Tuned in to Literature!

= N O T I C E =

As of April 16th 2025, any discussion of manga and anime will be outcast from this board. We have at least four boards you can post that stuff too. Out of respect for the users of /lit/ please do not post manga/anime related images unless they have a book edited within the picture (as shown in pic related). Any discussions about manga/anime will be moved to their respective boards. The only Japanese related media that can be posted here is literature. Thank you.

- janny off the payroll.

...Wapchan's greatest battleground. Anything relating to the topic of literature can be discussed here; from fiction, to politics, and philosophy—so long as it's civil. Any and all threads shilling an ideology or narrative will be removed. For any erotic literature; it’s allowed, so long as extremely graphic prose is spoilered. This rule also applies to all NSFW images that accompany the thread. Other than that, you can discuss anything you want.

Now that 4chan is down, why aren't WAPists interested in literature? Not a SINGLE new post.

What a wonderful piece of literature. For his first English novel, he did a fantastic job building his prose around the death of a writer. Everything in this book flows beautifully and every single line is well thought out and greatly coordinated. Great care was taken to make the reader be beside the main character of this story, as if you were following him through his journey to find out more about his brother (Sebastian Knight) and seeing him fit pieces of the puzzle that is his life. The wit is immense and hilariously funny, the ending being one of wit and of sadness. A must read, I highly recommend it.

Post any African literature you have read. I'll start. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. A fantastic piece of African magical realism. One of the most surrealist pieces one could ever read.

Here's a favorite line from the book:

"Now by that time and before we entered inside the white tree, we had ‘sold our death’ to somebody at the door for the sum of £70: I8:6d and ‘lent our fear’ to somebody at the door as well on interest of £3:I0:0d per month, so we did not care about death and we did not fear again."

I’m looking for traditional writings on love and romance. I really enjoyed Plato’s Symposium and really identified with it. I also love Tullia D Argonna’s Dialogue on love and the Tale of Genji and wondered if there’s anything else out there. Are there any Japanese books out too? I know about Ihara Saikaku but I can’t find a copy of his books anywhere at a reasonable price. Romantic literature is welcome, fiction or philosophy. I don’t like modern romantic fiction. It’s all garbage.

Novels, biographies, short stories, essays, poems, songs even. I would like to read more dissociation stuff. This started when I read Loren Eiseley's "The Brown Wasps" (see attached,) which is on dissociation. It resonated so deeply with me, especially since the climax of that essay is similar to an experience I had some months before me reading the essay. I would like to read more stuff like this. Dissociation is such a wide phenomenon, so please feel free to share anything on the subject.

Since its October, can anyone recommend some books on Japanese folklore, supernatural, and interactions with the spirit world and mythical creatures? I've found a couple of orientalist works like Kwaidan but I'm looking for primary sources. I know there's a Penguin collection, but I don't trust their cheap translations, and I'm not giving them a dime after the archive.org lawsuit.

I don't mind modern stories and urban legends too. There are dozens of YouTube videos supposedly based on posts from 2Chan (I'm assuming 2ch since Futaba's religion board is mostly about cults and politics) but I have no idea how accurate any of these translations are and wondered if there are archived versions of these threads or at least translations of those stories.

I'm writing a lit-rpg and I want your opinions on the matter, Wapchan! The attached PDF contains the first three chapters (the first part of the prologue).

Plot/Query Letter: The young Rinaldo Di Mario never asked to be the scion of the Di Mario Family, the current rulers of the Free City of Maria—the wealthiest city on Earth. His dream was to live a peaceful life, spending his days reading books and playing with his little black cat. However, his surname attracted many enemies, and after yet another assassination attempt, he realized that wealth and power were not worth the constant stress. Thus, he faked his death and started a new life in the one place no one would ever think to look for a Marian—the magical Miraval Academy.

Magic interconnects everything. From the largest monster to the smallest molecule, Mana flows freely through their masses, destroying every limit imposed by the gray laws of physics. Hence, everyone can use magic to some degree, but only the few blessed by the Chaotic Gods can grasp its true depths—the Essentias.

Thanks to their unmatched powers, Essentias rule over the Holy Rolandish Empire—the most powerful nation in the world—as a de facto ruling caste. To secure their roles within their elitist society, each of them is nurtured at the prestigious Miraval Academy, where the young mages are trained to master their abilities. However, among the Essentias a rigid hierarchy exists, which divides them according to their power—Class S are revered as gods, while Class F are treated as human trash by the higher ranks. Consequently, on their first day at the Academy, the Class Assignment determines whether their life will be remembered as a tragedy or a glorious legend. There, Rinaldo shatters every record by becoming the weakest Essentia in history—an FFF-Class 'Javelinist.'

If being doomed to a life worse than mediocrity wasn’t bad enough, the worst is yet to come. Enduring the eccentricities of his fellow noble classmates, uncovering a millennia-old secret organization plotting to destabilize the world, and surviving a war between two superpowers—these events are just the beginning of the unlucky life of the soon-to-be antagonist of this tale.

P.S.:If you click on the underlined words, you will get a nice surprise.

Examine yourself.