/lit/ - Literature

He doesn't purposely obfuscate his language

>>5583940
Sure, he makes sense; how hard is it to make sense? That's what his fiction is. It's a careful layering of one cliche over another, interlaced with references to bolster its credit and structured in a very specific way to appeal to a very wide audience. He's a very intelligent man, I'm sure, but he's by no means creative.

>>5583940
his videos are totally fine and if I was 10-12 years old I would probably love them. they're not meant for the people on this board so they flip out at him.

I haven't read his YA either but it's supposed to be decent and I'd trust that opinion over the insanely mad people here

He's like if Hank Green had a pretentious brother who wrote trashy young adult books for ovulating teen girls.

>>5584367
This. When will /lit/ (and the rest of 4chan, and the rest of the internet) learn that there is a difference between something being bad and something being made with anyone in mind other than you and your demographic?
(probably never)

>>5584367
It's bad even for young adult fiction. His manner of writing is vomit-inducing, the plot is generic as hell, and it teaches kids to be dumb 'special snowflakes'. I'd literally take the Hunger Games over him.

Plus, 'young adult' isn't even for young adults anymore. The average reader of it is between 30 and 40, and by the time you're old enough to read his books you should be smart enough to be reading real literature. A ten year old isn't going to be reading TFIOS because kids that little aren't vulnerable to trite love stories just yet.

Oh John Green
Why is /lit/ so mean to thee?
Your hand has written many a-tale
Of joy and tears and love and...

When I read Looking for Alaska
Tears stained my shirt
I wished I could have been there
When your wife gave birth

Your videos on Youtube
Are why I lasted so long
And as I slit my wrists
And fade into the abyss
I watch Vlog-Brothers from the bath
And have one final laugh

>>5584419
Meant also for
>>5584397

I think he presents knowledge in a suitable manner given the times, and does a good job, while some of his historical perspectives could be arguable, or even flawed all along.

It is a good thing, to try to educate our kids out of Ethnocentrism, but it somewhat fails to present what the European "dark ages" actually did for knowledge...

>>5584397
When people too old to read YA tout it as exemplary literature, when it's the top selling book around the world, when it's shite, etc..

I know people on /lit/ are bitter, but anyone who reads this guy seriously over the age of 20 non-ironically deserves to be criticized.

>>5584471
Would you criticise someone for watching a blockbuster movie? I hate this double standard that you can watch films or TV purely for entertainment but if you read something only for entertainment you're a pleb. Would you rather they didn't read at all?
Sure not reading anything complex is a flaw, but it's completely independent from whether or not you read John Green.
And sure it's not proper lit but no one who isn't retarded would say that.
And I say this as someone who only read one of his books and didn't like it. They're not for me. They're not for you. Great. But why would you get so mad about people liking something you don't? What does that achieve?

>>5583940
He'd be a great high school history/engish teacher
As an author he's okay at best

aside from his entire methodology being grounded in the Eurocentric bashing of "high academia" establishments of today (which is not to say I am automatically UKIP by writing that), his personality also frankly comes across as someone who outside of his show would be very smug, very hard to waver from his own opinions, and just not an enjoyable person.
I personally don't care for him but all my pretentious grad school friends love sharing crashcourse videos whenever they can

>>5584606
>also accidentally leaving OP in my name

>>5584397
When they stop being teens. Don't assume that you are smarter than the rest of the people just because you don't do certain stuff.

>>5584534
>Would you criticise someone for watching a blockbuster movie?
Yes.
>Would you rather they didn't read at all?
Yes.

>>5584534
If you only watch blockbuster movies, I'd prefer you didn't watch anything at all.
If you read YA while you read something better, just to pass the time waiting for the bus or before going to sleep, not caring too much, then there's no problem. The same way that it's okay to watch a blockbuster while you eat or something, as long as you dedicate time to something with quality.
The problem is with people that only consume shit and need to be respected because of it. Reading shit is worse than not reading.

>>5583940

Because other people our age read his stuff. And we're not young adults.

>>5584772
>is on 4chan
>isn't a young adult
I got bad news for you honey...

>>5584367
>>5584397
>muh moral high ground

Fucking pathetic.

John Green isn't good for kids, either. Him and his hyper-animated beta male affectations aren't good for the developing mind of any child. I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six, not watching little cartoons which spoonfeed "knowledge" with the narration of a "For Dummies" incarnate.

>>5584812
>I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six

>>5584812

>I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six

fucking loser

>>5584781
That anon may just be a teenager kek

>>5584842
Be grateful that you have cookie-cutter memes to do the work of being funny for you.

>>5584890

More like "fucking average kid who wasn't brought up by neglectful parents."

