Tuned in to Literature!

>>280
>Do you remember Chapter 1 and Jacques' comment about the small window?
Yes, I remembered it. The reference is clear enough. I was mostly focused on changing "feeling uncomfortable due to the violation of his privacy" to something more natural. I really hate to say "show, don't tell" because I've seen people take that advice way too far and there's a time for both methods, but that's pretty much what I was doing. Same with the second example. Also, I didn't cut "Golden Bull" for any particular reason, just that it wasn't relevant to what I was changing. It could still fit in pretty easily, even just having a simple statement at the end like, "she was now ready to immolate herself to the Golden Bull" would work and could even be suspenseful.
>So if Jacques looks down, his sight would pose itself onto the stained glass of the church.
I meant "down" as just "not up like everyone else." It was just in parentheses as an alternative to "ahead."
Anyway, I didn't try to change the meaning of anything, quite the opposite in fact, just to give some kind of example in style.

>Nevertheless, youredits are well done I wish I could do that as automatically as you do.
Thanks lol. Don't worry, I picked the two easiest parts to change and it still took me a little while. It's just practice.

>an introduction of the ex-protagonists is a must and vital for the project as a whole.
That makes sense. It did sound like you were setting up for some kind of reincarnation theme. It sounds like you have a lot of work to do, so good luck with the whole project.

Thank you for sharing this, by the way. I've been enjoying reading it and thinking about this stuff. I'm looking forward to the next few chapters.

>>281
https://files.catbox.moe/nsqsxx.pdf
Thanks for your patience—it were busy days at work.

Here is the second part of the prologue, which explores the characters in more depth.

Let me know if this part makes the story flow more smoothly.

>>287
It does flow better, and it was a lot nicer to read, too. The characters had a chance to be alive, and I liked Derserk's perspective. The subplots are nice so you were right about the ensemble cast. I don't really have anything new to say, but keep it up

>>289
Maybe it's hard to guess right now, but each arc is actually named after its own protagonist.
So, Jacques is a secondary character in each arc of my story (except the first one, of course). He might support the protagonist, being a background character, or even be the villain of the arc.
For example, the next arc is called Shining Star, with Astary (the girl yelling at Jacques in the first chapter) as the point-of-view of its chapters, focusing on the Class S students, with Jacques only making an appearance at the end.
The following arc (which will be the last of the prologue) is called Raging Hornet, and it mainly revolves around Mr. Diaz and other professors.

I know that 120 pages of introduction is a lot, but for me, it’s the only way to build a world that doesn’t revolve around a the MC.

>I don’t really have anything new to say.
You’ve already done a lot.
The only thing I’d ask you now is about publishing.

Should I promote it across every online platform like Royal Road?
Should I self-publish on Amazon and invest $1,000 in advertising?
Or should I try traditional publishing?

>>290
Your plan is pretty cool, and it looks like it's working well so far.
>The only thing I’d ask you now is about publishing
I don't know anything about it except that I hear it's a pain in the ass no matter what you do.
>promote online
This seems like the best option to me. It's free, you can hyperlink to the glossary, you keep creative control, and you can release it as a serialization which will give you time to polish chapters. The only downside is standing out and how front-heavy the story is. The problem is that you have a limited budget of reader attention to work with. So if they don't know what to remember or why they should care about it, you're gonna burn that up real quick. They need a reason to click on it, and a reason to keep reading once they do. I was thinking about that problem with how many characters you introduced, but the second pdf showed you solved it very nicely. The prologue itself is still going to filter a lot of people as it currently is, though.
>amazon, traditional publishing
These have the same problems and more: that you can't release it chapter by chapter as easily, you'll have to edit the whole thing at once, and you lose either money or freedom. I think it's a choice of the lesser evil.

Anyway it's still up to you and those are just my thoughts. I've never done it before and I'm pretty tired right now so I hope it makes sense. Good luck, though.

>>260
I'd contend that America has produced great authors, I will defend Cormac McCarthy in this regard. Australia is young, less populous, and great authors cannot be guaranteed by even the most favorable circumstances. Despite what our Rasta friend might assume as well, I don't hold it against cultures that do not produce great writers, they very well may have other virtues worthy of admiration.

>>260

Ozfren here. I tend to agree with >>255

There are a few reasons for it

- The country was made by bureaucratic agreement rather than the rifle; great writing often emenates from popular galvanization and pushback against authority. How does anyone achieve that in a society that formed by permission? It's often been said it's a mistake to think of Australia as having been built by convicts as opposed to prison officers.

- Climate. Great literary traditions often have a lot of indoors time by necessity.

