(Part 2) Best literary criticism & theory books according to redditors
We found 1,943 Reddit comments discussing the best literary criticism & theory books. We ranked the 915 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
![Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses [Revised and Expanded Edition]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NZ22J0AXL._SL500_.jpg)
> if Tolkien got around to rewrite the Hobbit to fix various inconsistency issues (like the term goblins vs orcs) he probably would have mentioned Legolas.
And in fact, in 1960 Tolkien began to do exactly that. He was working on a fourth revision of the Hobbit, this one a pretty big rewrite that was intended to tie it far more closely to LOTR in details and tone. The company even stops at Bree and the Prancing Pony in this revised version.
He only got three chapters into it before abandoning it to go back to work on his Silmarillion material. (He did this sort of thing a lot in his career.)
You can read those unpublished chapters and notes on what he intended to do in this book.
It's hard to pin down exactly and by what standard you want to judge "Nazi Ideology".
Were most German soldiers patriotic and nationalistic. Most certainly yes. In Hitler's Army, the author makes strong arguments, using everything from rank and file soldiers diaries to communications between high levels of the Wehrmacht, that the average German believed in the rightness of their cause. That being the restoration of German pride, revenge for Versailles, defense against perceived threats to their way of life (Bolshevism), and defense of their homeland. As the war dragged on, defeatism, anti-Nazi sentiment, and war exhaustion did increase exponentially to where it was openly spoken of, at least by German civilians, their disdain for the Nazi's and Adolph Hitler.
In Ordinary Men, the author zeroes in on a particular police unit in Poland that actively participated in the Ethnic Cleansing of Poland of not only Jews, but Slavs, Poles, and other undesirables. While the book paints a largely dismal picture, showing that many went with the "following orders" principle, it was mixed, but definitely was a majority who participated in the Holocaust and Racist actions.
However, there are constant stories being cited, of German regular army, the Wehrmacht not dealing well with being tasked with taking on Holocaust related actions. There were reports of absenteeism, alcoholism, suicides, and even an occasional refusal of a direct order when these actions had to take place. While clearly these units did participate, it was not a mass action, but the large majority did participate. With what thoughts on their mind we can't say for sure across the board, but we do know that Nazi German soldiers overwhelmingly participated in these acts.
So on the whole, if you want to tie Nazism to the larger ideology of German Nationalism, then yes, the average soldier gladly followed the Nazi lead in this. While ascribing to their racist ideology and activities that related to the Holocaust, the numbers were smaller, but still a significant majority.
David Day has a bad reputation for just making things up without any basis in Tolkien's work. I tend to not recommend them.
If you want an atlas the gold standard is The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen-Anne Fonstad
If you want to enhance his reading of LotR, Hammond and Scull's LotR Reader's Companion is the way to go.
If you want an encyclopedia style book, Forster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth is best.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The book provides a loosely based historical account on a scalp hunting expedition in the 1840s southwest. It touches on many themes like manifest destiny and the nature of evil in mankind.
And to build on the other AskReddit question about improving your vocabulary, this book has a plethora of unique words. This quote was taken from a study that was done on the book by Christopher Forbis. He writes:
> The book, although only 334 pages of text, contains 10,257 individual unique words. Some of these words
occur on nearly every page but a large percentage occur only once within the text. In fact, 5,308 words occur
only once in the book representing nearly 52% of the unique words used to create this masterpiece.
Here's the link.
And I also imagine there's many people who've already read this book who might be looking for additional interpretations on it. And for these people might I suggest John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian. This book does a phenomenal job of weaving together the historical sources that McCarthy used to write this work. It also contains literary criticism and interpretations of themes and symbols throughout the book.
If you're looking for a page by page reference of the book--translations of Spanish to English, background information on cities, definitions of words--then I suggest getting A Reader's Guide to Blood Meridian.
I'm a huge fan of this book and I've learned a lot more about it by reading these two books. I think the books becomes more enjoyable and you start to admire the way in which he put this book together after you read these two books about the book. The subject matter is brutal, and this turns most people off, but if you make it through it I think you're rewarded with a truly outstanding novel.
First off, read anything by Carl Jung. His theories on archetypes and the collective unconscious form the groundwork upon which not only games, but the entire modern entertainment industry are built.
Basically Jung argues that there is a collective set of symbols and ideas that all humans, regardless of culture or upbringing will respond to. Understanding these symbols, and building your game around them - either as mechanics or story - allows you to influence how the player will respond.
Jung: A Very Short Introduction is a pretty easy way to get started. After you read that I'd suggest getting into the meat of Jung's own words with The Portable Jung (coincidentally edited by Joseph Campbell)
And with that, you should also read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. He takes Jung's ideas, and shows the specific symbols used in the Hero's Journey - one of the most common story types. People talk about the Hero's Journey all the time - but it's a really important concept to understand if you're doing any sort of creative works. Here are two quick video primers on it:
A more serious one: Ted Ed: What Makes a Hero
A more awesome one: Glove and Boots: The Hero's Journey :)
If you want to go further on the narrative route I'd also suggest The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker. He takes the Hero's Journey and shows how it is just one of several different plot archetypes, all of which have their own internal path, rules, and idiosyncrasies.
Now, in case you're thinking "Why are you sharing these books about narrative with me? Games are not stories!" remember that people have been responding to stories for all time - and good storytellers are masters at making people feel the desired emotion at the desired time.
Therefore I'd also direct you to Story By Robert McGee as well as Poetics by Aristotle. Both of these books look at story in a mechanical sense, and explain the precise methods storytellers (both ancient Greek ones and modern Hollywood ones) use to evoke emotions in the audience. These principles almost directly translate to game design.
After that I'd suggest looking at Chris Crawford's list of books all game designers should read. Unfortunately I can't find a copy of the list on the internet, but it's at the end of his book Chris Crawford on Game Design
> I feel like I don't stand for anything, I don't have an identity I feel confident in.
That requires a lot of self-reflection, thinking about what you value and how/if you act according to those values.
> the person I was in high school seems alien to me now.
In a few years, you're probably going to feel the same way about the you right now.
> in the age of social media it feels like everyone's eyes are on me
Most people are too concerned with what other people think about them to spend much time thinking about you.
> I can't control what they think of me
It's good that you realize that.
> but I can't help but feel like most see me as a goofy, disinterested nice guy
Maybe they do, maybe they don't. There's no way for you to know what other people think about you. Even if they say they think you're goofy, there's no way to know if they're telling the truth. If you choose to believe everyone else thinks you're goofy, you can do that, but it's a choice you've decided to make. Your time is better spent trying to be the sort of person you want to be than on worrying about what other people think of you.
> When I push away those fears I instead become an asshole and don't think before I speak.
That's another choice you make. No one forces you to speak without thinking. No one forces you to act like an asshole. If you want to be a kind, virtuous person, that's in your control.
> I've read Meditation and checked out the sidebar on the topics but I'm having trouble implementing the ideas into my daily life
We generally advise that new people do not start with Meditations, as it wasn't intended as an entry point to Stoicism. It's the working journal of an advanced student, and Marcus assumes the reader is already familiar with all of the concepts.
Here's a short list of recommended places to start:
All I do is for the glory of the Volcano.
Snapshots:
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This book deal with that subject: The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
Sounds pretty intresting.
This site provides a decent overview of the grammar, pronunciation, and some vocabulary.
My history professor recommended what I believe was this title, but I never followed through with her advice, so I can't speak to its usefulness or quality.
While we have no idea what this guy in particular thought, most correspondence and diaries found on the bodies of German soldiers showed that the ordinary men of the wehrmacht tended to strongly endorse nazism, and to really believe that they were members of a master race fighting subhumans.
Hitler's ideology was very popular among the rank and file of the german army, hence why the orders to massacre so many soviet civilians were carried out.
Omer Bartov's work "Hitler's army" really does a good job laying this out.
http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Army-Soldiers-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0195079035
Here is the textbook I used for my Critical Theory Class at UCLA. It's called the Norton Anthology of Critical Theory. While this is a good introduction to many theorists, I also suggest you to research supplemental materials on databases - ie. JSTOR - to understand movements/concepts.
There is also a comic book series that's descent depending on what you pick. While I enjoyed Foucault for Beginners, I hated Derrida for Beginners.
Lastly, Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an excellent entry point. I actually met Culler when I visited Cornell. He's an awesome guy. Anyways, I think Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction should also be an excellent resource, although I haven't read it myself.
You're right that this isn't really the right sub per the first rule, however, since the rule concludes by saying:
> We are here to get smarter and better each other.
