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/lit/ - Literature

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4341964 No.4341964[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

/lit/, what will you do when you finish reading "The Classics"?

Will you quit reading and take up another hobby? Surely you couldn't branch out and take up reading in other genres, as no doubt their quality will seem wholly destitute next to the towering literary institutions of the Dead White Heterosexual Male.

Also, couldn't it be fairly easily argued that what overly reverent fedora wearers term "The Classics," sic, is really just serious literary fiction which has happened to become popular with the middle class? Like everything from Dante to Joyce to Hemingway to Orwell to Dostoevsky to Kafka. Really, it seems that popularity with the largely uneducated middle class is the deciding factor between "Classics" and just plain literary fiction. You guys get pretty close to pleb sometimes.

>> No.4341979

>>4341964
>/lit/, what will you do when you finish reading "The Classics"?
Non-fiction

>> No.4341976

>I only read easily accessible 20th century books.

>> No.4341985

>>4341964

>/lit/, what will you do when you finish reading "The Classics"?

Re-read The Classics. What a stupid question.

>> No.4341987

I think someone could dedicate their whole life to just reading the western canon.

>> No.4341989

>>4341987
How do you decide which works are important enough for the canon and which are too obscure?

>> No.4341990

I dont suppose I will ever finish them

>> No.4341991

TC, what is your great picture of? What city? It looks so great, the suburbs as they were meant to be.

>> No.4341993

>even touching the classics or the western canon itself
>not reading Harold Bloom's the Western Canon and then regurgitating his analysis to your pleb friends who will automatically assume you've read the entire actual collection of classics because they're too pleb to know academia figureheads
>not collecting the social/cultural capital that can be reaped from this endeavor and being king autist among your friends
>now that i think about it....wasting youth reading the classics when you should be maintaining your gpa/resume so one day you can sorta rise above the suburban middle class lifestyle

>> No.4342001

Are you calling the classics mainstream?

I don't understand what you are getting at regarding these authors and the uneducated middle class.

Are you insinuating, for instance, that Bach is only considered a masterful musician today because he was popular among the ignorant masses of his time?

If there are better books out there, I'm happy to be pointed in their direction.

That comment about 'fedora wearers'. What was the point of that? Is the word 'classic' meant only to be used by a fictional stereotype of an atheist?

Is this a troll thread?

>> No.4342002
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4342002

>>4341991
I think it's Phoenix, or else somewhere else in the western US, I can't really remember. But it's by Michael Light. He has a lot of nice photos.

>> No.4342004

>>4342001
masterful composer*, that ought to read.

>> No.4342016

>>4341993
but some people actually like reading and writing.

>> No.4342018

>>4342001
>Is this a troll thread?

Perhaps this should have been your first question rather than your last.

>> No.4342029

There's always something interesting to read.

>> No.4342030

>>4341989
All books written in the west are important

>> No.4342046

>>4342018
If you've gotta believe this is a troll thread in order to save your hardly earned social capital, go for it, but know that when you describe your reading habits to an educated person using the term "the classics" they will judge you harshly, not only because you have failed to seek out or specialize in any narrower, and thus more rewarding, genre or area of inquiry, but also because you find your closest cultural relative in the dadrock loving 15 year old, for whom Pink Floyd or Queen or whoever is elevated to a Platonic ideal, literally on a higher plane of existence than any other artists.

There is nothing wrong with any "classic" in and of itself, but to read exclusively in the classics, to believe this provides you anything more than negative cultural currency, is to specialize in a uniquely middle class, Time Magazine sponsored pastime, designed exclusively for those lacking the intelligence, ambition, or cultural literacy to strive for anything beyond quiet desperation.

>> No.4342058
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4342058

>>4342046
whatever you say, pally...

>> No.4342070

>>4342030
what's the point of designating a canon if it doesn't exclude anything?

>> No.4342083

>>4341964
Learn all the original languages and read them again... As I don't know any French, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian ... that could take some time.

>> No.4342093

>>4342083
> being old enough to know how to use the internet
> not knowing at least 3 of those languages

there's the door, pleb

>> No.4342100

>>4342046
all my laughter and my kekesques when the intellectual and emotional journey of literally every white middle class guy's epistemological deflowering follows the same path with the Western Canon as the guide. first it was greek mythology and Shakespeare and Robert Frost in school, plato for debate team, Nietzsche for the "i detest my dad" stage, Dostoevsky and the other long ass russian books for the "okay im gonna google "hardest book to read" and read it" stage- next came the kafka stage where "i want to read something that blows my mind- like mindfucks me" and they get lead into reading huxley. then they decide upon reflecting their lives- going back through the wikipedia pages and reading the essential books that they have skipped over- enough to last a lifetime.....

>> No.4342125

>>4342046
Only plebs are about their social perception.

>> No.4342150

>>4341964
>/lit/, what will you do when you finish reading "The Classics"?

Same as I do now. Read books that are not of the basic white professor wank material.

I don't have issue with classics, but if it's all your devoting your time to and ignoring contemporary writers then you're missing out on some quality work. But I guess your Lit Professor would rather repeat the same shit about the same 10 books he does every year.

>> No.4342154

there seems way too much classics. it feels overwhelming i don't even want to start

>> No.4342161

>>4342100
nope. for me it was plato, kafka, dostoevsky, nietzsche, then shakespeare. robert frost sucks.

>> No.4342162

>>4342125
trust me, you care. you just rationalize social events after the fact in order to feel better about yourself.

>> No.4342174

I found an original copy of Ulysses upstairs in my attic. Thank god I didn't buy it off amazon or some shit

>> No.4342179

>>4342174
>upstairs in my attic
lol im pretty tired guyz

>> No.4342244
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4342244

>>4342161
>robert frost sucks

>> No.4342242

>>4341989
Harold Bloom decides
Or at least, he decided the generally accepted canon.

>> No.4342246

>>4342242
lol'd

>> No.4343241

>>4342161
>robert frost sucks
omg finally another non white person on this board oh god i was getting reeeal tired of listening to english majors irl talk about "the first real work of lit that inspired me" and think about painfully white this all is (a John Green type of english teacher inspiring a high school class with analysis of 'The Road Not Taken' and how it's always better to "be yourself")

>> No.4343260

I will live a virtuous life in accordance with nature.