/lit/ - Literature

My parents barely finished mandatory school and immediately got a job. They're good, hard-working people. My dad stopped smoking when we entered our new house when I was 4 (he adopted me), neither drinks. No excesses of any kind, they've been together for decades and I doubt they will ever part. I'm pretty damn sure they never will.

None has any interest in intellectual pursuits but my mother reads a lot of those novels you see women read on the train by authors I never hear about anywhere else. Dad likes historic novels set in ancient Egypt but reads nothing else.

So I'd be a First Generation Intellectual. First of my family to get to university and obtain an MA.

The rest of my people do jobs like pig-keeper, newspaper delivery, etc. My father's a warden, my mother used to be a secretary then seamstress for herself.

What about you guys?

First of all:
>your

Realistically:
I'm not sure which "generation Intellectual" I am. I'm definitely not first. My father is incredibly well-read, and has a profound interest in Transcendentalism and a brocrush on Robert Frost's poetry. My mother's not really an "intellectual", in that she has little interest in the literature side of writing, but she's a great source of science fiction and fantasy novels, which are well appreciated.

My grandparents were a gym teacher and a nurse on my father's side, and an adult special-needs consultant and a floorlayer on my mom's side. My grandmother on my father's side (the nurse) is the closest to an intellectual, having been the salutatorian of her nursing class, but she's not really into anything but health sciences.

I don't know much about my great-grandparents, but apparently one of my great-grandmothers had a collection of first-editions of Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc. and was fluent in 7 languages

>>3291453

>your?

What about it? I'm using the determiner that is a possessive adjective, not the contraction of "you are".

>your parents

>>3291453

Sounds like a cool family!

My father is a psychopath who went to college on a tennis scholarship and became an accountant, but is now in prison for attempting to kill my mother, my sister, and myself with a semi-automatic handgun.

My mother is a medical transcriptionist who did not go to college, has not read a book in fifteen years, and doesn't know who James Joyce is. She doesn't know the first thing about anything "intellectual".

>>3291436

my family is big into STEM intellectualism. Which I don't really consider intellectualism unless you are involved in the upper echelons of research.

My mother is a teacher who instilled a love of reading in me at a young age.

I've seen my father read one book in my life.

I come from an upper-middle class WASP family. Reading is part of life. Both parents do it, as did their parents and grandparents, etc.

That said, I'm not sure I'd call my parents "intellectuals." They read great literature for pleasure, for intellectual stimulation -- yet they never debate or discuss these books.

>>3291468
>in prison for attempting to kill my mother, my sister, and myself with a semi-automatic handgun.

How does one fail that? Just curious.

Sorry about your family.

>>3291469

I have never heard of STEM. What is it?

>>3291473

>I've seen my father read one book in my life.

Which one?

>>3291474

>They read great literature for pleasure, for intellectual stimulation -- yet they never debate or discuss these books

You're demanding!

Dad reads Tolstoy, Sinclair Lewis and Tom Wolfe, along with biographies and books on American history.

Mom reads Harry Potter, Dan Brown, spy novels, sci-fi, and cookbooks.

My parents are Chinese immigrants who owns a restaurant. They mom only finished high school and my dad didn't even finish it.

They still earn more money than me though

>>3291483
*my mom

Embarrassing.

>>3291477

I imagine you're imagining a scenario where he still lived with us. This is not so. He showed up at our property some years after him and my mother divorced and shot at us from outside.

It was a half hearted attempt, really. But nonetheless.

I guess I am.

I'm the first in my family to go to college/university. My mom got her GED a little while after having me, my dad finished high school and worked a factory job and did roofing. They didn't stay together though (and my step-dad never even got his GED).

I wouldn't say any of them are stupid (except my step-dad, who upon playing Scrabble with us once actually starting screaming about his head hurting after playing "got") - my mom has plenty of life experience, common sense type of knowledge - she's traveled extensively, been homeless and lived in the wild, raised over a dozen children. My dad really, really "gets" people, even though he lives mostly in seclusion now. My mom's main interests are astrology and witchcraft stuff, my dad is into living as frugally as possible and computer games/board games.

Mom used to like to read, before she had to raise a bunch of other kids, but it was a lot of erotica-ish stuff like Clan of Cave Bear and Anne Rice. I did lend her my book of Native American Myths and Legends and she's eating that up. She and my step-dad love watching documentaries and TV programs about learning - they really like the travel channel. They probably know way more than I do about broad knowledge topics. My dad doesn't read at all. He watches those doctor shows, as he's a hypochondriac, and likes to watch football, but otherwise doesn't watch much. All he has is one of those tiny 10-inch black and white camping TVs anyway. He breaks stuff a lot.

As for grandparents: mother's - a lumberjack and an ancestry-obsessed housewife, small library, all ancestry-related. Didn't really know my father's parents well enough to say anything.

>>3291436
My mum is a nurse turned management and my dad is a washed up musician. I'll be the first person in my family to have an MA. Does that count?

>>3291485

What's embarrassing? Having parents? Not having been made by intellectuals? I pity you.

>>3291479
>I have never heard of STEM. What is it?
Science Technology Engineering Mathematics.

>>3291499

Yes, of course.

Both of my parents are registered nurses, went to college and the whole shebang but I don't think either of them have read a book for some time.

Apparently my grandfather on my dad's side, whom I never met, is where I get the whole reading like a motherfucker thing.

My parents are ignorant plebeians who never read anything, they don't even have any hobbies except for watching TV.

>>3291537

I am in the same boat. My mom never went to college and I am pretty sure she is legally retarded. I think my dad is smart but he doesnt apply himself and just watches sports

My mom and dad both graduated from college in Mexico with degrees in biology I think but after coming to the states their degrees meant shit. I don't really know why they stayed but I guess I'm glad to have been born here.

