QTDDTOT

Knut Hamsun, Hunger.

>tfw no gf
>tfw no food
>tfw no heat
>tfw no sanity

What is this Bullshit?!
I just picked up Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons", read his short biography and then started reading the introduction and the translator is spoiling parts of the plot.
He is describing how Turgenev saw his characters before the idea of the novel so he knew each character's specific behaviors, mannerisms, thoughts, etc. beforehand and especially since he based certain characters on real people which makes the kiss between X and Y so much more impactful and btw Z dies.
Why can't they put the translator's comments ( which they really just are) at the goddamn end of the book?

We all learn this the hard way when we first start reading on our own but NEVER read the intro if we want to keep the suspense of the novel.

Bookzz has been down forever. Was an alternative ever created or discovered? Bookzz was the best.

whats the best book learn to write an argumentative essay. Im a stem fag so assume my english is 1st year english undergrad level.

I started reading the Brother Karamazov over a year ago and stopped when I got to the public prosecutors speech because I just couldn't stand out for some reason. Now a year later I want to finish the book but I don't know if I should just pick up where I left off or start over again. I know I'm near the end, but I'm worried I've forgetten important points that will make me miss out on a lot of stuff. I did enjoy what I had read, so I was thinking just finish the book and in a year or two, just read it again.

If you're okay with not torrenting, libgen is really good.

The just moved to a new site

b-ok.org/

Anyone have recommendations for interesting/edgy active blogs?

K a n t b o t

What book has the best prose? I mean it does deserve a thread, but I make too many and don't contribute enough. I decided I'm going to focus on responding to threads that I can.

What's the word to describe (negatively) something with too many appendages? For example, to describe a tree with too many branches or a centipede with too many legs

excessive

I plan on reading the 4 Chinese classics, doing a small amount of research these are the translation choices I'm thinking of going with. Are any of these choices particularly bad?
>Anthony Yu for Journey to the West
>David Hawkes for the Story of the Stone/Dream of the Red Chamber
>Moss Roberts for Romance of the Three Kingdoms
>Sidney Shapiro for Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh

How does Light in August and Absalom, Absalom stack up to The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying? The sound and the fury is 10/10 for me and As I Lay Dying was like 8/10 just for perspective

What the fuck is the "my diary desu" meme and where did it come from

polymelia? hyperphalangy?

That Cooper one right there for sure. Better translations then the other one.

Don't tell me the Great Gatsby

nor 1984

Winchester is widely considered to be more faithful/complete

What's the literary device (not sure if I'm even using this term right) where you attribute all sorts of inexplicable nonsense to a certain thing called? For example, sci fi that explains away everything by referencing some sort of new element or power system in the technobabble, or the classic "it's magic I ain't gotta explain shit". Basically a rug under which one tucks all the loose ends with a lack of realistic explanation. I thought it was Deus Ex Machina but appearently that's totally different.

Is this any good? I've heard it isn't much like The Prince or Discourses on Livy, but I like Machiavelli's style nonetheless. Has anyone here read it?

Don't know if this is the right place to ask, but how would I go about learning Latin, and is it possible to become fluent in two years while working?

Wheelock's latin and yes

Have you read it? I've heard bad things about it, that it's old fashioned and hard to digest.

I have, I enjoyed it

Thanks, I'll look into it then. What sort of level of latin does it go up to?

But that is Deus Ex Machina.

Desu is "t-b-h", but autocorrected.

>What the the most profound book you have ever read?
>My diary "to be honest" (desu)

That's literally all the meme is.

I'm also planning to learn latin soon and I've seen plenty of other posts on the board from people learning/wanting to learn. I wonder if there is an appetite for a /learning latin general/ where we pool resources, make guides, and generally shitpost in and about latin. I'm planning on using the Cambridge latin course books, does anyone know if they're any good?

I wish to read the greeks as a basis for subsequent literary reading, as opposed to philosophical. What works do I begin with?

