Reading the classics is pretentious.

[Anonymous No.18950615]

Why do people (teenage girls) think it's pretentious to read the classics instead of ya and shitty romance novels.

[Anonymous No.18950618]

>>18950615
A lot of people do it for that reason, that's the simple answer.

[Anonymous No.18950619]

>>18950615
because it doesn't occur to them that some people actually enjoy the literature.

[Anonymous No.18950633]

>>18950615
I’ve dealt with enough retarded literature students to know they don’t actually possess much in the way of taste, erudition, or good education. I’ve seen more typos and bad spelling from PhDs than anons here who didn’t even go to college for literary studies.

[Anonymous No.18950640]

>>18950615
emotional reaction to an inherent inferiority complex

[Anonymous No.18950657]

>>18950615
Be yourself and Enjoy

[Anonymous No.18950661]

retards attempting to repudiate the existence of an elevated level of 'taste' because it justifies their own realised shortcomings in this area while also helping them isolate and ostracise the idea that their taste is even bad to begin with. it also gives them an easy platform to act as an ally to other retards and thus gain a social benefit in their perceived unity

[Anonymous No.18950666]

>>18950615
Hmmm, a crop top sweater, interesting...

[Anonymous No.18950670]

>>18950615
Because many people do in fact read them for that reason

[Anonymous No.18950687]

>>18950670
>projecting

[Anonymous No.18950706]

>>18950615
Fuck, I immediately knew the left cover art was from Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, nice

[Anonymous No.18950731]

>>18950661
at the center of this stuff lies the belief judgement is authoritarian and therefore bad—the symptom of an adolescent mind

[Anonymous No.18950736]

>>18950661
at the center of this stuff lies the belief that judgement is authoritarian and therefore bad—the symptom of an adolescent mind

[Anonymous No.18950741]

>>18950706
NOOOOO NOT THE HECKIN BIRDERINO

[Anonymous No.18950757]

>>18950615
The word pretentious is about how you appear to other people, as woman do everything based on appearances, they can not imagine someone reading for pleasure or wisdom.

[Anonymous No.18950774]

>>18950615
>Why do people (teenage girls) think it's pretentious to read the classics instead of ya and shitty romance novels.
They do? They don't react that way when I tell them I'm reading whichever classic or non-fiction book.

[Anonymous No.18950782]

>>18950736
I don't remember whether or not it's particularly good, but I read this article a few years ago and found it quite interesting. I can't recall if it actually puts forward any arguments or is more of an opinion spiel but it feels relevant nonetheless.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-praise-of-cultural-elitism
The amount of times I've debated friends on film and literature only for them to falter in their arguments and eventually resort to "it's just my subjective taste" is irritating. It's probably just argumentative fatigue but it immediately kills any conversation that is occurring.

[Anonymous No.18950784]

Whats the book she holdin on the left?

[Anonymous No.18950794]

>>18950774
>They do? They don't react that way when I tell them I'm reading whichever classic or non-fiction book.
some of them, but most girls like most people don't read (desu better than reading ya)

[Anonymous No.18950826]

>>18950794
No argument on that. I've just never been accused of being pretentious by them. Although, I don't brag about reading, it's just something I do and I think that comes across. Accusations of pretension stem from dorks name dropping "hard" books as if reading them is an accomplishment.

[Anonymous No.18950828]

>>18950784
Frankenstein, and Wuthering Heights

[Anonymous No.18950829]

>>18950782
I read the article, it was interesting and the bit about Sartre made me chuckle.

[Anonymous No.18950855]

>>18950615
Calling people pretentious is a usual way of normies to cope with their insecurities. Ignore.

To be sure, I'm not claiming genuinely pretentious people don't exist; they sure do and they're those who read things I'm filtered by. Simple, really.

[Anonymous No.18950863]

>tfw 19th century novels are considered as classics

[Anonymous No.18950879]

>>18950863
19th c. lit is kino

[Anonymous No.18950988]

>>18950879
Classics are the works of Ancient Greece and Rome.

