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Board: /lit/

"/lit/ - Literature" is 4chan's board for the discussion of books, authors, and literature.

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lit
/lit/ is for the discussion of literature, specifically books (fiction & non-fiction), short stories, poetry, creative writing, etc. If you want to discuss history, religion, or the humanities, go to /his/. If you want to discuss politics, go to /pol/. Philosophical discussion can go on either /lit/ or /his/, but those discussions of philosophy that take place on /lit/ should be based around specific philosophical works to which posters can refer.

Check the wiki, the catalog, and the archive before asking for advice or recommendations, and please refrain from starting new threads for questions that can be answered by a search engine.

/lit/ is a slow board! Please take the time to read what others have written, and try to make thoughtful, well-written posts of your own. Bump replies are not necessary.

Looking for books online? Check here:
Guide to #bookz
https://www.geocities.ws/prissy_90/Media/Texts/BookzHelp19kb.htm
Recommended Literature
https://lit.trainroll.xyz/wiki/Recommended_Reading
6 media | 7 replies
Sloterdijk
SIK5LJSZJ5EWTDNUV7L3XCN6JU
Was does /lit/ think about Peter Sloterdijk? I'm thinking about starting his Spheres trilogy, what am I in for?
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Is this true?
GvQy1_LXAAAD7yq
Modern media sounds more interesting. Older media sounds didactic and boring.
0 media | 4 replies
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Schopenhauer
>mommy is... LE BAD
>hegel is... LE BAD AND LE CHARLATAN
>noise... LE BAD
>reason is... LE LIMITED
>will to live is... LE BAD AND LE GOOD
>socialization is... LED BAD
>women is... LE STUPID AND CHILDISH
>college is... LE RETARD AND BAD
>writing for money is... le IMMORAL AND BAD
>sex is... LE NATURE TRAP

>buddhism is... LE GOOD
>music is... LE GOOD
>art is... LE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE, WHERE YOU ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE WILL
>fasting is... LED GOOD
>flute is... LE GOOD
>kant is... LE BASED
>plato is... LE DIVINE
>classic literature is.. LE GOOD
>petting a puddle is.. LE WARMHEARTING AND LE GOOD
>contemplation of nature is... LE INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING
>sarcasm is... LE GOOD

How can anyone take this guy seriously?
4 media | 81 replies
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1751611452682839
give me one reason why I shouldn't spend next 10 years of my life playing counterstrike instead of studying hegel, nietzsche, dostoevsky or whoever
2 media | 18 replies
/grrm/ - George R. R. Martin General #77
Faith_seven_aspects
faith edition

ASOIAF wiki: https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Main_Page
Blog: https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/
Old blog: https://grrm.livejournal.com/
So Spake Martin (interviews): https://westeros.org/citadel/ssm/
Book search: https://asearchoficeandfire.com/
SSM search: https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=006888510641072775866:vm4n1jrzsdy
General search: http://searcherr.work/
TWOW samples: https://archive.org/details/411440566-the-winds-of-winter-released-chapters

old: >>24494890
37 media | 190 replies
/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General
0e90821b789d2c75f7450f5bdd3a6e96
Recommended reading charts. (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb

>Archive:
https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg

>Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg

>Previous:
>>24519998

>Thread Questions:
>What SF/F books are you currently reading?
>Favorite book covers?
>Favorite artists (amateur or professional)
>What character is literally you?
37 media | 204 replies
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71BGXfFYfvL._SY466_
>studio desperate to recoup production costs publishes a flop's screenplay
Any more examples of this?
1 media | 2 replies
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1726977046474622
Best books with incest?
20 media | 96 replies
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1604926888113
Are there any books about a relationship between an intellectual and a bimbo?
6 media | 69 replies
Rene Girard
11GIRARD-Obit-facebookJumbo
He will go down in history as a gimmick, if at all. How can anybody like Peter Thiel be so invested in his ideas? They're just interesting "plot devices", for the lack of a better word, at best. In Girard, there's no ethics, there's no metaphysics, and there isn't a sense of an argument as to why other competing drives are less influential.

I just don't get it. It's like pointing at railroads and saying "now THIS is what drove modern society." Kind of? Maybe it was really important for a bit, and still has important applications? Certainly not your highest draft pick though.
9 media | 119 replies
Deleuze vs Plato
Screenshot 2025-07-05 at 6.12.25 PM
Saw this from another thread:
>It's also worth pointing out that there is no such thing as Pure Otherness, at least if you accept a univocity of Being on some level (and acknowledge that the so-called Other at least exists). Nothing can be so different that they do not at least exist. So this so-called Difference turns out to be the implied Identity, and Identity turns out to be the implied Difference, and Deleuze's attempt to both critique Plato and break out of the Hegelian straitjacket falls flat on its face.
From somebody who is both familiar with Deleuze and with Plato, is this true, that Difference on its own aka "Pure Otherness" is a non-starter? If so, is there anything we can salvage from Deleuze's work, then?
7 media | 82 replies
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Nick_Land
>"All health, beauty, intelligence, and social grace has been teased from a vast butcher’s yard of unbounded carnage, requiring incalculable eons of massacre to draw forth even the subtlest of advantages. This is not only a matter of the bloody grinding mills of selection, either, but also of the innumerable mutational abominations thrown up by the madness of chance, as it pursues its directionless path to some negligible preservable trait, and then — still further — of the unavowable horrors that ‘fitness’ (or sheer survival) itself predominantly entails. We are a minuscule sample of agonized matter, comprising genetic survival monsters, fished from a cosmic ocean of vile mutants, by a pitiless killing machine of infinite appetite. (This is still, perhaps, to put an irresponsibly positive spin on the story, but it should suffice for our purposes here.)"
4 media | 36 replies
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170935795021986323
>buy a book at least 5 times older than me
>manage to be the first one to dirty and damage it
Every time.
0 media | 6 replies
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960px-Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore
Why does Jordan Peterson receive so much criticism, even though he seems insightful and sophisticated? Is /lit/ too retarded to understand him?
18 media | 83 replies
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1629542540347
In my adolescence I thought this book was a prescient look at liberalism's upcoming demise. As an adult I realize it's a defense of liberalism by method of critiquing it. People like Deneen are paranoid of their society's decline and only try to preserve its dominance by questioning its foundation, but never replacing them. When faced with genuinely illiberal alternatives they cower in fear and defend the values of their inherently liberal societies in the midst of them whining about it.

