Alright Veeky Forums fags.
We had fun yesterday but now it's time for some serious business. All of you need to get to work. If you aren't properly initiated we might see a day where this board is filled with Harry Potter and Hunger Game threads.
4 words. Start with the Greeks.
Here are the charts. You may ask questions.
Here's another version.
Veeky Forums of all people should be the most motivated in reading the Greeks.
Once you're done with the Greeks you may resume with the Romans.
Again, here's another version.
Can I listen to audiobooks for stuff like "Mythology"?
Veeky Forums here, after the Romans what's next?
This is why none of you will ever make any great work of art.
Read the Bible. Then continue with: sonic.net
It will keep you busy for the rest of your life.
Aquinas and Italian Renaissance works such as The Divine Comedy and the Decameron. Alternatively, you can go the Middle and Old English routes with Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur, Piers Plowman, Canterbury Tales, etc. though keep in mind you definitely should have read the Bible in its entirety by this point.
Did Bloom actually read all that list?, wow.
How many great philosopher and writers can you name that didn't have a good understanding of the Greeks?
None, he is a memer.
Ummmmm
I mean the whole point of starting with the greeks is to understand the works of philosophers and such.
So you're going to need to continue with the western canon. Start reading Abrahamic theology. Quran, Bible, Divine comedy, etc.
Feel free to read works of fiction here and there too. Might be kinda long for a new reader but I'd recommend Dune. the 4th installment is legit one of my favorite books of all time.
Want to know Veeky Forums's take on audiobooks as well.
they are shit
They're fine.
But I never use them.
>I mean the whole point of starting with the greeks is to understand the works of philosophers and such.
I literally can't even... literally!
Get off me cunt i'm still on the starter kit
>he can't read 20 books in a day
Whatcha reading right now?
user don't the starter pack is cancer.
I think some of those books can be pretty brutal for beginners. Something like 1984 is fine but stuff like Lolita is pretty rough.
I really enjoy reading about the Greeks, but I actually reading the original works was a real slog for me.
I don't know if it's the language, or translation, or just style. But man, ancient literature has a way of presenting gripping, fascinating material in the most boring way possible.
Just finished Watchmen and waiting on V for Vendetta to come in the mail. I'm gonna start with Mockingbird again even though i think it's shit
Probably bad translations. If you read good ones they can be as fun as any popular contemporary fiction.
Name some good translators, then. Every one I'v read felt stilted and awkward. Homer and Xenophon shouldn't put me to sleep. I was expecting Plato and Aristotle to bore me, but Thyucidides?
How necessary is it to read about the presocratics? If I just jump right into Plato, will I regret not reading about them?
Nah, you can skip them.
They're good for light fiction but terrible for study. It's hard to retain things you listen to because you can't easily skim forward or look back, reread, or check notes. Of course you can't underline or highlight anything either.
Do you learn and retain better from a lecture or from reading it yourself?
If choice one, theyre fine for you
If choice two, don't use them/use them only for entertainment
I don't do much reading but i'm looking to get into it. I got finished reading Watership Down not too long ago, and loved it. I've also read Life of Pi, really enjoyed that one too.
Can anyone recommend some similar books?
It's enough to read a history of them so you're aware of what the different schools generally thought. I'd recommend a New History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny, it's on Libgen.
>Start with the Greeks.
>not smoking Crack and starting with Finnegans wake
Newly converted from fit here.
What's the closest to dark souls that literature has?
Like dark and depressing high fantasy?
You might like The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
Hey Veeky Forums, I'm a Veeky Forumsizen and also a small time actor. Is there a starter pack for plays?
ty
Start with the Shakespheres
well memed
I've already read all of his works
Is that so? Explain the significance of Hamlet's soliloquy in act 4 scene 4. If you look it up I'll know.
poetry guide please.
Hamlet is a giant fuccboi
just skip to Infinite Jest
Is jumping into the greeks to hard for someone who never read a book outside of highschool. Will i lose interest?
>the legendary and possibly mythical story of Orpheus
lolwut? am i missing something?
Maybe. What I did was listen to audiobooks for most of the greeks. Until I reached Plato and Aristotle.
Try reading a bit of fiction first.
I skipped the Greeks.
You'll be fine, especially if you start with Edith Hamilton's Mythology and then go into the Iliad and the Odyssey from there.
I can't belive he has read that much
how much time would it take?
Fuck the greeks, read pic related and then a couple of the good greeks if you have time.
I really like your third book.
Why not read philosophy backward?
You work out your own biases by inference and gain the perspective of the past with relation to your own.
