/lit/ - Literature

>>15484300
>but people seem to suggest that you can't have a good understanding of any literature before having read them.

who said this?

>>15484300
if the Iliad is too hard for you you are an actual middle schooler

what do you find hard about them? I guess I was lucky to have it taught to me in my classics class as a teenager but even without the teacher explaining it the text itself seemed quite straightforward.

>>15484300
Which translation did you get?

>>15484313
It's not hard it's just boring

>>15484331
i want to strangle you

>>15484341
:(

>>15484300
>can't have a good understanding of any literature before having read them
This is 100% a meme. 99.99% of all post Greek/Roman literature can be fully understood and enjoyed if you haven't read the Greeks/Romans. The only possible exception is if you are a doctoral literature student, which you clearly and obviously aren't and never will be.

If you read the Greeks/Romans, it should be for your own personal enjoyment and no other reason.

>>15484408
Thanks friend

>>15484313
The Iliad and Odyssey was part of my middle school course, we even had to write a short story taking place in the setting

>>15484331
You don't have to read book, y'know. It's not really a status symbol or anything.

>>15484408
>99.99% of all post Greek/Roman literature can be fully understood and enjoyed if you haven't read the Greeks/Romans.
Doesn't mean it should be.

>If you read the Greeks/Romans, it should be for your own personal enjoyment and no other reason.
What a consoooooooomerist value theory you got there, anon. Stay cucked and brainded. Let me know when the serotonin runs dry.

>>15484656
I would make the teachers regret the assignment with the steamy action of Achilles x. Patroclus.

>>15484675
I'm better than you

>>15484687
Yeah I'm sure that's why you had to type that into 4chan.org/lit/ buddy. Stay mad.

>>15484300
What is the purpose of reading thousand year old gay poems?

>>15484300
>you can't have a good understanding of any literature before having read them
The kind of "understanding" of literature people reference when they say this is strictly academic. I personally think the kind of analysis of literature you read in academia represents a cheapening of the medium as an art form. It's essentially just a cataloguing of sequences of "this book followed this book" and "this book is like this book in this way." There's a reason accomplished critics are only very rarely accomplished authors. Literary criticism is just masturbation.

>>15484331
>boring
It's a poem about a mythological battle in which both Gods, Humans and Demigods fight. How is that boring? Are you female?

>>15484675
>consoooooooomerist
I read all my ancient Greek stories from Project Gutenberg. There was no capitalist exchange.

>>15485252
Based frog who reads 19th ce translations

>>15485242
I don't like genre fiction

>>15485279
And how is that relevant?

Yes, "you can't have a good understanding of any literature before having read them" is a meme. That being said if Homer is too hard for you, maybe literature isn't the hobby for you.

>>15485279
That's why you should read Homer.

>>15485242
>How is that boring?
In a similar way Marvel films are boring. There's nothing worse than watching the 1000000th generic fight/chase scene. Even a 40 minute film about four windows is way more interesting than that. Action done right is when (1) you are made to genuinely care for the characters and for the outcome and (2) it isn't dragged out. The Illiad fails on both fronts. There are fragments that read well (such as Diomedes fighting in Book 5), but it's at least 10x too long because at the time it was composed people were bored out of their fucking minds.

>>15485331
Being triggered this much by Marvel movies has rotted your brain to the point you can't appreciate major cornerstones of western civilization.

>>15484300
I mean you can: Classic literature i'ts supposed to be fun for some old partying gay greeks and roman pseuds, not the contemporary readers. In any case, i cried at the end of the illiad. Some parts are boring, but if you really like literature give it a try

>>15484300
No

>>15485402
Why would I be triggered by Marvel movies? And I can appreciate Plato or Aristotle perfectly well. What I can't appreciate is a dragged out primitive snoozefest from literal dark ages, not counting the fragments here and there which are actually worthwhile.

>>15484300
Read an anthology of at least a wiki page that explains it to you. Didn't you study it at school? No obligation to read it fully anyway, I think you should only do it if you feel like

How the fuck can Home be too hard for you? Even on a surface level he's at least enjoyable.

>>15485556
How is it enjoyable at surface level?

https://discord.gg/FFwRXKq

>>15484331
Maybe you should put away 4chan if you can’t even read Homer without being bored. Anyways you should read it. People who are telling you to read a summary or whatever haven’t read it themselves. There’s no texts more influential on Ancient Greece than Homer’s, absolutely vital to read.

>>15485525
>Didn't you study it at school?
I see people ask this about Homer all the time, and I am always confused. Like with Shakespeare I get it, everyone reads Shakespeare in school, but I don't think Homer is something that a huge portion of the world reads during their mandatory education.

>>15485643
I should clarify that I have no idea what kind of representation Shakespeare gets in non-English compulsory education, but at least in the English-speaking world I'd imagine pretty much everyone reads it in school.

>>15484686
>not hector sneaking into patroclus bed while achilles watches

>>15485608
Greek mythology is cool as fuck.

>>15485242
>a mythological battle in which both Gods, Humans and Demigods fight

sounds just as epic as all my favorite capeshit

>>15484300
For Homer, read the translations by Fagles. Also, it's admittedly best read out loud as poetry.

Iliad
>https://griersmusings.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/homer_the_iliad_penguin_classics_deluxe_edition-robert-fagles.pdf

Odyssey
>https://www.boyle.kyschools.us/UserFiles/88/The%20Odyssey.pdf

Reading of Iliad by Derek Jacobi
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6WX6-G4Tdw

>>15484300
read whatever you want, man. don't fall for the /lit/ mentality of "reading =/= fun"

>>15485510
>"I can appreciate Aristotle"
>refuses to listen to Aristotle on the value of poetry
You are a certified retard.

>>15488068
It might have some value, which doesn't change the fact that it's boring. Also, according to your implication you can't appreciate both Plato and Aristotle because they didn't agree on everything. I'm pretty sure I'm not the one being a retard here.