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/lit/ - Literature

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4429371 No.4429371 [Reply] [Original]

>tfw Dostoyevsky is too mainstream for me to list him among my favorite writers
Fucking hell. Can we get an official list of writers that make you look both educated and hip?

Protip: Listing DFW only makes you look autistic

>> No.4429375

Aristotle
Dante
Joyce
Woolf
Marquez

>> No.4429378

just pretend you dont read, or dont tell anyone you read

>> No.4429380

who cares you fucking pseudo-intellectual? Are you seriously going to dismiss a great writer because he is popular?

>> No.4429382

>>4429378
but that in itself is way too mainstream

>> No.4429392

>>4429382
no ,my friend

do you even know what it takes to be a hipster?

>> No.4429394

A lot of good writers are popular. You seem like you read to be seen to be 'well-read' rather than just for enjoyment, knowledge etc..

>> No.4429395
File: 44 KB, 380x474, 600full-ralph-waldo-emerson.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4429395

>>4429380
Actually, I didn't dismiss just one.

>> No.4429399

>>4429394
>>4429380
Fuck off retards

>> No.4429406

there are lots

>> No.4429412

>>4429399
>dismissing writers based on their popularity and not their work
>calling others retards
kiddo please, are you trying to be a huge pleb?

>> No.4429420

>>4429412
Can't a nigga be hipster on the internet without idiots showing up to ruin it?

>> No.4429421

>>4429412
I told you to go away, you aren't cool

>> No.4429428

>>4429420
>>4429421
YES MY NEW/NEW SINCERITY MINIONS! FLY! FLY TO GREATER HEIGHTS!

>> No.4429426

>>4429406
tell us bb girl

>> No.4429433

>>4429428
What the hell is wrong with you?

>> No.4429438

>>4429421
and reading exclusively authors nobody has heard of to impress strangers is the epitome of cool

>> No.4429442

>>4429438
>implying i have to read them to say i read them
You don't get fun do you

>> No.4429444

>>4429438
Yes. Today it is.

>> No.4429447

>>4429438
You wouldn't know VIRGIN BOYYYY

what now ?

>> No.4429451

just tell everyone you read tao lin

>> No.4429452

>>4429433
he misunderstood the concept of new sincerity, while seriously thinking its the next era in art

>> No.4429454

>>4429442
>>4429444
>>4429447
yall niggas implying pretty hard

>> No.4429457

>>4429452
I think that you don't understand.

>> No.4429459

>>4429457
no u

>> No.4429473

>>4429420
You're not hipster if you admit you are hipster. Isn't that how it works?

>> No.4429480

Reducing books and one's personality/tastes to a fashionable commodity is pretty sad.

>> No.4429485

>>4429480
>mad he'll never be cool

>> No.4429493

OK guys, so I'm making my OKCUPID, what books should I put in my books section to seem educated and hip?

Bonus points if they don't make me "too educated/hip". Gotta get some bites ;)

>> No.4429503

>>4429493
>OKCUPID
>>>/reddit/

>> No.4429504

>>4429371
Kerouac
Hemingway
Hunter S. Thompson
Flannery O'Connor

These are my favorite writers but I always feel so self-conscious and judged whenever I list them.

>> No.4429510

>>4429503
lol /lit/ you're ridiculously slow

>> No.4429515

>>4429504
Why are you putting Flannery in with those three psuedo-masculine crybabies?

>> No.4429519

>>4429515
obligatory female writer..

>> No.4429529

>>4429519
Funny when the "flavor" pick is better than the actual taste

>> No.4429533

James Baldwin

>> No.4429534

>>4429529
don't make me hit you..

>> No.4429551

>>4429534
I'm starting to see why you like Kerouac/HST/Hem...

>> No.4429552

>>4429551
because i'm not fucking pansy faggot?

>> No.4429555

>>4429552
You have no grace under pressure

>> No.4429558

>>4429552
Because you think that

>> No.4429563

>>4429555
this sounds like something someone else told you. speak your heart

>> No.4429565

>>4429558
ok motherfucker what are your favorite writers? let's see how much of a cool guy you are now

>> No.4429574

>>4429565
Nabokov, Byron, Pynchon, Gombrowicz, Bolano...

;)

>> No.4429580

>>4429563
More like I'm trying to inflame his butthurt with a Hemingway reference.

