/lit/ - Literature

>>11167003
Do people have sex at Oxford?

>>11167023
Not quite, they engage in lovemaking however.

>>11167003
I wouldn't want to attend Oxbridge. I've already read The Longest Journey and I don't think any modern scholastic experience can truly compare to that depicted in the book

Brideshead revisited.

Sorry, OP. I don' want an elite GF.

>Tfw you will never escape women's day by having a strawberry-champagne filled picnic with ur BF

>>11167003
>being this in love with worldly things
you will never know peace, oxfordbro

>>11167070
Why don't you want an Elite girlfriend? Would you really prefer to date an orc-tier, unrefined, uneducated, impure Dawn-from-The-Office-tier member of the working classes?

>>11167003
>you will never be driven by your parents to an expensive boarding school in the countryside of Southern England and feel excited and in awe as you approach the ancient school buildings
>>you will never wear a well-fitting formal uniform every day befitting a refined gentleman of high class
>>you will never relax in your comfy £10,000-a-term dorm room reading P.G. Wodehouse and chuckling at his wit
>>you will never sneak away on weekends to walk along the river of the local 95%+ white town with a genetically profound, Elite, upper class girl from a nearby all-girls boarding school
Jokes on you fag I went to Christ's Hospital.
I never worked out why you idolise this upper class thing as much as you do Oxfordbro. It's not all its cracked up to be. You have to drink port. Ask me anything. I'm probably the exact person you have entered in mind when you write these rants /paeans to the English poshos

>>11167090
>I went to Christ's Hospital

Why, did you break a bone lad?

>>11167090
How old are you?

How much do you earn?

Have most of your schoolfriends married fellow members of the upper class?

>>11167003
>You will never have an escapist ideal of adulthood that will negatively influence the next best seller you are currently working on
>You will never have an escapist ideal of college life that will negatively influence the next best seller you are currently working on
>You will never have an escapist ideal of mono-ethnic societies that will negatively influence the next best seller you are currently working on
>You will never have an escapist ideal of romance that will negatively influence the next best seller you are currently working on
>You will never have an escapist ideal of family life that will negatively influence the next best seller you are currently working on

>>11167103
Feelsbadman

>>11167099
30
55k (in accounts, better than most plebs but pretty smalltime). The posh thing is not the open door you think it is. Maybe if you want in get to the arts it is (as we all know that's a clusterfuck). In financial services nobody gives a fuck how posh you are. They care if you can do the job. Especially as you get higher up. You might get a foot in the door with connections, but if you are not up to it they will sack you. There's guys younger than me on more money, and they aren't posh. The big firms headhunt the best prospects from the top universities regardless of social class. The square mile is the most egalitarian place in the world. Nobody is prepared to lose money because of loyalty to an old school tie, when they could hire the latest maths wiz from Mumbai.

Most people aren't married. I've had a few girlfriends who went to Rhodean or places like that. But why would you stick to that set? London is full of saucy wenches. And I still had to get over my autism and learn how to talk to people. Didn't get laid at all much at university, even though I was posh as fuck.

>>11167129

The jobs are all brain-dead and it helps hugely to be posh (and extroverted and normie) to get past the interviews.

>>11167070
Because I prefer elite BFs, sir. The kind with cigars and brandy and smoking jackets.

>>11167163
>The jobs are all brain-dead and it helps hugely to be posh (and extroverted and normie) to get past the interviews.
So says somebody who has never worked in financial services in their life. You don't know what you are talking about. We've got pajeet and chinese quants who can barely maintain eye contact. Think dubsguy in the big short. Yes some roles require that outgoing charm, but most don't. They want people who can do the job.
I didn't get in because I was posh. I had to pass a shit load of exams (studying in my own time after university) to qualify.
If you want to work in theatre or publishing then yes, you need contacts because that sector is completely posh twats giving each other jobs. But the City is big and bad and will bite you if go around letting people expose you to risk just because they went to school with you.

>>11167003
>genetically profound
what does this even mean lol

>>11167129
>square mile most egalitarian

I agree with this. I'm not a fan of banking etc but I know of a lot of people who were raised working class but earning shedloads in finance.

Are your private school friends dating others from your social class?

I know a lot of privately educated people in their 20s / 30s and I'd say at least 85% are dating people of the same background.

>>11167163
Is this Londonfrog?

>>11167186
Madame! Please accept my apologies!

May the coming summer be filled with both champagne and strawberries, m'lady. Thou deserv'st both, I am sure.

>>11167192
I know a guy who works for Barclays earning £46k because his cousin worked there, but he had only ever worked manual labour jobs before that. Not arguing either way, but not everyone working at financial institutions is a Rainman.

Someone on /lit/ (or /pol/, can't remember) said how he worked in asset management but his job was basically to go out for meals etc with very wealthy but very lonely older clients. He said he took on on a family holiday once because he was so lonely.

>>11167197
Not telling.

>sitting on the tube other day
>started absentmindedly humming the march of the grenadier guards
>hear someone else humming it
>look past the sea of orc faces to see a suited 6'3 man winking at me
>passed me his business card on the way out and said "Anything you need, old boy"

I fucking love London.

