/lit/ - Literature

well read to normies means you've read the hunger games, harry potter, and maybe something by malcolm gladwell. showing your true power level would intimidate them

Nobody irl likes literature

>>12176613
I argued only once with a person that insisted on her new age idea of Buddhism and I explained her the truth about it since I studied it in university. It was pointless, she insisted I was wrong so I said whatever and dropped it

>>12176620
>>12176624
t.19 year olds

I test the waters some.

>>12176613
i pretend i dont read
in fact i pretend im retarded, which is easy for me because i basically am retarded

>>12176613
>go Good Will Hunting on their ass
kys

>>12176628
Fake Buddhists might be my least favorite form of pseud. New age doofuses need to be stopped.

>>12176624
had a coworker last year who brought up dante and tolstoyevsky and offered good conversation. it happens, dont fool yourself

>>12176642
Make me, bitch.

>>12176613
What a terrible film.

>>12176613
I talk to them like a normal person. People who treat every conversation like a competition are despicable.

>>12176663
How about instead of virtue signaling you say what you mean?

>>12176644
She's like 50 year old at this point. I think women at some point go a little crazy and find these outlets

>>12176638
based

>>12176652
my boy's wicked smaht

>>12176638
>When all your jokes fall flat

>>12176652
Sky rockets in flight, oh, afternoon delight!

Don't run into them that often but it kind of depends on what the conversation is about. Mostly I harass people by talking about the origins of words, though. Last night I bored my girlfriend while I was at the hospital by speculating that the word "patient" comes from patiens (Lt. "suffering"). People probably think this sort of thing is condescending.

>>12177425
I love etymology, anon. The origins of words is some of the most interesting shit.

>>12176613
Hide

>be me
>reading The Idiot at work
>new guy, a tatted up ex-marine approached me
>"hey bro whatcha reading?"
>decide not to be a douchebag and just immediately assume he wouldn't understand or wouldn't be interested.
>Start of enthusiastically
>"It's this great book called The Idiot.. etc. etc."
>turns out he's deeply interested in Russian lit and loves Tolstoy
>we discuss The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other works beyond
>the talks go beyond a surface level and we actually end up being pretty good friends
>frequently seek each other out to break up the monotony at work

sometimes it goes well!

previously me
>meet qt
>start dating
>every time a book I'm interested in comes up she'll say she's read it to impress me.. but beyond that our talks are just "me, me, me"
>Siddartha
>"uhh... I've read it"
>she completely skipped The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism in 1984 because she thought it was boring

all the women I've dated have been plebs and pseuds unfortunately. I sat next to a female philosophy student who sort of clang to me who was pretty brilliant but I wasn't really attracted to her.

everything sucks

Revealing myself to be at all intelligent or well read is the single worst thing I can do socially. Once one of those degree-holding upper bougie wannabe technocrat hears that you've undertaken any form of intellectual self-improvement, they will attempt to respond in kind with a sort of performative overcompensation for experiencing a moment of narcissistic fear that you have bettered them.

Oh WOW you're reading ARISTOTLE? That's crazy, because I JUST started listening to this podcast that goes into ALL these philosophical ideas and applies them to how we're living today and it just BLOWS my mind. Anon, you'd love it, I'm sending you a link right now. Like, they talk all about how life has whatever meaning you give to it and all religions is pretty much people just deciding that a certain way of life is better than another. Yeah, philosophy's wild.

I'd probably be the one to get good will huntinged

>>12177522
>tfw went on a date or two with a literary qt but we never went anywhere
not gonna lie I was looking forward to raising our kids

>>12177435
Is is fascinating, but one of the other reasons I like looking into it is I think it helps you remember the word in the future (because you remember more about what it means), which can be a little more difficult with more esoteric words.

>>12177574
Yeah, this is middle-class life now, particularly if you’re in your twenties and your friends have decent jobs.

I’ll be honest, since my time editing my university’s lit mag I haven’t met anyone with even a passing interest in either canonical, capital-L literature or even contemporary lit that isn’t the newest Patterson/Baldacci/Steel. It is shit.

>>12176613
I literally adopt a BAWSTAHN accent and start talking about being cucked by HAHVAHD and not going to the public library. English is not my first language.

I figure nobody likes to be lectured, especially The Normie, so I stay as quiet and agreeable as I can and let them feel good for 'enlightening' me with some literary recs.

>>12176613
>hide your power level
Always this. Mid-range IQ people pretend to be smart, through their worthless stack of knowledge which they are incapable of analyzing. High IQ people hide the fact because it is not socially advantageous to be a bragard and know, if there is a high IQ person like them around, they are more reserved and do not want to appear to be a mid-range IQ person looking like a know it all. Hope this helps.

>>12178341
Spotted the middie

>>12176668
how about instead of constant struggling and fighting, you take a step back and breathe

>>12176613
> He talks to People

>>12178341
How about the category you most likely belong to: the imbeciles?

God I hate the faggotry and pretentiousness on this board.

>>12176620
>>12176624

Fucking Anglo fags

I've met random people on the train reading the iliad, Nietzsche, Wallace, Franzen, Dante, Adorno, literally anything imagineable

Some guy at the restaurant I work at gave me his collection of DFW shorts

>>12177574

God forbid someone recommended you a fucking podcast you slimeball plebshit

You're just a bitter and insecure homo afraid of being exposed as a pseud

>>12179432

Exactly. Don't be afraid to be one upped, or corrected. Don't hide your passion, that's cowardice. Engage people as equals. Don't think of anyone in terms of "mid IQ" and if you do, please just kill yourself. You're not wanted.

if you're not a pretentious, arrogant douchebag, many people will actually appreciate your intelligence and be happy to learn something.