Now my mom is a house cleaner and my dad is a factory worker

This shit always makes me feel bad that I'm an english major

>>3291461
>your are

Father has a doctorate in physics
Mother was a school teacher

A lot of the books I read were those of my fathers that he never got around to reading (Capital Vol 1, On liberty etc.)
I wouldn't say he's well read but definitely an intellectual.

don't know anything about my dad's side but my mum's side is fairly smart.

mum is a nurse and reads a lot, mostly housewife novels, history and books about atheism. she has a ton of classics shoved away in the attic though (which i have raided several times). all but one of my uncles/aunts (six of them who are more like siblings to me) went to uni and some of them are really smart. one of my aunts is an english teacher but she's not 'intellectual' in the least. grandparents are what /lit/ would refer to as plebeian, grandfather is a factory worker and sometimes reads military history, grandmother does bar work and i've never seen her read a book in her life, coincidentally she is an idiot and is probably going senile

my step-dad's family is really intellectal though. he went to oxford (he did French, Spanish and German) and is an officer in the navy and one of the most knowledgable people i've ever met. i think his dad was a solicitor or something, and his parents live in a massive victorian house, haven't been there since i started reading though so i dunno how they fare for books.

>>3291546

It's a typo, not a misspelling, fortunately. OP types very fast.

My dad had a very good education and I think he was somewhat of an intellectual, but he died before I became interested in any of this.

My mom reads nothing but Catholic books now and sometimes some latin lit like Isabel Allende, but she had a good education as well and she knows her shit, she is Cuban so she is especially versed in Marxist theory and has read Capital and shit (though like most Cubans completely disowns marxism). When she was younger she read a lot of European classics too like Balzac, Flaubert and Spanish writers and poets too like Bécquer.

It's sad that she doesn't read the classics anymore, I guess life just fucks with you sometimes. I ask her why and she says because she doesn't have the time and because of stress.

well on my mother's side my grandfather is a crazy eccentric handsome german who sells pecans and owns a lexus and is 78 years old but somehow keeps picking up rich women who are in their 40's/50's, my grandmother is a sweet old lady who used to be drag racer and loves jesus with all her heart and is a vegetarian but knows i'm an atheist and accepts me completely and really admires me for reading so much
my mom is a crazy woman on all kinds of medication who loves dr. phil and can't get her life together, i moved in with my dad when i was 13.

on my dad's side both grandparents i never knew, but my dad is somewhat intellectual i think. he's more "nerdy" than an intellectual (i.e. comic books, horror movies, pitchfork.com). my stepmom is almost intellectual but she has bad taste, she was shocked when i was reading stuff by the paris surrealists and said i was on some crazy high ph.d reading level and all i could think was "bitch that shit's entry level." she also very vaguely recognized infinite jest.

so i guess i'm the first one

>>3291587
>she doesn't have the time and because of stress.

Yeah, I hear her. Work can be fucking annoying.

>actually wanting to be an "intellectual"

>>3291607

By that word we merely means its definition: people interested in ideas and concepts and history and etc.

We don't mean any of the other things you might have in mind.

Kill yourself.

Maybe.

My mother didn't finish high school and we've been dog poor my whole life, but we've gotten through. My father didn't go to high school at all, he mostly worked construction in his life, he were a sailor before i was born too.

When I were 14-15 I started to read a lot and went through all the Nietzsche type philosophy too.By the same time I became severely depressed and dropped out of school even though it's illegal to do that at the age of 15 here (Sweden). After that my mother lost our house and we became homeless, we spent the next 2-3 years sleeping at relatives and friends just trying to get by day by day.

Then, and this is true, she won around 3,5 million SEK and we bought a house and everything we never had. I got mentally ill again and has been in and out of the mental hospital since i were 18, I'm 21 now. On christmas eve it was a year since i got out from the mental hospital the last time. Since just some months ago i'm also in treatment for alcoholism My father drunk himself to death 2 years ago too.

So, since things are better now again, I'm trying to finish high school again, and it's going well and i'm keeping a very high tempo, even though my mental illness comes in the way from time to time. My goal is to go to the university, and I sure as hell will do it, I just need some time to catch up.

Two of my 3 siblings has gone to the university, strangely enough. I hope i'll be the third, otherwise I don't know what to do with my life, it's my only goal.

I see know that my english writing fucking sucks, I'm sorry about that. I'm Swedish as i said earlier in the post.

My parents aren't stupid and both have their masters' but they are also gun nuts and generally ignorant. What's to expect from boomers?

I'm not an intellectual and neither are my parents.
They both went to graduate school to become psychiatric social workers and call themselves therapists when they can get away with it and no one will notice.
My dad used to like Tolstoy's nonfiction, Jack London, Freud, Erich Fromm, R.D. Laing and all the other 60s pseudopsychologists. Now he only reads nonfiction on Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War.
My mom reads the Sookie Stackhouse novels and thinks of Gone With the Wind when classic literary fiction gets brought up.

My dad went to Adelphi and my mom went to Rutgers.
I'm not any better. I go to SUNY Purchase for theater and performance and my favorite author is Franz Kafka.

We all have clinical depression and no friends.

>>3291611
>identifying yourself as a person who is "interested" in "ideas and concepts and history and etc" - an "intellectual"

lol
"My name is Jack and I am interested in ideas". Maybe when Hegel was still cool this would have been an acceptable thing to say in some fringe German societies.

my parents were relatively old when they had me, my mother 41 and my father 46. i have a brother, 14 years older than me, and a sister, 10 years older than me. in reality these ages are a guess because i have no idea of the ages of anyone other than myself and jesus christ.

my father worked as a crane operator for over 35 years until he was made redundant about ten years ago.

my mother was a housewife.

they met in the leather factories in the 70s.

they never read fiction. the sun was occasional bought. the tv was always on, soaps, reality shows about police, things about trains and engines, police dramas.

my parents met at college

my mommy then went to library school
my daddy then went to law school

we like to read

>>3291617
*yawn*
alright your edginess, define intellectual then

>>3291617

You can't both mock people for "trying to be an intellectual" and then for "being interested in ideas", you moron.

adjective
1.
appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
2.
of or pertaining to the intellect or its use: intellectual powers.
3.
possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree: an intellectual person.
4.
guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.
5.
characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect: an intellectual way of speaking.

My Dad's a geologist; my Mum was an art lecturer.

>>3291542
That's really depressing. How do they feel about living a life that is a tiny fraction of their capabilities?

>>3291640
>living a life that is a tiny fraction of their capabilities?

Isn't that everybody's life?

What does intellectual means?