I'll take a stab at this one.
Out of the gate you sound pretty fucking depressed. You should check on that. If you're doing any drugs you should probably stop. Working out can help.
Anyway... Most uni curriculum is aimed at breadth of study so that you can find what interests you and build a base of industry knowledge. As such some of your coursework may have been uninteresting, irrelevant to you, or seemingly unconnected. The CFA program is fundamentally different as it is a professional qualification exam targeted at a specific sector within a specific industry. CFA is (from my understanding) mostly targeted to investment managers/HF/M&A types. Perhaps you've found your calling?In any case, the above is really the only apprehension I can address. The questions you pose here can't really be answered by me, or anyone else, but you might be able to reconcile them for yourself.
In my opinion, you should read this book which has selections from 'existentialist' philosophers of old. I like Nietzsche, but Notes from The Underground or some of Sartre's work might suit what you're going through better. Maybe the ending of Beyond Good and Evil
Good luck.
Sure. Stop me when this gets boring!
The History of Middle-earth.
The History of the Hobbit.
The Road to Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and Roots and Branches, all by Tom Shippey
You should read Tolkien's Letters, too.
Other books to consider:
The LOTR reader's Companion
J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances
Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth
The Keys of Middle-Earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
If you're feeling rich, you could try to find a copy of Songs For The Philologists, a collection of poems, mostly in Old English, written by Tolkien and E.V. Gordon (I only have a .pdf copy).
I'd also read Tolkien's Beowulf criticism.
and just for fun, read Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien, which is nothing to do with philology but which was cowritten by my major professor :)
Let's see, what else? Anything by Douglas A. Anderson, Verlyn Flieger or Michael Drout (especially Drout's Beowulf and the Critics and How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Cultural Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century.
That's pretty much all that leaps immediately to mind, just glancing over my bookshelves, but if you search for "Tolkien scholarship and criticism" you will find much, much more. Hope this helps!
The closest thing to that (and it's pretty close) is The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull. It's essentially the annotations in a separate volume. (An annotated version of *The Lord of the Rings would be pretty fat.)
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, is an exhaustive, scholarly, 900-page annotation of the trilogy. It includes, but is by no means limited to, cross-references to The Silmarillion.
I got this version as a gift last year. It's brilliant.
From primary and secondary sources, lol. It's not a fallacy. We have diaries and documents from German soldiers on the eastern front.
Edit: Here, I'll link a good book on the subject.
There are several guides which explain various parts of Ulysses and can be used as companions for the book itself, my favorite being Ulysses Annoted. It provides a paragraph by paragraph breakdown of the symbolisms and historic references in Ulysses.
The Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition also has an excellent introduction by Declan Kiberd that arms the reader with a decent understanding of what they're about to read.
Ulysses is a bit like a german chocolate cake while other novels could be considered a chocolate chip cookie. Both are very good but Ulysses is incredibly dense and shouldn't be taken on all at once. It's better enjoyed and savored an episode at a time.
While it is one of the more challenging reads (see also: Gravity's Rainbow) it is incredibly rewarding.
Read it once for the story, then again with the companion guide for the lowdown.
Your guiding light. Because of this book, I was able to make it completely through Ulysses three times. This thing is like the guidebook to all of Joyce's magical hidden Easter eggs and, man, they are aplenty. Ulysses is one of the funniest books I've ever read, Gifford's book just allows you to find context to the abundant references.
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There are probably more points I forgot to mention, but that's mostly it.
I went in basically unprepared while still a third-year undergrad and did fine.
There is definitely a little old and middle english to be aware of, so it might help to at least glance at that.
If you know your basic poetry rules, that will help a lot. Simple to look up. I only point it out because I know a couple people who went in without knowing sonnet forms. That seems to show up regularly.
Make sure you know some of the bigger names/categories in theory. Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is more than enough.
The biggest thing is just being well read. When I took the test, I had a good two pages full of nothing but Henry Fielding questions that could be answered by anybody who had read the first couple books of Tom Jones but that would have tanked the score of anybody who hadn't.
Think about it like Jeopardy. You're taking a test on trivia knowledge, not applied skills. Skim everything you're unsure of so that you have a sense of the style. Read summaries of anything you can think of that might be on the test but that you don't have time to read. Memorize some dates associated with periods, major authors, etc. There just isn't much else that you can do.
Only about a 100 pages in so far myself, and it's a slow burn. I think the most difficult thing is all the terminology referring to the wilderness. I feel like I have to look up practically ever other word to understand what plant or terrestrial formation McCarthy is talking about. With that being said though it really does paint an extremely vivid picture and I absolutely feel like I'm being transported to the hottest emptiest place in south. I especially liked the juxtaposition from the unit's seemingly endless and boring trek into Mexico with the lightning fast brutality of the ambush by the savages.
Also if anyone is looking for a good companion book Notes of Blood Meridian seems to be the way to go. I've been occasionally referencing it and it's fantastic. But it does contain spoilers if you don't want to ruin it for yourself.
I'm pretty certain there isn't an expanded edition. I'm looking at the 25th anniversary edition right now, and it still bears the 1985 copyright and publication notes. The text is probably the exact same as the first edition (give or take a few errors or typos they usually work out before releasing the Modern Library Edition).
If you mean this book it's a scholarly book about Blood Meridian and doesn't contain the actual book at all. Though I admit, unless you're looking for it, it's hard to tell from the title.
This website is rather painful to use on a modern web browser, but has clearly written and illustrative definitions of various types of critical theory, as well as descriptions of figures of interest and their work.
If you'd like an introductory overview of the primary genres of critical theory that goes into somewhat more depth and includes suggested readings, I can recommend Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Tyson makes it very accessible by repeatedly analyzing The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory, which is extremely helpful for understanding the "big picture" of what each tends to focus on.
Welcome to the rabbit hole! :)
I think the general philosophical idea that people are hinting at so far is Idealism. The essential idea is: The external world is in some sense dependent on the mind of the perceiver.
George Berkeley was was one of the first. He said that "to be is to be perceived, or to be a perceiver". So an object exists because I am perceiving it, and if no one was perceiving it, then it wouldn't exist.
Kant had a different form of idealism called Transcendental Idealism. He thought that although there IS a world that exists independently of us, we can't know anything about it at all. Our minds are responsible for imposing many of the properties we perceive onto the world. Everything from the colour of a wall, to the fact that objects exist in time and space. These are properties that mind assigns to reality, and we have no knowledge of what the external world is like as a "thing in itself".
How does this relate to the quote in Harry Potter? It means that the line between things that are real and things that are going on "inside my head" is a lot more blurry than common sense might suggest. Just because an experience is dependent on my mind for it's existence or it's characteristics, does not necessarily mean it is not "real".
However, having said all that, I'm not sure that J.K. Rowling had any intention of bringing up idealism, even though it seems relevant. It seems more likely that this could be some sort of meeting between Dumbledore and Harry's Cartesian Souls (since the Harry Potter books are 100% committed to substance dualsim). It could even just be some sort of reassuring "it's real for you because you had a nice experience, so it doesn't matter whether this was all just a hallucination or not". Either way, not very Berkeley.
There is a good book on philosophy and harry potter: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ultimate-Harry-Potter-Philosophy/dp/0470398256/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
I bought it for my sister, but haven't had a chance to read it myself yet. It looks pretty entertaining for those who are interested!
The Bloomsday Book helped me immensely. Realistically, you should posses an encyclopedic knowledge of Catholicism, Literature and Irish history. If you lack that, turn to this guy.
Definitely have a working knowledge of Psychoanalytic theory as it pertains to literary criticism. This was a pretty important influence on Joyce as well as many other writers associated with Modernism.
Poststructuralism is probably the other most important school that comes to mind that would make for an ideal lens through which to discuss the book, particularly in light of how much it subverts received forms that were "permissible" for the novel. However, both Structuralism and Post- would yield worthwhile understandings of the text. When I say "ideal" however, you should understand that even more recent schools of literary theory that were developed long after "Ulysses" can be just as interesting to retroactively examine a book. (Structuralism would have been roughly contemporary, while Post- would have been a bit after and is usually associated with Postmodernism).
I think if you aren't especially versed in a particular theoretical approach, Rivkin and Ryan's "Literary Theory: An Anthology" is a great introduction to most of the fields of literary criticism, though it probably doesn't have much on the most recent developments. It ends at Hypertext Theory, with which you could probably do some interesting things on Ulysses.
