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/lit/ - Literature

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13983785 No.13983785 [Reply] [Original]

damn this guy was a pussy

>> No.13983786

>>13983785
You wouldn't understand, lad.

>> No.13983796

Goethe was a pimp and is the greatest modern highlight of the western canon, but this particular work is a perfect example of why even the greatest of writers can't write anything meaningful or non-cringe until they're in their 30s.

>> No.13983798

>>13983796
the beauty gets lost in translation, like everything Goethe wrote.

>> No.13983799
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13983799

>>13983785
wtf why would you read goethe in english?

>> No.13983807

>>13983798
Not exactly. I've studied Goethe in German and compared English translations. Werther is a juvenile book that has only ever appealed to juvenile readers.

>> No.13983821

>>13983807
I think you can get a different appreciation of the piece once you grow into adulthood as well. You're thinking like an American in that you must be like the character in order to like the piece.

>> No.13983832

>>13983821
>You're thinking like an American in that you must be like the character in order to like the piece.
No, I'm thinking like an adult who passed through that stage of literary delusion a very long time ago.

>> No.13983836

>>13983832
Read it again in 10 years.

>> No.13983846

>>13983836
Already in my 30s and have much better things to do with my time. It's a book for the young and naive. Faust otoh is not, and one that is actually worth reading 10 years down the line.

>> No.13983854

>>13983846
>have much better things to do with my time
Like shitposting here? C'mon...
>Faust otoh is not, and one that is actually worth reading 10 years down the line.
Fair enough, lad.

>> No.13983864

>>13983785
Nah, this guy just wanted to experience ecstatic meaning so much that he created a situation where he could die for something. Literally what martyrs and heroes do.

>> No.13983872

>>13983846
Werther shouldn't have killed himself. It was a bad decision, and he, as a man, was not a ripe character. Yet, and here comes the point why it is great literature, he killed himself just in time. He offed himself before he became dead inside. Something we cannot be so sure to say about Faust. While Faust also had affection for Gretchen, he hardly loved honestly, true, and pure. Faust is what had become of Werther, if he had not commited Seppuku.

>> No.13983880

>>13983854
I don't know what "shitposting" is, remember? Here to inform. Strange as it may seem, I wish there were resources like this place to help people like myself avoid juvenile shit like Werther 15 years ago. Rite of passage though I guess.