(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best american literature criticism books

Don't take that the wrong way, and definitely don't bail on Bone & Ink. I was just saying that 'success' as a writer is hard to measure, but any real amount of it involves much larger audiences. Few people are successful in that way quickly, it takes time to get used to both writing and publishing. Poetry is in a unique place because it sort of walks point for the nation in many ways. One of the main goals of poetry is surprise, and because the white male perspective has been the defacto voice of educated literati for some time, the fertility of new perspectives provides unique interpretations of the world... or, poetry's all about looking at both the macro and the micro with various lenses... sorry to point to something so common, but Wallace Stevens' 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird really is a good way to think of perspective's role in poetry. And to illustrate how different lenses can greatly impact the picture shown.

I mean, my journal acceptances mean next-to-nothing (at least to hiring boards) and I've had well over 100 in some good journals. Don't get caught up on success, is the point. But you should definitely be proud of your accomplishments so far. It's a very good start.

As far as Red Dashboard, it depends. If you're super confident in the poems you could try contacting them and say you've had a change of heart and want to work on the poems more before they're published (never a bad idea), or that you want to publish more of the individual poems first, whatever. Also, you could just dust your hands off and get working harder on more poems. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the book a vanity press publishes, it's the lack of peer review that allows the bad in with the good. If you are happy with what you've sent, work with them to make it the best it can be and buy a bunch of copies for yourself and to sell if you do any readings or anything, but don't expect them to do much with it. You're the PR person when it comes even to a lot of normal small presses.

Going forward the biggest thing I can recommend is to read as much as you can. And only some classic stuff, at least half or more should be literary journals and anthologies of stuff from the last few decades. Read as much as you can and while you're reading, take notes, not like study notes, but when something sticks out underline it or better yet, start a google doc file and type/copy in bits you like with the poet's name and the poem title. I also highly recommend classes. You need to approach them with the right frame of mind, but if you do they can be invaluable. Even adult school/community college classes. A workshop allows you direct feedback from readers who are also writers, often not sugarcoated how others might. You have to understand that your words aren't the golden record of communication and some parts may be unclear to readers who only have the words on the page and their own (often very different from your own) life experience. Because it's easy for young writers to forget that poetry and language in general is a contrivance invented to express our understanding and observations of the world with others in as universally understandable way as possible. It doesn't matter what you mean by words if the reader cannot reach that meaning with the key (words in the poem) that you've given them. Abstractions (non-physical things like love, many, smelly etc) are different to everyone and therefore should be used with caution. But mainly, take all comments with a grain of salt. Take the time to get as out of your own headspace as possible (detach yourself from ownership/creatorship of the piece) and objectively analyse if the change would make the piece better, or, sometimes they'll have a point with making an objection while you want to solve it in an alternative way.

Sorry, I'm meandering a bit because I'm writing this in snippets while working. Here are a couple recommendations that I really think will help:

1. Buy used books. Poets end up owning a lot of books. If money's no issue, go ham, especially on poets' individual collections because that actually affects them personally. But even then, for older books and anthologies, def go used, it's often like 80% or more cheaper, especially for poetry books.
   
   Poetry 180 is a free website with 180 accessible and very good poems. I usually point young writers there because it's almost entirely contemporary work, and it's easy to read and understand without sacrificing quality of writing. And it's relatively ecclectic. Not too much of the 'MFA' poems as I take you to mean. Billy Collins was the US Poet Laureate when he began the project and it's still rolling today. He's a good writer to check out too, and he's all over the internet. But, old white guy perspective trigger warning. haha.
   
   In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop Buy this used for $5.14 with shipping. You won't regret it. It's kinda a DIY poetry workshop. It has themed sections and many poems to illustrate its craft points. Steve Kowit was an amazing poet and teacher and he's sadly missed. Also it's very accessible. Kowit was pretty core in the 'school' of poetry with many names, including "ultra-talk" "stand-up poetry" and a bunch of others, but basically, they use colloquial, often straightforward language and often include elements of humor and pop culture. If that sounds up your alley I cannot more highly recommend the anthology Stand Up Poetry: An Expanded Anthology edited by Charles Harper Webb. It's definitely one of my favorite anthologies. It's a little more expensive at $8.75 with shipping (these quotes may be slightly dif to CAN, but it should be close), but absolutely worth it.
   
   The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux. Bother are tremendous poets and their work on this anthology is really really insightful and helpful for young poets. It was for me. This one is about $8.
   
   If you buy those three anthologies for a total of like $23US, and you read them and try the suggested exercises I can all but guarantee you'll become a better poet. Of course there are millions of ways to progress your poetry, I'd never claim this is the only or the absolute best way, but it will definitely improve your writing in a way that just aimless reading and writing will not.
   