Because to my understanding it means a person that wins money from intellectual tasks. I'm not sure what you guys are on about.

>>3291647
>Using a word in its definition

>>3291632
my good man, you mock people for anything.

>>3291646
To an extent. His parents are being, in some oblique sense, forced to live as menial workers because Americans can't recognize Mexicans as anything other than "hard workers," though they are clearly educated.

I'm not an intellectual. I'm an arteest.

>>3291647

That's not what it means. We posted the definition just above.

>artist
>only if you make money at it

By that definition, Van Gogh wasn't an artist.

>you're no intellectual, you're not even normal

>>3291632
>adjective

>>3291632
>possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree: an intellectual person.
so op's asking if our parents are stupid?

>>3291655
But artist isn't defined as such

>>3291669

>to a high degree

Can you read?

>>3291674

Neither is intellectual, that was my very point, you fucking genius.

>>3291686
>especially
Can you?

>>3291686
>Neither is intellectual

But it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual
>An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity.

Apparently, the word that you're looking for is "knowledgeable", not "intellectual."

My Dad is an Architect who works for an oil company doing emergency response and procedure stuff. I think. Every time I ask him it seems to change. He's never been into fiction, but I see him reading 20th century mil history books from time to time. He's by no means a stupid or foolhardy man, but I wouldn't call him intellectual either. We debate and argue about everything from world affairs and politics to corporations at the dinner table. He's got some common sense but a heart of cold stone, with no empathy for anyone or anything. Most of the time it's him playing devils advocate I suppose.

My mother is a dental therapist, trained back in the day where it was like a speciality college outside of university that you went into straight from high school. She was good at what she did but became a speech and drama teacher after 40 years in the field. She seems to be enjoying it and has taken to the change very well. However, I would not call her an intellectual. All of the traits the internet heaps upon women she displays in spades, as she appears incapable of using logic or reason, debating from an objective standpoint or leaving preconceptions aside for a moment. I must often barrage her with a storm of logic and questions to get her to break the facade and admit she has no place in the discussion at hand or that her view is unfounded. She reads trashy novels, and although she claims to have read classics when I bring them up, cannot ever recall their plot.

My parents are fairly accomplished engineers, upper-middle class. My mother is the original "look at me I'm doing a job that women aren't supposed to do, I'm subverting gender roles" empowered female. They're engineers, so they're basically philistines, but they've both read a fair amount of literature. If I'm reading a book, I could say "have either of you read this book?" and one or the other or both of them will say some variation of "Yes".

My father is an engineer, and as a result of his overly-rationalistic mind is of the opinion that the arts are pointless.

>>3291708
>with no empathy for anyone or anything.
I bet you are the one arguing with objective morals

>b-b-ut it's not ethical!

>>3291708
You sound like a complete dick, and I'm not at all surprised that you perceive your father as lacking in empathy.

>>3291708
(Cont.) I cannot in good faith call myself an intellectual, but I do possess a better ability to debate a point without resorting to underhanded tactics or personal attacks than either of them.

>>3291719
An example: his response to the Reuters reporters being gunned down by that Apache in the cables Bradley Manning gave to Wikileaks was that "they shouldn't have been carrying rocket launchers." After the report had just stated they were carrying cameras.

He's a troll, primarily.

>>3291727
Genuinely curious, why do I sound like a dick?

>>3291733
Holy run on sentence batman! Apologies I've been awake far too long.

>>3291707

Several definitions were given, not one was "professional intellectual", you cuntass.

Do you think it makes a difference whether you're making money or not? Does a teacher deserve to be called an intellectual more than a man who has a different job but reads more and is more knowledgeable about a given topic?

Are you guys this retarded?

>or trolls

Eat a dick.

>>3291733
I think people always sound like dicks when they're criticising people, regardless of any truth inherent in the criticism.

>>3291740

run-on sentence != long sentence

you asshole

you don't deserve caps and periods

so I don't give you any

>>3291742
>Does a teacher deserve to be called an intellectual more than a man who has a different job but reads more and is more knowledgeable about a given topic?
Yeah because that's what it means shitface. Not my fault you love the word so much that you want to change its meaning

>>3291714
> they're basically philistines, but they've both read a fair amount of literature

this makes no sense. in what way are they philistines then

My dad was the first-gen in my family. He was born into a large family after WW2, was the first of them to go to college. Then got a master's degree. Right now he's working on his PhD. He met my mom in college and she is an avid reader. I'm actually at her house for Christmas right now and I'm looking at like 4 full bookshelves across the room.

Have 2 younger brothers, all of us are weirdo academics, but I'm the bookworm out of the trio.

>>3291749
I don't know. They give the impression of having read out of some obligation to society, rather than for knowledge or for pleasure, or for anything else.

>>3291754
in what is he getting his doctorate?

>>3291743
Fair enough. The internet treatment of women thing didn't sound like I meant it to. I meant to insinuate I generally think this is childish and stupid, but in the case of my mother most of it seems scarily accurate. She simply uses logic when it suits her and appeals to emotion when that fails. Can't really blame her for that, but it is frustrating.

>>3291747
alone me leave hours 26 for awake been have I've dude.

Neither of my parents went to university and neither of them read. The first and last book I saw my mom read was 50 Shades of Gray.
My dad is a factory worker and my mom works in retail.
I'll be the first person in my family to attend higher education and get even a BA.

>>3291760
>have I've
FUCK

>>3291765
>50 Shades of Gray
is that book cool?

>>3291748

1.
appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
2.
of or pertaining to the intellect or its use: intellectual powers.
3.
possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree: an intellectual person.
4.
guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.
5.
characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect: an intellectual way of speaking.


Not one of these 5 meanings entail being paid for it.

>>3291748
>Not my fault you love the word so much that you want to change its meaning

Then how come his meaning is in the dictionary and yours isn't?

You utter idiot.

1.
appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
2.
of or pertaining to the intellect or its use: intellectual powers.
3.
possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree: an intellectual person.
4.
guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.
5.
characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect: an intellectual way of speaking.

>>3291778
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual
This one does

My dad went to a technical high school in the 60s, then studied engineering, and has been an engineer his whole life. He's read some classic fiction, but he's more into history (Rome, Byzantine Empire) and nonfiction about technology and war (Wired for War; Killing Pablo).