>>5584781

Yeah, because the best time to waste time on a message board is when you're in the prime of your life... lol...

>>5584812
You are very smart.

>>5584915
The prime of your life is ages zero through five.

>This machine kills fascists
>A macbook

Fuck this dude

>>5584934
>LEL PC MASTER RACE AMIRITE XDDD

Really its a stupid fucking sticker though.

>>5584397
the issue is that John Green's shit is read by people in our vague demographic (roughly 18-24 year olds).

>>5584982
>less than a year before I leave the correct age of use for this place

>>5585014
don't be silly none of us should be here past 18

>>5585017
don't be silly none of us should be here

>>5585100
Is there a better place to discuss literature online?
This place trumps goodreads and /r/books.

>>5585117
librarything

>>5585117
no but fuck off anyway idiot

>gay hair
>whiny liberal voice
>"eurocentric"

Easy mode: Watch 3 seconds
Hard Mode: Watch 30 seconds
Ultimate Man-Mode: Watch the whole thing

>>5585117
There are a lot of formal places (no shit posting) much better than /lit/, but this is hands-down the best place to discuss literature informally.

>>5584812
>I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six

>>5583940
>"muh eurocentrism" outta nowhere

>>5584910
No, the humor is that a meme is all the creativity that should be spared on you. Its poetic in its insignificance.

He's one of those guys that thinks he's cool for caring about other cultures and readily puts down western civilization as boring. Just watch that damn history about the Dark Ages and all he goes on about is how it was the golden age of Islam and how Europe is boring.

Basically shilling at its finest.

>>5585611
>spared on you.

The idiocy of this board never ceases to amaze me.

>>5583940
Why make a video on the Dark Ages--commonly understand as a European period of time--just to call the European Dark Ages boring? I mean, I understand that taking any sort of passion in European history leads to certain unsavory comparisons, but come on.

>>5583940
He leaked the secrets of the government

whats to look up to?

>>5585735
What do you mean unsavory comparisons? I like European history a lot.

>>5583940
His history videos are filled with bias. Not 100% accurate either. Basically wikipedia in video form

>>5586034
There is no such thing as 100% accurate non-biased history

>>5583940
He writes good YA, which isn't really saying much.

Looking for Alaska was a brilliant YA book.

Only read that and had to check out the hype for The Fault in our Stars and that book was utter trash.

I think as his writing career has progressed he has confused becoming a better writer with using bigger words and more unrealistic abstract made up children's philosophy instead of actually becoming better, if he contains the ability to become a better writer and just isn't some half assed YA author.

His Crash Course videos are entertaining though, mostly his history ones which touch base on surface history yet still manages to outline the importance of certain historical sequences.

His literature Crash Course was pretty good too.

And his Mental Floss vids are about average for what you expect from those type of videos.

But as a pure author, he's very mediocre and it's mostly the ignorant fandom who follows him and uses a bias for thinking he's a good guy in trade for thinking he is a good author. And that is why he is so looked down upon.

That and /lit/'s inner ego knowing that this guy has more capability to do something and get his name out there than they do with their own writing which they fail to do because they don't understand the idea that to be writer you have to actually write and treat it like a job, not shit post on the internet all day.

Why anyone would care what anyone else watches/reads/talks about is completely beyond me. Many people in their 30s read exclusively YA fiction or only watch blockbusters and I am 100% ok with that. What's the problem here?

>>5584934
>someone uses a mac because it is perfect for their work
>what a fucking pleb

You see, the difference between someone like you who hates something because 4chan told them to and if they didn't they wouldn't be agreeable with their stupid internet acquaintances and god forbid they have to encounter any type of conflict even on the internet because they are afraid of getting their feelings hurt and ending up hanging from a doorknob and instead use a PC because it's so much more powerful, so much powerful in fact that they can't even harness 10% of what their $5000 ultra steam porn 4chan machine is built for

and

some average day vlogger or writer or someone who just wants a solid piece of equipment from a reputable company who might pay a little extra but don't mind because they actually have a job and they like a mac because it isn't too much, isn't too less, and hey they like the way it looks too and that's nothing to be ashamed of and they go out and buy one because it's what they want and to the contrary don't want to settle for a PC because they don't want to try and 'fit in' with some internet neck beard clan who worry too much about what people they will never see think of them (which all you idiots who brag on the internet about using a PC and bashing anyone who doesn't and you are the one saying they want to fit in for buying a mac is simple lack of self esteem and projecting your own conforming personality based on 'dude macs suck so expensive look what my PC can do' bullshit).

I own a PC.

