/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20275553]

Do you ever feel like you're just too stupid for the book you're reading?

[Anonymous No.20275558]

>>20275553
Yes but never with fiction. You're either a good writer or not.

[Anonymous No.20275563]

>>20275553
Yes.

[Anonymous No.20275568]

>>20275553
Yeah but I just look up other peoples opinions once I'm finished the book so I seem more smarter :)

[Anonymous No.20275569]

Unless it's a book about Science or Math, that's the author's fault.

[Anonymous No.20275577]

>>20275553
Not when I close it

[Anonymous No.20275578]

>>20275558
You successfully comprehended Ulysses' deeper ideas like the "Remorse of Conscious"?

[Anonymous No.20275583]

>>20275553
yeah I keep getting filtered.

Kant understand Kant.

[Anonymous No.20275586]

>>20275553
I never feel stupid because I'm an objectively smart boy, easily top percentile of the human race. Of course I frequently feel lacking specific knowledge necessary to appreciate a book sufficiently in which case I conclude that the book is not for me and put it down.

[Anonymous No.20275594]

Just can't understand Lacan, I can't Lacan.

[Anonymous No.20275621]

Not stupid, but I just can't focus like I used to. I have to reread paragraphs sometimes because my mind will wander or my brain is constantly looping music in the background.

[Anonymous No.20275639]

>>20275621
I can totally empathize with this. When I got back into reading I'd be hearing the words in my head but thinking of something totally else. After a few years of trying it went away, it also helped me to read things I actually was interested in rather than what I felt obligated to because of its "importance,". Yes, I am Low Iq.

[Anonymous No.20275727]

Sometimes.

This book right here made me cry because it's so fucking full of nautical cant that I literally went pages and pages without understanding a single sentence.

[Anonymous No.20275778]

>>20275553
With math, yes. With fiction, I blame the author not myself.

[Anonymous No.20275807]

>>20275778
>>20275558
How egotistical can you be

[Anonymous No.20275818]

yeah

[Anonymous No.20275830]

>>20275807
I scored a 35/36 on the ACT reading portion. If something is entirely convoluted, it's probably bullshit, a bad translation, or heavily Math/Science.

[Anonymous No.20275841]

>>20275830
That's not the best example, it's pretty easy to follow

[Anonymous No.20275844]

>>20275830
>convoluted
>heavily Math/Science
I'm not saying you were using an exclusive 'or' but STEM fags usually can't write worth a shit and end up making bad science.

[Anonymous No.20275855]

>>20275830
>>20275841
What the fuck is he on about?

[Anonymous No.20275858]

>>20275855
>WHAT IF MYTHS WERE REAL????

[Anonymous No.20275866]

>>20275568
>more smarter

[Anonymous No.20275874]

>>20275844
Gifted Mind by Raymond Damadian has some challenging parts, but he writes well. Pic related.
>>20275855
Trying to be smart. Instead of saying "The Hindus believe", he jumps into foreign words.

[Anonymous No.20275879]

>>20275844
Ironic given that your post reads
>end up making bad science

Like lol bro. Like rofl.

[Anonymous No.20275894]

>>20275879
I'm posting on 4chan.

[Anonymous No.20275979]

>>20275553
I started reading Pynchon's GR a couple days ago and I'm averaging two pages a day on my large monitor.

[Anonymous No.20275993]

>>20275979
>large monitor
Understanding Pynchon should be the least of your worries

[Anonymous No.20276027]

>>20275993
it's only 32inch nothing crazy

[Anonymous No.20276045]

>>20275844
They're normally pretty clear, it just takes a lot of pre-reading to get the references. The difference between science and humanities is that science is actually difficult, words have a lot of meaning encoded within them. With humanities, you can just say "like Solomon..." and reference the story of solomon, and that's basically their equivalent of density. When you unpack it, the difference between an educated and uneducated humanities major is that the educated one has read more children's stories. Of course I'm glossing over a lot of other aspects, but most of it deals with stories, which are considerably easier to grasp than abstract ideas with dense physical meaning.

[Anonymous No.20276083]

No. You'll get there eventually. You can't understand everything on first reading either. Sometimes you need to go away, read some secondary material and give it a careful re-read.

[Anonymous No.20276135]

>>20275563
Godtier cover design

[Anonymous No.20276137]

>>20275553
>identifying muh themes
Is this really how people read books?

[Anonymous No.20276139]

>>20275553
Overall no, but that's because of the fact I read mostly history books and middle-level theology. I felt like an ass when reading Saint Gregory Palamas' treaty about the Procession of the Holy Spirit, though.

[Anonymous No.20276142]

>>20276137
How do you read books?