>>12177574
They're trying to make conversation with you. Indulge them next time and try not to sound like too much of a bored asshole.

>>12177574
>overcompensation for experiencing a moment of narcissistic fear that you have bettered them
>this entire post

>>12176613
>normie lifter friend on zuccbook asks for book recommendations
>give him a list of /lit/ starter memes
>nobody else posts, no comments, zero likes
why am i like this

>>12176613
Always hide, and by that I mean that I never drag my own interests and opinions into the conversation, unless they're asked for, but instead try to engage with with what I'm listening to. In general I shun talk about literature because I'm an inarticulate STEMbot whose real strength is logic.

>>12176613
I always hide my power level. My girlfriend didn't even know until we had been together for over a year.

>>12176613
I don’t let on that I read lit cuz I can’t talk about what I read for shit. I wish I could but I just can’t. I’m a mumbling stumbling retard whenever I talk in general but especially when talking about what I’ve read. Pls help.

>>12176613
I don't feel like discussing my edgy music and book tastes with normal people. i just say make up something plebby on the spot, like "radiohead and sartre" and hope they leave me alone.

>>12179433
Hate to break it to you, but reading those authors doesn't make you well read. It makes you slightly above the average retard.

>People keep recommending me Sam Harris


AHHHHHHHHHH

>>12176613
If they just read casually like YA or genre fiction, I don't mind that as I've read a few books like that too and I know we can talk about those if they wanted to.

I've only really met two people who have read classics though and they're the people I don't need to hide my power level from. It feels so refreshing to talk with people like that as it happens so rarely but we can just skip between multiple books with enthusiasm. Recommendations from people like that also mean a lot more too.

>>12176652
It's not the best out there but for a movie written by two lads who were in their late teens when they started out and wrote a film that was immensely successful because it resonated with so many people, you got to give them credit for it.

The blowjob joke was great.

>>12177425
I get it, I'm also interested in etymology albeit in a more casual sense. I remember going down that rabbit hole in college while studying English language.

>>12177574
well at least they're trying to engage with a conversation.

>>12179249
Yeah, you have no genuine worldview.

Not related to OP but one day at university I was sat in an empty classroom eating my lunch (I had nothing else to do and I just wanted to read quietly, I know, I'm not exciting).

After thirty minutes, three girls came in and were interrupting my reading time with a loud conversation about blowjobs. I was trying to continue with my book and I couldn't help but wonder why the hell they'd have this conversation when I was only a row in front of them.

It got to the point where they were saying "if your boy eats a lot of fruit like bananas then his cum tastes like bananas, it's really good" etc etc and I was so uncomfortable that I just left.

I didn't really want to tell anyone about it and maybe they just said that crass stuff to get me to leave the room, but doesn't that count as some form of sexual harrassment?

>>12179691
oh no poor guy. this is rape!!!!

>>12179538
some people just want easy stuff they've heard of, anon, it's ok. you tried to help, he wasn't interested. I've seen similar posts on facebook and try to avoid them because I know my recommendations wouldn't be what they really want. Sometimes they're just vague asking for "some good books" but I know that I can't go out of my way and say THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH IS A REAL PAGE TURNER, UNPUTDOWNABLE !

>>12179694
thanks for the sarcasm I appreciate it but honestly what is the boundary for this kind of thing? I know i'd make people uncomfortable if I just struck up a conversation about eating pussy and there was a single girl in the room.

>>12179699
Not him but he’s unironically right: you were raped. Next time covertly record their conversation and use it to sue the school and get them expelled. I’m not kidding. They need to be made an example of. Women need to shape up.

>>12179711
I don't think it's rape if nobody forced me to have sex without consent. This happened a few years ago now, two of the girls dropped out and I've graduated since. There's nothing I could do about it now and back then I didn't really think I could do anything about it either.

>>12179656

Fuck off you retard. Reading Nietzsche doesn't make you a genius, but reading one (1) actual primary source philosophy book makes you literally more well read than 98% of this planets population

>>12179433
I remember one guy striking up a conversation with me on the train because I was reading Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground. We didn't talk much but he jokingly said "some light reading, huh?" which did make me laugh a little. We said what we like about Dostoevsky for a little bit and left it like that. Genuinely a nice little moment and I sort of wish I had more moments like that.

>>12179699
>I know i'd make people uncomfortable
So did they.

>having coffee with an ex and her boring normie friends
>the entire conversation is about their high school memories and work
>they have nothing interesting or reflective to say about either, it's literally just recollection
>at one point I get so bored I abruptly get out of my seat, go for a piss and don't come back for like 10 minutes because I would rather look at art exhibits a second time than listen to this shit for a single second longer

Normally I'm not an asshole about this stuff but fucking hell. Most of the time it's better to humour people and let them talk about themselves, whether they're braindead normals or the organic intelligentsia. Then they like you and you don't have hang around with them again unless you get something out of it. But anyway, this is what any person who is a halfway functioning human being knows.

>>12179691
t b h im not a prude or anything but that kind of conversation would make me squirm too. should've reported it when you had the chance, sorry anon.