>>5585117
Onlineliterature forums

>>5585117
I haven't found one. Shit like /r/book and goodreads is full of people pretending to be nice and you can't say anything honest about anything without getting banned or without some pseudo-intellectual high school prick or some mother thinking she's smart because she was able to do the one think nature intended (birth a child) telling you how you're wrong because they base all their opinions on emotions unrelated to the actual book and not the actual talent represented in the books themselves.

Here, at least we can say cuss words and tell someone to fuck off, and we are better for it.

>>5586119
Well he is bias to a point where it makes his judgments very skewed. For the accuracy portion he was getting facts wrong that were well known to be true or using outdated facts.

>>5584812
>I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six,
This is easily one of THE most fedora things I've read on this page.

>>5585117

Goodreads is pretty good if you look the right places. There are a lot of intelligent people there, e.g professors and scientists and all-round very smart and well-read people.

The hate you see for goodreads on 4chan seems to be more of a self-fulfilling prophecy and based in bias. I.e, people expect it to suck because it is a popular site, therefore they will find evidence that it does indeed suck, and then use said "evidence" to provide a very one-sided picture of the site as a whole. It's really stupid, because as I said, if you look in the right places (Manny, Hadrian, for example).

The problem is just that /lit/ is filled with people like this >>5584812.

>Aquinas
>"quite important"

I hope that was sarcasm.

>>5584611
>>5584606

Yes, I think you did good. It's a very good way to present knowledge, given how most of kinder are shaping their minds.

Yet doing it, without advising them to criticize even the way it's presented, isn't taking all the necessary precautions.

The factoids about Asians, and Arabs are very interesting, but you could also have mentioned the astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs and the Mayans, the nautical knowledge of the Polynesian tribes, or the banished natural philosophy of the "dark ages"...

>>5586494

>the banished natural philosophy of the "dark ages"

Even the studies on logics, and semantics, have a capital importance in how we have shaped knowledge, but it's so deeply rooted in our culture, that it's hard to realize it.

>>5586239
>reviving Aristotle
>unimportant
He never said "right", "valid", "not at trickster" or "surely didn't touch little kids"

>>5586239

suburban secular warrior on the attack

look out

>>5583940
>muh feminist readings
>muh mysoginist Odyssey

I don't even get the last one.

>t-the women are all bad characters!

Athene is literally the first character doing something positive in the whole story.

>>5586174
>someone uses a mac because it is perfect for their work
>this is what plebs actually believe

Just install Ubuntu if you want to be a hipster artist with a "unique" work environment. There is a shit ton of better programs than the crap apple shits out. And they're even free.


Also are those two paragraphs literally one sentence?
Jesus fucking christ anon.

>>5584812
>I was quoting "Lycidas" when I was six, not watching little cartoons
That bait is delicious

>>5583940
>I just watched this video and he makes a lot of sense.
He doesn't write the video content.
People dislike him because he's written a very popular book which is full of incredibly shallow and unoriginal ''wisdom'' spouted by an incredibly annoying and stereotypical sixteen your old teenage girl who meets the perfect, witty, just as edgy and pseudo-intellectual boy, whose name is Augustus Waters, while her name is Hazel Grace Lancester.

>>5583940
I like John. Even though he's abit of a feminist and tumblrina. Hanks better though.

John just is for a teenage audience, The fandom just is cringe because they think he is on par with Huxley and Orwell. (Know this from first had experience in high school.)

Even people who make the best books of the decade list. Will most likely put the Fault in Our Stars above books like Infinite Jest which makes me a little mad.

It'd be like going to a literacy club of 30 year old people and finding out the first book on the list to read is Harry Potter.

>>5586239
It is for you, because everything is relative right?

replacing a baised eurocentric view of history with another biased anti-eurocentric view of history is not an improvement

his show is good for kids to get a general understanding of history but we all know for a fact that none of those kids are going to seek out any other views, especially with the way modern academia treats history

the current crop of teenagers interested in history are going to grow up thinking that the greeks were irrational bigots and the persians were completely infallible because they treated women a bit better

i want to get off john green's wild ride

The man has an overly-inflated ego and thinks he's among the likes of Pynchon. His books are "eh" at best, namely because he has the potential to write solid, though-provoking literature but goes the hack route and writes what he knows will sell to the self-important teenage girl demographic.

Yet he acts as if he's writing world-changing innovative books that will rock the foundation of all literary fiction tropes for the rest of eternity. Just look at his tumblr to see how far his head is shoved up his ass.

>>5583940
too much white guilt

>>5584467
>It is a good thing, to try to educate our kids out of Ethnocentrism
kek

>>5583940
this video literally starts with white guilt

this video, combined with a viewing of his cancer star film and reading selections of his prose, has led me to conclude that this John Green character is to literature as Felicia Day is to video games. Except this guy might be worse.

>>5586157
>this guy has more capability to do something and get his name out there
He whores himself out to a cult of preteen girls. Good for him.

