewalk.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I'm 41 like I said so I have no interest in chinese spyware
5 months ago
Anonymous
I imagine that in 20 years, after we've lived through the revolution of the west, we'll all look back on this time and say >"How did we not see it coming?"
This sort of thing that the west is attempting (social engineering of basic biology) isn't possible.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>This sort of thing that the west is attempting (social engineering of basic biology) isn't possible.
How are you so sure? We live in unprecedented times... plastic in your blood-brain barrier and all that.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Before plastic it was lead and before lead something else
5 months ago
Anonymous
>before lead something else >he doesn't know about the industrial revolution and the before time
5 months ago
Anonymous
Were humans some unprecedented kind of “pure” before then? I understand money and capitalism have enslaved us all but that doesn’t mean everything before it was pure Elysium either
5 months ago
Anonymous
Your argument was that changing our biology is not possible when it quite clearly is possible and has occurred many times throughout history--one of which times we're living through.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I’m not the anon you’re replying to, I’m the one he replied to. I do believe changing our psychology is possible, our biochemistry as well. Just wait until DNA editing takes off.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Sure, but it will never, ever be anything but bad.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>I do believe changing our psychology is possible, our biochemistry as well.
Lamark called it the "iinheritability of acquired traits".
Ludovici wrote on it extensively.
5 months ago
Anonymous
You can "change" someone by beating them with a baseball bat, but that doesn't mean that the change made is constructive or useful. These people want transhumanism so bad that they haven't realized that we don't have a pathway to changing our nature in any constructive or useful direction. Labotomizing people with pharma, castrating them with ID politics, and pumping them full of microplastics (on top of the million other ways the modern world is expirementing with its people) isn't changing human beings or our nature at a fundamental level. All of these methods are a corruption of the basic human state, not an adaptation.
5 months ago
Anonymous
If this is what you meant then I concur. Well put.
5 months ago
Anonymous
[...]
That’s sounding eerily similar to the impact tiktok is having on people 35 and under.
There is so much allusion to sex but actual pursuit of it is forbidden. They’re trying to reshape our natural instincts to lower birthdates to a sustainable but reduced rate for the state, and control all avenues of social interaction. Soon it will be more normal to meet a girl on tinder than to just talk to one on the sidewalk.
I know it’s probably considered omega trite around here to bring up (I’m new to IQfy) but in 1984 they treated sex the same way: cold and clinical. The only difference is in our reality you get all of that but alongside the sexy titktok dancers selling nude videos on Onlyfans as a commodity. Try to talk to them, to have them and hold them for yourself, and you may as well be a hideous ogre trying to ravage them or some such nonsense. Everything is backwards. I’m all for free love and some of what the zealous would call degeneracy, but for all the accusations that our world is corrupted by sex, I’d say we have at least 2.5 generations of ultra-prudes right now
i try to completely devote myself to whichever text i feel more inclined to read that day which makes the ideas and concepts of that text play through my head for the next few days and i try to connect these ideas with the other text/texts that im reading.
That might work for me but only if the two books were close enough in topic, and then if they were TOO close, my brain would think “well why bother reading two things that are essentially the same at the same time”
But I’m crazy ADD brain as well so YMMV
5 months ago
Anonymous
I wasn't just referencing sex with my original post. The modern world is attempting to alter human beings through a variety of means. I don't believe that the world is full of sex-having people anymore. There are many studies showing that Gen Z and Millenials have way less sex than previous generations. I believe this is a reflexive response to the free-love culture as well as beauty standards for both sexes that have become absolutely impossible to achieve for many people (not to mention the social stultification of younger people caused by a laundry list of social and technological factors). >What people really need right now is more sex and intimate relationships, not fewer
We also need a good war to break people out of this inhuman and decadent culture, but that opinion is controversial. What I think people need right now more than ever is >To fight >To frick >To love >And to believe in something worth doing the above for
Basically, the end of nihilism.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>John Locke - “Two Treatises Of Government”
It''s the second one that matters.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>four books at once
Are you INTJ, INTP, or just ADHD?
5 months ago
Anonymous
ENTP, Gemini Sun, Aquarius Moon, Cancer Rising, Kelto-Nordid phenotype and autistic but not a troony or a homosexual.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>ENTP
I knew you had to be a type similar to mine (INTJ). I'm also reading four. I don't follow nor have any deep understanding of astrology--because I'm a Christian and the Bible expressly forbids its practice, but I'm a Swiss-Jamaican hybrid who probably has adult onset ADHD, but doesn't want to become drug dependent, so reads four books at a time (frequently getting up to unconsciously pace in circles and think) instead. I like women.
Stick around sonny, you might learn something.
I was just joking. I'm 36 myself.
[...]
>oddball
LOL nice.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>23 >Machado de assis - papéis avulsos >Alienista is kino
5 months ago
Anonymous
19
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Still early in the book but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm kind of moronic so I'm not picking up on a lot of the history details but I'm really loving the characters.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Are you writing anything down? I found my grandfather's books were all full of schizo handwritten notes, I can't really read what they say most of the time but he wrote down dates and names a lot. With the benefit of the internet you can turn this research into a very rewarding hobby
5 months ago
Anonymous
26
Reading Moby Dick for the first time right now
I just finished chapter 3 last night and met Queequeg. Loving it so far, absolutely captivated. I don't know why I thought it was going to be a difficult boring (but rewarding) book, it is so captivating and easy to read. Can't wait to keep going
5 months ago
Anonymous
Lol wait until you’re wading through those 100 or so chapters dead in the middle concerning nothing but the logistics of whaling itself. Still worth it though, book is incredible and those chapter honestly just serve to make it a right of passage. Only real MFers can make it through these kinds of books, gay as that sounds. All of this to say, don’t pussy out!
5 months ago
Anonymous
My good friend who turned me onto lit many years ago said the same thing. It'll be a good run
5 months ago
Anonymous
>100 or so chapters dead in the middle concerning nothing but the logistics of whaling itself.
Black person, that's the best part!!
5 months ago
Anonymous
23
Ulysses
Have barely dented it yet. I'm excited to see what awaits. I think I'm finally ready for the challenge
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
Mistborn
Seems alright, normal genre fiction.
5 months ago
Anonymous
> 20 > finishing Moby Dick
Ishmael is literally me bros
Loving it. This was one of the GOATs by the very first chapter
5 months ago
Anonymous
35
In between books at the moment and reading some shorter stuff like Dickens: The Two Scrooges by Edmund Wilson. Either reading The Golden Ass, Great Expectations, or Victory(Conrad) next
5 months ago
Anonymous
So which one should I read?
5 months ago
Anonymous
good taste brother
5 months ago
Anonymous
>Great Expectations
So I started this, about 70 pages in. Only other Dickens I’ve read is The Pickwick Papers. I’ve heard that his later books are more bitter and depressing, but so far GE is pretty funny though the bitterness is lurking under the surface. That bootblacking incident really made Dickens a writer and traumatized him. GE touches on some social issues early on, but I think that that representation of Dickens is unfair. From what I understand he was critical of the Industrial Revolution, middle class, upper class, he was critical of many things. Of course the characters are great. They are caricature like but they have life. Dickens is up there with Shakespeare for characters from what I’ve read of each
Dickens seems to take a lot of criticism as far as his writing skills. That is true in a sense but his books are alive, which is a high complement. They are coarse but there are genuine nuggets of gold gathered here and there. Dickens seemed like an astute observer and there have already been some pieces of wisdom, heart touching parts, and what is called the human condition.
I’ll also probably start Victory by Conrad later
5 months ago
Anonymous
29
House of leaves
I really like the base story and critical analysis of all these different concepts. The Johnny sex scenes were kinda cringe and a he was too tryhard with some of the formatting though.
Gonna do Arthur Rex next.
5 months ago
Anonymous
24
Brideshead Revisited
Pretty gay
5 months ago
Anonymous
24
Penguin History of Europe
Pretty good, thus far. Although it overlooks a lot of the classical era.
5 months ago
Anonymous
34
Infinite Jest
I'd been putting it off for a while (a decade at least, at first for rather shallow reasons that were entirely justified at the time) and Moby Dick was delayed in shipping, so here we are. I've laughed out loud 4 times in 17 pages, it's a delightfully picaresque shaggy dog story so far. Something about it takes me back to when the internet was a finite resource that updated twice a month and while I'd rather pound nails through my dick than devote time to it like one would a novel of worth, I may use it in the capacity and space television took from my time when I last watched it in 2007.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>40 >My Antonia >Beautiful prose. Plot is somewhat threadbare, but the little vignettes throughout are lovely.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Not a single obscure book ITT. Sad.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>I MUST OBSCUUUUURE!!!
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
Currently reading Jude the obscure. Very comfy so far, about halfway through. Thomas Hardy writes good rural characters, a lot of authors wrote rural folks as a romantic ideal or as urbanites in a field. The naturalism still retains some of the romantic themes which makes it less dry than some other naturalist books of the era.
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
Currently reading Jude the obscure. Very comfy so far, about halfway through. Thomas Hardy writes good rural characters, a lot of authors wrote rural folks as a romantic ideal or as urbanites in a field. The naturalism still retains some of the romantic themes which makes it less dry than some other naturalist books of the era.
Hehehe
5 months ago
Anonymous
kys
5 months ago
Anonymous
lmao I actually said this going through the thread. There really are only like a couple thousand authors of literature that are known while the other 99% are utterly forgotten and ignored. I understand a bit about why it's rare to see people try reading obscure authors, like it's hard to know where to start but it's still disappointing to see just how narrow the selection of authors that actually get read and discussed compared to the total amount. Most of the books in this thread are commonly taught in classes
5 months ago
Anonymous
That’s how most mediums are. Very few artists become fondly remembered in historical memory. It’s not easy for most people to find time to read so if they’re going to then of course they’d focus on famous authors instead of obscure random books
5 months ago
Anonymous
yes and there is similar behavior in every other medium but the fact that most people only consume media that's popular doesn't explain why there is a common hatred towards anyone sharing stuff no one has heard of. I've been called pretentious, snob, poser, hipster, elitist many times simply for sharing stuff that's unknown. The sheer hate put on display towards anyone that mentions they like media that most people haven't heard of is often extreme and entirely uncalled for, I see it so much in forums for books, music, games or any art. Its surely a large part of why most people never hear about unknown works in the first place because whenever anyone tries to share they get met with a wave of backlash for....*checks notes*.....trying to share cool stuff so it can become better known.
5 months ago
Anonymous
It’s the fact that you keep defining yourself as reading shit that no one else is. That’s why you get hate. I’m guessing you’re the anon from the other thread. If someone says “here are my favorite (list of books/movies/songs), they’re all obscure. I like obscure stuff”, they will get an eye roll. If you can’t figure out why, then you probably never will
5 months ago
Anonymous
It seems pretty crazy to hate someone just because they said they read obscure books. Why would a sane person care about someone "defining" themselves as an obscure book reader. This guy reads obscure books and speculates about why he likes them more, crucify him!
5 months ago
Anonymous
It is less about the obscurity and more the condescension. There is a lack of social grace in how you conduct yourself. It invites resentment. Constantly telling people that their taste is boring and that they should read 'obscure' authors is never going to ingratiate yourself to them. You are essentially trying to undermine the validity of their favorite books on the basis that the book is popular and therefore not worthy. You can try to argue that that is not your intent but it is the effect your words have. It is as if you walked into a classical music recital and asked someone why they're listening to Mozart instead of Assmachine 300. Your probably not going to find much conversation about Assmachine 300, and you probably shouldn't lament over how much better Assmachine 300 is in the middle of the Mozart recital
5 months ago
Anonymous
What it comes down to is that it's pointless to hate someone for acting like they're cool for reading books no one's heard of, why would you care? the only thing a person who likes obscure books does is share them in hopes more people will read them. Past that you're just hating on someone's personal opinion about (canonical) books and projecting malice onto them where none exists. It's the same in every medium, people who really really hate anyone that claims they engage with stuff that isn't mainstream. Some people have a different opinion than you, get over it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Most of anything is just bad.
5 months ago
Anonymous
27
10 little Black folk
liking it so far. First mystery novel I've ever read
5 months ago
Anonymous
30?
Seapower States
Lambert's knowledge and understanding of history eclipses his ability to convey it coherently.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>Seapower States
i have a copy of "the influence of sea power upon history 1660-1783" by a.t mahan. it seem to be a really good read if you havent checked that out yet. might be in the vein you want.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Old.
The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies.
Boats.
5 months ago
Anonymous
28
Simulacra and Simulation
The chapter on cloning was pretty prescient but otherwise wtf was this guy smoking? And this is coming off the back of having read society of the spectacle
5 months ago
Anonymous
23
Iron Gold
Not as much of a snoozefest as I was expecting from what I had heard people say about it. Easily the weakest in the series but a strong setup so far for the rest of the series.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>24 >hind's kidnap >heifer
5 months ago
Anonymous
26
The gallows pole
It’s pretty good so far I really like the setting. Only 1/4th in though
5 months ago
Anonymous
>32 >White Noise >It's good, I feel like I have read it before but I am certain I havn't.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>It's good, I feel like I have read it before but I am certain I havn't.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter did that to me.
5 months ago
Anonymous
s
5 months ago
Anonymous
>28 >Red and Black by Stendhal >Just started, looks decent so far. From the first pages I was like, "yep, the dude is gonna shaboink that French milf in the middle of the book"
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
Don Quixote
funny
5 months ago
Anonymous
in spanish?
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
Don Quixote
Weird that someone already posted this exactly.
I'm absolutely loving it especially since I just finished L'Morte D'Arthur which is exactly the kind of book it is parodying. I've read about a third of it in the past few days since I haven't had to go in for work much.
