Reddit mentions: The best poetry books

We found 1,904 Reddit comments discussing the best poetry books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 802 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

1. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition)

    Features:
  • W W Norton Company
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition)
Specs:
ColorBlack
Height8.3 Inches
Length6.1 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateFebruary 2001
Weight0.6 Pounds
Width0.7 Inches
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2. The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition

The Essential Rumi
The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition
Specs:
ColorRed
Height8 Inches
Length5.31 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateMay 2004
Weight0.96 Pounds
Width0.94 Inches
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4. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer

    Features:
  • Harper Perennial
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer
Specs:
Height0.68 Inches
Length9.04 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateAugust 1983
Weight0.61 Pounds
Width6.08 Inches
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5. The Golden Age (The Golden Age (1))

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  • Used Book in Good Condition
The Golden Age (The Golden Age (1))
Specs:
Height8 Inches
Length5 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateApril 2002
Weight0.98987555638 Pounds
Width0.93 Inches
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7. The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa (Essential Poets)

haikuBasho, Buson, Issa haiku
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa (Essential Poets)
Specs:
Height7.5 Inches
Length5.25 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateAugust 1995
Weight0.67 Pounds
Width0.88 Inches
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8. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times

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Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times
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Height8.5 Inches
Length5.5 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateApril 2003
Weight1.23 Pounds
Width0 Inches
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9. 100 Best-Loved Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

    Features:
  • Dover Publications
100 Best-Loved Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
Specs:
ColorMulticolor
Height7.8 Inches
Length5 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateOctober 1995
Weight0.2 Pounds
Width0.3 Inches
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10. Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont

    Features:
  • Harper Perennial
Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont
Specs:
Height7.98 Inches
Length6.21 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateApril 2010
Weight1.14199451716 Pounds
Width1.07 Inches
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11. A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry

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  • Mariner Books
A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry
Specs:
Height1 Inches
Length9 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateApril 1998
Weight0.85 Pounds
Width5.9 Inches
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12. The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics)

Penguin Classics
The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics)
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ColorMulticolor
Height7.8 Inches
Length5.1 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateDecember 2007
Weight0.49383546688 Pounds
Width0.7 Inches
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13. Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)

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  • HarperCollins Publishers
Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)
Specs:
Height8 Inches
Length5.31 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateSeptember 2006
Weight0.25 Pounds
Width0.32 Inches
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14. Cultivating the Mind of Love

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  • Used Book in Good Condition
Cultivating the Mind of Love
Specs:
ColorMulticolor
Height8 inches
Length5.25 inches
Number of items1
Release dateFebruary 2004
Weight0.31305641204 pounds
Width0.33 inches
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15. Staying Alive Real Poems for Unreal Times

BLOODAXE BOOKS
Staying Alive Real Poems for Unreal Times
Specs:
Height8.50392 Inches
Length5.5118 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateJune 2002
Weight1.3 Pounds
Width1.1098403 Inches
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16. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1: Modern Poetry

The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1: Modern Poetry
Specs:
Height9.3 Inches
Length6 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateJanuary 2003
Weight2.01 Pounds
Width1.3 Inches
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18. The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic

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  • Used Book in Good Condition
The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic
Specs:
Height8.1098263 Inches
Length5.6901461 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateMay 2004
Weight1.25 Pounds
Width1.2748006 Inches
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19. The Giant Book of Poetry: The Complete Audio Edition

NewMint ConditionDispatch same day for order received before 12 noonGuaranteed packagingNo quibbles returns
The Giant Book of Poetry: The Complete Audio Edition
Specs:
Height8.88 Inches
Length6.11 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateApril 2006
Weight2.22887346882 Pounds
Width1.93 Inches
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20. Love is a Dog From Hell

Ecco Press
Love is a Dog From Hell
Specs:
Height8.94 inches
Length5.88 inches
Number of items1
Release dateMay 2002
Weight0.7495716908 Pounds
Width0.78 inches
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🎓 Reddit experts on poetry books

The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where poetry books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Total score: 312
Number of comments: 142
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 162
Number of comments: 25
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Total score: 125
Number of comments: 56
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Number of comments: 7
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Number of comments: 11
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Number of comments: 14
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Total score: 10
Number of comments: 8
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Total score: 6
Number of comments: 6
Relevant subreddits: 1

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Top Reddit comments about Poetry:

u/zebulonworkshops · 5 pointsr/Poetry

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

​

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!

u/Mithalanis · 4 pointsr/writing

If you really have no idea where to start, anthologies can easily become your best friend. There are many, many out there, but the idea is that you will have a large selection of stories by different authors who can give you quick exposure to different styles, themes, techniques, etc. Then, when you find an author you enjoy / want to learn more from, you can go looking for them. This will also let you dive into different genres quickly and give you starting points. As for what genres: read everything. And I don't mean everything as in "Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, etc etc" - I mean read fiction (both short stories and novels), essays, and poetry. Even if you have no interest in writing poetry, for example, it can teach you more about how language sounds and how it can affect speed of reading than many pieces of fiction can ever hope to do.

As to how to read: read carefully and closely. Don't rush through it. You're not necessarily reading for pleasure any more (though you still can - consider reading stuff that really hits you twice or more). How does the story arc go? How does the author create a sense of each character? How does his sentences make you read faster or slower? What details doesn't he say? See how the story works as a whole, and on a sentence by sentence level. (This is assuming fiction - reading poetry means focusing on line breaks, imagery, the sound of language, how do the line breaks affect how fast the eye reads.) It takes a lot of work, but it gets easier the more you do it.

A few suggestions:

Fiction:

You could try the "Best American Short Stories" series that is put out every year. It will give you a good thirty or so stories that are considered exceptional from small print journals from the corresponding year. I've found a lot of amazing writers in them. I also suggest The Best American Short Stories of the Century. I also recommend listening to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast as a way to find new authors - when you find a story you enjoy, track down the written version and tear it apart, and certainly read other works by the same author.

Essays:

Again, a nice easy lead in that I've found is the "Best American Essays" series. Same as before: each year, some thirty or so essays from small journals from that year. Maybe not the most wide-ranging sample, as it focuses on American writing, but there is always a surprising breadth of voices and subject matter in them. There are also a ton of essay anthologies, but I haven't gone through any of them completely enough to make a suggestion.

Poetry:

If you have a decent amount of money to throw away, I'd recommend the Norton Anthology set on modern and contemporary poetry. Volume 1 focus on modernism, and Volume 2 focus on contemporary. They have such a huge collection of different poets that there is something in there for everyone, and can set you off chasing down other poets easily. If you are also rolling in money, you might like Strong Measures, which examines a wide swath of formal poetry, but probably doesn't have much use outside of poets wanting to learn about specific forms. Otherwise, there's The Poetry Foundation where you can listen to a monthly podcast that might turn you on to some different poets, as well as a huge resource of free poetry and essays about poetry.

u/_lordgrey · 7 pointsr/writing

Hey VA. Awesome question. In my opinion, the best thing you can do to improve your writing is read voraciously. A lot of people say, read "hard" books above your ability, but I think truly hard reading is reading stuff outside the bounds of what you normally read. For instance, if you love SF/Fantasy novels, read some literary fiction. If you're into pulp romance novels, read some fan fiction.


It also helps to think about what you mean by improved writing, because a lot of the most beautiful, exquisite novels don't do well commercially with a few rare exceptions, like Thomas Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow is notorious for being almost unreadable; a Dostoyevsky novel is considered some of the most elite literature in the world, yet to me, it's unreadable. I feel the same way about Tolkein's books. Tolkein was writing to document his languages. He was a very 'correct' English writer, but stylistically I find him very dull.