>>12179723
Uhm, no, sweaty. Despite what your experience living in a shithole might suggest, reading Neet-she is not some tfw to smart ultra special boy niche interest. His works along with those of Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus are in fact some of the most widely read "serious" literature on Earth. So take off the fedora and stop sniffing your own farts, lest you're willing to overdose.

>>12179769
I feel similarly. I try and be polite and conversational, but one time my brother took me to this ice cream parlour with his girlfriend and one of their friends and most of the time they were on their phone with the exception of one time my brother's girlfriend mentioned they saw a couple "dogging" the other day (fucking in a car beside the road basically). Later on my brother asked me why I was so quiet and really all I could say was I just had nothing to say.

My younger brother's even worse with conversation as he'll have a long conversation for two people with himself, it's genuinely frustrating.

I'm thinking of trying to go mute. It's the only true way.

>>12179792

N being perhaps one of the most widely read philosophers does not counteract my claim. Most people don't read books. Few people read books that aren't fantasy or crime stories. Even fewer read nonfiction, even fewer read philosophy. 2% of the world pop having read a primary Phil text is probably an overstatement. And there is nothing wrong with this, I'm just stating facts.

>>12176613
Lady that drinks at the bar I work at had a heavily tattered copy of Infinite Jest, got talking to her about it. Arranged to go to a gig with her.

All you guys complaining about having to talk to pseuds don't realize how good you have it. At least it's SOMETHING. I'm in the military which is normalfag central. I can guarantee you not one of my coworkers has ever heard of Tolstoy or Wallace.

>>12176613
I usually get excited that someone also wants to talk about stuff so I talk to them about it.

>>12179792
This is bait.

>>12179820

I'm sure Socrates, Diogenes, Schoppi, N and Lacan would all have something interesting to say about dogging.

If you're a curious person, you'll often find insights in the most mundane of things. If you're a boring, soulless, parroting pseud then suddenly everything is mundane.

From a cultural or sociological pov practically every facet of human behaviour is interesting.

>>12179595
>keep grossing out my korean girlfriend with my autistic ramblings about Dostoevsky and Richard Nixon making love in heaven.
>claim that Dosto made me a Christian but only so I can justify my wish to depopulate the Anatolian peninsula and repopulate it with Greek Orthodox Christians

>tfw a living meme

Yeah dude start quoting Lacan the next time your brother's friends start talking about public sex acts

better yet don't even let them respond just answer for them

>>12176613
>Hey, what are you reading?
Tell them title.
>Is it a mystery? I love mystery books.
Eh, It's a little bit of everything.

This is the usual scenario, and I just try to get out of the conversation because I don't feel like explaining what literary fiction means. On the rare occasion I find someone with good tastes I get really excited and try to gauge their power level, and trade recommendations, etc. Luckily I have a few close friends who read a decent amount, so I have an outlet for that energy to keep me from sperging out every time someone recognizes the author I have in hand.

>>12179769
>tripfag makes a blogpost
No one fucking cares about you, kill yourself.

>>12179845
... can I get some context on the Nixon-Dostoevsky thing?

actually who are we kidding, if you really want to solve this problem you should just become a sociologist, that way you will never have a boring conversation in your life again because you can just make everything about humans a fascinating conversational topic that has nothing to do with the critical contribution of your interlocutors

also, to that other guy, do you know who I am?

>>12179841
but i'm not always looking for insight in the mundane, sometimes you just want to connect with someone socially and that's not always easy if you don't share a mutual interest of clacking away at your phone and mentioning how this one time you saw someone get a blowjob in a car behind sainsbury's

Claim your dead /lit/-friend!

>>12179923
my hopes and aspirations

>>12179923
malcolm x because if he was still alive i'd be very interested to hear what he had to say and the positions he had changed on from when he was younger.

>>12179827
>being this delusional
Again, your hands-on experience living in some backwater illiterate anglo shithole isn't quite representative of the world at large. Meditations is currently #4 best selling Penguin Classic on Amazon, The Republic is at 15, Thus Spoke Zarathustra - at 22. Stranger is basically every other teenager's first big boy book outside mandatory school reading. Being and Nothingness, Beyond Good and Evil, Nausea, are all as much literary staples as they are philosophical. Yes, most of population hasn't read any single one of those, but it's magnitudes more than 2% that did. I'm sorry, but your dream of being in a super exclusive pseud club member for feverishly reading Gay Science, soul-searching after that one drunken night with Brad, doesn't quite correspond to reality.

>>12179955
coincidentally just started reading the autobiography a few days ago. Apparently his views on whites, on separation, and on elijah muhammad were changing drastically near the end of his life, which is why NoI assassinated him. I'm still not too clear on the particulars but he seems like an outspoken and thoughtful personality.

>>12179970
Yeah, his opinions change towards the end of the book and he even feels a remorse for the white people who tried to help him but he had refused their efforts. He definitely grew a lot as a person and I think it's a shame he was assassinated, he even knew the NOI would come after him.

>>12176613
I have only one friend who reads anything beyond your usual assortment of YA fiction. Nothing too heavy, but still refreshing compared to your usual "voracious reader".

An old friend of mine enrolled in English Lit and his critical analysis skills unironically went downhill. I haven't heard him uttering an argument more nuanced than "this book is great because it deals with complex societal issues" (by which he means either racism/feminism or a superficial understanding of identity).

>>12179834
Yeah, I usually refrain from talking to friends about my interests, but nothing beats the excitement when you meet someone genuinely interesting.