5 months ago
Anonymous
It's a good book. Something about it is extremely fresh and modernist even though the style is very early as far as novels go.
5 months ago
Anonymous
21
The Death of The Gods
Funny fellow
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
Just finished Notes From Underground
Equal parts funny, dreary, and thought provoking
5 months ago
Anonymous
You found Notes from Underground funny?
5 months ago
Anonymous
In places, in the way an incel greentext is funny. The section where he goes on a long rant about how he worked up the courage to brush shoulders with a stranger instead of moving out of the way, for example.
5 months ago
Anonymous
24 (soon to be)
Harrow by Joy Williams
One of the best, strangest books published this century. The reviews had eco-fiction plastered all over them but this is if Kafka did environmentalism.
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
Typee
it's good! i've been a big melville kick lately and it's definitely on par with his other major works. also, the fact he wrote this at my age makes me want to kill myself
5 months ago
Anonymous
>18 >The Great Short Works of Herman Melville >I read Moby Dick last year and it became one of my favorite books. I decided to took at some of his other works before revisiting it, and it's been pretty good. I had read Bartleby the Scrivener once before, and it's still my favorite up to this point. I liked particularly liked Rich Man's Pudding/Poor Man's Crumbs, the Lightning Rod Man, wiener-a-Doodle-Doo and the Two-Temples, Which is pretty much everything up to this point, now that I think about it. The only story I haven't liked so far was the Enchanted Isles, which I didn't think was awful, just a little bit boring. I'm excited to see how Billy Budd is, I've heard good things about it, but it's towards the end.
5 months ago
Anonymous
29
The Green Man
The longer I read the more I enjoy it. I liked where the main character talked with God.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Is this the Kingsley Amis book? I have it but haven't started yet. Liked the Anti-Death League though.
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
Cyclonopedia
It good
5 months ago
Anonymous
>21 >Holly by Stephen King >Only 30 pages in so far and it's a long book but I'm enjoying it. I really like Holly Gibney as a character and I'm glad she's got a long book of her own now.
5 months ago
Anonymous
69
Goldfinch - Donna Tard
Enjoyable so far, but some things aren't explored enough or just passed over as a seeming plot device.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Shit you not, a friend of mine got the cover of that book (specifically the bird coming out of the page) tatted between her breasts. She loved it that much.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>The Goldfinch centers on 13-year-old Theodore Decker, and the dramatic changes his life undergoes after he survives a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that kills his mother and results in him coming into possession of Carel Fabritius's painting The Goldfinch
Heard this book’s title a lot but didn’t know the premise was so strange
5 months ago
Anonymous
https://i.imgur.com/KDFqUFR.png
Shit you not, a friend of mine got the cover of that book (specifically the bird coming out of the page) tatted between her breasts. She loved it that much.
checked. >Reading a book by "Tard"
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
A Fire Upon the Deep
Just started the thing. Looks interesting. A lot of hype around it so I feel a bit intimidated.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>32 >Moore's Utopia >I just finished book one and it's a bit forgettable. Hopefully book two will be more dense.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>22 >The Plague by Camus
About 70% done. Seems to do well in its intention of describing the "absurdism" of being caught up in a shitty situation where you can't do much else than count the days and bodies. However, I'm already looking forward to finishing this one and picking up something a bit more interesting.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>The Plague by Camus
by weird coincidence i read that a few months before covid started. i liked it a lot.
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
fahrenheit 451
shit book.
i want to slurp her feet so bad
5 months ago
Anonymous
>25 >All This Could Be Different: Sarah Thankham Matthews >It was blurbed by a writer I really admire, so I picked it up from the library. Tad overwritten at times, feels like she's really trying to push political relevancy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing -- just a tricky one. About 80 pages in. Like it so far.
5 months ago
Anonymous
19, Spring Snow - Mishima
Very glad I picked this up before I age out of Kiyoaki. Very tender book and had me crying at one point.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>30 >A Confederacy of Dunces >It's actually funny
5 months ago
Anonymous
[...]
>kind of wild that we have it
Tolstoy was one of the only artists who was honest about the artistic process and readily acknowledged that art should be a public service enjoyed by the masses. Almost all other artists are coy and hide like pussies behind their prestige and secret intentions. For me this quality is what makes him the supreme artist of modern times. Total sincerity about everything, even his faults and hypocrisies. His soul demanded he create art and so he wrote a book about what art means and why he creates it, because he loves art and eagerly wants to express his soul. It's pathetic that you can't say the same about 99% of other artists.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>22 >Stephen Hero by James Joyce >its actually really satifying to read a somewhat radical, unorthodox statements
5 months ago
Anonymous
>31 >illiterate >wish I wasn't homeschooled
5 months ago
Anonymous
>illiterate
How did you write this post then?
5 months ago
Anonymous
dictated to my handler
5 months ago
Anonymous
sounds like you got more 'home' and less 'school', bro.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>21 >Cannery row - Steinbeck >Amazing and incredible cozy
5 months ago
Anonymous
40
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I've read it before many years ago but I'm rereading now because I just read Home by her which feature some of the same characters and events from a different perspective and didn't remember it that clearly. I'm struck again by the beauty of it. It's simple but subtle and a really lovely portrayal of a kind of Christianity I wish I was a part of.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Fellow oldgay.
5 months ago
Anonymous
20
Just finished The King in Yellow
It felt quite ahead of its time. The worldbuildin was strangely developed for how briefly it referenced it. I also enjoyed the prose. Would recommend it as a good book to read in a single sitting since it's less than a hundred pages. It also influenced Lovecraft and a recent game called Signalis.
5 months ago
Anonymous
20
Some plays by Euripides
Alcestis was great, made me think about the morality of sacrifice and the value of life more than any other Greek tragedy. Plus it was translated by my favorite translator, Lattimore.
Medea so far is surprising me with how modern it feels considering it was written in a time where feminism as we know it didn't exist.
Also reading Romeo and Juliet for the third time.
I've considered reading this after watching True Detective season 1.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>considering it was written in a time where feminism as we know it didn't exist.
Orestia goes in the opposite direction and is still good.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Absolutely. Apollo's arguments during the trial at the Areopagus are confounding as a modern reader but I can appreciate it within the context of ancient Greek religion. It's not like Clytemnestra didn't have it coming anyway.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I found it to be extremely deep and beautiful, you can take issue with how his use of symbol and archetype translates into our individualistic paradigm but you'll get a lot more out of ancient literature if you can really appreciate mythological thinking.
20
Some plays by Euripides
Alcestis was great, made me think about the morality of sacrifice and the value of life more than any other Greek tragedy. Plus it was translated by my favorite translator, Lattimore.
Medea so far is surprising me with how modern it feels considering it was written in a time where feminism as we know it didn't exist.
Also reading Romeo and Juliet for the third time.
I've considered reading this after watching True Detective season 1.
Which other tragedies have you read? Imo they get a lot better than that but to each his own.
Agree about Lattimore although he makes some puzzling choices at times, perhaps they're just based on textual emendations though idk.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Yeah, I try not to apply modern standards to this stuff. It's not too useful for my enjoyment or understanding of a work. The editions at my library have supplementary essays but even then I think I miss out on some of the stuff you mention. But I do appreciate how the trial served as a reconciliation of the cthonic with the Olympian religious traditions.
I do think that there's better tragedies than Alcestis, it's just the one that got me thinking that way the most. It got me thinking about how one's life is not worth less than another just because they have less life left to live, in the case of Admetus's father. The mechanic of dying in another's stead is thought provoking. It's unconventional ending also makes it stand out.
I've also read the Theban plays and the Oresteia. My favorite is probably Oedipus at Colonus. I like Lattimore because there's this "fullness" in his language if that makes sense, which I especially like for the epics. I don't know enough about the Greek to comment on the fidelity of it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>reconciliation of the cthonic with the Olympian religious traditions
Yeah that’s the main thing, and you also seem to understand how those correspond to feminine and masculine archetypes, so afaik you’re more or less up to speed, I was referring more to attitude than any problem of interpretation. Look into Frazer’s The Golden Bough if you want to learn a lot more on the topic.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Thanks for the rec.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Personally it's one of the most interesting concepts I've ever come across, and I think it gets at the core of humanity and how we've developed. There's so much stuff that connects to it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
24
Hadji Murat
Definitely Tolstoy’s most difficult work of fiction I’ve read so far because the language is more verbose than usual and he uses a lot of Caucasian terminologies that aren’t translated. But so far, it’s still sublime. So efficiently written and spectacular. The opening pages are beautiful especially, where he narrates how he got the idea for the novel and then segways into the story itself
5 months ago
Anonymous
>Hadji Murat
quite good imo. i liked his other stuff more but that was a good read.
20
Just finished The King in Yellow
It felt quite ahead of its time. The worldbuildin was strangely developed for how briefly it referenced it. I also enjoyed the prose. Would recommend it as a good book to read in a single sitting since it's less than a hundred pages. It also influenced Lovecraft and a recent game called Signalis.
>Just finished The King in Yellow
good choice too. i finished that one recently and went into lovecraft. check out machen if you havent either. i read him before king in yellow and really liked the great god pan and a lot of the short stories.
>30 >Anna Karenina
And I feel like I’m being filtered. I’m just about into Part 8 and I’ve been sitting here trying to understand what the point of all this is. Is it just a pretty comprehensive reflection of the times of Russian life back then, or is there something deeper?
Loved Crime and Punishment, but this is my first Tolstoy. I’m feeling like I just don’t *get* him.
weird. i though dusty was boring and lame while tolstoy drew me in immediately after a few pages. its about a love and families that go well and bad.
5 months ago
Anonymous
20
Birth of Tragedy - my first Nietzsche, im really liking it so far
Infinite Jest - some chapters are amazing but others seem incredibly boring, probably because i haven't progressed enough yet
5 months ago
Anonymous
I don’t get how you can read two books, especially two lofty books like those, at the same time. What’s your juggling process? I can maybe, MAYBE, read two books simultaneously if one of them if significantly lighter, easier read
5 months ago
Anonymous
i try to completely devote myself to whichever text i feel more inclined to read that day which makes the ideas and concepts of that text play through my head for the next few days and i try to connect these ideas with the other text/texts that im reading.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I started with Birth Of Tragedy
5 months ago
Anonymous
*too
5 months ago
Anonymous
how did you find it? i didnt expect to enjoy it as much as i am enjoying it right now
5 months ago
Anonymous
It was decent, though On The Genealogy Of Morals is my favorite by him
5 months ago
Anonymous
how did you find it? i didnt expect to enjoy it as much as i am enjoying it right now
20
Birth of Tragedy - my first Nietzsche, im really liking it so far
Infinite Jest - some chapters are amazing but others seem incredibly boring, probably because i haven't progressed enough yet
great idea to start with it.
the themes and ideas in this book will follow nietzsche in quite literally every single one of his books.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>22 >Got about 3 books on the go rn (yeah, it's called multi-tasking, us zoomers can do it)
Main book I'm reading that has my attention is A Canticle For Leibowitz, a few chapters in but that shit is tight, yo.
Reminds me of those 'deterrent spikes' for nuclear waste thousands of years in the future but if they made a whole book about it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
3O >House of Leaves
Interesting main premise spliced with some bullshit but it is growing on me. I was getting annoyed with the Jonny segments until I read his mother's letters in the appendix and damn it does give some context to his mental state.
I kind of wish I had read it when it was first recommended to me at 19 but then again I doubt I would have been as critical.
5 months ago
Anonymous
35
Pic
I think I bought a shit translation
This is dreadful hippie shite
5 months ago
Anonymous
>dreadful hippie shit
So is most eastern philosophy kek
5 months ago
Anonymous
>30 >Parmenide >wut
5 months ago
Anonymous
>30 >Anna Karenina
And I feel like I’m being filtered. I’m just about into Part 8 and I’ve been sitting here trying to understand what the point of all this is. Is it just a pretty comprehensive reflection of the times of Russian life back then, or is there something deeper?
Loved Crime and Punishment, but this is my first Tolstoy. I’m feeling like I just don’t *get* him.
5 months ago
Anonymous
There’s not much to get, Tolstoy is boring as all frick. And a dumb commie.
5 months ago
Anonymous
You are being filtered. Read Nabokov's analysis of the book. A ridiculous amount of puzzles and details are layered in it. And the ultimate message is "God is love"
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >Mao II >i've nearly finished the novel but i'm unsure if i'm sold on delillo's prose style just yet. his characters and dialogue are pretty weak but there's some powerful scenes in here that illuminate the bigger picture for me and bring all of his themes together in a satisfying way.
try to stick with him, but don't feel bad if you decide to put it down for a while.
tolstoy had a way of capturing the minutia of our most intimate relationships. it's a level of detail that no other writer has gotten close to for me. his writing is sublime and such a joy to read, i'm certain i'll be rereading his works for decades to come.
https://i.imgur.com/gZ96XNb.gif
>19 >Swann's way
It made me have a very uncomfortable dream adaptation of a memory from my childhood last night and gave me newfound insights into that memory (if I choose to believe them). The prose is, due to the subject of the book, painfully haunting. I'm only 100 pages in and I've already gone back to reread certain sections a number of times.
One thing I'm worried about: Since I'm so young, will I be able to fully enjoy the later volumes? Will it not be a search for lost time but moreso an exploration of things to come?
>Since I'm so young, will I be able to fully enjoy the later volumes?
unrelated to your question but i'm hesitant to begin reading philosophy for this exact reason.
19
Gravity’s Rainbow
It’s ok but I think I like V. better
i'd like to begin reading pynchon quite soon, hopefully in the coming months.
many people recommend the crying of lot 49 to new readers, however i've read excerpts from mason & dixon and i really adore his style and use of language in that book.
will i get filtered if i don't read his earlier works before reading mason & dixon?
