/lit/ - Literature

"Entrepreneurs aren’t risk takers, they’re risk eliminators." Jake Endres, Crooked Run brewery.

420 thread?

Once in a while a topic pops up here that takes me by surprise. I'm not adverse to the subject, nor do I feel it undeserving of the board's attention. I aim not to dissuade. I am puzzled though, given the discussion on the relative merits of alternative pharmacopoeia "trade" publications being thoroughly covered elsewhere.

For myself, the subject of drugs depicted in literature tends to evoke the work of three authors. The first is an utterly surprising scene of a final voyage drug trip undertaken in a forgotten novel by Gore Vidal. Vidal mixes in his usual pet peeves on sexuality and society. More important, he uses this scene to swim through symbolism so as to bury earlier themes and characters he will no longer explore in his novels. Amusing to see how an author learns how to let go. Finally, taken at face value–if you were lucky to have survived such an ordeal–this scene is as horrifying as it is peaceful. Vidal got the details of ODing in this way down pat. Something I never expected to see from Vidal.

Frederick Prokosch touches on the means of running heroin across the middle east in one of his novels. It's not central to his novel, though. What is interesting is his historical depiction of the existence of an underground drug trade in the 1920s. When people get all nostalgic for the 1960s, or the 1980s, their memories are, most often, just more of the same of an older generation.

Hunter S. Thompson. No more should need be said, although I find people most often skip by his message in favor of the bedazzling mayhem. Thompson was far more literary than he is given credit for.

Anyway, to the point of OPs request, personal endorsements of meaningfully useful non-fiction would be the most welcome. And, the most interesting. I hold some observations of my own, but I prefer to compartmentalize and separate my opinions elsewhere, as per the leading quote. For the rest of the board, feel free to share whatever, and thank you!

Imperium by Robert Harris was really good.

>>16297

I said nonfiction but whatever ok

>>16287

The Mediterranean in the Ancient World by Fernand Braudel

Halfchan keeps promoting the IRC model of book sharing. I'm not so sure this is in proper keeping with modern image-board culture. Based on my limited expeditions into IRCland, if you can't find something elsewhere it won't be found on #bookz either. Plus, there's a lotta extra effort, expense, and learning curve you have to put in to guarantee anonymity and privacy over IRC. At least it's something to be aware of for the more curious to try.

The Libgen blob became the single greatest library on Earth. This should probably be your first stop for searching.

/pdfs/ here on 8chan is an option, albeit they're best fit for the cultural warrior types. Worth a quick look though.

The onion lands (or the even more exotic network frameworks being developed) host a growing field of repositories, but I personally hate seeing any Tor exclusive resources discussed on a clearnet service. The September that never ended has ended. No more hand-holding please! Leave the normalfags to stew in their facebook/twitter/google enclaves so we might enjoy what remains free and worthwhile for a while longer.

libgen

</thread>

>tfw not in bib

You can always just get a library card OP. I've got one just to test out mozilla's location spoofing feature.

>>16494

You can use tor or any proxy/vpn to circumvent those.

>>16494

install foxyproxy and check proxies online

I'm halfway through it after 20 mins and I can confirm. Alexei bits are so fucking annoying.

>>15555

>people falling for the bait this easily

>>16426

i disagree, the annoying parts are where dostoevsky decides to tell you about the story of an elder monk or a bunch of schoolboys

I read crime and punishment but in the 5 years since I have gotten bored with karamazov

>>16493

this sounds like my kind of book

thanks for the short description, anon

(Derp. Second post. First attempt created a new thread instead of a proper reply. Another pot, another go, just so.)

Taking a look and pondering a bit. My first impressions for what to critique seem to be running off the rails after a second read. I really should not try to do this right after I wake up. After a pot or two of coffee set to chasing away the fog, expect a subsequent commentary in the next four hours or so.