>Are any of these choices particularly bad?
The order. Start with:
Water Margin
ROTK
Journey to the West
Dream of the Red Chamber

Read the same chart(s) as everyone else, which I'm not reposting again

Does a degree in Classics sufficiently count for "starting with the greeks"?

same desu

From the aptly named literary-devices.com,
>Deus ex Machina is a rather debatable and often criticized form of literary device. It refers to the incidence where an implausible concept or character is brought into the story in order to make the conflict in the story resolve and to bring about a pleasing solution.
I can't find any definition that disagrees, even though I thought it was totally different.

>learning that the intro often spoils the plot and should be read last

I hope you enjoy reading your first ever novel, user

>What's the literary device (not sure if I'm even using this term right) where you attribute all sorts of inexplicable nonsense to a certain thing called? For example, sci fi that explains away everything by referencing some sort of new element or power system in the technobabble, or the classic "it's magic I ain't gotta explain shit".
I call it hand waving, to lack a better term.

Deus Ex Machina is about the plot, not the setting.
And hence it's more about general plausibility than scientific realism.

Anyone own pic related?
I've read it a bit from a gen lib copy but I'm looking to get a physical one for better reading but I just want to get the standard paper back version.
Is it decent quality or will I wish I spent extra for the hardback?

How much should I read a day?

lel, i just stopped brothers K at the beginning-ish of chapter 10. i haven't picked it up in two weeks. there's really not a lot of plot detail that you would need to remember; it's just the forward thrust of the emotional impact that's important. for me, the book slogged after zosima died.

which translation did you read? i highly recommend ignat avsey's.

wheelock's is shit if you want to learn latin for the aesthetics of the language. the key to learning any language, dead or not, is to deny the conscious method of translation whenever possible. that is to say, when reading a text, you should strive to immediately apprehend the meaning.

in this, wheelock's does a shit job; you will run through the charts over and over in your head. i learned latin in high school using the cambridge latin books and won summa cum laude on the NLE (which was written for texts like wheelock's). to put it another way, when i tutored a fellow student learning from wheelock's, she was so overawed by my recitation of catullus that she gave me the first blowjob of her life—and swallowed.

i learned latin well enough to produce competent translations in three (school) years, going up to the end of unit 4. i was a lazy, shithead stoner for two of those years. it seems a little gimmicky or childish (like rosetta stone) at first, but it does result in an intimate understanding.

supplement with a slim rulebook called "essentials of latin grammar" (i think) once you get past the first, red book

do you have a kindle, a kobo, or are you reading it off your computer? reading it on my kobo aura one is the best for me, since i can choose to ignore the footnotes when i want. the kindle and the pc would be torture, however. the cover is pretty resilient and has a good, matte feel to it; the papers are bible-thin. it's a small beast of a book and best if you plan to sit at a desk when you read it.

If you live in a Romance language country, do go ahead. But the Oxford program only mentioned two works by name: the Iliad and Aeneid.

I suspect what might pass for a degree in Classics among Anglos might require you to read all the works between them on your own, which I'm afraid means no.

The thing about digital copies, besides costing less in terms of cash and trees, is that you don't have to worry whether your eyes are getting too old for the font size, you can always enlarge things.

Can you read it on a desk without holding the pages down? Cause that's my main concern.
Would you say that it's similar to nortons books?
I've got the norton shakespeare and I'd want to get the bible if it's similar to that.

Which translation of Crime and Punishment?

Veeky Forums keeps saying P and V is shit but won't mention a better alternative.

Can you self-teach from the Cambridge latin textbooks then?

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

Are there any philosophers that make arguments against Cartesian methods of philosophizing?

This.

>reading for the plot
sad!

how can i read when it's too fucking cold?

Heidegger, the Structuralists (not the post-Structuralists)

Also what Ricoeur called the masters of suspicion: Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, obvious influences on the Structuralists

is it necessary to read st. augustine & thomas aquinas before descartes?

Descartes breaks with previous Scholastic (although Augustine isn't really a Scholastic) methods of philosophy and does something completely different. You don't have to read them to understand Descartes, but it would give you an idea of what methods he is breaking from (again, he's breaking more from Scholasticism than anything).

