Assuming anyone here can actually read

I’m almost finished with Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger and it really is a great memoir. It’s almost darkly hilarious how frank the book is about everything from the violent to the mundane. The prose used to describe daily idle work and conversations with French civilians is little different than the descriptions of battles and mangled corpses. It’s a whole novel of “oh yeah and this happened”.

Another aspect that fascinated me was the author’s own views on the war. He fought for four years in the losing army of one of history’s most infamous wars, yet he never seemed to regret it. Never wished he was at home. Never lost his Prussian class and reserve. You could wonder if it’s biased since the author might have left out anything that would make him look bad, but even so it’s notable that the book is too neutral to have that “war is heck” message you see in almost every other instance of WWI material. When stereotypical military aristocrat characters show up in media, they almost always lose that demeanor or die to show how brutal and gritty things really are. But here was a real person who went through all that and still came out with the mindset of an Imperial German patriot. Patriotism is the first thing to go in most war stories, so I was intrigued to see a depiction of someone who suffered same as everyone else but never actually lost it. I suppose there’s no real universal standard on how different people will be effected by warfare.

Just finished up all the released books a few days ago. Was pretty good, dumb fun series, nothing too deep or complex. It's just a series about a fighting arena and jumps around a few different fighters from the pits, and a couple owners of the houses that train fighters.

The last book ends pretty abruptly and there hasn't been a release in 5 years, so that blows, but if you're into light fantasy and mindless action, I'd say it's worth checking out.

i am on vacation for a month and need books. i have nothing to offer in return. thanks

I just finished La Peste by Camus but tbqh I thought L'Étranger was better.

How 'bout you?

Welcome back to our Black Future story hour, dramatards. We are on page 4 of this thrilling novella.

In a very surprising turn of events, neither of the guesses from last week were close to being correct. Next weekend's guess reward is thereby increased to 30 marseybux to whoever guesses reasonably close to the goings on of next week's page.

Here's a link to page 4, i dont want to upload the files locally

NSFW

It takes a skilled writer to write such nuanced and intricate s*x scenes without delving into the outright pornographic. Once again Whitney proves herself a master of ambiance and detail.

Guess #1:

@DrFateHoids

My prediction: Alex starts jerking off to the BBC on the screen

What in the 90's video game, green screen heck is this?

#AAAAA WHY MY FORMATTING ALL FRICKED UP.

some highlights:

1. Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

2. Middle Earth Universe by JRR Tolkien

3. First Law by Joe Abercrombie

6. Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

29\. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

58. Grishaverse by Leigh Barduo

157. The Once and Future King by TH White

zoomercide now

80. star wars

this is not even a book.

'If a son is born when the Sun is in the terms of Mercury, he will be successful and have great power . .. He will be brave and tall and will acquire property and moreover will be married to his own sister and will have children by her.'

-- Egyptian horoscope

Herais invites you to dinner at the marriage of her children at home tomorrow, that is the fifth, at the 9th hour

-- Egyptian wedding invitation

@Aevann defend this

>Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet, critic, and a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his 800-page epic poem, The Cantos (c. 1917–1962).[1]

>Pound's contribution to poetry began in the early 20th century with his role in developing Imagism, a movement stressing precision and economy of language. Working in London as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, he helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce. He was responsible for the 1914 serialization of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the 1915 publication of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and the serialization from 1918 of Joyce's Ulysses. Hemingway wrote in 1932 that, for poets born in the late 19th or early 20th century, not to be influenced by Pound would be "like passing through a great blizzard and not feeling its cold."[a]

Quite the interesting figure here, its odd that he is rarely discussed in English classes in the U.S. when he's so influential. Maybe he's mentioned but not pushed, you'd think an American who did so much would be highly lauded by history books.

>Angered by the carnage of World War I, Pound blamed the war on finance capitalism, which he called "usury".[3] He moved to Italy in 1924 and through the 1930s and 1940s promoted an economic theory known as social credit, wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, and expressed support for Adolf Hitler. During World War II and the Holocaust in Italy, he made hundreds of paid radio broadcasts for the Italian government, including in German-occupied Italy, attacking the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Britain, international finance, munitions makers and mongers, and Jews, among others, as causes, abettors and prolongers of the world war, as a result of which he was arrested in 1945 by American forces in Italy on charges of treason. He spent months in a U.S. military camp in Pisa, including three weeks in an outdoor steel cage. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., for over 12 years.

Oh.

>While in St. Elizabeths, Pound would often decline to talk to psychiatrists with names he deemed Jewish (he called psychiatrists "kikiatrists"),[370] and he apparently told Charles Olson: "I was a Zionist in Italy, but now I'm for pogroms, after what I've experienced in here (SLiz)."[371] He advised visitors to read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and he referred to any visitor he happened not to like as Jewish.[372] In November 1953 he wrote to Olivia Rossetti Agresti that Hitler was "bit by dirty Jew mania for World Domination, as yu used to point out/ this WORST of German diseases was got from yr/ idiolized and filthy biblical bastards. Adolf clear on the baccilus of kikism/ that is on nearly all the other poisons.[sic] but failed to get a vaccine against that.

Frickin lol.

I have The Cantos but I haven't even tried to read it yet, people much more well read than I get filtered by it apparently so I'm a bit intimidated.

Like all underachieving zoomers I constantly have a thousand ideas in my head that will never come to fruition so here they are.

The first one is about a ghost that travels through space. I was thinking about the fact that a ghost is essentially immortal so they’ll stick around long after The Earth has been eaten by the sun. You could have the ghost look around at space and eventually find something special enough that they can finally pass on peacefully.