Imo the worst is when you meet someone feigning interests, only to find out this couldn't be further from the truth.

This thread really demonstrates middle class people's incapability to understand how much of a cultural desert working class life is, and working class people's incapability to imagine a place where someone might read a dostoevsky book once.

I never butt my nose in because I don’t want to make a fool out of myself. Maybe they are more read than I and I just haven’t given them an opportunity to say so yet. Besides, I don’t want to come off as an annoying pseud.

>>12176613
I'm STEM, so I rarely meet people who read classics. If I do, I'll try to hide my interest because they would think I'm feigning. I don't talk about music either for the same reasons.

>>12179833
Same. I've got one buddy that reads anything beyond fantasy, but at least I get plenty of chances to sperg out about The Name of the Wind.

>>12176628
Redpill me on Buddhism

>>12180033
So far it only really demonstrated what a boring classist faggot you are.

>>12176652
It has its moments.

>>12177651
Not the poster you were replying to, but I do it for the same reasons.Many of my friends quiz me on words from time to time, it's more of a party trick by now.

High brow 20 somethings

The thread.

>>12176613
If they want to discuss some of the classic literature, I do so (in a very abstract manner). If I want to piss someone off, I point out some things I remember from the book and say that they obviously know that, to which they usually react with timidity and silence.

>>12180082

>>12180033
jokes on you my parents are working class and all their children are pseuds

>>12180082
can't help it if you live in britain

What are the chances that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote this movie while considering the main character to be an extension or idealized version of themselves or people like them?

>>12176652
your life is a terrible film

>>12176613
I’ve only met one non-boomer person in my entire life who’s read Dracula, and only about 6 people who understood that it was actually a book.

People IRL do not read.

Even books like Frankenstein, Dracula, Moby dick, catch-22, books that are common parts of colloquial conversation and modern culture, they don’t even know they are books.

It’s not just that nobody reads, its worse. People don’t even know that these books exist.

>>12180033
is this liberal classism?

>>12179437
>>12179484
>>12179509
>>12179681
brehs, there's a difference between bringing up your own experience in a topic as a way to further the conversation and regurgitating tangential references to it without ever really touching on the heart of the matter. If you see someone reading a primary source and recommend them an introductory level secondary source, how is this supposed to be at all constructive? I'm all for people showing enthusiasm for things they aren't educated in, but when it turns into this sort of intellectual tit-for-tat where they try to dispense guidance in areas they have no understanding of, it's hard not to detect some smack of condescension in them.

I'm don't know anything about thermodynamics, but if I met an expert I'd start by asking them a bunch of questions instead of gushing "OMGG I LOVE CONDUCTION. I have an electric stove, isn't that awesome!!" maybe the problem is that people just have no idea of what philosophy actually is, but in almost all my interactions regarding it people take it as an opening to lecture on some matter or the other.

>>12177574
Christ you triggered me. I work in tech and these fucking boners seem to have unending lists of podcasts related to literally anything I do or am seen doing.

I’m pretty sure they just study a long list of tangentially-related podcasts that they can pretend to listen to so if someone brings up lit, math, science, sushi, woodworking, tailoring, gardening, writing, photoshop, painting, etc. they can rattle off a podcast title and pretend like it’s a hobby of theirs.

>>12177522
The smart women/men ratio is somewhere around 1/10-1/20 but they still exist. Problem is, bright people are hard to come by altogether and that is without accounting for looks/personality.

>>12179832
based

>>12181270
>I work in tech
cringe

>>12181042
change his shirt to a manchester jersey and make him obese and you've got possibly the most british picture that the universe is capable of supporting

>>12181431
XDDDDDD FUCKING EPIC BROOO XPPPPP :0A)))

>>12179909

>>12177574

I don't mind reciprocation, even if it's half-assed. What actually kills me is the combination of condescending amusement and compensatory derision I get going to trivia with coworkers.

"Hahaha, why do you even know that?"

or, when I contest their dumbass assertion on a question

"Uh, I'm PRETTY SURE it's this."

I don't accept that my knowing 8/10 in Literary Couples is somehow weird when you know 9/10 Reddit Meme References.

>>12176613
I hide it or they'll discover I don't really read much and it would be pretty embarrassing :S

>can't talk about books with plebs because they haven't read them
>can't talk about books with patricians because I'm a pleb
being a midwit sucks

Do you know who I am, 12181918?

>>12176613
If anyone asks about what I'm reading I just give a simple description of the book and don't act like I'm a genius for reading books

>>12181266
>people just have no idea of what philosophy actually is,
dees

>>12176613
i read a lot but i dont know anything. if you asked me about basic concepts about Plato or Aristotle i would probably have no idea despite having read both of them.

25yo Amerimutt here who has been in every European country, everyone my age is just as normy as we are and your being of higher culture is largely a thing of the past. Everyone is equally retarded now. All the German girls I talked to didn't know shit about Goethe, let alone relevant German pop culture music like Can or actual techno from Berlin. Just pop radio shit. Europe just a continent of spergs same as us now with the exception of one in every 50. This post is for the benefit of all the delusional eurofags in this thread who are complaining about us.