Back to the thread's actual topic

Vonnegut has a gravitational pull on qt's
There's Lolita. No shit. Read it in public and see what happens.

>> No.4429588

>>4429515
I actually think O'Connor and Hemingway are similar in style.

>> No.4429592

>>4429574
>Nabokov
obligatory prose tryhard show off
>Byron
obligatory romantic sensible heart poetry
>Pynchon
obligatory random 2deep4u modernist
>Gombrowicz
obligatory obscure foreigner writer
>Bolano
obligatory faggot
>...
obligatory list could go on

did you literally make your list after a formula?

>> No.4429598

>>4429592
Nah, I just really like the stuff they wrote.

>>4429588
Style =/= content

>> No.4429601

>>4429598
>Style =/= content
no one cares about the plot in 2014 pleb

>> No.4429604

>>4429580
>There's Lolita. No shit. Read it in public and see what happens.
get arrested?

>> No.4429608

>>4429601
Content =/= just plot.

Plot<Content

>> No.4429614

>>4429608
same level with plot

>> No.4429618

>>4429614
Are you saying that content doesn't matter in literature, or?

>> No.4429623

>>4429618
it does matter

for plebs like you

>> No.4429626

>>4429623
All parts of literature matter so long as they serve to be stimulating/enchanting.

>> No.4429631

>>4429626
well yes, of course

but if you find plot/content/story stimulating and enchanting you're a hopeless pleb.

i'm a patrician myself, and i read only for prose

>> No.4429637

>>4429631
What do you mean by "only for the prose"? Do you treat it like a constant sound poem?

Is good prose a singular style? What's the rubric?

>> No.4429640

>>4429580
>There's Lolita. No shit. Read it in public and see what happens.

Already did it and it was not an issue, because it's 2014 and I'm neither an idiot nor a low self-esteem faggot craving for attention by showing his books on public, so I was reading it on my Kindle.

>> No.4429645

>>4429371
My favorite writers are William Gibson, William Burroughs,William Gaddis, John Cheever, Neal Stephenson,William T. Vollmann, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Thomas Pynchon. What does that say about me /lit/?

>> No.4429647

i hate this thread so much

>> No.4429648

Malcolm X

>> No.4429650

>>4429645
You like imaginative/fantastical literature.

Would bro.

>> No.4429651

>>4429637
i read and feel good prose because i'm not a pleb. there's no list of criteria that i check, and no tutorial on how to become a a patrician

>> No.4429656

>>4429645
It says you care too much about what other might think of you, and are constantly looking for the approval of strangers due to insecurities probably based in the lack of a fatherly figure in your early life, or sexual-based insecurities developed during puberty.

>> No.4429658

>>4429647
pleb detected

>> No.4429659

>>4429598
>Style =/= content
No fucking shit.
But on the content side, O'Connor and Hemingway both wrote, as astute observers, about flawed people and the way they cope/ignore/are confronted with their limitations.
Point is, I don't think it's so outlandish for a person to enjoy Hemingway and O'Connor.
You're just being a dick.

>> No.4429660
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4429660

>>4429651
k ;)

>> No.4429663

>>4429659
>You're just being a dick

Oh, I know that. I just happen to like O'Connor and think that Hem is unworthy of his reputation.

>> No.4429664

Charles Silverstein is very underrated but awesome.

>> No.4429667

>>4429664
>Charles Silverstein
>gay activist
oh im sure he's awesome faglord

>> No.4429680

>>4429667
You might not have noticed because of how poor the quality of that post was, but Shakespeare himself wrote it. Argal, it's not shitposting.

>> No.4429681

>>4429371
Vonnegut
Plath
Diaz
Faulkner
Bolaño
Woolf

vonnegut and plath are very well known among "hip" people, plath especially gets you cred with qts, diaz is pretty well known contemporary, let's people know you keep up with what's going on, faulkner is a well known name, but not a huge one, suggests more depth than a fitzgerald, but is not meaningless, Bolaño is foreign but not entirely unknown, and Woolf is another female writer, gets you cred with feminists, also big but not huge

how did i do /lit/?

fyi this isn't how i choose what i read
bolaño and woolf are sorta weak, might wanna switch those up if you actually did something as stupid as lie about what you read