Part of the difficulty of cherry-picking some of these is that it's a little easier to follow them if you're studying them chronologically, because many schools of thought are either evolutions of or reactions to those that came before. The Anthology I posted above covers them in chronological order in a way that I found very helpful when I was studying as an undergrad.
It might be a worthwhile exercise to read a chapter in Ulysses, then read a particular literary theory in the anthology and analyze the chapter through that, then move onto the next chapter and theory, etc.
I think all the actual suggestions I made in this post would apply here (disregard that it's about buying a poetry gift, you're the 'they' or 'she' in this haha) so I'll paste it in and make a few additional suggestions. But #1 suggestion is to read through Poetry 180 and when you find pieces you like to search those poets in google or at poetryfoundation.com (they also have a great browse function where you can search by theme, 'school', poet, subject, occasion etc)
​
There's certainly a wide variety of options, the best options are mostly more poetry to read. All good poets read lots of poetry. I mean, sure, there's probably 3 or 4 out there that don't, but outliers aside, poets read poetry. So there's a couple options, if she only started writing a couple years ago, I would suggest a workshop type text book and a subscription to a nice literary journal like American Poetry Review, Rattle, Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Georgia Review, Arts & Letters, Five Points, Gettysburg Review, Paris Review etc. Depending on the type of poets she likes, different magazines would be better.
One good tact would be to ask them for a few of their favorite poets, maybe say you're thinking about reading more poetry or something, or just ask. Do a google search for their name and "literary journal" or "literary review". If you see that name in any of the above journals I mentioned, get her that subscription. If not, consider getting her one of their collections from Amazon. For anthologies, which are great for young poets especially, because it can help introduce a reader to many similar or dissimilar voices to broaden their reading horizons, and also some of the books I'll be recommending have a strong prompt/craft component to help them continue to develop. I especially recommend the bolded titles, and Seriously Funny, while good, may be a bit complicated for a newish reader of poetry. But I could be misreading what you mean by poetry career and they could be plenty comfortable with it.
Here are a couple that are good options:
Seriously Funny is a great anthology themed after poems that bring wit to serious topics. It's edited by husband/wife poetry duo David Kirby and Barbara Hamby.
Staying Alive has a great variety of poems organized by theme. These are mostly poems published in the last 50ish years, and lean slightly toward being more accessible (easy to understand) than the first anthology.
Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes was edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave and is more of a textbook (like the next 2). It has a CD with audio recordings of many of the poets in the book and it is broken up by poet, mostly chronologically I believe. It has some craft essays as well. Being a textbook, new copies are expensive, but used are cheap cheap.
The Poet's Companion is edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, both tremendous poets in their own right. This one is more oriented in using poems to spark your own writing, but it does have a good amount of poetry in there, and the craft essays are brief and to the point.
In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop edited by Steve Kowit is also a great textbook for producing your own writing by looking at certain aspects of other poems. Stylistically this is similar to The Poet's Companion, and both are tremendous. Used they're each only $6 with shipping too.
Or, here are a few books that you can't go wrong with: Rose by Li-Young Lee, Tell Me by Kim Addonizio, Rail by Kai Carlson-Wee, The House of Blue Light by David Kirby, American Noise by Campbell McGrath, The Gary Snyder Reader—a huge book, but great, Some Ether by Nick Flynn
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If you find a few more specific poets you like and want to find more of feel free to message me, and if I'm familiar with them I'll shoot you some more suggestions. A couple other poets who get personal and focus on minutiae/details etc would be like Albert Goldbarth, Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Matthew Neinow, Nick Latz, Gaylord Brewer, Ted Kooser, Philip Levine and, a couple that do similar with a definitely stylistic approach would be like Bob Hicok, Dean Young, Alex Lemon and Emma Bolden. For other lyrics/audio you may enjoy Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere/Slug, Josh Martinez...
Best of luck on your journey!
That's Clyde Pharr's edition (usually known as the Purple Vergil). It's a great help. The old Ad Usum Delphini are great, too. They usually have a prose rewording of the text, so you can decode the poetry without going into English too much (this site has some Ovid, Horace, and Lucretius editions)
Might be Pharr's Aeneid-- I used it too.
http://www.amazon.com/Vergils-Aeneid-Books-Edition-English/dp/0865164215
Are you reading an annotated text or just straight Latin? If you don't already have a copy I highly recommend [Pharr's version](Vergil's Aeneid, Books I-VI (Latin Edition) (Bks. 1-6) (English and Latin Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0865164215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RcStDb8RST3Z9) for its grammar notes!
If you want really excellent intro books then I definitely recommend Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today. This has all the really important schools that are important right now, except eco-criticism, which is kind of a bummer. But I think the latter edition hits a little bit on it under postcolonial theory. This is a good intro text that has overview of what's going on.
Norton Anthology of Critical Theory was mentioned, and while this is an excellent anthology, it's huge and can be a bit complicated to read the actual source material without knowing about it before hand, but it's pretty nice being able to read the actual texts of different theorists. Similar to this is Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology. While Norton's goes chronologically all the way back to Plato, Rivkin's text groups all the texts under the major schools so you get a comprehensive view of each one. It's worth mentioning though that Norton does have a secondary Table of Contents where they group the readings under school as well.
You mentioned wanting to know postmodernism, and that's another thing that Tyson's text doesn't include, as it's more of a movement instead of a criticism. An intro text similar to Tyson's that does include eco-criticism and postmodernism though is Peter Barry's Beginning Theory.
If you have very little knowledge of theory and criticism, I'd really recommend picking up Tyson's book and reading that so you get an overview of the text before moving on to an anthology. Like I said, the texts can be incredibly dense and difficult to read, and if you've never been exposed to them before it'll just make it even more difficult. Tyson's text also has suggested readings under each school as well to expand what you're reading.
Schneider has also edited a volume called Science Fiction and Philosophy that may be of interest to some. She talks about that and some other issues in this recent interview.
This brief video cites a number of prominent physicists who weigh in on the idea. Here is Roger Penrose talking about it. If you want something more involved, here is a book: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
I specialize in the Eastern Front of WWII, but there are quite a few 'genres' of books that I can recommend.
General accounts:
When Titans Clashed
Russia at War
Thunder in the East
Absolute War
Hitler's War in the East
The Road to Stalingrad
The Road to Berlin
A Writer at War
THE ROLE OF THE SOVIET UNION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A Re-examination
Why Stalin's Soldiers Fought: The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II
If you're interested in memoirs I'd suggest:
Blood on the Shores
Over the Abyss
Sniper on the Eastern Front
GUNS AGAINST THE REICH: Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front
PANZER DESTROYER: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander
Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945
Red Road From Stalingrad: Recollections Of A Soviet Infantryman
Red Star Against the Swastika: The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front
Penalty Strike: The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander, 1943-45
BUT NOT FOR THE FUEHRER
Through Hell for Hitler
A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War : Russia, 1941-1944
Barbarossa:
War Without Garlands: Barbarossa 1941/42
BARBAROSSA DERAILED: THE BATTLE FOR SMOLENSK 10 JULY-10 SEPTEMBER 1941 VOLUME 1: The German Advance, The Encirclement Battle, and the First and Second Soviet Counteroffensives, 10 July-24 August 1941
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East
Kiev 1941
Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941
THE VIAZ'MA CATASTROPHE, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon
What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa
War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941
Germany and the Second World War: Volume IV: The Attack on the Soviet Union
For Stalingrad/Leningrad:
STALINGRAD: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught
Leningrad: State of Siege
Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad
To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942
Armageddon in Stalingrad: September-November 1942
Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East, 1942-1943
The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad
Kursk:
The Battle of Kursk
Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative
Air War:
Barbarossa: The Air Battle July-December 1941
Stalingrad: The Air Battle: 1942-January 1943
Kursk: The Air Battle, July 1943
Bagration to Berlin: The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945
Black Cross/Red Star : Vol. 1, Operation Barbarossa 1941
Black Cross / Red Star: The Air War Over The Eastern Front, Vol. 2 - Resurgence: January - June 1942
Black Cross Red Star: The Air War Over the Eastern Front Volume 3
German Army:
War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II
Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich
The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture
The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality
The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers
Partisans:
Defiance
Stalin's Guerrillas: Soviet Partisans in World War II
Holocaust/Genocide:
Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule
Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine
Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine
The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization
The Holocaust in the Soviet Union
Hopefully the above will do for a start.
Here is a list of his complete works. For his 124 letters i would recommend this. All of them are very good, i would probably start here.
https://www.amazon.com/Senecas-Letters-Stoic-Thrift-Editions-ebook/dp/B01N9BAEOR/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=seneca+letters+dover&qid=1556029398&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
As for other works i have ranked in order what i think you should read first. They are all expertly written so all should be checked out eventually, regardless here is my order.
