/lit/ - Literature

Because the school systems have turned reading into a chore instead of a joy

Boys have to actually work to get ahead in life. Girls can just laze around reading and someone else will take care of them.

>>6566867
>not being NEET masterrace

Because their upbringing places too much value on television and sports

>>6566852

Boys don't like sitting still and doing as their told, girls can deal with it. There is a reason men fought the Trojan war and women sat at the loom, and it hasn't really changed after all these years.

>>6566878
didn't the amazons fight in the trojan war though?

>>6566970
no

>>6566970
amazon is company you retard

>>6566970
Yes, but don't tell much about it, some people may be pissed

>>6566970
>tfw no high test qt amazonian to penetrate with my spear

>>6566852
The "red pill" answer nobody wants to hear is that we live in a feminist society so contemporary literature is feminist, or at the very least has a female slant and doesn't appeal to boys.

>>6567474
Who says they have to read contemporary literature though

>>6567483
Kids don't like old stuff. You get into reading with contemporary fiction.

they don't need to. they're still going to find success without really trying in life

>>6567452
she'll only have one boob though

>>6567518
>women have it harder than men
Okay buddy

>>6567502
>You get into reading with contemporary fiction.
For some reason I've always avoided YA and contemporary like the plague and only got into reading via one national reader from the 60s.
People are different.

Nothing can create or destroy people with a genuine interest in literature, reading, high culture in general. Many people will read lower-brow stuff for the majority of what they read: let them. It's not affecting anyone's enjoyment of 'better' works. No education system can make people actually interested and truly appreciative of great literature, nor can the worst education system eradicate interest and appreciation of beauty and intellect in those who have it. None of this is worth despairing over at all, it could not be any other way, never was and never will be.

>>6567556
Sure there are anomlies.

Most kids aren't into reading 100 year old literature.

>>6566852
>Why do boys not like to read?

Because the books which capture a boy's imagination are rarely taught or discussed in education today. And if they are, they typically aren't taught well or are taught from a SJW standpoint. Couple this fact with the truth that most English teachers are female and the problem is exasperated.

When I was a kid, my reading list was composed of awesome shit for boys like Treasure Island, The Odyssey, Narnia, The Outsiders, and The Hobbit.

I have a nephew who is in 7th grade. I took a look at his reading list for his English class and it's chock full of YA bullshit that I'd never even heard of before. One book was called Speak and it was about some chick who gets raped (even though she consented) and how sad she was over it and didn't tell anyone only to later own become 'empowered' by 'speaking'. It was fucking awful and ostracized all the boys in the class.

There was also trash in there like House on Mango Street and other such bullshit.

It's seen as a sort of gay or sissy activity unlike sports, which are revered by the adult role models in boys' lives.

>>6567683
>House on Mango Street
>search for excerpts
>"Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small"
>"It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong."
>"All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes."
Jesus fucking Christ.
As always, I'm embarrassed to be a mudman.

>>6567556
>>6567502
>>6567483
Contemporary literature can be great. YA contemporary is something else entirely.

>>6567407
kek

>>6566852
>talking with this girl about books
>she mentions a bunch of shit that she read
>says that she didn't like some ok-to-great books
>her reason for not liking them is that she "couldn't connect with any of the characters" and "didn't understand it" and "it made me sad"
I could barely contain my autism.

In my opinion, this statistic comes from a variety of factors. Schools do make reading quite a chore, but there does also seem to be a stigma among boys who, at a young age, prefer sedentary activities like reading or writing.

It's perceived as a "sissy" thing, as others in this thread have mentioned, due in part to influences like the majority of teachers in early education being female (thus giving a subtle hint that scholarly matters are a feminine thing, to their perception), and the popularity of things like athleticism and technology, which in a lazy youngster's mind reduce the significance of literature. Ergo, they enjoy reading way less.

TL;DR (Why would I need to say that on a forum for goddamn literature): I think young boys just aren't motivated enough to read books, especially more archaic materials. There needs to be some sort of enticement, like the promise of adventure or action or simple things kids just enjoy.

>>6567502
I was raised on the greeks though

>>6566852
Because all john green books, the hunger games, and other YA novels focus on girls. Books for boys require you to be older in order to understand them.
When I was a kid, I always read Crichton, and then I moved onto bigger and better things. Most kids cant read Crichton, so they either:
A.) Be girls who read stupid dribble like the hunger games and divergent.
B.) Be boys who don't read until they grow up, or never read at all.
C.)Be boys who actually read.

Reading good books>not reading books>reading shit books

>>6568252
actually this
"reading books" is not always a good thing

>>6567765
Man

Shit ideas in shit prose

Is there anything worse? Children are seriously being exposed to this shit

>>6567814
Yeah, and I'm not avoiding it anymore.
Though I still avoid anything where the protagonist is a writer but that's just a pet peeve.

>>6566867
>not finding a hot smart gf to take care of you while you read and play vidya and fuck other women when you can

This is not the 50s boy.

