Stupid Questions Thread

This thread is for questions you're too embarrassed to ask. Too embarrassed to even Google because it'll be on your permanent record and you don't want future historians to find when they look into your Google history and make obscenely ridiculous assumptions about your psyche while writing your biography.

I'll start:

Dudes, I don't understand how punctuation with quotation marks works. Like, if a character is asking a question, how do I indicate the character who asked the question without including the followup but then should I include a question mark in the punctuation? I'll show you the example below:

Is it:

>"What do you mean," asked John.

Or is it:

>"What do you mean?" asked John.

Like, how the fuck do I use punctuation with quotation marks? Where can I find better instruction on this?

You don't even know basic punctuation and you assume you're going to be someone historians are concerned with. You're an unbelievable retard.

What's the big deal with Pynchon, really. I mean it all seems so tryhard.

That's the spirit of Veeky Forums, bud! Thanks for your help!

Asking again, website or app for compiling a to-read list of books? Doesn't actually need to list ISBN numbers or anything, just a cataloguing tool.

Retard

why is Evola such a dense writer to read from?

am I making a mistake reading him before Nietzsche? before Rene Guénon?

is it stupid to read his books Ride the Tiger -> A Handbook for Right Wing Youth -> Revolt Against the Modern World -> Pagan Imperialism -> Men Among the Ruins?

Are his books on magic and eastern stuff relevant to his traditional views beyond being inspirations?

is anything lost in the English translations?

How many of you have speech impediments?

Should writers be read chronological? All I've ever really done was read essential acclaimed works in random order.

I'm not going to answer your question, I just want to get your hopes up with a (you).

Goodreads.com

Don't worry about him, dude. He was barely discussed in the 1970's, he won't be discussed in the 2070's. Your dismissal of the man's writing and his pompous fanbase is completely justified.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and I have come to the conclusion that you should read an author’s most praised work and if you like it go chronological, because you might end up disliking their beginning works and end up giving up before you read your future favorite book that they had written later on.

Typically, you end the speech with a comma within the quotation marks if you're going to have some additional comment in the narrative voice. However, when the speech ends with a question, you put the question mark inside the quotation marks and carry on with the narrative direction. With the two examples you've given, the latter is correct.

I'll echo what has been said here so many times in the past, but the fucking state of Veeky Forums these days. This is not aimed at you, OP, but the dipshit children who responded to you.

Writers should be read chronologically if you have a good reason to read them chronologically, like being interested in the development of their thought. Otherwise it doesn't really matter and often times it's not even worth reading an author chronologically unless you really like them and want to go through all of their works.

>why is Evola such a dense writer to read from?
It will seem so if you lack a basic understanding of classical metaphysics. A touch of modern philosophy will also help, but a grasp of Plato will do much more to clear things up.

>Ride the Tiger -> A Handbook for Right Wing Youth -> Revolt Against the Modern World -> Pagan Imperialism -> Men Among the Ruins?
It's a bit of a strange order. Do you already have all of these books?

>Are his books on magic and eastern stuff relevant to his traditional views beyond being inspirations?
His eastern books are valuable in giving more insight into his understanding of the "differentiated man". This is the individual with the heroic inner disposition, one who can triumph even amidst the most hostile of conditions. Interesting, but not necessary.

His magical works can be very difficult, and I would approach them with caution.

>is anything lost in the English translations?
Translations always lose something I'm afraid.

goodreads is fucking atrocious, my lord
>awful site layout
>useless features like a braindead rating system, suggestions based on sales analytics, basically every button
>books tied to ISBN number so instead of just being able to type an entry you need to sift through all the variants of edition and language
>previous point made even worse if you use any of the afforementioned garbage features
>no means of exporting lists beyond other Goodreads users so I can't use it as a digital wishlist or even send it to people without subjecting them to Goodreads' autism

What am I supposed to be taking from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The need for self-criticism, self-reflection, and a robust inner life whereby you constantly revisit dearly-held philosophical principles from various angles.

It's owned by Amazon and bad UX has got to be written into their company mission. I think they own IMDB too. All these pages contain countless images, buttons, duplicated functionalities and are not very intuitive. Go figure.

>Should writers be read chronological?

Consider limiting yourself to the 'major works' on a first pass. These may be read in chronological order.

>it all seems so tryhard

This appearance comes from you.
Was the work itself a child of pretense?

thnx

What does this post even mean?

I have a difficult time with "ch" and "sh" sounds, especially the former. When they are found in back-to-back syllables, it's almost impossible for me. I actually have to pause for a fraction of a second between words for a phrase like "teach children", so I actively try and avoid these situations in verbal conversations.

Why does Les Miserables go on such huge tangents? It seems really unnecessary

Why is Veeky Forums so obsessed with Pynchon and DFW? Guess I'll never understand how "good" they are since I'm not a native speaker to swim through and appreciate their dense paragraphs.

you're dense.

Where do I start with philosophy?

Philosophy is an end.