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/lit/ - Literature

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21042459 No.21042459 [Reply] [Original]

>Foreword spoils the book

>> No.21042503

>>21042459
Yeah i fucking hate that shit.

>> No.21042519
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21042519

If you weren't skipping forewords to begin with then I don't know what to tell you. Almost always a waste of time. I do find "about the author" sections are usually worth reading in my experience, unless you are well familiar with them, but other than that just skip it all. No point in reading publisher padding written by some literal who.

>> No.21042612

>>21042459
>foreword by a different author is objectively better than the rest of the book

>> No.21042756

>>21042612
Name one (1) book

>> No.21042794

>>21042459
literally made for skipping
I would like only read it after finishing reading the rest of the book

>> No.21042812

>>21042459
>foreword is part of the narrative

>> No.21042959

>>21042812
>page with the editorial info is part of the narrative

>> No.21042971

>>21042459
>>21042503
>>21042519
>>21042794
>skipping forewords
>being mad at getting plots spoiled
teenage dumpster brains get mad over these things. Anyone with an iota of cognitive thought knows that a good story is good regardless of knowing what will happen.

>> No.21042997
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21042997

>>21042971
I still don't want some literal who industry plant to give their subversive take on the plot to diminish my own ability to interpret the work for myself.
Most people don't read the forewords, stay mad that your 10 pages worth of meaningless text goes unread faggot.

>> No.21043074

>>21042971
>Seething foreword writer

>> No.21043149

>>21042997
>subversive take on the plot
What the fuck do you read, the "Now a Major Amazon™ Production" editions of LotR?
Knowing Hamlet dies does not ruin the play because it isn't a comic book. Once you get past just reading the five books /lit/ tends to make incessant threads about, forewords/introductions are incredibly useful to see the context of an author that you don't know much about.
>Turns out half of this novel is a thinly-veiled autobiography, interesting, what details did he decide to change?
>Oh, X was a major influence on Y and they were expats together editing the same magazine? I've heard that name but didn't realize he was so closely related to a style I like, maybe I should look for his work next time I'm in a bookstore
That's how I get 90% of the new books I pick up these days

>> No.21043155

>>21043149
don't care
didn't read that post and I'm still not reading forewords

>> No.21043157

>forward spoils an unrelated book by a different author that you planned on reading

>> No.21043170

>>21043155
Ebin post, make me a soijak and add it to your insta meme page, nigger

>> No.21043176

>>21043149
>letting others influence your critical thinking before you've even read the book
ishiggy diggy

>> No.21043194

>>21042459
This is not a wrong opinion.
Forewords, editor's notes, introductions, speeches and praise from other nobody authors - they only get in the way of you enjoying the book's contents.

Parasites trying to leech off the greatness of another artist.

>> No.21043208

>>21042459
All Vintage editions of Japanese lit.

>> No.21043211

>>>/r/books

>> No.21043219

>>21042971
There's a difference between being a plotfag and not wanting to read someone else's interpretation of a book up to and including the resolution of the story.

>> No.21043221

>endnotes spoil another book for completely no reason ("it was a location that also appeared in the author's another book as it is the place where the main character goes crazy and kills himself at the end")

>> No.21043225
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21043225

>>21042459
>Introduction
>50 pages
>Not written by the author
>Intro writer wanks himself and his relationship to the work for 3 pages
>Includes a 7 page summary of what happens in the story

>> No.21043229

>>21043176
>>21043194
>>21042997
>>21043219
Every opinion of an author you read permanently fucking taints them and ruins your ability to read their work? Are you all that impressionable, like teenage girls?
If I make a thread that's just an image of Dante with the word "fag" next to it, have I destroyed any potential you thick-skulled cunts ever had of appreciating the Divine Comedy?

>> No.21043300

>foreword says to skip the book and just read the conclusion

>> No.21043304

>>21042971
I'm here to read the book, not the shitty foreward written by somebody else.
why the fuck would you ever read the foreward?

>> No.21043344
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21043344

>>21042459
>foreword written before the book was even conceived

>> No.21043365

>>21043229
>Every opinion of an author you read permanently fucking taints them and ruins your ability to read their work?
Do you know what a strawman is?

>> No.21043399

Why are forwards so common but not afterwards?

>> No.21043445
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21043445

>>21043229
I'm going to ruin a bunch of anon's enjoyment of the Divine Comedy

>> No.21043474

>>21042756
Not OP, but Mark Twain's book on the two boys who were raised by the wrong parents spoils the end in the intro

>> No.21043744

>>21043229
Forwards are nothing more than other authors trying to get clout by writing empty platitudes in a more famous author's book. It's a disgusting jewish marketing trick.

Oh wow, this forward tells me this work of classic literature is a classic! Oh, is that the name of the author? I couldn't tell from the fucking cover! Oh I had no idea the author was from this country, and he lived in this time period! God, please tell me more, forward! Oh anecdote about your first time buying and reading the novel?! Holy shit I hope this gripping info goes on for another ten pages!

>> No.21043760

>getting a classic published during the commie times in my EE country
>20 pages of telling me all about the rotten capitalistic/slave system, about the masses, the bourgeois, etc. while quoting Russian critics as if they're gods

>> No.21043762

>>21042971
no one with an "iota of cognitive thought" would use that ridiculous phrase

>> No.21043763

The foreward can be entertaining too. In the P&V translation for War and Peace the novel is described as a "big, loose, baggy monster"

>> No.21045136

>>21042459
>forward spoils the book
i think they do that for college students so they can bang out their shitty response paper without actually having to read the whole shit

>> No.21045172

>>21042971
I see this argument a lot and it's complete nonsense. The fact that the good story is still good doesn't mean the reading experience will necessarily be as enjoyable as if you were going in blind.

>> No.21045177

>>21042459
>spoil
No such thing, be it in a book or a movie.
Telling you what’s going to happen doesn’t have any impact on the quality of the book or movie.

>> No.21045340

>Friend spoils book
>Foreword spoils the same thing
>Turns out it's not actually a spoiler and is revealed in the first chapter

>> No.21045345

>>21043149
Hamlet dies?

>> No.21045348

>>21042756
Most (though not all) editions of Mein Kampf.

>> No.21045491
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21045491

Chapter title spoils the chapter

>> No.21045557

>>21043149
>That's how I get 90% of the new books I pick up these days
Just read the book, then the foreword. The foreword can provide context to your own interpretation instead of framing your initial interpretation

>> No.21045568
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21045568

>>21043445
My enjoyment is still there: Brutus is still in hell, the worlds worse pseudo-stepson

>> No.21045596

>>21042459
>foreword by translator spoils the book
Nothing burns me more. Unlike a foreword by a literal who academic, that shit is vital to read before approaching a translated text.

>> No.21045602

>>21045491
But books which say

CHAPTER XXVII
In which Gerald meets an Old Acquaintance and Emily's Resolution is put to the Test.

are great.

I was looking at Tom Jones the other day and the contents page has:

Book III
Chapter 1
Containing little or nothing.


Well done Mr Fielding you mad lad.

>> No.21045612

>>21045602
it always comes off as pretentious