Immediate writers who can craft a vivid world and story are my favorite. Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Tom Robbins are all great novelists with a very specific style. You gotta just devour writing of all kinds.


I also find that reading and writing poetry has crafted my understanding of precise, sexy word choice and pacing tremendously. Check out The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. A lot of these poems are from the beat generation era writers, who struggled with exactly what you're talking about, growing up in that 1950's mentality which was very repressive.


Finally, you have your own lifestyle. The best writing tends to be the most honest and direct experience of the writer. Consider what a personal revolution would be to you, what you intensely love, the things you wish for but are afraid to do. Honestly, if you want to approach the highest level of writing, go do some of those things. Or at least fantasize about doing them in your writing. A great example is Samuel R. Delany - he is a very gay, african american writer who grew up repressed by society from every side, but he also had a really wild sex life, and he was able to use those details in his writing. It isn't smut, but he knows smut. It isn't racist, or the kind of bitter, woe-is-me writing that a lot of minorities or subcultures can't escape - but it's informed by that narrative, as well as the counter-narrative of affluent white people who don't even think in those terms. So reading a Delany novel (most of which are Sci Fi novels) is an intense experience. I get so much value from those books, because he's taken the time to really go into these issues that, being gay and black, he can't ignore. If you can start thinking in these terms, you can start making literature on a really high level. It doesn't matter how exquisite your vocabulary is, or how complex your plot structures are - it just matters how you see and interact with the world, your world, and how immersively you can bring us into that world.

u/CaptainBananaFish · 3 pointsr/Poetry

There's the Giant Book of Poetry which is over 700 pages and basically spans all of written history (from years BC to poets born in the 1980's). There's bound to be something you like in there.

There's also The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry (vintage here refers to the publisher, in case you were thinking "vintage" and "contemporary" were contradictory lol). This book has a wide variety of poets that might be lesser known since they aren't American, but still includes some well loved poets including Pablo Neruda and Seamus Heaney. This is a great one too.

I've recommended this a few times on here but there is also the Best American Poetry Series. It comes out every year. Basically, a prominent poet is chosen as the editor each year and they choose the best (totally subjective, but still) poems that were published in literary magazines that year. While it's limited to American poets, it provides a huge variety of poets both established and emerging. Also, it comes out every year, so that's pretty awesome too. The most recent one is Best American Poetry 2013 whish was edited by one of my favorite poets, Denise Duhamel. Totally recommend it. Good luck, hope this was helpful!

u/jespada1 · 2 pointsr/Buddhism

I've been reading Thich Nhat Hanh's Peaceful Action, Open Heart, which is wonderful, concurrently with A Guide to the Threefold Lotus Sutra, by Nikkyo Niwano, that gives a concise overview of each chapter. It also helps to have an introduction, in the form of a talk or short articles. There's a short chapter in Cultivating the Mind of Love on this Sutra.

I was at a retreat with TNH in the 1990's where he spoke about the Avatamsaka and Lotus Sutras, that's since been issued by Sounds True as The Ultimate Dimension.

Most of the talks were on the foundational practices for entering into the kinds of experiences described in these Sutras, and I found that his framing them in this way actually made them accessible. Remarkable!

These are good places to start.

As Thay said in his commentary, these are not so much works to be studied with the rational part of ourselves as they are to be received as inspired poetry, lived with and enjoyed. Then meaning of these sutras and the truth they speak of can reveal themselves to us gradually.

He says, in the beginning of The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching:

“When we hear a Dharma talk or study a sutra, our only job is to remain open. Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing. If we read or listen with an open mind and an open heart, the rain of the Dharma will penetrate the soil of our consciousness.

“The gentle spring rain permeates the soil of my soul.
A seed has lain deeply in the earth for many years just smiles.

“When reading or listening, don’t work too hard. Be like the earth. When the rain comes, the earth only has to open herself up to the rain. Allow the rain of the Dharma to come in and penetrate the seeds that are buried deep in your consciousness.

“A teacher cannot give you the truth. The truth is already in you. You only need to open yourself - body, mind, and heart - so that his or her teachings will penetrate your own seeds of understanding and enlightenment. If you let the words enter you, the soil and the seeds will do the rest of the work.”

Best wishes to you in your practice.

u/miserygrump · 9 pointsr/books

Here are my recommendations, in no particular order:

  • The Kalevala - An epic poem from Finland, so not Norse, but that shouldn't dissuade you from reading it.

  • Beowulf - The great Old English epic, I'm a particular fan of the translation I have linked as it is a bilingual edition that also contains solid modern English verse.

  • The Heimskringla - Snorri Sturluson, one of the best known Norse chroniclers wrote this history of the Norse kings. An ok online translation can be found here.

  • The Vinland Sagas - Less myth more history (in the sense that Heroditus or Livy is history, rather than a modern academic text), this book recounts the discovery of North America by Erik the Red and his son, Leif.

    As for the Bible and Koran, well, perhaps some of the early myths which snuck into Jewish lore, and by extension the Bible and Koran, may be of interest to you:

  • Myths from Mesopotamia - Translated by Stephanie Dalley, this is a good selection of myths ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to things like the Anzu and the Epic of Creation.


    Additionally, if you're interested in folklore, and analysis of folklore, then looking to Russia is a very good idea:

  • An Introduction to the Russian Folktale - A very good book that draws on the work Alexander Afanasyev did in the 19th century compiling slavic folklore.

  • Morphology of the Folktale - Vladimir's Propp excellent study of the elements that make up folklore and of the mythic structure. Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces drew very heavily on this.
u/Daedalus18 · 5 pointsr/AskLiteraryStudies
  1. The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry 1 -

    This book is heavy, so it doubles as a brick for smashing in the windows of capitalist bourgeois pigs. Reading it is like taking a shot of tabasco sauce and injecting it into your eye with a hypodermic needle.

  2. Surrealist Poetry in English 2 -

    I had to buy this one on ebay, but it's a damn fine collection. Makes me want to hand out LSD-laced lollypops to schoolkids, then piss on the grave of H.W. Longfellow.

  3. Norton Anthology of Modern & Contemporary Poetry 3 -

    These two have all the good ones of the 20th century, a clean layout, and a fine selection. Good for reading beneath a tree in the autumn, in a graveyard.

  4. Penguin Anthology 4 -

    It's edited by Rita Dove, so you know this collection has good taste. The poems are from a wide spread of poetry movements, but personally, I find a lot of the pieces in it to be a little too 'delicate'. But very good for reading naked in bed, while softly stroking the hair of your sleeping lover.

  5. English Romantic Poetry 5 -

    Got all the biggies like Byron, Shelly and Keats. I fuckin love Keats. This book is a great introduction to 19th century poetry. This is good for reading on a bus while driving past a field of flowers on a humid summer evening with the windows open, reminiscing about your high school crush.
u/kaitlinrls · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Happy happy cake day! And thanks for this contest! I had a lot of fun doing this!

  1. Candy can be a cake replacement sometimes if its this big :)
  2. Don't have anything Simon Pegg related, sorry.
  3. My favorite, poetry!
  4. I already have some so they aren't on my wishlist :(
  5. The most comfortable animal thing EVER
  6. My favorite shade of purple
  7. This is kinda like a game.....
  8. ummm none on my wishlist already
  9. Its surprisingly very helpful
  10. Best. Things. Ever.
  11. Helps organize my nail polish collection!
  12. All day 'evry day
  13. Closest thing I could find on my wishlist
  14. Natural beauties
  15. More like a blue-green but its still one of my favorites
  16. My lips would love to wear these!
  17. Found these on someone elses wishlist and bursted out laughing!
  18. Nothing:/
  19. I have always wanted one of these things
    20.It's cheap and it smells like heaven!
u/thejlar · 1 pointr/criterion

Thanks for your analysis. I definitely understand what you're saying about the subconscious/surreal element, and I guess I can see where you find a personal honesty in his films, but I don't know if I can agree that understanding Lynch's films can be a "very involving and rewarding process," simply because I haven't really enjoyed the physical process of watching his films.