   As for publishing, Duotrope is amazing, but has a subscription fee so for the moment you can do most research at free places. I recommend
   
   The Review Review (reviews of journals, lists, interviews with editors and articles regarding publishing)
   
   New Pages (see desc. of TRR)
   
   and
   
   Poets and Writers (great craft articles, a decent journal database and a great contest calendar)
   
   And... don't be afraid of rejection. Even continued rejection. I have pieces that have been rejected upwards of 30 times get accepted at journals much more prestigious than a lot of journals that had already rejected it. Poetry is highly subjective (though, there are metrics, standards of craft that all poems are measured against before subjectivity really comes into play). Reading poetry, even, can be subjective. I once accidentally resubmitted the same poem to a journal 5 years after it had been rejected and it was accepted the second time with very little in way of changes. So yeah, you have to get your writing to a certain place, but once you're beyond that, it's largely a numbers game that you get better and better at managing as you become more intimately familiar with journals and your writing gains nuance and you feel more comfortable in your voice.
   
   If you have any more questions or need more recommendations let me know, always trying to help young poets find their path. I know my own path would've been much different with some earlier direction, but I'm very grateful for what I received eventually.

So far:

1. Odd Type Writers: From Joyce and Dickens to Wharton and Welty, the Obsessive Habits and Quirky Techniques of Great Authors by Celia Blue Johnson
   
2. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
   
3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
   
4. The Stuff of Though: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker
   
5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
   
   I believe that's it, currently I'm reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy as well as Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.

Well first and foremost, the "Axis" that you referred to is not a monolithic entity, but rather, an alliance of world powers with their own vested interests, their own reasons for war, and their own justifications for military expansionism. So judging from how your question is framed, by "Axis" you seem to be referring specifically to Germany, but I will attempt to unpack your answer in as nuanced and comprehensive way as possible.

Many in the Japanese military saw the expansion of their empire as a means of becoming a modern state in the eyes of the world, on par with great European powers at the time. Furthermore, Japanese framed the rhetoric of this expansion within a dialogue of "Pan-Asianism", and the protection of Asian interests from white imperial powers in the West (namely Britain and the United States). Many Asian countries, be it the Philippines, China, Thailand, etc. had a long history of both military and economic subjugation at the hands of European and American imperialism. In this regard, the Japanese fighting allied troops in the pacific did not see themselves as agents of genocide, but rather, as protectors of a sort of paternalistic guidance of Asian independence and progression, with conveniently, Japan as the father figure protecting their fellow Asian "wards" within that paternalistic setting.

In regards to Germany, I think it is instructive for us to use an approach similar to Mary Renda's in her account of the U.S occupation of Haiti by asking the question: How does one imagine themselves when they pull the trigger of a gun? Again, engaging directly to your question, is it likely that the common German soldier saw himself as a vessel of genocide? Or, is it more likely that the background of the soldier in a prewar context (their class, their regional identity, their experiences with Jews before the war, the relationship to economic depression and recovery, etc.) shaped their attitudes and motivations going into the war? Some surely did see themselves as actors in the genetic purification of the German race, however, I would postulate that these were the minority of soldiers. Some saw themselves as restoring the glory of the German empire. However, as [Stephen Fritz] (http://www.amazon.com/Frontsoldaten-German-Soldier-World-War/dp/0813109434/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413870497&sr=1-4&keywords=german+soldiers+of+world+war+two) suggests, many others saw themselves upholding the less sinister values of National Socialism against the forces of communism and capitalism. National Socialism was more than just the idea of ethnic purity. We have to remember the context of post WWI German society; its political unrest of the Weimar Republic and its economic hardships. The soldiers of Germany experienced this context, it memory was palpable and vivid, and thus, many saw the country's renewed glory as intrinsically connected to the class, economic and political ideologies of National Socialism.

I do not have a comprehensive background in Italian history or Italian fascism, so I won't attempt to postulate on the motivations of soldiers in that context. However, I would just like to end by cautioning you of the approach that leads to questions like this. What you are doing is taking a presentist mindset, the knowledge and context of the present and imposing it on your inquiry of the past. In so doing, you devoid the subjects of your presentist thinking of their historical contexts, and in turn, pass judgment onto these historical actors and ascribe motivations that were either nominal or secondary to their lives and beliefs. This is not an attack on you, or, an attempt to scold you in an academic sense. Rather, it is simply an attempt to illuminate some the fallacies that everyone (including professional historians) bring with them that shape their historical scholarship. In the future, try to refine your inquires by identifying possibly presentist ideas and analysis. Again, I don't want this to seem like an attack, I am glad you are attempting to think about the motivations of the other in a historical context.

I hope this answer shed some light on your question and the historical contexts the shaped the more forgotten actors of the Second World War.

Further Reading:

[Japan at War] (http://www.amazon.com/Japan-War-An-Oral-History/dp/1565840399/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XVS7YD9VBYY91RB6N5B)

[The Programme of NSDAP] (http://www.amazon.com/Programme-Nsdap-Gottfried-Feder/dp/1908476885/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413871347&sr=1-11&keywords=national+socialism)

[Japan's Total Empire] (http://www.amazon.com/Japans-Total-Empire-Manchuria-Imperialism/dp/0520219341/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413871476&sr=1-8&keywords=japanese+imperialism)

EDIT: Spelling and formatting and junk.