This means that Fukuyama is the one that actually has the last laugh of course -- even liberalism's critics are just boring liberals. There are virtually no non-liberals in the West at all. Anyone caught up in this debate about liberalism's terminal decline is not thinking enough in the long-term.
33 media | 261 replies
Protestant /lit/
1673369890885879
>The Freedom of a Christian
>Book of Common Prayer 1662
>Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
>Institutes of the Christian Religion
>The Bible
>The Hammer of God
>Donne's Holy Sonnets
>Herbert's The Temple
Anything else to add? Looking to make a chart on the subject.
4 media | 15 replies
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81+oKJAGQ7L
Is it worth reading instead of just watching the TV show?
1 media | 17 replies
Was Hemmingway actually good?
HSHQACS2FJKYW5EE2KZZ2AUMA4
I've reread some of the other slop from HS english like Salinger and Fitzgerald and have been disappointed recently.
0 media | 6 replies
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71uJ617VNML._UF1000,1000_QL80_
Are John Lennon's books worth reading?
0 media | 0 replies
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Screenshot_20250707-155704_Chrome
Can they just please shut the fuck up about white males already?
You guys won. Go off on your own and exist in your own multiracial ethnostate. Just shut the fuck up about white males. Goddamn.
6 media | 25 replies
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IMG_5105
If magic is fembrained in Norse myth, how did Odin - a dude - become the best at it?
0 media | 8 replies
Henry V Soliloquy
IMG_4504
Is there a more impassioned speech that shows a young man’s ambition and rage at being mocked?

King. What Treasure Vncle?
Exe. Tennis balles, my Liege
Kin. We are glad the Dolphin is so pleasant with vs,
His Present, and your paines we thanke you for:
When we haue matcht our Rackets to these Balles,
We will in France (by Gods grace) play a set,
Shall strike his fathers Crowne into the hazard.
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a Wrangler,
That all the Courts of France will be disturb'd
With Chaces. And we vnderstand him well,
How he comes o're vs with our wilder dayes,
Not measuring what vse we made of them.
We neuer valew'd this poore seate of England,
And therefore liuing hence, did giue our selfe
To barbarous license: As 'tis euer common,
That men are merriest, when they are from home.
But tell the Dolphin, I will keepe my State,
Be like a King, and shew my sayle of Greatnesse,
When I do rowse me in my Throne of France.
For that I haue layd by my Maiestie,
And plodded like a man for working dayes:
But I will rise there with so full a glorie,
That I will dazle all the eyes of France,
Yea strike the Dolphin blinde to looke on vs,
And tell the pleasant Prince, this Mocke of his
Hath turn'd his balles to Gun-stones, and his soule
Shall stand sore charged, for the wastefull vengeance
That shall flye with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his Mocke, mocke out of their deer husbands;
Mocke mothers from their sonnes, mock Castles downe:
And some are yet vngotten and vnborne,
That shal haue cause to curse the Dolphins scorne.
But this lyes all within the wil of God,
To whom I do appeale, and in whose name
Tel you the Dolphin, I am comming on,
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightfull hand in a wel-hallow'd cause.
So get you hence in peace: And tell the Dolphin,
His Iest will sauour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weepe more then did laugh at it.
Conuey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.
4 media | 28 replies
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IMG_0817
Book 1>3&4>6>2>5>Mutability Cantos

But it’s all kino
1 media | 10 replies
I hate this book
1751620378960280
The whole book has the prose of a smug reddit post that never ends, full of epic one liners to make the family appear sharp and witty
The author is a complete cunt who could have solved half his problems with the bare minimum of disciplining

Why is this book/film so popular?
0 media | 10 replies
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1744296389659301
Seriously, what the actual FUCK did Baudrillard mean by this?
0 media | 5 replies
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1710459932539651
What are some books about 8-15 year old boys? Preferably books with no women in them. I have read Tom Brown's Schooldays and Oliver Twist, and I enjoyed them both, except I didn't like the parts of Oliver Twist that were about romance.
22 media | 95 replies
/wg/ Writing General
1736501624857122
"How's the writing going?" edition

Previous:
>>24518232

/wg/ AUTHORS & FLASH FICTION: https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ
RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS: https://pastebin.com/nFxdiQvC

Please limit excerpts to one post.
Give advice as much as you receive it to the best of your ability.
Follow prompts made below and discuss written works for practice; contribute and you shall receive.
If you have not performed a cursory proofread, do not expect to be treated kindly. Edit your work for spelling and grammar before posting.
Violent shills, relentless shill-spammers, and grounds keeping prose, should be ignored and reported.
(And maybe double-space your WIPs to allow edits if you want 'em.)