5 months ago
Anonymous
[...]
Ya the thing about James is he has an amazing way of literally saying nothing with the most elaborate sentences that somehow amount to “the thing was caused by the thing which caused it to react.” Lol like bro you didnt need to say that. But at the same time, NOBODY can reach such specific little niches of feeling that he worms into. It is almost disturbing reading someone who is not only relatable but downright invasive. I think “why is his writing going here? Is he afraid of something happening? Where am I in this character’s head and why is he so paranoid over a nothing?” But when you are patient with it and you pick up the little imaginary diamond he has pressed together there for you, it is like magic. I could go on and on about him. He was basically an insane genius who played with dolls in his writing. And it is absolutely, almost disturbingly, beautiful.
5 months ago
Anonymous
23
The Shadow of Torturer
very enjoing it and looking forward to read more
5 months ago
Anonymous
27
BNW
Why does it remind me of hitch hikers guide to the galaxy so much
5 months ago
Anonymous
-35
-Das jagdliche Vermächtnis Herzog Albrechts von Bayern
-Times were different, eh?
5 months ago
Anonymous
31 next week
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Read it when I was young and liked it, it makes me happy reading it again.
5 months ago
Anonymous
A great book. I’ve read the Narnia series at least 4 times through.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>29 >Before the coffee gets cold
Coming from e-girlta this feels like it was written for teens. Not vibing with it honestly
5 months ago
Anonymous
>27 >the capital
it's interesting and more entertaining than I thought. >hegel's philosophical propaedeutic
this really is a great intro to hegel's philosophy in general. interesting, challenging but comprehensible. >hobbit
5 months ago
Anonymous
I thought capital kinda slapped too, very polemic, seemed to be about efficiency more than equality, but still communism is super gay and dumb and based on bad economics of the time
5 months ago
Anonymous
29
Finished submission by houellbecq last night. Interesting concept, and I think houellbecq makes a good point. There is no "soul" in western society, and because of that we're particularly susceptible to collapse, or domination by another cultural or relgious force. We can only trade houses, vacations, and iphones back in forth for so long. There needs to be something else, and its clearly sorely lacking in the West.
Started Fidel and Gabo (I know I know this isnt peak literature, but whatever), so far a fluffy book about the friendship between Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez but interesting enough to keep reading.
5 months ago
Anonymous
34
The Green Man
Enjoying it so far but I shouldn't really read books from 50 years ago written in a language that's not my mother tongue
5 months ago
Anonymous
[...]
>familiarity with Nietzsche helps with Baudrillard quite a lot
I have some nietzsche on my shelf, but haven’t gotten around to him yet. Guess I’m reading these out of order
After this I was going to shift gears into something either occult or new age science. It’s a tie between the quantum and the lotus and some of the grimoires I have
5 months ago
Anonymous
NTA but good to know, I have some Baudrillard works
5 months ago
Anonymous
What do you have?
5 months ago
Anonymous
Comsumer Society and Symbolic Exchange & Death
5 months ago
Anonymous
[...]
>Death Comes for the Archbishop is an American classic.
Agreed. For a relatively plotless novel it's surprisingly gripping, and Cather's landscape prose is second to none.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>25 >The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov
Shite. Complete shite. Full of Quasi-nostalgy for soviet times, resentment on fell of USSR. (No fricking surprise that author went full Z supporter) Story about gangs of libraries who read specific old, shitty and boring socialist literature about workers on factories, kolkhozes that happened to give them feeling of drug like happiness, or rage, or self-confidence, or memories of life that they didn't have. And now this "librariesbook clubs" sometimes made of old lonely people, sometime out prison's low-level scum, sometime out of literally old hags from hospices - all fighting each other to death with cold weapon to get more books and find "Book of meaning". This is dull, simple written bullshit that not even interesting as metaphor for Russian society. I only started it because i knew author as bard musician with good and funny songs, he became more popular and somehow they made tv-series out of it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>age
33 >current book
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? >your thoughts on it
I just finished it today and I absolutely loved it. It clearly went deep into my psyche as I started having extremely vivid dreams revolving around empathy. They were so convincing that I went to turn them into a novel some day.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >Swann's way
It made me have a very uncomfortable dream adaptation of a memory from my childhood last night and gave me newfound insights into that memory (if I choose to believe them). The prose is, due to the subject of the book, painfully haunting. I'm only 100 pages in and I've already gone back to reread certain sections a number of times.
One thing I'm worried about: Since I'm so young, will I be able to fully enjoy the later volumes? Will it not be a search for lost time but moreso an exploration of things to come?
5 months ago
Anonymous
Don't worry about not being able to fully enjoy something right away. If you're getting something from it now it's worth it. You can always revisit it when you're older.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Just finished the first book of the lord of the rings trilogy. It’s good for what it is but referring to Aragorn as “strider, the ranger” repeatedly is cringe eventually and “strider” is a pretty eye rolling-worthy name to begin with. But at the time it was written this wasn’t cringey edgy cliche it was new and fresh and I tried to keep it in mind. Im 37 live under a rock never seen any of the movies or read the series before so it’s all new to me. I’ll either read the next book in the series or the copy of Mason&Dixon I got for Christmas next
5 months ago
Anonymous
19
Gravity’s Rainbow
It’s ok but I think I like V. better
5 months ago
Anonymous
31
Ulysses
Don't get me started because I'll just end up pissing a lot of people off. I don't care for it is the nicest thing I can say about it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >Conversations with Goethe and Critique of Pure Reason >CwG mentions a lot of plays and productions I am not familiar with, but hearing about Goethe’s life through the words of Eckermann who is super likeable is interesting. >Critique of Pure Reason is my favorite philosophy book so far. I am about to start the Dialectic. Life changing experience to be honest.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>50's >The Yearling
Other than Ma Baxter being big/fat, it's pretty much just like the movie so far. A nice break from my usual anti-semitic reading.
5 months ago
Anonymous
What are some of your usual antisemitic reads? Asking for a friend
5 months ago
Anonymous
Kevin MacDonald's Trilogy
Uncle Adolf, of course
books on Usury (Calvin Elliot and Zippy Catholic- I damn near sold my rental property after reading Elliot)
Henry George (although he drops the ball)
Which Way Western Man, which led me to...
Anthony Ludovici
Shakespeare/De Vere (Oxfordian here, b***hes)
Savitri Devi
GLR
...
that' a pretty good start pack.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>26 >The Doloriad >most of the book is describing the fricking sky
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher >guess he has to explain the basics for people who aren’t obsessed like linguistics like i am. i know what a sound change is get to the good stuff already, but i like his writing style
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Almost finished with chapter 2. It's playing out a bit more comedic than I thought it would going in. "K" seems like he isn't fitting in that well with the townsfolk, which is no surprise for a Kafka story.
5 months ago
Anonymous
28
1Q84
Pacing is slow as frick but the JK is cute.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>35 >The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger >It's good
5 months ago
Anonymous
Pushing 60
Hakluyt's Voyages
Fascinating read.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Do you often read travelogues? Where did Hakluyt go? Did you like any similar books?
5 months ago
Anonymous
27
Cioran, Fall into Time
I feel like on the heights of despair was more methodological and just better structured overall. This one is just him complaining about man obtaining awareness and suffering as a result. It feels a bit repetitive. Hopefully it picks up later on.
5 months ago
Anonymous
42
documents of the Council of Trent
we were so much more based, worthy of salvation 500 years ago
5 months ago
Anonymous
23
Wonderling by Mira Bartok
After Reading many "Classics" and non fiction its a nice Change. im only at 175/460 so i cant really say tocmuch except that i really Like how she builds the world :3 The End
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
The master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
It wasn't boring but it wasn't exciting either. I guess I would have enjoyed it more if I actually knew about Go
5 months ago
Anonymous
>27 >Paradise Lost by John Milton >I like it a lot more than The Divine Comedy so far, but it's got the same problem in that I'm moronic so I have to read an explanation of the books as I finish them. The prose is wonderful but I assume it's because it was natively written in English unlike older epic poems.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>34 >Oblivion collection by DFW >it's excellent
5 months ago
Anonymous
24
Doors of Perception (Huxley)
The single best description/depiction of the psychedelic experience in any piece of media I’ve ever seen. Not incredibly well written or anything but a super fun read if you’re in the know
5 months ago
Anonymous
>28 >The Thirst for Annihilation
Lemme go off
5 months ago
Anonymous
>24 >valis >i think im a schizo because everything my man Dick is saying sounds exactly like the stuff i've been pondering about since i was 15
5 months ago
Anonymous
5 months ago
Anonymous
im not joking a lot of what he is saying just sounds perfectly normal to me because i had those ideas since i was a teenager, he just put it into comprehensible words
5 months ago
Anonymous
Dick is good at that. I read Ubik in inpatient while strung out on downers and thought he was fishing around in my head. Read The Exegesis if you want more insight into how actually insane PKD was.
5 months ago
Anonymous
valis comes with his exegesis, i dont know if its the full thing though, he did lose me with the aline stuff though in his exegesis (in the story i dont mind it) but who knows maybe in a couple of years it will sounds reasonable to me
5 months ago
Anonymous
Idk I'm reading the 400 pg tome detailing 2-3-74 that's called The Exegesis of Philip K Dick I never read Valis I read most of his other stories but this comes across as the most mainline of his psychotic ramblings next to doing actual lsd regularly.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >The Thirty Years War. Europe's Tragedy' >I'm on page 16. Although I don't care too much on the makeup of the HRE, the author does a great job on illustrating its complexity in an easy to understand manner.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>21 >Goethe's scientific studies
The methodological musings in the first part of the book were interesting, the actual scientific studies are not because I don't have enough knowledge of botany, zoology, etc. Feeling pretty mogged
5 months ago
Anonymous
19
Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung
Amazing so far, I got an abridged version and the third book is going down like water. After reading the greeks, the scholastics and Kant's Critique it's amazing to finally get to the point that someone stops categorizing and instead writes something concrete (Kant filtered me, took close to 4 months to finish Pure Reason)
As an aside I'm for some reason reading Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, complete shit until now, very close to dropping, guy keeps spewing bullshit after bullshit, managed to say "church bad", "old people dumb" and "my israeli grandparents were oppressed" in the first 30 pages
5 months ago
Anonymous
Am I the only person who found Kant easy?
5 months ago
Anonymous
>25 >Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 >Johns Hopkins University Press, Ancient society and history, 1996
Kenneth W. Harl >also gunsmith cats.
I really like learning about coinage/specie. not specifically the coins themselves (but that is interesting enough) but instead the environment they were created in. for example in the third century the crisis forced the roman government to debase the coinage from a gold and silver bimetallic standard to essentially fiat currency in the form of billions of brass coins that were worthless and the economy went to bartering.
Silver and gold were hoarded in banks or buried and the worthless brass were discarded which means millions of these coins, bullion or brass, survive adn can be had for relatively cheaply. especially the brass. you can get a roman brass coin that is 2,000 years old for just a few dollars.
5 months ago
Anonymous
So you have you read the Naismith book from last year yet? Thoughts?
5 months ago
Anonymous
no, which on is that?
5 months ago
Anonymous
5 months ago
Anonymous
thanks for the rec, downloading now.
5 months ago
Anonymous
21
Mere Christianity
It's good for what it is, but I am not really learning anything new. A non-Theist or baby Christian would get much more value out of it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
Portnoy's Complain
Surprisingly good. There's a real creativity. I love the image of his father cooking up horrible leaves.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Yeah I really appreciated that one when I went back and skimmed it again. Some really nice emotional payoffs in there.
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
The Map and the Territory
It's charming
5 months ago
Anonymous
29
just finished When gravity fails
i like the arab scifi setting, maybe im gonna read the following books with marid audran too
5 months ago
Anonymous
>Age
20 >Current Book
The third book of Gaskun's space opera: Two Phantoms >Thoughts
It's surprisingly robust, albeit there are some infodumps that kinda take me out of the story at points.
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
The Reformation
It's a little overzealous and wordy while being low on the actual details, but it's a subject I'm not very familiar with and am learning a lot.
5 months ago
Anonymous
By whom? I’m reading about the 17th century and this might be good background reading
5 months ago
Anonymous
Reverend J. A. Babington
Its some book my community college library was throwing away years ago. It was originally published 1901 and the author seems like a total nobody. He just wrote it to supplenent his seminary course, according to the introduction.
Here's the isbn look up
https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/0804611351
Seems like amazon has copies for sale
5 months ago
Anonymous
26
Love is a Dog from Hell
Been working out (Olympic lifting) and keeping good habits, but still feel like I am destined to be old, lonely and transgressive
Is 26 too old annon?
5 months ago
Anonymous
>23 >Dresden Files: Death Masks
I'm enjoying it so far. I'm reading it as per the recommendation of my bf and I'm enjoying it a lot. But I suppose I'm more-so speaking on the series as a whole since I'm plowing through all the books night after night
5 months ago
Anonymous
>33 >The Collected Letters of Gustave Flaubert
I adore Gus and it would make a fine goal to read every word he ever wrote. It's fascinating to delve into the mind of a great writer. Flaubert is a hoot too, very stereotypically French, gushy, particular, obsessed with women; an overheated, passionate, sensuous creature that could almost be brought to tears over life's small pleasures. His letters are chock full of deep insights about the art of writing or les affres de l'Art and literature. At times he thinks like a philosopher. I appreciated learning that he was a NEET living with his mom while writing Madame Bovary. >At ten o'clock, when my mother came into my study to say goodnight, my nerves were so taut that I frightened her by giving a great shout of terror.
