Recently read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", and I must say that on the bleakness level, it blows all these other books out of the water.
It is dark, and all the more so because it is simply and...
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Recently read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", and I must say that on the bleakness level, it blows all these other books out of the water.
It is dark, and all the more so because it is simply and...
I don't think there is a single post in the forum not written by a student with an essay due tomorrow!
I used to think some things were good and others bad, especially in terms of books and opinions. More and more I now think that most things are useful in certain contexts, and that even really great...
I agree with blazeofglory, in that I find reading (actually any art or entertainment) is usually best when I come to it without preconceptions or preknowledge of what I'm getting into - some of my...
I have two suggestions. First, give up trying to understand everything you're reading. Joyce wrote the book this way deliberately, in order to make you feel lost and overwhelmed. It is certainly...
I kind of glaze over when people start talking about textual differences, but I do have a minor preference. When I took the book in University we read the Penguin student edition, but also have read...
There's something to this, but scientists can be elitist too - if you read Richard Feynman's books, he is always complaining how scientists seem to make many things unnessesarily complicated,...
Coming to terms with suffering, transcending it.
On the other hand, many of the self help books like Wayne Dyer and the like help people to make some improvements in their lives in a way pretty unlikely to happen reading the classics of philosophy....
I think memorizing poetry is the best way to get at the real depths of great poems.
Poetry on the page is like sheet music. It is not real until it is absorbed by the musician.
Poetry is really...
My advice is not to try to read a lot of poets, but find a few that appeal to you. Reading the poems aloud and repeatedly is good, of course, but also memorizing poems, I've found, gives me a much...
I like Cummings because he is an individualist. He reminds me of Thoreau in his independent thought and his great appreciation for the true nobilty of people. He respected and loved life from his...
That is interesting. I know for myself that in every "down" period it seemed like I was seeing things as they really were - during one period, it seemed to me that even hearing my thoughts would...
I like the Meditations. Fascinating to think that these are the reflections of an Emperor, esp. that of an Empire like Rome - in fact, the Meditations was not intended a public work, but is actually...
I agree in part with what you're saying here, but I don't think this is the whole issue, because I think even after one has learned the terms of literary theory, the theorizers are still either...
Dealing with questions like these, I usually think of I line that I think was Thomas Merton's: You have to be a saint for your own times. History is filled with great persons, but what is important...
I think this is pretty much it, in that this sort of academic trend has a lot more to do with the needs of the professors than relevant to what they are studying.
In addtion, I think another...
As was said above, there are a lot of theories regarding literature, but I think the original post was referring the post-modernist/deconstructionist literary theory.
My opinion: I really don't...
I'm no expert on Dostoyevsky's life, but, as said before, I don't think he murdered anyone. However, he had a gambling addiction for many years, which may have helped give him insight into an...
I remember my brother challenged me on this, when I used to be quite rigid and dogmatic on what books were better than others.
Some of the above posts hit aspects of what I feel must be part of...
My rereads: The Gospel, On the Road, Crime and Punishment, The Trial, Shakespeare.
There's a good passage from the novelist Vladimir Nabokov on the subject of rereading, from his Lectures on...
William James' Pragmatism has an unusual take on both science and religion, arguing along the lines that the truth is what works. He also wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience, which I haven't...
Just to add a few to the good list already mentioned:
You might take Mary Shelly (Frankenstein) or Jane Austen, perhaps if you wanted a female author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelly...
I read Ulysses earlier this year, and I have to warn you that, in my opinion at least, having read the Odyssey isn't really much of a help when trying to read Ulysses!
The episodes are mirrored...
I notice that Theodore Dreiser is not on the author list - maybe he should be added?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dreiser