Simple guides on writing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHdzv1NfZRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPnobbck9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAKcbvioxFk

Thread Theme: https://youtu.be/6egTkeULN88?si=kfVFP1wkx0ECTurU
16 media | 155 replies
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bible
is the bible made for reading it straight through? if not then what would be a "correct" order or an order where you confuse yourself the least. anyone else wanna or have read the bible secularly? is it worth it
0 media | 14 replies
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81p3G7NoYHL
Marx was right about everything
8 media | 105 replies
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mosaic48385c191a10207c31d7e974523cef60360106f0
What kind of person reads Beckett, Bernhard, Cioran and Pessoa?
1 media | 10 replies
White Goddess
White Goddess
I read his Mythology book and thought what the hey, give this a try. What the fuck am I reading? I'm about 100 pages in and this feels like one long schizo post about how everyone is descended from the Sea People who worshipped the White Goddess who is the true deity of Europe.
4 media | 86 replies
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IMG_2795
STACK THREAD
34 media | 84 replies
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$_57
Are the Bond books worth reading? I'm in the mood for some fun pulp.
0 media | 11 replies
Butcher's Crossing
bc
I ordered this book because of you guys.
What am I in for ?
2 media | 8 replies
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The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man
Is this worth reading in 2025 or is it outdated now?
3 media | 45 replies
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640px-Frans_Hals_-_Portret_van_René_Descartes
Reading up up deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning will save your damn life. If used correctly it may even clear up delusions.
0 media | 7 replies
/wng/ Web Novel General
21220-mother-of-learning
"Repetition is the mother of all learning" edition

>What is Web Novel General?
A general for readers and authors involved or interested in the growing phenomenon of 'web novels', serialized English fiction posted to websites such as: Royalroad, Webnovel, Scribblehub, Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, Spacebattles, HFY, various personal author websites, and more

>Why read web novels?
Not for prose or tight editing or deep themes, frankly. As a whole, web novels are infamous for content sprawl and pacing issues. If you enjoy having millions of words to sink your teeth into to get to know the world and characters, though, you may be interested. Keeping up with other readers on a weekly basis to discuss the story's events unfolding is another perk, in the same way discussing an ongoing TV show might be.

>Why write web novels?
Ease of access & potential for Patreon earnings. Many successful authors gain an audience on their website of choice and funnel their readers into a Patreon. See https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/writing for an idea of what some are earning.
Also, once an author has earned a fanbase, transitioning into an Amazon self-publishing career is several orders of magnitude easier than starting 'dry'.

> Advice for Noobs!

Running your story like the business it is:
https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/116847

On writing webserials:
https://alexanderwales.com/how-to-write-a-web-serial/

Sanderson's Writing lectures 2025:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUh_y1IFZY&list=PLSH_xM-KC3ZvzkfVo_Dls0B5GiE2oMcLY [Embed]

Previous: >>24520033
12 media | 89 replies
No title
_sMzffoWf_E5knkaDiVOzLbcpDIlGKc9iMpLEIcqcn9uhsm_SbIuDJzxmmEVgCqy5JjyY49owXkSQpoZMzKD9w5yX-3XBnsknOnPp9PX9CoFJgQHibod4UuvXk8ZPfWn_A343CpBXz0=s0
I've lost all sense of direction, motivation, goals, desires and ambitions.
What should I read to not Hemingway myself?
0 media | 0 replies
Poetry died with the modernists.
1729021705384
Look at their poems. Half of them read like the works of Rupi Kaur, and the other half are again lacking rhythm. Almost every poem of the modernists, if you took out tbe line breaks, reads like bad prose. You could not tell it was a poem. When they do break into rhyme and metre, they are so bad at it that they sound like nursery rhymes. This is where poetry died, where literature died. The peak of literature was the 17th century. A line of Pope has more in it than all poetry written after 1850. Modernism... more like DEGENERACY.
1 media | 24 replies
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IMG_4924
When you die, who's getting your books?
0 media | 8 replies
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IMG_0239
>read book
>forget 98% of it a week later
what's even the point
0 media | 11 replies
Is this a sentence fragment?
1750794264203059
>Listening to a pitiless Golden man speak between great marble pillars.
How tf do I read a book that can't even get the prologue right? And it's not just my copy this shit is quoted all over like it's some masterpiece.
0 media | 3 replies
/lwc/ Lit's July Writing Competition
PH000108
This month has flown by. Can’t wait to see what you've all got in store!

The Character and Theme requirements of Lit’s writing competition will be released in this thread tomorrow Saturday 10am UTC

You will have until Monday 7th Midnight 11:59pm UTC to write and submit.

SUBMISSION COUNTDOWN:

https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/7452785/my-countdown

Submit via rentry.co – you can change the url of your submission to your story name to be identified easily.

Your writing must reflect the Character and Theme requirements – the character requirement doesn’t have to be your main character and the theme can be creatively interpreted, but those who just ignore it will not be voted for.

3k word count maximum. no one wants to read your novel.

To submit, reply in the thread with your rentry.co url using a tripcode (Namefield: Name + “#” + Password).

If you submit you should leave meaningful feedback for at least two other stories. Try to put in what you want back. There aren’t many places on this planet to get raw, no filter feedback, and it’s the best way to keep sharp and improve.

If you submit you MUST vote. If you don’t vote you will be taken off the ballot.

Once you have voted PLEASE reply ‘voted’ in the thread.

You CANNOT vote for yourself.

Submitters: When you vote on the strawpoll, use your trip when it asks for your ‘name’.
Anons: you can still vote, just make sure to reply ITT first, then use your comment no.# as your ‘name’ in the strawpoll.

When you vote, remember, it’s ranked polling. We are going to go back to 1st 2nd 3rd place voting.

The strawpoll will be released when submissions close. You will then have until next Friday 11th Midday GMT to read, vote and most importantly CRITIQUE

Good luck writers, readers and red-headed retards all!

P.S. Dealing with shitposters, autists and rule breakers. Let it reflect in the critique and the vote. Ignore bullshit and give feedback to the ones who have tried. Anything obviously over the line will just not appear on the strawpoll.
7 media | 101 replies
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20250707_013503
/lit/bros... what's our response? Are books obsolete now that we've summarized all literature that has ever been written?
3 media | 31 replies
ITT: writers who have killed at least one person
6C077D4C-9AF7-4035-83E9-913575249D85
Ben Jonson (playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare) entered into a duel with an actor named Gabriel Spenser in 1598—resulting in Jonson mortally stabbing Spenser with a sword. Dueling was illegal in England at this time, therefore Jonson was charged with murder, but he avoided the death penalty by pleading benefit of clergy, and was thus merely branded on the thumb.
4 media | 24 replies
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snape-and-voldemort-at-the-end
Why wouldn't Voldemort kill Snape as soon as he got all the information from him after he didn't return when he called. He'd been working with the enemy for a decade. All the other death eaters have rules except him
0 media | 6 replies
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Minecraft aesthetic 💜
Does anyone know what the best books are for getting started in the occult and/or black magic?
I've wanted to get into this world for a while but haven't had the courage to do it and this is the moment. If anyone knows of a book that I can find in PDF or knows where to get it, please let me know.