This book has most of them except shortness of life, which you should buy separately as it is his best dialogue, or read it online on wikisouce which has all of his works for free.
https://www.amazon.com/Dialogues-Essays-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-dp-0199552401/dp/0199552401/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1556029795
/u/savdec449 is right - you ask a tough question. One little (literally) resource that I've found helpful is the Oxford Very Short Introduction to Literary Theory, which sketches out some of the big 'moves' over the history of theory, and has a decent Further Reading section for whatever takes your fancy.
I find it quite difficult to keep straight how the different schools and traditions relate to one another, and I don't really think it's the kind of thing you can totalize without years of experience or, I suppose, living through one of the sea changes in its epicentre (which I haven't done, but I imagine would be rather intense, and possibly not very pleasant in terms of day-to-day collegiality when Old and New crash together).
One strategy that you could use to combat the overwhelming nature of All of the Theory is to pay attention to your own scholarly disposition: what are you, personally, interested in when you read texts? Is it their structure, their nuts-and-bolts, and how they keep the illusion of mimesis alive? Maybe focus on structuralism or narratology. Are you interested in why certain texts arose when they did? Check out the history (ha!) of New Historicism, or maybe print culture studies or even materialist criticism. Are you into how the words sound, and how they create images and arguments? Look into poetics, rhetoric, and aesthetic theory. Are you interested in how certain key aspects of the human condition are represented and dealt with? Check out memory studies, posthumanism and animal studies, or ecocriticism. Are you drawn to certain genres of texts? Genre criticism!
Remember, it's easiest to figure out how a puzzle comes together when you have a little section done first. Work within your preferences and likes to develop some knowledge on a piece of the puzzle that you enjoy, and then build out from there towards things that are wheelhouse-adjacent, and then beyond.
As an English major in college, I've been inundated with fiction for years. Now I'm on a big non-fiction and essay kick.
At present I would recommend Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, a marvelous piece of literary non-fiction set in the slums of Mumbai, and a tidy selection of Foucault that I like to take chunks out of between other books.
I like Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today. Also, if you're interested in online resources, this professor's website for a critical theory class has tons and tons of links to interesting stuff - even though the website is hard to navigate sometimes. Check out the syllabus and online resources (linked at the bottom.)
I'm in a similar boat as you; interested in continental, but surrounded by a lot of analytics.
Hegel is notorious for being dense and difficult to read, and while he was incredibly influential on many later continental thinkers, I don't think anyone who really wanted to help you get into continental philosophy would have you start on Hegel, unless they were committed to reading through it with you.
Heidegger's maybe a bit less obtuse at times, but he can also be confusing if you don't have a professor or more experienced student guiding you along. I asked a professor where I should start, and he recommended his published lecture notes from The History of the Concept of Time, which I admittedly haven't finished yet, but he spends a lot of time in it explaining Husserl's philosophy of phenomenology, which is crucial for understanding Heidegger, as well as a number of other continental thinkers.
As for some easier continental-esque thinkers, there are some that I think are a bit more accessible. Bear in mind that there isn't exactly a group of thinkers who all signed a document saying they were continental philosophers, but there are a number who seem to run in the tradition, and many others who were at the very least related to them.
To begin, I'd recommend some Kierkegaard. He was a Christian philosopher, and is often considered to be one of the earliest existentialist philosopher's. He did a number of works on concepts of faith, anxiety, dread and other elements of the human condition, adding his own angles on them to apply them to Christian philosophy. He wrote under a number of pseudonyms in order to create a number of different perspectives, although underlying all the chaos was a desire to get you to start thinking for yourself. A good place to start with him would be Fear and Trembling. Many of his ideas were influential on continental thinkers such as Heidegger, Jaspers and Sartre.
To go in a very different direction, Nietzsche is another thinker who was very influential on many continental philosophers. The self-declared Anti-Christ, he basically believed that we are about to enter a post-God world, with his writings often either trying to burn our bridges back to the Church or trying to point us in a new direction. Like Kierkegaard, he doesn't always say what he means directly, but much of his philosophy is ultimately aimed at getting you to start thinking for yourself. I'd recommend this anthology, as it contains a number of pretty crucial writings of his.
If after this you're still interested in Heidegger, I don't have as much background there, although I've read a few of his Basic Writings, which is a collection of essays of his. In one of my classes, we also read an essay from his Pathmarks which wasn't terribly dense, so that might be a nice place to start as well. Being and Time is generally considered to be his most important work, but it's renowned for being dense and difficult, although there are a number of commentaries on that book alone that may prove useful.
For one final recommendation, I'll throw in Kaufmann's anothology of existential writings, which has a number of essays on existentialism, which was heavily tied to many core continental thinkers.
And I wouldn't worry about your roommate.
It's a classic! Love Whitman :)
http://amzn.com/0486456765
There were nine ships. Seven of them had a palantír on board, and these ships also flew the banner of the Lords of Andúnië, the last of which was Elendil. They flew the banner of their house on each ship carrying a palantír. (Notable addition I had originally missed - the charge on the arms is a star.)
This information is, though, apocryphal. Possibly mentioned in Hammond & Scull "Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion" based on the index of the 1966 2nd edition of the Lord of the Rings. The trick is, Tolkien didn't finish the revision of the index in time, and I don't think it has been ever became available to the general public.
I do not have access to the companion book - instead, I noted the explanation from the Barrow Downs forums.
I'll always recommend the far better alternatives where they exist.
Get yourself a purple Virgil. Industry standard for students at your level.
Pharr's commentary on the first 6 books of the Aeneid is a classic go-to for intermediate students. The best part is that the comprehensive vocab notes and commentary are at the bottom of the page so there's no constant flipping back and forth. The only bad thing is that Pharr wrote this essentially as a job application and got the job so he never wrote a second edition for the rest of the Aeneid lol.
https://www.amazon.com/Vergils-Aeneid-Books-Latin-English/dp/0865164215
A Book of Middle English by J.A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre is a great resource if you're looking for a book.
i got the three volume set: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618964401
ISBN-10: 0618964401
ISBN-13: 978-0618964406
apparently they published them one at a time, so each has its own as well.
Read lots of poetry, and not just old stuff.
Read criticisms and histories of poetry.
Read books about writing poetry. Some that I recommend:
In the Palm of Your Hand
Ordinary Genius
A Poetry Handbook
and if you're into Formalist poetry (rhyming) you may also like:
Rules for the Dance
The Making of a Poem
All The Fun's In How You Say A Thing
Write poetry. Keep writing it. Keep changing it. Scrap it. Start over.
Get criticism by posting to a forum. For metered poetry I recommend Able Muse.
I would highly recommend buying a copy of this book.
This is a great tool for beginners and pros alike. It provides structured exercises that help to get your creative juices flowing.
I think the author is missing a huge point here. The points he mentions refer to bad twist endings. A good twist ending should use all the information that was already available to the player, but draw a different conclusion for it.
When the player gets to the twist, they should think "Of course! Why didn't I see that earlier?". Bad twists simply lie to the player, or withhold information. This results in annoyance when you get to the twist, because there was no way you could have anticipated it. The parts of the game you played suddenly feel pointless (this may apply more to movies though), since you weren't actually getting the complete story.
> I'm not really worried about it. Wacky twist storytelling is a cul de sac. There's really only so much you can do with it, compared with the infinite potential variety of simple stories about actual people doing actual things.
That seems...odd, considering the view that there are only 7 basic plots. Twist endings have their place, as any type of story does. I don't believe they're a cul de sac any more than the "hero wins" ending, which is the typical ending to most entertainment.
Harvard's Geoffrey Chaucer page has a lot of good, but dated resources for Middle English. There are also YouTube videos of varying quality. I have picked up this book but haven't gotten past the first few chapters yet: A Book of Middle English, Third Edition
If you're into postmodernism then Baudrillard's 'Simulacra and Simulation' which questions reality and its representation.
Also, Shklovsky's 'Art as a Technique', which focuses on how art / literature 'defamiliarises' the habitual nature of life, it is really interesting.
You can get course books on literary theory, I used this one for my undergrad:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Literary-Theory-Anthology-Blackwell-Anthologies/dp/1405106964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368545296&sr=8-1&keywords=julie+rivkin+and+michael+ryan
They use excerpts from useful theory to make it easier to read, might be worth a look into.
A few more come to mind, less literature but more about stylistic and analytic skills you'll require in your advanced years in the Humanities.
