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/lit/ - Literature

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1041298 No.1041298 [Reply] [Original]

"One who has just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will find how many with whom he can converse about it? Or suppose he comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original, whose praises are familiar even to the so called illiterate; he will find nobody at all to speak to, but must keep quiet." - Henry David Thoreau

I was flipping through my copy of works by Thoreau and reading some of the parts I'd underlined. This quote caught my eye.

>> No.1041306

OP = pretentious git

>> No.1041311

David Thoreau confirmed for Twilight fan.

>> No.1041313

>>1041306
Thank you for proving that Thoreau was right.

>> No.1041316

>>1041311
>>1041306
This is exactly why I usually post at night. The children have usually gone to bed.

>> No.1041332

>>1041306
I think it's possible to have this sort of attitude and avoid pretension... the key is, I think, to be humble about it, to realize that your reading does not make superior as a human being, that it's as much if not more a matter of circumstance and chance as anything else. I mean, it is frequently true that there aren't that many people to talk about whatever books you've just read with, and it's fine to regret that - so long as, again, you don't start thinking of the people around you as illiterate subhumans.

>> No.1041340

I am a fan of the old classical education where students was expected to know latin, french, english and german and have read all the major philosophers, be educated in the fields of mathmatics, arts, history, music and know all the great works of literature from the respected traditions.

>> No.1041345

>>1041340
While keeping in mind that this sort of education was only intended or possible for the children of the upper class, and perhaps the very most gifted or lucky middle class children.

Although certain things like the paucity of language education in American schools is just unacceptable.

>> No.1041356

>>1041332
Do you think it's easier to find people to talk to about books in today's society? In my experience, I'd say no, but it could just be bad circumstances.

>> No.1041386

>>1041356
I think it's more difficult, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - I think that the rough proportion of people who read frequently is (very roughly) the same as it has ever been, but the group of people who do read frequently is much more spread out than it was in the past - reading has democratized, I guess. And there's also a much broader range of things you can read a lot of than there used to be, in terms of genres and world literature and things like that - not to mention another 50 or 100 or 150 years of books being written.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, in the past, if you were someone who read, it is most likely that many or most of your associates would be fairly well-read as well, simply because only a fairly small portion of society was well-read. And there was a much smaller pool of literature to read, meaning that you would all have read many of the same things. Neither of which is true anymore.

>> No.1041413

>>1041345
Obiously. But today (at least in my country) we actually have the money to educate everyone to be great, and still we don`t. In my country teachers are demanded to have a grade avarage of 3 in language and math. No other grades matter. 3 being in a scale from 1 to 6. One being the absolute worst and 6 being the best. It makes me fucking depressed to think about it. At least back in the 1800's the upper class got good education. Now no one does.

>> No.1041442

>>1041356
>In my experience, I'd say no

You have zero experience of the earlier time, therefore you can't compare from experience at all. Pure conjecture.

>> No.1041463

>>1041413
>Now no one does.

They can educate themselves now. Anyone who can read in an industralized country now has free access to more or less all the accumulated knowledge of mankind. If they don't take advantage of it, oh well.

>> No.1041476

>>1041463
>Implying a good educational system is no longer needed in the industrialized world.

Nice one...

>> No.1041484

>>1041476
It isn't really. The elite class grows disproportionately to the rest of the population. A larger percentage of the population ends up working jobs requiring little real education beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. An ideal educational system would be one that predicted the futures of its students and taught them accordingly. The more people that go to college, the less a college degree is worth.

>> No.1041494

>>1041484

So if you're poor you're doomed to a life of poverty and shitty labour, regardless of your willingness to learn and your natural intelligence/cunning/whatever?

>> No.1041500

>>1041484
Did you even read the previous posts? The anon is complaining that teachers there are not even expected to have grades in anything other than language and math above a the equivalent of a E.

>> No.1041509

>>1041500
Uh, yep. And I pretty much agreed with his sentiments. He's complaining about a forced average -- leading to an overall worse education for those who could go on untethered.

>> No.1041515

Literature is such a solitary endeavour. Cinema thrives in this age because it brings people together, which is not saying it's superior because the cinema has its own bag of problems. Every popular book must become adapted or will become popular because of its adaptation into film.

There's also the fact that films/tv demand our attention whereas books must have attention imposed on them. Yet, to me, the popularity of cinema thrives on the fact that it's experienced with other people.

>> No.1041519

>>1041509

A low standard is not the same thing as a forced average. Just because the schools fail to accommodate more advanced students doesn't mean they're holding them back.

There's quite a gap between a school where there's no Ultimate Calculus AP IX for hypergeniuses and the world of Harrison Bergeron.

>> No.1041521

>>1041519
No it's not. He's specifically talking about a forced average.

>> No.1041708

>>1041521
>But today (at least in my country) we actually have the money to educate everyone to be great, and still we don`t. In my country teachers are demanded to have a grade avarage of 3 in language and math.

He clearly meant a minimum grade average. If you're honestly telling me you thought he meant they couldn't have a higher average than that, you're retarded.

>> No.1041711

>>1041708
No, that is not a minimum grade average. That's a forced curve, read his post again.
Nobody here ever suggested that he was talking about a grade cap either; not sure where you're getting that from.

>> No.1041729

He was talking about the minimum grades you needed to apply for teachers education in Norway. However, his figures are old, and now the average is much better.