You really get the sense why Flaubert is considered such a writer's writer. His dedication to it borders on the religious. "Without my love of form, I would have perhaps have been a great mystic." He's constantly documenting how he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because he can't get a sentence right, and talks as though he were possessed by a demon. "I am keyed up to a high pitch-my brow is burning, sentences keep rushing into my head..."
"But I know these masked balls of the imagination! You come away from them exhausted and depressed, having seen only falsity and spouted nonsense. Everything should be done coldly, with poise.
5 months ago
Anonymous
29. Sons & Lovers by D H Lawrence. It's giving me a lot of nostalgia, and making me question whether or not I have been a good son to my parents.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>29 >"Ödet och Hoppet" by Niklas Natt och Dag >It is good, written in a somewhat archaic language makes the medieval theme even more prominent.
5 months ago
Anonymous
27
George F. Kennan: An American Life
It's been a good read. Kennan is a really fascinating and odd character. I was reading a different book that mentioned him a lot. And I needed to know more. He was very temperamental, melancholic, and smart. His writings became American policy despite all that.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>27 >The Life of Graham Greene Volume 3
A fantastic biography, Greene comes across as a fascinating man with some questionable morals. Some of the random throwaway details the author includes are hilarious, such as when Graham Greene called every other Graham Greene he could find in the phonebook and told them he found their novels to be morally disgusting.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Feet
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
Henry Miller - Plexus
it's pretty good, the best one from the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy probably, the only thing I don't like too much is the length since I am a pretty slow reader
5 months ago
Anonymous
28
Re-reading Eco's Name of the Rose
When I read it for the first time in my teens, I was like >"Whoah, so deep, so many things, so many themes, such erudition, so much passes over my head, what an abyssal glance into~"
Now I'm like >"Dude is just rofling, flexing and winking at the audience non-stop. It's all one big gag."
I no longer see them book as a serious literary doorstopper, and now it apperas more like a fat nerd having a lil' laugh with the boys - and it only seems better for it. None of the themes are very deep or complex, and I was legit dumb for not seeing their simplicity and humor.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>19 >Mason & Dixon >Has some funny parts, love the prose but the plot is rather confusing. Will have to buy the physical copy to reread.
5 months ago
Anonymous
69
The Epic of Gilgamesh
IDK, I have only read the introduction so far
5 months ago
Anonymous
21
Don Quixote
Wanted a lighter hearted read after Blood Meridian
Just got to the part with the Galley Slaves
One of the most underrated aspects of the book is how profound the Don can be at times
Like when he was holding up the acorns in the sky and started waxing about the times before Man learned lust and shame
I think it's telling that while the Shepherds believed him to be mad, Don Quixote found Marcella, who they similarly categorize as cruel, to be an admirable soul worth following. That these are two great people rejected by their fellows for the crime of thought
The Shepherds didn't even bother paying her speech mind, they would have gone after her after she told them the folly of loving her, if not for the Don's intervention. They are both truly free souls living their lives as much to their pleasure as the world allows, true colleagues in philosophy
I'm starting to see why the novel transcends
5 months ago
Anonymous
He's not meant to just be an insane idiot commoner.
I feel like the Spanish expresses him as both insane and unusually lucid, an idiot but unusually smart, common but noble. The language is at once cuttingly cynical and genuinely admiring.
5 months ago
Anonymous
34, just started Book of the Long Sun. Its comfy so far, very curious to see where this thing is going
5 months ago
Anonymous
68 >dialectic of enlightenment
kinda mid no cap
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Pretty good. It's my first time reading Wallace and I'm planning on reading Infinite Jest after this. Am I doing the DFW's path right, IQfy?
5 months ago
Anonymous
45
Endured "The Fountainhead" on the advice of some folks. Rand's objectivism reads like a preachy self-help book for egomaniacs.
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
no longer human
I do not enjoy it, he is such a b***h.
5 months ago
Anonymous
25
The Anarchy
just finished the chapter about the bengal famine, now reading about how the East India Company is getting bailed out by the Bank of England. very interesting
5 months ago
Anonymous
>get rekt >ur mum >ur mum times two
5 months ago
Anonymous
Why don't you engage with the prompt sincerely instead of hiding behind bland cynicism
Why post on a literature board if you don't want to discuss literature
5 months ago
Anonymous
post from 2013
5 months ago
Anonymous
>25 >Jane Erye
I’m only a hundred or so pages in and It’s not too bad. Gothic isn’t much my genre but Charlotte brings me in with her descriptions of Jane’s thoughts and Lowood
5 months ago
Anonymous
>21 >Submission by Houellebecq
I'd never read anything by him. It's very engaging especially as a European. I see it more as a tale about how Europe and Europeans are worn down and lead such pointless existences that they would rather hand over their identity and submit to whatever seems useful and gives them some perceived purpose. In that sense Islam in this book could just be replaced with some other ideology. Overall amazing stuff, though his sex scenes get way too graphic for my taste.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>30 >LOTR Fellowship
I've enjoyed it so far...so much description of scenery and trekking, and it's nowhere near as charismatic as the movies, but I can see why it's so popular and revolutionary for fantasy writing: Tolkien invents multiple langauges, races, myths, landscapes, weapons, and describes those mostly ineffable forces that compel us to good and evil...brava!
5 months ago
Anonymous
You're not even to where he starts using dialect to define the different nations and has passages in blank verse (maybe some of the elf lines and bombadil) that are subtle. Two Towers is where all the good shit and charisma is, although book 4 of 6 is a slog if I remember correctly.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>38 >Barsoom Omnibus
I both like and dislike it. I like the general story but it is always slow and a slog to read.
5 months ago
Anonymous
36
Out of the Silent Planet
Started off a bit tedious, too many characters. But after a chapter or two it became riveting. Lewis might be one of the most well read men in history, and he enjoys incorporating into his work.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Holy fook I mistyped. This should be That Hideous Strength. Out of the Silent Planet is the first book of the series.
5 months ago
Anonymous
22
Reading Breakfast of champions by Vonnegut. Really enjoying it right now, it's funny, easy to read, and has tons of pictures. Love Vonnegut.
5 months ago
Anonymous
This thread has made me realize this is an oldgay site now...time to move on, I guess.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Bye, pedo!
5 months ago
Anonymous
Stick around sonny, you might learn something.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>29 >John Dies at the End
Bought it in 2012 and just now getting to it. Kind of Reddit at times, but also makes me mildly nostalgic for /b/. Definitely not high art, but it's a decent break from re-reading a bunch of Dazai.
5 months ago
Anonymous
I have fond memories of visiting cracked.com everyday until it fell off a cliff because it became super woke. I’m not even a chud, that’s how bad it got in like the span of a month if my memory serves me
5 months ago
Anonymous
Are you me? That was also my experience with Cracked, it was insane how quickly the quality declined
5 months ago
Anonymous
I think it was sold or something. I remember drama with the writers and in the comment section and there were a few writers brought on that did nothing but post incendiary flamewar type articles that were basically racebait. I remember one woman in particular was given a spot like every day or two and she would post stuff like 5 reasons white men are evil. Looking back that was probably one of the opening bells of the culture war and identity politics. It sucks as I hate all that shit and loved spending time on cracked. It had to have been no more than a few weeks where I realized the site wasn’t for me and it was making me mad. I also have fond memories of listverse from that era
5 months ago
Anonymous
I remember an article series there where the author installed a spy-cam in his sister's apartment living room to monitor her love life or something that was hilarious, and it has been completely scrubbed from the Internet as far as I can tell.
The old days of cracked, something awful, ebaums world, etc really were halcyon days, strange as it is to say.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Those were the days when actual communities, forums, real websites existed before the internet took shape into something else and social media got absorbed into a few monstrous platforms. Times were more simple and fun then. Sadly I don’t ever see those types of days coming back, at least not for a while
5 months ago
Anonymous
Message boards are actually making a comeback
5 months ago
Anonymous
Something awful was always a shitty site with a repugnant userbase
5 months ago
Anonymous
I can't remember, but I think I bought the book without realizing it was the Cracked guy. I got it alongside House of Leaves because I guess I had an interest in popular horror beyond King. I don't really remember, as I spent the past couple years in high school reading Ellis, Palahniuk, Welsh, the occasional Burroughs, Haruki Murakami, and Tao Lin. So Wong and Danielewski don't exactly fit, but I guess I was still transitioning from /b/ to real boards at the time.
In fact, I think I stopped following Cracked when I got into IQfy in 2008, so I never saw much wokeness. I'm curious about newer books by this dude because he says "moron" and "gay" and "Black person" in this book, and I'm pretty sure he dropped the Wong name because yellowface.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Their list on MRA is what caused me to never visit them again
5 months ago
Anonymous
>26 >Phantastes by George MacDonald >I'm not that far in, but I'm enjoying it. It has that mature-child sensibility that Tolkien and Lewis are able to capture so well. I had been getting tired of reading Brits from the turn of the century, but this is just different. I could see myself reading this to my kids.
That said, I'm scouring this thread for recs.
5 months ago
Anonymous
> 27 > DBT Skills Training Manual, Linehan > I've never read anything on dialectics before this, but how it's talked about in this book reminds me of Taoism (especially yin-yang, and ji ji mu ge). The whole mindfulness thing I'm not new to, and can appreciate - it always seems a good thing when I'm reminded to be mindful, and present in the current moment/flowing with each experience. In this book it's put forth as having more practical benefit than in those typical Eastern sources I'm familiar with (Zen). The Rational Mind, Emotional Mind, Wise Mind thing reminds me of Jung’s Thinking type and Feeling type, as well as the idea of individuation. For some reason I really dislike the name Dialectical Behavioural Therapy. I also dislike the association with BPD. That's all so far, though I just started today.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>20 >Chevengur
enjoying it so far. feels a bit like "What is to be Done" but a lot more vivid and enthralling overall
5 months ago
Anonymous
>22 >Ignorance by Milan Kundera
One of the best things ever written.
5 months ago
Anonymous
-24
-Count of Monte Cristo
-this book is goated, easy 10/10. Already one of my favorite books
5 months ago
Anonymous
I hope you're reading the non-bowdlerized version with the LSD trip anon, IIRC, that would be the Penguin Black Classics one. It's the only full unabridged English version with the stuff that the Victorians took out in the name of public decency
5 months ago
Anonymous
Yeah already past that part bro, but in the book it says Hashish not acid. Reading in German btw, since English isn’t my mother tongue.
5 months ago
Anonymous
That scene was my first coom when I was 12
5 months ago
Anonymous
>27 >The Catcher in the Rye
It's quite enjoyable. I don't understand why this book is such a big deal for Americans, it's nothing special, but I like it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>I don't understand why this book is such a big deal for Americans
In the US, the novel is usually taken up in high school, right at the point in life when the themes of loss of innocence and the angst of growing up are most poignant. So it's often babby's first literary fiction for most people, and for non-literary types, one of the few books that really sticks with them throughout their lives.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Catcher in the Rye is in the same catalog as The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird
It's a book often read in high school literature class and it just good enough and clear enough to resonate with people during a highly impressionable time in their lives
Though if people seriously bring it up as one of the best of American Literature it'll likely invite eye rolls as that's a rather immature stance
5 months ago
Anonymous
Gatsby really is fantastic though. It's a shame reading it in high school turns people off to it. Fitzgerald's prose is really top notch.
5 months ago
Anonymous
The CIA uses it to mind control people somehow. There’s been a few high profile assassinations where the killer will pull out this book and start reading after committing the deed.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>26 >Blood Meridian >From a technical standpoint it's a great read, but I may also hate it because it's so completely debauched. Toughy.
5 months ago
Anonymous
27
The Savage Detectives
Really enjoying it, read a review spoiling the ending, which actually made it so much more interesting. I'm breezing through it because it's not difficult or dense, too. Can't wait to start 2666 after
5 months ago
Anonymous
you're literally me except I read 2666 first.
5 months ago
Anonymous
31 in a few weeks.
Blood Memederidian
This is actually pretty fantastic. It’s like a fever dream.
5 months ago
Anonymous
30
book of leinster
fricking boring
5 months ago
Anonymous
>28 >Orlando: A Biography >It's perfectly fine
5 months ago
Anonymous
17
the temple of the golden pavilion
loving it, this is mishima at his best from what i've read so far: after this it's sun & steel and then i'll go about beginning the sea of fertility; hopefully all by february
5 months ago
Anonymous
>33 >This is the Faith
Pretty interesting it is about 400 pages laying out all Catholic beliefs with supporting scripture and catechism quotes. Nice to have it all in one book. Would recommend
5 months ago
Anonymous
21
Flowers For Algernon
I chose to read it once when I was around 11 or 12 for an English project, but have been wanting to reread it for years now and really take my time with it.
5 months ago
Anonymous
32
The Makioka Sisters
Absolutely wonderful, one of the best books I've read thus far. Surpremely comfy and warm.
5 months ago
Anonymous
>20 >Getting Off: Pornography and the end of masculinity >Thought I'd like it more, but rather than commenting on the real world nagative cognitive effects that pornography has on the viewer, the author completely ignores these things for the purpose of painting pornography as a woman only problem, with (white) men as the bbeg in the grand story of victimization. There are a few good points made, however. D Tier
>34
>The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
>Finally made it to The Call of Cthulhu after 400 out of 1100 pages or so, and it is awesome. Excited to get to the other known classics, and being anon I do appreciate all that old-timey racism replete in most of his stories, including, but not limited to, Black personman the cat.
bullshit. The story where they ram a commercial fishing boat into an elder god to defeat him? Really? That's awesome?
Call of Cthulhu specifically, is awesome. The rest of his shorts thus far range from good to decent.
I enjoyed at the mountains of madness far more than cthulu
I should have done that. I read the ones I wanted and then random short stories so I'm now fricked trying to remember if I read The Outsider and Dagon or not.
based. i have that right next to me and read some. I liked the dunwich horror and redhook a lot.