My mom is a philosophy major who worked at a college and then as a housewife. Stuff she reads includes Agee and Jung.

They're not voracious readers by any means. I had a grandfather that read at least a book a week, on incredibly varied topics, for decades.

I wouldn't call my parents "intellectuals" (I don't know that I'd call myself one, either), but they're both kind, thoughtful people that know a considerable amount about the world, but are also pretty openminded. I think they made great, very complimentary parents.

I'm an English major, but my reading-passion is nonfiction.

>>3291787

OK, so now Wikipedia is more official than any dictionary. Fine.

Point remains: being paid for intellectual work is only one of the definitions and by far not the main one.

Why are you so frustrated about that? I know tons of people who are intellectuals and whose jobs don't involve reading books or discussing ideas. Every single job in the universe requires some use of your brain, so that's pretty weak a definition.

Lots of classic authors are considered intellectuals nowadays even though they weren't paid anything back then.

Same thing for "artist"; you didn't need money to be considered one, like Van Gogh. Similarly, authors like Montaigne didn't make money for their intellectual work but you'd be hard-pressed to say Montaigne wasn't an intellectual of the Renaissance.

I believe you can admit defeat now. Further defence would merely look stubborn and foolish beyond salvation.

>>3291814
>Painters
>Intellectuals
>Painters
>Anything more than good painters
There are exceptions, but as a general rule that just doesn't work.

>>3291821

So if someone paints paintings, they're not artists?

>>3291821

>2012
>uses words like "painters" to mean "good painters"

This is why fuck you.

>>3291814
So your definition of intellectual is knowledgeable?

>>3291852

Being knowledgeable doesn't entail being an intellectual. The answer is no.

>>3291852

My dad's knowledgeable about whores; I wouldn't consider that being an intellectual. The word implies more than just knowing shit about shit.

>autism
>you have it

>>3291857
Then what does it mean? Try not writing a block of text about nothing

>>3291862
1.
appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
2.
of or pertaining to the intellect or its use: intellectual powers.
3.
possessing or showing intellect or mental capacity, especially to a high degree: an intellectual person.
4.
guided or developed by or relying on the intellect rather than upon emotions or feelings; rational.
5.
characterized by or suggesting a predominance of intellect: an intellectual way of speaking.

This has been posted a million times. Read any.

>>3291905
>adj

>>3291936

The noun was formed from the adjective; I doubt that's new to you. It changes nothing for the meaning of it though.

>He is rich.

>The rich are nice.

See?

>>3291954
some of the definitions there are adjectives that don't apply to a person (the first 2)
the 3rd one means intelligent
the 4th one is rational
and the 5th one says it suggests intellect

so what do you mean by intellectual? smart? knowledgeable? rational?

I am, but only because of Father's pride.

One day, he went to the grain market (he was a farmer and he owned a lot of lands), the middlemen made fun of him, for he was but a farmer, and although he owned a vast expanse of land, could not read nor write the characters of my native language. He knew that he was better off than these humbugs, but to some extent, it cut deep him deep and it hurt his pride.

He told me one morning as he came from the land that I was to be a scholar, someone who could read the tabs for him, and make sure that the transactions were to be dealt with fairly and without cheat. I was more than glad to do it, for when everyday I toiled as a good man's son under the scorching heat of the sun, or of the merciful shadows of the gray sullen clouds, I longed more and more to be like the erudite of the town where we sold our wheat and rice. And here was the blessing and it presented itself before me! But as heaven was merciful, so the old man in his throne up in the sky was crafty and whimsical. My brother, not wanting to be left alone of anything that I had, begged, whined and cried near the feet of my poor father, until at last he was allowed to be educated as I.

I shit you not, but I hate my brother and his fat country wife, and until now is being the thorn on my side; always being calculating with this and that.

>I'm so much smarter than my parents. Everyone is stupid except me.

>>3291987

Do you seriously not know what an "intellectual" is?

>>3291997

My parents aren't stupid, but they're not intellectuals. I respect my parents more than most intellectuals, though.

My grandfather read a lot of NatGeo books and had tons of Encyclopedias but he died when I was 4 so I didn't know him well. My dad dropped out of school in 7th grade and he can barely read sometimes but has a fondness towards Hemingway, even though he has never read anything by him, I guess he just likes him because of his life story. My mom hardly reads and when she does it's stuff like Twilight, Travel Books, and other uninteresting books. I got my sister to read The Stranger but she hasn't finished it, at least she got to part two but I haven't asked her about it in a couple of days.

You can say I'm a first generation intellectual, but that all depends on your definition of intellectual. I'm the first in my immediate family to take an interest in literature, so at least there is that.

>>3292011
>I respect my parents more than most intellectuals, though.
Why?

>>3291653
They aren't forced. If they wanted to use their degrees they could have stayed in Mexico.

Plus the reasons their degrees aren't recognized here is that most universities in Mexico are a total joke.

>>3292009
enlighten me

>>3292043

Main reason: I know my parents more than I know any intellectuals (ones I've met IRL).

Second reason: I'm not sure intellectuals would have give me as much as my parents have, even though they could not give me the material I needed. They sheltered me, gave me a bed, food, and never divorced. Also solid values. I respect my parents for having given me a great family.

>>3292050

OK. But "intellectual" is a bit of a challenge for you, so we'll start with something simpler.

>table

A table is the assembly of several pieces of wood or plastic, usually, with, usually, four legs and a flat top upon which we place things.

>>3292067
your funneh ^_^

One of my great grandfather was a government official during the 30s 40s , I know that one was a factory owner before the communists, and the others were doctors.
Then both of my grandfathers were doctors.
One of my grandmother owned a very famous art shop in the city during the 60s 70s. The other worked at the "mass transit company" (I don't know the correct word) in the city. She was the only one who could not go to University.
As for my parents my Dad works in economics , he worked as an accountant , banker manager, now hes sort of a
counselor . And my Mom works as an English teacher at the University of Medicine here.
So I can't really say I'm a First Generation since most of my relatives/ancestors had lots of academic background.

>>3292071

I know, right?

Moving on.

