Ancient Literature Discussion (History, Myth, Philosophy &c.)

[Christemo]

Its a fictional book from the 14th century, yeah.

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Also note that the warning in Paradiso that you probably shouldn't continue if you're unfamiliar with theology is not unwarranted, it is some heavy shit. Not unreadable of course, but some parts will have you tilt your head and go "bwuh?"

[Strife ❤️]

Lets allow anything made before 1776

[Christemo]

Lets allow anything made before 1776

The end of history is roughly there I agree, though it does lose us any chance to talk about Jekyll&Hyde, a tragic loss but one for the cause.

[SeiKeo]

Lets allow anything made before 1776

Well thread over then unless you want to just talk about Paradise Lost because really what else is there

[Christemo]

Well thread over then unless you want to just talk about Paradise Lost because really what else is there

Im sorry your nation has nothing interesting about it historically, would you like some lemon juice for the papercut?

[SeiKeo]

Im sorry your nation has nothing interesting about it historically, would you like some lemon juice for the papercut?

this isn't usa salt, this is me dissing everything that isn't milton

[Christemo]

Im sorry for your cripplingly poor taste.

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To get back on topic, Kirby you seem pretty well read in chinese literature so I have a question; Tao Te Ching is on my to-read list and I was wondering if you could give me any recommendations on it or anything similar?

[Kirby]

you seem pretty well read in chinese literature

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay, but when I said most of my knowledge of Chinese history/myth/legend came from literal Chinese children's cartoons, I was being completely serious. Like, I don't really know much outside Journey to the West, Lotus Lantern, and Three Kingdoms, and the occasional proverb stories. Hell, I never even read or watched Dream of the Red Chamber, even if it's one of the four classics. So I'm not actually good to turn to for this sorta thing

[Christemo]

Oh ok, you actually had me fooled then :P So no Tao Te Ching rec??

[Kirby]

I literally had no idea what that was until I looked it up on Wikipedia like a minute ago. Basically, at best I can rec you Journey to the West and Three Kingdoms, but those are already super famous anyway

[Five_X]

ITT: Christemo's pretentious lit discussion

[Cruor]

Lets allow anything made before 1776

For mythological/theological stuff you have Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, Goethe's Faust, Once and Future King. some of Faulkner's shit, and Fear and Trembling off the top of my head.

If you want philosophy in general you kinda missed out on a lot.

[Kirby]

Do we have a philosophy thread, yet? I guess we could expand this to include that if there's interest in it

[GundamFSN]

Philosophy is great too like Jungian, Plato, Descartes, etc.

I'm gonna stay in this thread from now on.

[Cruor]

I don't think I even wanna see excepts of the Critique of Pure Reason.

But yeah, Seika/Strife/anyone what are some good Vulgate Cycle tls or whatever? And what Cycle is it best to try and find as far as Celtic myth goes?

[Leftovers]

Do we have a philosophy thread, yet? I guess we could expand this to include that if there's interest in it

yeh

[Cruor]

Oh god.

I remember that. Those threads were pretty much all created because the American election thread.

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Actually, looking it up, it seems by this time in 2011 we already had an American 2012 Election thread. Leo, stop keeping that stuff in the News Thread!

[SeiKeo]

Yeah uh no this election is fucking god awful and I have no desire to discuss it.

[Cruor]

But you wrote such an informative post about all the people running and intereted in running!

[Seika]

But yeah, Seika/Strife/anyone what are some good Vulgate Cycle tls or whatever? And what Cycle is it best to try and find as far as Celtic myth goes?

As far as Welsh stuff goes, I have Sioned Davies' translation of the Mabinogion, which serves me well, and went full academic in getting Rachel Bromwich's Trioedd Ynys Prydein (which is heavy, expensive, has a scholarly focus and isn't terribly interesting just to sit down and read, but has some very useful parts to it).

For the Morte, I use this site because I'm fussy about reading unaltered text and have a certain facility for Middle English. For something with at least a glossary, I found a rather good edition (with some useful textual notes) in Waterstones a couple of days ago, which I think is this one.

In terms of any Latin Arthurian stuff, I dunno. I use translations because I can more easily skim read them to find passages and details I want, but then I switch over to the source text. Means I don't really have to care about translation quality, because it's served its purpose as long as the details are at least vaguely conveyed at some point.