>>11167266
based white male nepotism

>>11167254
>but not everyone working at financial institutions is a Rainman.
Of course. Just pointing out you don't need to be an old school rugger bugger to be there.
The arts though... I used to have a ex Rhodean gf who worked in theatre. I've never been in a posher environment in my life, and I went to Christ's Hospital. Everyone seemed to be called Perdita or Petunia. And they make a big song and dance about not enough black people, when 90% of them went to the same three schools!

>>11167271
>he thinks it's a matter of racial solidarity

Oh do know your place, orc.

>>11167090
Port is amazing

>>11167279
You don't have to be, but that only shows that even a middlebrow private schoolboy with the right connections can be earning £40k by the age of 28 if he simply puts in the hours and acts the right way.


>And they make a big song and dance about not enough black people, when 90% of them went to the same three schools!

I agree. The same with The Guardian, which promotes diversity and female emancipation etc while the journalists doing it typically live in white enclaves, then buy a house in an all-white town, and send their daughters to the same extremely strict, extremely traditional all-girls schools where a girl can't so much as blow her nose without being slut-shamed. The arts in Britain sickens me for the most part. Top actors / actresses just happen to have attended the top private schools, screenwriters the same. That's not to say these people aren't talented, but it's a fucking shitshow, and it goes along with the property prices and all the rest of it. I've heard Julie Walters, Alan Bennett and others come out against the nepotism in the arts these days, but I can't imagine it will be getting better any time soon. My theory is that when a society loses its racial homogeneity, those in positions of power generally shore up their defences (and thus reveal who they are) and treat anybody outside of their defensive position as a representativ of a demographic (e.g. the "working class writer", the "revolutionary black voice", etc). I can't help but think that in days past, when life moved slower and British society was somewhat duller, there was simply more time to welcome new voices and new artistic forms. But today it seems rather cut-throat, and so the most base form of gaining attention (money) is what decides things.

Then again I may be deluded and bitter :)

>>11167311
The Guardian is the ultimate example. I remember a few years back whenever they had an article about inequality, people would post this pasta below it. It detailed which school (and the fees) each hack went to, and their Oxbridge college. Many keks were had before they ban hammered it.
It annoys me at dinner parties (please don't get upset Oxfordbro) and I'll be sat opposite some wet liberal 'arts administrator' complaining about nasty city types like me, and I'm thinking 'u wot m8, you went to fucking Charterhouse, and I have more ethnic minorities in my building than in your entire fucking industry'.
And they think I'm a pleb until the talk gets /lit/ and they get butthurt that an accountant knows as much about novels as them
/rant over

>>11167334
>you will NEVER attend a dinner party with a group of highly-educated, well-connected, high-earning, interesting, eclectic, privately schooled individuals who push you and your qt Elite crush into an empty room in the flat and insist that you can't leave until you each get over your respective shyness (due to being so pure, innocent and Elite) and kiss

>>11167334
Are you single mate?

>>11167334
What percentage of people at these dinner parties are working class / non-privately educated. Just curious.

>>11167342
We're all going to make it anon
>>11167347
Anon I...
>>11167363
Probably very few. You only invite, or get invited if you're a couple with your own flat so you can return the favour. And in London, that pretty much excludes anyone without money.

>>11167334
Autism

>>11167379
This makes me absolutely want to puke. I fell head over heels for a posh girl a few years back, but I was only earning £22k in central London and have no friends or family in the city and come from a povvo background. I convinced myself at the time that I had a chance with her, but I ended up not taking the opportunity to show her that I liked her. Sometimes I think back and think "what if..." but I think realistically it wouldn't have worked out. She's dating someone in asset management now.

>>11167311
tfw my family is part of that posh arts circle, if only i had the social capabilities to exploit it

>>11167412
Your whole family?

>>11167392
That sucks man. You have to go for these things. Maybe you became a couple one day and she said 'I know this guy in asset management, he's always kind of liked me, and there's a place opening in his office, let's invite him and his gf over and you can talk to to him'.
Next time (and there WILL be a next time) do yourself a favour and believe in yourself

This really resonates as a non-posho Brit. Makes me want to watch a drama film about the scene the OP sets, maybe starring Paul Bettany as the posho. Conundrum - how do we preserve the beauty and aesthetics of the dreaming spires, manor houses, wisteria covered cottages...in a society that's ostensibly democratic. Even without an aristocratic class there is still someone wielding the power, it's just more contextual and less obvious. And people will naturally seek out their own, despite what shitrags like The Guardian profess. Am I looking at the boarding school world, cricket on the village green and bicycles on cobbles with rose tinted glasses? I've never been there but want to go back.

>>11167003
I used to think americans were the most disgusting people on the planet but this thread is seriously making me reconsider

>>11167418
well my uncle is from some well established architect family in london so all my cousins have jobs in the art industry with the youngest already having had exhibitions despite being in his first year at art uni

>>11167420
Thanks mate, and there won't be a next time unfortunately. I'm leaving London soon to return to my shit-tier town oof norf. But yes I should have been more confident and just talked to her. It pains me because she kept trying to get my attention (I think) but I pretended not to notice.

>>11167424
The albino from Da Vinci code? Not a fan of that kind of posho, aesthetically speaking. I prefer the gentle, wavy-haired, cute guy with a peachy bum and a tendency to blush.

>>11167438
>But yes I should have been more confident and just talked to her. It pains me because she kept trying to get my attention (I think) but I pretended not to notice.
We've all done that m8. No point dwelling on it.