>31
>Gormenghast
>really enjoying it. a slightly sarcastic gothic novel with fun characters.
The one that stuck with me most was the one about Antarctica (At the Mountains of Madness)
>34
>Lovecraft
What's it like being a complete manchild?
Has its moments! Just got into full-time reading recently so I'm going through a great deal of more than obvious classics.
>full-time reading
the frick is that?
19
giles goat boy
not bad, unremarkable, so far
Havent read this but Sot-weed factor is pretty kino.
I’m 29, The Ambassadors and If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. The former takes an incredible amount of patience, but it is well worth it, style is simply the English language meticulously perfected. The latter is okay, easy read, interesting but a little too vague.
Mid 20s
Alejo Carpentier - The Chase
>Took some time to get used to the rich language.Almost gothic in its detail.Yet it paints a whole picture.
The plot and the characters head has kept me intrigued as well, I foreshadow a collision later on.
Annie Ernaux - Happening
>Just started, enjoying the simple yet exact prose.Nice look at Paris at that time.Subject matter might get darker later on( abortion)
Alternating between these two for now depending on my mental bandwidth and energy.
30
Divine Comedy
Atrociously tedious christgay apologism. Poetry is almost unreadable in translation too (I know, I started it years ago before I was aware of never reading translations)
>28
>Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena by Philomena Cunk
It's funny
>The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
It's atmospheric. I read along with the audiobook
>Art and Visual Perception by Rudolf Arnheim
This doesn't quite fit this board, but there are considerations on the border between philosophy and design theory.
Read about historical and political context in which this work was created
https://youtube.com/shorts/UKhY2kD4jxI?si=eAA7wILJ9hz4utVE
I‘m very familiar with the Italian late medieval and Renaissance eras. That doesn‘t make it good.
I am talking about Dante's views on the conflict between secular and ecclesiastical power. Alighieri sides with the Emperor and the concept of the primacy of imperial power over any other. Then, secular rulers became similar to the clergy in appearance and behavior. The separation of secular and religious power is unique in history. That's why SPOILER is in the last circle of Hell. So it's not school historical knowledge, but more political and ideological knowledge.
Probably also the fault of the translation. A lot of classics in English translation are terrible shit. For example, I have not read Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Bulgakov in the original, but comparing the translation into my language and into English, it is like heaven and earth (that's why I consider loud American fans of Russian literature grifters)
The Commedia is deeper and denser in meaning than even something like Ulysses. You'd be missing 80% of it in Italian. In English, you'd better have a good guide to go along with it or you're just wasting your time.
>In English, you'd better have a good guide to go along with it or you're just wasting your time.
gonna be pretty hard to get Virgil to get along with this tbh
Do you find it objectionable aesthetically or just morally? Trying to discern whether you are completely moronic or just obnoxious.
lol
The atheist is unable to enjoy good art. Many such cases!
Christcuck cope
Stop being illiterate
Illiterate? What even is that response? Lmao omega christcope
I’m sorry your parents made you go to church. I will pray for you.
>Poetry is almost unreadable in translation
So read and listen to it in Italian...
I genuinely think this is the only way to appreciate literature. You get a lot out of generating similar things to the experiences being described.
I kinda drifted off a few more chapters in. I find it very rare for a piece to keep me. That said, I listened to the entirety of The Water Margin.
It's like reading an insane IQfy greentext from the outside.
What has stuck with you from Tolstoy?
My experience with it was already having the psychological shift, and then discovering this text that matched.
I think it's more like "Oh shit someone else has experienced this psychology".
There is nothing that hasn’t stuck with me. I’m deeply invested in everything about the man and his work. The sincerity of his soul is greater than most other artists that I have encountered combined.
23
Stoner
>Damn, this homie is dumb as frick
reddit is that way son, Inferno is genuinely hilarious fanfic about hell with genuinely interesting fancanon and great worldbuilding.
I don‘t know why I would listen to your worldbuilding critique if your read on actual mental communities is that dilute judaism is awesome because some annoying morons on another site said it wasn‘t like 15 years ago.
you win the internet today sir! have a gold
upbote
32
Serotonin by Houellebecq
Enjoying it so far, has the usual Houellebecq feel which I am completely in love with
I think it's my second or third favourite of all his novels. I've read it twice. Quintessential Houellebecq.
>31
>The Pale King
>it's some kind of clever meta-fictional titty-pincher
20
The Odyssey
I'm having fun. I want some bronze-era weaponry and armor now.
>I want some bronze-era weaponry and armor now.
based
feet
39.
Poesía completa (the complete poetry) of Alejandra Pizarnik.
I'm not a poetry reader, but I can relate with the imagery created by Pizarnik. She was a poet of the night, the silent despair, the loneliness. Her work is quite minimalist but linked with surrealism and the french literature from the 60s. Pizarnik was and argentine writer, lived in Paris and killed himself at the age of 36.
41
Hugh Trevor-Roper “Crisis Of The Seventeenth Century”
Comes off as an entire refutation of conflict theory in historiography, taking apart the thesis set forth by Max Weber on the origins of capitalism and proceeds to point to the causes of discontent in the early modern period to be motivated more so by political and ethnological considerations than anything remotely having to do with money or even materialism at writ large. It’s a good clear pill cleansing after Christopher Hills book.
Ezra Pound - “Selected Poetical Works”
Very indicative of postmodern poetics, I can see parellels to Joyce’s wordy style
Leo Tolstoy - “What Is Art”
Just started. Nothing jumps out at me yet
John Locke - “Two Treatises Of Government”
Reads more like literary criticism than political philosophy proper. Starting to understand why Wittgenstein saw philosophy as word games, the meaning of phrases wholly dependent on interpretation. Helps I read a work of hermeneutical theory before this.
Not being facetious, seriously asking, have you read a ton of political philosophy so that people who are widely disregarded today like Locke are still on your radar simply because you’ve read all the others? Or are these more of boomerism you’ve clung to for a long time?
I’ve never really fit into the left honestly. Always felt alien to me. As far as “widely disregarded” it really depends on whom you ask. Likewise, I’ve never truly an affinity for people like Debord or Deleuze so the feeling is mutual. I find Freud and Schmitt illuminating and feel that a syncretic union between the two could shed light on the current sex crisis the west is facing. Likewise I also find interest in Nietzsche, Weber, am looking into checking out symbolic and interpretive anthropology like Geertz and Turner.
>I find Freud and Schmitt illuminating and feel that a syncretic union between the two could shed light on the current sex crisis the west is facing
huh, please explain anon
In Civilization And Its Discontents the driver of neurosis is a state which acts as a mitigating mechanism to ensure that sexual activity does not cause the state to fall, unfortunately, these neuroses end up directing the behavior into other means, often violent to which in order for the state or community to increase its health, the sovereign government must oppress the urges of female sexuality and loosen up the sexuality of males, with all things considered that women are birthing sex to ensure birth rates rise to above replacement levels
the subtext is that men are just naturally predisposed to violence, so letting them have unmitigated sex with respect to the properties of other men, again directed by the sovereign leader, would at least attempt to lower the chances of violent behavior by men by giving them and outlet and a purpose for life outside their own, instead of causing upheavals like civil war or revolution or mass murder.
in short: women need less rights not more and in order for this to happen men's sexuality must stand unopposed considering that women turn their anger inwards and it would be no cost to anyone but themselves if they acted upon it. men do not, so if the sovereign allows a pressure value to release on sexuality, there is a chance physical violence on a mass scale will be reduced.
Well, how do you explain the myriad warlike periods of history where whoring was a commonplace social institution?
Not exactly the point I was making, it's not the act of sex itself but the institution of institutionalized reproduction that is the suggested teleology. Without the incentive to reproduce we are faced with unproductive labor. Like fine art, the penis is a paintbrush on the canvas of the womb, it must not be used to create abortive Hackson Pollock paintings but something on the level of Michaelangelo, and not only that, something of use to society. Sex for pleasure only benefits the two people engaging in the act. I'm aware that orgies exist but again, that's just something that is a fleeting experience. Procreation benefits the community and tribe.
That’s sounding eerily similar to the impact tiktok is having on people 35 and under.
There is so much allusion to sex but actual pursuit of it is forbidden. They’re trying to reshape our natural instincts to lower birthdates to a sustainable but reduced rate for the state, and control all avenues of social interaction. Soon it will be more normal to meet a girl on tinder than to just talk to one on the sidewalk.
I'm 41 like I said so I have no interest in chinese spyware
I imagine that in 20 years, after we've lived through the revolution of the west, we'll all look back on this time and say
>"How did we not see it coming?"
This sort of thing that the west is attempting (social engineering of basic biology) isn't possible.
>This sort of thing that the west is attempting (social engineering of basic biology) isn't possible.
How are you so sure? We live in unprecedented times... plastic in your blood-brain barrier and all that.
Before plastic it was lead and before lead something else
>before lead something else
>he doesn't know about the industrial revolution and the before time
Were humans some unprecedented kind of “pure” before then? I understand money and capitalism have enslaved us all but that doesn’t mean everything before it was pure Elysium either
Your argument was that changing our biology is not possible when it quite clearly is possible and has occurred many times throughout history--one of which times we're living through.
I’m not the anon you’re replying to, I’m the one he replied to. I do believe changing our psychology is possible, our biochemistry as well. Just wait until DNA editing takes off.
Sure, but it will never, ever be anything but bad.
>I do believe changing our psychology is possible, our biochemistry as well.
Lamark called it the "iinheritability of acquired traits".
Ludovici wrote on it extensively.
You can "change" someone by beating them with a baseball bat, but that doesn't mean that the change made is constructive or useful. These people want transhumanism so bad that they haven't realized that we don't have a pathway to changing our nature in any constructive or useful direction. Labotomizing people with pharma, castrating them with ID politics, and pumping them full of microplastics (on top of the million other ways the modern world is expirementing with its people) isn't changing human beings or our nature at a fundamental level. All of these methods are a corruption of the basic human state, not an adaptation.
If this is what you meant then I concur. Well put.
I know it’s probably considered omega trite around here to bring up (I’m new to IQfy) but in 1984 they treated sex the same way: cold and clinical. The only difference is in our reality you get all of that but alongside the sexy titktok dancers selling nude videos on Onlyfans as a commodity. Try to talk to them, to have them and hold them for yourself, and you may as well be a hideous ogre trying to ravage them or some such nonsense. Everything is backwards. I’m all for free love and some of what the zealous would call degeneracy, but for all the accusations that our world is corrupted by sex, I’d say we have at least 2.5 generations of ultra-prudes right now
That might work for me but only if the two books were close enough in topic, and then if they were TOO close, my brain would think “well why bother reading two things that are essentially the same at the same time”
But I’m crazy ADD brain as well so YMMV
I wasn't just referencing sex with my original post. The modern world is attempting to alter human beings through a variety of means. I don't believe that the world is full of sex-having people anymore. There are many studies showing that Gen Z and Millenials have way less sex than previous generations. I believe this is a reflexive response to the free-love culture as well as beauty standards for both sexes that have become absolutely impossible to achieve for many people (not to mention the social stultification of younger people caused by a laundry list of social and technological factors).
>What people really need right now is more sex and intimate relationships, not fewer
We also need a good war to break people out of this inhuman and decadent culture, but that opinion is controversial. What I think people need right now more than ever is
>To fight
>To frick
>To love
>And to believe in something worth doing the above for
Basically, the end of nihilism.
>John Locke - “Two Treatises Of Government”
It''s the second one that matters.
>four books at once
Are you INTJ, INTP, or just ADHD?
ENTP, Gemini Sun, Aquarius Moon, Cancer Rising, Kelto-Nordid phenotype and autistic but not a troony or a homosexual.
>ENTP
I knew you had to be a type similar to mine (INTJ). I'm also reading four. I don't follow nor have any deep understanding of astrology--because I'm a Christian and the Bible expressly forbids its practice, but I'm a Swiss-Jamaican hybrid who probably has adult onset ADHD, but doesn't want to become drug dependent, so reads four books at a time (frequently getting up to unconsciously pace in circles and think) instead. I like women.
I was just joking. I'm 36 myself.
>oddball
LOL nice.
>23
>Machado de assis - papéis avulsos
>Alienista is kino
19
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Still early in the book but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm kind of moronic so I'm not picking up on a lot of the history details but I'm really loving the characters.
Are you writing anything down? I found my grandfather's books were all full of schizo handwritten notes, I can't really read what they say most of the time but he wrote down dates and names a lot. With the benefit of the internet you can turn this research into a very rewarding hobby
26
Reading Moby Dick for the first time right now
I just finished chapter 3 last night and met Queequeg. Loving it so far, absolutely captivated. I don't know why I thought it was going to be a difficult boring (but rewarding) book, it is so captivating and easy to read. Can't wait to keep going
Lol wait until you’re wading through those 100 or so chapters dead in the middle concerning nothing but the logistics of whaling itself. Still worth it though, book is incredible and those chapter honestly just serve to make it a right of passage. Only real MFers can make it through these kinds of books, gay as that sounds. All of this to say, don’t pussy out!
My good friend who turned me onto lit many years ago said the same thing. It'll be a good run
>100 or so chapters dead in the middle concerning nothing but the logistics of whaling itself.
Black person, that's the best part!!
23
Ulysses
Have barely dented it yet. I'm excited to see what awaits. I think I'm finally ready for the challenge
30
Mistborn
Seems alright, normal genre fiction.