thank you.
2 media | 9 replies
No title
41
once again unto the breach:
poems thread, wherein i teach.
though i have before set sail,
teachers, too, may also fail.
it, this time, i swear to nail.
io crush me if i quail.
moon, be blest, and dog my tail.
2 media | 8 replies
No title
lit
New alt-lit agitprop just dropped lads.

https://archive.md/obXuv

Somone was asking the other day if everyone had forgotten about Mixtape Hyperborea, well here he is now

>IF ANYONE HAS THE ABILITY to make literature cool among young men again, it might be Reinspects.

>Twenty-six, handsome, and charming, I got the impression he was sleeping with half the girls at the party, though he claims it’s only two. He insists we meet in a cemetery — “It’s a good place to think” — and we chat sitting in the front row of his black 1997 Ford Mustang. “I used to have a nicer car,” Reinspects says. “A 2020 Camaro. But I totaled it doing donuts.” He smokes three hand-rolled cigarettes over our hour-long chat. Prior to moving to L.A., he bummed around Paris for several months. “The greatest tragedy of my life is that I’m not European.” When he notices a headstone engraved with the name “Macbeth,” he immediately breaks into the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” soliloquy that closes the play.

>Reinspects is cagey about his personal details. Reinspects is a pen name — a lot of alt-lit writers use pen names — and he refuses to tell me specifics about his life, other than to say he’s from the Southwest, is the son of Slavic immigrants, and went to a Waldorf school, a “child-centered” educational philosophy that emphasizes a child’s holistic well-being. In 2020, he graduated from a state university with a political science degree. He only lets me photograph him from the neck down to avoid getting “face doxxed.”
17 media | 133 replies
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1743904913666714
John Stuart Mill started being educated on the Greeks by his father when he was 3.
At what age should you start your kids down this path?
0 media | 34 replies
Kant hate thread
totenmaske
Kant's psychology is identical to that of of the mathematical crank
>One obvious characteristic of the trisector is that they are old. The trisector heard of the trisection in his geometry class, but did not succeed with his construction until many years later.
One point for Kant being a crank - didn't write the critique until he was in his 50s
>A third characteristic of trisectors is that they do not know much mathematics.
He included a refutation of Berkeley despite never reading Berkeley. He shit on Thomas Reid despite never reading Thomas Reid. he learned aristotelian logic in school, but never really engaged with aristotle and probably couldn't read greek. he claimed to have refuted leibniz despite only being familiar with leibniz indirectly through wolff, and probably didn't even read wolff but only knew about it because it was being taught in his school.
> "tell me a thing is impossible and I will immediately set to work on it"
hume said it was impossible to prove the universal validity of causality and Kant went fucking insane. in his efforts to prove causality was valid, he accepted all kinds of absurd propositions and made incoherent arguments in support of them, and then what he actually ended up proving was not that causality was necessary or valid, but that we can't help but to use causality, which is nothing more than what hume already said, similarly to how trisectors claimed to have constructed a trisection when in reality they only constructed an approximation.
>Trisectors draw complicated diagrams... Without exception, the constructions can be simplified, sometimes drastically... Perhaps they think that complexity is impressive or... perhaps they are a bit unsure of their work and think that errors will be harder to find in a complicated diagram with many letters.
Kant's arguments are pointlessly repetitive and long. He obscures his premises behind as much retarded vocabulary as possible, and he does not use his own definitions consistently as almost every commentator on Kant has pointed out.
>It is virtually impossible to convince them that they have made an error.
Many people responded to kant and showed him his errors, of course his response was simply to claim that they did not understand his work. It is the same with the Kant shills on this board.
>Some trisectors waste vast amounts of mathematical time. A 1951 trisector, aged 82 at the time, broadcast his constructions... to over 100 places in all. He had more than 60 replies! Think how many mathematician hours went into producing those answers, some of which the trisector excerpted in his next widely distributed letter.
Kant RUINED philosophy because later philosopher all felt the need to refute Kant and devote entire books to him. It's even worse because Kant obscures his actual arguments so much, that the philosophers tie themselves into knots trying to make it make sense. Kant completely derailed philosophy for 200 years at least.
6 media | 41 replies
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hq720 (1)
Steve is a snob, a fraud, and completely full of shit. His videos anger me.

Hate thread. If you ride his dick, just fuck off back to his hoarding channel and do it there
4 media | 42 replies
No title
IMG_2622
Is it possible to refute the idea that even in atheism we still assume most of the same moral premises of religion? Is secular humanism really just our modern form of religion?
0 media | 34 replies
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Screen Shot 2025-07-06 at 3.11.50 PM
>most of /lit/
nothing ever changes
2 media | 18 replies
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1201001781-l
What happened to Intellectual Conservatism?
7 media | 46 replies
/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General
teenage boy watching the planets and stars
Stars, Planets, and the Cosmos Edition

FAQ:
>What is worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding is the process of creating entire fictional worlds from scratch, all while considering the logistics of these worlds to make them as believable as possible. Worldbuilding asks questions about the setting of a world, and then answers them, often in great detail. Most people use it as a means of creating a setting or the scenery for a story.
>"Isn't there a Worldbuilding general in >>>/tg/ already?"
Yes, there is. However, that general is focused on the creation of fictional worlds for the intended purpose of playing TTRPG campaigns. Here you can discuss worldbuilding projects that are not meant to be used for a roleplaying setting, but for novels, videogames, or any other kind of creative project.
>"Can I discuss the setting of my campaign here, though?"
If you want to, but it would probably be better to discuss it on >>>/tg/ . We don't allow the discussion of TTRPG mechanics, however. If you want to discuss stats or which D&D edition is best, this is not the place.
>"Can I talk about an existing fictional setting that is not mine?"
Yes, of course you can!
>"Does worldbuilding need to be about fantasy and elves?"
Worldbuilding, as already stated above, and contrary to what many believe, does not inherently imply blatantly copying Tolkien. In fact, there are many science-fiction setting out there, and even entire alternative history settings which do not possess supernatural elements at all. Any kind of science fiction book has an implied setting at least, which involves a certain degree of worldbuilding put into it.