Again, that's not to say they aren't good. I actually love works of art that are thematically similar. Sometimes shockingly so. If anyone here is a big fan of Eraserhead and is looking for something that's difficult to read, for example, check out the Comte de Lautréamont. There is one chapter in the Comte's most famous work where our (anti-)hero, Maldoror, while staying in a brothel, converses with an enormous hair follicle fallen from the scalp of God, which goes on to explain how its master enjoys coming down from on high to flay young male prostitutes alive. There is no discernible plot to the book, and the language is incredibly dense, but it is beautiful and dark and weird and grotesque. And, most importantly, so, so very difficult to understand. But worth it. As Lynch is, I'm sure.

I certainly plan on giving him more of his due down the road. Like I said, Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway are on my list of films I really ought to see. I would actually very much like to get David Lynch the way others do. To go back to a previous analogy, it's why I keep watching Steven Soderbergh films. I've wanted to catch that something that I've been missing in others' appreciations. With Soderbergh, I came to the conclusion that I simply do not like his filmmaking. (Please no one ask to explain that one.) I know I haven't given Lynch enough of a chance yet to say with finality that I won't some day "get it."

As it stands, though, I know Eraserhead is one of the more popular releases from Criterion this year, and I felt compelled to stand up for the few (Or is it just me? Just me? Okay. Just me.) who are not fans.

u/lucideus · 2 pointsr/scifi

The Golden Transcendence Trilogy, starting with "The Golden Age". It's fantastic and it saddens me more people haven't read it. Here is the Amazon review:

> The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF's golden age writers.

> The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.

> Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.

> And so Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is now a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms that are partly both, to recover his memory, and to learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. His quest is to regain his true identity.

> The Golden Age is one of the major, ambitious SF novels of the year and the international launch of an important new writer in the genre.

u/TheBaconMenace · 2 pointsr/philosophy

My first try didn't seem to go through, so here's a second.

Amazon reviews are an okay place to start. A lot of people offer helpful comments. But, as you said, getting into thinkers that appeal to other audiences outside of just philosophers gets a bit sticky. I wouldn't be so quick to denounce or dismiss the religious aspect. Keep in mind if you want to read Augustine you'll be reading a religious thinker, so he has to be translated as such. For example, you could get a more technical translation of the Confessions, or you could find one operating more in the poetic spirit of Augustine, but regardless you're going to be reading a deeply religious text. Both are good translations, and both capture something of Augustine that the other probably misses. In the end, you have to ask yourself what you want more and what fits your purposes more. Also with regard to religious thinkers, it's important to try to read them on their own terms without having made up your mind before getting into the book. Allow yourself to agree with the thinker as much as you can--get inside their heads, travel with them, dwell with them. At the end, you can make a judgement, but give them a fair trial. This is also where translations can help. Some are simply more engaging, even if they're not "word-for-word" translations. A great example of this is Coleman Barks' "translations" of the poems of Muslim mystic Rumi. He actually completely fails (intentionally so) to translate Rumi word-for-word. Instead, he tries to write a poem in English that captures the language, feeling, and ideas of Rumi himself. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's a lot nicer than just reading a book of translated poems full of footnotes and technicalities. If I'm going to write a deeply researched paper on Rumi, perhaps I should find another translation, but if I want to really learn Rumi and try to gain from his knowledge, I might want to begin with Barks.

As for other reviews, you can often find them simply by Googling. For example, here's a review on Hannay's translation of a book by Kierkegaard that is done in a professional, scholarly way. I found it on the first page of Google searching "alastair hannay translation review."

It sounds like hard work, and it is, but it's worth it.

Also, if it makes you feel any better we used Penguin editions for many of my undergraduate classes as text books.

u/[deleted] · 5 pointsr/TwoXChromosomes
  • e. e. cummings I carry your heart
  • Richard Brautigan's I was trying to describe you to someone
  • Rumi
    > May this marriage be blessed. May this marriage be as sweet as milk and honey. May this marriage be as intoxicating as old wine. May this marriage be fruitful like a date tree. May this marriage be full of laughter and everyday a paradise. May this marriage be a seal of compassion for here and hereafter. May this marriage be as welcome as the full moon in the night sky. Listen lovers, now you go on, as I become silent and kiss this blessed night.

    or this from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet:
    > Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
u/littlebutmighty · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

I've read most of those and LOVED them. I'll just say you're looking for fictional "good books" and go from there. I recommend:

  1. Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels by Scott Lynch. My favorite books of all time--and that's saying something. It's about a gang of con-artist thieves caught between their biggest heist and a powerful mage and his employer, who wants to use them as a cat's paw.

  2. Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent fantasy with a witty, resourceful, extremely intelligent protagonist. Set in two timelines, the protagonist is the only survivor of a gypsy clan that was destroyed by a powerful enemy he vows to hunt down.

  3. The Orphans of Chaos trilogy by John C. Wright. Amazingly original fantasy, with 4 paradigms of power and featuring a showdown between the Titans and Olympian gods.

  4. The Golden Age Trilogy also by John C. Wright. This is faaaaar-future sci-fi (think 1+ million years), it's extremely creative, and if anyone else had attempted to write it, it would have turned into gobbledygook.

  5. The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. This is a re-imagined Sherlock Holmes series done very well, set after his official retirement, when he meets a young woman who matches his intellect and observation skills and decides to take her on as protege.

  6. The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. Pretty great YA fantasy in which trained practitioners can move beyond the gates of death...and have to battle things that come back from beyond those gates.

  7. The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathon Stroud. I had a ball with these books when they came out. Features a snarky demon and his master.

  8. The Hungry City Chronicles by Phillip Reeve. Set in a post-apocalyptic type world where cities are mobile and move around, chasing smaller cities down across the landscape and cannibalizing them for resources.
u/Orwelian84 · 4 pointsr/scifi

Evan Currie's Odyssey One series is more military than pure space opera, but it is awesome.

The Golden Oecumene series by John C Wright is a Transhuman Space Opera of epic proportions. I highly recommend it.

Rachel Bach has a great series called Fortunes Pawn. Also a lil closer to military sci-fi but it has some nice Space Opera themes.

Joshua Dalzelle has a great series called the Black Fleet, again more military sci-fi than true space opera, but very good none the less.

The Reality Dysfunction series though, if you are looking for a meaty Space opera to lose yourself in is a must read series.

____

I almost forgot about the Manifold Series by Stephen Baxter and the Darwin's Radio series by Greg Bear. Both are phenomenal reads, and while technically they are set in the near future and aren't space opera per say, they are must reads for anyone into Sci-Fi.

u/fugee_life · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

All of the books you've mentioned would have to be read in translation which rather defeats the purpose of reading poetry.

If you really want to read a book that is a poem, I would suggest [Love, Dishonor, Marry, Cherish, Perish] (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dishonor-Marry-Cherish-Perish/dp/038553521X), a contemporary novel written entirely in Iambic Pentameter. It's sad, funny, tender and very entertaining and it's a great book.

I would also urge you to consider reading some straight-up poetry because it's beautiful and because there is so much good poetry out there both contemporary and older.

You could start with something like the Dover Thrift Poetry Anthology which is slim and inexpensive and offers a good selection of English Language poetry up until the early 1900s. Or you could look at some more contemporary stuff which is great and I'd be happy to suggest something to you along those lines if you were interested.

u/ryanmercer · 2 pointsr/witchcraft

The vast majority of the 'witchcraft' books are reconstructionist and 100% shit made up and adapted from myths and legends.

Wicca was created in 1954 and any book remotely connected to "wicca" is 100% reconstructionist, basically the opinion of the author or whoever taught them.