>>11167424
>how do we preserve the beauty and aesthetics of the dreaming spires, manor houses, wisteria covered cottages...in a society that's ostensibly democratic

This is a difficult to question to answer without sound either like a barbarian wanting to burn down everything of beauty, or like a selfish materialist wanting to keep everything nice to themselves. It's like the private education question. They produce very intelligent individuals who go on to work in high-responsibility jobs and contribute to what makes Britain great, but their existence also precludes to some degree the ability for non posho kids to reach those same positions.

>>11167379
>he owns a flat in London

Fuck OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFF

>tfw living with four immigrants in a tiny flat in fucking Walworth

>>11167489

Wow, if you're in that position you must be low IQ, uncultured, and badly educated!

Imagine you seeing OP in the street. Imagine the GENETIC differences between him and you

>>11167506
>muh IQs

Yeah but r u happy mate? I'm on four pound per hour but at least I've got my priorities straight!

>>11167489
>complaining about immigrants
>living in London
Shit man, is it possible to live with British people in this city?
You need to save £300 a month, get a steady gf who does the same, you'll have a deposit in 5 years

>>11167003
Of all the glorious things in elite universities you've chosen to describe something as vapid as a relationship with women. Pathetic, what else can I say. Do not be concerned with philistine matters all that much.

>>11167535
Of course it's possible if you spend a lot of time looking at different flats, or if you are well-connected with the kind of people who will always be able to afford living here.

>tfw went to see a flat and some obese Nigerian woman and her autistic son showed me to a dingy back room with a literal crib (bed with four metal guards up the sides) for £650 per month

>>11167540
Sorry but unless you're an anchorite, or rather one of the very few anchorites who aren't merely self-deluding betas, then the romantic love between yourself and another human being is the most noumenal experience you can hope to experience. While you can be close to a man, share with him your thoughts, pains and ambitions, and hug and tackle each other according to the occasion, one can never really penetrate or be penetrated by another man. Although homosexual inter-penetration suggests this isn't the case, what I'm talking about isn't merely physical but spiritual and deeply psychological. The union of man and woman is like the union of two halves which together, if well-suited, can form a perfect whole. The child is the ideal symbol of man and woman's union, and of the perfection only they can achieve. A man and woman, each fundamentally mysterious to one another (gazing into the loved one's eyes never quite reveals the entirety of their inner complexity) can argue with each other, can engage in penetrative activities, can talk for hours or decades, can press their bodies close together, adopt the same political opinions etc, but their yearning to escape their respective positions of isolation (He in Manhood, She in Womnahood) can only really satiate this intense longing by conjoining via the birth of a child, at which point they may relax, comfortable with one another's mystery, and doing the best they can to raise the product of that mystery.

>>11167551
>some obese Nigerian woman and her autistic son
There's a cruel joke I could make here, but I won't

>>11167003

this is actually quite a decent post, because it never allows itself to take its own aesthetic seriously. the Harry Potter reference was especially effective as a self-aware appropriation.

the characters are also environmentally conscious. A+

>>11167459
Maybe the decline of grammar schools has something to do with the current mess. Social mobility has gone down with the rise of the comprehensives.

>>11167649
>>11167459

Am I missing the point with this post
>>11167424
or are yiu guys missing the point? Preserving the culture means less democracy and social mobility.

>>11167649
Not sure, though I'm generally in favour of grammar schools as it's about merit not wealth (although there's a matter of who can afford to live in the catchment area etc). As far as I know other European countries for the most part don't have the same kind of private school network that we do in the UK, and there is a more laid-back egalitarian feel to their whole societies (although of course people will seek others in a similar position etc).

>>11167666
Yes it does, but whether the aesthetics and high-standards set by Britain can be maintained while also allowing such aesthetics and high standards to become available to the lower orders is a question that isn't easy to answer.

>>11167666
>Preserving the culture means less democracy and social mobility.
You can preserve the culture and have social mobility if you have a means for people in the lower classes to join the upper classes. Grammar schools used to do that because you would select students based on ability, and then move them through elite post-secondary institutions that help create an upper class in the first place.

>>11167667
>there's a matter of who can afford to live in the catchment area etc
That's the problem with the current comprehensive system. Rich people cluster around good grammars and comprehensives, while there aren't enough grammars to take in all the kids capable of getting into them in the first place. The answer is to create more grammar school so that you don't need to have money to be able to get an edge over the competition.

>>11167688
But wouldn't more grammar schools just mean more competition and thus the comprehensivisation of grammar schools? Surely it's all about who can scramble to the top of the shit heap at the end of the day.

>>11167699
More grammar schools does mean more academic competition for top university spots, since you're able to get capable working class children to apply. It may mean some losses for the upper classes, but the ability to select students across all social classes based on merit, instead of simply relegating someone to a bad comprehensive because their parents aren't rich, promotes social mobility and rejuvenates the ruling classes, which is something that Britain has done many times in the past, and has to continue to do so in the future.

>>11167714
The upper classes, via private schools (the right ones anyway) will always have an upper leg regardless of how many grammar schools there are in Scunthorpe. They are trained from their early teens to pad out their existential CV by playing sports, organising shit, learning instruments, prepping for interviews and all the rest. And then their parents are also able to donate to the university if they're alumni, thus increasing the pressure for their kid to be accepted, just as in selective private schools where rich parents can elbow away the competition by having old school ties, or by offering money or influence (e.g. help with legal issues, accounting etc).