>>12180993
I wrote an essay on this, once. Working class parents strive to give their children what they (the parents) never had, and the children, out of a desire to not end up like their parents, work hard (or set up the pretense of working hard) to achieve intellectual clout, but it's just for show. They are no smarter than their peers, but they feel like they have to try harder to portray themselves, to compensate for their upbringing

>>12182147
Not to mention, Germans are more obsessed with Americans than they care about their own current affairs.

>>12179841
this if someone starts talking about bullshit fucking act like an idiot you will have fun that way, if you only think how stupid and retarded this convo is you will jsut have a bad time

I can't talk to anyone about anything related to myself without squirming with disgust and discomfort

>>12181266
They’re just dumb anon. You’re reading you much into it, they just want to carry the conversation and not seem rude by telling you they don’t give a shit about philosophy.

>>12182147
>>12182181
Germany will be the first Western European Arab country
Heil Merkel

>>12176613
There's really nothing to talk about. The same goes for movies and music. Why would you want to talk about that? I can understand if it is for work or school and you need to better understand something with it, but anything beyond that is just masturbation.

>>12176613
I would love for someone to go good will hunting on my ass. That said, it depends on the setting. I'm more willing to talk to someone when there are fewer eavesdroppers. For some reason I'm secretive about literature, as if I am guarding state secrets or classified intel and I wouldn't want any old idiot getting their grubby mittens on it.

>>12182315
then why are you here

>>12177595
This.

>>12182319
I just listen to litRPG genre audio books.

>>12182315
Don't tell me you are so retarded you can't fathom why people would want to discuss things they enjoy. The fucking stupidity of this post. You are a self conscious faggot pseud. Is it just "masturbation" when a couple guys talk about the cowboy's game? No you fucking retard. Its literally just conversation, about something they enjoy.

>>12182393
>Is it just "masturbation" when a couple guys talk about the cowboy's game
it almost literally is

>>12179538
>having a jewbook

I wish Reddit would leave.

>>12176613
Friendly reminder that you’re not well read if you’ve never read the Bible.

>>12179965
How fucking retarded to you have to be to think 2%+ of the world's population is represented by penguin classics top 20 best sellers. That's 150 million people holy shit. Penguin classics must be one the most valuable companies in the world. Are you telling me one or two books sold under just the classics category makes up nearly 90% of all of the penguin publishing's worth? Or that penguin publishing themselves have a seller base only a few companies in the world can compete with in any catagory of business that exists?

>>12182315
Jesus, how old are you?

The problem is it's all relative. Someone in my sphere, being 25, would think a university colleague of mine, 21, is "well read" because she reads like... Percy Jackson and the Lightning Prince and books about mythology. It's all relative. Everything is. it's the way of the world. Luckily I've never been in a situation where I have to hear someone actually complimented for reading books like that. It'd damage my frail ego since I spend my time reading Dostoevsky, Hamsun, Tolstoy, Woolf and others. Fucking relative. RELATIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

>>12176613
It’s never happpened before

>>12182653
And, by the way, I'm in science and the class is a bunch of ultra normies. The only book I've ever seen someone read is an Atwood book. Could be worse, I suppose. But the rest are basically just lads who don't even know who George Orwell is.

>>12182019
"Hahaha, why do you even know that?"

I found myself on the receiving end of that question at least once, and now that I think about it, it felt good. The question didn’t seem like "condescending amusement and compensatory derision" but rather admiration for knowing something obscure.

>>12177425
normies and mid-iq.. in faact intellectuals and retards.. everyone likes etymology to some degree, even when they don't even know its called etymology.

>>12182315
This guy is right, it is just masturbation. Sometimes it's fine, but nobody should deny reality. I absolutly hate talking about shit I consumed with other consumers. We both did nothing but sit and get spoonfed. You're writing a book? Directing a movie? Making a song? How we can actually have a conversation about those topics

I usually copy discussions on literary works from other, later, literary works as a sort of pseud test

>>12182714
i tend to bring it up when ppl confuse some medical term for instance, the medical field uses a small range of radicals over and over, and its a good way to help ppl remember the exams they are doing

TO 99.99% OF THE POPULACE, READING A BIOGRAPHY ON A COMEDIAN MEANS YOU'RE WELL READ.

>>12182112
i spend a lot of time thinking about the usefulness of passive knowledge. You read Plato and Aristotle, and if you paid attention while reading, a much of it has ended up being buried in your subconsciousness, ready to be recalled at some trigger event. Perhaps you won’t even recall the source, but just the idea. But how useful is that?

Surely, long-lasting active knowledge is much more useful but requires tons of effort. I’ve begun to read less and remember more, even if it means reading only 1-2 books a month.

>>12182716

so life is just either consuming media or producing media ? ??? aahhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

>>12182798
No, that's not what I said. There are plenty of conversation topics in life. However if you're going to use entertainment media as one of them it better be about your active participation in it. Otherwise shut up.

>>12182740
I thinks it's less to do with the quantity than it is with the aimless focus that most people move through readings do. Read many books in one topic and you won't have that problem. Also people read certain works for no reason. You don't need a material basis of motivation for reading certain works(recommend though) but you definitely need to be seeking a specific type of knowledge that book provides. People read classics because they "should", they aren't actually interested in the work beyond padding their social relevance or mental image of themselves.