Some authors, Cunningham for example, are far more well respected but in the end you aren't practicing something people did 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, 10,000 years ago. If it's in a book like that it's almost certainly someone's personal folk-magic.

The exceptions to this would be stuff based on earlier sources, like Solomonic magick which mostly draws from texts like Clavicula Salomonis Regis (Lesser Key of Solomon) which is a compiled grimoire or 140 spells from the mid 1600's which may or may not be based on texts from the 1400-1500s.

Unless a book is claiming to be newly divined/gifted information but then it is absolutely someone's interpretation of magick or the alleged interpretation of spirits/entities they were contact with.

Magic(k)/witchraft/druidry/asatru isn't like Christianity where you have a documented history going back 1700 years (Counsel of Nicaea and then moving on to any particular denomination's history which may be tens of years old or 1700ish years old) where you have a documented history.

Just like organized religion, magic(k)/witchraft/whatever is something that is very personal. You adapt what works for you, you adopt what calls to you.

You want to start somewhere? Start with mythology.

u/Achilles015 · 1 pointr/Poetry

I've run a certain Haiku exercise with great success. You may need to alter the exercise to make it more accessible for your non-native speakers, but maybe you can find a way to make some or all of it work:

Start with a brief, accessible description of Haikai no Renga. Have the students pass a piece of paper around and create their own version that captures the spirit of the exercise.

Next, give a brief history on Basho and the way he morphed Linked Verse into Haiku. Go over the subtle intricacies of traditional Haiku, everything beyond the simple syllabic rules--cutting (kiru), seasonal references (kigo), etc. Have the students create their own classical haikus.

Finally, using Haiku as a base, give the students some insight into the incredible formative power of translation. The introduction to Hass' Essential Haiku is a goldmine of eloquent insight.

A highly effective professor once had my class read different translations of Rilke's [Archiac Torso of Apollo] (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/archaic-torso-apollo) and discuss the differences, something else you might want to try.

Good luck, hope this suggestion helps!

u/jumpstartation · 3 pointsr/philosophy

I made a post in /r/Stoicism a while ago when someone asked about books for Epicureanism. I'll just repost it here:

In an earlier thread where Epicureanism and other contemporary philosophies were brought up, some people said that they didn't see much need to go beyond Stoicism. I, however, look at things completely differently.

Gaining an understanding of other philosophies, I figure, will either strengthen my current understanding of Stoicism by showing me that alternatives are not as powerful, or instead present me with a better alternative to living than Stoicism. That was the theory, at least. In practice, I've found that I've begun to draw different things from different philosophies to create my own complex sort of philosophy.

If that sounds good to you, Epicureanism is probably the best place to start with contrasting Stoicism and the other philosophical schools that the Greek's have to offer. It's influences spread through much of the writings of other philosophers and major historical figures, such as Isaac Newton, Karl Marx, and Thomas Jefferson, for example (In fact, the pursuit of happiness part from Jefferson's Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was likely heavily influenced by Epicurus).

Anyway, here's some reading material since /r/Epicurus is a barren wasteland where everyone seems to just downvote none stop:

  • On the Nature of Things by Lucretius. Here's the translation I have. Most of Epicurus' writings have unfortunately not survived. As a result, this remains the best primary resource for those wishing to study Epicureanism.

  • The Art of Happiness by Epicurus and others. This is a collection of Epicurean writings, including Epicurus' fragments. It also includes some of Lucretius' writings from the above work, plus other stuff that you can read in the description so keep that in mind.

  • The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. This one looks at how the modern world was shaped as a result of Lucretius' work with On the Nature of Things.

  • The fragments of Epicurus.

    And some extra stuff that might be worth checking out:

  • The Essential Epicurus by Epicurus, trans. Eugene O'Connor

  • The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism by James Warren
u/fuzzyjumper · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

I would suggest one of Neil Astley's anthologies. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times was the first, and he's since also put out 'Being Alive' and 'Being Human'. It's all contemporary, thoughtful poetry, some of it similar to the one you posted above, but there's lots of variety.

If you don't mind a mixture of poetry from different styles and eras, I really love Poem for the Day (Poem A Day in the US, apparently).

Also, if you wanted to look into individual poets, I think you might like Richard Siken, Warsan Shire, or Andrea Gibson. I'm happy to dig out some examples of their work online for you, if it would help!

u/tanglekey · 2 pointsr/writing

Definitely work on creating concrete images in your poetry. Pulling in sensory descriptions (touch, taste, sight, sound and smell) will help your readers better visualize and connect to your thoughts.

For poetry anthologies, I really enjoyed Staying Alive

I would also recommend visiting The American Academy of Poets and Poetry Foundation for free poetry online from classic poets.

As for poets to read, there are many out there so if you don't like the poets suggested in these comments just remember there are so many more. I personally love Pablo Neruda, Anna Akhmatova, Sylvia Plath, Mary Oliver, Wallace Stevens, H.D., Rainer Maria Rilke and too many more to list.

u/SoundOfOneHand · 5 pointsr/funny

Wow, people really have had bad exposure to haikus based on these comments. 5-7-5, or what have you (there are a few different forms in Japanese), just doesn't work for the English language, so generally is discarded when writing or translating into English. Traditionally they related to nature in some way, but not exclusively. The point is to make a very short poem that is evocative of some sort of emotion, scene, or sensation. Non-haiku poetry often has the same goal, but without any restrictions on length, and it may use other devices like meter, rhyme, etc. The haiku masters were really good; some of these little poems can really take you to another place with just a few words. It's like the distilled essence of poetry. I'd highly recommend picking up a book of them, I bought this one a while back, his translations are really good.

Edit: Found some decent translations of some of Buson's poems here too. He was always my favorite.

u/ItsAConspiracy · 2 pointsr/Futurology

My favorite post-singularity fiction is the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. Superintelligent AI, virtual reality, and mind uploading, and he still manages a deeply human tale of epic heroism. It's a little hard to get into for the first three or four chapters, but then it really takes off. I've read it three times.

Greg Egan's work is pretty interesting, eg. Permutation City, which is mainly about uploading etc.

For more of the near-future speculation side of Accelerando, Cory Doctorow writes a lot of good stuff. And there's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which is post-singularity.

Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is pretty much a classic, covering nanotech, AI-based education, and all sorts of craziness. One of my favorites.

u/sharpiepriest1 · 1 pointr/worldnews

Everything you describe are the modern political movements of Wahhabism and Salfism, funded almost entirely by Saudi Arabia in an attempt to spread their influence throughout the Islamic world. The ideology they espouse is fascistic and repulsive, but it has very little connection to the actual history of Islam. In fact, they were founded on the premise of sweeping away Islam's history and starting over. One of the first things the Wahhabis did when they took Mecca: destroy the actual tomb of the Prophet.


The people burning people alive count for less than 1 percent of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. You cannot use the present to make assumptions about history, that's absurd. If you focus on the current state of Baghdad, and make the assumption that it's always been like that, you never learn about the fact that, for a few centuries, it was the richest city in the world and home to a flourishing intellectual culture that hosted people from as far away as China. You never learn about the Islamic golden age, or the libraries of Muslim Spain which collectively held millions of books while the royal library of Paris contained a grand total of 92.

You never learn a damn thing.

And as far as what it does that makes people's lives better? Including producing some of the best poetry ever, written, by humans, Islam has a long tradition of feeding and caring for the poor by paying out Zakat. The real world examples of this far outweigh any violence done in the name of religion.

People misquote Marx on this all the time when they say "religion is the opium of the masses." The full quote is: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people"

u/pinkfern · 3 pointsr/toddlers

This is a great question! I'm going to follow all of the recommendations as well, since we recite poetry to our baby. It started out because we were doing it when he was still too little to sit up and be read a book at bed time. Now he loves books so much they work him up at bed time and I still enjoy the poetry side of things as I feel like I've expanded my knowledge at the same time!