>>11167726
Hey, I'm not advocating for total social equality. It's just that you need fresh blood from the lower orders if you're going to survive, and grammar schools have proved in the past to be a good way to do this. Otherwise you create an insular, ignorant upper class incapable of ruling that which they don't understand, and then they're left scratching their heads when it all goes to pieces.

Tzu-ch'i had eight sons and, lining them up in front of him, he summoned Chiu-fang Yin and said, "Please physiognomize my sons for me and tell me which one is destined for good fortune."

Chiu-fang Yin replied, "K'un - he is the one who will be fortunate."

Tzu-ch'i, both astonished and pleased, said, "How so?"

"K'un will eat the same food as the lord of a kingdom, and will continue to do so to the end of his days."

Tears sprang from Tzu-ch'i's eyes, and in great dejection he said, "Why should my boy be brought to this extreme?"

"He who eats the same food as the ruler of a kingdom will bring bounty to all his three sets of relatives, not to mention his own father and mother," said Chiu-fang Yin. "Yet now when you hear of this, Sir, you burst out crying - this will only drive the blessing away! The son is auspicious enough, but the father is decidedly inauspicious!"

Tzu-ch’i said, “Yin, what would you know about this sort of thing! You say K’un will be fortunate – but you are speaking solely of the meat and wine that are to affect his nose and mouth. How could you understand where such things come from! Suppose, although I have never been a shepherd, a flock of ewes were suddenly to appear in the southwest corner of my grounds; or that, although I have no taste for hunting, a covey of quail should suddenly appear in the southeast corner - if this were not to be considered peculiar, then what would be? When my son and I go wandering, we wander through Heaven and earth. He and I seek our delight in Heaven and our food from the earth. He and I do not engage in any undertakings, do not engage in any plots, do not engage in any peculiarities. He and I ride on the sincerity of Heaven and earth and do not allow things to set us at odds with it. He and I stroll and saunter in unity, but never do we try to do what is appropriate to the occasion. Now you tell me of this vulgar and worldly `reward' that is to come to him. As a rule, where there is some peculiar manifestation, there must invariably have been some peculiar deed to call it forth. But surely this cannot be due to any fault of my son and me - it must be inflicted by Heaven. It is for this reason that I weep!"

Not long afterwards, Tzu-ch'i sent his son K'un on an errand to the state of Yen, and along the way he was seized by bandits. They considered that he would be difficult to sell as a slave in his present state, but that if they cut off his feet they could dispose of him easily.19 Accordingly they cut off his feet and sold him in the state of Ch'i. As it happened, he was made gatekeeper of the inner chamber in the palace of Duke K'ang, and so was able to eat meat until the end of his days.

>>11167734
Fair enough lad, wasn't assuming that. I really do think that social class is among the most conspicuous things about British culture, with multiculturalism / mass immigration unfortunately claiming first place.

>>11167745
Gruesome story, is this Lovecraft?

>>11167591
That all sounds romantic and fanciful but if I were in the position of being able to go an elite university I would strive to live an authentic and intellectual life as opposed to romance. Why spend your life on women when you're in one of the few places on Earth where true flourishment of intellect is possible? The more time you spend on women, the less time you can spend on, say, a variety of intellectual conversations or philosophical literature.

>>11167746
Class divisions are fine, but caste systems are bad.

This Oxbrdge obsession is misplaced. I see it as the result of our "national conversation" being dominated by fairly ignorant journalists. It's not even like 99.999 % of the population wants to go in to academia. They just want the social cred.

The same with the obsession over grammar schools. We already have a completely meritocratic system- GCSEs and a levels. Yet nobody talks about making them tougher, they (politicians and journalists) talk about grammar schools. They talk about education in terms of signalling, not actual education.

I think the best thing the government could do for social mobility would be to toughen standards and if that means people fail, so be it.

>>11167769
They don't talk about making GCSEs and A Levels tougher because politicians think that they look better if more people pass them with high marks. If they were tough you would need a good grammar school system or at least some kind of academic streaming to be able to train the students capable of succeeding at those tougher tests. You can't just raise the standards and expect that a smart kid stuck in an overcrowded classroom filled with misbehaving kids is going to make it.

>>11167769
The best thing the government could do is abolish the "education system" entirely.

>>11167761
Class divisions are the origin of caste systems. So if caste systems are bad, then class divisions must also be bad.

>>11167798
What I mean is that there's nothing wrong with having class divisions so long as they are not totally impenetrable, and so long as the privileges "accorded" to each class are not so egregious as to cause lasting resentment. Otherwise you get dysfunction.

>>11167003
Jokes on you faggot I already go to a super expensive liberal arts college.
>36,000
Try 70,000.
And it’s free for me you pseud.

>>11167769
I think it's also because life in Britain at the lower end is absolutely fucking miserable, and not even on the extreme lower end. Life in Norway however, for example, is fairly comfy regardless of where you live and what your income is. Go to any street in Norway outside of the ghettos of Oslo and you'll find nice detached homes, comfy well-maintained streets, and so on. In Britain if you fall below a certain bracket (not even a high one) you're stuck in some grim terrace working odd hours in a call centre while sending desperate, pleading job applications to vape shops and horse euthanasia charities.

>>11167782

I agree with you on politicians.