>>5586174
underrated post

He's a YA writer whose fanbase largely includes teenage girls. /lit/ is going to strongly dislike him regardless of how good or bad he is.

That said, he's not an especially good or bad writer; just a guy with some irritating tics and a style that appeals to a certain aesthetic. And while I agree with the point that the Dark Ages are misnamed, that's pretty widely known among people who know anything about it, so it's hard to give him much credit.

>>5587283
I'd assume that most males in 4chan would be happy to have a cult of preteen girls, even if you become to public to abuse them, just for the feeling of it.

>>5583940
He's an ok historian (I think?), but he's a fucking horrible writer.

I mean, he's really, really, incredibly bad.

I don't understand why anyone would watch this guy. Between the white guilt and "feminism" (i don't think it's feminism when you lick the boots of women with no aim other than to rack up social points) I don't see why anyone would watch him.

Underneath what looks like a neanderthal knee-jerk reaction there's a good reason that people lash out at people who act like "faggots", and you only have to watch John Green videos to understand that. Unfortunately his fans are teenage girls and beta males who think "why can't we all just like each other?" not because they are genuinely uber-empathic souls sent from on high but because they think that by being accepting "faggot" behavior their "faggot" behavior will also be accepted. And if you don't like it you are a literal monster, but if you're benign enough they might make a show of taking pity on you rather than trying to get you arrested for words.

Fuck John Green and his shitty fans. I literally cannot imagine dying without killing someone first thanks to people like him.

>>5587719
please stop posting here, you fucking idiot

>>5587725

why

>>5587728
you are a thoughtless idiot who contributes nothing of value to discussion and apparently just wants to rant about politics and social groups

>>5587728
You dares suggest there is something wrong with worshipping the holy pussy so are a virgin with a small dick.

>>5587735

I think it's a valid response to OP's question of "Why is this guy looked down upon on this board?".

>>5587728
you belong on /b/

>>5587747

literally why???

>>5587735
>>5587747
Hello newfags. Remember you are actually forced to come to this website you found last month and bitch about everything.

>>5587719
"my knee-jerk idiocy is actually intellectually justified, for reasons I don't feel like explaining"

>>5587758
i've been posting here for years, sorry i don't agree with you that dumb off-topic posts ranting about whatever stupid shit in society are good and valuable contributions to the board

>>5587764
You already replied to him and are now samefagging. You're actively lying despite quoting a post which does exactly what you claim it fails to do.

>>5587774
is there anything more annoying than people insisting that any two posts which disagree with them must be samefagging

(probably, yeah)

>>5587752
because you're a "faggot" XD

>>5587764

People dislike other people for "arbitrary" reasons all the time and self-loathing, self-deprecation, clearly practiced mannerisms and being a general white-knight are pretty close to the top of the pile of "arbitrary" reasons.

Doesn't take a genius, kiddo.

>>5587772
He literally answered OP. yes I know we've all been here since moot was a sparkle in his mom's ball sack. You are clearly a whiney newfaggot. If you don't like 4chan simply don't come here, you delusional retard.

>>5587774
original response wasn't me, I just like to jump in and take sides whenever anyone throws a shitfit

the "John Green is a faggot" poster is an idiot and should get off my board though

>>5587785

>my board

hehe yes my board dance monkeys dance your all idiots :)

>>5587777
i think it's hilarious when people think that because 4chan is anonymous that they can samefag and pretend they've been here for a decade while employing some sort of "schroedingers anon". You're transparent as fuck sweetie.

>>5587784
i like 4chan. i don't like dumb shitty thoughtless posts. this is not a complicated thing here.

>>5587797
Everyone pretending to have been here for more than 5 years is silly, since the longer you stay the less you like the fact that you did. Ideally you wouldn't be proud of wasting your time like this no matter how little you did.

>>5587798

I don't like retards who type in lower-case to make it seem like they're detached when in reality they're frothing more than anybody else, but I just have to deal with it. So do you.

>>5587809
well you're free to call me a fuckass just like i called anon an idiot

>>5583940
I don't hate anyone more than I hate John Green.

I find it incredibly depressing that he fills the spot of "american intellectual" and "literary author". His writing is painfully mediocre. If it was just shit, it would be much better. Because he has enough talent to make a cogent plot and vomit platitudes, people assume that his works are at the apex of writing. This leads to complacency, which locks people into a colorless, vapid world for absolutely no reason.

Everyone should be able to experience the summits and valleys of the human experience through writing - but John Green doesn't offer this. He offers a cheap facsimile of it. If teenage girls were the only ones who read his works, I wouldn't care. But that's not the case. Like another anon mentioned, he's beginning to be enjoyed by older and older people.

