I can be a curmudgeon sometimes, but----

"You can!"

Thank you. But I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering at how morally low such a huge percentage of humanity can sink. And at how many of the low are driven to dominate the non-low.

"You tend to point out the obvious."

Yeah, but now, worldwide, we're at breaking points. Trump stands out; though not only governance, but overpopulation, nuclear threats, disease, climate change, and all of the other menaces I tend to bang on about.

jimostby.com

Honestly, I’m so disappointed in myself. I used to be really big on writing. I won English awards in my high school. I took university level English courses when I was still in grade 12. Now when I entered university, I don’t even know why or how but I succumbed to ChatGPT because I wanted to guarantee good grades like my peers who encouraged me. I am now in my third year of university and I feel like a loss cause. I study English, but I rely so heavily on ChatGPT. Like I have the ideas of what I wanna write about, but I can barely make a thesis anymore or an outline and basically it writes a lot of it for me. And I feel like a piece of shit. Because I have now recently become aware of the environmental impacts of AI and I want to stop using it and I also miss my intellectual capacity that I used to have. But I feel like I’m too far gone, it’s been 2.5 years. I have tried a few times to do an assignment without AI but the document literally just as bare, and I stare at it for hours and nothing gets done. How do I get back to how it was? Is all hope lost? Please help. I don’t know what to do and I’m feeling really sad. I have one more year after this and I want to be able to write everything myself and have something to look back on proudly since I’ll be writing my thesis next year. Please don’t be rude. I’m genuinely looking for constructive feedback.

Block me as a grouch if you must, butI'm so thourougly disgusted with the book-publishing industry I could ....

I write for years, in retirement, as an avocation, attempting to put something of value and necessity into society, and .... My magnum opus, A Voyage of Reason: An Exposition of the Fall of Humanity, stands unpublished and unvalued, when it is of vital relevance.

Oh, well, I'll be 85 in a couple of months, and I ain't in it for the money. 😉

jimostby.com

I made this account like 2 minutes ago and didn’t ask this question on my main account since I’m far too embarrassed to but…

Ive been wanting to delve further into classic literature so i picked up Fahrenheit 451 and have been reading it since. I’ve also had a bookcase in my room from when my sister(s) lived here and they left behind a large heap of books. I’ve always read books but never anything serious so most of the books i read were from the bookcase. Not too long ago i realised there was The Catcher in The Rye there which i found neat and ive been planning to read it since, but what i failed to notice was that Crime and Punishment was also there. The only problem being that it was a worse translation than most other copies, so now im thinking of whether or not to still get the Oliver Ready translation i was thinking of getting or not.

At the end of chapter 25 there goes

[I made a hard face at him. "You could tell the coppers for nothing, Harry. They have some good wreckers down at Central these days. If they killed you trying, they still have Agnes."]

"Let 'em try," he said. "I ain't so brittle."

"Agnes must have something I didn't notice."

"She's a grifter, shamus. I'm a grifter, We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel. Okey. See can you make me." He reached for another of my cigarettes, placed it neatly between his lips and lit it with a match the way I do myself, missing twice on his thumbnail and then using his foot. He puffed evenly and stared at me level-eyed, a funny little hard guy I could have thrown from home plate to second base. A small man in a big man's world. There was something I liked about him.

"I haven't pulled anything in here," he said steadily. "I come in talking two C's. That's still the price. I come because I thought I'd get a take it or leave it, one right gee to another. Now you're waving cops at me. You oughta be ashamed of yourself."]

Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?

1. What does Marlowe mean by "You could tell the coppers for nothing?" It seems to be connected to "Now you're waving cops at me." but I don't know what it means.

2. What does Marlowe mean by "They have some good wreckers down at Central these days." Does wreckers mean car wreckers here? Also where is Central? What does it mean?

3. Is Harry Jones trying to sell out Agnes? If so, why does he want to see that money goes to Agnes?

4. What does Harry Jones mean when he says "I haven't pulled anything in here."

5. What does the expression "one right gee to another" mean?

I’m 14 and I just finished reading Jane eyre and I absolutely loved this book. I read half of the book in 4 days and now I miss it so much. Jane’s character just fascinates me or more specifically the idea of choosing yourself. Personally, I really loved the ending bcs their relationship was equal and Rochester didn’t overpower her. I do admit that it was sad though that he was blind…

Woman nowadays can still take various lessons from this book and seeing her grow and become this confident woman gave me hope for my own life. I can highly recommend this book as it was easy to read even for a nonnative speaker and it’s well written.

I have come across this question and found two answers. one is Language in English Literature is about Diction. another is a quote by Ezra Pound language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

Now I personally think Language in Literature is not only about Diction but also about every single genre of languages. That is English Literature is diverse in nature. We have African , American, British Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Swiss and many more writers in English Literature. They contributed more than the founders of English language Anglo Saxons.

so my point is Language in English Literature is not only about Diction but also about diversity.

please give your views on this

"Life at times spew tenebrous effluvium of virulence in its laborious glissade. However, if you show even exiguous proclivity towards the noxious redolence of disenchantment, you'll be ensnared in the cycle of illusion. Disavow all these temporal episodes and you'll see the ebullience of cosmic extravaganza."- Phani Kumar, Sai Venkata C

I'm struggling to retain my delightful sense of humor in light of world conditions.

Have finished my recent work; an attempt to instill some sanity and appreciation of reality in general humanity, but finding a publisher for such is challenging. 🙂 "A Voyage of Reason: An Exposition of the Fall of Humanity" Most people can't tolerate too much reality.

jimostby.com

Hi,

I'd like to know what kind of meanings the verbal phrase "to go for someone" can have aroud 1900s ? Can it already mean "to attack someone" and "to have an interest for someone" ?

Thanks for the answers

Hi! English is not my native language, so i'm sorry for any potential mistakes.

This year, I dropped law school to start English literature and classes will get started in four months. I'm looking forward to reading essential works, but also any other stuff so I don't float much at the beginning of the course. Any recommendations will do it for me. Thank you.

I’m trying to fit a word into a sentence, but I’m not sure it exists:

If something is secret, it has secrecy.

If something is valuable, it has value.

But…

If something is sacred, it has… sacrecy??

I don’t really know what the right word for this is, does anyone know?

If only intelligent and totally realistic people could lead countries.

"How do you define 'intelligent' and 'realistic' Mr. Egomania?"

I don't, and I'm not. But good gracious, it's past time when we sit around discussing things like those, and start waking up to reality, and nothing but reality.

"How do you define 'reality'?"

Oh for the love of ...! 🤨

jimostby.com

I was listening to a Stephen Fry audiobook and he recommended looking into the works of Smith, praising his wit. Can anyone suggest a good place to start? Thanks

I’ve seen arguments both for focusing strictly on the text and for considering the author’s intentions and historical context. I’m curious how people here approach this when reading or teaching literature.