The second one is a book about humans discovering alien races. It is then discovered that all planets had Jesus show up at some point. I don’t want this book to be a preachy Christian book, rather I want it to be a look at how Christianity could have developed had, for example, everyone believed Jesus instantly. I want to book to be a series of interviews conducted by an impartial and agnostic individual. I don’t think the book even has to be about Christianity specifically but I just want to stick to what I know.

The last one might have already been done. I want to tell the story of a town through a few newspaper articles. This one is a more recent thought of mine and is not quite as fleshed out but I think it has potential. I’m pretty sure this sort of structure has been done before but I think it could still make a very engrossing book. If you do the entire news paper, obituaries, ads and all the other stuff I think you could make quite a few compelling threads beyond the main one. But it might be too difficult so maybe not.

Welcome back to our Black Future story hour, dramatards. Page 2 got spoiled by some so I'm skipping right to the third page.

editor's note: the author has introduced a duo of underage characters. I have not read ahead, so if this turns out to be a pederast book we will have to read How I sued Taylor Swift by one R. Greer instead

Anyway, you, the fine of rdrama, are tasked with guessing what happens on the following page. The closest guess will receive 10 marseybux. I'll update the OP with the best guesses. I'll keep track of any guesses before the spoilers inevitably drop.

Here's a link to page 3, i dont want to upload the files locally

NSFW

The momentum does not let up every word carefully and masterfully chosen, Whitney Ryan is showing us the lives of her dramatis personae in a strange and captivating world

Dear readers, what do you think happens next?

Guess 1:

@SmallNips

I'm gonna guess Alexa is going to hear the news that the kangs are coming to her village, and he's going to make way toward the village to save her sister

Guess #2

@officer_candypants

There's a knock on the door and it's a basketball government official. He comes in, eats the rabbits, fricks the sissy's wife, and leaves.

String Theory

Schrodinger's Cat

Uncanny Valley

By far the most r*ddit book I've read. Premise was alright, but it was predictable, MC was oblivious, big butt plotholes, and I didn't really like any of the characters.

I want some good fantasy recommendations, but so much of the genre is unbearable. I've identified two main reasons why, though I'm sure there are also many others.

• YA desperately written for a movie deal and/or teenaged foids by older foids Can't stand this garbage and I doubt I need to explain why.

• Conversely I can't get through a lot of "standard" fantasy written by moids who don't see the difference between a novel and a DnD campaign. Characters and plot usually take a backseat to pointless wiki lore and unending exposition. I'd say I like worldbuilding but it should be done more naturally than vomiting paragraphs. The plot shouldn't stop because the author needs us to know every detail about the temple or whatever we just passed by. The majority of these settings will also be shameless ripoffs of Tolkien and/or DnD with nothing new to offer.

I need some fantasy recs that avoid these pitfalls. I'm interested in finding any of the following

• Unique main characters. Examples of anything that made a particular protagonist stand out above the genre.

• Same with settings. Any that stood out (ideally right from the get-go, and not just because you'd gotten used to it after eight books)

• Stories that were concise while still being good. I'm not against wordier entries, but I think a lot of fantasy authors have trouble with brevity. I'm wondering if anyone knows of exceptions who still managed to pull off something creative.

Idea shamelessly stolen from @kaamrev

I'll be reading 1 page of the modern intersectional classic BLACK FUTURE each week. You, the fine of rdrama, are tasked with guessing what happens on the following page. The closest guess will receive 10 marseybux. I'll update the OP with the best guesses.

Here's a link to page 1, i dont want to upload the files locally

Already we are off to a riveting start as our effeminate hero uhhhh climbs a hill. Incredible prose, excellent pacing, no wonder Whitney Ryan has become a household name and international phenomenon.

Dear readers, what do you think happens next?

Guess 1:

@Harpooner

Meet the members of his family and more expository dialog.

Guess 2:

@DrFateHoids

Alex reminisces about life before New Africa was established

Guess 3:

@SmallNips

We'll find out about his sister and how he has always had incestuous feelings for her (mayos and incest marseymanysuchcases:)

Guess 4:

@Avalon

My guess is the next page will be explaining what the revolution was and how it got to this stage

Guess 5:

@toetickler22

the strong ARFIKAN BVLL plows his bussy

Guess 6:

SHOW MORE

rdrama literary magazine when?

When I meet a pretty girl and beg her: "Be so good as to come with me," and she walks past without a word, this is what she means to say:

"You are no Duke with a famous name, no broad American with a Red Indian figure, level, brooding eyes and a skin tempered by the air of the prairies and the rivers that flow through them, you have never journeyed to the seven seas and voyaged on them wherever they may be, I don't know where. So why, pray, should a pretty girl like myself go with you?"

"You forget that no automobile swings you through the street in long thrusts; I see no gentlemen escorting you in a close half-circle, pressing on your skirts from behind and murmuring blessings on your head; your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint; you are wearing a taffeta dress with a pleated skirt such as delighted all of us last autumn, and yet you smile--inviting mortal danger--from time to time."

"Yes, we're both in the right, and to keep us from being irrevocably aware of it, hadn't we better just go our separate ways home?"

What was it with him and jealousy over Indians? He has another short story called "The Wish To Be a Red Indian"

It seems like everywhere is closed to submissions right now. Metaphorosis manuscript guidelines are bizarre, and I could only find Bourbon Penn open to spec fic. Bunch of other mags seem to open their submissions once a year at best.

Seemed better last year honestly, is self pub actually better or am I looking in the wrong places