>>12176613
It mortifies me to admit this, but I was a gigantic pseud in high school. I genuinely desired to become a Sherlock Holmes or Will Hunting type character; so much so that I unironically read and quoted Malcom Gladwell. Then I grew up, did drugs, had sex, and stopped reading for a while. One day, when I was seriously considering stopping marijuana, I tried to read again to return my brain to a functioning state. Then a coworker recommended Camus and then somehow I found /lit/. From what I can tell, everyone on here has been a cringey fuck at some point and the desire to better yourself actually leads to achieving betterment. When I was a pseud, I had plenty of friends and wasn't so terrible at swooning the ladies but now that I religiously read literary fiction and philosophy for the sake of learning as opposed to impressing, I have no friends. When I want to discuss literature with a girl and she mentions cringey shit, I have patience but I am mortified for her as well. At the same time, anyone who mentions Jordan Peterson or owns a copy of Fanged Noumena is a pseud.

>>12179723
Anon I'm sorry but that is just America. We are actually especially poorly educated.

>>12182880
The biggest psueds are the ones who denounce their youthful perceptions and actions of demeaning the less intellectually gifted and instead see themselves as better and smarter for having pity on them(and others who havent yet reached their 'progression') while caring about others judgment so much you choose to live a life of lies. Literally nothing worse. You had true insight as a kid but choose to ignore it out of fear of social ostrasization. Your type is more cliche than the high school know it all asshole. The crab in the bucket mentality of the modern age young adults is pathetic, seeing yourself or striving to be something better is 'cringy' and doesn't exist. Everybody is average or dumb no exceptions

>>12182884
The most retarded people in the western world live in America, along with the smartest. Europe is the land of midwits

>>12179769
>>the entire conversation is about their high school memories and work

I hate this shit so much.

>Normally I'm not an asshole about this stuff but fucking hell.

I know exactly what you mean. I don't mind people explaining the intricacies of things they care about that I don't, whether it's cars or sports or whatever, I'm happy to follow along for some friendly casual conversation. But when people have literally only nostalgia and gossip to talk about it is unbearable. It feels artificial and untenable, like this hopeless spiral of trying to define yourself through selective memories and trying to affirm yourself in comparison to others.

>>12182700

Trust me, I know the difference. And my complaints aren't about those other kinds of people.

There's a world of difference between the question "how do you know this" and "why do you know this".

>>12183081
why should I trust you? You lend no explanation about the big difference between how and why in that case.
My point was to show doubt that all people who say "why do you even know this?" communicate a negative or condescending attitude towards you. I think a lot of it depends on the tone. I can only guess what one specific person meant based on my personal experience, and that’s not enough to prove a point. The person who said that was quite cheerful. When I imagine myself saying that to someone, it’d be with the intention of communicating admiration, and also in a cheerful way.

I have very little self esteem and I get far too uncomfortable in conversation to "Good Will Hunting" anyone on anything.

Even with good friends all I can offer is basic thoughts and general overviews of books. I'm afraid of showing anyone anything about myself because I hate the feeling that someone is analyzing or judging me. I don't have enough confidence to talk with authority even on subjects I'm well educated in.

>>12182147
Seems you've lost your vitamin C.
Was Europe ever truly a "being of higher culture", though? My exposure to it is largely through literary sources, which are never a perfect rendition of what it's actually like to exist in the time and place. Did you travel the EU expecting to find something better than the US?

>>12176613
I literally have a panic attack and just nod and try to change the subject.

At a party the other night I went on a semi-drunk rant about the problem of defining avant-garde (we were at an avant-garde themed party). I tried to use Infinite Jest to discuss the overlap between post-modernism and avant-garde, but even the other two people there who have read Infinite Jest didn’t seem too thrilled about what I was saying. I probably talk too much and I’m sure a lot of people dislike me, so I just proceeded to drink even more.

Damn you nerds think to much about social interaction. Turn off your autism once and a while.

>>12183474
But how does you dos it?

>>12176668
How is he virtue signaling?

>>12183130
>why do you even know this
This statement is inherently negative, because the "even" implies that its a waste of time to have learnt, there is no positive spin on this exact phrase and even if the most positive person in the world said it it would be an insult. I believe that someone may have said something similar to this and you've misremembered it in this thread.

>>12183505
Pretend this reality is your own. Dont go full schizo tho

>>12182176
>but they feel like they have to try harder to portray themselves
I don't get this part

>>12183524
even in that question doesn’t always imply negativity. You’re full of shit

>>12179444
>Engage people as equals.
Not everybody deserves to be treated as equals.

>>12179728
>We didn't talk much but he jokingly said "some light reading, huh?" which did make me laugh a little.
What did he mean by this? Did he genuinely mean it was light reading because it was entry level literature or did he mean it sarcastically because its quite a dark subject matter?

>>12183550
You are autistic

>>12183550
Clearly the latter, are you on the spectrum?

>>12183538
Not him but you’re really dumb.

>>12183550
He meant it sarcastically. It’s what people say to point out that someone is reading something canonical. It’s a type of dad joke.

>>12182844
Consuming media is participation.

>>12179671

The script was heavily doctored by a ghost-writer who turned it from an action/thriller government conspiracy film into a thoughtful drama.

>>12176628
Theosophy > Buddhism

>>12179649
Write down the author's thesis and your opinion on it directly after finishing a book. It helps with memory and makes it easier to formulate your thoughts later down the road.

>>12176675
Does she have kids? 50-something mothers tend to find comfort in artificial naturist shit.

>>12183569
not the one you’re replying to, but you and the guy you’re defending are both retards, esp the other guy for stating something without a solid clarification.