[Anonymous No.20276148]

>>20276142
I just take it in, there's no analysis as such. Words, images evoke a response and then I think awhile.

[Anonymous No.20276152]

>>20275553
I often feel I am too smart for the books I read, and then I stop reading and imagine my own, better version of that same book.

[Anonymous No.20276167]

>>20275830
The make several mistakes in this page.
Lilith is never mentioned in the Bible. The story of Adam and Lilith come from the Talmud. Atlantis is obviously located in the Atlantic Ocean. There are probably more, but these are the ones I know about.

[Anonymous No.20276330]

>>20276152
Kek. Based delusion-chad.

[Anonymous No.20276390]

>>20276142
by reading them. sort of like how you "listen" to music, if youve tried that before.

[Anonymous No.20276391]

>>20275594
you lacan't

[Anonymous No.20276428]

>>20275553
no, all books are easy to me. how low is your IQ that you find books "hard"?

[Anonymous No.20276942]

>>20275578
>literal ghost of his mother attacking Stephen
Not him but the remorse theme wasn't very subtle. .

[Anonymous No.20277933]

>>20276428
welcome to this shitty board/zoomers and millenials in general

[Anonymous No.20277951]

>>20275583
>>20275594
ha

[Anonymous No.20277956]

>>20275621
>>20275639
Yep, this is me. I've strongly considered taking ADHD drugs just for this but I'm scared of what might become of me.

[Anonymous No.20278032]

>>20275830
meds, now

[Anonymous No.20278121]

>>20276137
Based retard

[Anonymous No.20278146]

>>20277956
A few people told me I've got ADD, but I dont think it has impeded me in any severe way. If anything, its helped me filter out bullshit I'm not drawn to on an intuitive level.

[Anonymous No.20278154]

>>20275553
>>20275578
>Remorse of Conscience
u mean agenbite of inwit

[Anonymous No.20278239]

>>20275553
Once
>4th grader
>be ESL
>look in the school library for something to read
>teacher hands me Wuthering Heights
couldn't get through the first few pages

[Anonymous No.20278269]

>>20275830
Except that was mostly cohesive. Just because you don't know words like 'hyperborean' or whatever doesn't mean the author is retarded. I'm steadily begininng to think this series of posts are bait

[Anonymous No.20278278]

>>20276137
It's how I watch movies now. My brain thinks it's fun to turn over details in set design and world-building and whatnot, and I do sometimes apply it to things like books or video games. It just lets me get to a more surface level within the world the author or whatever is trying to build

[Anonymous No.20279210]

>>20276148
You are reactive rather than interpretive. No higher than an animal.

[Anonymous No.20279222]

>>20275979
I bought GR in my teens because of /lit/ memes almost 10 years ago. My interests shifted pretty wildly not long after. Right now I'm reading niche comparative religious texts on Manichaeism in Ming China. GR is still on my shelf, unread.

[Anonymous No.20279318]

>>20279210
>then I think awhile
He's just saying he doesnt analyze and list out themes like its a high school essay (which is whats pictured in the OP image misunderstanding Joyce). He just has personal reflections on the literature. Im thinking anon is based

[Anonymous No.20280031]

>>20278239
I'm not sure I'd hand a middle schooler Withering Heights, let alone an elementary student

[Anonymous No.20280896]

>>20275553
Stupid not so much as completely green in the area -- French Revolution by Carlyle jumps right in and speaks of many matters and individuals as though they are familiar to the historically lacking (in european post rome but fixing it). also a lot of words i've never seen used; used the way they are; and probably wont ever see them used again. but the picture he paints keeps me in check.

[Anonymous No.20280912]

>>20280896
Sometimes I catch myself boiling the entirety of the treatise or whatever down to some basic points then I will assure myself it couldn't really be that simple. Kant's critique of pure reason can't really boil down to a drawn out explanation on the limits of human understanding based on the senses and what the senses can experience. Surely it's not a book that essentially pissed in the cereal of the utopians and idealists of the renaissance who following Newton and other's systemisation of knowledge of the physical world assumed that progress was eternal and it was only a matter of following our Blessed Science.

