I must be retarded

[Anonymous No.13660310]

Whenever I try to read any novel from the beginning to later half of 20th century it seems to me that I don't understand half of what is going on.
I know the words, I understand what's happening, but apart from that, everything else completely escapes me. Why do things happen and what may come next, each time I struggle through a book like that I can't seem to say anything about it apart from the plot.

Even though English is my second language, I've never had any trouble with any other literature.

I usually follow the belief that books stand on their own, but could it be that I'm missing something?

The particular book that led me to make this post is Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" (I have never read anything from him before).

[Anonymous No.13661018]

It's God's way of telling you that fiction is a complete waste of time.

[Anonymous No.13661261]

I often feel this way, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that I hardly ever read a book more than once. If you know what's going to happen already, you might be able to pay more attention to details and foreshadowing. Then again you might also fall into hindsight bias doing that.

[Anonymous No.13661395]

>>13660310
Maybe you have problems abstracting the metaphors behind the text in your mind as you're reading. Maybe you leave too much time in between reading sessions so the structure of the story isn't clearly defined in your mind anymore once you start reading again. Maybe you read too fast. Maybe you read stuff you're not genuinely interested in.
All possible causes of your problem.

[Anonymous No.13661415]

>>13660310
And of course, if you're not well informed on the school of thought the author is drawing from it becomes a lot harder to extract meaning and see the full picture. The novel you mentioned draws from postmodern thought. Maybe read up on postmodernism first, watch some lectures on youtube, etc.

[Anonymous No.13661446]

>>13661018
Based non-fiction Chad.

[Anonymous No.13661463]

whose the lovely pucelle?

[Anonymous No.13661527]

>>13661463
Good Night Moon, Erin. She's an asmr girl on youtube. probably my favourite one as well.

[Anonymous No.13661537]

>>13660310
I love Erin

[Anonymous No.13661585]

>>13660310
>Why do things happen and what may come next
I think this statement can also be used to describe our lives. So we can say that when we read stories, we experience something similar and move to the imaginary world of the author. But I think the novels are different from life because they are finished, but we can go forward in life. So I think we shouldn't ask why somethings happen because you can't control the story, but we can ask what we feel internally when we think about it after read or what I think is more important, what do we feel when we are reading something.

[Anonymous No.13661633]

>>13661018
true. 95% of all written literature is maculature.Every fiction reader is harry potter fan in disguise.

[Anonymous No.13661673]

>>13661395
>>13661415
this

[Anonymous No.13661685]

>>13661463
>>13661527
She's also lesbian therefore redpilled.

[Anonymous No.13661737]

>>13661685
>another woman I'm infatuated with who would never even look twice at me
books for this feel?

[Anonymous No.13661749]

>>13660310
read slower

[Anonymous No.13661755]

>>13661018
>God is an autistic dullard who doesn't understand the value in pleasurable things
Sounds about right.

[Anonymous No.13662350]

>>13660310
Do you take notes? Try writing down some questions and explanations about what's going on and then see whether they matter after reading a significant amount of pages. I think what helps is trying to take all the basics from the book and hold them: Setting, motivation, character movement, etc.

[Anonymous No.13662584]

>>13661018
God's dead

[Anonymous No.13663202]

>>13661527
red pill me on ASMR, is it just a pervert thing? what the fuck is it?

[Anonymous No.13663210]

>>13660310
I get this too OP and i find it's because I've gotten good enough at reading that I can simultaneously go through the mental motions of reading the words in my head while not actually thinking about the words themselves, but thinking about other topics and day dreaming. like listening to someone and repeating what they say but it's just mimicking the sounds they make, and not taking in the meaning of what they said. I don't really have a solution.

[Anonymous No.13663850]

>>13663210
I don't think that's because you are too good. You probably have ADHD.

[Anonymous No.13663943]

>>13663202
It's a lonely thing. ASMR is a poorly-named phenomenon that occurs when someone pays you special attention or you hear an "intimate" sound that is often filtered out like the movement of a shirt or the rubbing of skin. You feel tingles only because your body is tricked into thinking that you're having intimate contact with someone.

[Anonymous No.13663989]

>>13660310
Also OP Pynchon is not particularly digestable without slowing down or at least taking time to dissect some of his work. I wouldn't feel bad. You also might not like his stuff, you don't have to like Pynchon.

[Anonymous No.13664515]

>>13661585
You're about 6 words off from quoting Aristotle's Poetics verbatim.

[Anonymous No.13664936]

>>13663943
pretty much yeah. Sometimes I get tingles from sounds i hear in intrumental tracks though. So it's not entirely explained away through artificial intimacy. However, the relaxing feeling you get from it does have to do with the intimate atmosphere that is created.
Sometimes while I'm watching I'm suddenly disillusioned by the whole thing, and I look upon the situation as it actually is. I'm a lonely guy sitting in a room listening to some whisper voice coming through the aether from a person I'll never meet. Makes me feel even more lonely, kinda like watching porn after you cum.

[Anonymous No.13665602]

>>13663943
>>13664936
I have developed an intense dislike of faked ASMR and long for the early days of youtube where mouth-breathing nerds with low-fi equipment would upload the most inane and dull shit like overviews of their comic collections. That was the truest form of ASMR for me long before I knew of its name. Nowadays I enjoy suit fittings, frisk searches and cranial examinations.

[Anonymous No.13665613]

>>13661685
F U C K
U
C
K

[Anonymous No.13665711]

>>13661685
why would you share this? my day has been irrevocably ruined

[Anonymous No.13665846]

>>13660310
Just dissect the plot. Try to summarize the events in short sentences and put then in logical order. You can omit a few details, just remember to keep it in logical order. Put it in writing if you can't do it on your head.

[Anonymous No.13665862]

>>13660310
I cannot believe how fucking long it takes some people to get to the point like fuckin tl;dr already bro. just kidding but like not really

[Anonymous No.13665950]

>>13661737
>>13665613
>>13665711
Are you retarded? Would you actually have preferred her being straight and fucking chad instead? Don't be a cuck.

[Anonymous No.13667024]

>>13660310
>>13665950

She looks like she comes.

[Anonymous No.13667408]

This. The ideal state of mankind is men, arranged in Theban Sacred Bands, venerating women, all of whom are all lesbians, according to the custom of medieval chivalry, including questing in their fair names. Note that the men will not be gay, but they may occasionally have sex with each other according to their preference, as long the sex is equal and reciprocal. Anyone who wants their dick sucked but not to return the favor, and especially anyone who is willing to suck dick without demanding on his honor that the favor is returned, is degenerate and must be ostracized. Likewise any lesbians who sleep with men will be ostracized, but to a different community to prevent a mongrel race of gay men breeding with oathbreaker women.

[Anonymous No.13667501]

>>13664515
I didn't read it

[Anonymous No.13667512]

>>13667408
Based and also very close to a theory of regulation of sexual behavior I argued for on /lit/ about six years ago. People called me a feminazi and a troll for this, the fools.

[Anonymous No.13667535]

>>13667408
Wait, where do the babies come from then?

[Anonymous No.13667582]

>>13667024
She looks and sounds like she would be a good mother and wife

[Anonymous No.13667590]

>>13667024
Would you care to elaborate?

[Anonymous No.13667597]

>>13667582
literally the perfect woman,
where can I find a girl like her