>talking to my coworker about an interest at an intentionally middling level
>"I'm tried of your fucking brain"

>>12179432
>God I hate the faggotry and pretentiousness on this board.
I genuinely would like to know what else were you expecting. Did you really think 4chan’s /lit/ board would be populated by people who enjoy reading?

>>12179691
Did they know you were there? If not you should have made an audible noise before watching them scatter like roaches.

>>12179691
they obvioulsy wanted you to fuck all three of them right there in the classroom
idot

>>12182181
That’s every country though. America is the worlds soap opera, and it’s all America’s fault for inventing 24/7 news. They got what they deserved in the end.

>>12182925
Good post

>>12176613
based post, based premise. literature is for normal fags that want to appear smart. i usually start reciting passages from Ted Kaczynski's two books. By then they've usually run away or tried to argue and were quickly made stupid.

>>12182147
In my experience educated American urbanites are better read than European urbanites. I assume this is because university tends to be more vocational in Europe.

>>12183661
>4chan
hi gramps

>>12177574
On one hand I would agree but this hasn't happened to me a lot.
Also you seem like a narcissist, even if you accuse others of being one.

Every human being is a pseud, some are just more vocal than others.

>>12176638
based af

>>12177522
women dont read real books

>>12184314
They do, they just read YA trash.

>>12177425
I do that with prestige. And I also explained what bugger actually meant to my late Australian grandmother, she never said it again

>>12177574
Those kind of cunts mostly do that, recommend shit, to waste our time. I've read The God Delusion and Rich Dad Poor Dad because of these fucks. They really get perturbed when you write an anti-thesis essay about their favourite book, which I in hindsight should refrain from, nobody likes being told they're shit and although smarter than the average pleb they are not actual intellectuals. Someone else also told me I should read a Spinoza companion reader instead of just diving into Ethics, this is why I like smoking cigarettes.

>>12184314
The real Jesus freaks sometimes read the Bible. Some just so they can distort its laws and then run amok like whores:
>Eve dindu nuffin
>Pontius Pilate's wife dindu nuffin
>SEEEEE! OMG!
but on some occasions I have met women who took it to heart. But, even so, these women often had mystical and even sexual ideas about Jesus. One of the strangest boners I had was sitting at a coffee shop for a date and hearing a crying girl say to her friend:
>"we are all Christ's brides and that
>*SOB*
>makes me SO happy..."
I don't know.

>>12181266
My uncle works in a timber mill, he's also a boilermaker by trade, and I love asking him about what he does and how it goes on and how the business works and all that. He knows more about it than me and if you ask the right questions you learn some quite interesting tidbits and I genuinely believe we are both intellectually enriched by our exchanges of ideas.

>>12183669
They must've, I was only a row ahead of them, they literally sat right behind me.

>>12180081
1. Existence is Suffering
2. Suffering is caused by craving and attachment
3. There is a path to the liberation from suffering
4. The path is the Noble Eightfold Path
read suttas to familiarize with the beliefs and theory, then once you have a solid understanding, integrate it into your behaviour and conduct, and meditate
start with the Majjhima Nikaya, read a sutta or two a day
also, theravada or bust

>>12184320
What does it mean?

>>12183550
You sound like the underground man.

>nobody posted good will smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJxBkE9d-TA

>>12183593

Yeah, yeah, whatever Pynchon. The Crying of Dem Apples was shit.

>>12183524
>>12183130

Jesus Christ, you people are dumb. OBVIOUSLY intonation and context plays a part in whether or not I perceive something as condescending. Excuse me for forgetting I'm on 4chan, where implicit or self-evident things go unnoticed.

>>12183130

Also, I explicitly state that I am speaking, anecdotally, about my coworkers at trivia. Not a generalization of all humanity.

>>12185524
>>12185530

yeah because trivia with coworkers really explains the context and intonation. The way you presented the question made for an ambiguous interpretation. You made it sound like that question can always be interpreted as condescending.

>>12176613
Good Will Hunting was a mathematical prodigy
Something you don't have the intellect or work ethic to become
You are not Will Hunting. You're just a faggot who read a couple books and then went and got someone else's analysis and summary

>>12185673
>prodigy
>become
Imagine being this retarded and yet have the audacity to criticize someone else.

>>12176613
It depends. I'll usually engage them in a way where we talk on the same level about similar things. I want to nurture a love of literature in them, not spook them.

If tear them a new asshole if they get uppity though

>>12185688
You obviously haven't taken any advanced mathematics classes
Even those who posess great natural ability have to work their asses off
Unlike readign (the most basic of intellectual stimulations) mathematics requires intelligence and hard work

>>12185840
>mathematics requires intelligence

>>12185840
Becoming good at math isn’t the same as becoming a prodigy.

>>12177574
Your narcissism is ridiculous

>>12185847
>t. never had classes beyond Calculus 1

>>12185847
I'm willing to bet you couldn't perform high school level calculus

>>12185478
Fuck someone in the arse

>be well read
>literature taste too patrician for any normie to appreciate and they think I'm being a tryhard
>literature taste too "popular" for lit snobs and they think I'm being a try hard

Anyone else know this feel? I like the classics, like Hemingway and Faulkner and Orwell and Hugo, but the snobs are like "those aren't obscure or niche enough, what a poser" and the normies are like "uhh I actually like to ENJOY my books, like Hunger Games and 50 Shades - fuck off, poser"

I just like reading.