- Bad incentives and top-down narratives. AU publishing only wants to print a few specific types of novel, and lots of attempts to subvert that or deliver it something outside the mold will be met with attempts to fit it back into the preferred molds. Being corporations, you've also got the state continually reinforcing the idea that the most noble 'intellectual' pursuit of our literature is addressing Le Reconciliation. That, or forcing WW2 memes like Kokoda

- Lack of imagination. This may well be the least exclusively applicable to Oz - most Anglophone industrial nations suffer this b/c their education systems simply prepare bodies for the university system - but it's still a contributing factor. Australian society is extremely materialist, and the best path to succes with values like that is conformity to rules, often for conformity's sake

I want to revisit local writers. I've read Malouf, White, Carey, etc in the past but it was 10+ years ago. But I go to bookshops in current year and nothing with an 'Australian-writer' coded cover piques my interest

>>283
Of course Australia has a shit literary culture. I don't disagree with most of your statements, although I do think you underrate the potential of the Anglo cultural heritage and its inevitable preservation among the talented individuals of the populace. Any country with such a heritage is going to produce a certain quality of literature just as a byproduct. I don't see much that is significantly holding down the literary potential of our country, other than the same problems faced globally, since elements like climate do little in shaping the cultural life of an advanced people. Certainly, there is quite a dearth of positive elements to INSPIRE literature, but little in the way of restraining it, other than, again, the global-modern elements everyone knows about. For our small population and short history there is no reason why we should be producing anything more than we have. Australians tend to be very neurotically self-critical of their own culture, but there's no reason for it. South Africans don't cry and shit their pants because South Africa isn't competing with German literature.

What I was criticising in that anon was the ridiculous claim that Nigeria, or any black-African country, has produced superior literature to Australia. It's just a matter of objectivity.

>>284
>What I was criticising in that anon was the ridiculous claim that Nigeria, or any black-African country, has produced superior literature to Australia. It's just a matter of objectivity.

I knew you were gonna bite!

>>284

i found a copy of Tsiolkas' book Barracuda. Gonna read and report back (this thread will still be alive by the time i do lel). It's 500 pages so my filler senses are tingling, but he's supposed to be a decent current writer

>>216
Two Hermann Hesse suggestions in one thread. Spicy.

>>188
There's definitely some connection.
Joe's writer was on some level of the same ideological line as Mishima, and the artist was a communist.
So you got a strong mix of the two where you have this sense that the only real end for greatness is death, but this death is itself a form of personal revolution. The greatest thing the working class can achieve is a good death.

>>222
Japanese new left and the ultra nationalists had a strange relationship. Mishima used to visit left wing student groups often. They both shared a hatred for the Japanese establishment and a romantic heroic attitude that idolized martyrdom hated the flabbyness of liberal democracy. For Mishima it was a personal individual thing, for the new left it was dying for the socialist cause or something.

>>145
The catcher in the rye.

>>200
I recommend the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. It's basically a darker and edgier version of City Hunter but with some more martial arts feeling (John Rain is a Judoka). The only thing missing is the humor, but John Rain is still a womanizer regardless, albeit a more psychopathic one. I only read the first book (Clean Kill in Tokyo, originally published as Rain Fall), but it reminded me of City Hunter in a few aspects.

As for me, I'd really want a /lit/ recommendation for Captain Harlock. I want the same kind of space adventure feel but with a lot of the similar themes and general atmosphere, especially something where the protag isn't really tied to any kind of military and is just fighting for his own values and freedom.

I started with King Lear a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to anything else since then, but I plan on reading more. The only other play I've read was Hamlet and that was when I was 13.
Lear was great. Is there any character who gets treated more unfairly than Cordelia? I'm under the impression that most tragic characters more or less deserve what happens, but she was a total angel.

>…You have seen
>Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
>Were like a better day: those happy smilets
>That play'd on her ripe lip seem'd not to know
>What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence
>As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. - In brief, sorrow
>Would be a rarity most belov'd if all
>Could so become it.

>>241
>Is there any character who gets treated more unfairly than Cordelia?
Maybe Desdemona from Othello? Although, in the case of Cordelia, it seems to me more that her suffering exists for the inevitable effect it will have on Lear, and the pity his character evokes, rather than for us to pity her fate. After the first scene we don't actually see her suffer, she dies off stage and we only see Lear's reaction. Meanwhile you actually see [spoiler][spoiler][spoiler]Desdemona strangled on stage.[spoiler][spoiler][spoiler].

This guy is gay.

Watch Shakespeare first (theatre or film) then enjoy the text. Education system gets this in the wrong order (text first) and it turns each generation off what should be their pride and joy as English speakers

I watched Titus (1999) recently. pretty good. Aaron is a good villain and his scaffold speech is memorable

>>276
The problem is more that most actors in Shakespeare are atrocious and that teachers suck. People have appreciated Shakespeare as a purely literary phenomenon for centuries, even if it's not the ideal, and he will continue to be appreciated as such for centuries to come. You can still see the drama in your mind's eye via reading.