People say to read a good style guide like Strunk & White, which is just okay. But I'd highly recommend Pinker's A Sense of Style--he also unpacks some of the problems with Strunk & White's core edicts.
Stanley Fish is just a great person to read in general. From his op-ed stuff in the NY Times to his class How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. I'd also highly recommend reading the full introduction of the Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism or the introduction to Rifkin & Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology. When it comes to the lit theory stuff there are some good torrents with a lot of anthologies and canonical texts lumped together as PDFs. I also find a lot of good stuff with my Scribd membership.
I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed studying Latin so much. Where I live (Canada), classical studies are not valued at all; people honestly don't understand why it would be important to retain some cultural continuity with all of Europe's past, where until just two or three hundred years ago, going to university in Europe meant doing scholarship in Latin. It therefore warms my heart to hear you speaking so fondly of it, and to know that there's a place in the world where even engineers have heard of Vergil.
I do hope you're able to keep reading Latin in your free time. If you like poetry digestible in small chunks, you might enjoy the very user-friendly Catullus. There are other excellent small-scale poets like Propertius, but I find his language rather more difficult. If you can find a book with bite-size excerpts of Ovid, that would be a wonderful way to go as well; Ovid is just stellar.
If you're up for a larger-scale work at any point, there's a fabulous student edition of the first six books of the Aeneid in English where there's an index of the very most common words at the back, then all the other vocabulary is given, with grammatical notes as well, on the same page as the Latin; it saves very, very much time with a dictionary. The book was prepared by an early 20th-century schoolteacher named Clyde Pharr and is available both in paperback and hardback editions.
The best way to get into Middle English is just to start reading it, using a book that has glosses of difficult words on the page. If you have the Norton Anthology of British Literature, I would start with some of the lyrics and then Chaucer, as those are the easiest to handle. It may seem tough at first, but it gets easier over time. Once you feel comfortable with that, you could read Sir Orfeo which is also in there, or move to The Book of Middle English by Burrow (I think Lutefish confused this book with the one by Bennett that was finished by Gray, which is a good book, but not an anthology). The Norton Middle English Romances would also fit in here (some of these are good and some are just ok).
After doing this, you should have a good knowledge of Middle English, even by the end of a few months of reading. You could probably begin to read Piers Plowman at this point, or some of the non-East Midlands texts in Burrow.
If you want to move from here into Old English, you could. If you understand how inflected languages work (have you taken Latin?), you could get a copy of Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to OE and start working through the texts on your own. Your best bet for learning OE, though, is to take a course in it.
After you've done all that, then you could try to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in Middle English, maybe.
If you like science fiction, you might enjoy Science Fiction and Philosophy. Take a look at the table of contents on the amazon page.
Are you familiar with Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces or The Seven Basic Plots?
That's ultimately why, even though I like GRRMs' work, I take his critiques of authors like Tolkien with a grain of salt. Narratively there's only so many stories you can actually tell. And why I don't rate him as highly as Tolkien or Herbert or Jordan.
Like we're seeing with Jon Snow in the show, and probably will in the books, ultimately it's just another hero's journey.
GRRM just added more peripheral stories and used the narrative weights to try to make the story seem more complex – but you can't really escape the structure ultimately.
Or as Christopher Nolan so succinctly summarizes via Harvey Dent's character in The Dark Knight, you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. That's the tension of anyone making a difference.
No, you don't have to be insane not to believe in any alien intelligent life. According to mathematical physicists and cosmologists Frank Tipler and John Borrow in their classic The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, extraterrestrial life is statistically improbable, and they've pointed out that advocates for SETI are typically astronomers and physicists, whereas many biologists including folks like Ernst Mayr, G.G. Simpson, Peter Douglas Ward, and Leonard Ornstein have been very skeptical of the arguments for extraterrestrial life.
I don't know if a poll has ever been taken to see how significant believers are from unbelievers, but from the literature I've read on the subject it seems to break down by discipline.
According to mathematical physicists and cosmologists Frank Tipler and John Borrow in their classic The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, extraterrestrial life is statistically improbable, and they've pointed out that advocates for SETI (for example) are typically astronomers and physicists, whereas many biologists including esteemed researchers like Ernst Mayr, G.G. Simpson, Peter Douglas Ward, and Leonard Ornstein had/have been very skeptical of the arguments for extraterrestrial life.
More recently, astrophysicist Edwin Turner and David Spiegel found that, while not discounting the existence of alien life completely, expectations are more likely to be built on optimism than evidence. You can read about their study here: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S33/52/89I01/
In my opinion, it makes sense that believers/unbelievers would break down by discipline. A man or woman who grew up on Star Trek and Dune becomes passionate about far away planets and life on those planets and due in large part to that passion become astronomers. A biologist, on the other hand, who may or may not be a sci-fi fan may have the ability to distance themselves a bit and see the broader picture.
I also believe that people in general have an innate desire to believe that they're part of something bigger than themselves. That this isn't all there is. I'm reminded of that old Peggy Lee song Is That All There Is?
Yea, SlyReference basically covers it and I may have been overstating things with China (given their past 100 years in particular). All the same, where Western/European culture ends up from here is an interesting question to me.
A book I really like that's relevant is The Great War and Modern Memory.
Of course the war and its aftermath set the stage for the deaths of the old empires (all gone or changed beyond recognition by 1945), and was a nexus point for the conflicts that would shape the next century - Paris 1919 covers that quite well.
The Great War in Modern Memory by Paul Fussell is a book every human being should read. Though your interest is in the grander, political causes of war, it's important to keep in mind that the war the powers started was not the war they had anticipated. The psychological/cultural preparation for the war that every citizen—those in government as well as those doomed for the trenches—underwent was responsible for their accepting war as an option. And that preparation came from history and literature. The tragedy was that they were prepared for another Napoleonic War but what was awaiting them was mechanized slaughter. Fussell explicates the interplay between history, literature, and politics beautifully. I recommend this book to everyone.
Beginning Theory: Introduction to Literary Culture and Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction were two helpful supplemental texts from a literary criticism class I took in graduate school.
This is more theory of literature, though, and wouldn't speak to style necessarily, but would give you some idea of the lenses that many folks out there use to look at literature.
I also recommend reading around /r/AskLiteraryStudies for some ideas, too.
It seriously gives sooooo much added context and background detail that after re-reading the book a handful of times I picked up on stuff I never otherwise would have.
https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Blood-Meridian-Southwestern-Collection/dp/0292718217
Hello, French person. You might want to try reading up on another French person named Michel Foucault. His academic career has been dissecting power structures and the effects institutions have on society.
https://www.amazon.com/Foucault-Reader-Michel/dp/0394713400
The purpose of the modern state is to promote and manage life as to provide human resources for capitalism to thrive. Drugs like MDMA/LSD/Shrooms deconstruct the disciplinary/regulatory mental constructs that keep us working hard and docile. Widespread use of these drugs are would lead to a downturn in the economy and/or political revolt, so they are illegal.
It's not a conspiracy, its just how our system works. Focault's a smart dude, he figured out these techniques of power by charting their development in the 17th and 18th century.
English major here- I have found Lois Tyson's textbook Critical Theory Today very clear and helpful!
http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Theory-Today-User-Friendly-Guide/dp/0415974100
John Berger's Ways of Seeing (absolutely brilliant)
Ron Carlson Writes a Story
Critical Theory Today
Wilhelm Reich-The Mass Psychology of Fascism
Amy Bloom-Normal
Tom Stoppard-Arcadia
Sara Marcus-Girls to the Front
For one of my literary theory classes in undergrad, we used this book. The author analyzes 'The Great Gatsby' through the lens of 10 or 12 critical frameworks. It was really illuminating, clear, and enjoyable to read. Lit theory is the focus, but it also provided a lot of insight into the fundamental ideas of the various critical perspectives that were highlighted. Definitely recommended.
Critical theory does tend to be cryptic, deliberately so in a lot of cases. You might enjoy Baudrillard's America. It's fairly accessible as far as his stuff goes, if you have a rudimentary understanding of his Hyperreal idea.
If you want a more general introduction into philosophy there's a Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn and the older What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel. A more academic introduction (the last two books are more aimed at a general audience) is Fundamentals of Philosophy edited by John Shand. If you're willing to sit through it there also Russel's classic A History of Western Philosophy, which is a sort of introduction to philosophy through the history of the field (the audiobook is on youtube btw), and there also his Problems of Philosophy
I'm not that familiar with eastern philosophy, but a classic introduction to Existentialism is Walter Kaufmann's Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre and it should go nicely with Existentialism is a Humanism.