Is this the very beginning of the story? If it is i would say i sort of like it but if not… hmmm depending how long of short write you're doing it could become a bit tedious maybe? That is if your rythym like this stays the same throughout. Thats just my worthless two cents though. I'm very overdue on sleep at the moment so i may be way off and it's vauge criticism anyhow. It's not terrible. I think you should write the whole thing and feel it out as a whole.

I just got quite the idea for a story earlier today and came here to ask some advice myself. I've never written anything outside of schoolwork really. I like the idea i came up with it's origional to me at least and i think it could be really fun. Don't want to reveal the premise. I was thinking i might write a short story of it since i'm a beginner. If anyone feels like giving a total nube a tip or two i would appreciate it. I'm thinking it's going to be a story where you think it's the current time and place but Plot Twist! You find out at the end it's not the current year or more precisely a near in the future setting at all. That's not the main point of the story though. It just drives the actual story home at the end.

>>16445

>>16449

Ouffda. Whatta day and a night. Anyway, here's my late impressions.

The writing suffers from what I would call outlining disease. You are sketching characters out in flimsy first order detail. The problem with presenting characters like this is it starts to read like a laundry list.

>and his sweaty, limp hand felt like a sponge when he had to extend it to greet a new co-worker.

For example, you might try expanding this into a little scene describing how someone reacts to being handed a wet sponge of a handshake, without using "wet sponge" in your description.

>Suddenly, a block to the restaurant, …

I usually interpret this construction as a note from the writer to himself about something of importance in need of proper emphasis. A Freudian slip of sorts. Thing is, if you drop the "suddenly" you have what you want in basic form. I'd suspect you were in discovery writing mode at this point, which is perfectly fine. Going with the flow is one powerful writing technique to move forward. But, with the discovery method, you then need to go back and analyze with an eye to what you were really trying to communicate. Again, what does the need for suddenness mean? Obviously, she's suddenly hesitant, yes. Why? Stereotyped female behavior is cliche. If you imagine a bit as to why you felt the need to note its importance, you may discover a path to a more interesting character, a better means of characterization, an improved scene, avoidance of cliche (or how to better use cliche to your advantage), and a path to a better story.

Those are just my first impressions. I may be telescoping out my suspicions based on similarity other young writers typically demonstrate. It's hardly a fair analysis as there is not enough to go on. Don't be discouraged by my commentary. Keep writing.

I was thinking of suggesting some novels foPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>16445

>>16453

>laundry list

Yeah, that's what I got too. The rhythm of the story is bland and its details are (un/de)saturated. Unless this is an outline, the pacing is too rapid while, paradoxically, on an individual sentence level it's monotonous.

If you're actually serious:

Marcuse - 1. Reason and Revolution 2. One Dimensional Man

Horkheimer - 1. Eclipse of Reason

Adorno - 1. Dialectic of Enlightenment 2. The Culture Industry

Benjamin - 1. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

After you've finished those off, make sure to get a nice 2x4 to beat yourself with until you've realized how much time you just wasted that could have been used reading actual philosophers.

>>16462

>No Eros & Civilization

It's their most pertinent work to our time. Nobody can understand trannies without reading it.

>>16460

Ok, leftypol

>>16465

Did you just assume my gender?

>>16468

I assumed you were a faggot of any kind. a big bundle of sticks

>>11913

>horror is towards the top of the pyramid

Well, at least you're reading.

Have you finished your homework champ?

>>13753 >>11913

horror is good when done right, but most "good" horror authors are doing tons of cookie cutter copy paste shit over and over again *cough* stephen king *cough* then it just doesnt feel special anymore, now its all the same, might as well read slice of life

>>13330

Holy shit you are retarded

believing in genres already puts you on the bottom floor of this pyramid

>very good books

>good books

>ok books

>bad books

>shit books

Shakespeak was duech?

An amusing shoop.

Tarrant's missive is weirdly ironic, an argument in favor of immigration control that might provoke a reinterpretation in light of his acts. An "Australians go home!" backlash movement maybe?

