/lit/ - Literature

>>9102318
good post

what is the pretense?

>>9102321
this

I don't browse enough different boards to make such a judgement. It's definitely up there, but I don't mind it desu.

>>9102318
It can be. But I have found that the gems that can be found on 4chan are more often found on /lit/ than anywhere else.

/lit/ is the most sincere board. You can actually hold an honest conversation on something you think is important without one hundred layers of irony between everyone.

>>9102346
Paradoxically /lit/ is also the most ironic board, as irony is a literary technique and we are more aware of and proficient in it than anyone else on this site.

>>9102318
No, that's /mu/

>>9102341
That's because literature is interesting and valuable, while practically everything else this site talks about is retarded.

>>9102374
This. The majority of them listen to popular music solely and think it qualifies them to be called musically informed. Embarrassing.

no, a board like /a/ would probably be more pretentious, given that they manage to be elitist over consuming waifufaggotry escapist dogshit for the dregs of society

>>9102386
I was also thinking this, but in a way they do kind of understand how shit they are

>>9102370
Yeah, I get that impression whenever I venture into a thread talking about economics, because it seems that the vast majority of /lit/ is in favour of abolishing the minimum wage, outlawing anything deemed to be a "market distortion" such as environmental regulations, and talking about government taxation in terms of thievery.

I don't know enough about economics to get involved in such romps, but I get the impression that these lads are just engaging in some sort of elaborate parody of economics that I can't access because I don't know enough about the subject and the language used in it.

>>9102318
doggy

>>9102445
lol if only this were true

>>9102374
>>9102381
yeah, okay, but they're only music experts while here we are all fucking overall amazing and smart as fuck, also /mu/ have like 75% threads about music, we have like 40% about books; /lit/ is never mentioned on any blue board but we joke about other all the time

>>9102318
It's not pretentious if you really are the most intelligent and educated board.

>>9102318
If an anthropologist were to look into a case study on the irony and absurdity of the 21st century then they would do a case study on the archives of /lit/.

Every single post can either be interpreted as sincere (rarely the case), sarcastic, or absurdist. That is, every single idea posted on here can either mean what it says at face value, the exact opposite of what it says at face value, or something entirely unrelated.

There are so many layers of irony and inside jokes that it is nearly impossible to know what each comment actually is attempting to say.

None of you right now can even be 100% sure if my comment is making a satire of the "pretentiousness" that supposedly takes place here or a sincere assessment of the board

That's why I don't actually think it is all that pretentious. I think most of the comments that appear so are merely ironic and the comments that aren't meant to be read ironically are usually the ones with actual intellectual discourse, if you believe even that such a thing is possible on the internet in this day and age

>>9102374
this

>>9103266
I think I have posted sincerely on /lit/ maybe 3 times total including this post

>>9102370
This is very ironic.

>>9103278
Ironic how you say that this is one of your 3 sincere comments when that statement is actually probably an absurdist exaggeration of the amount of sarcasm you propagate on this board. Your proclaimed "sincerity" proves that, because it was probably sarcasm in and of itself.

See what I mean?

>>9103278
I don't believe you.

/lit/ made me a better person. I now enjoy reading quality literature, talking to people about literature, and attempting to share it with those around me. I've gotten multiple people into reading because of /lit/. I have genuinely had some of the most enjoyable moments of my life while reading a good book.

Lots of rampant pseudposting here but yesterday I made a thread about religion and got dozens of thoughtful, unobnoxious replies. Then I browsed /sci/ for a while and people insulted OPs for asking something maths related.

So idk really it's no worse than others.

>>9103266
i think those layers and level of detachment as exemplified in my very cool yet very lazy post as you can see by the lack of caps + idiosyncratic use of symbols/characters + hip lingo and abbr.---all the best posters do this (e.g. twiggy, rapture [i mean 'best' in a sincere way btw]).

/lit/ is definitely the most pretentious board, but underneath that facade it's also has the most quality and intellectual substance.

>>9103305
ASAAAASSSSGHGGGGGHGFSDBNHGCVNHGFVNKJHMCSWRG

>>9102318
pretentious is a word plebs incapable of understanding true genius use to try and validate their own idiocy

t. genius

>>9103332
Good post

>>9103332
L A Y E R Z

I only browse /lit/ and /sp/ at this point. Occasionally /trek/ or goodfriend threads on /tv/. The rest is so shit it almost defies reason.