Old thread: >>24435084
13 media | 69 replies
No title
IMG_6806
I just stumbled across an upload of a reading of Will Durant’s entire story of civilization book series that’s from the 90’s. It’s like 400 hours long. I’m thinking of listening to it at 2x speed for an hour plus a day so that I can finish it in under a year.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLax23j-7EInW5aUHMjTqQ3uzs5rE0WP64&si=2YkkYc0p6Xo3Zqjj
0 media | 4 replies
No title
IMG_6274
>is unironically one of the greatest inventions of all time
13 media | 175 replies
No title
achilles-fighting-hector-attic-red-figure-volute-krater-neck-by-berlin-painter-circa-490-bce-british-museum
What do you think generates better fight scenes: prose, or verse?

Or, perhaps to ask a better question: for dynamic action, do you prefer a novel, or a narrative/epic poem?
0 media | 4 replies
Write a poem
Jazz
Write a poem

>Long ago I walked the halls
>Beyond the woodland pyre
>All to be what lost had come
>In search of lonesome fire
>Fret not to thee who might entail
>What's lost cannot be found again
>I see you as you are my dear
>As I sit beside the fire
0 media | 0 replies
Why do progressives keep saying the Koran is Beautiful?
korean
Cause it's not.
>I keep seeing liberals say that in: college, reddit, liberal Churches (my parents dragged me too), news media, youtube, etc
>finally decide to read it
>It's an endlessly monotonous excruciating slog that repeats the same shit over and over:
Where is this supposed beauty?
Am I just not getting it?
2 media | 10 replies
No title
1621746573205
What was your favorite Aesop/fable growing up? Stories wthin a story (Canterbury Tales for example) may count.
0 media | 2 replies
ASOIAF
imafges
My problem with this book it's that it's all nobles, lords and ladies making the calls. Why can't there be common folk involved and be important to the story? Really kills my immersion. Makes me think GRRM is just a cuck to the royal family.
0 media | 21 replies
No title
1516736721282
Books are for losers, just lift weights
2 media | 14 replies
No title
images - 2025-07-07T154313.498
Final thoughts?
1 media | 12 replies
No title
john green
Does anyone remember that YouTube video with a 20something John Green describing how he used to be an IRC mod when he was a teenager? He tells a story about entrapping faggots into cybersex just so he can ban them. His joy is palpable. Did the video vanish or is it still on youtube? I know someone here knows what I'm talking about
0 media | 5 replies
Writers like James Ellroy
1743439865584223
Anymore books or writers like James Ellroy?

Not just more crime/detective novels, but noir books with elements of conspiracy thrillers. Also weird explicit sexual stuff in the book (Ellroy is known for filling his book with characters with extremely weird fetishes).
2 media | 5 replies
No title
GtKS0zXWwAAqmn3
Good psychology books about autism/asperger?
3 media | 59 replies
No title
maxresdefault (20)
Why do Eastern (Dharmic) religions engage the intellect and philosophy, while Western (Abrahamic) religions are content with dogma and doctrine?
10 media | 61 replies
The Holy Bible
jewly kikebull
Just got done marathoning this. Some thoughts:
>Mostly useless stupid bullshit like geneaologies.
>The Hebrews were awful people, even by the standards of the time. And Yahweh was just as evil as the other gods he hates so much.
>Nothing that Jesus Christ says seems to have any resemblance to modern Christianity, not even saying that like a fedora "Jesus was le hippie!!" I mean it theologically and rhetorically has no similarity.
>The entire religion is based off of the ramblings of Paul, who I'm sorry to say is a blatant Ray Kroc type business (cult?) shark.
>Hilariously un-White and anti-Western. Not even sure how it caught on in Europe.
>Revelation is the dumbest shit anyone has ever written.
>No Holy Trinity, turns out that's just made up.
>Turns out there's nothing in here saying you can't have multiple wives, you're just cucked out of a harem by literal feminists and cucks.
>Turns out there's nothing in here saying you should have a celibate priesthood or monastic orders, seems like it was just an excuse for homos and dykes to get together alone.
>Turns out nothing in here says you have to abstain from alcohol, that's just something various protestant sects made up.
Can someone explain this shit to me? It can't possibly be that this entire religion is 2000 years of people exploiting Christ's name to start their own personal cults based on their own stupid neuroses right?
10 media | 33 replies
/oclg/ – Orthodox Christian Literature General
new-ravenna-14
What Orthodox literature have you been reading lately? Planning on attending Divine Liturgy on Sunday?

Recommended Literature—
>The Orthodox Study Bible
>The Philokalia
>The Way of a Pilgrim
>God’s Revelation to the Human Heart by Fr. Seraphim Rose
>Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future by Fr. Seraphim Rose
Search for all of them here: https://archive.org/
https://youtu.be/b5og4ibQVZs?si=TLOXfxoCCtT-jh0R
19 media | 62 replies
Lovecraft
H.P.-Lovecraft_green
What do I read after I'm done all his stories? Also obligatory Lovecraft thread.
1 media | 19 replies
Read, Drink a Beer, Learn - Not always in that order
A statue at Stuttgart City Hall by Daniel Stocker (d. 1957) after a model created by Georg Rheineck (1846-1916). This statue stood unscathed amidst the rubble of Stuttgart city center following a devastating WWII bombing raid.
Ok /lit/, I attempted to open a dialogue thread using a negative dialectical argument to no avail before this one. So, that leaves me being blunt and forward. I have two choices regarding Hegel:

1) The Phenomenology was originally intended to be the “introduction” to Hegel’s system, particularly his Logic, by way of a negative dialectical argument.
2) Though historically and pedagogically the Phenomenology is prior to the Logic, it is strongly suggested one read part of the Logic before engaging the Phenomenology.

