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/lit/ - Literature

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3210817 No.3210817[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I was nominally homeschooled. In reality, I've spent almost every waking moment from the age of twelve onward on the internet or playing video games. I missed out on a lot. I want to start reading literature, but everything is either too laden with symbolism for me to get it or the language is too difficult for me to parse. I'm basically illiterate. Where do you guys recommend I start, if at all, and how should I go about learning to recognize symbols and themes and motifs and what have you?

As a point of reference, I can't understand Shakespeare. It's pretty much only modern, pedestrian (none of that joyce/pynchon/dfw shit) English that I can read without assistance. I've read some very technical historical documents without much trouble and I once read a book about a British lesbian written in the 1920s with 1900s language once, and that's about as foreign as I can do. Even the constitution is hard to understand if I don't try hard.

>> No.3210822 [DELETED] 

>>3210817

You didn't miss out on much

>> No.3210848

>>3210817
>I post an OP of a child's show from the 90s. I do not know the correct usage of the word parse. Symbolism is too hard for me. I do not understand basic literature.

Damn, you are fucked son.

>> No.3210890

>>3210817
Chuck Paulaniuk

>> No.3210895
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3210895

>>3210848
lost

>> No.3210913

Haha, same here OP. Got expelled from the only school in my area in sixth grade, parents immediately started leaving me home alone all day and letting me do whatever I want with no attempt at education. Spent the next 8-10 years playing way too many video games. Now they say they "homeschooled" me. I was lucky though in that my faggot overachiever complex made me start self-educating pretty quick.

Sounds like you want to do critical lit which is boring as hell. Why not stick to just reading as much as you can and getting the basics down before you decide whether you want to waste your time on postmodernist garbage?

>> No.3210922

Most people only pretend to understand Joyce, Pynchon and DFW. On /lit/ especially.

>> No.3210928

>>3210922
>dfw along pynchon and joyce

no wonder you think everyone is pretending

>> No.3210929

>>3210928
read thread

>> No.3210940

OP, just read any book at all that seems interesting to you, whether it's fantasy or scifi or whatever. Every once in a while you should try out a classic that looks interesting. I recommend stuff written after 1900, I seem to like them a lot.

After you read a classic, search on google for 'book name analysis' to read stuff about it. You don't have to spend lots of time doing this, and you'll probably wonder how the fuck you missed some stuff, but you'll probably like it.

The main piece of advice is to not read books you hate.

>> No.3210949

>>3210848
No, he's not.

>> No.3210952

>>3210913
>Expelled in sixth class
Brilliant.

>> No.3210991

>>3210913

What exactly do you do now then?

>> No.3211340

>>3210949
Why not?

>> No.3211359

high school students cant understand Shakespeare either; they need a teacher or textbook to explain it to them. that doesnt make you illiterate.

>> No.3213351

A more interesting question would be: Sierra Mist or Sprite?

>> No.3213404

I don't know how old you are or how long you have been reading but I'll let you in on a little secret:

No one just picks up Shakespeare and understands the whole book on their own with no help.

Keep reading brah. You might just be pushing it too fast.

>> No.3213415

>>3210817


Just curious. What was the twenties lesbian novel? patience and sarah, something like that? there wouldn't have been many.

>> No.3213420

>>3211359
This.

Does OP think most people just get Shakespeare naturally?

>> No.3213475

>>3211359
>>3213404

Completely overvaluing - and misjudging - the complexity of Shakespeare.

>> No.3213477

>>3213420
I mean, without a guide to quickly explain phrases or concepts or thematic shit you might miss while trying to read it unaided it's slow but it's not unreadable. You can at least get through it. You're not given a guide when you see it played in a theater either.

>> No.3213483

>>3213404
not the savage, he totally owned shakespeare.

>> No.3213486

>>3213404
>No one just picks up Shakespeare and understands the whole book on their own with no help.

17th century peasant was able to do it

>> No.3213508

>>3213486
17th century peasents didnt read, they watched the plays performed, which means they could gain additional meaning from body language in inflection. Also, the plays were written in their own dialect.

>> No.3213548
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3213548

>>3210817
Read this and read whatever stretches your ability. Feel free to start with easy stuff, even YA novels. If something confuses you don't kill yourself trying to get it, just keep reading and get what you can out of it.

>> No.3213558

>>3213548
And don't use Cliff's note and external analyses unless you think you got it and you need to compare your opinion to others. I wouldn't even read a preface if it wasn't written by the original author (maybe a translator's preface).

That's like lifting weights with a fork truck.

>> No.3213562

>>3213508
..... english back then was more like American English is now (not ebonics) but the english started getting an accent because they felt superior (not even joking). Everything he writes has a meter and it's basically poetry so it isn't in their own dialect. lrn2Shakespeare.

>> No.3213591

>>3213562
shakespeare's off-rhymes required an understanding of verb usage that died with the time period. the vocabulary was different, quickly adding french words, which made many of the peasents familiar with a low-level bilingualism. Grammar was less concrete, as were the spellings of words, especially in shakespeare because of the liberties he took to maintain rhyme schemes. Read literally anything from the time period and tell me that its just american english with an english accent and without ebonics.
Also, peasents still didnt fucking read. If the plays weren't in their dialect how were they supposed to understand them?