I was actually going to just get a spiral book bound with our nighttime favourites, but I'd love to find an illustrated version for later on.

We have this book: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Poems-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486285537 and we read him anything from Shakespeare to Robert frost. His personal favourite is jabberwocky though :)

u/gmpalmer · 1 pointr/literature

Going off the idea you like Poe, Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Plath my recommendations (and reasons):

Olives by AE Stallings (the best new book of American poetry since Plath)
Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum (a fantastic and sexy collection of work)
The Restored Ariel by Sylvia Plath (the best book of American poetry after Eliot)
The Standing Wave by Gabriel Spera (lovely stuff)
60 Sonnets by Ernest Hilbert (some funny, some sad, all sonnets)
Broetry by Brian McGackin (light but funny)
I Was There For Your Somniloquy by Kelli Anne Noftle (a good intro into avante garde)
Azores by David Yezzi (a travelogue of sorts)
Omeros by Derek Walcott (best new epic in a long time)
With Rough Gods by yours truly (monologuing Greek gods)
Love, an Index by Rebecca Lindenberg (a beautiful work of loss and love)
The Waste Land and other writings by T.S. Eliot (the undisputed master of modern poetry)

u/Katerprise · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

I love the 'Staying Alive' anthology http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1852245883/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
It has a lot of contributors and is in sections of different aspects of life. Has a little bit of every style from lots of different time periods. Great way to stumble upon a poet you haven't read before and then go in search of their other stuff! I was worries when I got this as a gift that it would be all very wishy washy 'carry on through difficult times' but it is honestly a great collection :)

u/samantha_pants · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I have a Summer Reading List with a few books that are used for a penny. I like having a physical book. If you want a link I want a copy of Beowulf, but feel more than free to peruse the list and pick whatever

I love to read :)

u/Champtain · 29 pointsr/AskAnthropology

Nobody else has said much, so I'll help with what I can. For awhile this was one of my favorite mythemes and although I can't recall any specific info/theories about the significance of eating in the underworld, I may be able to at least point you in the right direction.

There is a chapter in Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces dedicated to these myths (there are dozens spread across the world), so you might want to check there first. I remember he detailed a number of these stories and recounted key similarities and differences, I just can't recall if he gave any specific info about the significance of food or drink.

I also recommend checking up the Mesopotamian myths of Inanna/Ishtar. Her stories feature all the templates for an underworld descent you mention here and it is possibly the oldest recorded work of literature (iirc some of the tablets that the story is recorded on are literally oldest narrative texts we've recovered). Her story is only slightly different in that she is a goddess and therefore the underworld she is visiting is her sister's realm. It's a great read and in particular I can recommend Diane Wolkstein's excellent translation/adaptation. This volume not only tells the story, but also provides a few great essays that might contain the answer you're looking for.

u/veragood · 2 pointsr/awakened

Do you like fantasy stories? The Gita is actually just one chapter in India's greatest epic, the Mahabharata. It's an amazing story, and gives a great cultural background for Hinduism. Hindu's other epic, the Ramayana, is also lauded by many. I actually just began reading it recently.

Hindu's purest (and probably the world's longest) treatise on non-duality is the book at the very top of the bookshelf, Vasistha's Yoga. It's intense, so if you are just beginning, it's probably not the best intro to Hindu thought.

The most ancient written roots of pure Hinduism are found in the Upanishads. Eknath Eswaran's introduction and commentary are sublime.

A more modern, yet just as mystical take on Hinduism is The Autobiography of a Yogi.

u/ChiChiBoobie · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Happy almost birthday 🎉
The secret to my wellness is my dog. He is literally the only thing that keeps me going. The only other thing I can think of is Bukowski because his poems are just so great. He is absolutely the best writer and his stuff is just so relatable; I'm extremely grateful my English teacher covered Bukowski instead of Shakespeare.

u/-momoyome- · 1 pointr/wemetonline

This is my go-to for Rumi if you're interested.


Aww that's really sweet that he seems to send you flowers a lot <3 It's always fun to open the door and find a nice bouquet waiting :D You should post a picture when they're all in bloom, I'm sure they'll be breathtaking!

u/mindroll · 1 pointr/Buddhism

Thich Nhat Hanh: "In 1976, the communist government of Vietnam wanted to set up a government-supported Buddhist organization to replace the Unified Buddhist Church, and they spread a rumor that I had died of a heart attack in Paris. The young monks and nuns in Vietnam had strong faith in me. They knew I was doing my best to help and protect them. In Paris, through our office at the Peace Delegation of the Unified Buddhist Church, we stayed in touch with Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations, and every time there were human rights violations by the government, such as the arrests of monks or nuns, we informed the press and others so they would intervene. That is one of the reasons the government decided to close down the Unified Buddhist Church and set up their own Buddhist organization. They had already arrested Thich Quang Do and Thich Huyen Quang, the leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church and they wanted to confuse people and undermine the support that the people felt from us in Paris." https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Mind-Love-Thich-Nhat/dp/1888375787

u/Aeon108 · 2 pointsr/hinduism

The Bhagavad Gita centers mainly around Krishna, one of Vishnu's most popular avatars. It takes place during a war. The family of Arjuna, who is a king, betrays him. Both sides ask Krishna for aid in the war. To remain neutral, Krishna gives his army to Arjuna's family and Krishna becomes the personal Charioteer of Arjuna. As they are about to enter the war, Arjuna becomes conflicted. Krishna reveals to Arjuna that he is an avatar of the god Vishnu. The entire text is the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Krishna gives Arjuna advice on how to live a spiritual life on all accounts. Devotees of Krishna place an extremely high value on the Bhagavad Gita.
Here is a link to an English translated version of the text: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Easwarans-Classics-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380192/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494927615&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=bhagavad+gtia
And here are links to Krishna sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna
http://www.krishna.com/info/about-krishna#

Kalki is said to be the last avatar of Krishna. He has yet to be born. At the end of the Kali-yuga (which is the time period we are in,) Kalki is said to be born ina hidden paradise called Shambhala. He will ride across the Earth on a white steed and cleanse the Earth of evil, returning us to a golden age of peace.
here are some links to pages about Kalki:
http://www.yoga-philosophy.com/eng/kalki/kalki.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki

Although this next one is more controversial, a lot of people believe Buddha to be an avatar of Vishnu. There isn't really a specific book or site to go to for this one, but there are several books on Buddhism and documentaries on the Buddha.

Another popular Vishnu avatar is Rama. Rama is said to be the perfect man. His story is told in an epic called the Ramayana, in which his wife is kidnapped and he must rescue her.
English version of Ramayana: https://www.amazon.com/Ramayana-Modern-Retelling-Great-Indian/dp/0865476950/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1494928047&sr=8-2
Sites for Rama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama

There are a lot more avatars of Vishnu, but these ones are the main ones. For a bigger list, they are links to all of the major ones here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu

It's also good to keep in mind that beliefs on who the avatars of Vishnu are vary from region to region and from tradition to tradition.

u/incorporealrelative · 1 pointr/surrealism

Hey man, sorry for not getting back to you yesterday. Here are some recommendations.

https://www.amazon.com/Maldoror-Complete-Works-Comte-Lautréamont/dp/187897212X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2UG7IORZO7MOG&keywords=maldoror+english&qid=1563734129&s=gateway&sprefix=malodor%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-3

​

https://www.amazon.com/Exploits-Opinions-Dr-Faustroll-Pataphysician/dp/1878972073/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3FIN94ANSVCSJ&keywords=exploits+and+opinions+of+dr.+faustroll%2C+pataphysician&qid=1563734228&s=gateway&sprefix=dr+faustroll+%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1