But I'm not a leftist and I don't want grammar schools. It's like allowing the government to point a gun at your head and trusting them. Have you see the conversations about them? They talk about reserving places for poor people. I think even the current conservatives would want pro girl, Muslim, non white affirmative action.

I'm not sure how a poor kid would make it during a one time test for a grammar school either. It depends on whether it can actually be studied for. It probably can, so why not allow the meritocratic process to take place at 16 to 18 instead of 11? And if the test for grammar schools really is heavily IQ dependent, affirmative action programmes will be introduced

Britain hasn't been like that since the 1930s
Stop reading Harry Potter

Daily reminder that Adolf Hitler ended the class system in Germany.

Daily reminder that SS Cap Arcona had only one class of passenger.

>>11167823
Harry Potter was set in the 90s mate, so it was like this until then at least.

>>11167807
The class division itself is a dysfunction, hence why it is called a "division". It comes when a few prize something (e.g. wealth, education) too highly and use it to separate people. The notion that because a man is wealthier, or knows more Latin, or has a particular surname - puts him in a different "social class", is ridiculous, but that's what you're advocating. Separating people according to the lightness of their skin or their skill in football would be just as reasonable. The reason why we still have "class divisions" in Britian is because our "working class" (lol) was too polite to kill the parasite "upper class" outright. Unlike in France.

>>11167841

>>11167818
You're right about the government finding some way to screw it up somehow, especially with affirmative action. I think the Germans select their kids at 13, although they still have opportunities to transfer in afterwards. In Canada some provinces give kids an IQ test when they're around 8 or so (but they don't say it's an IQ test and swear blind it isn't), and the ones that score highly are given the option of going into a "gifted" stream which continues until the second year of highschool. After that there are voluntary AP or IB courses depending on the school, which any capable student can enroll in. It's messy, but having some kind of academic selection is in my opinion a good thing rather than a bad one.

>>11167818
>>11167860
>>11167884
Interesting discussion, this is why I come her.
A class system is just a more visible power hierarchy, and if you don't believe that any large scale mass of humans can ever implement true equality (a false utopia) then the British way is one that might be the lesser of several evils. Americans are proud of their classless society, but then you still have the divisions with crass billionaires, New England Old Money etc.

Social mobility is a reasonable and noble aim, but not in the way and means that leftists think. If grammar schools fill up with whites then we have to be honest about it, not talk about quotas and "injustice". Keeping the elites on their toes, introducing new blood stops the stagnation and degeneration. But rigour is necessary at every stage.

The comment about misery in the bottom stratum of Britain is interesting. As a schizoid personality I have great anxiety and fear about losing my job and savings and ending up at the mercy of clown world Britain state apparatus. I like to think that with a bit of pluckiness I could rescue myself with honest work but would probably end up getting knifed by some yoof.

Its not the case that speaking Latin makes you fit to lead, more that a classical education gives you an understanding of the western tradition and equip you with the language of stewardship. But yes you have to let the nice but dim types fall down the ladder and not promote them into positions of real power. Red Toryism, or just conservatism, missing from the political menu.

>>11168027
I think keeping elites on their toes is a very good way of putting it. I'm from a "poor" background (single mother etc) but have done ok for myself, and even though I still have something of a chip on my shoulder I've become acquainted with a lot of private school folk and to be fair they are generally very intelligent, very hard-working people who, in my experience, feel a little guilty of having had the opportunities and guidance they had and often serve to help others because of that. Granted they perpetuate the system by sending their own kids to such schools, but having working class quotes or something like that would be a shame. If anything we should just encourage blank applications to universities, so that nothing like a name or race or whatever can benefit any given application.

Also your job / schizoid personality is very relatable to me, and I suffer intense paranoia also whereby I invest a great deal of energy in imagining the worst outcome of any situation and then expending great deals of energy to avoid what I feel is an inevitability. This has led to low risk-taking behaviour and a general retarded perspective as to my own potential and so on. Being sociable and willing to network is very important, which I found out the hard way due to my intense shyness and avoidant disposition.

>>11167699
But it's still like that without grammar schools, standards just go down and it means less social mobility. There was more social mobility when we had grammar schools and more working class people attending them.

Look up what Peter Hitchens has to say about Grammar schools and education in general. One of the things he's 100% right about.

>>11168172
Quick rundown?

>>11167420
Just be(lieve) yourself, anon!

>you will never be old money
>you will never have an ancestor affectionately referred to by his title, as in "the judge" or "the commodore"
>you will never have your wedding to an equally pedigreed young lady at the most exclusive social club in the city

I never understand these threads, they only sow seeds of envy and self-hatred among fragile anons.

Just stop.

Why does this geezer always fail to talk about the RAMPANT homosexuality and pederasty at his "old grey stones" public school? This is what these places are really renowned for. The favoured book of every English public school boy is Plato's Symposium.

>>11167817
books for this feel?

>you will never be tutored by a grizzled old fruit steeped in centuries of classical tradition, with a touch of alcoholism and world-weary cynicism. You will never submit a paper on Epictetus to have him screw it up in a ball and hit your desk with a wooden ruler shouting "Wrong! You are a lost cause Mr Phillips, you don't belong here, get out of my classroom!" You will never take this as a cue to try harder, marching up the polished corridors reciting Latin and repeating the question "what is the nature of man"? You will never sit in a wood panelled office, feeling the stern judgement of the teacher cum therapist cum father figure, played in the film adaptation by Sir Ben Kingsley. You will keep running around the rugby pitch for hours in the rain until you finally realise the point of it, until the dam breaks and you gain acceptance to the hallowed society of fine Englishmen, ready to take your place at the helm of history and steer the good ship to rich and wondrous lands with a plumptious English rose with wide hips in a summer dress acting as your faithful shipmate.