> 20
> finishing Moby Dick
Ishmael is literally me bros
Loving it. This was one of the GOATs by the very first chapter
35
In between books at the moment and reading some shorter stuff like Dickens: The Two Scrooges by Edmund Wilson. Either reading The Golden Ass, Great Expectations, or Victory(Conrad) next
So which one should I read?
good taste brother
>Great Expectations
So I started this, about 70 pages in. Only other Dickens I’ve read is The Pickwick Papers. I’ve heard that his later books are more bitter and depressing, but so far GE is pretty funny though the bitterness is lurking under the surface. That bootblacking incident really made Dickens a writer and traumatized him. GE touches on some social issues early on, but I think that that representation of Dickens is unfair. From what I understand he was critical of the Industrial Revolution, middle class, upper class, he was critical of many things. Of course the characters are great. They are caricature like but they have life. Dickens is up there with Shakespeare for characters from what I’ve read of each
Dickens seems to take a lot of criticism as far as his writing skills. That is true in a sense but his books are alive, which is a high complement. They are coarse but there are genuine nuggets of gold gathered here and there. Dickens seemed like an astute observer and there have already been some pieces of wisdom, heart touching parts, and what is called the human condition.
I’ll also probably start Victory by Conrad later
29
House of leaves
I really like the base story and critical analysis of all these different concepts. The Johnny sex scenes were kinda cringe and a he was too tryhard with some of the formatting though.
Gonna do Arthur Rex next.
24
Brideshead Revisited
Pretty gay
24
Penguin History of Europe
Pretty good, thus far. Although it overlooks a lot of the classical era.
34
Infinite Jest
I'd been putting it off for a while (a decade at least, at first for rather shallow reasons that were entirely justified at the time) and Moby Dick was delayed in shipping, so here we are. I've laughed out loud 4 times in 17 pages, it's a delightfully picaresque shaggy dog story so far. Something about it takes me back to when the internet was a finite resource that updated twice a month and while I'd rather pound nails through my dick than devote time to it like one would a novel of worth, I may use it in the capacity and space television took from my time when I last watched it in 2007.
>40
>My Antonia
>Beautiful prose. Plot is somewhat threadbare, but the little vignettes throughout are lovely.
Not a single obscure book ITT. Sad.
>I MUST OBSCUUUUURE!!!
22
Currently reading Jude the obscure. Very comfy so far, about halfway through. Thomas Hardy writes good rural characters, a lot of authors wrote rural folks as a romantic ideal or as urbanites in a field. The naturalism still retains some of the romantic themes which makes it less dry than some other naturalist books of the era.
Hehehe
kys
lmao I actually said this going through the thread. There really are only like a couple thousand authors of literature that are known while the other 99% are utterly forgotten and ignored. I understand a bit about why it's rare to see people try reading obscure authors, like it's hard to know where to start but it's still disappointing to see just how narrow the selection of authors that actually get read and discussed compared to the total amount. Most of the books in this thread are commonly taught in classes
That’s how most mediums are. Very few artists become fondly remembered in historical memory. It’s not easy for most people to find time to read so if they’re going to then of course they’d focus on famous authors instead of obscure random books
yes and there is similar behavior in every other medium but the fact that most people only consume media that's popular doesn't explain why there is a common hatred towards anyone sharing stuff no one has heard of. I've been called pretentious, snob, poser, hipster, elitist many times simply for sharing stuff that's unknown. The sheer hate put on display towards anyone that mentions they like media that most people haven't heard of is often extreme and entirely uncalled for, I see it so much in forums for books, music, games or any art. Its surely a large part of why most people never hear about unknown works in the first place because whenever anyone tries to share they get met with a wave of backlash for....*checks notes*.....trying to share cool stuff so it can become better known.
It’s the fact that you keep defining yourself as reading shit that no one else is. That’s why you get hate. I’m guessing you’re the anon from the other thread. If someone says “here are my favorite (list of books/movies/songs), they’re all obscure. I like obscure stuff”, they will get an eye roll. If you can’t figure out why, then you probably never will
It seems pretty crazy to hate someone just because they said they read obscure books. Why would a sane person care about someone "defining" themselves as an obscure book reader. This guy reads obscure books and speculates about why he likes them more, crucify him!
It is less about the obscurity and more the condescension. There is a lack of social grace in how you conduct yourself. It invites resentment. Constantly telling people that their taste is boring and that they should read 'obscure' authors is never going to ingratiate yourself to them. You are essentially trying to undermine the validity of their favorite books on the basis that the book is popular and therefore not worthy. You can try to argue that that is not your intent but it is the effect your words have. It is as if you walked into a classical music recital and asked someone why they're listening to Mozart instead of Assmachine 300. Your probably not going to find much conversation about Assmachine 300, and you probably shouldn't lament over how much better Assmachine 300 is in the middle of the Mozart recital
What it comes down to is that it's pointless to hate someone for acting like they're cool for reading books no one's heard of, why would you care? the only thing a person who likes obscure books does is share them in hopes more people will read them. Past that you're just hating on someone's personal opinion about (canonical) books and projecting malice onto them where none exists. It's the same in every medium, people who really really hate anyone that claims they engage with stuff that isn't mainstream. Some people have a different opinion than you, get over it.
Most of anything is just bad.
27
10 little Black folk
liking it so far. First mystery novel I've ever read
30?
Seapower States
Lambert's knowledge and understanding of history eclipses his ability to convey it coherently.
>Seapower States
i have a copy of "the influence of sea power upon history 1660-1783" by a.t mahan. it seem to be a really good read if you havent checked that out yet. might be in the vein you want.
Old.
The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies.
Boats.
28
Simulacra and Simulation
The chapter on cloning was pretty prescient but otherwise wtf was this guy smoking? And this is coming off the back of having read society of the spectacle
23
Iron Gold
Not as much of a snoozefest as I was expecting from what I had heard people say about it. Easily the weakest in the series but a strong setup so far for the rest of the series.
>24
>hind's kidnap
>heifer
26
The gallows pole
It’s pretty good so far I really like the setting. Only 1/4th in though
>32
>White Noise
>It's good, I feel like I have read it before but I am certain I havn't.
>It's good, I feel like I have read it before but I am certain I havn't.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter did that to me.
s
>28
>Red and Black by Stendhal
>Just started, looks decent so far. From the first pages I was like, "yep, the dude is gonna shaboink that French milf in the middle of the book"
25
Don Quixote
funny
in spanish?
25
Don Quixote
Weird that someone already posted this exactly.
I'm absolutely loving it especially since I just finished L'Morte D'Arthur which is exactly the kind of book it is parodying. I've read about a third of it in the past few days since I haven't had to go in for work much.
It's a good book. Something about it is extremely fresh and modernist even though the style is very early as far as novels go.
21
The Death of The Gods
Funny fellow
22
Just finished Notes From Underground
Equal parts funny, dreary, and thought provoking
You found Notes from Underground funny?
In places, in the way an incel greentext is funny. The section where he goes on a long rant about how he worked up the courage to brush shoulders with a stranger instead of moving out of the way, for example.
24 (soon to be)
Harrow by Joy Williams
One of the best, strangest books published this century. The reviews had eco-fiction plastered all over them but this is if Kafka did environmentalism.
25
Typee
it's good! i've been a big melville kick lately and it's definitely on par with his other major works. also, the fact he wrote this at my age makes me want to kill myself
>18
>The Great Short Works of Herman Melville
>I read Moby Dick last year and it became one of my favorite books. I decided to took at some of his other works before revisiting it, and it's been pretty good. I had read Bartleby the Scrivener once before, and it's still my favorite up to this point. I liked particularly liked Rich Man's Pudding/Poor Man's Crumbs, the Lightning Rod Man, wiener-a-Doodle-Doo and the Two-Temples, Which is pretty much everything up to this point, now that I think about it. The only story I haven't liked so far was the Enchanted Isles, which I didn't think was awful, just a little bit boring. I'm excited to see how Billy Budd is, I've heard good things about it, but it's towards the end.
29
The Green Man
The longer I read the more I enjoy it. I liked where the main character talked with God.
Is this the Kingsley Amis book? I have it but haven't started yet. Liked the Anti-Death League though.
32
Cyclonopedia
It good
>21
>Holly by Stephen King
>Only 30 pages in so far and it's a long book but I'm enjoying it. I really like Holly Gibney as a character and I'm glad she's got a long book of her own now.
69
Goldfinch - Donna Tard
Enjoyable so far, but some things aren't explored enough or just passed over as a seeming plot device.
Shit you not, a friend of mine got the cover of that book (specifically the bird coming out of the page) tatted between her breasts. She loved it that much.
>The Goldfinch centers on 13-year-old Theodore Decker, and the dramatic changes his life undergoes after he survives a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that kills his mother and results in him coming into possession of Carel Fabritius's painting The Goldfinch
Heard this book’s title a lot but didn’t know the premise was so strange
checked.
>Reading a book by "Tard"
30
A Fire Upon the Deep
Just started the thing. Looks interesting. A lot of hype around it so I feel a bit intimidated.
>32
>Moore's Utopia
>I just finished book one and it's a bit forgettable. Hopefully book two will be more dense.
>22
>The Plague by Camus
About 70% done. Seems to do well in its intention of describing the "absurdism" of being caught up in a shitty situation where you can't do much else than count the days and bodies. However, I'm already looking forward to finishing this one and picking up something a bit more interesting.
>The Plague by Camus
by weird coincidence i read that a few months before covid started. i liked it a lot.
30
fahrenheit 451
shit book.
i want to slurp her feet so bad
>25
>All This Could Be Different: Sarah Thankham Matthews
>It was blurbed by a writer I really admire, so I picked it up from the library. Tad overwritten at times, feels like she's really trying to push political relevancy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing -- just a tricky one. About 80 pages in. Like it so far.
19, Spring Snow - Mishima
Very glad I picked this up before I age out of Kiyoaki. Very tender book and had me crying at one point.
>30
>A Confederacy of Dunces
>It's actually funny
>kind of wild that we have it
Tolstoy was one of the only artists who was honest about the artistic process and readily acknowledged that art should be a public service enjoyed by the masses. Almost all other artists are coy and hide like pussies behind their prestige and secret intentions. For me this quality is what makes him the supreme artist of modern times. Total sincerity about everything, even his faults and hypocrisies. His soul demanded he create art and so he wrote a book about what art means and why he creates it, because he loves art and eagerly wants to express his soul. It's pathetic that you can't say the same about 99% of other artists.
>22
>Stephen Hero by James Joyce
>its actually really satifying to read a somewhat radical, unorthodox statements
>31
>illiterate
>wish I wasn't homeschooled
>illiterate
How did you write this post then?
dictated to my handler
sounds like you got more 'home' and less 'school', bro.
>21
>Cannery row - Steinbeck
>Amazing and incredible cozy
40
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I've read it before many years ago but I'm rereading now because I just read Home by her which feature some of the same characters and events from a different perspective and didn't remember it that clearly. I'm struck again by the beauty of it. It's simple but subtle and a really lovely portrayal of a kind of Christianity I wish I was a part of.
Fellow oldgay.
20
Just finished The King in Yellow
It felt quite ahead of its time. The worldbuildin was strangely developed for how briefly it referenced it. I also enjoyed the prose. Would recommend it as a good book to read in a single sitting since it's less than a hundred pages. It also influenced Lovecraft and a recent game called Signalis.
20
Some plays by Euripides
Alcestis was great, made me think about the morality of sacrifice and the value of life more than any other Greek tragedy. Plus it was translated by my favorite translator, Lattimore.
Medea so far is surprising me with how modern it feels considering it was written in a time where feminism as we know it didn't exist.
Also reading Romeo and Juliet for the third time.
I've considered reading this after watching True Detective season 1.
>considering it was written in a time where feminism as we know it didn't exist.
Orestia goes in the opposite direction and is still good.
Absolutely. Apollo's arguments during the trial at the Areopagus are confounding as a modern reader but I can appreciate it within the context of ancient Greek religion. It's not like Clytemnestra didn't have it coming anyway.
I found it to be extremely deep and beautiful, you can take issue with how his use of symbol and archetype translates into our individualistic paradigm but you'll get a lot more out of ancient literature if you can really appreciate mythological thinking.
Which other tragedies have you read? Imo they get a lot better than that but to each his own.
Agree about Lattimore although he makes some puzzling choices at times, perhaps they're just based on textual emendations though idk.
Yeah, I try not to apply modern standards to this stuff. It's not too useful for my enjoyment or understanding of a work. The editions at my library have supplementary essays but even then I think I miss out on some of the stuff you mention. But I do appreciate how the trial served as a reconciliation of the cthonic with the Olympian religious traditions.
I do think that there's better tragedies than Alcestis, it's just the one that got me thinking that way the most. It got me thinking about how one's life is not worth less than another just because they have less life left to live, in the case of Admetus's father. The mechanic of dying in another's stead is thought provoking. It's unconventional ending also makes it stand out.
I've also read the Theban plays and the Oresteia. My favorite is probably Oedipus at Colonus. I like Lattimore because there's this "fullness" in his language if that makes sense, which I especially like for the epics. I don't know enough about the Greek to comment on the fidelity of it.
>reconciliation of the cthonic with the Olympian religious traditions
Yeah that’s the main thing, and you also seem to understand how those correspond to feminine and masculine archetypes, so afaik you’re more or less up to speed, I was referring more to attitude than any problem of interpretation. Look into Frazer’s The Golden Bough if you want to learn a lot more on the topic.
Thanks for the rec.
Personally it's one of the most interesting concepts I've ever come across, and I think it gets at the core of humanity and how we've developed. There's so much stuff that connects to it.
24
Hadji Murat
Definitely Tolstoy’s most difficult work of fiction I’ve read so far because the language is more verbose than usual and he uses a lot of Caucasian terminologies that aren’t translated. But so far, it’s still sublime. So efficiently written and spectacular. The opening pages are beautiful especially, where he narrates how he got the idea for the novel and then segways into the story itself
>Hadji Murat
quite good imo. i liked his other stuff more but that was a good read.