Intellectual

It's formerly an adjective, whose meaning has been given. As many adjectives, it has been turned into a noun, that represents people who are intellectual (used here as an adjective).

The noun "intellectual" can be replaced by "an intellectual person" in any occurrence of the term; therefore, the definition given above are valid for every instance of the term we have seen so far.

A simple definition is this: an intellectual (person) is someone with an interest in ideas and who seeks to know more about these, usually through books.

>>3292107
>with an interest in ideas
What kind of ideas?

My father is much better educated than I am. I dare not even speak in his presence. My grandfather founded a very successful business but is very sexist and I don't like him due to that.
I can only hope to become as well-read and shit as my father once I'm 50. Or perhaps I could work towards it, you know. But I probably will never achieve great academic success because I dropped out of school. My family likes to tell me about that great-uncle of mine or something who did the same but then sometime later went on to become a professor. I never really listen. With a bit of luck I'll inherit some amount of money and will never have to work all too hard. I guess, I'm a bit spoilt but I'm trying to be a good person and I also want to educate myself. I'd never consider myself an intellectual, though. My father might be. My mother has been relatively well educated too. But she's still rather ignorant.

>>3292116

I'd say "intellectual ideas" but we'd be right back on track.

>history
>linguistics
>literature
>philosophy
>fiction
>any of the humanities

>>3292137
oh, you mean knowledgeable?

Neither of my parents had college degrees, didn't even finish high school, emigrated to the Americas with them at an early age.

Mom got a divorce, mired in poverty. Got a stepdad. He's /anti-intellectual/, he literally discourages reading and studying amongst his children, dismissing it as things that won't help them in anyway. Sigh.

Got accepted into Columbia, Brown, Georgetown, a couple of other colleges. I'm pretty well-read; my favorite books are One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

>>3292142

No. There's a difference between saying someone is knowledgeable about linguistics and saying someone is an intellectual.

Knowing things about things doesn't entail you're actively pursuing more, whereas an intellectual is always pursuing more knowledge.

I'm knowledgeable about little bitches like you but I'm definitely not trying to know more.

I hope that's clear enough.

>>3292132

Are you me?

>>3292157
So it just needs to be curious to find out more about the world? Like a toddler?

>>3292168

No. You need curiosity and the intellectual work that goes with studying something. A toddler cannot do much research on linguistics or history.

>>3292172
What about a kid that reads? What you're saying is that everyone who likes to read is an intellectual?

>>3292177

No, there is a minimal sum of knowledge to master before one is considered an intellectual.

There is no exact quantifiable sum, so don't bother asking.

>>3292179
I like that you keep altering your definition with vague additions after implying that the definition of an "intellectual" is obvious and clear.

>>3291616
Your dad sounds awesome.

>>3292166
How would I know if you don't?

My father aimed for engineering, but failed and became a very skilled technician. He reads the Devoir, our best local newspaper, reads a decent amount of documentary books, and has pretty cool music and film taste. He's a very DIY guy, has took a cold hard concrete basement and made a very nice appartment out of it, complete with furnitures he built himself. He is currently drafting plans for the country house he is planning to contract out.

My mother attempted music school, failed then became a technician in electronics. She now does mild dba-related stuff for a big charity. She reads a lot. She participates in a lot of hobbyist music stuff, like a choir and a flute ensemble.

I am very similar to my parents in many regards: I inherit both of their slight nerdy-ness and social awkwardness. My father's intelligence (and attention deficit disorder), my mother's creativity and existential anguish. Both's sense of failure.

>>3292184

I'm not altering anything. The definition is simple but abstract. You keep asking about very precise points, I try to answer them.

>>3292184
>the definition of an "intellectual" is obvious and clear.

It is to everyone here except you, you ignoramus.

>>3292194
The definition doesn't make sense because, according to you, there's no fixed amount of knowledge from which you can be regarded an intellectual.
>>3292195
Do you consider yourself an intellectual?

>>3292198

Dude, you're doing epistemology about a fucking definition.

Let's see if you got any balls. Give us YOUR definition of an "intellectual".

>>3292198

Compared to you, fuck yes.

>>3291629
You legitimately sounded about 4 there, it was adorable.

>>3292202
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual
First phrase.

>You will never found a family of geniuses like the Huxleys or the Darwin-Wedgwood line

>>3292209
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual

>An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity

>either
¨
Can you not read you dumbfuck?

>>3292265

LOLOL epic fail, anon, epic.

>>3292265
An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity


An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in

either a professional or

an individual capacity
an individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacityan individual capacity

>>3292132
>I never really listen.

And you call your mother the ignorant one?

On my father's side, I'm probably the first one. My father (Nothern Europe) has 5 brothers and 1 sister, none of them passed middle school. Which is a shame because my father is a clever guy, became a millionaire thanks to his quirkiness. My cousins aren't doing too good either. Out of 13 kids, only 3 went to university (including me). I am now in top university and doing extremely well. Currently studying Art History and also currently working for a top auction room as a market analyst.

My mother is a different story though. She's from an important Chinese family. Her grand-father went to school in Japanscience with Chiang Kai-shek, who was also his friend. After the Revolution, he ended up as a high-ranked politician under Mao and then they threw him to prison during the cultural revolution. From that, his family had fallen.
My mother was thus the first one in her family to rise again and went to a top university at only 16. She studied drama.
I'm not impressed by her academic level though.

>>3292297
Oh yeah and about the reading stuff, well, my father had never ever read a single book in his life (he admitted it).
My mother did read a lot though. When she was a student, she had to read everything and anything, from Lu Xun, to Sartre. Now she doesn't care anymore and reads teen novellas involving kung-fu or whatever.

>>3292305
>Now she doesn't care anymore and reads teen novellas involving kung-fu or whatever.
2deep4u

>>3292297


>Going to school in Japanscience

>being Gerard Joling's son

What was her degree? Mechas and Radiation Monsters? Fuck Japanscience, it's a shit college.

Also, the original of your painting is for sale at the moment. I may buy it and do a wee on it just to make your half-japanscientese ass cry.

>>3292305
>teen novellas involving kung-fu or whatever.

I'd quite like to sex your mum, I've just decided.

You're a cunt though, I'll treat you like fucking shit when I'm your stepdaddy.