>>11167003
>What's your favourite novel set at the University of Oxford /lit/?
His Dark Materials?

>>11168441
>you will never be inducted into your university's secret society, of which your father and his father before him and his father before him were members
>you will never have a huge paganistic feast followed by a nude run across campus as initiation
>you will never call in a favor with your secret society friend years down the line to make an unpleasant situation disappear
>you will never have the opportunity to do the same for him

>>11168435
Good question. Best to start with Dickens, go to People of the Abyss (London), move forward to the Angry Young Men novelists, but after that I'm not so sure. Can't think of much these days which focuses on the working class.

Some recommendations from recent years:

Apples by Richard Milward
We Don't Know What We're Doing by Thomas Morris
Young Skins by Colin Barnett
Hired (non-fiction) by Adam Bloodsworth

I can't think of anything that really dredges the life of destitution however, though I recommend the music of Sleaford Mods.

>when you go to Oxford instead of Cambridge

>>11167666
>means less democracy
are you saying this is a bad thing (as longs as they preserve all that is good)

>>11168274
Had a look at the thread and in all honesty it's very similar to the stuff people have already bought up.

Who gives a fuck? There’s no use crying over things you can’t do.
Just make the best of what you have

>>11167090
Christ's Hospital is a shit-tier, sports-specialist public school for those not rich enough to attend any of the actual prestigious private institutions around the country; the people at the school are most certainly not the upper class, maybe middle class if we're being generous. The whole school is literally based around the idea of giving plebeians access to a slightly higher level of education than they would get at their local comp, and the fees are universally means-tested. The Uniform is also very autistic; i suppose its a sort of mark of shame for the students there, marking them out as destined for the parish rather than parliament.

how is this thread still up?

fucking /lit/ mods are useless, and their uneven policing is making this board a shitshow.

>>11168441
>teacher cum therapist cum father figure
what did he meant by this

>>11168481
If you're recommending Dickens for that you've got to include Henry Mayhew as well.

>>11167003
>crying "Ballyhoo!" to warn the flocks of cheering Chinese tourists to watch out lest your cycle trample them underwheel

dead

>>11168655
Cum means "with" in Latin (among other things). In English it is used analogously to the modern "slash" construction, i.e. "teacher slash therapist slash father figure".

I have nearly the same feelings about Harvard. I don't know how I developed this obsession, but that school lingers over nearly all my thoughts, ad I just can't escape it.

what the fuck is with this oxford idiot posting his shitty threads? half the students at oxford are rich kids who get too much support from mummy and daddy. there is nothing more to it.

>>11168610
>this thread still up
Still better than your school pleb. Come back when you read the Aeneid in the original Latin before you were 14
>tfw still have the certificate

>>11167489

>tfw living in someones annexe in Norwich for a month to save money because cheaper than renting a single bed in some shithole in Zone 4

>>11168724
>someones annexe in Norwich for a month to save money
Have you dismantled the trouser press yet?

>>11168716
Failed admission anon?

>>11168724
I felt weird reading in Knausgaard's My Struggle about how he lived in Norwich for like three months happily claiming welfare while writing full-time and bumming around. Truly a different era.

>>11168746
lol, i didn't bother applying. i know some people who went to oxford or cambridge: they're only universities at the end of the day, with the exception that a lot of rich people try to get their shitty offspring into them.

>>11168702
Been watching the online free CS50 lectures that Harvard puts out. I really wish my university experience could have been like that, sitting in grand lecture halls qs an eager student, drinking in the animated teachings of a professor, before heading back to the dorms to consolidate my learning, typing at a computer terminal as the rain starts to fall and wind beats the tree branches against a nearby window.

English red brick just isn't the same.

>>11168833
There's just something I about it hat I want so badly. I think it's just some desire to make up for my past failures in academic environments that have made me so bitter. I've always been surrounded by people by people who are very successful academically, and it just makes me hate myself even more.

>>11168702
For me it's Stanford. I fucked up guys, I should have gone.

Lmao, the best part is that 85% of the anons posting in these threads come from a long line of common folk and have forgone their humble origins when they took on the yoke of their upper-middle class upbringing that was only available to them because of the post war boom, now feeling totally detached to the world of even their grandparents, floating in a limbo of riches and class attitude but not actually coming from high class. Lost.

>>11167023
Only if it's intergenerational burglary

>>11167786
This. Replace schools with compulsory civil engagement/volunteer work, some education in literacy, and 4 years military service (w/ technical training) starting at 17.

>>11169818
Throw in a spartan style land system and you’ve got the perfect society.

Of course the upper class would rather shit out fragile workaholic faglords whose ego revolves around jumping from one “accomplishment” to another on their parents pay check.

I took a year at an elite institution, lots of the types of people OP describes, they’re all miserable cunts. Very few of them take a serious interest in intellectual subjects (lots of them take an interest in ‘academic’ ones, but fail to grasp that intelligence is different than regurgitating professors opinions). In conversations having to do with anything remotely interesting, philosophy, metaphysics, religion and so on they’re almost all useless. More adapt at namedropping Foucault or N. or someone, smiling smugly, breathing in their farts with the sincere belief they’ve said something interesting, but the average pleb with an internet connection is far more interesting to talk to.

