/lit/ - Literature

I just finished Lord of the Rings. Is there any point to reading any other fantasy after this or will it all just be slightly different but ultimately worse versions of Tolkien?

Do you guys write out what your characters are before you include them in your stories? I've started doing this recently, literally making my character variations of archetypes. It makes my stories very metaphor heavy, almost to the same extent to that of fairytales, but I actually kind of like it.

To you write down motivations, themes, character traits, etc. or do you just hold all of that in your head?

>>10492504
The Homeric Epics are a great starting point for the very fact that they bridge Bronze Age values with Classical values. That's why Diomedes isn't the main hero, although he takes part to, in my opinion, contrast with Achilles' aristeia. They're the foundation you build on. In addition, they're amazing works.

The Bible, NRSV translation with notes.

I'm about 40 chapters into Genesis at the moment, and holy shit is it boring. Parts of it is really good, but then you have the bits that is just justifying wars between nations that stopped existing two thousand years ago.

And there are other dry bits as well, like when Abraham sends Jacob away to another land to acquire a wife, and he stays there and works for 14 years, and all the characters constantly try and scam each other.