​

https://www.amazon.com/Valerie-Week-Wonders-Vitezslav-Nezval/dp/808626419X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2MVWRWT2G7RYS&keywords=valerie+and+her+week+of+wonders+book&qid=1563734389&s=gateway&sprefix=valerie+and+her+wee%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1

​

https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Analogue-Non-Euclidean-Symbolically-Mountaineering/dp/1585673420/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_pd_crcd__20?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1585673420&pd_rd_r=885af56e-246c-4203-b69a-3ada3d549cad&pd_rd_w=nBgvG&pd_rd_wg=D0uLp&pf_rd_p=d17c2de0-cc1d-4b09-aad8-987099a21717&pf_rd_r=MPT3RGNB79T8MX0H41BF&psc=1&refRID=MPT3RGNB79T8MX0H41BF

​

the first two are not surrealism in the sense of the authors being part of the actual movement but they were precursors for it as well as being hugely influential to all who took part within the movement; the first one specifically, was said to be, by the surrealists themselves, their bible and holy grail. Surrealism can be quite difficult to read and hard to understand if one is not acquainted with the time period and the history of their epoch but if you stick with it it will pay off in time. You may have to do a little research into the back-stories of each author but this will only benefit you in the end: the last two will be much simpler to read on their own as they are more or less, linear straight-forward fictions. Good Luck!

u/glegleglo · 1 pointr/religion
  • I LOVE the Life of Pi. I recommend reading the "editorial reviews" because Amazon does a terrible job summing up how great the book is.
  • I also highly recommend the Ramayana this is the version I read. I like this retelling because, while long, it give you a sense of what this story truly is--an Indian epic.
  • Books by Deepak Chopra (I suggest looking through reviews of diff books to see if any catch your eye).
  • The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
    by the Dalai Lama because it is a very sincere book and I can almost visualize what he is saying.
  • If you're in the mood for a bit of silliness, I recommend The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible because while being funny, it does teach you a little bit of the lesser known tenements of Judaism and Christianity.
  • Last but not least, I recommend reading travel books. If you look for well written (read: not just looking for cheap laughs) books, even if they don't intend to, they inevitably talk about their personal views on the world--their personal religions.
u/catherineirkalla · 2 pointsr/occult

It doesn't contain any rituals, but you might find that this book could inspire you. Inanna is the Sumerian/Babylonian goddess associated with love and sexuality as well as the planet Venus.

u/Fishare · 2 pointsr/Poetry

If you want modern American Poerty I HIGHLY recommend this [book] (http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Bible-American-Poetry/dp/1560252278).

It covers so many of the best poems by many of the famous Contemporary Beat Poets. As well as incredible lesser known beat's like DA Levy, and Bob Wallace. Some of my favorites, are Richard Brautigan, Bukowski, Jack Micheline, Ray Bremser, Neal Cassady. There is even, an incredible poem by Jackson Pollock.

u/thewhaleshark · 3 pointsr/Norse

Good answer. If you don't mind, I'll elaborate on a couple of points.

There are many translations of the Poetic Edda, and they all differ somewhat. There's a thread a ways down asking about different translations. The key thing to remember is that no translation is perfect - every translator has to make their best effort to capture the "sense" of a piece, and that leads to varied interpretations.

Hollander and Bellows are the standards, and you can't go wrong with those. I recommend the Terry or Larrington translations if you're looking for something more accessible.

If you're interested in the Prose Edda, I recommend picking up the Everyman edition of it, as it's the only print version I've found that contains the third book, Hattatal. That's Snorri's treatise on skaldic poetry - 102 verse-forms explained.

u/GenerativeSeeds · 1 pointr/atheism

My favorite book was in the first episode! De Rerum Natura by Lucretius. There is an amazing translation on amazon that I would recommend to anyone that is interested in materialist or non-spiritual philosophy.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Things-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447962

u/nikiverse · 1 pointr/yoga

For everyday little thoughts or things that my yoga teachers say around savasana I like


u/readingsucks · 5 pointsr/books
  1. Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont
  2. 10/10
  3. Classic French Literature, Misanthropic, Nihilism, Philosophic.
  4. Anyone who recommends Journey to the End of the Night as an exemplar of misanthropic literature has obviously never read Maldoror, which isn't too much of a surprise considering this classic of French lit is criminally unknown to the majority of people. This poetic novel doesn't really have a plot, so it becomes a bit difficult to really summarize it by it's plot. If you want a character you who truly embodies amor fati, then I highly recommend this novel.
  5. Amazon, Goodreads
u/YearOfTheMoose · 2 pointsr/Fantasy

Regarding Beowulf, it will very much change depending on which translation you read. I'm not familiar with all of them, so a good bet would be to check out previews of several and decide which, if any, you'd like to read. I think Seamus Heaney's translation is normally considered among the more accessible ones (and the Amazon page lets you "Look Inside").

I didn't think it read very heavily, but I've been reading similar texts since shortly after I learned to read--I'm probably not the best judge.

-----

If you read The Count of Monte Cristo, it would probably help to know that Dumas was definitely one of the masters of the slow burn. The book starts out slowly, but I know nobody who made it to the end and regretted the experience. Read the unabridged, if you can get your hands on it, and good luck!

u/doomtop · 1 pointr/OCPoetry

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.

u/SlippidySlappity · 2 pointsr/politics

I highly recommend it. It's not ony a great story, it also gives a really interesting glimpse into the beliefs and culture of the original composers as well as the Christian translators.

From what I have read the Seamus Heaney translation is the best.

https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-New-Verse-Translation-Bilingual/dp/0393320979

u/servant_of_the_wolf · 3 pointsr/occult

My personal favourite work on the subject of Inanna-Ishtar is Ishtar by Louise M. Pryke as part of Routledge's Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series.

It's quite expensive in hardback form, so I suggest trying out the Kindle edition or searching around elsewhere. Perhaps you'll be able to find it in another format.

Also, of course, there's Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth by Diane Wolkstein. I've heard very good things about it, but haven't been able to get to it yet, unfortunately.

For correspondences, things of a Venusian nature might work very nicely. :)

u/Poedditor · 1 pointr/Poetry

Nimenoz, nice first attempt. You should read this if you're interested in the historical basis for haiku and why certain elements are included and other elements not included in traditional haiku. I guarantee your haiku writing will improve dramatically in a small amount of time.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Haiku-Versions-Basho/dp/0880013516

Here's a sneak peak: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haas/haiku.htm

u/fucks-like-a-tiger · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

I have been practicing a little less than a year, so I am a relative newbie. The most important thing is support from your sangha, which is your Buddhist community. Find one and spend time with them. Learn how others react to specific situations and deal with everyday problems that way. Without the sangha, all the books, tapes etc in the world are of little use.

My teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh. My sangha is Deerpark monastery in Escondido, Ca. A good place to start reading is here

Good luck to you!

u/patarack · 1 pointr/bookexchange

Would you be interested in my copy of Love is a Dog from Hell?

I'm interested in both of your Vonnegut books.

Edit: I also have Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut to balance it out if you're interested.

u/MegistaGene · 1 pointr/askphilosophy

You can preview the first few chapters here: https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=reader_auth_dp

And if you decide to read it, I'd definitely go with Mitchell's translation. It's not the most accurate, but it's a really beautiful and poetic translation (and good for beginners).

Just note that I disagree with u/midnighttoker3 about this being relevant to what you're looking for. I really don't think there's a fleshed-out notion of soul or reincarnation in Taoism, or at least in the Tao Te Ching. I'm sure you can find some proof-texts to challenge this claim, but there can be no denial that Hinduism and some forms of Buddhism are more soul- and reincarnation-heavy than Taoism.

u/erissays · 1 pointr/Fantasy

For a more 'Medieval Literature' folklore focus:

u/dontforgetit · 3 pointsr/writing

I'm pretty sure there's a collection of the pics you mention in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. It's amazing to see.

u/bogotahorrible · 1 pointr/Poetry

Oh! I just snorted out loud. Didn't realize that was your poem. So, you should check out a book called The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. That big book will show a beginner poet all the different things a poem can be.