>>3292319
>weeing on a Fauvist painting in order to make an ass cry
>that image
Truly this is the new Art.

nope

my family has been intellectuals for a long time

one my great grandfathers was lord mayor of my town

>>3292325

Shut up and let's wait for some pics of that anon cunt's hot chink mum.

If you're mum is a chink do you think you come home from school and ask what's for dinner and she says "a number 23, a number 18 and a portion of 193"?

Chinks are funny. Flied Lice and that, haha.

>>3292207
y-you too

>>3292334
>lord mayor
>intellectual

lol. minor lickspittles in provincial cities are intellectuals now?

>>3292343
If President of the USA is Barack Obama, who is White Obama? Dumb, racist Americans.

>>3292297
i hate asians

this justifies all of my hate

my only resentment of this modern day dystopia is that there is not one nation that is willing to stand up to the gooks and kill them all.

fuck you all.

Love how the anon who messed around with the definition of intellectual has entirely shut up.

Dad's a renowned electronics designer in a niche field

Mom's a former tutor of dyslexic children

>>3292350
so mad

so butthurt

This thread is cringe worthy.

>>3292363

Because?

>>3292359

Lord Mayor is a ceremonial position you dick. All you have to do is mong about in local politics for a long time and kiss arse. They're mostly well-to-do shopkeepers, not fucking intellectuals.

Stupid fucking bastard.

>>3292321
Come on, I'm nice as hell with her. I respect her for whatever she did. She still treats me like a piece of shit though with all the same pressure since I was kid, despite the fact that I'm 21 and living the dream with a sweet job.

>>3292366
yes yes

let that butthurt flow through you, young one.

My dad's a very unpretentious guy who enjoys life on its own terms. He's a lot like The Dude in that he has everything that he needs, so why should he put forward extra effort that would screw with his whole system? He's content, happy and lives two miles from the beach on Hawaii's Big Island.

My mom loves reading, and got me reading from a very early age, though she's happy sticking with her grocery store books. Her favorite book is Anna Karenina, and as far as I know, that's the only classic that she's read.

Aside from that, my dad's side of the family is the only extended family that I've spent a lot of time with, and they're those 'we're proud to be rednecks!' sorts. My mom's side are a bunch of incredibly accomplished and intelligent people, but I've spent time with those people less than ten times.

>>3292286
I'm not saying that I'm not ignorant. Just not as ignorant as she is.
Also, I can't stand my family unless I'm drunk. It's just this specific story that I don't listen to. They don't listen to me either. I don't want to be a professor. I think the expectations they have of me are way too high. Also, it's my birthday and nobody is around. Please don't be mean to me.

>>3292401
how do these two different types of people even get together and have kids...

my families are similar except for the redneck part.

>>3292402
>Also, it's my birthday and nobody is around.
I am unsurprised.

Both my parents have graduate degrees. My father is an attorney and my mother is a librarian.

I grew up with a home library around 3000 books in size. Both of my parents are very well read and they were both English majors for their undergrad.

My Mother is a first generation intellectual, but my Father comes from a moneyed family with a strong emphasis on education. Everyone on that side of the family has been university educated as far back as we can trace (six generations before things start getting vague).

Literature is one of the most frequent topics of conversation in my family. Both of them read a little bit of everything. My mother runs a book club and reads just about every best-seller as they come out in addition to tackling the canon. My father reads like twenty books at once and is recently very fond of essays.

Sometimes I'm afraid that my entire intellect is just a shadow of the vast intellects of my own parents, that I'm a shallow copy.

>>3292419
>I am unsurprised

"not surprised" would have been a better option.

>>3292421
you are

look at you, you're on 4chan.

>>3292411

I really have no idea. I never asked them anything about their courtship or anything because I consider that to be their business and not mine, and we really don't talk about personal things in my family, either side, very often.

>>3292419
Why? What have I done that's so upsetting to you?

Both my parents attended the university I'm attending right now. My dad got his BSc in agricultural science there and my mom got her MEd there. My dad owns his own environmental software company, and my mom is a professor at a college. Neither makes crazy amounts of money, but they do well for themselves now that my brother and I have moved out. My mom has a few essays and poems published in Canadian magazines and journals, as well as a book of essays and stories she self-published.

That was the good stuff.

My mom usually only reads contemporary literary fiction. All her writing is about rape and motherhood and "wah its so hard being a woman" and its all pretty shitty imo. My dad only reads hard sci fi and refuses to take book recommendations. He's never read a single book I've given him for Christmas/birthday.

Neither of my parents read. My brother is very intelligent, but only reads occasionally.
Also:

>lit thinking they're intellectuals

You guys are fucking full of yourselves. All the stereotypes are true; don't ever try to deny it.

>>3292452

It's evident what 'intellectual' signifies in this context

Keep that insecurity inside those knickers

>>3292435

>thinks 4chan sucks and is for suckers
>is on 4chan

Either man the fuck up or fuck off.

I got an MA, a great job, a bitch, and a nice apartment, and I think 4chan has an awesome side and I love it.

>>3292452
>You guys are fucking full of yourselves

You don't know any of us, smartiepants. Being a scholar, I'm entitled to call myself an intellectual. How many doctorates do you need to be one? One.

So suck it. Whether you believe me or not makes no difference.

Many of us here have degrees and have spent time in the academy. You're just jealous.

>>3292402
>Also, I can't stand my family unless I'm drunk.
>They don't listen to me
> Also, it's my birthday and nobody is around.

You're pretty repellent, eh? You may be the worst person on /lit/, and considering this is 4chan, that's pretty damning.

>>3292501
>I got an MA, a great job, a bitch, and a nice apartment, and I think 4chan has an awesome side and I love it.

>this whole post

wow, i haven't laughed this hard all day.

>>3292533

>i

Me neither.

>>3292411

PROTIP: that's how attraction works.

My wife is a highly ambitious translator who works for the UN and is constantly on the go. I'm a bit of a fuck-up poet who likes sitting on the sofa with a bong and the playstation much more than I like working. I make my "living" as a freelance writer and poker player.

If she'd married someone like her, she'd have died of boredom by now, and if I married someone like me, I'd be in jail or dead.