>>9102318
Yes. This board is full of frauds who circlejerk over the same 10 classics and call everything else shit. They're a bunch of losers who get off on feeling superior because they have shelves full of books that they haven't read yet. The only people who seem to enjoy reading here are the sci-fi and fantasy nerds.

>>9103305
Twigs, I thought I told you to give up non-caps like last week or some shit, for the camou value? I'm thinking about getting on that hypercorrect, Oxford comma, shit.

>>9103305
LOL welcome to the ironic internet from ten years ago, retard.

>>9103388
Scifi/fantasy nerd detected

>>9103438
More of a crime/thriller sort of guy.

>>9103462
that's almost as bad

>>9103434
True, but the examples 10 years ago as soon as, say, RYM, are more stream-of-consciousness expressions of sincere emotions, maybe with some hip-hip lingo added post-MBDTF and LiveLoveA$AP. These days it's much more intellectual, ala DFW. The question is, did the young internet generation just enter college, or was there an actual change in the zeitgeist? idk man

>>9102318
At least the board attempts to maintain a level of discussion. Even if people are pseuds, It's more pleasant to read this board compared to others.

>>9103465
Exactly my point. You people hold your noses up at everything because it makes you feel superior. You don't write, create, or do anything. All you do is use other peoples work to feel smug.

>>9103471
>as soon as

as done on*

>>9103475
i write/create post on the 4han and they have more ltierary value than anyd scifi/fantasy/crime/thriller/horror/ novel

>>9103471
You have nof ucking idea what your'e talking about idiot. RYM? What the fuck? LOLLL

>>9103476
you want commas around "and" at the end of that sentence too.
>ala DFW
you're right twigs, fuck this caps shit, that's godawful

This board is definitely in the top 10 in terms of the seriousness of the subject matter being discussed. So a lot of people try to be sincere. The only other boards I can think of that have a serious subject matter are:

>/ck/ (food)
>/his/ (history)
>/sci/ (science)
>/trv/ (travel)
>/out/ (outdoors)
>/ic/ (art)

the rest, including /pol/, /fit/, /biz/, and /mu/ have all been co-opted by shitty meme culture.

>>9103509
/classical/ is the only good part of /mu/

>>9103515
sounds pretty pretentious desu

>>9103520
It's the only part of /mu/ that talks about real music

>>9103524
>real music
ah shit i'm being epicly baited

>>9103278
I've never posted on /lit/ sincerely. Over time I've gained proficiency in the art of the ruse. I've gotten many a rise out of unwary /lit/izens. My favorite thing to do is pretend to be a pedophile in Lolita threads.

>>9102318
/a/ and /mu/ come close, but it seems to me to be the most pretentious of the group

>>9103526
anything other than classical is the musical equivalent of genre fiction. this is obvious

>>9103535
you will not bait me any further buddy, take a hike!

The most pretentious board is /sci/ because they, like most mainstream science circles, claim to be logical and open to new ideas but are scared to death to talk about human biodiversity or racial differences.

>>9103536
>i have never studied music history, theory, form etc. in my life

>>9103538
Mainstream scientific consensus is that there is no such thing as race.

>>9103550
Just like scientific consensus is that there is no such thing as biological sex, am I right?

>>9103535
what about carnatic music?

>>9103539
here you go kid. Much richer, deeper, more complex than any classical you can produce for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Cro2yxRjw

>>9103509
/his/ is LARP central mang.

>>9103570
non-european classical, but not as good

>>9103576
every heard of a guy named brian ferneyhough?

>>9103593
he also thinks /ic/ is not about MSPaint

>>9103595
>brian ferneyhough
utter charlatan. I've listened to a lot of classical music, a lot of it at first gave me no sort of enjoyment, I couldn't imagine how it was so revered. But I could tell something was there, and it was revealed to me. Gorguts was the same way.

But this ferneyhough. Ugh.

>>9103576
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Cro2yxRjw
LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ know your shit, pleb.

>>9103648
This is the most pretentious post i've ever seen, so to answer your question OP, yes.