Your "Graceful" poem struck me as creative and thought-provoking because it was sharp and... imagistic. The "Imaginary" poem struck me as a quick outline for something else because the images were lacking. Nonexistent. It had a lot of undeveloped ideas.

You know... the old telling vs. showing cliche? I need something to explode in this poem. I want something to burn the flesh off my hands. I want to taste your passion.

(Aside: Be sure to write for you, not for the upvotes.)

Anyway, I felt the need to comment again because I hadn't realized you were the same poet. Cheers!

u/mdz2 · 2 pointsr/Poetry

One of my favorite poetry books is "A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry," edited by Czeslaw Milosz. The poems aren't difficult to understand yet are diverse and really wonderful. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Luminous-Things-International-Anthology/dp/0156005743/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Book+of+Luminous+Things&qid=1565830406&s=gateway&sr=8-1

u/Evil_Bonsai · 1 pointr/pics

Sorry for your disappoint. However, you STILL might find some historical writing pretty fascinating. Try reading Inanna, Goddess of Heaven and Earth or Sumerians, might just be what you're looking for.

u/admorobo · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Get yourself a good anthology, like this one edited by the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz. Once you know what you like you can get more specific anthologies or collections by specific poets.

u/IgnatiusRileysValve · 1 pointr/books

Staying alive: real poems for unreal times is a good anthology of modern poems, edited by Neil Astley. it covers all areas of human experience edited into thematic chapters allowing for comparison of perspectives in subjects the that you wish to explore.
cant recommend it highly enough.
edit; Amazon link

u/ciderbear · 1 pointr/Poetry

http://www.amazon.com/Staying-Alive-Poems-Unreal-Times/dp/1401359264

Staying Alive is a great anthology of poems and it has a bit of everything.

u/iSeven · 3 pointsr/pcmasterrace

Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;

Books

u/IFeelOstrichSized · 1 pointr/comics

I have that same Penguin version of de rerum natura, but I'll check out the Loeb one. I see that the new Penguin version is done by A.E. Stallings, who seems to be well regarded, so I might check that out as well. This seems to be a reliable versed translation, or so reviewers ranked highly by google tell me. Alas, I've read the wikipedia and many random articles on sexuality in Rome, I'll just have to use the google to find further resources. Thanks for the recommendations.

u/Autopilot_Psychonaut · 3 pointsr/Christianity

You'll find Christ because you're asking. You shall receive.

One of the best books to explore the relationship between Man and God is Coleman Bark's translations of the Sufi Mystic, Rumi.


But to know Christ, you need to read the Gospels.

u/caecus · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Get this book this exact one. Read it forwards then backwards. It lead me down the path of accepting things and learning how to make myself happy.

u/mediaarts · 1 pointr/Buddhism

A good friend of mine has read several editions and said Stephen Mitchell's version was by far the most readable.

u/ellie_bird · 1 pointr/Poetry

I know this was a month ago, but check out the Restored Edition of Ariel here: http://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Facsimile-Manuscript-Reinstating-Arrangement/dp/0060732601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418412768&sr=1-1&keywords=ariel+plath

The original was published by Hughes, who reorganized the collection and left out a couple poems. It might have what you're looking for.

u/vanyalir · 2 pointsr/AskLiteraryStudies

Furthermore, he put together a wonderful anthology of poems entitled A Book of Luminous Things, which can be found here.

u/scatterstars · 1 pointr/Philippines

I actually emailed the son of the professor who first translated the Hinilawod into English (Dr F Landa Jocano). He said his father's estate was in the process of doing a second translation edition with side-by-side English and Kinaray-a which I assume will be like the copy of Beowulf I read in Junior English class. If that happens, I'll be ecstatic.

u/katrivers · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Probably look for anthologies, such as 101 Great American Poems, or the Giant Book of Poetry.

u/svanho · 2 pointsr/Poetry

For a new poet, I highly recommend the Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. It will not only give you a wide array of poets and poetry styles, but will help teach you how to analyze.

u/my_man_krishna · 1 pointr/bicycling

Sounds like you need something to read while you relax at home...

u/yeuxsee · 2 pointsr/pagan

Hi, I'm late. I really feel like you two are connecting with Inanna - she is a very ancient queen deity who has moon, snake, and wings imagery as well as being a very dark/light goddess. She rules over Heaven and Earth, is connected to the Morning/Evening Star, and is a fertility/sex goddess as well as a war goddess. She's not a mother goddess, though, not soft n squishy at all. I think you should maybe try to read this book and see what that does for y'all. Book link]

u/kyrie-eleison · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

The Giant Book of Poetry has everything from 4000BC through Shakespeare up to contemporary stuff; it's a great starting point. And, unlike a lot of poetry anthologies, it's only $15.

u/ghostchamber · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I got some great insight from a modern translation of Tao Te Ching.

u/SuperFlyGuyJohnnyP · 2 pointsr/Norse

In the past, Jackson Crawford has recommended this translation by Anthony Faulks:


https://www.amazon.com/Edda-Everymans-Library-Snorri-Sturluson/dp/0460876163/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=prose+edda+anthony+faulkes&qid=1574252206&sprefix=prose+edda+an&sr=8-2

I haven’t read it yet so I can’t attest to it, but there it is.

Edit: If you haven’t gotten it yet, I can highly recommend Dr. Crawford’s translation of the Poetic Edda.

u/ryancarp3 · 4 pointsr/Poetry

This may be something you would enjoy. It's a book of 100 famous poems.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Poems-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486285537

u/ColtaineOiseau · 2 pointsr/Fantasy

So the Prose Edda is also known as the 'Younger Edda'.

  • Amazon UK

  • Amazon US

    Though these two listings on Amazon UK/US only say Edda the reviews confirm that this is the Prose Edda.

    As to what Edda means there's actually some uncertainty, Wikipedia discusses the theories on the word's meaning here in the Etymology section.

    As to why the Prose Edda is named the Younger Edda I'm not too sure - I tried having a look at the Icelandic and Norwegian pages but they, just like the English page, only discuss the theories for the meaning of the word 'Edda'.
u/koncertkoala · 1 pointr/Norse

This is the version I used in my Old Norse class. :)

u/AlcibiadesHandsome · 3 pointsr/books

You may be interested in the Prose Edda, which is a more systematic account. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe is also a standard text, assuming that you want something academic.

u/jackthornglas · 1 pointr/pagan

One of the oldest writings in the world is a prayer to Inanna, written by a priestess named Enheduanna. Read more here.

Here is a big book of Inanna's stories and hymns.

Among other interesting things, Inanna might be the first dying-and-resurrecting Underworld traveler, setting the stage for everyone from Persephone to Christ. Read about her Descent into the Underworld.

u/gottabtru · 3 pointsr/Poetry

I like Staying Alive by Niel Astley

u/NonSequiturEdit · 1 pointr/funny

Get a book of poetry and leave it within reach of the can. You never know when you'll need it, and nothing relaxes the bowels like some Coleridge or Yeats.

u/Areign · 7 pointsr/Fantasy

For an opposing perspective, I'd say that you should be aware that the 'dryness' of norse style was part of their culture. They had a very unique literary style compared to both the past and present. Its not especially hard to understand, its just different. If you read the saga of the Volsungs or the poetic Edda (called Edda) you'll see what i mean. Note that dry doesn't mean boring, I remember when i started reading those two works that people start getting decapitated within the first couple pages and I didn't have much trouble understanding the overarching story.