When my parents met, she was a thief and he was a fence. They divorced when I was 6 - too much in common.

>>3292540
i don't have an ego, i wouldn't capitalize something so trivial.

>>3292552
so you're a loser... cool bye.

>>3292552
Yeah, workplace romances rarely work out.

>>3292447
>My dad only reads hard sci fi and refuses to take book recommendations. He's never read a single book I've given him for Christmas/birthday.

You do realise that he read all your entry-level "classics" long before you were born, right?

Yeah, you're not that dumb, you realise that.

>>3292552
>that's how attraction works.

Nice universal qualifier

>>3292562

I live in a triplex apartment in a major city, work when I want, I've published one volume of poetry with a genuine publisher, completed two degrees, I've great friends and have access to as much cash as I want. How did I lose, exactly?

>>3292521
No, I just tend not to talk of myself like I'm some sort of genius. None of you fucking narcissists are.

I really can't be bothered to get into bitching about my family but they are all pretty stupid. There's nothing about them that suggests what they've achieved is somewhat of an unfair reflection of them as people. They've failed to create anything meaningful in their lives, failed to create a cohesive family unit, failed to progress in any capacity and failed to see it.

I read a lot of film/literary theory and philosophy. I watch American and World Cinema. I read fiction somewhat sporadically. However, I don't know if I'd claim to be an intellectual.

My older sister is a published poet, my mother is a poet/writer but my dad is more into STEM and business, my grandmother is a french writer..it's been like this in the family, the men are into STEM and the women into writing. Me? Why not both? I'm not a trap though...

>>3292603
>I'm not a trap though...

And there goes my erection. I liked you until then.

>>3292582
and yet you are here trying to justify yourself on an anime website. cool life you have, bro.

>>3292612
Hah, oh yeah, I'm on 4chan...

>>3292612
But wouldn't a trap say that?

>>3292629
we need to go deeper...

>>3292638

That's what I'd like to hear a trap say.

My dad is an engineer very well versed in philosophy (Nietzsche, japanese and chinese). He had read some classics although he can not stand novels.

My mother on the other hand, read a lot of english literature and is a social/humanist person.

>>3292738
>Nietzsche
lol

I wouldn't call myself an intellectual. I dropped out of HS and haven't gotten my GED / gone to college yet, though I do plan to. I just like to read.

Both of my parents dropped out, got their GEDs and work dead-end jobs. I believe I am continuing the cycle.

My dad is a successful doctor and the wealthiest member of my family. He was born into a lower class family that sacrificed everything to send him to college and medical school. Now he uses his his money to enrich his brothers and parents. Work is already hard enough for him, so he mostly just watches TruTV and reads Glenn Beck; I'm okay with this because he has it all together. I have tremendous respect for him, and I balk at the idea that any esoteric philosophy would improve his situation; he dislikes people who call themselves intellectuals and geniuses who died poor. My only quibble with him is his divorce and subsequent quest for affection, which was very badly handled.

My mom has been an electrician and television camerawoman; she went through a period of unemployment were she lived off of alimony payment. She is currently is paid to take care of a family friend's 90-year old mother. She has a formidable natural intellect, particularly in mathematical areas; sadly, she is also bipolar. I see her about once every three weeks, and learned more about her intellectual habits when I helped clean out her apartment. She reads National Geographic and has a large collection of miscellaneous books. I don't know if she would accept the label of "intellectual".

I suppose I just hate the label, for it's what I've been called all my life. I do read more than the average person, but it brings no joy. Reading is something I was told to like, and some strange compulsion drives me to do it even when it is not expected of me. I devour history even though it saddens me; science fiction and fantasy become my balm. My peers make note of my literacy and knowledge of history; they may as well enshrine party tricks. I've inherited my mother's melancholic temperament; all I want is to avoid knowledge and people.

Tl;dr: Boo hoo

My mother is an insurance broker who gravitates towards trashy horror novels.

My father is a blue collar truck driver for a bread company who repeatedly tells me to drop out of university and consolidate a full time job.

I'm the first person in my entire family to go to university.

Father was a lawyer who owned his own law firm.
Mother is retarded unfortunately.

Oh the arrogance of this thread.

>>3292785
Arrogance and the word "intellectual" go hand-in-hand

>>3292785
good thing you find a way to feel superior to everyone

>>3292785

Why?

>>3292785

Oh the arrogance of that post.

My dad dropped out of high school and is a drugdealer. My mom got a BA in the fine arts, then met my dad and got hooked. Whatever intelligence she had before doesnt show. They live in different rooms and hate each other, and only stay together for monetary reasons (my mother doesnt work, but my father is illiterate and needs my mother to do his paperwork). My mom does have some pretty interesting paintings from when she was younger.

Also, I have heard of distant relatives that were/are pretty smart.

Some branches of my family had been aristocratic (pre-commie times) so I dunno if I qualify as first gen. My parents grew up in relative commie poverty except for my grandpa (mom's side) who was a higher education trained engineer working for the commies. After getting married my parents have been consumed by ~10 workhour days throughout most of their life, they don't even have any hobbies. We got dough, thoug.

Dad has a masters in Electrical Engineering
Mother has been a secretary and/or housewife most of her life

Apparently my Grandpa was a professor of psychology though so that's kind of cool. Unfortunately he died when I was back in 8th grade, so I was never able to talk to him about that kind of stuff. Which makes me sad.

>>3291742
We aren't talking about professional intellectuals ya jackass. You're the first to mention it.

>>3291655
Oh, didn't you know? Dickinson wasn't a poet either.

When I hear someone refer to himself as "an intellectual" I have the impression that he is more likely to be a pretentious snob. I suspect that my response is a common one.

I see "First Generation Intellectual" written with leading caps and have that impression reinforced.

I tried to get passed that feeling and post about my experiences and my family, but first I read some of your responses.

I found immature people being critical of their parents. Often parents who have paid for their education. Sometimes parents who are still providing a home for these "intellectual" offspring.

My dad left school with no qualifications but was one of those fortunate baby boomers who worked his way up to a managerial level position. My mum is quite intelligent but women from working class backgrounds didn't go to university in her day so she became a secretary before she had kids. My sister and I are the first generation in our family to be university educated.