[Anonymous No.18951056]

>>18950615
'Pretentious' does not mean what you and I think it means. To insecure people, the word 'pretentious' is just a buzzword that refers to anyone who they feel is better than them.

[Anonymous No.18951072]

>>18950988
That’s Classics with a capital-C. However, classics can also refer to anything that is considered good or a must-read for a given time:
>1. A work of art of recognized and established value.

[Anonymous No.18951073]

>>18950615
Popularity and social affect in the current culture is dictated by glorifying ignorance.
There's a reason she posted this to her tiktok/instagram/facebook whatever, in the exact same way millions of other women do. They are emulating teenagers, who are in turn aping niggers. That is our culture.

[Anonymous No.18951082]

>>18951072
>>18950988
>>18950863
I'm with Dr Johnson, if you last more than 100 years after your death, you're a classic

[Anonymous No.18951123]

READ WUTHERING HEIGHTS YOU BITCH, THAT BOOK FUCKING ROCKS

[Anonymous No.18951126]

>>18950706
Why is he doing this experiment in his fucking pajamas?

[Anonymous No.18951135]

>>18950615
Oxford Classics' covers are so good

[Anonymous No.18951143]

>>18950615
Why do you give a shit about the opinions of attention-seeking teenage girls?

[Anonymous No.18951383]

>>18950615
They're both projecting their own lack of experience with actual texts and echoing the sentiments they have been force fed by academia. Of course people who exclusively read YA aren't going to have any opinions about the merits of art because shitty YA books say nothing about the merits of art. You can only understand these concepts by having a personal experience with them, before that you need a sense of trust in your superiors who have read what you haven't who insist that by some degree taste is objective. Without experience they have nothing to say, and without trust they're hopelessly stuck in the feedback loop of not thinking any experience is necessary because all opinion is subjective and not reading anything canonized because they don't trust the merit of the canon. It's horrible. All is perceived as confrontation or attack because nothing can be viewed outside this narrow model of the will to power. So if I tell someone I enjoy DH Lawrence and that I think his novels should be taught they could easily perceive this opinion as an attack because of the model they're working with.
Think about what book first got you interested in literature. How is it that you came upon the book? In my case, I always possessed an inherent understanding of taste which led me to the classics.
>>18951143
also this

[Anonymous No.18951476]

>>18950615
Reading the classics is racist and boring.
Dead white men are overrated.

[Anonymous No.18951481]

>>18950615
literally true though. how many bakas here have "read" ulysses without understaing anything?

[Anonymous No.18951488]

>>18950615
What books should I read to get teenage gf (female)(legal)?

[Anonymous No.18951505]

>>18950615
I don't care, why do you?

[Anonymous No.18951525]

>>18950687
This. I would love to hear from >>18950670
about actual, specific situations that made him believe it.

[Anonymous No.18951534]

>>18950615
Because it makes them feel like you're not validating them. There are a lot of young women who operate with the assumption that they shouldn't be held to any standards what so ever. The world should just love them just for being female and they should feel constantly adored just for being female.

[Anonymous No.18951538]

>>18951534
This. Anyone who says otherwise is a puhsood

[Anonymous No.18951544]

Reading the classics is not inherently pretentious.
What these young girls rightfully object to is the self-domesticated quality of males who make reading the classics an apparent aspect of their personality.

[Anonymous No.18951558]

>>18951525
Not him, but an old flatmate of mine would prominently display whatever book he was reading, put it down next to your coffee or something so you had to see what it was; carry it, title facing out, on a pocket of his rucksack or his coat. Everyone had to know he was reading The Idiot or whatever it was.
Or a girl I used to fuck used to choose the book to leave on her bedside table based on who she would be fucking that night. When it was me would be some classic, once I didn't see her for a few months and the same book was there. Once I took her home when she'd been expecting to fuck her boyfriend and it was some YA shit instead.
Reading classics is like listening Beethoven, people say they do it to look smart

[Anonymous No.18951583]

>>18951056
This. It is symptomatic that it has become easier to shame someone for being "pretentious" than for being ignorant. A short while ago there was literally a tread here about reading in public being potentially pretentious. As a civilization, we are cooked.

