/lit/ General
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Pyotr Mihalitch rode along the bank of the pond and looked mournfully into the water. And thinking about his life, he came to the conclusion that he had never said or acted upon what he really thought, and that other people had repaid him in the same way. And so the whole of life seemed to him as dark as this water in which the night sky was reflected and water-weeds grew in a tangle. And it seemed to him that nothing could ever set it right.
― Anton Chekhov
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@EzraPound I’ve had it on my shelf for a while but have been told it’s a bit of a slog. How does Gogol compare to Dostoevsky?
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Hi @Adonis the Magic Mountain is for sure a Peaterian work. From pages 42-43 Vintage Classic Edition:
*There were pots of marmalade and honey, basins of rice and oatmeal porridge, dishes of cold meat and scrambled eggs; a plentitude of butter, a Gruyere cheese dropping moisture under a glass bell. A bowl of fresh and dried fruits stood in the centre of the table... He began eating rice with cinnamon and sugar...
Opposite him there had sat for a short time a very lean, light-blonde girl who emptied a bottle of yogurt on her plate, ladled it up with a spoon, and took herself off... She complained of relaxation. "I feel so relaxed", she said with a drawl and an underbred, affected manned. And she had 99.1F when she got up that morning - what was she likely to have by afternoon? The dressmaker confessed to the same temprature, but she on the contrary felt excited, tense, and restless, as though some important event were about to happen, which was certainly not the case; the excitation was purely physical, quite without emotional grounds.*
This reads like Ray Peat propaganda. -
There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation.
- Simone de Beauvoir.
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The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.
― Robert E. Lee.To the meaningless French idealisms: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, we propose the three German realities: Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery.
― Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow. -
I stick my finger in existence — it smells of nothing. Where am I? Who am I? How came I here? What is this thing called the world? What does this world mean? Who is it that has lured me into the world? Why was I not consulted, why not made acquainted with its manners and customs instead of throwing me into the ranks, as if I had been bought by a kidnapper, a dealer in souls? How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am to be compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I should like to make a remark to him. Is there no director? Whither shall I turn with my complaint?
- Søren Kierkegaard
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@Hitler anybody have a recommendation for a high-energy, metabolism-boosting novel? I just finished Inherent Vice (would recommend) and would like a break from Pynchon.
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@aristotle I find Pynchon's writing confusing and weak. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page is a delight that you migh try.
You can also always read Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer
In which ever way a man may have failed, he cannot have lost much - Schopenhauer.Put yourself on fire for peak energy metabolism.
Ignore, judge, overcommit.
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New Years resolution from the German saint.
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Alexander Dugin - 4th Political Theory
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I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of “Women’s Rights,” with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to “unsex” themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.
― Queen Victoria. -
@aristotle Pynchon fucks
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@Norwegian-Mugabe I’ve added Ebenezer to my list, thanks for the recommendation
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I urge all white people in this era to look into the mirror and to ask themselves, “What do you know about what you are?” And if you don’t know enough, put your hand on that mirror, and move towards greater knowledge of what you can become.
- Jonathan Bowden.
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Just read the State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin. Great read to understand the concept of the state in communist theory. Goes in on the anarchists and social democrat strains that took hold of Europe. He had to leave the manuscript behind in Switzerland because he was returning to Russia, and it would have been destroyed. Then after leading the February Revolution he got to finish it, and it was published in May of 1918. Lots of interesting insights in his ideas in this book, and it's clearly written for a general audience, as not all his articles are.
I've been reading a lot of Lenin lately. It's incredible how he started writing this book and mentions in the preface "well there was a brief break in writing this since revolutions are a lot more exciting"
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@Norwegian-Mugabe Have you read Genanse og Verdighet? Dag Solstad.
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@Inzil No, I have not read Solstad. I know that he read Proust every summer for 20 years. Fosse and Haugland are almost the only contemporary Norwegian writers that I have read. Out Stealing Horses is a novel I can reccomend.
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@Hitler Is there a particular translation that is recommended? Been meaning to read Dostoevsky for years but get caught up on trying to find a good translation.
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dumb question to ask of people who are probably monolingual (and even have trouble with English)
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@Hitler Is this how Yank brains work? You have a friend that has a friend that once read the back of a book so you recommend it?
