/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19196794]

Is starting with the Greeks a meme or legitimate to become a well-read individual? I haven't read many books on my own after high school, but I'm interested in starting because I have no interest in video games to kill time with now. Currently, I'm reading pic related and have the Iliad & The Odyssey scheduled to arrive in a week or two.

[Anonymous No.19196804]

It's not a bad thing to know and have read the "foundational" texts, but the issue with the meme is that it expects you to read all the greeks, then all the romans, then medieval theological autism, etcetcetc. It doesn't stop. Everyone should have a grasp on the basic greek myths and should have read the Iliad tho

[Anonymous No.19196820]

>>19196794
if you are only starting now the greeks may go a little over your head. I would try a lot of different books, explore classics from different centuries and also contemporary books that aren't just pozzed media hype (like Houellebecq, DeLillo, Knausgaard to name popular examples). Eventually you may feel a desire to become more educated in the literary and philosophical foundations of western literature and in that case, yes, you have to read all the greeks (and romans)
That being said, you can not really go wrong with Homer if you are willing to engage with a somewhat difficult and alien text.

[Anonymous No.19196831]

>>19196820
>somewhat difficult and alien
neither difficult nor alien imo, although maybe it varies with translation

[Anonymous No.19196834]

>>19196794
Its not necessary really, I think the most important thing is that you are reading what you are interested in. You could probably just read the iliad and some collections of Greek myth and move on and still have enough of an understanding to carry. There are a lot of foundational works but that doesn't matter if they arent what you want to read. You could probably add hesiod in without much trouble.
What are you actually interested in reading?

[Anonymous No.19196848]

>>19196820
>Homer
>difficult
lol what
>alien
maybe if you are spiritually devoid of any violent passion inherited from our ancestors. Otherwise The Illiad has the exact same appeal we love today in action and war movies about sex and violence. The Illiad shows us that human emotions are timeless and basically haven't changed one bit since his time, only our perceptions of their values, meaning etc. It's the opposite of alien, it's familiar, hence why it's regarded as a classic of classics

[Anonymous No.19196874]

>>19196820
Thanks I'll check those names out after I'm done these books

>>19196834
>What are you actually interested in reading?
Well, the Greeks always interested me, so I guess reading these is good for now. So far, Dracula was my favorite book I've read outside of the classroom, and I'm interested in reading more of the classics. Stories like Moby Dick and The Count of Monte Cristo sound great, but I've heard they aren't the most accessible reads. So I want to ease back into it and eventually read them later.

[Anonymous No.19196927]

The meme is being well-read.

[Anonymous No.19196945]

>>19196874
well, you'll probably want to do some bible study at some point, but ease in to that. You dont need to cover to cover it, but if you weren't raised a christian of some flavour then you'll want to brush up on it (you still might anyway of you werent paying attention).
If you enjoyed dracula you may enjoy gothic fixtion more generally. Disregard plebs, its an excellent literary genre with a lot of good books and a lot of good scholarship.
But enjoy the greeks for now. You can decide how much more you want to read after homer. There are a lot of amazing dramas, the oresteian trilogy and sophocles's theban plays are probably the ones I would most recommend if you dont want to go all in.

[Anonymous No.19196973]

>>19196794
Starting with the Greek is as real as it's going to get. You will not be disappointed. With that being said, I didn't particularly enjoy Mythology by Hamilton. I think Graves has a more interesting view, or you could read Apollodorius

[Anonymous No.19196985]

>>19196848
poetic translations of homer can be pretty heavy if you're new to lit desu

[Anonymous No.19197011]

>>19196985
I know that /lit/ usually recommends lattimore or fagles but honestly I love pope's.
I also have a weird fondness for the Samuel butler translation. Its got a sort of stilted formality and repetitiveness to the prose that sort of almost comes back round to almost being poetry again at times.

[Anonymous No.19197018]

>>19196794
If you admire the nuance of Dwarf Fortress's combat system, you should read the Iliad.

[Anonymous No.19197030]

just read homer and the major plays if engaging with the greatest literary culture of history is such a chore for you

[Anonymous No.19197039]

>>19196794
First of all, "start with the Greeks" does not refer to Homer, nor even to Plato and Socrates. It refers to Greek origin myths and pre-socratic philosophy which are the basis of western thought. Starting with the Greeks means everything up to Plato, who everyone reads, by which point you have a base of knowledge and can move on.