[Anonymous No.18951590]

Despite the massive psychical expenditure that goes into being a stan, very few young people get anything out of it. It's like gambling. The wastage fuels the industry, like manure. To read the classics is to realize that one is shit.

[Anonymous No.18951633]

>>18950828
Frankenstein is entertaining as fuck. It's not pretentious at all.

[Anonymous No.18951650]

>>18950615
I can only hope that she'll live long enough to love the Quran when it will be forced upon her

[Anonymous No.18951658]

>>18951544
>What these young girls rightfully object to is the self-domesticated quality of males who make reading the classics an apparent aspect of their personality.

I don't do it, as I have in general very little need of self-expression, but what is exactly pretentious about it? Do you call that people who show-off their musical tastes in some way or just casually talk about them? Do you have something against people sharing that they like to spend their weekend binge-watching TV series? Is having strong political opinions pretentious? How come that reading classical literature is the only one of these things you have to keep to yourself?

Now, admittedly, I might have inferred too much from your comment: I'm not sure what you meant by "making something part of one's personality". But I have encountered people who made a similar claim and it was usually just about someone mentioning what they like or do. So, if it wasn't your intention, then treat my comment as a general one.

[Anonymous No.18951668]

>>18950615
Tried reading a novel not considered a "classic" for the first time in years and had to drop it after about 60 pages in. Never again

[Anonymous No.18951687]

Women like pretending to read because they think it's still illegal for them.

t. femanon

[Anonymous No.18951702]

>>18951558
Ok, fair enough. The morale being that some shitty human beings do indeed shitty things - be it displaying their manufactured tastes for other people to see, be it jumping to a conclusion about someone's intention too quickly.

[Anonymous No.18951705]

>>18951658
>Do you call that people who show-off their musical tastes in some way
Do you leave the house much? There are pretentious music douchebags everywhere droning on about Swans or something similar and pretending they don't like Arianna Grande.
The issue is not liking stuff, it's liking stuff in an insincere performative way designed to showcase what a wonderful person you are, and how inferior people with different tastes are.

[Anonymous No.18951718]

Bros just stop chasing the unicorn. Just get a gf that doesnt read its fine. Ones that "read" are usually like that bitch

[Anonymous No.18951724]

>>18950855
Calling people normies is a way pretentious people cope, lol

[Anonymous No.18951742]

In my English classes, the teachers would say stuff like
>I know old books are boring and hard to understand but we gotta get through the curriculum and you can get stuff out of them if you pay attention
This basically gave kids an excuse to dismiss the book as old and boring. My English professor in college said about Shakespeare
>I know it is tough to care about what some old white guy wrote hundreds of years ago but..
Also when I was in elementary school the women teachers would always say they hate math. They would talk about math in a way that gave the kids the impression that it is a talent that some people are just born with and others aren't (which may be partially true but still not conducive to fostering a good attitude towards learning).

[Anonymous No.18951755]

>>18951705
>pretentious music douchebags
I was playing a gig once and got talking to one of the other guys on the bill. I swear this is the conversation verbatim
Him:
>do you like Modest Mouse
Me:
>they're okay I guess
He nods and purses his lips and smiles with disdain
>they're a band I *used* to like
Utter wanker

[Anonymous No.18951769]

>>18951742
Most English teachers don't even like Shakespeare themselves and would rather be reading Twilight. I'm lower middle class, I know a lot of teachers

[Anonymous No.18951828]

>>18951687
tits or gtfo

[Anonymous No.18951842]

>>18951705
Right, people are capable of being pretentious about everything and, in any case, cultural differences between the US and my country can play a part as well. My point was that: nobody will think you are pretentious for merely mentioning what you listen to when asked, but they might very well think so if you tell them you're reading Proust, even if poked to do that and without further elaboration. Sure, you can say you are reading in general but, if you're into classics, being specific is not welcome. It's not the case at all with other activities, so there is clear asymmetry here.

