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/lit/ - Literature

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11167339 No.11167339 [Reply] [Original]

Read 20-30 books, and your tastes are intelligible to the average reader. They may not agree but they can see where you're coming from.

Read 2000-3000 books, and your tastes become incomprehensible.

>> No.11167366

Even though there's some truth in that, I'm going to say that most of that incomprehensibility comes from a personal lack of ability to clearly explain why your tastes are what they are and to communicate this to others.

>> No.11167375

>>11167339
You're describing being a pleb and being a patrician

>> No.11168532

>>11167366
Ideal coming from the side of writing. 20-30 most know 'where youre coming from;' 2 to 3k as good a chance at seeming 'novelty' as anyone gets. Love it all.

>> No.11168541

>do you know how women first come into being?
>women were men once

>> No.11168562

>>11167366
This. I have read some 1000-1500 books so far (40y), and i sound like village idiot when i try to explain to ppl why they are retarded.

>> No.11168567

>>11168562
better be bait

>> No.11168596

>Read 2000-3000 books, and your tastes become incomprehensible.
It only counts as reading if you finish them. So with so many read books, you've ought to have only finished those which you liked—and so, your taste (interest) thus become pronounced through your own choice of repeating theme and genre.

>> No.11168630

If you read that many books you literally have no taste or aesthetic sense, you are just consuming texts.

>> No.11168646
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11168646

>>11167339

>> No.11168671

>>11168630
>If you read that many books you literally have no taste or aesthetic sense
How do you determine what's good before you read it?

>> No.11168688

>>11168671
The aesthetic sense starts out as trial and error but must be developed primarily by direct sensual experiences, emotional climaxes and social conquests, once you have done enough of that you can select books which please these senses and if you find them boring drop them immediately.

>> No.11168700

>>11168646
is infinite jest a good book

>> No.11168704

>>11168671
Or know what can't possibly be known until experienced? In a way reading's more like whittling than treasure trove accumulation. It works in mysterious ways if (you) let it.

>> No.11168727

>>11168704
Yes but why complete books which are no good

>> No.11168730

>>11168646
What I'm taking from this quote is that spending time on 4chan is poison to the mind, and I should never return here again.

>> No.11168816

>>11167366
fpbp

>> No.11168863

>>11168727
When I was younger I did complete most all the books I started on principle. Now, I rarely pick up a 'bad' book because I generally read randomly in a text before purchase. Isn't this what all real readers of books do? An unworthy book's easily detectable within a matter of minutes.

>> No.11168873

>>11168863
I think to have read 2-3k books you would have to lose all sense of enjoyment for it.

>> No.11169178

>>11168873
But the same could be said for absolutely any human occupation- playing basketball, having sex, selling stocks and bonds..
Kind of the price one pays to become really good at anything; in this case, scholarship. Certainly it's not for just anyone. (You) have to love it. Meanwhile, the clock ticks.

>> No.11169315

>>11168646
This is dumb. You have to know what shit prose is in order to avoid writing it.

>> No.11169335

>>11169315
So should we also get sodomized, castrated, and shat on so we can know to avoid getting sodomized, castrated, and shat on?

>> No.11169339
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11169339

>>11169178
Aesthetes>Scholars

>> No.11169356

>>11169335
you don't have to have those done to you to know their bad. an hour or two on liveleak and pornhub should suffice

>> No.11169369

>>11167339
>2000-3000
this is a meme
quality over quantity my friend. I would much rather read and analyze 1 great book than quickly read 2000 books.
It seems to be a common held notion that the sheer number of books you read is somehow what gives you better taste or makes you more intelligent.

>> No.11169385

>>11169369
This. When will you guys learn. The Pound quote about poetry rings true.

>"Man can learn more about poetry by really knowing and examining a few of the best poems than by meandering about among a great many."

>> No.11169416

>>11168863
Agreed. Honestly the first paragraph should be enough to tell the writer’s ability.
For example:
>Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 06.27 hours on 1 January 1975, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate face down on the steering wheel, hoping the judgement would not be too heavy upon him. He lay forward in a prostrate cross, jaw slack, arms splayed either side like some fallen angel; scrunched up in each fist he held his army service medals (left) and his marriage license (right), for he had decided to take his mistakes with him. A little green light flashed in his eye, signaling a right turn he had resolved never to make. He was resigned to it. He was prepared for it. He had flipped a coin and stood staunchly by its conclusions. This was a decided-upon suicide. In fact it was a New Year's resolution.

>> No.11169430

>>11168700

i thought it was (:

>> No.11169460

>>11169369

who said quickly

>> No.11169466

>>11169430
why?

>> No.11169516

>>11169339
I don't disagree; on the other hand, what are aesthetes but scholars of a certain sensibility? Certainly there are books. But there are also *books*.

>> No.11169533

>>11168730
No, the correct interpretation is that 4chan is the finest work of literature in the history.