[Anonymous No.19197065]

>>19197039
What about starting with the Sumerians?

[Anonymous No.19197083]

>>19197065
why not? It's like 100 pages

[Anonymous No.19197089]

>>19197065
Greeks didn't know about Sumer so it didn't influence western philosophy.

[Anonymous No.19197584]

>>19196831
>>19196848
For an actual beginner in reading of course Homer is challenging, you pretentious midwits. It's unlike anything such a person has ever read.

[Anonymous No.19198272]

>>19196794
Well, you'll see the greek everywhere you go.
Referenced plenty in Nietzsche's works, referenced in the picture of dorian gray, referenced in psychology books such a Freud or Jung, and so on.
It's always handy to know the greek myths, the Illiad and the Odyssey are legitemately great works too, but after that what you read from the greeks depends on what you want to read from there on.

[Anonymous No.19198278]

>>19196973
>Graves
My nigga
Surprised the book was literally 50% annotations thought.

[Anonymous No.19198282]

The Greeks are really beautiful

[Anonymous No.19198640]

>>19197584
start with the greeks does not mean fucking Homer, you pseud.

[Anonymous No.19198810]

99% of people here who claim they "started with the greeks" are lying to you. Speaking as someone who enjoyed the greeks, I think they're an awful starting point. If you want to "become well-read" you should learn to make a habit of reading good, not trivially easy books, and why make it harder for yourself by doing the /lit/ equivalent of using gentoo as your first linux distro. You want to build a base ability to read a book with actual comprehension and understanding instead of just powering through works far too difficult for you while barely comprehending them. It's like telling someone who's trying to get into shape to start by working out 7 days a week 90 minutes a day, like sure if they can do that successfully it will be ideal but you're going to weed out 90% of the newbies you give that advice to, which is the point I guess.

[Anonymous No.19198879]

>>19197089
True. However, would it be fair to say the Sumerians can, to a certain degree, inform someone's reading of The Bible?

[Anonymous No.19199331]

>>19198879
it would . . but "start with the jews" is a different leg of western canon

[Anonymous No.19199360]

>>19196874
Count of Monte Cristo is extremely accessible, just long. You could read that one right now if you like. You definitely want Bible knowledge before reading Moby Dick, though

[Anonymous No.19199379]

>>19196794
Do not start with the Greeks - start with Will Durant's "The Story of Philosophy". I suggest as well Rusell's "History of Philosophy" and Scruton's "A short History of Modern Philosophy"; Read a couple more of these general introductions before legitimately starting with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.19199494]

>>19199379
>philosophy
Yeah I think he probably wants literature

[Anonymous No.19199550]

>>19199379
>Philosophy
we aint bout that gay shit here

[Anonymous No.19200199]

>>19199379
What about Copleston?

[Anonymous No.19201718]

>>19200199
The based Copleston; forgot to mention him, probably because I've only read the volume concerned about the nineteenth century of his History of Philosophy.

[Anonymous No.19201758]

>>19197584
I read the fagels translation when I was a teenager, having read barely anything besides ya, and I didn't find it hard. The only boring part was the ship catalogue because I didn't know anything about all of these places; the thing was surprsingly exciting (I had more fun than with any movies I had watched up to that point).

[Anonymous No.19201776]

>>19198810
This guy gets it. You absolutely should read the greeks, but not as your first foray into literature, rather return to it once you read some more accessible books so you actually get something out of it. Edith Hamilton's Mythology is very accessible though, that is a good starting point.

[Anonymous No.19203632]

>>19196794
not only should you start with the greeks, if you read them well enough they're all you need. greek mythology is fine to learn but the mythology is more of a means to an end than an end itself; I think reading foundational Greeks like Homer, Plato, Socrates to begin with and following up with authors who contributed significant writing based on them or on greek culture such as Thucydides or Herodotus would benefit one more as an individual in general and not just as a reader.

[Anonymous No.19204022]

>>19198640
yeah ur right. It's the second book recommended.

retard

[Anonymous No.19204080]

>>19196820
This is correct. And only retards who don't understand the Greeks disagree.
Most probably haven't even read the Greeks.