>>266
"Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the first -a dull man writing broken English, the second -a broken man writing dull English"

Love me
I just want to be loved
I don't care who is
male or female

Whether he is the most virtuous of all beings on earth or the most cruel and vile human that gives him the title of hell of this world

As long as he fills me
I will accept him
As long as he loves me I will accept him
Therefore love me

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
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>>136
I accidentally hit the button while typing ;-;

Go, and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot,
Teach me to hear Mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou beest born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
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>>55
A poem that perfectly encapsulates the modern world, approaching the spiritual idealism of a Schiller.

THERE is a bondage worse, far worse, to bear
Than his who breathes, by roof, and floor, and wall,
Pent in, a Tyrant's solitary Thrall:
'Tis his who walks about in the open air,
One of a Nation who, henceforth, must wear
Their fetters in their souls. For who could be,
Who, even the best, in such condition, free
From self-reproach, reproach that he must share
With Human-nature? Never be it ours
To see the sun how brightly it will shine,
And know that noble feelings, manly powers,
Instead of gathering strength, must droop and pine;
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION

When earth's last thesis is copied
From the theses that went before,
When idea from fact has departed
And bare-boned factlets shall bore,
When all joy shall have fled from study
And scholarship reign supreme;
When truth shall 'baaa' on the hill crests
And no one shall dare to dream;

When all the good poems have been buried
With comment annoted in full
And art shall bow down in homage
To scholarship's zinc-plated bull,
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>74
It's an obvious bot post, but you clearly don't know how to read the thread. Why are you posting manga on a literature board?

Manga isn't lit? I-It has pages... FINE! Here's a book!

Foundation of the loli genre. Enjoy.

VIRGIN TERRITORY:
50 Years Without Sex. My Life As An Involuntary Virgin
By
Timothy Draper. its the bibliography of a loveshy user, he posted the pdf on the site, but I will upload here in case if anyone wants to. While I did enjoyed reading his book, there are many parts that made me feel depressed. I also got a bit frustated by the author stubborn behaviour, he would repeat the same mistake, again and again and he was too much of a beta

>>73
Oh boy, another reading list put together by someone who hasn't even read 99% of the stuff on it

>>246
Almost every big general reading list will have stuff the list's creator hasn't read, but I object to lists where it's obvious the creator just threw a bunch of shit together.

Well I'm back (>>68) Still slowly reading books, still slowly exercising and still failing to lose weight…also for some reason spoilers didn't work so I deleted my previous post and wrote this again.

I read and finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay about 4 months ago or so, it was a good book but felt meandering at times, also for a book that was set before, during and after WW2 there is not a lot of WW2 in it. Like seriously, a good chunk of the book is like 1939-41 then there's about 5 chapters on the war and then a big timeskip to the end of the war. I get that the war isn't *that* big of a deal but it kinda was in the book since one of the characters was literally a jew that escaped from europe and wrote comics in America with a seething hatred of the Nazi's that I'm just surprised there wasn't much about him finally letting it all out on German soldiers or something halfway through. As for the other main character, I was surprised he turned out to be gay because to me it kind of came out of nowhere but did lead to interesting parts of the book closer to the end where he was tried in court for being gay and had to defend himself and everyone assumed he was due to his "odd" lifestyle and how he always seemed to add child sidekicks to the comics he worked. A decent book with some fun moments.

After that I think I read Piranesi and legitimately it might be my favourite book I ever read. It's written in the form of a diary with a very cool dating system, instead of something like "3rd October 2012" it'd be "the year the albatross came to the south western halls". It's pretty much about a man who seems to exist in a house full of rooms and rooms of marble statues. He explores these rooms and tries to document it all. That's his entire world. The house seems to exist in its own plane, of existence as well, birds fly in and out of it all the time and sea surrounds it for miles, sometimes it rises and he has to find higher ground or drown. He's not alone but there's only one other person he has seen that he calls "The Other" and he reports to him a week or so, as time goes on Piranesi begins to question his past and just who exactly he is and when questioning "The Other" about it learns he's asked that question before but cannot remember how. Without spoiling any more of the book, it's truly fascinating, and a real treat for the mind's eyPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>18
> first four books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series
What prevents you from embracing this amazing work of art? It only gets more frustrating, but when you get used to it, you can finally delve into the atmosphere. I think all of the drawbacks are to be blamed on his wife. Women only exist to manipulate you and give you trouble, and they can do it in their sleep! I bet she has been sticking her nose into his work all the while!

I’m reading Moby Dick. 70% done and enjoying it so far. Next up are some books about Hinduism

been reading Histories by Herodotus.
It inspired me to start studying ancient greek, and I've spent the past two weeks mostly translating Aesops fables as practice, with the eventual goal being to tackle Histories in its original language.

The only books i have been reading are university manuals, i can't do this anymore.
I'm tired.