/lit/ - Literature

>>10702015
know what ur buying before you buy it kid

>>10702015
Notes from the underground huh?

>>10702015
>browsing different copies of a book
>new edition with foreword by literal who and exclusive illustrations by literal who
>it's the cheapest copy
I bought this copy of Frankenstein, then skipped the foreword. The illustrations were surprisingly sparse and tasteful

>>10702015
>buy Barnes and Noble classic
>foreword is LITERALLY a more eloquently worded summary of their Wikipedia page

always skip the introduction, what a fucking waste of time

>>10702015
>translator does a good job

>>10703306
>knowing the translator does a good job
>yet still reads the translation
W-why?

>>10703312
I'm talking about when they include footnotes with alternate meanings or descriptions that further illustrate such as explanations of references the author makes. Like if you had not read Horaces Odes and then Ovid referenced them a good translator would explain the reference to provide context.

>Biographical Sketch of the translator
>A note on the translation
>Introduction to the seventh edition
>introduction to the sixth edition
>introduction to the fifth edition
>introduction to the fourth edition
>introduction to the third edition
>introduction to the second edition
>introduction to the first edition
>Biographical sketch of the author
>Translator's preface
>Author's introduction
>authors preface

>side-by-side translation and original text
>helpful footnotes explain contested words and unclear paragraphs, provide alternate translations
>glossary of technical terms
>essay written by a respected academic on the text
>lengthy Further Reading section with explanations for each entry

>>10703345
>to autistic to skip a page
that's the worst, reading through literally who, to afraid to miss some vital context

>buy poetry book
>the notes at the end are longer than the poem itself
>most of the notes are just about the editor
That's the last time I read something Kinbote puts together

>>10703376
The book I'm referring to (greatly exaggerating though) is Plotinus' Enneads, and the intro material was surprisingly helpful, yes, even the biographical sketch of the translator (which sounds pretty ridiculous tbqh). For fiction books I almost always skip that shit.

>>10702015
literal who writes good forewards though

>>10703378
Pale Fire satirizes this very well.

>>10703378
George Bernard Shaw's intro to his play about Joan of Arc is actually better than the play itself.

>>10703392
I think that's true of most of his forewords. I felt the same about Man and Superman

>buy a book
>foreword by william h gass

>>10702015
>long forward in front of text
>it's only marginally related to the main text and goes over basic geography and history

>>10702067
Not relevant but why wasn't Haiti the hill these guys chose to die on?
Haiti is like an objectively bad place to live, its shittiness is quite literally visible from space.

>>10704572
It is not being argued that Haiti is a nice place to live. If you think that, you should read deeper into the implications of the arguments, and stop forming your opinions of the left based on twitter personalities.

>>10704572
Because everyone can agree it's uncivilized for the leader of a country to insult another like that. We know Haiti's fucked up, but it's still rude to call them a shithole in front of that many people

>>10704537
ayyy its the recogntiions

>>10704578
>>10704579
Literally no one cares what haiti thinks, lmao. Everyone wants to act offended on their behalf for superficial decorum.

>>10704674
I guess you're free to continue believing people genuinely lack empathy.

>Read the Complete Works of Aeschylus.
>200 pages long introduction.
>more than 50 pages are the translator austically explaining each of the word choices he made wherever there was any slight ambiguity in the text.

>>10704728
this is pretty interesting desu. i love to know some details about the original text, the use of figures of speech, the word choices and so on. i like when the translator comments his decisions on something like a joke we might have missed with a direct translation.

>>10702015
Is there ever a reason to read those?
I always skip 'em for fiction, and read them until I get bored for non

>>10704697
You can't be genuinely empathetic toward another race

>>10702015
>buy a book
>foreword by neil gayman
>says he knew the author
>it's mostly stuff taken off wikipedia

>>10704697
I live in rural Kansas and I'd call it a shithole. Am I not being empathetic to myself?

>>10704537
Fucking my copy of Grendel

>>10702015
>not reading the introduction last if yer interested enough in the book/author

Also

>not being interested in what someone who has studied the author and text might have to say about them

>buy book
>opens with a quran quote about slaughtering infidels
>im ok with this

>>10704579
wasn't the comment made in a closed door meeting? there is a long and proud tradition of presidents being vulgar behind closed doors.

>>10703299
On the contrary, if you are reading something EXTREMELY bland, then the introduction is by definition the only interpretation of it you're going to get.

It's a nice little primer for discussion, to be honest with you. If you DON'T read the introduction, you are either reading something extremely simple to understand, or just not reading good literature.

>>10705670
>buys mathematical text
>"Praise Allah, lord of the worlds"
>im ok with this

>Foreword by literally who
>spoils 3/4ths of the book on the first page

>>10706340
>Not having read the 1st edition of books
>Not only reading re-printed editions for the Forward.

>>10706356
>buying first edition of books from the 1950s

>>10705085

>>10706387
>Not buying 1st edition books from the 1950s

>>10705147
>caring about a hack editor's opinion

Just let me read the damned book.

>>10704572
>its shittiness is quite literally visible from space
just proved this to my course advisor this morning
next up romania

>>10705147
Its always the same thing - omg the author is a genius now let me suck his dick for the next 10 pages.

>>10703388
It actually satirizes Nabokov's own translation of Eugene Onegin or some other Russian work. He literally wrote a commentary that was significantly larger than the actual book.

>>10707943
What are you reading that that's all you get out of introductions? With translated works especially there's almost always some cool insights about the original text and stuff, for instance. I don't even like P&V much but I found their intro to TBK to be worth reading.

>>10707943
>>suck his dick

>reads the T.S. Eliot introduction to Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
>it's just Eliot being a beta and eating out Barnes' pussy
>even worse is the quote from William "Tell" Burroughs saying this is the best book ever written