>>6568302
If there's anything that bothers me about those is how biased they are, like both of those victimizing quotes.
Latinos don't give a fuck about where they are; and, while a lot of Latinamerican men still don't like the idea that women can be as strong as they are because lol chauvinism, living here among the llamas and donkeys you realize that a lot women end up becoming strong from living in shitty circumstances and they don't need to be these legendary magical NEETs that don't need no man to be considered strong.
Incidentally, a lot of Latinamerican men also look up to their mothers and some of the most proactive and outstanding people I've met were women.

Never read House of Mango but I can already tell it's just fucking feminist bullshit and I feel terrible kids anywhere have to be exposed to shit like this.

>>6566852
>Why do boys not like to read?

They probably have too much energy. I don't know about the rest of you but in California (I don't know if the still have this) there was a thing called SURF which was a mandatory free time where you read after your 5th or 6th period.

Boys would almost always have a hard time with it

Except when SURF came after PE or gym. Then everything was nice.

I think the reality is that in middle school schools either teach YA shit or absolutely shit books that boys will inherently hate, The House on Mango Street being a good example.

It wasn't until High School where started reading cool shit like The Things They Carried, The Stranger, Of Mice and Men, etc.
There was shit mixed in like Women Warrior but I could at least take that since I got to read cool stuff too.

>>6568355
You got me thinking, what could even be used in middle school?
Adventure genre books were a good idea, things like Treasure Island or Count of Montecristo, but they seem to be considered boring or misogynist or some shit so, what now?
Is there even something new along those lines that isn't just YA shit?

Most people do not read because they are scared of "not understanding"

>>6568369
The simple answer is war books and funny stuff.

In middle school you don't need to foster and appreciation for the classics or even good literature, just establishing reading (beyond easy YA) is fine.

>>6568369
Sci, fantasy, horror.

That'll probably be more interesting for a young boy. LoTR was always popular with teenage boys at my school. When I was in elementary school I always try to find ghost story collections.

>>6568121
You know, you could point at that negative "sissy" image as probably the biggest obstacle for effective education in American schools. Boys simply don't want to be labeled as a loser or a nerd for being intelligent, so there isn't much of an incentive to study, read, or take interest in school when all it does is alienate you from your friends.

>>6568385
It'll die out. Kids have more reason to be introverted and reading with computers and smart phones.

It'll just be more common for kids to make fun of other kids for making spelling mistakes on facebook posts. Things like that

>>6568314
I know what you mean.

>>6567557
I only read the Harry Potter books as a child and nothing more. Came from a drug dealer family and had no idea about "high culture".

Took one AP course on a whim and it changed everything. Education can be a life saver.

>>6566852
Because society pushes unhealthy standards of masculinity (AKA being a faggot)

>>6568385
Except that's untrue. There are plenty of awesome intellectual men in history. Benjamin Franklin loved banging broads and reading, he was super masculine, but he's considered "toxic" by feminist standards

We just need to teach boys role models like Benjy, because something closer to toxic masculinity will be taught by rappers instead

>>6567765
Seriously, this book is cancer. I was made to read it for my English major and it was just the shittiest, most patronizing, cliché bullshit ever. Fortunately, I'm in Mexico, so we saw right through the bullshit portrayal of Mexicans in that thing.

>>6568121
They are too busy stuffing kid's minds with Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks as heroes, instead of inspiring boys towards men like Teddy Roosevelt, Napoleon or Julius Caesar. Masculinity is actively suppressed in high culture and can only be found in low culture (movies, etc)

That's why truly intellectual men can only be autodidacts.

>>6567683
That's why they say schools treat boys like broken girls.

>>6566872
Wofl is stupid, what happened to fefe?

>>6567585
You'd be surprised. If I were to walk into a classroom and have the boys read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, I'm pretty sure they would be hesitant but find real meaning in it.

>>6568528
>Masculinity is actively suppressed in high culture
By a bunch of joyless crazy cunts with a serious case of penis envy and a bunch emasculated mommas boys. They're not exactly threatening.

>>6568604
Sure, but they're powerful enough to change the reading lists significantly away from anything featuring male triumph

>>6568615
>reading lists

>>6568528
>boys should aspire to be egomaniac war criminals

>>6568626
Well, yeah, reading lists coincide perfectly with forcing students to read spooky books

>>6568636
clear out the name field, thanks

>>6568635
Sorry? Can't hear you over the sound of those howling ghosts

The point of western society is to breed submission and obedience. Masculine role models who are intelligent work against that.

>>6568635
Yes, they should.

>>6568635
Self interestedness is the defining difference between a man and a boy

Boys like reading when you can give them sufficiently stimulating material, action and adventure are usually good bets. But that isn't even really a 'boy' thing, kids in general prefer books with action and adventure. Here you are harping on 'feminized reading lists' but I didn't know any girls who liked A House on Mango Street when we had to read it in Middle School. Some of the most popular series we stock at our library are Geronimo Stilton, A to Z Mysteries and Goosebumps. They aren't strictly 'boys' or 'girls' entertainment.

