/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17271718]

English has
>Shakespeare
>Tolkien
>Joyce
>Milton
>Melville
>Nabokov

Japanese has
>literal degeneracy in the form of cartoons

When did you realize Japanese is a soulless language with no poetic or literary value to speak of?

[Anonymous No.17271737]

>>17271718
Japan has a long literary history; it didn't begin in the 20th ce.

[Anonymous No.17271801]

>>17271718
>Tolkien

[Anonymous No.17271812]

>slices OP in half
>grins in satisfaction as a single drop of blood drips down the antique edge

[Anonymous No.17271857]

I read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, and in the very introduction of that book it admits that Japanese literature is shit when compared to Western literature.

>It may be wondered at the same time if the Japanese knowledge of the West is more than a set of clothes, however long worn or well tailored. Only a psychologist could properly attempt to answer so complex a question, although innumerable casual visitors to Japan have readily opined that under the foreign exterior the Japanese remain entirely unlike ourselves. I find this view hard to accept. It is true that the Japanese of today differ from Americans—perhaps not more, however, than do Greeks or Portuguese—but they are certainly much more like Americans than they are like their ancestors of one hundred years ago. As far as literature is concerned, the break with the Japanese past is almost complete. In Japanese universities today the Japanese literature department is invariably one of the smallest and least supported. The bright young men generally devote themselves to a study of Western institutions or literature, and the academic journals are filled with learned articles on the symbolism of Leconte de Lisle or on the correspondence of James Knox Polk. The fact that these articles will never be read abroad, not even by specialists in Leconte de Lisle or James Knox Polk. The fact that these articles will never be read abroad, not even by specialists in Leconte de Lisle or James Knox Polk, inevitably creates a sense of isolation and even loneliness among intellectuals. Some Japanese of late have taken to referring to themselves as "the orphans of Asia," indicating (and perhaps lamenting) the fact that although Japan has become isolated from the rest of Asia, the Western nations do not accept her literature or learning as part of their own.

[Anonymous No.17271860]

>>17271718
>Tolkien
>Nabokov

[Anonymous No.17271883]

>>17271860
What’s wrong with Nabokov?

[Anonymous No.17271892]

>>17271718
You can do this with every language if you purposely omit the good literature for said language

[Anonymous No.17271916]

>>17271883
nothing he just sees contrarianism as an valid alternative to original thought/critique

[Anonymous No.17271924]

>>17271883
yes, but impart japan has almost no large literary relevancy in the west compared to the contrary

[Anonymous No.17271981]

>>17271857
>it admits that Japanese literature is shit when compared to Western literature.
Is your quote supposed to confirm this statement?

[Anonymous No.17271989]

>>17271718
they have murakami but he just writes about wanting to have sex with little girls

[Anonymous No.17271999]

Any of you fellas ever read The Tale of Genji?
Is it worth a damn?

[Anonymous No.17272004]

>>17271857
aww.. I'll read you, hitomi san.

[Anonymous No.17272009]

>>17271718
tolkien was not a good writer my dude. he was endlessly creative, but come on man. putting him on a list with fucking shakespeare..

[Anonymous No.17272046]

>>17272009
Have you read the Silmarillion? It was full of beautiful language and mythological language/

[Anonymous No.17272070]

>>17271718
>Puts Nabokov and Tolkien as trying to prove English is the better language
>When instead anon should've put Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney.

[Anonymous No.17272079]

>>17272046
yes actually and it's by far my favorite work of his. I was exaggerating when I say he's not a good writer. I just don't think of him as technically gifted compared to the ones we think of as great writers.

now, in terms of imagination he in the very top tier

[Anonymous No.17272112]

>>17271718
When will you get tired of making threads like this?

[Anonymous No.17272120]

>>17271857
Is that the one by Donald Keene? He's not wrong. Japanese intellectuals are even worse than American intellectuals, because most of them are either Marxists or post-Marxists.

[Anonymous No.17272127]

>>17272079
>>17272009
I'd say that it's a little unfair to call Tolkien a bad writer since he was chiefly a linguist. If he set out to refine a style he probably would have been a very great writer in the technical sense, but I don't think that was ever his goal

[Anonymous No.17272875]

>>17271999
Yes. It’s a mind-blowing novel, although it might feel very slow and cold or detached by our standards because ofetn when characters interact it’s all subtext and allusion— sort of like Henry James except more subtle. Although you’ll get used to that. Pick up the Royall Tyler translation because the footnotes are excellent and it has illustrations that fill in cultural context.

[Anonymous No.17272892]

>>17271718
>Shakespeare, TOL*IEN, Milton

What kind of a high-schooler list is this?
Tolkien along with milton and Big Willie, LOL

[Anonymous No.17272902]

>>17271718
Mishima
Tanizaki
Oe
Kawabata
Murasaki
Yoshikawa
Soseki
Basho
Akutagawa

[Anonymous No.17272938]

>>17271718
Is this another "I hate Japanese people so I'm going to make a thread about how much their language sucks when in reality it's the people themselves I hate" thread?

[Anonymous No.17273388]

>>17272902
All those are literally whos compared to anyone on OP’s list

[Anonymous No.17273410]

>>17271718
>NOOOOOOOO YOU CAN'T HECKIN DISRESPECT JAPAN THEY MAKE MY CARTOONS!!!!

[Anonymous No.17273431]

>>17273410
This, but unironically.
English HAD Tolkien, now it has LotR Netflix adaption with Gay Elves and Black Hobbits. No thanks!

[Anonymous No.17273461]

>>17271718
>Tolkien
Kek

[Anonymous No.17273959]

I think Dazai is a great writer, Mishima, Oe and Soseki too.

[Anonymous No.17273975]

>>17271718
>>Tolkien
Bait thread detected

[Anonymous No.17273978]

>>17271857
zoz

[Anonymous No.17274060]

>>17271718
Anglo obese hands typed this.

[Anonymous No.17274146]

>>17272120
Good thing Japan is even more "anti-intellectual" than anywhere in the Anglosphere (even Australia).
I've worked with Jap academics in my field (electronic engineering) and they didn't even know there was a sociology department in the same university.

[Anonymous No.17274160]

Nabokov is Russian

[Anonymous No.17274187]

>>17273388

How big is Moby Dick in Japan?
Genuinely curious here.

[Anonymous No.17274205]

*blocks your path*

[Anonymous No.17275648]

>>17273431
/thread

[Anonymous No.17275719]

>>17271718

Japan literally invented novels

[Anonymous No.17276002]

>>17274160
Doesn’t matter, most of his important works were written in English

[Anonymous No.17276021]

>>17271718
>english
>not degenerate
Yeah just picked up the new bridgerton was so good to see that nubile 15 year old girl get blacked by 28 year old man who looks like drake while her cuck brother agrees to raise his african lovers single child.
A shining example of english literature in the twenty first century!

[Anonymous No.17276095]

>>17271718
Better yet have the fucking border hopping taco people ever written anything of worth or did they stuff their paper with beans and call it a book?

[Anonymous No.17276570]

>>17276002
But english isnt belongs to mutts
He's lived most of his life in europe, so, i didnt think nabokov is only mutts writer

[Anonymous No.17276576]

>>17276002
So he's a british i guess, lol

[Anonymous No.17276652]

>>17271718
Japanese sounds much nicer than English in the ear.

[Anonymous No.17276680]

>>17272875
is the normal penguin version what you mean or something else?

[Anonymous No.17276690]

>>17271718
>degeneracy
Kys

[Anonymous No.17277482]

bump