[Anonymous No.18951854]

>>18951842
>nobody will think you are pretentious for merely mentioning what you listen to when asked
They would if you said Beethoven or Wagner, the assumption would be that you don't actually like it, but were trying to show off

[Anonymous No.18951867]

>>18951828
Dick or stfu

[Anonymous No.18951870]

>>18950615
What’s the book with the Bird in the Air Pump painting?

[Anonymous No.18951876]

>>18951755
I have a lot of friends like this, and its a shame its made me wary of talking about music, because I quite enjoy concerts and such topics come up quite often

[Anonymous No.18951878]

>>18950706
>that scientist
AAAHAHHHHH DAMN YOU 4CHAN NOOOOAAHHH LMAO

[Anonymous No.18951890]

>>18950615
If you only read the classics and look down on modern literature I have news for you.

You are pretentious.

[Anonymous No.18951910]

>>18951769
english teachers are the biggest YA consumers on the planet, a shitton of young women become English teachers because they read YA and think simply reading is enough to be well learned regardless of whats being read
>>18951742
>Also when I was in elementary school the women teachers would always say they hate math
I hate this sentiment because math (at least in america) is the only subject with a curriculum that even comes close to being well designed and challenging its students, when the topic of improving the education system comes up (and it should be), lots of people single out math as being the worst and this just tells me they got filtered by it and are blaming their shortcomings on the education system, as other subjects like english in particular require a lot more improvement

[Anonymous No.18951919]

>>18951878

[Anonymous No.18951931]

>>18951742
Women shouldn't teach. Or they should teach only girls

[Anonymous No.18951935]

>>18951890
>modern literature
do you mean modern lit or contemporary lit?

[Anonymous No.18951943]

>>18951854
Ok, another simplification on my part, but that one actually strengthens my argument: there's an Overton window for culture. If you listen to, watch or read things deemed "intelligent" and let it out, people will readily assume your intentions without evidence. They just won't admit the possibility that someone can genuinely enjoy these things. I agree though that my initial characterization of reading as special was a dead end.

[Anonymous No.18951961]

>>18951931
Poor girls.

[Anonymous No.18951988]

>>18951943
There a line in a play somewhere, that in France, when you want to read Playboy on the train, you hide it inside your Proust; in England it's the other way around.

[Anonymous No.18952320]

>>18951988
Good one, anon, have a (you).

[Anonymous No.18952353]

>>18951931
Afghanistan will show the wisdom of this 18 years from now.

[Anonymous No.18952373]

>>18951724
Are you seriously telling me that the second part didn't lead you on that I was autoironic?

[Anonymous No.18952391]

>>18951935
They are too retarded to understand the question.

[Anonymous No.18952502]

>>18950782
Good article. I agree, but it seems to me that it’s not just a levelling of the playing field by pomo that’s done away with artistic passion, it’s the terror of sincerity as well.

If someone says they love Love Island, as the article mentions, they’re not confessing any kind of passion for the show, they’re simply admitting they find it entertaining without embarrassment. But they probably wouldn’t be able to tell someone why a piece of art changed them innately, because that would bare themselves too nakedly to the perceived Other.

I recently argued with a friend over how capeshit has ruined the current film zeitgeist and he couldn’t say why he liked it, only that he liked it, and that was good enough for him to not be embarrassed. He’s spoken to me about better films as well, but again not explained what makes them good to him, which acts as an example for me of people not being able to engage with themselves as much as with art itself at the moment.

[Anonymous No.18952856]

It's a COPE. DUH. Man sees and mountain and wants to climb it, woman sees a mountain, says it's not impressive and claims where she stands to be a higher mountain.

>>18950855

[Anonymous No.18952947]

>>18950615

what books are those? I can't tell. Also classic arthoe getup lol

[Anonymous No.18953071]

>>18951910
>english teachers are the biggest YA consumers on the planet
I was lucky. My high school English teacher was an old battleaxe who instilled in me the importance of the cannon.

[Anonymous No.18953460]

>>18950615
Better to be pretentious about reading the classics than about reading YA, and that I see happening all the time.