Most skip them, Scholastic philosophy would be what Descartes criticizes. He's creating a new philosophy, a modern philosophy.

Did you read Aristotle at least?

not yet, still reading plato. i'm just looking ahead a bit to stay motivated, and was curious. i plan on studying aristotle thoroughly once i feel ready to move on from plato.

>Most skip them

That's a fucking tragedy..

Which copy/version of Ulysses is the best?
I know that there are a bunch of different ones but I want to get the best or most accurate one.

i've not had a softcover norton's, but the pages are similar. with a little required breaking-in of the spine, it can be read without too much fuss.

yes, you can. it's very user-friendly, especially with the workbooks.

for crime and punishment—david mcduff (i think he's penguin)
for brothers k—ignat avsey (oxford)
for war and peace—the oxford update of the maudes' (amy something), or just the maudes' original
for fathers and sons—surprisingly, constance garnett is the best i've read
>source: blyaaaaaaaaaaat

There are a lot of reading lists floating around here, but most seem quite broad in scope.

What does one need to read, with little prior philosophical background, to read and engage with the existentialists? Particularly Nietzsche.

I own the hardback because it was actually cheaper, but I'd probably recommend it over the softback, especially given that they have bible paper which I find a bit cumbersome in paperbacks. The paperback version also lacks the concordance, if that's something you care about.

I liked Oliver Ready's translation

Well I'd say you should basically work your way (mostly) backwards...
Start with Sartre's "Existentialism Is A Humanism" to get your feet wet.
Then move onto de Beauvoir's "Ethics of Ambiguity" and Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus".
Next up you should check out Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics" lecture.
Then and only then can you approach Nietzsche. Go with "Genealogy of Morals" first then perhaps "Twilight of the Idols" or "The Antichrist". Don't jump straight in with "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" cause it is one hell of a ride. Save it for later.
THEN you can maybe try Kierkegaard's "The Present Age". "Fear and Trembling" & "Sickness Unto Death" are readable but quite Christian (not such a bad thing but can be annoying at times).

So there you have it. Obviously I have missed key people: Jaspers, Dostoyevsky, Merleau-Ponty, to name a few...

What is the best order to read Platos complete works?

There's no real "best" order. You should probably start with Apology or Euthyphro, and then read roughly in the chronology of the "blocks" of his writings people have attempted to work out.

If you get a complete works, you are probably going to be fine reading things in the order presented there.

no one is replying because lit only reads books that are lit approved and they don't include books of the beaten path, then they are never read, hence they aren't included as lit approved or patrician or whatever the pre approved term is this month

I'm sorry that no one can help you user

????? As much as you like obviously ????

Gloves if your poor
Central heating and radiators if not

Your probably poor though otherwise youd just turn your heaters on

Veeky Forums mostly reads classic literature and philosophy. if you ask Veeky Forums they might give a better opinion. no sense bashing this board for not commenting on something that's another board's focus

I can confirm Hawkes is the best for Story of the Stone.

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship or Italian Journey? I found a decent price on the Princeton edition of Wilhelm Meister and it seems like the overall more important book, but on the other hand Italian Journey sounds comfy as hell and it'll help me get a better sense of the diversity of his output rather than just reading another novel.

Why is Heidegger¨s Being and Time important?

66 pages at least.

Because all continental philosophy and post-analytic philosophy was affected by it, and it's the continental contribution to the Linguistic Turn.

Man on a mission to reinvent Western metaphysics contributes to the philosophies of phenomenology, ontology, language, mind, technology, hermeneutics, death, poetry...

Could you elaborate on the context of B&T?