There has to be more going on. A lot of school libraries are sadly neglected and if the parent doesn't take the kid to the library what are they supposed to read? Are parents more inclined to give their daughter books out of a desire to keep her in a safe, indoor hobby? I think you have to set reading as a enjoyable past time early, as in elementary, and I was fortunate to grow up in a time when the schools mandated reading periods during which we could read anything we wanted from the school library. But what if the schools have eliminated these time periods in favor of test prep or if the libraries got shuttered or only have old stock?

We read some sure shit in middle/high school but for the most part, so long as you had a young teacher you would be ok. Most of my teachers were young women and we read stuff like The Count of Monte Cristo, 1984, Animal Farm, Flowers for Algernon, The Giver etc. Older female teachers gave us the stereotypically feminine stories no one enjoyed. But I wonder if it was so much about the quality of the books or more how long we spent laboring over them.

>>6568470
Did you have something of an innate interest in literature and culture beforehand but just hadn't had the chance to engage in it?

I came from a low class family too but always had a strong natural interest in literature. When I was 12 I used to browse the internet to try and read Shakespeare plays etc. Then we didn't have the internet for a while and I fell out of the habit. I never did anything in school, and didn't even show up very often, so school never piqued my interest in anything. Then when I was older and got a job I started being able to buy books for myself.

I really think it's an innate thing and education won't do much to change anyone. People who have a genuine interest in literature will *always* pursue it, eventually. People who don't have a genuine interest will never get anything meaningful out of it no matter what classes they're forced to take.

>>6567452
>you will never unmask Penthesilia and fall in lover with her as her hair unfurls and cascades down from the force of your driving speak and regret your unchecked rage

I'm starting to notice more women treating men like lumbering apes than before, like really talking down not only to men but boys. It's bad enough that forces seem to be conspiring to make men emasculated vidya-obsessed man-children without the denigration.

>>6569316
*love and *spear, dayumn.

>>6566875
underrated truth

>>6567683

To piggy back on what this anon is saying, one of my good friends kids is really into reading and his dad is a fucking mongoloid who has only ever read The Hobbit. I helped him get into reading by showing him The Chronicles of Prydain, Redwall, and The Iliad. He's also very masculine, plays football, wrestles, does boxing, etc. He calls me 'uncle' which is pretty cool. Good kid.

Anyways, my point is that more boys would be into reading if they are actually given a 'boys' book to read. Lord of the Flies, good kid's fantasy (Tolkien, Prydain, Redwall, Etc.), King Arthur tales, and Homer always go well with young boys.

>>6569355
>boys' list

Maybe we should get rid of all this gendered nonsense altogether and just stick to the classics.

>>6569363
my god this anon is right!

What should we assign for HS Freshman English aside from The Odyssey? I feel like The Metamorphosis is good for both genders. Gregor is a great male protagonist and his sister's presence and metamorphosis throughout the novella (tee hee) touches on some good gender/social justice stuff.

And it's short and interesting.

Most people will always read or engage in garbage cultural activates.

That's why it's called popular culture.

>fifth annual survey of 32,000 children
>32,000 children
Did they really need the sample size to be so big?

>>6570362
The bigger the sample size, the better

>>6568369

These
>>6568377
>>6568379

Maybe some Greek mythology

>>6568037
I once had a girl tell me she didn't want to read Moby Dick because she had heard it was racist.

>>6567527
only if they're pretty

same as with men

>>6566867
That's pretty much quite a factor.

I started reading and becoming educated after failing so often and hard in life that I finally had the time to settle down with a shitty job with low hours that allowed me to relax and read.

Reading is the mark of the failed nowadays (except if reading is a large part of your job). It's a female privilege, because they'll go through life like a breeze if only they don't eat too much cake. And even then they probably have it easier in state jobs, which are the most chill and overpaid jobs there are for 0 education and skill.

Universal literacy is an ignoble goal for society.

>>6568500
I'm not talking about history, I'm talking about the current culture in your neighborhood's school, Elementary to High.

>>6566970
I believe they arrived after the events of Iliad, but before the Trojan Horse plot occurred.

>>6571837
There's more to being ugly than being fat, dickwad.

No one's reaching down from up on high to make my life easier.

If we taught kids rhetoric rather than reading, they'd gravitate towards the reading due to the desire for self expression gained in speaking.

All children should be trained primarily in public speaking and political philosophy, starting with Plato and Rousseau, and taught to be critical little statesmen. Highschool should focus mainly on philosophy, philosophy of science, mathematical proof writing (with more focus on modern trends in mathematics), civil activism, and exploration of the natural sciences through experimentation.

If we just taught kids how to think critically and express themselves profoundly we could skip over everything else.

Every child should be trained in public speaking to the point that it becomes an art as well. Speaking is more important than writing, and the later comes naturally from the former.

>>6567683
>Speak

Did you give oatleast let himorrow your books? please tell me you did

also Speak a shit