It’s a sham. Most of academia is a sham. Look no further than the fact that “formal logic” exists as an actual field of inquiry, that people build their entire careers on such a humongous load of BS, and how many ignoramouses will proudly parade said “Logic” in defence of their banal socially correct opinions.

It all leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. My only aspiration. Is to be part of the vanguard which eventually throws this miserable upper fat of psueds and fakers against the wall.

>>11167003
>you will never bugger other boys and engage in clandestine sadomasochistic rituals at an elite boarding school
Feels bad man

>hearing all this shit about British class system as an Aussie
Wtf I thought all your writers for the guardian and shit would be middle class retards but I guess it makes sense. Maybe I’ve been fooled by all the subhuman accents your BBC presenters have these days. I’m glad it’s not as rigid and as prevalent here, though don’t ever believe the memes about Australia being a “classless, egalitarian” society if some retard tries to boast about that. If anything the concept just obscures (but, perhaps, contra Britain, softens some of the effects of) the very real class divisions that exist.

>>11167860
It’s bold to call something inherent to agricultural society since it’s genesis a dysfunction. Undesirable, perhaps, but one shouldn’t disregard its ostensible, perhaps necessary utility. Class still exists in France and all other “egalitarian” societies. One should remember that it was really the bourgeoisie who were emancipated (or rather, who consolidated their power) in the French Revolution, not the poor.

>>11167003
Imagine the feelings of dread and absolute despair these walls hold in...

>>11170006
Remember the fourteen words!
>The agricultural revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
1811 THREE MILE!

>>11167054
>I wouldn't want to attend Oxbridge

Luckily you wouldn't ever be invited to.

>all that work
>you will never be born into a royal bloodline

>>11167003
>you will never be strangled and beaten by your parents on a weekly, at times daily basis
>you will never see the horrors of humanity (rape, murder, both, sexual deviancy with excrement, bestiality) as a young boy
>you will never participate in those things
>you will never turn a good man into a child-molester, then a child-rapist by forcing him to take your body in exchange for his esoteric/"adult world" knowledge
>you will never know the fury and confusion of not having parents, or being put through the foster system
>you will never eat dirty bread and wonder if people add that in novels because they've done it as well
>you will never survive on pidgeon meat, rotting carcasses, and dumpster/composted food for years on end
>you will never be turned away from even temp agencies because you're too smelly
>you will never lose the only person who ever looked at you with love and admiration to an inevitable death from an incurable disease
>you will never face off against wild animals and somehow win
>you will never have your hands and feet chained to cinderblocks and be thrown off a bridge into a river in may
>you will never cut your wrist open on rusted pipes at the bottom of a river to escape from those chains
>you will never live with a serial rapist and an arms dealer because your moral compass says they aren't bad to you
>you will never find out your real parents were a serial killer and a drug addict/mentally unstable prostitute and wonder what the fuck the meaning of life is if something like you exists
>you will never realize the simple happiness that comes from leaving all that behind and starting to become a decent human being
>you will never thank the universe for letting you find an outlet for your frustration like 4chan
>you will never find comfort in having anonymous people give you feedback on your thoughts, feelings, and insecurities because no one had ever done that for you offline/in-person
>you will never take refuge in anons choosing to believe you're a compulsive liar or writing trashy exposition for a character rather than believe this is your life
>you will never be terrified of telling anyone irl because you can't tell if your life is shit, your narration of it is too negatively focused, or you might end up hurting them because you don't socialize well

Young Patullo of A Staircase in Surrey is my go-to reread [guilty pleasure], though I'd say Madonna of the Astrolabe is a better read all-around [favourite].

I wasn't a fan of The Golden Compass -- The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass were written with less of a trite(?) undertone. The foremost felt gimmicky by comparison to the latter two. Wish I'd read them first, or out of order.

>>11167003
Why does /lit/ idealize Oxford so much? I went there because I didn't know what else to do at the time, and it was an altogether forgettable experience. Mostly I remember being bored, wishing I were elsewhere. Fortunately I was accepted into Berkeley for grad school. My years there were far more enjoyable.

>>11170527
If it's any consolation, I'm sure if you and OP were stuck on a desert island in a pinch you could kill and eat him without breaking a sweat.

>>11170562
We're failure who want to be part of an intellectual elite.

>>11167003
Being a poor drifter and making it as a writer is much more aesthetic in my opinion.

The succession of hot but degenerate women cycling through your life (or you cycling through theirs as you travel from town to town), the elation of your first successful publication, the surprise and envy the yuppie faggots feel when you break into the literary establishment, the worldly wisdom of middle age and eventual marriage to someone nobly-born, the masculinity of it all... yes.

Oxford isn't white

>>11167197
white anglo

>>11167621
the cruel joke already is that she's nigerian

>>11168446
Pretty comfy

>>11167023
Yes. Many overcompensate for the Oxford geek image by being a little...wild. Also you've got those post-single sex school/boarding school things going on and the stereotypes are often borne out.
>>11168832
Bitter, angry, irrational.