Both my parents are engineers and so am I.

My dad is one of the most intelligent people I've met and my mom has the best social skills I've ever witnessed.

They are really special people and so am I.

>>3292567
He doesn't even read the sci fi books I get for him.

>>3293432
Get our yourself, intellectualism is an actual thing, a personality trait or lifestyle that can actually be objectively determined. Why be angry at words having meaning.

My parents were bigots. I became intellectual when I went on a sexual odyssey in liberal arts school in a feminism course where I discovered I was a lesbian.

>>3293657

This post is so transparent.

Try again.

>>3293503
You're parents are dead, and you're not special.

My father is a lawyer. He only reads fantasy and horror books thou, most horror books. My mother isnt educated, but reads all kind of books, hemingway, dostojevskij etc. Her favourite genre is mystery books. I can hold a discusion with them about all sort of things, althou my father can be kind of manipulative when he speaks, leading to him winning the argument.

>>3291616
>We all have clinical depression and no friends.

Sorry man, but this shit made me laugh.

Referring to yourself as an intellectual is in poor taste. That is a distinction you have to earn, otherwise it is meaningless.

Things I can remember after reading the thread:

>Psychopath father who tried to kill his whole family
>Cuban woman who dislikes Communism
>Mexican couple who received biology degrees and now do manual labour
>The guy whose stepfather actively discouraged reading, yet anon got invited to several great universities
>The guy with two therapist parents who are depressed
>The grandfather who was a pecan seller and fucks bitches decades younger than him.

Great stuff, interesting stuff. We should write a book about it.

>>3293839
sounds like hundred years of solitude

>Be greek
>first to go into uni, archaeology, sister manages to attend ucd or something like that in Ireland.
>father is obsessed with cold war, reads related historical novels and even bought an xbox for the first Black Ops game, special edition and all. Works as a hotel manager.
>Mother is irish, likes to read stuff that you'd find on a NY times best-seller list.
>Also likes to read James Bond books. Works as an english teacher.

I would not classify myself as an "intellectual," but I am the first member in my family to go to University.

My parents are the complete opposite of an "intellectual."

My mother quit school in the 10th grade, and joined the work force. I am not sure where she worked before I was born, but she worked at Walmart for the final 16 years of her working career. She is 59 years old now, and has lived off of her disability benefits and medicaid for the past 6 or 7 years.

She actual does read a bit, but it is mostly rubbish "women's literature."


My father quit school in the 7th grade, never having learned to read. Now at the age of 70, he still cannot read. He spends almost every single waking hour of every day sitting in front of his tv watching Fox News.

It pains me to see him brainwashed by right wing propaganda. He lives entirely off of government wellfare, yet he continues to vote against his interests year after year. If he would have learned to read, he would be able to make educated, informed decisions.

As for my 7 siblings, they didn't turn out much better. Two have spent most of their adult lives in prison, one committed suicide, two fucked up their lives by getting pregnant in high school, one of my sisters married into a wealthy family, and my oldest sister is surprisingly a productive member of society working in a Ford factory.

>>3293675
your

>>3294405
Why haven't you written a book about your family yet

I think I might be. I never met my father, but apparently he wasn't dumb, but didn't really know what to do with his life and ended up working in construction. After his death a while ago I found out some things about him and he actually seemed to be rather intelligent.
My mother and her part of the family are people who live in a small village. I really like my mom, but she is actually pretty dumb. She read a lot of Jack London when she was younger and even started writing stuff herself, but she soon gave up on it, even before I was born. Right now she is into movies, but anything that has a twist in it or is a little bit more complex goes over her head (had to explain Black Swan or Fight Club to her for example).
My grandparents were farmers, but I could imagine, that my grandfather could have gone to university if he had the possibilities back then.

>>3291436
My Mother has a PhD in Psychology and my father was a military officer.

>>3295315
Because he's not a very good writer, and he doesn't have a very interesting family.

>>3293923
>Studying Archaeology at University
So nobody in your family has done a real degree yet?

Damn shame.

Mother: PhD in some social science. Former captain in the Navy, currently Head of Public Health for my county.

Father: Masters in History, also former Navy, but not as highly ranked, retired and spends most of his days playing Civ 5 or doing yardwork.

>>3295936
>Spends most of his days playing Civ 5
Man, being an old man is going to be fun as fuck by the time I reach that point.

>>3295936
I have always envisioned myself playing video games and reading books in retirement. Jesus, that would be the life.

>>3291436
>> Intellectuals
>> /lit/

I'm glad i stopped by from /sci/ to see this thread

>>3291436
>Mother: Psych Ba
>Father: Sociology Bsc
>Me: Philosophy Ba, Ma

Father: divorced and abandoned
Step-father: washed up and dishonorably divorced

My mother did not finish college, is bi-polar, and is a frequently unemployed fast-food worker. I was raised mainly by financial support by my grandfather and half-brother, neither of which earned a BA. But in her emotional stupidity, my mother insisted on raising me herself and cut me off from monetary support as much as she could, so I had to live in shelter-like communities and go to elementary schools in dangerous neighborhoods. My other half-brother, who provided barely any support, earned a BA in finance in his mid-twenties.

My two half-brothers were born to my mother's first husband, who died of leukemia which probably caused her emotional instability.

At eighteen years old I consider myself an intellectual by being a junior at university, which I achieved through taking summer school community college courses through a financial-needs high school program every summer in high school.

My dad was in the Navy. Did a ton of badass stuff. Boarded enemy ships and shit. Damage control man, like a firefighter. Got a BA in Fire Science, and another BA in some sort of management or something. Met a couple presidents, sailed all over the world. Not extremely well-read, but an avid consumer of documentaries and follower of politics. As he grown older, he's become more liberal and increasingly abstract and contemplative, especially regarding the nature of God. Accepted having a bisexual son like a bro. Knowledgeable and wise.

My mom's very much the motherly type. She's prone to a bout of craziness every once in a while, but is an immensely good-hearted and loving woman. Reads a lot, but not much of it is very good. She's definitely intelligent, but she relies more on a very practical set of applicable knowledge.

>>3291612
shit, man. Keep at it.

>>3297581
>BA in Fire Science

>BA
>Science