You may say that I have no reason to give a shit about this, but this intellectual decay leads to a shittier world for me. The people who read these books are different. They really are. You can tell how emotionally limited they are. I don't want to live in a world that shallow.

>>5587816

Why? All it does is make the thread shittier, you retarded cunt. I might as well now, but I think it's funny that you think you can tell anyone else they're bad posters when you're the one throwing a shitfit because the guy is "an asshole and shitty person :( " while using tumblrspeak like "fuckass".

I have no idea who this guy is but just watched this entire thing and this smug little prick looks and acts like he's straight out of the "FEDORAS ARE AWESOME" cringeclip

>>5584467

Its not "ethnocentrism", the only places the Dark Ages are called the Dark Ages are in fucking Europe, and the only place its taught as a bad time is in fucking Europe. He's just calling us racist because we, you know, teach European history in the US and Europe instead learning all about how be Muslim and how Egyptian were South Africans.

>>5587824
is acting like an edgy /b/tard somehow better than 'tumblrspeak'

>>5587906

"edgy btard *tip* lol spaghetti tumblr reddit"

- literally you

>>5584471

>>5584471

What's the issue? YA fiction is pretty entertaining and you can read both that and literary fiction.

What's the value in that kind of snobbery though? It comes across as kind of pathetic and enormously insecure.

YA fiction is just a fucking marketing gimmick anyway.

>>5587959
- literally you

>>5587798
>i don't like dumb shitty thoughtless posts

What else do you think 4chan mainly consists of? Get the fuck out

>>5583940
I don't look down on him. I enjoyed the fault in our stars as well as looking for alaska when I was in HS.

>>5583948
Thanks it's posts like this that make me bear this board.

>>5586174
The sticker is pretty pathetic though

>>5584812

>>5587817
kill yourself

>>5583940
Who looks down on him? Crash Course is excellent and is a great example of how education is now universal

His books are just ok, no he's not anything extraordinary but neither was Stephen Meyer or Anne Rice before her they just knew how to sell to their audience

Of course that rubs /lit/ wrong that rubs any writer wrong just as it rubs any artist wrong, when you have someone that knows how to sell better than how to create better, it saturates the art and lowers the bar for consumers.

That and he is as Tumblr as Tumblr gets and take a wild guess what 4chan thinks about that

He is a nerdy little beta and I hate him because all my hot friends want to fuck him and not fuck me...

>>5589046
>If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane

damn...

>>5589046
>tfw he's /lit/ incarnate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS4jk5kavy4

Here he "reviews" the Odyssey

>patriarchy
>double standards
>the whole epic is extremely paranoid about female sexuality

the horror begins around 6:55

I didnt even know who he was until everyone on tumblr complained about him and hated him for that book blue is the warmest color. I guess hes a "privileged white male, ableist for portraying sickness as romantic, and perpetuates all other kinds of 'problematic' stuff. Lol you know how they are there. Got all in the way of my anime boob gifs

>>5589046
>if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane
You can physically feel how much he wanted you to be impressed by this line.

>>5584812
Nabokov, get outta here, you're dead.

>>5589475
if you think Nabokov would ever use an idiotic phrase like "beta males" I don't think you've actually read any Nabokov

>>5589481
The joke was just that Nabokov was insufferably elitist in a similar fashion

>>5583940
he tries to make up for his poor teaching skills and spotty knowledge with big word choice, and that pisses me off.

>>5589046
this and the op pic are like unfuckable.jpg to me, terrible, I hate nerds

>>5589545
don't hate yourself

>>5587798
>i don't like dumb shitty thoughtless posts
Then you should probably stop shitting up the thread with them.

>>5583940
>muh eurocentrism
>muh dark ages

top kek

where does the ridiculous idea of the middle ages as a time of scientific and cultural stagnation come from?

>>5589475
if Nabokov wrote that it would read as a fucking work of art.

>>5589652
common sense? a few irrelevant minor christian philosophers isn't that much compared to the renaissance and antiquity. the only thing that was accomplished in the middle ages was copying the texts of antiquity, which isn't really a feat. middle ages literature is so bad it's embarrassing

>>5584419
>and I'd trust that opinion over the
Have you ever read his stuff? Its great for getting teens into reading.

>>5587283
>cult of preteen girls
not brainwashing them into an army of violent left wing radicals so you can rise to power championing the opposing party.

>>5589652
Enlightenment faggotry. It's propaganda of the first order. You can actually make the argument that Western thought took a step BACKWARDS during the Renaissance and the 'Age of Reason.' We didn't really recover until the Romantic Period.

>>5583940
at 10:46 you can see someone's hands come out from behind the blackboard to pop more party poppers.