Basis: the Phenomenology does not actually make clear just what Hegel’s famous core method (dialectics) is supposed to be; worse, it has what many consider another phenomenological method in play alongside the dialectical method and the confusion increases.

The one place I found so far the most helpful https://hegel.net/en/e0.htm

I'm considering just jumping into his aesthetics/art stuff where both columnated.
1 media | 2 replies
No title
125944 - SoyBooru
I want to get into an occult knowledge. Recommend me essential and more obscure books to break my mind. I already checked /lit/ occult charts, and it's not enough.
6 media | 33 replies
Read Nietzsche
3333
If you could only read one philosopher in your lifetime, it has to be this guy. Do yourself a favor and start with Nietzsche. It's never too late.
2 media | 5 replies
No title
images-4
Is this shit worth reading? Its a trilogy

>hurrr fantasy by women durr

I know, i know
4 media | 29 replies
No title
71h9fJPrjnL
Rate my Bible Study setup?
4 media | 26 replies
/clg/ - Classical Languages General
ostrakon
Ostracized edition

>τὸ πρότερον νῆμα·
>>24425603

>Μέγα τὸ Ἑλληνιστί/Ῥωμαϊστί·
https://mega dot nz/folder/FHdXFZ4A#mWgaKv4SeG-2Rx7iMZ6EKw

>Mέγα τὸ ANE·
https://mega dot nz/folder/YfsmFRxA#pz58Q6aTDkwn9Ot6G68NRg

>Work in progress FAQ
https://rentry dot co/n8nrko

All Classical languages are welcome.
41 media | 241 replies
No title
7777777777777777777777777777
do you agree with plato there?
0 media | 4 replies
No title
Chigga
L'Académie was a masterpiece of neo-beat culture and its author is a genius. One wonders, what is incubating in that mind right now?
7 media | 60 replies
No title
1735540822144436
Any books about manipulating people for my personal gain?
15 media | 18 replies
No title
1787785097245
What are some books that are equally as disgusting as they are beautiful?
33 media | 112 replies
No title
Yockey
I don't think I've ever read something so technically correct yet profoundly stupid in my life
To even interpret it most favorably concedes the premise that this animal's metabolism and muscle structure evolved over time to suit this chosen niche
4 media | 36 replies
Surah Al Fatiha - The Opener
Surah Al Fatiha
Surah Al Fatiha is the first Surah, chapter, of the Holy Koran. It is brief and easy to learn and memorize, recited during prayer. Listen along and read the transliteration and you will learn how to recite it in no time. It is very beautiful and is recited in loving melody as it is the Truth of God.

This is the first step in learning the Holy Koran and how to pray Salat, the daily prayers that God commands of us. Here it is recited 100 times, by the end of it, you can commit the Surah into your soul, carry it with you at all times, and reproduce it with only air.

https://youtu.be/Hfl9i85Xt2Y?si=U7xnOwUCn-bV8Nd4
0 media | 0 replies
No title
dog man priest
Where should I upload my book for anons to read
0 media | 15 replies
Does exercising improve one's reading ability?
david tibet
I am immensely struggling with processing and retaining information, and have been considering that my issue might be a matter of blood flow and overabundance of toxins in my body instead of by-default adhd. Has anybody here noticed massive improvements in their readership once they took better care of their bodies? I don't want to be this fried drooling whiny retard forever, and at age 24 it's already getting a bit late. Taking regular walks has not cleared my mind enough.
0 media | 7 replies
No title
alexander-deyneka-deineka--woman-reading
Half of 2025 is over. How many books did you read?
6 media | 37 replies
No title
IMG_4408
Do you enjoy this book or have you read it just to say you've read it?
1 media | 14 replies
No title
George-Berkeley-detail-oil-painting-John-Smibert-1732-2734269582
>you can only experience the world through sense impressions so therefore the outside world is not real
Why did anyone ever believe this?
0 media | 6 replies
How do I become a creative?
downloadfile(1)
I've always wanted to be a creative ever since I was young. I've day dreamed about being one and tried working my ass off trying to write ever since I was around 12. My parents tried pushing me towards it for school assignments. I also wanted to draw but never got into it seriously.

I've been wanting to write again for nearly 2 years now and have barely made any progress towards that goal. I've only done one little drabble like 2 years ago and haven't done any exercises since then. I've been trying to get myself to write, but all of it looks too complicated and exhausting for me. I've tried multiple different strategies, but they never seem to work. I've tried forcing myself to write, but can only make myself write a couple of sentences for barely 30 seconds before stopping and looking at my phone again.

I've never been able to complete a single multichapter story in my entire life and actually coming up with stories isn't much better. I can't think anything through and everything about trying to make an entire story looks too hard for me. I want to be a creative really badly, but nothing I've done seems to have amounted to much of anything. I want to become one so badly, and I want to stop wasting my life doing nothing.
5 media | 93 replies
Song of Songs Exegesis
717870
Does anyone know of any exegesis of the Song of Songs that puts the Christian individual, the reader, as the masculine part.
The always make humanity, Israel, the Church (us), as the bride, and God, Christ etc as the bridegroom. We're out in a passive position where we just have to be spotless and beautiful for Christ's love.
But insofar as we are Christians we are Christ-like and share in his life.
So I'm looking for something which uses a kind of chivalric love and desire as the motivator to become Christ-like. With the bride as the reward of the new life, paradise returned etc. Where we have to prove our love to the feminine by a life of noble self sacrifice. Active not passive.
I'd rather imagine myself as the man than the bride.
0 media | 7 replies
No title
big vis
What exactly is stopping from reading more, /lit/? Think about it, don't just stop at the simplest explanation. Maybe we could find suitable solutions for each other.
0 media | 11 replies
Writing Contracts
IMG_4389
I signed my fifth writing contract today. Feels good to be productive. Do you guys get a lawyer to check it first? I just sign it and hope for the best.
4 media | 53 replies
No title
broad
The easiest way to refute Kant is just to go through his arguments page by page. Then you find out that every single one of his supposedly "apodictic" arguments are not only contingent but have quite a low certainty, and half of them are downright incoherent.
3 media | 17 replies
Doors of Stone possible release
04qozq7zv3bf1[1]
>Patrick Rothfuss has a secret forum he uses to talk to all of his translators
>Last time it had traffic, The Narrow Road Between Desires was announced weeks later
>It's been dead for a while until just recently, when all of a sudden the forum had a huge traffic spike
>People are speculating that the third Kingkiller Chronicles book is going to be announced finally