>Just finished The King in Yellow
good choice too. i finished that one recently and went into lovecraft. check out machen if you havent either. i read him before king in yellow and really liked the great god pan and a lot of the short stories.
weird. i though dusty was boring and lame while tolstoy drew me in immediately after a few pages. its about a love and families that go well and bad.
20
Birth of Tragedy - my first Nietzsche, im really liking it so far
Infinite Jest - some chapters are amazing but others seem incredibly boring, probably because i haven't progressed enough yet
I don’t get how you can read two books, especially two lofty books like those, at the same time. What’s your juggling process? I can maybe, MAYBE, read two books simultaneously if one of them if significantly lighter, easier read
i try to completely devote myself to whichever text i feel more inclined to read that day which makes the ideas and concepts of that text play through my head for the next few days and i try to connect these ideas with the other text/texts that im reading.
I started with Birth Of Tragedy
*too
how did you find it? i didnt expect to enjoy it as much as i am enjoying it right now
It was decent, though On The Genealogy Of Morals is my favorite by him
great idea to start with it.
the themes and ideas in this book will follow nietzsche in quite literally every single one of his books.
>22
>Got about 3 books on the go rn (yeah, it's called multi-tasking, us zoomers can do it)
Main book I'm reading that has my attention is A Canticle For Leibowitz, a few chapters in but that shit is tight, yo.
Reminds me of those 'deterrent spikes' for nuclear waste thousands of years in the future but if they made a whole book about it.
3O
>House of Leaves
Interesting main premise spliced with some bullshit but it is growing on me. I was getting annoyed with the Jonny segments until I read his mother's letters in the appendix and damn it does give some context to his mental state.
I kind of wish I had read it when it was first recommended to me at 19 but then again I doubt I would have been as critical.
35
Pic
I think I bought a shit translation
This is dreadful hippie shite
>dreadful hippie shit
So is most eastern philosophy kek
>30
>Parmenide
>wut
>30
>Anna Karenina
And I feel like I’m being filtered. I’m just about into Part 8 and I’ve been sitting here trying to understand what the point of all this is. Is it just a pretty comprehensive reflection of the times of Russian life back then, or is there something deeper?
Loved Crime and Punishment, but this is my first Tolstoy. I’m feeling like I just don’t *get* him.
There’s not much to get, Tolstoy is boring as all frick. And a dumb commie.
You are being filtered. Read Nabokov's analysis of the book. A ridiculous amount of puzzles and details are layered in it. And the ultimate message is "God is love"
>19
>Mao II
>i've nearly finished the novel but i'm unsure if i'm sold on delillo's prose style just yet. his characters and dialogue are pretty weak but there's some powerful scenes in here that illuminate the bigger picture for me and bring all of his themes together in a satisfying way.
try to stick with him, but don't feel bad if you decide to put it down for a while.
tolstoy had a way of capturing the minutia of our most intimate relationships. it's a level of detail that no other writer has gotten close to for me. his writing is sublime and such a joy to read, i'm certain i'll be rereading his works for decades to come.
>Since I'm so young, will I be able to fully enjoy the later volumes?
unrelated to your question but i'm hesitant to begin reading philosophy for this exact reason.
i'd like to begin reading pynchon quite soon, hopefully in the coming months.
many people recommend the crying of lot 49 to new readers, however i've read excerpts from mason & dixon and i really adore his style and use of language in that book.
will i get filtered if i don't read his earlier works before reading mason & dixon?
Ya the thing about James is he has an amazing way of literally saying nothing with the most elaborate sentences that somehow amount to “the thing was caused by the thing which caused it to react.” Lol like bro you didnt need to say that. But at the same time, NOBODY can reach such specific little niches of feeling that he worms into. It is almost disturbing reading someone who is not only relatable but downright invasive. I think “why is his writing going here? Is he afraid of something happening? Where am I in this character’s head and why is he so paranoid over a nothing?” But when you are patient with it and you pick up the little imaginary diamond he has pressed together there for you, it is like magic. I could go on and on about him. He was basically an insane genius who played with dolls in his writing. And it is absolutely, almost disturbingly, beautiful.
23
The Shadow of Torturer
very enjoing it and looking forward to read more
27
BNW
Why does it remind me of hitch hikers guide to the galaxy so much
-35
-Das jagdliche Vermächtnis Herzog Albrechts von Bayern
-Times were different, eh?
31 next week
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Read it when I was young and liked it, it makes me happy reading it again.
A great book. I’ve read the Narnia series at least 4 times through.
>29
>Before the coffee gets cold
Coming from e-girlta this feels like it was written for teens. Not vibing with it honestly
>27
>the capital
it's interesting and more entertaining than I thought.
>hegel's philosophical propaedeutic
this really is a great intro to hegel's philosophy in general. interesting, challenging but comprehensible.
>hobbit
I thought capital kinda slapped too, very polemic, seemed to be about efficiency more than equality, but still communism is super gay and dumb and based on bad economics of the time
29
Finished submission by houellbecq last night. Interesting concept, and I think houellbecq makes a good point. There is no "soul" in western society, and because of that we're particularly susceptible to collapse, or domination by another cultural or relgious force. We can only trade houses, vacations, and iphones back in forth for so long. There needs to be something else, and its clearly sorely lacking in the West.
Started Fidel and Gabo (I know I know this isnt peak literature, but whatever), so far a fluffy book about the friendship between Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez but interesting enough to keep reading.
34
The Green Man
Enjoying it so far but I shouldn't really read books from 50 years ago written in a language that's not my mother tongue
>familiarity with Nietzsche helps with Baudrillard quite a lot
I have some nietzsche on my shelf, but haven’t gotten around to him yet. Guess I’m reading these out of order
After this I was going to shift gears into something either occult or new age science. It’s a tie between the quantum and the lotus and some of the grimoires I have
NTA but good to know, I have some Baudrillard works
What do you have?
Comsumer Society and Symbolic Exchange & Death
>Death Comes for the Archbishop is an American classic.
Agreed. For a relatively plotless novel it's surprisingly gripping, and Cather's landscape prose is second to none.
>25
>The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov
Shite. Complete shite. Full of Quasi-nostalgy for soviet times, resentment on fell of USSR. (No fricking surprise that author went full Z supporter) Story about gangs of libraries who read specific old, shitty and boring socialist literature about workers on factories, kolkhozes that happened to give them feeling of drug like happiness, or rage, or self-confidence, or memories of life that they didn't have. And now this "librariesbook clubs" sometimes made of old lonely people, sometime out prison's low-level scum, sometime out of literally old hags from hospices - all fighting each other to death with cold weapon to get more books and find "Book of meaning". This is dull, simple written bullshit that not even interesting as metaphor for Russian society. I only started it because i knew author as bard musician with good and funny songs, he became more popular and somehow they made tv-series out of it.
>age
33
>current book
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
>your thoughts on it
I just finished it today and I absolutely loved it. It clearly went deep into my psyche as I started having extremely vivid dreams revolving around empathy. They were so convincing that I went to turn them into a novel some day.
>19
>Swann's way
It made me have a very uncomfortable dream adaptation of a memory from my childhood last night and gave me newfound insights into that memory (if I choose to believe them). The prose is, due to the subject of the book, painfully haunting. I'm only 100 pages in and I've already gone back to reread certain sections a number of times.
One thing I'm worried about: Since I'm so young, will I be able to fully enjoy the later volumes? Will it not be a search for lost time but moreso an exploration of things to come?
Don't worry about not being able to fully enjoy something right away. If you're getting something from it now it's worth it. You can always revisit it when you're older.
Just finished the first book of the lord of the rings trilogy. It’s good for what it is but referring to Aragorn as “strider, the ranger” repeatedly is cringe eventually and “strider” is a pretty eye rolling-worthy name to begin with. But at the time it was written this wasn’t cringey edgy cliche it was new and fresh and I tried to keep it in mind. Im 37 live under a rock never seen any of the movies or read the series before so it’s all new to me. I’ll either read the next book in the series or the copy of Mason&Dixon I got for Christmas next
19
Gravity’s Rainbow
It’s ok but I think I like V. better
31
Ulysses
Don't get me started because I'll just end up pissing a lot of people off. I don't care for it is the nicest thing I can say about it.
>19
>Conversations with Goethe and Critique of Pure Reason
>CwG mentions a lot of plays and productions I am not familiar with, but hearing about Goethe’s life through the words of Eckermann who is super likeable is interesting.
>Critique of Pure Reason is my favorite philosophy book so far. I am about to start the Dialectic. Life changing experience to be honest.
>50's
>The Yearling
Other than Ma Baxter being big/fat, it's pretty much just like the movie so far. A nice break from my usual anti-semitic reading.
What are some of your usual antisemitic reads? Asking for a friend
Kevin MacDonald's Trilogy
Uncle Adolf, of course
books on Usury (Calvin Elliot and Zippy Catholic- I damn near sold my rental property after reading Elliot)
Henry George (although he drops the ball)
Which Way Western Man, which led me to...
Anthony Ludovici
Shakespeare/De Vere (Oxfordian here, b***hes)
Savitri Devi
GLR
...
that' a pretty good start pack.
>26
>The Doloriad
>most of the book is describing the fricking sky
>19
>The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher
>guess he has to explain the basics for people who aren’t obsessed like linguistics like i am. i know what a sound change is get to the good stuff already, but i like his writing style
25
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Almost finished with chapter 2. It's playing out a bit more comedic than I thought it would going in. "K" seems like he isn't fitting in that well with the townsfolk, which is no surprise for a Kafka story.
28
1Q84
Pacing is slow as frick but the JK is cute.
>35
>The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
>It's good
Pushing 60
Hakluyt's Voyages
Fascinating read.
Do you often read travelogues? Where did Hakluyt go? Did you like any similar books?
27
Cioran, Fall into Time
I feel like on the heights of despair was more methodological and just better structured overall. This one is just him complaining about man obtaining awareness and suffering as a result. It feels a bit repetitive. Hopefully it picks up later on.
42
documents of the Council of Trent
we were so much more based, worthy of salvation 500 years ago
23
Wonderling by Mira Bartok
After Reading many "Classics" and non fiction its a nice Change. im only at 175/460 so i cant really say tocmuch except that i really Like how she builds the world :3 The End
30
The master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
It wasn't boring but it wasn't exciting either. I guess I would have enjoyed it more if I actually knew about Go
>27
>Paradise Lost by John Milton
>I like it a lot more than The Divine Comedy so far, but it's got the same problem in that I'm moronic so I have to read an explanation of the books as I finish them. The prose is wonderful but I assume it's because it was natively written in English unlike older epic poems.
>34
>Oblivion collection by DFW
>it's excellent
24
Doors of Perception (Huxley)
The single best description/depiction of the psychedelic experience in any piece of media I’ve ever seen. Not incredibly well written or anything but a super fun read if you’re in the know
>28
>The Thirst for Annihilation
Lemme go off
>24
>valis
>i think im a schizo because everything my man Dick is saying sounds exactly like the stuff i've been pondering about since i was 15
im not joking a lot of what he is saying just sounds perfectly normal to me because i had those ideas since i was a teenager, he just put it into comprehensible words
Dick is good at that. I read Ubik in inpatient while strung out on downers and thought he was fishing around in my head. Read The Exegesis if you want more insight into how actually insane PKD was.
valis comes with his exegesis, i dont know if its the full thing though, he did lose me with the aline stuff though in his exegesis (in the story i dont mind it) but who knows maybe in a couple of years it will sounds reasonable to me
Idk I'm reading the 400 pg tome detailing 2-3-74 that's called The Exegesis of Philip K Dick I never read Valis I read most of his other stories but this comes across as the most mainline of his psychotic ramblings next to doing actual lsd regularly.
>19
>The Thirty Years War. Europe's Tragedy'
>I'm on page 16. Although I don't care too much on the makeup of the HRE, the author does a great job on illustrating its complexity in an easy to understand manner.
>21
>Goethe's scientific studies
The methodological musings in the first part of the book were interesting, the actual scientific studies are not because I don't have enough knowledge of botany, zoology, etc. Feeling pretty mogged
19
Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung
Amazing so far, I got an abridged version and the third book is going down like water. After reading the greeks, the scholastics and Kant's Critique it's amazing to finally get to the point that someone stops categorizing and instead writes something concrete (Kant filtered me, took close to 4 months to finish Pure Reason)
As an aside I'm for some reason reading Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, complete shit until now, very close to dropping, guy keeps spewing bullshit after bullshit, managed to say "church bad", "old people dumb" and "my israeli grandparents were oppressed" in the first 30 pages
Am I the only person who found Kant easy?
>25
>Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700
>Johns Hopkins University Press, Ancient society and history, 1996
Kenneth W. Harl
>also gunsmith cats.
I really like learning about coinage/specie. not specifically the coins themselves (but that is interesting enough) but instead the environment they were created in. for example in the third century the crisis forced the roman government to debase the coinage from a gold and silver bimetallic standard to essentially fiat currency in the form of billions of brass coins that were worthless and the economy went to bartering.
Silver and gold were hoarded in banks or buried and the worthless brass were discarded which means millions of these coins, bullion or brass, survive adn can be had for relatively cheaply. especially the brass. you can get a roman brass coin that is 2,000 years old for just a few dollars.
So you have you read the Naismith book from last year yet? Thoughts?
no, which on is that?
thanks for the rec, downloading now.
21
Mere Christianity
It's good for what it is, but I am not really learning anything new. A non-Theist or baby Christian would get much more value out of it.
32
Portnoy's Complain
Surprisingly good. There's a real creativity. I love the image of his father cooking up horrible leaves.