Hope this helps :)
Hmm, the last new thing I read? Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
If I include rereads, I'm currently rereading Lev Grossman's The Magician King
he is saying both sort of. life has no meaning, but meaning isn't found within the struggle exactly, rather we exist in between the struggle and we create our own meaning. we are free, we have only to realize that the rules don't apply.
I can give you some advice for reading existentialism and also some places to start.
just curious, tho, how old are you?
there's several ways to approach reading philosophy.
method 1:
when reading philosophy of any kind you can get bogged down in the references and footnotes. when I was just starting out I would get so overwhelmed by things I didn't understand I would give up. don't give up. and don't worry about what you don't understand, just keep reading and see what you get out of it.
method 2:
BEFORE you read a book, read the Wikipedia page on it. back in the day I had to collect Coppleston's history of philosophy volumes to read commentary, but now it's online. so before you read, do some quick background reading so you know a) where the author is coming from/their general point of view/any important details about their life that pertain to understanding the book B) the author's main argument in the book - this will help you pick out his argument and understand it better.
3) some tips: a) read for pleasure. don't feel bad if you hate a book and just can't read it or make sense of it. sometimes later it makes more sense, but it's ok to hate a writer even if everyone else says they're amazing b) read with a pen or pencil in hand - underline things you like, write "I disagree" if you do, sometimes I even write "LOL" if it made me laugh and related to that B) take some notes as you go along whatever you think is important.. a sentence, a point, I use notes to restate in my own words the argument I just read... it helps me get it better and I have a reference in my own lingo that makes sense to me
where to start I would start with two books:
Amazon price ~2$
get this book if you get no others!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073535753/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1462783700&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=does+the+center+hold&dpPl=1&dpID=51hxbBbmgzL&ref=plSrch
2.Walter Kaufmann "existentialism: from Dostoyevsky to Sartre"
Amazon price 11$
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0452009308/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1462783302&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=walter+kaufmann&dpPl=1&dpID=41lkh1kWkeL&ref=plSrch
after that, depends on what you want to learn, but after the above I would read "Notes from Underground" by Dostoyevsky
then maybe: JD Salinger "Catcher in the Rye"
this was how I learned... after those two I went back chronologically and read Plato(he's foundational and easy enough to grasp), Kierkegaard, Dostoyesky, Camus and Sartre, then I started skipping around once I had a foundation.
with existentialism the important thing to remember is that it isn't an exact philosophy. it was at first a reaction against exact philosophies with prescriptive definitions to how we should live. existentialism, rather, is a shared angst (Wikipedia Kierkegaard Angst) about life, an anxiety in the face of the meaninglessness of life. life has no meaning. now what? if life has no meaning, then all the rules are arbitrary, and you are truly free. free to do and be whatever you want.
good luck on your quest, it's a worthy one.
and my last piece of advice is this: there's no hurry... if a book takes you a year to digest, that's fine! if another takes you a week, ok! another might require 2 months. don't rush, digest the argument and internalize it.
and I'm around on Reddit all the time if you have questions. and don't let philosophy snobs tells you you have to blah blah blah... philosophy should be accessible to all, otherwise it's a stupid endeavor.
again.. good luck.
I recommend the original 1855 verison of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
Desert Solitaire
Leaves of Grass
One Man's Wilderness
Into the Wild
Wilderness Essays
Call of the Wild
Walden Shocking huh?
"I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality." - James Joyce on Ulysses
This was essentially James Joyce's goal... and that's why Ulysses is my favorite novel. I would recommend reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first, and to get some guidebooks for Ulysses (specifically this one and this one)
well said. Have you read this book? I just got it, need to find the time to read it... http://www.amazon.com/Anthropic-Cosmological-Principle-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0192821474
regarding the improbability of mutation:
http://www.amazon.com/Anthropic-Cosmological-Principle-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0192821474
Regarding extrapolating "microevolution" to "macroevolution".
http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/a-world-famous-chemist-tells-the-truth-theres-no-scientist-alive-today-who-understands-macroevolution/
From the above article, direct quote from Professor James M Tour (Ph.D, Synthetic Chemistry, Purdue University):
> I was in Israel not too long ago, talking with a bio-engineer, and [he was] describing to me the ear, and he was studying the different changes in the modulus of the ear, and I said, “How does this come about?” And he says, “Oh, Jim, you know, we all believe in evolution, but we have no idea how it happened.” Now there’s a good Jewish professor for you. I mean, that’s what it is. So that’s where I am. Have I answered the question?
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2640607?uid=3739560&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102531627637
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2002.00437.x/abstract
Here, a scientist tries to make a case for how microevolution can be extrapolated to macroevolution, something that would be unnecessary if the scientific community believed this to already be true. He admits:
> A persistent debate in evolutionary biology is one over the continuity of microevolution and macroevolution – whether macroevolutionary trends are governed by the principles of microevolution.
Here, required reading in Modern Military History.
Have you read Hitler's Army? I assume if you haven't already then you would really like it. It's an in-depth analysis of the Ostheer and reasons why it devolved into such a brutal and barbaric army. But yes, I understand your point. I've learned enough to know that the Ostfront was a huge mess and is probably pretty exceptional in any case.
11-9-18 4 hour...
The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fusselll
​
The Impossible HL Mencken, HL Mencken
​
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
Actually, again you have yet to provide anything conclusive to prove your claims, and again ignored the core of my post. I said that this was a tiny smidge of easily accessible data. So no front, you just need to not be lazy. Again you ignore anything that clearly proves you wrong, honestly I dont even know why I bother since you are clearly so deluded you cannot even read, let alone respond to anything outside your own (completely false) narrative.
Again nothing ad-hominem just observations any sane person would make about your replies. Your like one of those spineless politicians, when asked an uncomfortable question, you give a totally unrelated answer.
So yeah you want some book recommendations? Here you go:
http://www.amazon.com/Germany-After-First-World-War/dp/0198219385
http://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Months-Changed-World/dp/0375508260
http://www.amazon.com/Great-War-Modern-Memory/dp/0195133323/sr=8-1/qid=1158256555/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5230486-6363002?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Third-Reich-Richard-Evans/dp/B000HOJGLI/sr=1-4/qid=1158258029/ref=sr_1_4/102-5738646-8788965?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Nazism-Fascism-Working-Class-Timothy/dp/0521437873
http://www.amazon.com/Fascist-Ideology-Territory-Expansionism-1922-1945/dp/0415216125
There are plenty more, but the expansionist rhetoric of the fascist states, especially Germany can not be overlooked. In addition early German planning to not fight a multi-front again indicates that they were indeed aware of a coming conflict in which they would be aggressors. Did they want to fight the powers they did? Well arguments can be made either way but certainly I'm sure they would rather have just been given massive tracks of land, hence the negotiations with England.
So unless you have some documents that show otherwise, this drastic oversimplification that Germany was merely responding to polish aggression is as I have said, nonsense.
Three books at the top of my current pile:
The Great War and Modern Memory - This is superb. I'll be buying copies as Christmas presents this year.
Daily Life in Ancient Rome - Did you know there were five-story apartment buildings in ancient Rome?
The Trouble with Physics - I heard the author speak recently. I am not competent to judge the worthiness of his ideas, but I am eager to believe that there is something wrong with much of modern physics.
I'm very happy that I was able to help :)
And yes, a lot of people will blame everything around them for the misery of themselves. This seems to be the easy way out, but you must ask yourself what good it does in the end. There are things which are outside of your control. What people might do to you, say to you, and so on. However no matter what harsh things you go through in life it is ultimately you that decide how to respond to them. You decide what to do with it. It is as Epictetus once said:
> "Man is affected not by events, but by the view he takes of them."
Usually I do not actually like to talk openly about the philosophy I follow, for the simple reason that I just try to live by it. Use actions, not words. Also for many people it might seem that you try to push something on to them. However I felt in this case I was justified to give an explanation of what exactly helped me :-)
Anyways, if you are interested in the principles I explained, then what you seek is reading on Stoicism. The book that has especially helped me is this one:
Stoicism and the art of happiness
It has eye-opening/life-changing wisdoms and perspectives on everything that has to do with you. How to deal with emotions, what they are, and what is essential to life a good life. Another interesting fact is that many of the mental exercises and perspectives the stoics used is now today amongst some of the most scientifically well-documented practices used by cognitive behavioural therapy (also with a quick google search, you will find that even the founder of CBT was inspired by the stoic teachings), which deals with practically all kinds of mental sufferings you can imagine.