>>5589388
he is worse than i thought

>>5589667
b8

>the only thing that was accomplished in the middle ages was copying the texts of antiquity, which isn't really a feat. middle ages literature is so bad it's embarrassing

>imblying

>Beowulf Poet
>Chaucer
>Pearl Poet
>Langland
>Dante
>Bede

>>5584534
>[consume any media] purely for entertainment

this is exactly what makes one a pleb so yes

>>5589732
you named mostly english ones
also bocaccio some of whose plots chaucer used, the author of romance de la rose (which chaucer used too), authors of the song of my cid, the song of roland and many others, and that's only western europe

>>5589388
why does he keep shitting on Odysseus for killing people? has he never read any old Norse stuff? that shit is crazy.
>open letter to the patriarchy

>>5589776
ask him to review the actions of medea
i bet he will say that it's patriarchy forced her to kill her children, it's how he earns his bread and butter after all

>>5589388
>Open letter to the Patriarchy
What the fuck was the point of this part, anyways? Everything he said was completely tangential to The Odyssey, and as it relates to The Odyssey, I hardly see how anyone should be surprised, or even care, that an epic poem written over two thousand fucking years ago in a foreign land would contain the underlying stench of antiquated social attitudes.

>>5589772
well, all of them I listed were English other than Dante

I chose them I'm not familiar with medieval lit outside of Great Britain

>>5584657
>Reading shit is worse than not reading.
I don't believe so. It still requires some brain power, it's not as mindless as watching TV.

He makes a lot of money writing YA. There is nothing wrong with that and there is nothing more to say.

>>5589829
But it contributes that mental energy to pursuits that could be counter-intuitive to critical-thinking, introspection, self-awareness and greater awareness of the outside world.

One could read garbage like The Mortal Instruments every single day and will likely gain literally nothing from it, which I suppose is neither good nor bad. However, worst case scenario is that doing this can potentially foster the kind of attitude you see espoused by these obnoxious YA obsessed "booktubers," who fucking demand to be held in the same regard as those who read more adult-oriented literature despite the fact that they give no one any reason to perceive them as anywhere near that same level.

>>5589388
>Odysseus is a serial adulterer
>Not realizing the marriage thing was clearly hyperbolic praise for the person who saved his fucking life
>Not realizing every time he cheated on Penelope was with a demi-goddess who had his life in her hands
>Not realizing this power relationship implies that Odysseus was a serial rape victim according to many modern definitions of rape

Also
>Odysseus did the same thing to the cyclops that the suitors did to him
>One meal vs. several years of mooching

And
>Agamemnon's views on women are Homer's views on women
>Implying Penelope doesn't prove him the fuck wrong

A fair and balanced critique.

>>5589897
Oh come on, like you never do anything just for entertainment

>>5589652
Petrarch, essentially

>>5589667
>the only thing that was accomplished in the middle ages was copying the texts of antiquity

And the application of ancient philosophy to theology and natural philosophy, and the extension of Aristotle's logic, and the emergence of vernacular literature in new forms.

>>5589930
I'm not talking about reading something easygoing and fun just for entertainment every so often, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm talking about reading literally nothing but that kind of stuff with zero desire to read something more challenging. Or worse, being staunchly opposed to reading something more challenging in favor of the more shallow entertainment.

>>5589914
Yeah but he had integrity he wouldn't get views from the unlovable tumblrinas railing against the patriachy from the safety of their home nor from the spastic, basement dwelling /pol/acks who think commenting hate en masse will make a difference.

Which is why it's perfectly justifiable to "look down" on that insufferable, effeminate dork and the people behind him.

>>5589935
fugging medieval saints can't even align there manuscripts right, I had to tilt my head 90 degrees

also my knowledge of Latin and ability to read half-uncials are limited but I think it says:

uber fili
genera abra
tiohis? ham?
[some heavily abbreviated word I can't make out]
filiela?
uiel?

all I can translate is:

teat of the son
birth/origin from maiden

>>5583940

>life expectancy in the Middle Ages was 30

No, Johnny boy, it wasn't. Humans have always lived roughly the same lifespan. Child mortality skews the averages.

confirmed for history pleb

There has to be something left out here? Arabia wasn't THAT scientifically advanced, was it?

>>5590199
>Humans have always lived roughly the same lifespan
Got a source matey?

>>5590199
>has also read the list of common misconceptions on Wikipedia

Muh nigga.

This thread is comedy gold

>>5592444
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions

There you have it, son.

>>5590199

Average life expectancy has increased over the centuries, both as a result of decreasing IMR and medical advancements. Treatments for otherwise fatal diseases, antibiotics for infections that would cause death if untreated, and healthier lifestyles (caused by the advent of shit like Germ Theory), have led to people living longer overall.