No i need to read more than the prologue because there has to be more i don't know

[Anonymous No.20280930]

>>20275553
How the fuck is a book "hard"?
Like nigga, just read lol

[Anonymous No.20282160]

>>20275553
I sorta get this feeling with Bolaño but I think it's because the guy doesn't give you anything to hold on to, making you feel lost. I don't think he's all that

Also higher math books are the definition of filtering

[Anonymous No.20282183]

>>20279222
send it to me

[Anonymous No.20282196]

>>20276027
>suboptimal saccades

[Anonymous No.20282207]

>>20280912
Yeah sometimes I don't really get sentences. I understand what the sentence is trying to say and I get the idea, but I get lost in the grammar and can't figure out by what mechanism the sentence is saying what it means. This only happens with long-winded writers. I could go back and reread the sentence until I get it on a literal level but I usually don't feel like it

[Anonymous No.20282211]

>>20282207
Oops don't know why this was a reply, I guess I really am retarded

[Anonymous No.20282378]

>>20282207
At first I thought I was just retarded, but now to me this says the author lacks mastery over the English language or even the basic ability to organize their thoughts coherently.

[Anonymous No.20283233]

>>20275583
same bro

[Anonymous No.20283753]

>>20275830
if you can't follow that you're an actual retard

[Anonymous No.20283844]

>>20275844
Correct. Writing in the sciences is bad and the foundations are not properly established in undergrad.
t. STEMfag

[Anonymous No.20283883]

>>20277956
dont do it bro, that shit can make you into a zombie. id rather be manic all the time than another medicated consumer

[Anonymous No.20283926]

>watch LOTR films in middle school
>fall in love, immediately run out and get dvds and books
>100 pages into fotr, have absolutely no idea what I'm reading
>I'm totally buried in genealogies, diversions, poems, info dumps
>get to the prancing pony before concluding I'm not having fun
I still love the LOTR films to pieces.

[Anonymous No.20283941]

Feel like I understood about 20% of the references in this

[Anonymous No.20283977]

>>20283926
This was me kinda but I think I finished the books. I liked the part in the woods and tom bombadil actually
I should reread the books, in english this time

[Anonymous No.20284018]

i've really only felt this way twice.
the first was moby dick. i read it on kindle and had to look up seemingly multiple words per page. i read a lot and couldn't even follow language with context without using a dictionary.
second was ulysses. i paused it and bought a book of annotations to get me through.
those are both good books by the way, fellow brainlets.

[Anonymous No.20284078]

>>20275621
>>20277956
Yeah it sucks, and IQ has nothing to do with it. You have to remove all distractions, including music. The worst thing for me that my brain is constantly generating new trains of thought from what I'm reading about, which sends me to wikipedia or whatever, and only hours later do I remember that I was supposed to be reading a book. Now I keep a paper notepad to jot down anything I want to look into later and go right back to reading.

[Anonymous No.20284103]

>>20283926
I got about half through LOTR 1 before getting bored by all the "unnecessary" details about their slog through the wilderness. I came back to it a year later in a different mindset and really enjoyed the rest of the book. I guess I would describe that mindset as more patient and more apt to savor things unknown and incomplete.

[Anonymous No.20284193]

>>20279210
>ackshually *snort* my neurotic intellectualizing makes me so *adjusts glasses* smart that I am superior to you lesser mortals, who are but mere beasts before me *sucks teeth*
we should swing narcissistic pseud wankstains like yourself from lamposts and trees

[Anonymous No.20284204]

>>20282378
no you are actually just retarded, writers have no obligation to dumb down their thoughts to fit inside your empty slopehead

[Anonymous No.20284242]

>>20275594

Anything Lacan has to say, Freud already said and said better.

>mfw Verification not required

[Anonymous No.20284314]

>>20280930
I'm sure you'd find it difficult to read a book written in a language you don't know.

[Anonymous No.20284330]

baalbuddy is such an annoying faggot and he must really think he's so clever and subversive

[Anonymous No.20284615]

>>20275594
>make sweeping assertion about childhood conditioning
>back it up with obviously fake anecdotes
>draw a graph that "represents" the metaphysical structure
>ignore all data that shows what a poor predictive tool your system is
Wa la, you've written a lacanian essay

[Anonymous No.20284663]

>>20284330
>t. Ogre

[Anonymous No.20285388]

>>20284330
He is pretty subversive, though I do agree he isn't nearly has clever as he thinks.

There is no real creativity in subersion.

[Anonymous No.20285425]

>>20284193
nta but he's completely right. The entire point of literature is to write around themes and identify them for a learning experience. You're not sincerely reading if you aren't actively thinking about these things while reading and trying to understand it on a level deeper than plot happenings. Maybe a little less shitposting with every meme buzzword you learned this week and more reading and actually learning something, I think that'd help.

[Anonymous No.20285623]

I feel like I'm just too stupid in general.

[Anonymous No.20285769]

>>20275553
Many times, but I find it humbling rather than embarrassing.

[Anonymous No.20286963]

>>20275563
This has to be the worst fuckin book I've ever read. If you're too stupid for that book I would assume you don't know how to read