/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13037164]

How do I get on the same level as the more knowledgeable /lit/ posters? I turned to books in my mid 20s after running out of tv and movies to consume and now I wish I had studied eng lit and the like and trained my brain muscles more from an earlier age instead of watching mind cancer during my formative years.
I'm enjoying going through the classics but I just find myself envious of people with mastery of the english language and its many rules. I feel like I'm lacking the tools to express my interpretations sometimes, and when I consider writing myself I stop because I don't know what the difference between a noun and pronoun is, where to use commas correctly, semicolons etc.
Help an inferior pleb out.

Also to help you gauge my literary powerlevel:
>Favourite book was blood meridian but now its probably sir gawain and the green knight
>Recently started reading LotR and holy shit it's good, I thought it was gonna be tacky drivel like the movies, I remember saying 5 years ago that GRR Martin is a better writer than Tolkein because I preferred the GoT tv show to the LotR movies and I want to jump off a bridge when I think what the other person must have thought of me
>Recent fan of Arthurian romances after discovering the green knight last year
>I use audible exclusively because I can only concentrate on comic books when it comes to eye reading
>I tried listening to the illiad but I couldnt concentrate, I just remember my mind drifting at a part where they all dock their ships and its describing like 20 different character or armies or something

[Anonymous No.13037214]

>>13037164
>I'm enjoying going through the classics but I just find myself envious of people with mastery of the english language and its many rules.

>Classics
>English

>I don't know what the difference between a noun and pronoun is

>LotR

>I tried listening to the illiad but I couldnt concentrate

Is this an example of a typical American brainlet? Honestly surprised.

[Anonymous No.13037236]

>>13037214
just an honest pleb looking to better himself, you dont need to be such a smugger.

[Anonymous No.13037254]

Just read books you fucking idiot, fuck your retarded blog thread. You think a bunch of 19 year old marxist redditors have any advice for you? No one cares about your typical faggot life. If you've been fooled into thinking /lit/ is smart because muh eloquence you're doomed
>studying english
>2019
Holy fuck lmao

[Anonymous No.13037257]

You're not alone, anon. I would encourage you to read some supplementary works, such as critical analysis on your favorite books/stories/poems. Scholarly research on literature can be best understood as an expansive conversation in which many people voice many opinions touching on numerous concerns related to that literature. Silly as it might seem, reading this literature is a good way to also expand your vocab because people publishing appreciate unique words. I would also encourage you to purchase C.E. Cirlot's dictionary of symbols and maybe read a Jung book--these will be beneficial in understanding what an author might be trying to say when it's not explicit.

[Anonymous No.13037258]

>>13037236
Honestly if you can't concentrate enough to actually read a book you are hopeless. Why bother going through the classics or trying to develop a well-rounded understanding of literature if you can't even read and just want to listen to nice stories? Sounds like you just don't have the mind or attention-span and should just give up.

[Anonymous No.13037273]

>>13037164
Read whatever you enjoy. This board is full of pseudo intellectual faggots, ignore them.

[Anonymous No.13037286]

>>13037254
you dont have to be such a meanie

>>13037257
good advice, thanks. funnily enough i ordered the green knight untranslated with annotations yesterday, i read a sample of it out loud to myself and it was beautiful so I just ordered it then and there, first non audible book purchase in a long while.
will also look in to your other suggestions, cheers.

[Anonymous No.13037298]

>>13037258
im still reading the book, mr smarty pants, the words are still going in my head and being digested by my brain belly
yum yum

[Anonymous No.13037307]

>>13037164
>I turned to books in my mid 20s after running out of tv and movies to consume

m8, i bet you haven't even exhausted entry level arthouse

[Anonymous No.13037318]

>>13037307
try me, movies are shit and the only good ones are from the 70s

[Anonymous No.13037338]

>>13037164
Why would anyone take this shit seriously?