>>9103649
4chanx auto embeds you fucking faggot. This isn't 2010 or whenever the fuck that meme was "funny"

>>9103648
as if classical music was a homogeneous thing...

>>9103553
No, mainstream scientific consensus is that there is biological sex, but your gender doesn't necessarily confirm to that.

>>9103655

>>9102318
The most pretentious board is /pol/ because they treat their shitposting as serious business and think they're actually important.

Reading it's the most important thing, you know? Who cares about science or politics ffs

>>9103550

The consensus is that the way we currently define race is a social construct - this does not mean there are no differences in human populations.

>>9103669
What makes reading important?

>>9103675
dude... don't get baited that easy

>>9103681
FR*CK I GOT BAITED AGAIN!!!!

No, there are plenty of people on here that genuinely are intelligent people who come here seeking to talk to other intelligent people about good books. Maybe "intelligent" sounds pretentious, but I do mean it, I'm not trying to just call myself smart. I've had many, many interesting conversations on this board that were absent of the hostility and defensiveness of other boards. There will always be those who are incapable of letting their guard down and will always hide behind irony and idiocy, fake or otherwise, but overall I find a lot of the posters on this board are much easier to talk to than on other boards.

I think also that /lit/ is probably one of the best places on the web for literature talk. Nothing can really compete with the anonymity that 4chan offers. Speaking to those with identities grows stale after a while, but on 4chan (imageboards in general), every thread is essentially a brand new opportunity to speak with people you've never spoken to before, who all generally are as interested in the topic as you are.

>>9103550

Then why do they forbid any discussion on it?

I notice that even bringing up something benign - such as that most people on earth are lactose intolerant, except for some ethnic groups that evolved specific enzymes to digest milk - even something like this makes people extremely uncomfortable. And they probably get uncomfortable when you post pictures of different modern day skulls and how scientists can tell them apart past on their origin. You are probably getting uncomfortable just reading this because we're conditioned to think that talking about it at all is a horrible thing to do.

>>9103665
I think they are kind of important though, as depressing/disturbing as that may be

>>9102318

>Is /lit/ the most pretentious board on 4chan?

As with most boards the most pretentious segment are usually the middle-aged posters in the median: around 20 to 26 years old.

That segment on this board might be the most pretentious on 4chan.

>>9103266
rupi posting was sincere

>>9103694
Weird. I can barely apply this description to /lit/.
It is, in fact, a very hostile board, at least in most cases. In my opinion, it lacks a certain level of truthfulness. For example, if I were to make a thread, admitting that I didn't understand something or am seeking help with it, the typical 4chan situation happens - hostility, memes, irony. Out of some unknown reason I keep returning here, but always leave depressed.
The only actual and interesting conversation I have ever had here was about Jackson Pollock on some art thread, and that's not really about literature, is it?
Ironically, I had a lot of genuine and interesting conversations on /mu/. Somehow, by making the right kind of thread, good conversations were bound to happen. The problem is (as same as with /lit/) that both boards circlejerk and meme about the same fucking books/musical works. You cannot make an earnest thread about Max Stirner or Finnegans Wake in the same way you cannot make an earnest thread about Captain Beefheart or Stockhausen. In the eyes of these people, these people/works have been reduced to pure memes and idiots come flooding into the threads at the single mention of these meme names.

pretentious is a buzzword. it doesn't mean anything

>>9103808
t. pretentious pseud

>>9103697
This bothers me but for a different reason. Technically, all mammals have that enzyme to get past lactation and then the gene "switches off" to stop producing lactase. The enzyme is the same, what changes is whether the lactase persistence allele in humans activates or not.

Actual lactose intolerance where there is not lactase produced at all ever, not even during the normal phase of lactase production for breastfeeding which most any mammal will have, does exist as a genetic condition, but it's mostly limited to that font of inbreeding conditions and memes, Finland.

>skulls
Anon, Herodotus has this with Egyptian and Persian skulls in his histories.

>>9102318
Yes, it might be pretentious at times, but /lit/ got me into reading classics and some philosophical works, all of which I've wholly enjoyed.
A sincere thanks for that fellow autists.

