/lit/ - Literature

>Friends invite me to a small gathering of a party
>"Sure, I never go anywhere, what the Hell"
>Talking to some university students about books, they're all in humanities programs so I figure they read
>Oh uh... yeah... I've totally read that
>Ask a follow up question about the book because I actually want to discuss it
>Becomes painfully obvious they haven't read it
>Feel ashamed for them
>All any of them have read is Salinger, Vonnegut, graphic novels and Hunter S Thompson
>Talking to feminist chick, I'm not really into feminism but I've touched on some stuff in my reading
>"So do you like Ibsen at all?"
>"Oh I haven't read him"
>"Sofia Tolstoy wrote a really excellent autobiography which sort of curbs the portrayal of her in Tolstoy's work and really says a lot about marriage and male/female points of view without being political on purpose or overly schismatic"
>"She wrote a book?"
>"Well I just finished some Virginia Woolf essays and I really..."
>"Oh yeah, Woolf was a lesbian, lesbian scholars are getting a lot of evidence towards that"

So why is everyone such a fucking piece of shit? People just pretend to read books to look cool and then aren't able to hold a five minute conversation about anything. I don't even go to university but for God's sake nobody has read anything until somebody mentions Franny and Zooey or Cat's Cradle and then the entire room roundly praises Salinger and Vonnegut. Sure they're good... but other authors wrote shit too. I was talking about Dostoyevsky with a friend and aforementioned feminist girl called him a misogynist and said she was a staunch atheist so his writings are retarded. These kids haven't even read the bible and they pretend to read literature? I'm not religious either but you are missing out on a TON of literature if you don't have a solid understanding of the bible.

>>2408513
>>2408499
Both books heavily influenced the literature that followed it.
Both are concerned with the mindset of a young, intelligent man. Albeit APotAaaYM has a much broader time period, and a more intelligent main character.
CitR is more satirical, APotAaaYM more autobiographical.
CitR is funnier, APotAaaYM is quite dry and serious.
CitR is easier to read, APotAaaYM requires similar knowledge to that of the main character.

CitR is a good book. Don't pretend it's not just because angsty teenagers read and love it. It would be like saying Romeo and Juliet is bad for the same reason.
Plus it got rid of the angstiest teen of all, John Lennon.

>in creative writing class
>girl writes a rape story
>story is absolutely awful, characters are pathetic and stupid, overall terribly written and flat-as-paper characters
>write her a thorough review, just expressing the truth of how I feel about the piece
>her story comes up in class, we go around the room talking about what we thought about it
>I express exactly what I wrote
>All the bitches in the class go fucking apeshit on me, telling me I don't understand because I've never been raped, I don't understand the female gender, and I'm just being an ignorant asshole by just trying to tear the author down personally

>mfw when not a single fuck was given that day by me or my professor

>in creative writing class
>girl writes a rape story
>story is absolutely awful, characters are pathetic and stupid, overall terribly written and flat-as-paper characters
>write her a thorough review, just expressing the truth of how I feel about the piece
>her story comes up in class, we go around the room talking about what we thought about it
>I express exactly what I wrote
>All the bitches in the class go fucking apeshit on me, telling me I don't understand because I've never been raped, I don't understand the female gender, and I'm just being an ignorant asshole by just trying to tear the author down personally

>mfw when not a single fuck was given that day by me or my professor

>>1642653
Forgot image

SO THERE I WAS BEING SALINGER

WHEN MY EDITORS CAME IN AND WERE LIKE

"YOU NEED TO PUBLISH SHIT"

AND I WAS LIKE

"FUCK YOU."

AND THEY WERE LIKE

"HOW ABOUT WRITING A LOT OF BOOKS AND PUBLISHING THEM?"

AND I WAS LIKE

"FUCK YOU."

THEN I BECAME THE VOICE OF AN ERA AND A RECLUSE.

I LOVE MY LIFE.