It's a practical book on the life philosophy of Stoicism, and it is written by a credible psychotherapist who also takes interest in the study of Stoicism (hence the book!). It's not academic in any way, it's meant to be easily approachable and easy to implement into your life. Here's a quick breakdown of it all:
Stoicism is a life philosophy that was founded by the ancient greeks around 301 BCE. It's not a religion, or any kind of weird cult. It is a collection of principles that is meant to guide you towards happiness (in greek context meaning something more along the lines of inner well-being and tranquility).
I would suggest you read the book :-) Maybe you will come to pick up on everything stoicism has to offer, maybe you will only pick up whatever principles and wisdoms that you think are right, or maybe you won't find much agreement with it at all, all which is fine. However I think you will find some wisdoms you will definitely find to your liking, as you sound intrigued by the principles. The important thing is that no matter what, it will most certainly set you out on your way to think more about yourself and how to control your life and achieve your own understanding of well-being.
If Stoicism comes to your liking (start with the above book first, though), I could recommend books by some of the most famous ancient Stoics through time. I will leave some here for future reference for you:
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius - This is one of the most famous stoic texts.
Enchiridion - Epictetus
Dialogues and Essays - Seneca
These books read as manuals, not to be read in one sitting. They are huge collections of letters, essays and short passages from these excellent people about everything that has to do with achieving inner well-being, and how to view the world around you. They are remarkable ancient works, and it is truly inspiring and motivating to open them and just read a few of the lines from time to time.
As with anything, it's a learning process to change mindset. But it slowly comes when you study it. You learn the wisdoms and principles they had, you think about them and if they make sense, you apply them and live them, revisit them and so on, until they really become a part of you. It is truly worth the time though, and I think you see that too from what I could understand in your reply.
Best of luck to you! If you have any questions feel free to PM me as well, I'd be happy to help.
This is a very good video introduction to Stoicism.
The main ancient Stoic books that have survived are Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Epictetus's Discourses and Enchiridion, which is basically a summary of the Discourses, and Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and Essays. All these editions are relatively new translations and, in Seneca's case, abridged, but they will give you an idea of what Stoicism is about. I suggest you first read the Enchiridion (it is no longer than 40 pages) and then the Meditations (around 150-200 pages), and then dig deeper if you get interested.
There are other ancient sources, and quite a lot of modern work is being done currently, but those are the ones I suggest you begin with.
Then there are very active modern Stoic communities, like /r/Stoicism, the Facebook group, and NewStoa, with its College of Stoic Philosophers, that lets you take a very good four month long course by email.
The great thing about Stoicism as a way of life is that it has neither the blind dogmatism of organized religion nor the ardent skepticism of atheism. It puts the soul back in the universe, in a way, and, on the personal level, empowers you to take responsibility for your actions and to take it easy with what you cannot control.
Thank you for the recommendations! How does this one look?
Dialogues and Essays
If i may suggest something.
Elderly people need to make peace with their ageing process (both physical and mental) and a study of philosophy is the only way. This gives you the big picture in the "grand scheme" of things and you realize that everything is just natural and as they should be. Thus one learns to adapt themselves to the situation instead of being miserable over it. Obviously, this is easier said then done and hence the need for life lessons from a teacher via philosophical study. I have found the following books helpful in this regard;
I personally enjoy reading Aristotle and he's pretty foundational to a lot of medieval and renaissance criticism so there's no good reason not to start with him. The thing about criticism (like most philosophy) is that it rapidly became a series of responses to other critics/philosophers which can be hard to follow. Like jumping into a story halfway through. So it's best to start with the greeks. Plato's got some interesting thoughts too, but more on the philosophical purpose of literature in a society so that might not be germane to your interests. On the other hand, I can't think of a good reason anyone shouldn't read The Republic at some point in their life.
If you're largely unfamiliar with literary criticism, then I would recommend this book
If you're really keen to develop your understanding, here are two books on literary theory to digest that will help you with this:
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
The Very Short Introduction series is excellent. My wife is a philosophy teacher and we have about a dozen of them on our shelf. Fantastic entry points to building a solid foundation of understanding on just about any academic topic.
Seven Types of Ambiguity
This is one of the seminal works of modern literary criticism, and it's an engaging read.
Good luck! You are on a beautiful path and I hope you keep working at it because a deeper understanding and love of literature is truly a life-enriching pasttime.
This book follows direct sources McCarthy used in writing Blood Meridian, but also has an expanded area dedicated to the themes present in it.
[Notes on Blood Meridian]( https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Blood-Meridian-Southwestern-Collection/dp/0292718217/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3R50HOI9LDL15&keywords=notes+on+blood+meridian&qid=1568861843&sprefix=notes+on+blood+%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1 )
This book translates all the foreign languages along with giving a page by page analysis.
[A Reader's Guide to Blood Meridian]( https://www.amazon.com/Readers-Guide-Blood-Meridian/dp/0978834917/ref=pd_sbs_14_5/146-5559958-2804223?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0978834917&pd_rd_r=7f6b308c-372c-481d-b7de-b9181d0d24e3&pd_rd_w=s5W3g&pd_rd_wg=K75oS&pf_rd_p=d66372fe-68a6-48a3-90ec-41d7f64212be&pf_rd_r=VVX9JQRFZ16EC4WYA284&psc=1&refRID=VVX9JQRFZ16EC4WYA284 )
I know these may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I think they'll give you some insight.
I took a course on him in college (I was a French major), and our professor thankfully suggested that we ready this book alongside the many Foucaults we were studying. It helps put everything in context and explain a bit better what he's talking about.
I was assigned The Foucault Reader in a class last year - it is a collection of chapters from his books along with some other sources (an interview, for example), which gives a good overview of his work.
Edit: https://www.amazon.ca/Foucault-Reader-Michel/dp/0394713400
Link to the book on Amazon. I forgot that it was edited by Rabinow!
Gotta give credit where credit is due.
I actually just started by reading a textbook that covered most major critical theories http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Theory-Today-User-Friendly-Guide/dp/0415974100
I am by no means an expert, I admittedly know little on this subject.
When I was interested in this in high school, I read the following book:
http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Revised-Expanded-Edition/dp/0452009308/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I thought the selections were quite good, but I would probably skip Kaufmann's commentary. I'm told his interpretations of these thinkers are controversial, to say the least.
If you read something you like from this book, I would read the texts the selections are from.
There are so many ways into the western tradition that it kind of depends on your interests - do you like to think about ethics, politics, art, technology, questions of reality? Not knowing, here are some very general suggestions: Try Plato (anything), Descartes' Medititations (very readable), Jorge Luis Borges (fictional philosophy, speculative), Hannah Arendt (great writer, more recent). Or find a philosophy college intro textbook with a collection of authors and texts, and see what catches your fancy, then follow those interests further. A secondary source that is a good entre is Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy series amazon link - he's a clear writer and rather entertaining too.
P.S. I was thinking back to my HS days and I think I was really into Dostoyevsky and existentialism... and I think I began with a book called Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre by Walter Kaufmann, a classic intro with excerpts from each philosopher's works, amazon here. Kaufmann's intro to the book is a good read.
P.P.S. I just remembered that I wrote this blog post about your question a long time ago:
Our Top 5 Philosophy Classics for High School and College Students. Enjoy!
Thanks!
The topic has been a little "done to death." There are actually two books out, Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts and The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles. Of the two, the second is much better, in my opinion (the first was published before the series was finished and contains a fair handful of out-and-out errors-- Winky is Dobby's sister, for instance-- and some theories are proven misguided by the subsequent publications), mostly because the latter is really "Harry Potter and Philosophy, while the former is "Harry Potter and Philosophy." However, both books are collections of essays, not in-depth reviews, and no one has really done what struck me most: so I think there's room for me.
My topic is very broad right now: The distinction between the Soul, the Mind, and the Body in Harry Potter. As you can imagine, there is a ton of evidence to go through. I can't even be sure each exist: a Horcrux is just a soul, and the recipient of the Dementor's Kiss is just a body, but there's no clear-cut case of "just a mind" (the closest, I think, is a portrait: because clearly the soul has "gone on." But then why does Dumbledore cry? An Inferi clearly has no soul; yet it has a body and is able to act autonomously/make decisions. Should the mind then be classified as a function of the body? Yet the Horcrux in the diary certainly has the capacity for rational thought-- and even if you argue that's a result of the spell Riddle placed on the diary, the necklace was still cognizant enough to attack Harry. And so on.).