>>9103266
this t b h
it is only clear that leet has the problem of irony merely because our irony is to beeg

>>9102375
this guy got it right. I used to hang out on /b/ those cunts just talk so much shit and shitpost so much i dont go there anymore. like 90% of what we talk about is a coherent dialogue even if we are pretentious, at least we can talk to each other without a spiderman or that gay fucking banana showing up over 9000 times.

>>9103266
This is true. The inside jokes that fuck all people would get are everywhere on this board. Even if you read a fair bit some of the literary references are solely from this board and if you heard the same shit spoken on the street you would know they hang out on here

>>9103805
in /lit/s defence the same fucking meme threads start like every week. only lately have i noticed new content with that start with the greeks shit. Its so good some guys are getting into it and discussing what they are reading i started with the greeks last year and missed out but i drop in all the time to remind myself this board does have people who read and converse about what they read. im rereading the odyssey now because of those guys.(it was my favourite greek) And im looking forward to when they get to plato as that cunt is a legend of a pest and i have not read much from him. Anyway guys keep being pretentious it is the best board just ease up on the same old shit on repeat.

>>9103515
/dark/ and /bleep/ are the only good parts of /mu/ 2bh

>>9103805
There are good threads, albeit rarely, take girardfag for example >>9098555
you just have to learn to recognise the memes and avoid the bait

>>9104062
>/b/ as the only reference
There are other boards as well, you know.

>>9102375
>anything but literature is retarded
That's just like your opinion, you know. What makes you think this?

>>9102374
Bingo. Bunch of hipster retards that think their modern bleep bloop shit and trap influenced hi-hat rattling nig-nog sounds is profound.

>>9104154
Everyone else was mentioning other boards no one /b/ I was filling the gap sorry if I offended you dear sir.

>>9104155

>profound

They probably think that there is talent and merit to some of it, but I doubt they think it's "profound".

This is the type of hyperbolic disdain that truly is pretentious btw.

>>9102321
Literary literacy.

>Duh.

>>9104134
loll;lll

>>9104155
no worse than rock music

>>9104173
sometimes i forget /b/ even exists. 4chan is all about /pol/ nowadays..

>>9103485
new to this board im so lost lmao

>>9104247
that has nothing to do with this board, dont' worry

You have to go back to 4chan's roots to find out where the irony originated, and if you don't know anything about that, then you're fucked.

>>9103805
This has to be bait

>>9103227
>/mu/ have like 75% threads about music

Regular /mu/tant here; this could not be further from the truth. The only thread which remains on the front of the board consistently is kpop general and that couldn't have less to do with the music if it tried. Add in the beyond ridiculous amounts of shitposting and bait threads and I doubt the amount of serious musical discussion would even equal 15 percent of the board

>>9102381
the rym threads are absolutely fucking abhorrent for the opposite reasons too

>>9104108
Sounds like we need reading challenges more often.

>>9102318

Honestly, I feel pretty insecure on this board. People here are very well-read and are good in argumentation(excepts for some autists).

>>9104236
That's the difference with Internet today and Internet wehen it was new. /pol/ in any regard makes it so poorly and unbearable nowadays.

>>9104438
But that's the pretense, anon.

>>9104438
>People here are very well-read

>>9104443

Well then, I am insecure about my own insecurity, and probably the reason why I don't browse this board much. I haven't read a lot except for stuff by Dostoevsky and Kafka and Plato. That's it. I suffer from ADHD which severely affects my attention span -- and not only that, it affects my ability to express myself; a language "processing" fault. So when see people here( or anywhere else)discussing a poem or a book, I get pretty envious. How freely, how subtly, how elegantly they do it. And when I try it do, it's just cringy, disappointing and incoherent.


>>9104444

I really don't know, man. It seems like they are. Maybe I am delusional.

>>9102318
/mu/ is a lot more pretentious.

/biz/ is the worst in terms of not knowing anything about the topic their board is dedicated to.

>>9102318
Most people here literally want to find and discuss obscure, complex, and engaging literature.

When people come here and want to talk about books we read when we were 10, like Ender's Game, or books that dont function as literature like The Martian, its fucking annoying.

Its not /books/ its /lit/, this place is hipster-coffee shop tier. Also, /cgl/ has a far more established hierarchy

>>9102318
Yes