Yeah I really appreciated that one when I went back and skimmed it again. Some really nice emotional payoffs in there.
32
The Map and the Territory
It's charming
29
just finished When gravity fails
i like the arab scifi setting, maybe im gonna read the following books with marid audran too
>Age
20
>Current Book
The third book of Gaskun's space opera: Two Phantoms
>Thoughts
It's surprisingly robust, albeit there are some infodumps that kinda take me out of the story at points.
25
The Reformation
It's a little overzealous and wordy while being low on the actual details, but it's a subject I'm not very familiar with and am learning a lot.
By whom? I’m reading about the 17th century and this might be good background reading
Reverend J. A. Babington
Its some book my community college library was throwing away years ago. It was originally published 1901 and the author seems like a total nobody. He just wrote it to supplenent his seminary course, according to the introduction.
Here's the isbn look up
https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/0804611351
Seems like amazon has copies for sale
26
Love is a Dog from Hell
Been working out (Olympic lifting) and keeping good habits, but still feel like I am destined to be old, lonely and transgressive
Is 26 too old annon?
>23
>Dresden Files: Death Masks
I'm enjoying it so far. I'm reading it as per the recommendation of my bf and I'm enjoying it a lot. But I suppose I'm more-so speaking on the series as a whole since I'm plowing through all the books night after night
>33
>The Collected Letters of Gustave Flaubert
I adore Gus and it would make a fine goal to read every word he ever wrote. It's fascinating to delve into the mind of a great writer. Flaubert is a hoot too, very stereotypically French, gushy, particular, obsessed with women; an overheated, passionate, sensuous creature that could almost be brought to tears over life's small pleasures. His letters are chock full of deep insights about the art of writing or les affres de l'Art and literature. At times he thinks like a philosopher. I appreciated learning that he was a NEET living with his mom while writing Madame Bovary.
>At ten o'clock, when my mother came into my study to say goodnight, my nerves were so taut that I frightened her by giving a great shout of terror.
You really get the sense why Flaubert is considered such a writer's writer. His dedication to it borders on the religious. "Without my love of form, I would have perhaps have been a great mystic." He's constantly documenting how he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because he can't get a sentence right, and talks as though he were possessed by a demon. "I am keyed up to a high pitch-my brow is burning, sentences keep rushing into my head..."
"But I know these masked balls of the imagination! You come away from them exhausted and depressed, having seen only falsity and spouted nonsense. Everything should be done coldly, with poise.
29. Sons & Lovers by D H Lawrence. It's giving me a lot of nostalgia, and making me question whether or not I have been a good son to my parents.
>29
>"Ödet och Hoppet" by Niklas Natt och Dag
>It is good, written in a somewhat archaic language makes the medieval theme even more prominent.
27
George F. Kennan: An American Life
It's been a good read. Kennan is a really fascinating and odd character. I was reading a different book that mentioned him a lot. And I needed to know more. He was very temperamental, melancholic, and smart. His writings became American policy despite all that.
>27
>The Life of Graham Greene Volume 3
A fantastic biography, Greene comes across as a fascinating man with some questionable morals. Some of the random throwaway details the author includes are hilarious, such as when Graham Greene called every other Graham Greene he could find in the phonebook and told them he found their novels to be morally disgusting.
Feet
32
Henry Miller - Plexus
it's pretty good, the best one from the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy probably, the only thing I don't like too much is the length since I am a pretty slow reader
28
Re-reading Eco's Name of the Rose
When I read it for the first time in my teens, I was like
>"Whoah, so deep, so many things, so many themes, such erudition, so much passes over my head, what an abyssal glance into~"
Now I'm like
>"Dude is just rofling, flexing and winking at the audience non-stop. It's all one big gag."
I no longer see them book as a serious literary doorstopper, and now it apperas more like a fat nerd having a lil' laugh with the boys - and it only seems better for it. None of the themes are very deep or complex, and I was legit dumb for not seeing their simplicity and humor.
>19
>Mason & Dixon
>Has some funny parts, love the prose but the plot is rather confusing. Will have to buy the physical copy to reread.
69
The Epic of Gilgamesh
IDK, I have only read the introduction so far
21
Don Quixote
Wanted a lighter hearted read after Blood Meridian
Just got to the part with the Galley Slaves
One of the most underrated aspects of the book is how profound the Don can be at times
Like when he was holding up the acorns in the sky and started waxing about the times before Man learned lust and shame
I think it's telling that while the Shepherds believed him to be mad, Don Quixote found Marcella, who they similarly categorize as cruel, to be an admirable soul worth following. That these are two great people rejected by their fellows for the crime of thought
The Shepherds didn't even bother paying her speech mind, they would have gone after her after she told them the folly of loving her, if not for the Don's intervention. They are both truly free souls living their lives as much to their pleasure as the world allows, true colleagues in philosophy
I'm starting to see why the novel transcends
He's not meant to just be an insane idiot commoner.
I feel like the Spanish expresses him as both insane and unusually lucid, an idiot but unusually smart, common but noble. The language is at once cuttingly cynical and genuinely admiring.
34, just started Book of the Long Sun. Its comfy so far, very curious to see where this thing is going
68
>dialectic of enlightenment
kinda mid no cap
22
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Pretty good. It's my first time reading Wallace and I'm planning on reading Infinite Jest after this. Am I doing the DFW's path right, IQfy?
45
Endured "The Fountainhead" on the advice of some folks. Rand's objectivism reads like a preachy self-help book for egomaniacs.
22
no longer human
I do not enjoy it, he is such a b***h.
25
The Anarchy
just finished the chapter about the bengal famine, now reading about how the East India Company is getting bailed out by the Bank of England. very interesting
>get rekt
>ur mum
>ur mum times two
Why don't you engage with the prompt sincerely instead of hiding behind bland cynicism
Why post on a literature board if you don't want to discuss literature
post from 2013
>25
>Jane Erye
I’m only a hundred or so pages in and It’s not too bad. Gothic isn’t much my genre but Charlotte brings me in with her descriptions of Jane’s thoughts and Lowood
>21
>Submission by Houellebecq
I'd never read anything by him. It's very engaging especially as a European. I see it more as a tale about how Europe and Europeans are worn down and lead such pointless existences that they would rather hand over their identity and submit to whatever seems useful and gives them some perceived purpose. In that sense Islam in this book could just be replaced with some other ideology. Overall amazing stuff, though his sex scenes get way too graphic for my taste.
>30
>LOTR Fellowship
I've enjoyed it so far...so much description of scenery and trekking, and it's nowhere near as charismatic as the movies, but I can see why it's so popular and revolutionary for fantasy writing: Tolkien invents multiple langauges, races, myths, landscapes, weapons, and describes those mostly ineffable forces that compel us to good and evil...brava!
You're not even to where he starts using dialect to define the different nations and has passages in blank verse (maybe some of the elf lines and bombadil) that are subtle. Two Towers is where all the good shit and charisma is, although book 4 of 6 is a slog if I remember correctly.
>38
>Barsoom Omnibus
I both like and dislike it. I like the general story but it is always slow and a slog to read.
36
Out of the Silent Planet
Started off a bit tedious, too many characters. But after a chapter or two it became riveting. Lewis might be one of the most well read men in history, and he enjoys incorporating into his work.
Holy fook I mistyped. This should be That Hideous Strength. Out of the Silent Planet is the first book of the series.
22
Reading Breakfast of champions by Vonnegut. Really enjoying it right now, it's funny, easy to read, and has tons of pictures. Love Vonnegut.
This thread has made me realize this is an oldgay site now...time to move on, I guess.
Bye, pedo!
Stick around sonny, you might learn something.
>29
>John Dies at the End
Bought it in 2012 and just now getting to it. Kind of Reddit at times, but also makes me mildly nostalgic for /b/. Definitely not high art, but it's a decent break from re-reading a bunch of Dazai.
I have fond memories of visiting cracked.com everyday until it fell off a cliff because it became super woke. I’m not even a chud, that’s how bad it got in like the span of a month if my memory serves me
Are you me? That was also my experience with Cracked, it was insane how quickly the quality declined
I think it was sold or something. I remember drama with the writers and in the comment section and there were a few writers brought on that did nothing but post incendiary flamewar type articles that were basically racebait. I remember one woman in particular was given a spot like every day or two and she would post stuff like 5 reasons white men are evil. Looking back that was probably one of the opening bells of the culture war and identity politics. It sucks as I hate all that shit and loved spending time on cracked. It had to have been no more than a few weeks where I realized the site wasn’t for me and it was making me mad. I also have fond memories of listverse from that era
I remember an article series there where the author installed a spy-cam in his sister's apartment living room to monitor her love life or something that was hilarious, and it has been completely scrubbed from the Internet as far as I can tell.
The old days of cracked, something awful, ebaums world, etc really were halcyon days, strange as it is to say.
Those were the days when actual communities, forums, real websites existed before the internet took shape into something else and social media got absorbed into a few monstrous platforms. Times were more simple and fun then. Sadly I don’t ever see those types of days coming back, at least not for a while
Message boards are actually making a comeback
Something awful was always a shitty site with a repugnant userbase
I can't remember, but I think I bought the book without realizing it was the Cracked guy. I got it alongside House of Leaves because I guess I had an interest in popular horror beyond King. I don't really remember, as I spent the past couple years in high school reading Ellis, Palahniuk, Welsh, the occasional Burroughs, Haruki Murakami, and Tao Lin. So Wong and Danielewski don't exactly fit, but I guess I was still transitioning from /b/ to real boards at the time.
In fact, I think I stopped following Cracked when I got into IQfy in 2008, so I never saw much wokeness. I'm curious about newer books by this dude because he says "moron" and "gay" and "Black person" in this book, and I'm pretty sure he dropped the Wong name because yellowface.
Their list on MRA is what caused me to never visit them again
>26
>Phantastes by George MacDonald
>I'm not that far in, but I'm enjoying it. It has that mature-child sensibility that Tolkien and Lewis are able to capture so well. I had been getting tired of reading Brits from the turn of the century, but this is just different. I could see myself reading this to my kids.
That said, I'm scouring this thread for recs.
> 27
> DBT Skills Training Manual, Linehan
> I've never read anything on dialectics before this, but how it's talked about in this book reminds me of Taoism (especially yin-yang, and ji ji mu ge). The whole mindfulness thing I'm not new to, and can appreciate - it always seems a good thing when I'm reminded to be mindful, and present in the current moment/flowing with each experience. In this book it's put forth as having more practical benefit than in those typical Eastern sources I'm familiar with (Zen). The Rational Mind, Emotional Mind, Wise Mind thing reminds me of Jung’s Thinking type and Feeling type, as well as the idea of individuation. For some reason I really dislike the name Dialectical Behavioural Therapy. I also dislike the association with BPD. That's all so far, though I just started today.
>20
>Chevengur
enjoying it so far. feels a bit like "What is to be Done" but a lot more vivid and enthralling overall
>22
>Ignorance by Milan Kundera
One of the best things ever written.
-24
-Count of Monte Cristo
-this book is goated, easy 10/10. Already one of my favorite books
I hope you're reading the non-bowdlerized version with the LSD trip anon, IIRC, that would be the Penguin Black Classics one. It's the only full unabridged English version with the stuff that the Victorians took out in the name of public decency
Yeah already past that part bro, but in the book it says Hashish not acid. Reading in German btw, since English isn’t my mother tongue.
That scene was my first coom when I was 12
>27
>The Catcher in the Rye
It's quite enjoyable. I don't understand why this book is such a big deal for Americans, it's nothing special, but I like it.
>I don't understand why this book is such a big deal for Americans
In the US, the novel is usually taken up in high school, right at the point in life when the themes of loss of innocence and the angst of growing up are most poignant. So it's often babby's first literary fiction for most people, and for non-literary types, one of the few books that really sticks with them throughout their lives.
Catcher in the Rye is in the same catalog as The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird
It's a book often read in high school literature class and it just good enough and clear enough to resonate with people during a highly impressionable time in their lives
Though if people seriously bring it up as one of the best of American Literature it'll likely invite eye rolls as that's a rather immature stance
Gatsby really is fantastic though. It's a shame reading it in high school turns people off to it. Fitzgerald's prose is really top notch.
The CIA uses it to mind control people somehow. There’s been a few high profile assassinations where the killer will pull out this book and start reading after committing the deed.
>26
>Blood Meridian
>From a technical standpoint it's a great read, but I may also hate it because it's so completely debauched. Toughy.
27
The Savage Detectives
Really enjoying it, read a review spoiling the ending, which actually made it so much more interesting. I'm breezing through it because it's not difficult or dense, too. Can't wait to start 2666 after
you're literally me except I read 2666 first.
31 in a few weeks.
Blood Memederidian
This is actually pretty fantastic. It’s like a fever dream.
30
book of leinster
fricking boring
>28
>Orlando: A Biography
>It's perfectly fine
17
the temple of the golden pavilion
loving it, this is mishima at his best from what i've read so far: after this it's sun & steel and then i'll go about beginning the sea of fertility; hopefully all by february
>33
>This is the Faith
Pretty interesting it is about 400 pages laying out all Catholic beliefs with supporting scripture and catechism quotes. Nice to have it all in one book. Would recommend
21
Flowers For Algernon
I chose to read it once when I was around 11 or 12 for an English project, but have been wanting to reread it for years now and really take my time with it.
32
The Makioka Sisters
Absolutely wonderful, one of the best books I've read thus far. Surpremely comfy and warm.
>20
>Getting Off: Pornography and the end of masculinity
>Thought I'd like it more, but rather than commenting on the real world nagative cognitive effects that pornography has on the viewer, the author completely ignores these things for the purpose of painting pornography as a woman only problem, with (white) men as the bbeg in the grand story of victimization. There are a few good points made, however. D Tier