[Anonymous No.18953483]

>>18950661
preach anon

[Anonymous No.18953639]

>>18953460
Right? Read what you like. I don't look down on my old man because he reads one John Grisham novel per year and nothing besides.
What's so irritating about these misguided young women is how snotty and sanctimonious they are about what they read. Neurotic weirdos with deep insecurities.

[Anonymous No.18953706]

>>18953639
Dude, in my country there was this whole elaborate social media campaign "you don't read, I don't sleep with you" (That's a literal translation.) It became a meme at the instant but even so got to be hugely and unironically popular as well. I remember all these facebook posts attempting to coerce men into reading literal YA and whores flexing their harry potter collections in the comments. I know it sounds like I'm joking but I'm not. It really happened.

[Anonymous No.18953715]

>>18950615
What's next? Drinking coffee is classist?

[Anonymous No.18953755]

>>18950615
When I was in high school, yes. Now I just genuinely prefer classics and have little patience for contemporary literature.

[Anonymous No.18953859]

>>18953706
Which country?

[Anonymous No.18953863]

>>18950615
Women aren’t funny

[Anonymous No.18953938]

>>18950782
my reaction when someone says "that's just your opinion" is basically, okay? am I only going to discuss matters of observable fact with you? can we share their significance in our enjoyment of art with each other? or is that not allowed because it is too subjective. somehow the most rudimentary idea of language deflates most of its cultural function, how pathetic
it is better to avoid these subhumans and isolate the contagion

[Anonymous No.18953945]

Women need daily beating to stay sane

[Anonymous No.18953959]

>>18950706
We watched the same documentary.

[Anonymous No.18954243]

>>18953959
Tell us what documentary

[Anonymous No.18954276]

I mean, I read classics solely because I'm a pretentious asshole and like looking down on others, so maybe that's why.

[Anonymous No.18954533]

>>18953460
>>18953639
they simultaneously have an ego about being readers but an inferiority complex about what they read

[Anonymous No.18954609]

>>18951890
Pretentious implies my arrogance is unwarranted, which is incorrect.

[Anonymous No.18954686]

>>18952502
>I recently argued with a friend over how capeshit has ruined the current film zeitgeist
I don’t care that you are right because that usage of Zeitgeist is even more irritating. There is no such thing as a “current film zeitgeist”, and phrasing it like that shows that you have not fully understood the meaning of it.

[Anonymous No.18954691]

>>18953706
Yeah which country?

[Anonymous No.18954730]

I thought that reading classics was something mostly done by people who wanted to get into a pretended intellectual clique as a way of glorifying themselves. And while many people do read classics for this purpose, I've come to realize their inherent value and how a humble approach may result in an improvement of our taste and our worldview, as the works in question have laid the foundations of what is now considered literary excellence.
Italo Calvino defined a classic as "a book that never stops saying what it has to say". Indeed, every classic allows us to comprehend the literary culture that followed it, as each work leaves its timeless stamp in the subsequent authors. Classics, no matter how much we read them, show themselves with new edges that we can research, encourage us to analyze them from different poimts of view, and greet us with surprises in every read.

However, there are still many people who read classics just because they need to find an identity that can be easily 'exteriorized', and in fact, they don't show a real interest in classics to begin with; but with encouragement, one can guide them into good steps.

[Anonymous No.18954805]

>>18954730
When I got into ”proper” literature as a teenager it was motivated by maybe 20% genuine love and interest for the written word, 40% by the ego boosting challenge, and the remaining 40% by my desire to look clever and posture with my equally pretentious friends. Then it stuck.

[Anonymous No.18954882]

I just got Great Expectations on Kindle. Anyone read it?

[Anonymous No.18954886]

>>18954882
Read it for uni and don't remember much of it. I think only one other dude finished it in the entire course of 200+ students.

[Anonymous No.18954902]

>>18950615
I started reading classics when I was a teen because it was pretentious but I keep reading them because they are worth it the vast majority of the time. Most of my ventures into contemporary lit have been brief and violently negative.

[Anonymous No.18954934]

>>18950615
They don't them so they assume no one can. Essentially a problem of closemindedness and lacking experience with people different to them. A thing exacerbated by university and the internet.