[Anonymous No.13037389]

I'm one of the more knowledgeable lit dilettantes
You need to be curious to learn

[Anonymous No.13037397]

>>13037389
>You need to be curious to learn
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ70uUp9eWo
real insightful anon

[Anonymous No.13037415]

>>13037318
You think New Hollywood is the only cinema? Absolutely plebeian

[Anonymous No.13037454]

>>13037415
I'm not here to talk about a shit medium the depth ceiling for movies is too low to enjoy anything that isnt trying to be entertaining

i watched rome open city the other month and i wouldnt wipe my ass with it
im a people pleaser so ill list some movies i like for you to make fun of though

Get Carter (1970)
Barry Lyndon
The Thing
Rififi
Wages of Fear
Point Blank
Hari Kari
Throne of Blood
Eleven Samurai
Good the Bad and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in America

come to think of it, rififi and wages of fear might be the only good movies that didnt come out of america, japan or uk

[Anonymous No.13037458]

>>13037164
OP is a faggot

[Anonymous No.13037460]

>>13037458
no im a retard you idiot

[Anonymous No.13037479]

>>13037454
It's like watching someone dig their own grave then bury themselves in it

[Anonymous No.13037491]

>>13037479
very curious for you to name a top 5

[Anonymous No.13037496]

>>13037164
lul tldr

Just read what makes you happy. A good chunk of this board wants to feel all smart and cool because they read some book with some far out ideas and it's just fucking lame. Reading a book is so low brow and it's such a silly thing to be super proud of.

[Anonymous No.13037502]

>>13037496
whats high brow?

[Anonymous No.13037528]

>>13037164
Never feel inferior to some anonymous people online you'll never meet. Keep reading what interests you. I've just gotten into Arthurian romances myself, I'm loving Le Morte Darthur.

[Anonymous No.13037544]

>>13037502
Something like running a marathon. Things that take time and you should feel rather proud of.

I'm not saying that being proud of the fact that you finished a book is bad. I just don't understand how you can be an edgy redditor with a middle school nhilism complex because you read one or two books, no matter the scope

Does that clear it up at all?

[Anonymous No.13037568]

>>13037544
I don't understand where nhilism comes in to play, I don't care that nothing means anything, I'm happy just doing things I enjoy until I die and maybe leaving something behind if I can make something worth leaving behind be it a creative work, a family etc
I now enjoy books and I wanted advice on how to enjoy them more, I do feel inferior to people with academic intelligence but I don't see the connection with nihilism

[Anonymous No.13037580]

>>13037502
Hunting, dancing, climbing a tree
>>13037544
>Running a marathon
Lol no, running should be either practical or spiritual you pleb

[Anonymous No.13037595]

>>13037580
Yeah sorry, I forgot picking up a book and reading words was a rare skill in your part of the world. I'll leave it to you.

[Anonymous No.13037604]

>>13037595
>Devolved western urbanite thinks only being able to read linguistic signs makes them superior

[Anonymous No.13037624]

>>13037164
Try reading books.

[Anonymous No.13037646]

Sir Gawain is SO GOOD. Don’t stress out too much OP, I actually have a degree in English and trust me many of the graduates don’t even read books. A lot of posters here are full of shit, however it’s more important to engage with posts and people in general because that’s how you sharper your knowledge. Just like you love to read, you’re engaging with the ideas in the texts and the internet is extremely helpful in analysis and historical context etc. so you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Just keep reading on man! Also you might like some of the pre-lotr fantasy books as all of them after are basically influence by Tolkien, Elric and Conan are gritty fantasy adventure type stories which is what GRR Martin basically repackaged for modern readers. I might also recommend the complete fictions of Borges if you want something that will make you feel like you’re going to the next level while not being able to put his work down.

[Anonymous No.13037647]

>>13037604
This. The cognitive nuance shown by a master tracker following the spoor of his game makes reading the most difficult of books look like child's play.

[Anonymous No.13037650]

Honestly just enjoy it, but dont become a psued who uses his interest in difficult and unconventional things as a reason to feel superior to others, obviously

No one who deserves to be taken seriously would ever belittle you for an interest in something they have spent more time in. They obviously used reading as an escape from people if they actually go REEEEEEEE when someone makes a post such as yours. They are the ultimate incel.

Enjoy it, enjoy thinking, enjoy the horrors, enjoy life. Philosophy and literature is just meant as another carnival ride. A very useful carnival ride, but beware of taking it seriously, that will be detrimental.