The ignorance that surrounded the medical community of the Middle Ages is almost incomprehensible.

>start blaming dogs and cats for disease
>go on mass killing spree
>fleas, acting as vector for disease, lose viable hosts
>jump to non-preferred food source, humans
>spread of disease increases exponentially
>we science now

>>5592460
According to that you're both wrong, life expectancy was lower but not as low as 30.

>>5592468
>roughly

I'm not going to reread my own link, but if I'm not mistaken, going from ~60 to the low 70s should qualify as "roughly".

>>5592478

I'll murder you on your 60th birthday then. You'll have lived *roughly* long enough.

>>5592487
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax - This won't hurt."

>>5592466
How dare you imply that something as low as a flea would dare touch a distinguished gentleman as me? I hope you are ready to apologize or face a duel, as a gentleman of science.

A teen led me a paper painted in blue with quotes from the book he made, The Fault in Our Stars.

It was really bad and I would possibly not enjoy the book.

>>5592531
>this sounded much more funny in my head

>>5592537
It always happens.

>>5592531

We'll duel next week.

Assuming you haven't shit your insides out from plague.

He's annoyingly underwhelming if you know about the topic already

>>5592460

Nice job, O'Brien

>>5592448

Yep.

>>5592460
>Fortune cookies, despite being associated with Chinese cuisine in the United States, were in fact invented and brought to the U.S. by the Japanese.[88] The cookies are extremely rare in China, where they are actually seen as symbols of American cuisine.[89]
If there's any kind of apocalypse in which everything but bits and pieces of vague information about the past are lost, future generations are going to be fucked.

>>5583940
I actually really like his and his brothers videos, I admit its directed toward a younger audience but I still learn a lot from it.

>>5592588
Hmm, I've never been called a sheep before...
I suppose it hurt.

>>5592591
What's your favorite wiki article?

I'm quite fond of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer#Society_and_culture

As it shocked me to find such a "faceted" article.

In addition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_thermal_conductivities

Is just about the most useful article in existence.

>>5592639
Not the guy you're replying to, but this one is my personal favourite:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan#Orangutans_and_humans

>>5592781
Thank you, so very much, for that.

I attempted to think of an amazing article to link to you in return, but nothing jumped out at me.

So, instead---this is one of my favorite things on the internet. I suggest you play with it.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+2+inch+circles+fit+in+a+2.5+foot+circle

>>5583940

Well as far as his videos about history and science (like the one about the big bang) go, John Green often goes out of his way to present highly debatable content as facts. The problem isn't really what kind of view he presents, but that he basically says "this is fact" and not "this is my/our view on the matter". For instance, he is an anti-eurocentrict, which is simply just as bad as eurocentrism. Instead of applying some logic and view Europes role in world history in an appropriate context he offers a lot of criticism to European history while praising non-European history.
For example, he likes to point out and criticise massacres and attrocities that occured in European history, but goes on to offer frequent appraisal for the mongols.

Furthermore, he applies strawman tactics, to some part. He has a segment in which he talks to his "me from the past". A character that displays a very naive view on history. In itself that doesn't make it a strawman, but since Mr. Green never bothers to qualify his statements or offer different views it appears as if his "me from the past" is the only one offering any counter-points at all.

Yeah, but I don't why /lit/ hates him. Prolly cause he's a fakking cant.

>>5592984
The problem with his anti-eurocentrist view of history is that he usually just ends up focusing on North American history. At one point he talks about the Seven Years War, a very European war, and then goes on to talk exclusively about what happened in Canada, while the SYW had also the very important theatre of the proxy wars between Britain and France in India.

>>5590199
This type of shit is definitely a red flag for history teachers

It's like when one of them talks about Napoleon being really 5'2" or Kirsten Dunst really saying "let them eat cake". It says a lot about the degree of research they make.

>>5584397
If it's not made for intellectuals it doesn't deserve to exist.

>>5592639
>hushed tones....

>>5589930
I don't you fucking pleb.

>>5589388
Instead of trashing the dude you all should learn his ways because he's the reference in terms of nerdy guys young chicks want to bang nowadays, he "gets them"

If he's talking about patriarchy, you better talk about patriarchy if you want that dick sucked anytime soon

>>5593002
I know, right?
Craziest fucking article ever.

>>5592639
I'm a big fan of this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

But the list of micronations in general will take you to a lot of great articles

>>5592639

hmmm I like reading articles about warships and fighter planes and stuff. I read a good one about General LeClerc a couple days ago after I read this book called "Soldiers of Salamis"

Another neat one is to read about all the preparations the brits made for a german invasion in ww2, stuff like poison gas traps and sniper bunkers and whatnot. That's where that "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster comes from, the brits were gonna post that everywhere if the jerries invaded, but it never got used.

lots of interesting trivia.

