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/lit/ - Literature

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3110048 No.3110048 [Reply] [Original]

Looks like NPR decided to interview /lit/

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/01/163949969/reading-125-titles-a-year-thats-one-for-the-books

>"When you're young, you're not going to start reading Jane Austen or Dostoyevsky, you start out reading people like, in my case, Agatha Christie. I read all of the Agatha Christie novels when I was young, and I really enjoyed them, and when you go back to read them later, they don't hold up as well because she's not really a great writer. But you move on and they open the door for you."

>> No.3110072

>I read all of the Agatha Christie novels when I was young

lol fag

>> No.3110084

The first book of a reasonable length that I read of my own volition was a Goosebumps book, "Be afraid - be very afraid!" The guy has a point.

>> No.3110086

That's exactly what I thought when I listened to this earlier. This man is insufferable.

>> No.3110088

>>3110084
He has a point there, but he said a whole lot of nonsense otherwise.

>> No.3110090

>>3110072
>>3110084

>mfw Huckleberry Finn was the first book I read
>mfw when shitty literature is being justified as 'gateway' literature
>mfw nobody reads Dostoyevsky or Austen

>> No.3110093

Thirty years from now:

>"When you're young, you're not going to start reading Agatha Christie or Stephen King, you start out reading people like, in my case, Stephenie Meyer. I read all of the Stephenie Meyer novels when I was young, and I really enjoyed them, and when you go back to read them later, they don't hold up as well because she's not really a great writer. But you move on and they open the door for you."

>> No.3110096

>>3110090
>>3110093

Look through the looking glass here, people.

>> No.3110098

>>3110090
Oh please. You are not a special snowflake for being on /lit/. So many people read Austen and Dostoyevsky.

>> No.3110100

>>3110084

>Be Afraid - be very Afraid!

I'm fairly sure that's Goosebumps 2000, which pretty much invalidates your view, kid.

>> No.3110107

>>3110098

"Many", relative to the population of the Western world, especially relative to fifty years ago?

>> No.3110109

>>3110107

Sorry: *in contrast to fifty years ago*

>> No.3110114

>>3110107
>>3110109
The "classics" have only become more accessible. More people are reading them now than ever before.

>> No.3110118

>>3110114

>*citation needed

>> No.3110119

>>3110048
Yes, the pedagogical function of reading is important, more important than the text anyone reads at any particular time.

>> No.3110259
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3110259

On why he thinks book clubs are "stupid"

"They're just stupid. They're just ridiculous. My problem with book clubs ... is one week they discuss something like Anna Karenina and War and Peace and the next week they discuss the stupidest book imaginable. They just discover whatever book Anita Shreve just happened to write or something like that. There's no theme.

" ... The other thing is that when ... you read Oscar Wilde or you read Moliere or particularly Shakespeare, I would consider it an invasion of their privacy for me to express any opinion about their work. The market has spoken. There's nothing that we can add to this conversation. Someone once said about Emily Dickinson: The correct way to approach Emily Dickinson is on your knees."

>> No.3110521

>>3110259
Holy shit I love this guy

>> No.3110525

>>3110521
first one is funny
second line is stupid
for example i think TKAMB fucking blew

>> No.3110532

>>3110119
That wasn't even implied. Jesus, you can't have a SINGLE story just about the process of reading rather than the material itself, which is discussed in every other article on NPR books?

>> No.3110533

>>3110259
>The market has spoken

Any sentiment that uses this phrase without irony is bound to be remarkably stupid

>> No.3110544

>>3110533
It's tongue-in-cheek. Did you listen to it?

>> No.3110549

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqH7oN2Kqko
This is a better interview about his reading habits

>> No.3110551

>>3110259

Someone should tell him that all those people are dead.

>> No.3110553

>>3110544

Nope, and I don't care to. The market has spoken.

>> No.3110558

... The other thing is that when ... you read Stephanie Meyer or you read E. L. James or particularly Stephen King, I would consider it an invasion of their privacy for me to express any opinion about their work. The market has spoken. There's nothing that we can add to this conversation.

>> No.3110559

>>3110553
Then you don't have the right to give a fucking opinion. There's nothing that you can add to this conversation; the correct way to approach Joe Queenan is on your knees.

>> No.3110564

>>3110558
First, he was referring to himself specifically. Second, by 'market' you obviously know he didn't literally mean the most sales, but rather centuries of critical praise and being considered part of the Western canon, so stop being a little bitch about it. Third, why are you so fucking dumb?

>> No.3110569

>>3110564

>Second, by 'market' you obviously know he didn't literally mean the most sales, but rather centuries of critical praise and being considered part of the Western canon

There's no difference, dude. Academic hegemony aside, that is. You're just changing whose popular opinion you appeal to.

>> No.3110586

>>3110569
You're not a special snowflake. You're not a superior aesthete than generations of geniuses. That's not to say that you can't have an opinion, but that opinion is likely of no value to the public and probably doesn't deserve a popular outlet. But again, that's besides the point, he was referring to himself.

>> No.3110597

>>3110586

>You're not a special snowflake. You're not a superior aesthete than generations of geniuses. That's not to say that you can't have an opinion, but that opinion is likely of no value to the public and probably doesn't deserve a popular outlet.

Who are you talking to?

>> No.3110602

>>3110597
To you, but mostly to /lit/ in general

>> No.3110618

>>3110602

We claim that opinions on literature are relativistic and you take that to mean that we think ourselves geniuses?

That's kind of crazy, guy.

>> No.3110651

>>3110100
I hope you aren't over, let's say 22, and still here.

>> No.3110655

>>3110651

Why not?

>> No.3110660

>>3110651

There are plenty of us. I wish there were more.

>> No.3110676

>>3110651
>>3110660

There are dozens of us.

DOZENS.

>> No.3110683
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3110683

>>3110676

May we rise.

>> No.3110685

>>3110651

>young kid trying to speak with authority on a literary board

Adorable.

>> No.3110691

>and when you go back to read them later, they don't hold up as well because she's not really a great writer

Can't be said for when I went back to see what all the fuss had been about, for me personally, with the Brian Jacques Redwall novels.

>> No.3110704

>>3110651
/lit/ is not a playgroup, you faggot. The more adults here the better.

>> No.3110783

>>3110651
I'm not here that often, but occasionally. I'm 38.

>> No.3110790

>>3110651

You are what is wrong with this board.

Get a fucking clue.

>> No.3110928

>>3110651
Id say this is the oldest board on 4chan. 30 here anyways.

>> No.3111060

Everyone knows that all the greatest works of fiction are produced by angst wrought teenagers....

The odd thing is that statement would probably be true on /mu

>> No.3111064

>>3111060

What has /mu/ ever produced that's worthwhile?

>> No.3111079
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3111079

>>3110651
14/f/cali here

>tfw you started on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

>> No.3111080

>dat edited wikipedia entry

>> No.3111086
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3111086

>>3111064
Dubs Market was a solid effort