>>12185703
You sound like a real fun guy, dontcha

>>12185840
The comment was about the fact that nobody "becomes" a prodigy, you're either born one or not, you illiterate sub 20 iq baboon.

>>12179691
People making fun of you for being uncomfortable about this are gross. You have a legitimate Title IX case regarding this conversation. I hope you got their names. Know your rights Anon.

>>12185970
>>12186012
>muh calculus
All undergrad math is piss easy. Go back to being humiliated by algebraist chads on /sci/, freshie brainletneers.

>>12186126
Both of those posts implied calculus is easy retard

>>12176668
>act like a normal person

s-stop virtue signaling!!

>>12185847
>>12186126

I'm not those posters but I find it weird you'd claim that Mathematics doesn't require intelligence. I'm sure this is just bait, but ability in pure math is a really objective basis for claiming someone is very intelligent. Obviously Terrance Tao isn't very good at holding eye contact, nor is he eloquent on a wide variety of topics. He is, however, one of the smartest people ever to live and his singular achievements could not be equaled by 99.999% of humans. Even among Mathematicians there's a tacit understanding of a certain ranked mathematical power which you have relative to your peers.

>>12183633
Yep, she has a kid who's not too bright. She's all reiki and other new age crap and did some creepy parenting shit like encouraging her kid to try out sex with other kids because it was "natural" to "explore"

>he can talk
Get out.

>>12185508
classic kinography at work

When I read a book out around campus girls come up to me fairly frequently and ask about it, but when I get excited and try to discuss it with them it becomes obvious really fast that it was just an excuse to come hit on me and they don't actually care. Still feels nice but is always mildly disappointing.

>>12182019
>you
>Ah well hmm lovely I just so happen to know the answer to this pernacious question, this being due to me extensive reading of the canon literature guys haha you could I'm well read hahaha ;<)
>wow how do you even know that (sarcasm)
>normal people
>Oh I know this one the answer is...
>Wow how do you even know that (curious and intrigued)

>>12185524
>Excuse me for forgetting I'm on 4chan
You're not, you're on 4channel.

>>12187703

More like.

Question on screen.
"It's gotta' be Romeo and Juliet."
"No, it's Vronsky and Anna."
"Whatever man."
Get it right.
Disgusted: "Why do you even know that?"
Shrug.

I don't get the level of buttblastery I'm getting about my post. I'm talking about a handful of specific people.

>>12179792
one needs to read arxiv papers exclusively to fit into your pseud definition of being "well-read". Kill yourself, pseud

>>12187726

Actually got me. Whoopsies.

>>12176652
Hey sweethaht, don't forget the coffee!

>>12186079
I don't hate Hemingway because he's popular, I hate him because he's shit.

>>12187767
>Not reading vixra papers.
What a brainlet

>>12185703
Aw, that's sweet. Also a real mature way of behaving socially. Keep on fighting the good fight anon!

>>12176613
I never consider myself well read, when I encounter someone who also reads I hide the fact I read as well till they bring up a book I've also read and try to talk about that.

>>12176613
I like talking about books, but have a shit memory. I can barely recall what I've read in the last two months. I buy books and read them, and instantly forget them. I have a copy of Sons and Lovers with the name rubbed off the spine. I have read it three times because I've picked it up thinking "I don't remember this cover," and gotten halfway through before realizing I've read it before. But that's ok; it's a good book. But I don't think being well-read gives you any particular super-powers.

>>12176613
silent

>>12176652
You shut your whore mouth

>>12179691
Should’ve said it tastes better with pineapples, and I can prove it

>>12189222
*destroys most of the proteins it is digesting and ruins the nutritional value of your food*
nothin personal, kid

>>12179691
related
I was doing my work in the uni library when three girls and a beta orbiter arrived and sat on the floor beside me.

They began discussing the assignment I had already completed, and the orbiter kept saying things like "remember to double space the lines" and obvious shit like that (the class is 100-level History).

Then the conversation drifted to PERIODS. "Fuck, Courtenay, do you have any painkillers? My cunt is hurting like hell." Why the fuck do girls do this? And the orbiter wasn't even bothered as though this happens all the fucking time.

Anyway that carried on for a while until the whore had bummed some painkillers and then everyone had to go to class.

>>12179691
"SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN WHORE MOUTHS" is the correct response to those situations

>>12189226
Right...just keep telling yourself that. Destroying nutrition, not dissolving proteins so they can be better digested.

i'll drop a few common american names like faulkner or hemingway. if they don't know what i'm talking about, i'll just let them talk to me about the things they read. more often than not, its young adult type stuff, or stephen king. pretty sad, but what can you do.

>>12189255

oh dear

Very sad thread

>>12189323
It got sadder when you entered it.

>>12185478
The etymology is from Bulgar, as in a Bulgarian person, they're said to be big into fucking animals in the arse.
In Australia it's used as an exclamation "oh bugger!" there it has even been used on mainstream tv commercials (I think it was Toyota). And there was a Club Buggery tv show about 20 years ago it's on youtube.

>bugger off
>bugger me
>bugger!
>go to buggery
>that old bugger
>this old bugger
>silly old bugger

>>12189311
ever had rabbit & pineapple together?

>>12176652
Yep, saw it once and never again. Overrated as fuck.

>>12176642
kiss

>>12189232
>as though this happens all the fucking time
well yeah once a month

l try to find common ground desu
it's already hard enough to come across literature inclined ppo only to alienate them