It all started when he asked himself: What does the word "to be" mean? A question Western philosophy ignored, for millennia the sorry excuse for "answer" was "a being," a very big one, specifically. Heidegger wasn't particularly impressed.

plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/
Heidegger's philosophical development began when he read Brentano and Aristotle, plus the latter's medieval scholastic interpreters. Indeed, Aristotle's demand in the Metaphysics to know what it is that unites all possible modes of Being (or ‘is-ness’) is, in many ways, the question that ignites and drives Heidegger's philosophy. From this platform he proceeded to engage deeply with Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and, perhaps most importantly of all for his subsequent thinking in the 1920s, two further figures: Dilthey (whose stress on the role of interpretation and history in the study of human activity profoundly influenced Heidegger) and Husserl (whose understanding of phenomenology as a science of essences he was destined to reject). In 1915 Husserl took up a post at Freiburg and in 1919 Heidegger became his assistant. Heidegger spent a period (of reputedly brilliant) teaching at the University of Marburg (1923–1928), but then returned to Freiburg to take up the chair vacated by Husserl on his retirement. Out of such influences, explorations, and critical engagements, Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) was born. Although Heidegger's academic and intellectual relationship with his Freiburg predecessor was complicated and occasionally strained (see Crowell 2005), Being and Time was dedicated to Husserl, “in friendship and admiration”.

Published in 1927, Being and Time is standardly hailed as one of the most significant texts in the canon of (what has come to be called) contemporary European (or Continental) Philosophy. It catapulted Heidegger to a position of international intellectual visibility and provided the philosophical impetus for a number of later programmes and ideas in the contemporary European tradition, including Sartre's existentialism, Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, and Derrida's notion of ‘deconstruction’. Moreover, Being and Time, and indeed Heidegger's philosophy in general, has been presented and engaged with by thinkers such as Dreyfus (e.g., 1990) and Rorty (e.g., 1991a, b) who work somewhere near the interface between the contemporary European and the analytic traditions. A cross-section of broadly analytic reactions to Heidegger (positive and negative) may be found alongside other responses in (Murray 1978). Being and Time is discussed in section 2 of this article.

How did his interpretation change the way one sees earlier phil?

Does anybody here have the hardcover of the Cooper version of the Complete Works of Plato, and if so, how is it?

Anyone know where I can find an ebook of Fitzgerald's translation of The Aeneid or Mandelbaum's translation of The Divine Comedy?

By introducing the ontological difference.

>Heidegger: What does the word "to be" mean?
>Western metaphysics: Bruuuuuh... it's like this huge entity, a being totally like you and I and this chair and baby seals, only bigger and more universal man, you can call it, uuuuuhhh... idea, energeia, substance, monad or will to power and so, yeah.
>Heidegger: 'no'

Read the rest of the article I just linked.

Is it necessary to start with the greeks?

If yes, which is best for a brainlet, who never read philoshopy?

I wanted to get Meditations first

No. Start with what you want. Descartes, Hume, Hegel, Kant are all fine enough starts.

Since you're a self-admitted brainlet, for me it's a definite yes, so go all the way from Mythology and the Iliad as per the chart.

Meditations is not a particularly challenging book but Aurelius as a philosopher is a very late Stoic, and an eclectic one at that.

Unless you want to read tons of philosophy, not really. I would still advise familiarizing yourself with Greek mythology as it's referenced a lot in all genres of literature.

It depends on what exactly your goal is.

So Veeky Forums, I just decided to get drunk and make a mockery of one of your favorite poets. At the very least, I show you the courtesy of not starting a new thread about it. Enjoy!

Two girls emerged from across the bar
And sorry I could not marry both
And be one rambler, long i stood
And looked at one as long as I could
Until the other went out the door;

Then took my chances, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because she was lonesome and wanted wear;
Though as if my drunken smear
Would make her look the other way.

We both that night equally lay
in dreams no mare had trodden black.
Oh, I kept her smile for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads on to way
I doubt if she would ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two girls emerged from across the bar, and I -
I took the one still staining by
And that has made all the difference.

How good are the Barnes & Noble classics editions of books? There are a ton I need to get to and they're only $5 but are they any good? Especially with translations I'd be worried, but even stuff like Moby Dick to things with multiple versions, what are the chances the b&n one is the best?

Where to start with Edgar Allan Poe?