Some of the main categories: the soul as a distinct object (Horcruxes, the Dementor's Kiss, possession), consciousness without body (portraits, photographs, ghosts), trans-spatial identification (Animagi, Metamorphmagi, Polyjuice potion, werewolves, transfiguration), immortality/resurrection (the Philosopher's Stone, unicorn blood, Horcruxes, the Resurrection stone, priori incantatum), life after death (King's Cross station, "death is but the next great adventure," Harry's mother saying he's "been so brave", e.g.), and right now, a bogus category I'm calling "sensing" (I have a vaguely formed postulate that in the magical world, a distinct entity, be it the soul, the mind, the "identity," what have you, must exist, because so many things appear to interact with that entity: patronuses, for instance, seem to personify that entity and cannot be disguised; the sorting hat looks into your "mind" but seems to identify your "soul"; wands choose the wizard; boggarts, amortentia, thestrals, the Mirror of Erised, etc.).
So yeah, that's HP&P, as I have affectionately named it. I'll stop rambling now and go take my medication in the corner.
Oh yeah; I suggest you take a look at The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy - Hogwarts for Muggles
It has a chapter on souls and horcruxes.
Have you seen these three books (1, 2, 3)? I haven't read them, so I can't tell you which is best, but even just looking at the table of contents might give you some ideas.
1. I know I could just use reparo, but I'd rather my wine glasses not break in the first place. Plus, there's no putting wine back in a broken glass, and we can't have that! If I drop it, I'll just use wingardium leviosa, and the wine will be saved!
2. Whenever I put my dog on the back of my broomstick, he's always trying to chew off the handle. Maybe this item will fool him.
3. I'm not sure I can afford my own, but I have three friends who might let me borrow theirs. I might have to dust them off a bit.
4. This would help me understand the magic of the mind, and the mind magic behind the magic!
5. I have a feeling my school trunk would just be full of dirty clothes.
6. Cape! I'd really like to find a cape like this guy has. Practical AND fashionable. I think he really epitomizes those two qualities.
Are you by any chance a student? If so, you may have access to library databases and academic journals. There are a good amount of academic papers on Harry Potter but a lot of them are behind a paywall, but as I said, students often get access.
That said: this book has a bunch of different papers compiled: The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles.
Morthy demands:
Akeleie demands:
:D :D :D I would love a USED copy of this book--there's a "like new" copy for $7.28 including shipping! Thanks for the contest!!
Dressed All Over and Zesty Mordant :D
So I can seem cool and educated :P. Laser! I've never played laser tag. Mebbe one day.
987
Leaves of Grass for $2.79
Thanks for holding this contest!
If I were to be gifted anything under $10, it would be a tough call between this watch from my "Hundred Things" wishlist and Leaves of Grass (from that same WL). Both are intended to make me more mindful, so either would actually do a lot more than their small prices would indicate!
Good idea, but, as I recall, my annotation version is actually a separate book longer than the actual novel. Still, I think we would miss out on a lot without one.
Thank you (-:
But Again about a guide, do you know anything about this one? https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Readers-Companion/dp/0618642676
Oooh, I've never seen the 2nd UK version! Those are beautiful.
And I totally get it, I have a Tolkien problem. I have the green book version of the Hobbit, along with the paperback set of the Hobbit and LotR together, then I've been searching for the red book of Westmarch LotR to go along with my green bound version, but that one is infinitely harder to find. I've got two versions of the Silmarillion and countless other Tolkien writings, but my latest big acquisition is the Reader's Companion, a line-by-line guide to LotR that explains plot, trivia, and linguistics behind everything in the book. Even I realize that's a bit excessive at that point...
Sorry for the horrid link, on mobile: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Philosophy-Travel-Superintelligence/dp/1405149078
I own this book myself and there are a couple of chapters that go in-depth about The Matrix as a simulation and about "bodies/brains-in-vats". The Ultimate Matrix Collection (also own) has dvds about behind-the-scenes footage and filming stuff.
I use these books when I teach Philosophy 101. You might like them if you dig science fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Through-Science-Fiction-Coursebook/dp/0415957559
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Philosophy-Travel-Superintelligence/dp/1405149078
I'd recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Philosophy-Travel-Superintelligence/dp/1405149078
It's not only about AI but other issues too, and edited by a philosopher of mind
I'm pretty sure my copy of Gawain had Pearl and Patience in it too. I'll dig around when I get home. No wait, it's on Amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gawain-Cleanness-Patience-Everymans-Library/dp/0460875108, but very out-of-print looking.
This was my Middle English text book at university - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Middle-English-J-Burrow/dp/1405117095 - along with support from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Middle-English-Verse-Prose/dp/0198711018 (which also looks horribly out of print). I think you get The Owl and the Nightingale in the latter.
Not sure with any of those links whether they'll speak to your desire to follow the word into modern spelling - generally they're more interested in the meaning. But one of the details I loved while studying was watching the same word find a new definition; here's people arguing over whether beer (sorry, beor) is cider or not. http://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/gegaderung/index.php?topic=391.0
If you believe your words are gospel, then just accept the feedback and move on with your life. If you want to start down the road of legitimately writing poetry that someone who actually reads poetry can appreciate, it's time to get to fucking work.
Of course, you think your "words" are special, but they aren't. This is the same thing every beginner churns out. It's cliché abstraction and it's not worth sharing with anyone. You can call it "poetry" and say it's your "art" and that poetry can't be "defined" -- whatever.
But anyone who actually reads poetry will recognize your "words" immediately for what they are and turn the page.
Read some poetry, man. Read some books about writing poetry and the tools poets use to craft their poems. If you need recommendations, I can give you some, but you'll have to do some fucking work. You might have missed the memo, but writing poetry is hard work.
***
Edit: Here some recommendations to get you started.
And if you insist on trying to use end rhymes:
And please, please pick up a good book of poems from multiple authors so you can get some exposure, such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry or the compilation Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. One of my favorites is A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz.
Read The History of the Hobbit if you are looking for background information.
If you are interested in collecting, you must, must, must get The History of the Hobbit box set.
It's incredibly inclusive, and contains the 70th anniversary edition of The Hobbit (Perhaps worth the price of the set all by itself!), all the original drafts that Tolkien made of the story, essays on the tale's construction, notes on the text, and commentary.
The Seven Basic Plots
I'm a pretty well-confirmed athiest at this point. I tend to view the current manifestations of religion as following in a long tradition of mythmaking by human cultures.
With that in mind, you might look into some psychology in addition to your religious research. I'm a writer, which is how I came by Jung and Campbell and Booker -- but I think the idea of underlying patterns of thought that guide our own mythmaking is of broader use than simply helping me understand storytelling better.
I've read the following, and suggest you do as well!
Jung
The Basic Writings of CG Jung
Man and His Symbols
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Psychology and Religion
Campbell
The Hero With A Thousand Faces
The Masks of God (Vols. 1 - 3)
Myths to Live By
Booker
The Seven Basic Plots
There are a lot more, but those are the ones I'd start with. As an undergrad, I majored in English and Rhetoric, and minored in both Religion and Poetry -- this cultural storytelling stuff is important to me.
As a library science graduate student, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that you can get all of these books from your local library -- and can enlist the aid of the reference desk in finding more material for your research. Believe me, there's nothing a reference worker likes more than an interesting topic -- i.e. something that doesn't involve directing people to the bathroom, or helping people find books on filing their taxes. We're trained to help with real research! Use us!
Whichever you choose just try and find a "reader" style book that includes vocab and notes on the same page. It's a huge quality of life boost. E.g. for Vergil ( https://www.amazon.com/Vergils-Aeneid-Books-Latin-English/dp/0865164215 ) and the Vulgate (a quick search gave me this: https://www.amazon.com/Vulgate-Old-Testament-Reader/dp/1593332157 ). Vergil is going to be more complicated though, so if you go for Classical Latin, as others have suggested, go with Caesar's Gallic Wars.
For fairy tales, I recommend the following:
For mythology and classical studies, there are a couple that are basically required reading for any Mythology or Classics class. Since several people have already recommended anthologies of Greek myths, I'm going to err more on the "Classics" side of the conversation:
There's some interesting reading in Literary Theory: An Anthology.
I suggest this.
Everything I would advise against in poetry you use in this piece.
If you can't find a creative writing class to take, check this out: http://www.amazon.com/Palm-Your-Hand-Portable-Workshop/dp/0884481492
The Norton Anthology isn't something I'd rush to get my hands on--it's about 2000p. of size 4font...
Maybe try this one? Used it at undergrad level in an intro course and it's pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Literary-Theory-Anthology-Julie-Rivkin/dp/1405106964