You will learn all you need to with time. looking up what other people think, any video essays or typed out reviews will help you. Research the author, the time period the book was written in and why it was written. What exactly was the author trying to argue for and against with his book? You can look up online any other questions, but dont think I'm discouraging you from posting here. I hope you outlive the psueds!

[Anonymous No.13037669]

>>13037646
Oh yeah let me add the Canterbury Tales, the Knights Tale will make your dick hard enough to break da pussy in half.

[Anonymous No.13037685]

>I just remember my mind drifting at a part where they all dock their ships and its describing like 20 different character or armies or something

Seriously though, why do old books do this? Im reading through the bible and at Numbers its literally 4 fucking pages of census data

[Anonymous No.13037695]

>>13037685
It's left over from the more intellectual times of oral tradition

[Anonymous No.13037765]

>>13037646
One pre-LotR fantasy book I bought is Phantastes, dunno if its good or not, just that some consider it the first modern fantasy written for adults instead of children. Very interested in folklore and mythology. Semi-related: Is there any good Druid lit? I'd like to read about them but I'm afraid any books I do find from the last 50 years are going to be D&D tier and not authentic.
Ordered fiction by Borges btw, thanks for the suggestion, already got Canterbury Tales in my audible collection

>>13037650
Thanks for the counter perspective to the /lit/ gatekeepers itt, and I'll try not be a pseud if I ascend.

[Anonymous No.13037801]

>>13037685
It's primitive storytelling. This was before people realised there were better ways to develop stories. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Anonymous No.13037816]

>>13037765
OP here forgot to add have any of yall niggas read Cadfael? That's the series that got me started on my medieval literature kick even though its from the 50s iirc, really great characters and fun murder mysteries in a very authentic feeling depiction of 1100s british isles usually framed around real history

[Anonymous No.13037819]

>>13037164
>How do I get on the same level as the more knowledgeable /lit/ posters?
Just bash your head on the wall every day until you lose conscience. One day you might reach the average intelligence of the board.

[Anonymous No.13037828]

>>13037164
have sex

[Anonymous No.13037851]

>>13037828
Sex having isnt my highest priority, I've bedded about 6 or 7 women some of whom were kind of attractive and now I don't feel the need to prove anything in that field and am happy to wank and play videogames until I'm 35 at which point if I haven't met anyone naturally I might put more effort in to finding someone.

[Anonymous No.13037866]

>>13037851
cope

[Anonymous No.13037867]

>>13037650
thanks zhuangzi

[Anonymous No.13037878]

>>13037164
Sorry boomer, cut off point for growth of intelligence is age 24.

[Anonymous No.13037893]

>>13037866
It's not that hard to get with low to medium quality women dude. Well, I'm 6'2 with 6/10 looks so I'm not playing on the same difficulty as some people, but yeah the average woman is kind of dogshit on the inside and videogames have gotten pretty good.

[Anonymous No.13037910]

>>13037893
>video games
>/lit/ is so smrat guize
>I wish I had studied a hobby in school ;_;
AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'm so glad that you're this much of a dumb frustrated fucking retard. It really is great knowing that your life is shit because you're such a fucking stupid faggot. Have fun dying alone retard

[Anonymous No.13037934]

>>13037910
I consider my life quite far from shit, I just want to get in to literature and wish I had started sooner. Dunno where you're pulling the rest of your assumptions from but enjoy the hahahaing I guess.

[Anonymous No.13037943]

>>13037164
Start with the Greeks and study some books on grammar, linguistics, and rhetoric

[Anonymous No.13038004]

>>13037164
it's too late for you gramps

[Anonymous No.13038010]

>>13037934
>being this based

[Anonymous No.13038099]

>>13037164
>How do I get on the same level as the more knowledgeable /lit/ posters?
Leave /lit/, none of the more knowledgable posters regular this place. It's full of pseuds.

[Anonymous No.13038144]

Penguin book of spelling and grammar. It's for kids, but will make you better than most adults. And reading, like language or any practical skill, doesn't reach a final plateau of complete competence, it's always a matter of furthering finesse. If you're having trouble with the Iliad and Odyssey, get Butler's translation: he cut out a lot of the lists and rearranged the storyline in prose so modern readers can understand it more easily. Once you have a basic grasp of it you can get a lot more out of the more poetic translations, and if you want to keep getting better you can eventually learn Greek. Like anything good, it's a matter of grinding for it.