>>5593108
Remember when wiki articles had trivia sections?
I fucking hate the future...

Speaking of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics
Fantastic article. The common "notion" thought of when cybernetics is mentioned is sooo narrow.

>>5593177
It's better without that shit. It was like a "stuff to spout without really reading the article" section, it was to the wiki article what the article is to the real book.

>>5593177
>Remember when wiki articles had trivia sections?
It's called TVTropes now, people spend days trapped in there

>>5592639
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beatle_Barkers&oldid=558229060

Shame that they tore it down.

>>5593275
> In 2010 the legal hounds were sent in to discover who was responsible for pirating the material and to shut down access to illegal versions which had gone viral like a plague of fleas.

> Record producer, label owner and one-time Australian pop star Gene Pierson (aka Giancarlo Salvestrin) and musician Roy Nicolson who created Beatle Barkers bared their teeth when they discovered their pet project had been stolen.

> The one-off Beatle Barkers album fits neatly into the novelty music sub-genre of singing animal songs which people either love or loathe.

this can't be real

>>5592639
Not wikipedia, but Uncyclopedia's article on V. is great.
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/V..
> The first of the chapters which contain neither of the main characters. In this humorous diversion Arcweld, Freeboat and a Canadian brown bear attack a mathematics book and devour it in an attempt to acquire its 'sacred knowledge'. Pynchon uses this chapter to make witty jokes on the transubstantiation of matter and knowledge, the masturbatory habits of Tibetan Monks, and structure of the Papacy and its relation to piecewise functions.

>>5584423
great shit *clapping while drunk over satanic paintings*

>>5593009
>If he's talking about patriachy, you better talk about patriachy if you want a false rape allegation anytime soon

FTFY

>>5593507
They really are going to stupid away a centuries worth of feminist progress, aren't they...

I remember the first time I saw the word trigger used unironically...I almost thought you guys had made these people up before that.

>>5593527
The intentended use of the term is alright, letting a potential reader that it may not be a nice article. It's exactly the same as an ">inb4", but it looses meaning when its used by people who won't be read by any, let's say, rape victim unless they add a trigger that someone else would search for. If it turned into a hashtag it's because a lot of teens use tumblr and they have been convinced that that kind of stuff is cool, but the general idea is okay and nothing to rage about.

>>5593527
>They really are going to stupid away a centuries worth of feminist progress, aren't they...

No

They'll probably win and in 60 years the latest expression of feminist theory will probably be completely integrated in mainstream society

>>5593538
>being this beta

What the fuck are you talking about, boy? When it comes down to it, we'll drag them back to the cave by their hair.

>>5584812
top lol. This boart.

>>5586161
>Many people in their 30s read exclusively YA fiction or only watch blockbusters and I am 100% ok with that
Fucking pleb enabler.

>>5587798
>i like 4chan
lmao
newshit confirmed

>>5593211
>stuff to spout without really reading the article
So?

>>5593291
this sounds like one of the fake newspaper articles in SimCity 2000

>>5594221
Some people aren't altruistic...

I know...

A Wikipedia scholar.

>>5594537
Wikipedia taught you everything you know.

>>5584812
>implying literature should be written with the purpose for developing the mind of a child
>implying YA isn't purely created for enjoyment, with anything else being after-thought

>>5584534
>Would you criticise someone for watching a blockbuster movie? I hate this double standard that you can watch films or TV purely for entertainment but if you read something only for entertainment you're a pleb.
You're a pleb in both cases. You simply hadn't realized that you were one.

I don't care a terrible deal for his books now, but I loved them years ago and he actually got me into literature. I think adults who criticize the shit out of books meant for teens are even sadder than the adults who love them.

John Green is a decent author and a great person. /lit/ is full of awful people, so I can imagine he is looked down upon a great deal here.

I find him personable and entertaining, he seems like a genuinely nice guy

But anyone with even a passing familiarity with quality literature can recognize his books as mass appeal, lowest common denominator cash grabs

>>5596865
>Tripshit calling others plebs.

I think it's good that John Green tries to discuss more than just European history. But calling the European Middle Ages boring and meaningless is just one of the retarded things to say. Charlemagne, for example, was perhaps one of the most important figures in history.

>>5583940
I read Fault in our stars
it was alright I guess. It's not Shakespear though, it's a youth book

>>5596986
Does he really say that? Then he knows absolutely nothing. He's just another Enlightenment shill.

>muh Age of Reason

The only thing that sucked about the middle ages was the art.

Because people want to feel superior whether it's through politics, fandom, art, religion or whatever.