Is this real or just another nothingburger?
0 media | 6 replies
No title
brave_U6TeaFJFkO(1)
so what is the actual key to getting your books to even sell on Amazon?

combination of SEO book title jamming, $5/per positive reviewer up to 20 reviews to algo shift results, book reviewer websites like booksprout for $9/mo, and high contrast cover design that goes well in thumbnails presented in search results?

what am i missing? what is the secret formula for a self publishing author to actually sell on amazon in 2025 thats relevant, working, and isnt illegal?

im not going to dox my books but just genuinely curious if anyone has had any luck with amazon self publishing. im lucky if i make even $150 in royalties a month atp.
0 media | 12 replies
No title
71av1egH+eL._SL1499_
this just arrived today, what am i in for
2 media | 6 replies
No title
file_00000000813c61f6a3fff7065fabaea6
What is /lit/ best knowledge on the six perfections? Is it canon from the buddha (theravada) or is it made up from mahayanists?
0 media | 1 replies
No title
deckled edges
>*makes Amazon reviewers seethe*
3 media | 12 replies
No title
IMG_4806
Of all the lost texts, the one I’d like to read most is Porphyry's "Against the Christians". It was a massive 15 volume work refuting every aspect of Christianity from both a historical and philosophical perspective. Porphyry had access to sources we don't have anymore like histories of the Phoenicians (he was from Tyre himself). It's arguments were so searing that multiple Christian emperors had it banned and every copy burned. Even mentioning his arguments was banned, so stuff Christians wrote in an attempt to "refute" it didn't survive either. We only have a few fragments via quotations, and even from what little we know, he prefigured a lot of what was later independently discovered by academic Biblical study, e.g. the Book of Daniel NOT being written during the Babylonian exile but rather, being written in the 180s BC under the reign of Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
9 media | 70 replies
LOTR
33
quick, you have 5 seconds to name a better fantasy novel than The Lord of the Rings
teyevo
10 media | 52 replies
George R.R. Martin Finally Delivers Good News About 'The Winds of Winter'
file
George R.R. Martin Finally Delivers Good News About 'The Winds of Winter' : Martin confirmed that he’s roughly 75% finished with the long-anticipated sixth installment. At the moment, he’s penned about 1,200 pages — with another 400 to 500 still to go.

https://collider.com/the-winds-of-winter-book-length-good-news-george-rr-martin/
7 media | 49 replies
Gibbon was right all along.
1751740773928_Edward_Gibbon_by_Henry_Walton_cleaned
>From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of mankind.
7 media | 35 replies
UBI
TheRoadtoSerfdom
F.A. Hayek:
"There is no reason why, in a society which has reached the general level of wealth ours has, the first kind of security should not be guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom; that is: some minimum of food, shelter, and clothing, sufficient to preserve health. Nor is there any reason why the state should not help to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision."

Milton Friedman:
"(My proposal for a negative income tax) has been greeted with considerable (though far from unanimous) enthusiasm on the left and with considerable (though again far from unanimous) hostility on the right. Yet, in my opinion, the negative income tax is more compatible with the philosophy and aims of the proponents of limited government and maximum individual freedom than with the philosophy and aims of the proponents of the welfare state and greater government control of the economy."