>>18950618
Never ever seen this. Not even a thing on lit outside of maybe assuming classics are good just because they're classics. And I don't think that's the point because they believe it's a matter of all rather than some.

[Anonymous No.18954946]

Why the fuck do you care what teenage girls think?
At least let them have this before all their individuality and personality has been beaten out of them.

[Anonymous No.18954969]

>>18950615
It's pretentious to read fiction at all because movies and tv are objectively more entertaining :^)

[Anonymous No.18954975]

>implying that most of you aren't pretentious faggots only reading classics for pretentious faggot reasons

[Anonymous No.18955052]

>>18951919
the soi meme is yet to be defeated! This has to be a CIA op.

[Anonymous No.18955059]

>reading classics is pretentious
>watching anything other than marvel is pretentious
>listening to anything other than pop music is pretentious
>eating food that isn't cooked by a microwave is pretentious
women are absolutist retards and never should have been allowed to become literate

[Anonymous No.18955109]

>reading certain books is pretentious but me thinking my opinion is important enough to warrant making and editing a video to post publicly in an attempt to garner attention is not
absolute state

[Anonymous No.18955152]

>>18953938
>it is better to avoid these subhumans and isolate the contagion
yeah but thats your opinion, completely subjective

[Anonymous No.18955166]

>>18955152
don't do him like that bro

[Anonymous No.18955442]

>>18951476
Wow the classics sound great. Where did you start?

[Anonymous No.18955481]

>>18955152
you forgot to attach the gigachad

[Anonymous No.18955490]

>>18950615
It's not pretentious if you don't tell anyone about it, something unfathomable to the female mind.

[Anonymous No.18955521]

>>18955490
There's a difference between telling someone (e.g. when asked) and flexing it on social media as hard as you can.

[Anonymous No.18955529]

>>18950615
I hate to say it but zoomers have absolutely no respect for history and the foundations that their entire lives have been built on

[Anonymous No.18955534]

>>18955529
a generation that grows up so entitled to the point that a video buffering or an image loading slowly will genuinely irritate them will never be able to look at complex history with a nuanced perspective. it's far easier to just paint it all with one brush and retreat into their dopamine delivery services that will make them feel better and always agree with them

[Anonymous No.18955590]

>>18955059
Not only women believe these things, anon.

[Anonymous No.18955642]

>>18953945
I have heard two aphorisms, both interesting

Once a week, bring your woman a bunch of flowers. You don't know why, but she does.

Once a week, beat your woman. You don't know why, but she does.

[Anonymous No.18955678]

>>18955590
Everybody who does believe them is spiritually a catty woman.

[Anonymous No.18955743]

>>18955590
men that believe this may as well be women

[Anonymous No.18955807]

>>18950615
Americans anti-intellectualism, their celebrated freedom to be stupid. We are in for a temper tantrum of the centuries.

[Anonymous No.18955836]

>>18955521
We live in a time where you only have done something when you flex about it on social media.

[Anonymous No.18955978]

>>18950988
No those are the Classic-AL civilisations

[Anonymous No.18956126]

She is right. It's for losers with a lot of vanity. Reading literature satisfies that vanity, creates a bridge, as we say.

[Anonymous No.18956514]

>>18950615
Because it is
Reading classic is reading to flex
Chads only read books that they find interesting and never force themselves.

[Anonymous No.18956544]

>>18956514
> No one reads classics without forcing himself to.
Midwit take.

[Anonymous No.18956679]

>>18950615
> accuse people of pretending
> refuse to admit that the thing you claim they're pretending to be itself exists

ok

[Anonymous No.18956736]

>>18951867
Alright, here's my cock

[Anonymous No.18956765]

>>18954882
>great expectations for Kindle
Why for?

[Anonymous No.18956773]

>>18953959
No we didn't, some nutjob girl that probably browses here showed it to me. Hello

[Anonymous No.18956859]

>>18950615
>>18950618
I just want to read the best and influential for our tratidion. Classic is a guarantee. This triggers consoomers and tabula rasa faggots, and I like it

[Anonymous No.18957116]

>>18950619
Got it in two.