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/lit/ - Literature

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12333853 No.12333853 [Reply] [Original]

Has the Internet poisoned our true developmental potential like Bloom said?

Instead of molding our minds on Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Tolstoy, etc., these texts now have to compete with Netflix, Instagram, YouTube, Superhero movies, the rise of obsessive fandom (Harry Potter, Star Wars) et al.

How can we compete against these distractions when they are in your face at all times, from when you wake up in the morning to when you go to sleep at night, and even then they do not stop producing.

>> No.12333868

Nah

>> No.12333889

>>12333853
I enjoy several superhero movies, Star Wars, Harry Potter, as well as Shakespeare, Hugo, Dickens, Austen, Melville, Dickinson, Whitman, etc.

>> No.12333907

>>12333889
manchild

>> No.12333939

STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THe present UGHHHHHH IF U HATE THE AVENGERS U MITE AS WELL BE CAVMEN

>> No.12333982

>>12333939
.

>> No.12334172

>>12333853
social darwinism solves this problem automatically.

>> No.12334202

Mmm, I think their effect is probably marginal. Most people throughout history were not readers.

>> No.12334300

>>12334202
Most people didn't have the same availability of entertainment and information

>> No.12334332

>>12334300
Right, whatever portion of people who were well-read in the past has probably not decreased that much because the ease of attaining books and information has been offset by the prevalence of social media

>> No.12334490

My hope is that the screen culture will reach a saturation point and begin to recede or will, by their own greed and hubris fall afoul of what audiences really want. Some new trend will arise. Perhaps reading will become viewed as cognitive exercises that help you edge better while you fap to VR, and be inadvertently boosted. Reading truly feels better, like its a massage for your senses and imagination, in a sense way more stimulating, than the precisely titrated entertainment anytizers that define all the seductive videos out there. I think the trouble is there's not any literary critic or advocate, besides Oprah who could drive people to sit down and read a book if they weren't already doing so. If we had more compelling salespeople for literary culture, who made great recommendations, who had great taste, if such a person existed they might be able to fix OP's problem on their own.

>> No.12334503
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12334503

>>12334332

Enter Megan Boyle's Liveblog, which goes through the exercise of using social media pacing, perspective and style to generate something interesting.

>> No.12334525

>>12333853
most people are retards anyway. i only wish they had no thing to enjoy so that they might spend more time busting rocks

>> No.12335546

>>12334525
like you

>> No.12335560

Before, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Tolstoy, etc.had to compete with being an illiterate subsistence farmer, it was pretty popular in the old days

>> No.12335607

>>12334503
the interesting thing about this tweet is that there's absolutely nothing interesting about it syntactically. it's just a regular sentence with longer clauses. you ever read posts by smart people on or connected to frogtwitter, NRx, etc. where they use all sorts of obscure terminology and in strange flexible ways that make you wonder, are these guys all aspiring poets or does this linguistic complexity result naturally from an intellect with a strong foundation and interest in the sciences? meanwhile this dumb bitch when she's gonna get all quirky and arcane on some inane prompt breaks out the esoteric "wrenching salivary thirst" and "vestigial grooming instinct", what a boring cunt, language like this is barely above mad libs, it's just ESL stock phrase shit like "John walked down the street, then he saw a car" with added sitcom-brainrot le funny jew neuroticism

>> No.12335612

Immersing yourself in too much shit like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Capeshit doesn't really help your mind grow and stifles what you can and can't enjoy and puts your brain in a state of familiarity where you can only consume that type of media.

>> No.12335616

>>12333853
Anime doesn't count, r-right?

>> No.12335626

People glorify the past way too much. The general public have always been plebs who didn't read literature or engage with philosophy. It was only ~150 years ago that compulsory schooling came in meaning that the majority of people could actually read.

The difference today is that people no longer have an excuse of not having access to these materials, so they only have themselves to blame.

>> No.12335711
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12335711

>dude stop wasting your time on X form of mindless escapism when you should be wasting it on Y form of mindless escapism instead
lel

>> No.12335735

>>12335711
its not all about escapism though

>> No.12335746

>>12333853
>Netflix, Instagram, YouTube, Superhero movies, the rise of obsessive fandom (Harry Potter, Star Wars) et al.
>How can we compete against these distractions when they are in your face at all times,
I don't have Netflix or Instagram, check YouTube twice a week, never seen a superhero film after Spiderman 3 (the one with Maguire), and can't remember if I ever had contact with those obsessive fandoms. If I can avoid these horrible, horrible things so easily, it I'm pretty sure you can too.

>> No.12336016

>>12333853
I think there's something to be said about the level of entertainment the internet provides. of course >>12335711 brings up a point about it, but I think reading books in general is a much more enriching experience as reading is NOT a skill we're born with the ability to perform, and it requires greater patience than the stimulation the internet provides.

I think the biggest problem is just that the internet has reverted a LOT of our hobbies to mindless hedonistic tendencies, because it's so fucking addicting.

>> No.12337280

>>12334490
>Perhaps reading will become viewed as cognitive exercises that help you edge better while you fap to VR

>Imagine a world where intelligence is a kink
pretty much Idiocracy but still, your fiction is so cancer it could be true

>> No.12337293

Bloom molded his body on chocolate, cakes and burgers.

>> No.12337351

>>12334490
Pewdiepie has a book-club thing on youtube and technically he has the furthest reach of anyone on the platform. Maybe he’ll make reading cool to the ~kids~