[Anonymous No.13038168]

>the same level

You're human with a capacity for rational thinking and experiencing emotion. Just read what you like reading, and you're good. There isn't some baseline standard you have to meet, no matter how much the late capitalist fags might've drilled that into your brain. Just do your best, that's all.

[Anonymous No.13038182]

Read, think, talk, repeat. Reading without consideration of what you've read is no different from watching TV. Thinking without exchanging your ideas and defending them is no different from daydreaming.

Read as much as you please, so long as you THINK and TALK about what you've read. Don't mindlessly consume.

[Anonymous No.13038206]

Try to read stuff that genuninely interests you, but try to read some stuff that might conflict with your interests or what you think you wouldnt normally read if you chose too. Build some perspective and really refine what you truly want and believe

[Anonymous No.13038208]

>>13037254
based

[Anonymous No.13038294]

>>13037214
No we're usually worse, I'd cut him some slack

[Anonymous No.13038939]

>>13038144
Couldn't find that book so got this instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857830805/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PDFYCbFZAK22X
Might try to just stick it out with the iliad instead of getting the pleb version though, it's been half a year and I've read some pretty old shit since, cheers for the advice

[Anonymous No.13039901]

i've been here for over 4 years. no one knows what the fuck is going on.

[Anonymous No.13039933]

What do you mean 'knowledgeable' /lit/ posters? Philosophy and English Literature posters are probably art students with a major or minor in those fields.
Mastery is not achievable unless you're a true autodidact, but then you wouldn't be posting on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.13039953]

>>13039933
No. You're wrong. I AM a true autodidact. I've read Discipline and Punish, I've read the Critique of Pure Reason, I've read Empedocles. I know what I'm doing.

[Anonymous No.13040317]

>>13037164
>knowledgeable /lit/ posters
now this is epic

[Anonymous No.13040762]

>>13037685
In the Iliad, that is a part of the oral epic convention, "the catalogue" (basically listing many things without a story - this technique was also observed in the tales of Yugoslavian folk singers, listing the riches accumulated by a character, for example). It's also (and moreso in the Bible) a part of the truth-communicating function of literature. I'm drunk and may be rambling, but essentially art in the past wasn't some pretty or entraining thing divorced from the external world - it was deeply connected with it, so it is wholly unsurprising that it might (try to) incorporate the most literally correct data. It was a vector of conserving truth across the ages. Today we live in a post-mythological age, have the Internet, and the art is much more aestheticist, so we have a quite different perspective on this.

>>13037164
>when I consider writing myself I stop because I don't know what the difference between a noun and pronoun is, where to use commas correctly, semicolons etc
Completely irrelevant to actually writing. Just the most banal technicalities that aren't even a matter of literature but grammar and language in general.
/lit/ is not knowledgeable. Even some professors of literature (particularly if you live in some flyover US state) are not really knowledgeable. Literature is a series of positions, misunderstandings and dialectics. Above everything, keep reading and learning. Being in the state of learning is more important than being well-read and learned (because you never really are). Just keep reading, and don't shy away from literary theory and history (which are fields that 95% of /lit/ is utterly clueless about).

[Anonymous No.13040797]

If you want to learn more about proper use of the English language try reading through the books instead of audible if you just can’t focus just follow along through the book with it playing in the background also if you need encouragement from strangers to pursue a dream maybe that dream ain’t for you but don’t let me stop you

[Anonymous No.13040938]

>>13040762
*Serbian folk singers

[Anonymous No.13040948]

>>13037164
>Tacky drivel like the movies

You take that back

[Anonymous No.13040957]

I’m a total pseud. You ought to find better role models.

[Anonymous No.13041071]

>>13037164

Read Homer and Plato.

Then read them again.

Then write out their complete works by hand.

Then learn Ancient Greek.

This sounds autistic as fuck, and it is, but this is the kind of fucking weird shit I like to do. My technique is OCD and psychopathic. but I think it will help get their ideas ingrained in your mind.

[Anonymous No.13041412]

>>13037298
Please end your life.