>you will never take the train to salford university, fling you bags down and lie die exhausted on your dorm bed after the exhausting journey
>you will never roll out of bed with a hangover and shrug as you wear yesterday's clothes to save laundry money
>you will never sit in you £80/week dorm surrounded by cheap red wine bottles reading revolutionary literature gradually getting radicalized
>you will never go out in manchester city centre and meet a girl from some random nondescript British city like Bristol, exotic but familiar at the same time and compare accents and talk about how badly the homeless are treated
>you will never temporarily break up because she's a tankie and you're an anarchist but then reunite as she relents that after revolution occurs moves should be towards more freedom
>you never invite her to you cheap dorm, only for to sit down on you bed and say mischievously "guess what I've got?" and pull a bag out her pocket containing ecstasy pills
>you will never experiment with drugs together and form a deep bond over your mutual radicalism and shared experiences
>you will never attend a folk music night at an oxford pub during the summer holidays with your friend-who-is-a-girl (girlfriends are a bougie hierarchical concept) and get monged out, only to hear some Tory boy talking about how the working class are lazy and just need to pull their bootstraps up on the way and confront him as his weak chin and pompous clothing gradually annoys you even more so you throw cider on him and run away holding your friend-who-is-a-girl's hand laughing hysterically

Jokes on you op im on my way to hall right now

>>11172222
Fookin sorted lad

>>11167271
>misinterpreting a class hierarchy as a racial hierarchy
Good Lord. The ABSOLUTE STATE of Murrica

>>11172222
this except with anarcho primitivism

>>11172222
Yayaaaaasss

The first time U of Salford has had a quad

>>11173806
If you look at highly racially mixed countries like Brazil, you'll find that racial and class hierarchies are pretty much the same thing.

>>11172222
you don't even have to go to uni for that to happen to you in some parts of salford still

>>11172051
lol, get over it mate, oxford isn't anything special. if you really think all these rich kids get into oxbridge or other good unis because they are smart, you must be utterly deluded. the entire process is catered towards richer individuals. from getting good a-levels to have a good personal statement to having a good interview, everything is easier for rich students since they get much more support than poor students.

>>11174120
That's right anon. The two best universities in Europe, arguably the best in the world are nothing special. It's been an elaborate con job for the last few centuries.
You must be so smart for seeing through their silly charade. People should go to the university of you

>>11170591
And yet all I wanted was a non-normalfag friend.

>c'est la vie, i will eat

>>11170562
Berkeley is the Oxford of the USA.
Or rather, one of a handful of Oxbridges.

>>11167003
I used to envy these kind of people b/c I saw their self confidence and it made my autism seem even worse somehow. But in reality, the confidence that comes with priviledge is a facade built around never being challenged in a serious way. Coming out of nothing and surviving, as unlikely and difficult as it is, is 1000x better and more durable.

>>11170527
what type of bestiality?

Also, I doubt you by default b/c of how serious your claims are, but if true that's a pretty goddamn interesting life and you should be proud

>>11173903
kek, severely underrated

>>11173911
Whether that's the case in Brazil or not, it's clearly not in the UK. You can't go up to an upper class person and say 'Hey, fellow white person, please give me opportunities'. You would be horsewhipped for your impudence, and rightly.

>>11168724
I live in Norfolk and decided to drop out uni in London after realising that I'm happier in the countryside. Fuck big cities and specially fuck London. Norwich is the right size for me and despite being boring, it's still a fine city

>>11176013

>>11176013
I hear it has good bookshops and restaurants. Also must be a lot of writers about since IIRC the university is well known for its creative writing courses.

This place is a right shithole desu and very underwhelming. You see everything there is to see in about 2 hours. There aren't actually that many nice old buildings, and the second you step out of the main part (which is tiny) you're in your standard UK council house and tower blocks full of immigrants and scum areas.

>>11176059
>You see everything there is to see in about 2 hours
Straight-up wrong. Most of the colleges have stuff worth seeing, and there's no way you can pack them into two hours. Not to mention the museums- Ashmolean alone is easily over two hours.

Yes, it's a small, easily walkable town. That's not a bad thing (except for housing costs).

>>11176059
>Oxford
>tower blocks
Where? I literally don't remember seeing any, but then I was very central.

>>11176074

Headington, the end of Cowley, Blackbird Leys (especially Blackbird Leys) etc.

>>11176072

Eh, I suppose. Once you've been living here a while everything is very boring and underwhelming

>>11176079
Huh, I never really lost the sense of enchantment. But then I'm an optimistic and easily enchanted person.

All other things aside, though, it's definitely one of the more beautiful places I've been to.

>>11167745
Based Zhuangzi. Although if I were M Night Shyamyamyalan doing an adaptation I would make the son an imperial food taster and then have him die first day on the job (followed by the Emperor, due to slow-acting poison).

>>11174120
Oxford is special, and most people here are very smart. Of course, you wouldn't know this unless you went.

>>11176074
he's bullshitting/exaggerating. You have to be really really far out to see any of that stuff.

>>11174295
lol you're too far gone mate. try going to an elite british school and you'll maybe understand what the process is like. retards like you think that oxbridge must be fellated because you've glimpsed at it from afar. but really, there is nothing special about them. for econ, lse is up there or better. for sciences, some of the london based unis like ucl or imperial have better departments. this isn't the 14th century anymore, where you only had a couple of unis.

of course, if you weren't a fucking idiot, you'd know that.

>>11176505
and how do you know that oxford is special? have you gone to harvard, mit, cambridge, iits or any other unis? retard.