Its also unintentionally hilarious, you'll have a character that gets some amount of buildup and he'll just randomly die and the story seemingly just moves to another place and starts again (note this is more apparent in the volsung saga than Edda since that one is supposed to be a single long story where Edda is a compilation). There are a bunch of really odd things like impromptu rap battles, naming of places based on really random events like 'Thorsteinkilledgoatplace' and how every hero's downfall is caused by their wife, often in the most passive aggresive way. "there are a bunch of people trying to kill us and they set this house on fire, can you help so we can escape? no you are a jerk, we will both die here"

I really enjoyed the above two books and I think it'd be a better idea to check them out first before moving towards 2nd/3rd hand interpretations that are going to strip away some of that silly dryness that made it so charming.

https://smile.amazon.com/Saga-Volsungs-ebook/dp/B000FC25SI/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1486592659&sr=1-6&keywords=volsungs

https://smile.amazon.com/Edda-Everymans-Library-Snorri-Sturluson/dp/0460876163/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5W5SHR3X9PY1PNZ29A8S

u/Bzzt · 3 pointsr/printSF

The Golden Age trilogy has a lot of future-law in it. The main character is essentially caught up in a legal battle which he can't remember due to his memories being erased. One of my favorites of the last 10 years or so.

u/xombiemaster · 6 pointsr/FutureWhatIf

All of them.

If you traveled in time to 3013 AD you'd likely not even be able to speak the language. If you want an idea what 1000 years has done to English find a copy of Beowulf with the original translation like this

That is most likely how different English will look in 3013.

Now that doesn't answer "Will names be the same"

Chances are... Probably yes. Will they look the same as we know them now? Hell no. They'll be spelled differently, and might even have different characters in them. For all we know "James" might change to "Jæm$" in 1000 years.


This quick Google result (Warning: It does not site sources) shows a few common names still in use. My guess is most of these will survive. And if we look at the past century the SSA has the top 100 names in the past 100 years here: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/century.html

My hunch is there will always be someone who names their child one of these names.

u/-R-o-y- · 1 pointr/Norse

Just check Amazon and "look inside".

I have the Faulkes translation and it is a complete Edda.

I don't have the Hollander myself, but the table of contents looks complete.

u/Grave_Girl · 3 pointsr/namenerds

It's way too close to the word inane for my taste.

However, if you want to consider it, I found this book linked in an article about the goddess (along with a poem wherein she wondered who would plow her vulva, so take that as you will) that purports to gather the pieces of the goddess's story as told by the ancients. I'm seeing a lot of conflation with Ishtar and even Aphrodite, so goodness knows how accurate any of this stuff is.

u/regul · 2 pointsr/books

I can vouch for Lindow's book. That was the reference text we used in my Old Norse Literature class. If you want to go straight to the source as far as Norse mythology is concerned, I'd recommend Edda by Snorri Sturluson.



I've heard, though, that Edith Hamilton's book is quite controversial among academics. I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm no expert.

u/Zerocool947 · 7 pointsr/WTF

You should see the rest of it. http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Verse-Translation-Bilingual-Edition/dp/0393320979/ref=zg_bs_10254_2

At least, I'm assuming /u/WeirdBrotherBrad is quoting the Heaney translation because of the "So." and because why would you read any other English translation of Beowulf?

u/swiley1983 · 2 pointsr/badhistory

ISBN-13: 978-0393320978 ISBN-10: 0393320979

Amazon link

u/pleachchapel · 1 pointr/literature

There's a kickass compendium of outlaw American poesy, I wonder if there's something similar for Europe/other places as an introduction to more poets.

u/Shaquintosh · 2 pointsr/Poetry

Coleman Barks' translations of Rumi, particularly "The Essential Rumi".

u/zachizsinister · 2 pointsr/ELATeachers

The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

I would give this a read if the opportunity presents. Some of the works contain harsh language but the quality is undeniable. My 12th LA teacher introduced me to this book years ago and I still give it a go-through now.

u/PatricioINTP · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

I don't read so much fantasy (the closest involves dragons in The Napoleonic Wars… alt history instead of fantasy), but for sci-fi I have one suggestion I frequently mention here. The Golden Age by John C Wright is the most densely compacted sci-fi epic I have ever read in a 300 page book. There is only one main character instead of an ensemble, but every other page introduces another element of the universe to wrap you melting noggin around that, for some, the pace of reading will be slow. I myself slammed through it for fear of forgetting or never finishing it. The second and third book of the series (the author intended it to be one doorstopper, but the publisher wanted to cut it up) ease up a lot compared to the first. READ SOME REVIEWS FIRST. Also the third book has an appendix that should have been included in the first book. If you see it on a bookstore, flip through it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Golden-Age-John-Wright/dp/0765336693

u/ExplodingToasterOven · -1 pointsr/nosleep

Sort of. :D

http://analogicalplanet.com/Pages/ContentPages/Sidebars/BurneyRelief.html

Innana, Ishtar, or Lilith, fine woman all the same. ;)

https://www.amazon.com/Inanna-Queen-Heaven-Earth-Stories/dp/0060908548

https://www.amazon.com/Hebrew-Goddess-3rd-Enlarged/dp/0814322719

https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Goddess-Evolution-Image/dp/0140192921

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/descent-inanna-underworld-5500-year-old-literary-masterpiece-007296

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna

She's not quite yet forgotten by history. Transformed, twisted and turned, but always around in one form or another. One eras angel, anothers demon, and so it goes.

But the ones who strike down the malignant of those with the will to power.. Just shadows in the darkness. Eaters of tainted souls. Sometimes they get mixed up with various demon/devil myths.


The Erinyes live in Erebus and are more ancient deities than any of the Olympians. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of hosts to guests, and of householders or city councils to suppliants - and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The Erinyes are crones and, depending upon authors, described as having snakes for hair, dog's heads, coal black bodies, bat's wings, and blood-shot eyes. In their hands they carry brass-studded scourges, and their victims die in torment


Colorful certainly, not always 100% accurate, but good campfire stories rarely are.

Take the ending of one particularly rotten pair of apples.



He says he promised the leader each day that he and his wife would be moved to Bucharest for a proper trial.

But his superiors had other plans. They hastily arranged a military trial at the base that was video-recorded.

The museum director says the day before, a Romanian official came from Bucharest and told his colleagues: "We'll do them here." Carstina says it proves the decision to execute the Ceausescus was made beforehand.

Kemenici was also bothered by the lack of any evidence during the trial. "The only thing on the table were the glasses of the chief judge," he says.

He adds that Ceausescu didn't believe he was getting due process either, calling it a conspiracy by Kemenici's superiors and other opponents. To this day, some Romanians still think the entire revolution was a planned coup d'etat, especially since many members of the communist regime became part of the new government.

"He didn't believe they were doing this on their own," Kemenici says. "He told me that the Americans and Russians got together to do this."

The trial, which began on Christmas Day, lasted less than an hour, Carstina says, adding that the chief military judge, Gica Popa, delivered the verdict after only minutes of deliberation.

He declared both Ceausescus guilty of genocide and sentenced them to death.

Video footage shows it wasn't until paratroopers assigned to carry out the execution arrived that the couple finally grasped what was about to happen.

Nicolae Ceausescu shouted: "I have the right to do what I want!"

His wife, Elena, struggled and cursed at the soldiers. She shouted: "Don't tie us up!" and "Don't offend us!"

They were hauled outside, lined up against a wall and shot dead by one of the paratroopers. Carstina says it happened before the camera could be turned on.



https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/24/369593135/25-years-after-death-a-dictator-still-casts-a-shadow-in-romania


Perhaps a bit rushed, but sometimes its best to hit the delete key rather than risk tainting things even further. Such is life. ;)