It seems there is general agreement across the political spectrum that a government provided, guaranteed minimum income is beneficial and ethical to implement. Why, then, is this topic of almost universal agreement not advanced or actually implemented?
2 media | 37 replies
No title
david-bowie-lets-dance
Is Street of Crocodiles the only good story in the collection? Pic norel
0 media | 5 replies
Frankenstein, from savant to moron
Screenshot_2244
I decided to read "Frankenstein" after finding it in the local library. I only knew that it has a monster and had tons of media made about it. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I expected a generic story about an experiment going wrong.
How in the ass did the monster go from a creature that is able to learn reading and writing in a matter of weeks and understand classical literature, to a moronic zombie that's out for blood. The movies are to blame for this but how did we get THIS far from the original character?
1 media | 7 replies
No title
1743532947090350
What do I do if I'm too ADHD to even finish <100 page books? I've had a copy of the Old Man and the Sea sitting here for weeks
2 media | 25 replies
No title
plotinus
Were you only able to read one philosopher, who would you read?
6 media | 52 replies
No title
640px-TheKingofElflandsDaughter
is it /lit/ approved?
1 media | 6 replies
We lost Nietzsche's pajeet phase
GvHINC4WoAAd0TO
>Heidegger notes that Nietzsche began preparing for a metamorphosis, initiated in 1881 with the writing 'Morgenröte', which cites a sentence from the Hindu Rigveda: "There are many dawns that have not yet dawned".
Was that good or bad?
0 media | 10 replies
No title
81g0AATkO9L._UF1000,1000_QL80_
>I guess I'm kinda like prophesied to be the bane of these great creatures and godlike figures idk
>heh yeah every woman I meet wants to marry me or their fathers want me to marry them
>even the Goddesses yeah
>yeah Athena is in love with me nbd
Any other obvious self inserts in literature?
1 media | 7 replies
No title
images-4
This nigga is a jewish convert and writes spy fiction about the Mossad.
Should i read it?
0 media | 7 replies
I don't get him.
vladdy
Someone talk me into loving Nabokov. I don't get him. He feels so lifeless and cold to me. All his work reads like vigorous masturbation. FapfapfapFAPohhhhhfuuuuuckFAPFAPFAPshakespeaaaaarefapfapfapfuuuuckimageniussssfapfapFAPFAPFAPFUUUUUCKIMAGENIUSSSSSfapfafapIMSOFUCKINGSMAAAAARTfapfapfapMAROONfapfapfapSICILIANDEFENSEfapfapfapOHHHHHHHFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKfapfapfafapfapfapfapfapfapbutterflieeeeesfapfapfapFAPFAPfapfapcummynismfapfapFAPfapfapfapfapfp is how it all reads to me
>inb4 filtered
1 media | 9 replies
No title
jinjikafka
just finished ''The Castle' by Kafka (pbuh). What did I think of the book, particularly the themes about futility of struggle against a large bureaucratic organism
0 media | 10 replies
No title
IMG_2618
I feel tempted to write some erotic fiction down the line. However, I am a virgin, so its going to be difficult to write about stuff I have no experience of. Can anyone give me some advice?
0 media | 4 replies
No title
fat little piggy
Imagine being a talented composer, obsessed with a 5/10 fat little piggy whore, and you even write (steal) a musical as a love letter to your fat little piggy whore. And your fat little piggy whore rejects you.
Inb4 how is this /lit/? Because The Phantom of the Opera was written by Gaston Leroux, which is /lit/. Come up with your own stuff.
1 media | 17 replies
Examples of fantasy writing degeneracy
pinkmast
I've heard anons say that lots of (modern) fantasy books are filled with fetish shit, sexual degeneracy, or smth along those lines.
I don't read much fantasy, and I know it's just hyperbole, but if you have a funny example to share, I'd like to see it.
0 media | 2 replies
Vilfredo Pareto
960px-Vilfredo_Pareto_1870s2
Why does no one talk about Pareto? He far surpasses Marx and is literally the best sociologist/economist of the 20th century. He's also way more funny and based desu
1 media | 3 replies
No title
IMG_4879
Writing Paradise Lost is itself an immense labout, but this nigga did it while blind. Damn.
0 media | 3 replies
No title
IMG_1206
Quentin’s suicide is one of the most brilliant moments in writing ever. The fact that the reader is under the illusion that he’s alive in the present only works due to Benjy narrating the first part.
0 media | 6 replies
No title
1751418258497456
I went in for my court-ordered psychiatric screening today. The female therapist offered me a sugar-free Hershey's chocolate bar.
I turned it down. I told her I don't have a sweet tooth. I have a rape tooth. I am now under a 48 hour psychiatric hold.
Books for this feel?
0 media | 6 replies
No title
9780380015399-1848169649
Stirner but for theater kids
0 media | 2 replies
Syncretism
researchers-uncover-ho-2
I looked at each side of the graph like one of those magnetic poem makers (from top to wider out toward bottom) It read like an imbedded message that was only decodable from another AI. Wild.
>pic related
excerpt: "As these AI resources, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, become more proficient at generating near-human-quality writing, it has become more difficult to distinguish between purely human writing from content that was either modified or entirely generated by LLMs."
from: https://phys.org/news/2025-07-massive-ai-fingerprints-millions-scientific.html
0 media | 0 replies
No title
1_2539
YOUR BLISTERED LIPS
HAVE GOT A KISS
THEY TASTE A BIT LIKE EVERYONE
0 media | 0 replies
No title
IMG_0018
Is it normal that I miss characters from a novel more than people in real life?
0 media | 2 replies
No title
blocky
>want to read books
>think about commitment and its consequences
>doors will be shut
>opportunities lost
>doom scroll and goon instead
how can people read in modern times if they aren't in prison or a monastery?
2 media | 27 replies
No title
1200px-Front_Cover_for_The_Beetle-_A_Mystery_by_Richard_Marsh
>Was a best seller in its day
>Even outstripped Dracula
How come I literally never heard anyone talk about this novel?
0 media | 4 replies
No title
1000026304
Its time to go back
0 media | 1 replies
Libraries
FF7597B7-9279-47EA-8F52-9704346284CA
>Went to the library yesterday
>Woman brings a toddler in who starts screaming
>This goes on for about ten minutes until she leaves
>One developmentally disabled girl with her caretaker keeps grunting and tapping her desk while her caretaker is using her phone
>Another one is at the computers and lets out loud laughing sounds
>This goes on for an hour and a half
>Give up on studying, go to see if I can find any books to read.
>One shelf of horizontally-displayed magazines (half of which are printed sheets of paper advising that the real magazine is at the front desk “due to theft”).
>Four sections of pulp fiction
>Two (mostly empty) shelves of actual books, one of those being dedicated to social justice books which are again displayed with the cover visible.
>A Middle Eastern family comes in and their son starts screaming
>This goes on until I leave.
There were at least 6 people working there managing a collection of less than a thousand books. The city is spending around $4.2 million dollars on this one library.
4 media | 84 replies
No title
7faa0d88c6e24c9668048e3a9e6a235596ee8eb1v2_hq
I'm working on the world-building for my fantasy universe that is an alternate earth in which magic exists. With the modern political climate, what do you think the distribution of opinion would be like about mages who use summoning magic to summon underage people for lusty activities?
0 media | 0 replies
Gothicism
Anderlecht._Maison_flamande_à_M._J._Van_Den_Peereboom._Ministre_des_chemins_de_fer,_postes_et_télégraphes._Petite_salle_gothique_Late_19th-begin_20th_century_barcode_800000032338
Best works of Gothic Literature that are actually eerie and effective at chilling the senses?
1 media | 3 replies
No title
21a24604067d95e63b79cafa7d7d1d42
Is there something like Conan but set on our contemporary era? Does that even make sense?
0 media | 0 replies
No title
1019029
Is Welsh Mythology worth reading?
1 media | 18 replies