His writing style speaks of a lack of maturity though not lacking in some self reflection. While remaining hopeful of an extensive global impact, he all but acknowledges his likely fate as a Charles Manson phenomenon: lingering, yet to be largely forgotten. Admitting to being a waste of time for a higher educational setting is nice, but the same could be said of his attempt at a grand tour with the world as his school. Having gained some appreciation of other lands and peoples is worthy of praise, yet he appears to have remained disconnected from them. He is content to substitute an eclectic grab bag of superficial obsessions with foreign events for understanding.

In short, he's no William T. Vollmann.

No need to skim the entire. If one can track down a copy (it should be everywhere by now) the gist of the whole can be had with just the first half. Weighing in at 74 pages (of mostly empty space) that first half makes for a five to ten minute read.

>>15946

Definitely the latter. It's the quintessence of nu/pol/

>>15946

It isn't even 100 pages. Just read it for yourself.

you can read the thing in 2 hours>>15946

Does it name the jew?

He ain't notable enough for a simple biography.

His manifesto would be cut in half by any semi-professional editor. I suspect it could be usefully reduced to a third in size.

The major lesson here is about mental heath and societal support systems. Alienation? Social isolation? Pain of rejection? All cliche. Walk into any homeless shelter and listen. It's all there. His story ain't nothing unique. People who identify with what he has to say willfully overlook key parts to his story in favor of his poorly articulated rage dump. The key parts aren't missing. Many an article, blog post, and essay thoroughly covered all the facets.

Desire you an expose of a self destructive life with keen observations on the nature of society and all its imposing faults, well exposed, and well said? Study Bukowski. Study John Horne Burns. Misfits from two ends of the social scale make for an enlightening comparison.

Finally, who would be the market for such a book? Our tiny niche of people most interested are also those most able to scan and file-share. That's assuming, by some miracle, a deal could be made to land copies on the dead tree graveyard of brick and mortar bookshelves. Not much left over for an ambitious counter cultural writer to live on even if money should change hands for every ebook read.

No thanks. I'll stick to writing made to order erotica.

>>16193

Society doesn't care about men since ever

I fulle agree with some opinions here. Who would be the market for such a book? Anyway if you gonna write such a book here some tips https://edusson.com/speech-writing-service for "young writers" :D By the way I am not sure there are a lot of people who really know about Elliot Rodger..

who is that?

mumkey jones wrote a diary of a wimpy kid parody of his manifesto, its like if his manifesto was like a diary of a wimpy kid book, look it up

>>13442

How as Old Man and the Sea? My dad talks about it a lot and makes it sound pretty decent.

>>13442

Read For Whom the Bell Tolls first. It's a classic tale of war. Then read A Farewell to Arms. Then read all his short stories, especially the Nick Adams tales but the collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro is excellent. Then go back and read The Old Man and The Sea.

That is the essential Hemingway in my recommended order. He is a maestro of action, of spare description and of understated honor.

>>13442

>Is Hemingway worth getting into?

No.

>>13577

It's pretty good. Read it once in school, then read it again while I went boating, for the sake of immersion. Classic man vs. nature story.

>>13442

old man in the sea is mediocre, i haven't read any of his other books, and i do not plan on reading them

meditations

>>9278

Best classification guide I've come across is that science fiction portrays futures/worlds that are improbable, but possible. Fantasy portrays impossible worlds: so C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, although ostensibly sci-fi, is most definitely fantasy because they portray breathable atmospheres on Mars and Venus.

>>9550

You should check out Iain M. Banks. His writing can be a bit clunky, but there are some good stories among his Culture works.

John Norman's Gor series has been a recent discovery of mine

>inb4 'incel' comments

the usuals, Phillip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison (despite him being a prickly kike), Ray Bradbury, etc

never checked out Orson Scott Card, but I hear soys are boycotting him for hating on queers. his adaptations seem to be popular. I dunno is he fluff?

>>9550

Asimov as far as jews go, is more tolerable than Ellison, I heard that dude went through friends like women go through tampons.