Well, my parents gave me this collection when I was 14. It's pretty cool, but some of the stories get pretty dark.

Evan Hughes, the author, is my cousin-in-law. I'm really proud of him, and loved this article. If you want more in the same vein, you should check out his book.

As a man i choose this one which i will give either to my mother or my sister cosimc vomit
for item of choosing i have choosen books so they may sharpen and make my mind as bright as the stars so i am be a light amongst the world just like stars are the only light in the darkness of space. So To infinity and beyond!

do andoirds dream of electric sheep

lifes a pitch

What They Don't Teach You At Harvard

what they dont teach you at hardvard

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Autobiography of Malcolm X

Mastery

Ugh. I wish I had done college differently. I would have studied linguistics. Here’s another of my favorites: a good book

This is one of my favorite periods. Read the following:

Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West by Dale Morgan

The Course of Empire by Bernard DeVoto

Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto

1846 the Year of Decision by Bernard DeVoto

The above are all great books written in the early 20th Century

Three source material must-reads are

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

I can't remember any contemporary books that stand out right now but I'll look through my books at home.

I think you should start with House of Leaves. I was already a huge fan of experimental lit when this came out but this blew most things before and after it out of the water.

You should also add this to your list. It deserves a spot for sure

https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Albion-Moonlight-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811201449/

The textbook we used as indo-european students in Copenhagen was Deshpande's along with Mayrhofer's small historical grammar for diachronic purposes. That book is a didactic masterpiece. https://www.amazon.com/Sanskrit-Grammar-Manfred-Mayrhofer/dp/0817312854

What a cool project! I think you might find some useful information in Philip Gura's Truth's Ragged Edge, which revisits some of nineteenth-century America's most popular novels. You'll find that his focus is mostly on periods earlier than yours, but you still might find it work a look.

I took a course on Ralph Ellison and I highly recommend all of his work, even the incomplete Juneteenth. My professor for this course also wrote http://www.amazon.com/Wrestling-Left-Making-Ellison-Invisible/dp/0822348292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323027498&sr=8-1 . Further reading if it interests you.

Some of my favorites that's relevant to this subreddit:

• Jack London - Call of the wild
  
  
• Thoreau - Walden
  
  
• Knut Hamsun - Pan & Growth of the soil (He won the Nobel prize in litterature for the latter one)
  
  
  
  
• Pentti Linkola - Can life prevail? http://www.amazon.com/Can-Life-Prevail-Pentti-Linkola/dp/1907166009
  
  
  
  
• Ted Kaczynski - Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. The Unabomber http://www.amazon.com/Technological-Slavery-Collected-k-ebook/dp/B003XRDBMG
  
  
  
  
  
• John Zerzan: Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization http://www.amazon.com/Running-Emptiness-Pathology-Civilization-ebook/dp/B001YQFXGU
  
  
  
  
• My Norwegian boy scout manual.
  
  
  
  
• Ernest Callenbach - Ecotopia http://www.amazon.com/Ecotopia-ebook/dp/B0030P1WN6/
  
  
  
  
• John Seymour - The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It http://www.amazon.com/The-Self-Sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0756654505
  
  
  Check them out:)

There are a number of books with this premise and I am sure there are more than this. If you enjoy reading, you might find some of these interesting. In particular, I love The Chrestomanci series and my dad read a whole series about various ones, but I can't remember the title.

EDIT: Possibly Lion's Blood although he was uncertain

Nnedi Okrafor-Mbachu is a Nigerian-American sf author (born in America to Nigerian parents, regularly travels to Nigeria).

The Dark Matter series primarily features stories by people of colour from developed countries, as far as I can tell, though you might consider contacting some of the authors involved and asking them for recommendations.

Similarly, getting in touch with some of the people from the Carl Brandon society might be helpful.

This is also well worth a read.

The Teachings of Don Juan is a book that is similar and enjoyable.

I keep a copy of Song of Myself by Walt Whitman on my nightstand. It's poetry, philosophy and spirituality all in one little book. Every time I read it I'm blown away by Whitman's breadth of vision.

I would like to echo the recommendations of Epictetus, who was the teacher of Marcus Aurelius. He wrote no books, but we have two sayings collections written by a student, the Discourses and the Enchiridion (or Handbook); the Enchiridion is just a digest of the Discourses, but includes sayings from the portions that haven't survived.

One modern philosopher who often wrote in a similar format—brief personal reflections in no particular sequence—is Eric Hoffer, an autodidact who wrote philosophy in his spare time while working as a longshoreman. Check out The Passionate State of Mind.

The Book of Weird notes that Wizards are almost childishly fond of disguises - especially the part where they get to dramatically cast them off.