No one will understand the Greeks without their context - what was widely accepted, what was cliche, which were the big unsolved problems - and the only way you can get that is by working from what you have. Philosophy ain't about first principles, it's about prying out your assumptions.
slatestarcodex.com
My biggest regret is listening to Lolita. So fucking stupid, one of the best books ever written and I missed half of it. Also, Jeremy Irons is not a good Humbert.
>listening to lolita
Do I really need to read the entire iliad and odyssey? can't i just read a summary?
who is he?
Max Stirner
I don't know. Those books are pretty important user. You can always try but I wouldn't advise it.
Of course user, he can read a thousand pages an hour
YOU WHAT?!
This, , yes, but don't forget to add, at the very least, this: sonic.net
Bloom's list is exhaustive but needs to be spiced up.
resident Mooreposter approves
>no Heart Sutra
>list of Chinese classics fails to mention one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China
>no Kojiki & Nihon Shoki
>no Monogatari genre beyond Genji (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, etc.) and no Japanese fairy tales (Momotarou, etc.)
>all that poetry and for some reason no fucking Hyakunin Isshu
SHAMEFUR DISPRAY
No doubt. The Shahnameh is also under Islamic lit which I'd disagree with. I was trying to use the same website as , and in any case I don't know any proper exhaustive list of Oriental Classics (if you do, please share).
Also, there are other classics that aren't included in Bloom's canon and aren't oriental which do deserve a mention: Kalevala, Popol Vuh, etc.
Seconded.
So what's the point of this "start with the Greeks" approach? I assume it's because the Greek classics establish a lot of literary patterns, characters, and elements which are followed by countless authors later in history. But with how often it's said, it feels like a meme.
Meme only means it's been repeated ad nauseam, it doesn't necessarily have peyorative connotations.
there is a lot of people on this board who actually never read anything and they're always quick to call reading some of the most important foundational works of literature "a meme". it's really stupid.
you dont need to read half of what's on these charts, but as long as you've read at least Plato, Aristotle, Homer, etc. you'll be good. Take notes and if you enjoy it, you can read other greek works like plays and such.
wtf
off topic but is there anyway i can improve reading speed and comprehension? do I just need to keep at it? ive gotten better at reading over the last couple months but im still a little bit slower than your average person and it makes studying annoying
Git gud.
Whose the greatest female writer of all time?
Heard Virginia Woolf was pretty good.
**Who's
fuck me.
Nootropic stack, that gud shit
>He reads anything but Aristotle
He is LURK MOAR
The best thing about starting with the Greeks is realizing how much of your beliefs are historically contingent, making you weed out the biases brought upon by history. Nobody also reads, say, Plato only for the sake of understanding Plato but rather also because the guy still says things that can be used to explain and understand our current situation. Such is the goal of philosophy.
>the spooked should fear the Stirned
Copy the book down in a notebook as you read.
Write in cursive since it takes more brainpower.
What the actual fuck?
>Read page of The Iliad
>Realize I have no meaningful understanding of the page
>Re-read the page
Am I too dumb for literature?
Did you read "mythology"?
Did you follow this order?
Holy hell this seems like a commitment. I was just thinking about reading The Republic and going from there. Maybe this was all a mistake. A brainlet like me should just keep playing video games and continue being useless.
>starting with the Republic
Go read the Apology, kid.
A few weeks ago I saw this chart and bought Edith's book on kindle. At first I thought it was a meme but goddamn Veeky Forums I can't believe how fucking awesome it is. It really transports you back ages and captures the mythological feeling. Somehow it makes me nostalgic.
Shakespeare :^)
user, I know your feel but it's worth it. So many things in your day to day life will be related to the greeks and their stories that it is worth it.
It's kind of like one big meme that everyone is in on but doesn't realize what the source is.
>watch a random episode in the middle of a tv show
>am I too stupid for tv?
You are most certainly not
I was working my way through the Greeks, and Plato stopped me. Homer was not that difficult, even entertaining in parts, Sophocles was passable, the histories were good, I was even able to get a basic understanding of Aristotle, but Plato has done me in. It's confusing, bland, and I fear may be above my ability. Is Pato absolutely fundamental for a foundation in the Greeks?
this unironically
shaw, beckett, marlowe, ibsen, sophocles, aeschylus
The Odyssey is amazing user :( don't do this to yourself
you're gonna make it
Has anyone actually bought and read these "complete works of" for Plato and Aristotle? They're just so massive, they're basically textbooks. Are they really better than buying individual editions of their works?
Might have something to do with the translations you're reading?
You don't NEED to read everything. Just the important stuff. Anything else is a bonus. I personally have them both on my kindle.