>> No.4429685

>>4429681
This guy gets it

>> No.4429694 [DELETED] 

>>4429663
8============D~~~~~~~~~ O:
Me~~~~~~You
Right in your mouth faggot

>> No.4429713

Nothing will make attractive girls interested in you sexually unless you are attractive or have money; that's just common sense. Would you have sex with a cow just because that cow is a fan of Stereolab and Thomas Pynchon? Of course not, it is a cow: it is difficult to establish a rapport with cows due to their lack of language and social skills, and they also lack many features that we look for in human females (cleanliness, small frame, bipedalism, a single stomach, etc.). Additionally, there are many moral issues you must consider e.g. can a cow consent to sex, what are the psychological consequences of human-cow sexual relations, can a cow alert a human when he is in psychological or physical pain, and so on and so on.

Once you have money and/or are attractive, then you can start worrying about which books will make impress the ladies. You want to have a healthy mix of obscure and popular literature in your mental library, with a couple of 'controversial' choices that will make you seem more interesting. A couple of writers to be familiar with:

-Dostoevsky: Famous, dark, Russian. Some of his books are very long which shows that you can read for long periods of time without getting bored, and he is foreign which shows that you know about foreign countries. Under no circumstances should you mention that you identify with Raskolnikov or the Underground Man, you say that you find them strange and unappealing, yet fascinating in a disgusting sort of way. If your potential mate is from Eastern Europe, familiarize yourself with Chernev and Gogol instead.

-E.L. James: OMG what!?!? The Fifty Shades of Grey lady!?! I thought you just read dusty old serious books! Think again ladies, I have a functioning penis and use it quite frequently when I'm masturbating to poorly written erotica that is marketed housewives. Of course you won't be saying this directly, but you'll be demonstrating to your hipster qt your complex sexuality and interest in pursuing a lively sexual relationship. This is your 'controversial' choice, so be prepared with a lengthy and overanalytical diatribe about what this book means for modern 21st century romantic relationships, which is something that you think a lot about because you've had many relationships before ;) . This only works if you are attractive, so if you decide to get ladies with money instead, don't bother reading this.

-Thut Borkenshire: Who? Exactly. Borkenshire is a mysterious and obscure Norweigan poet who has a thick golden beard and hunts his own food by the shores of the frozen lakes of his homeland. She's never heard of him before, but he sounds intriguing and Scandinavian. Clearly you must be very smart and interested in literature. She gasps in awe of your massive brain. You've done it. You've tricked her into thinking that you are intelligent and introspective. It is at this point that you slip your genitals inside of hers and recite the Borkenshire's sonnets that you have memorized. Congratulations!

>> No.4429747

>>4429713
Good writeup, I hope no-one actually thinks a certain selection of books will be important in making them attractive to women.

>> No.4429800

>>4429406
*they're

>> No.4429992

>>4429713
If I"m being completely honest, I would have sex with an actual cow if it was into Stereoalb and Pynchon.

Dosty seems like a terrible choice if the other person actually knows anything about literature. I can't think of a less sexy author. Listing Dosty just shows that you have a horribly entry level understanding of philosophy and don't know when to shut the fuck up.

>> No.4429998

>>4429992
o boy

>> No.4430029

>>4429713
fuck yes

>> No.4430034

>>4429992
>Listing Dosty just shows that you have a horribly entry level understanding of philosophy and don't know when to shut the fuck up.
?

>> No.4430081

>>4430034
Honestly, I was just trying to write the most inflammatory sentence I could think of.

>> No.4430088

>>4429713
I identify with Alyosha.

>> No.4430114

>>4429713
This is quality pasta. Bravo

>> No.4430118

>>4429713
>your potential mate is from Eastern Europe, familiarize yourself with Chernev and Gogol instead.
why?

>> No.4430128

>>4430118
I suppose because Dosto is extremely mainstream and they like him less over there, according to people I've talked to.

>> No.4430150

These threads are always stupid. No girl is gonna say 'he reads books, now I must have sex with him.'. Reading may actually be a hindrance to scoring, because being overly analytical or empathetic turn girls off.

You could read some how to be attractive or seduction self help books.

>> No.4430152

>>4430150
ITS A JOKE RETARD

>> No.4430208

>>4430152
on /lit/ everybody is a JOKE RETARD.

>> No.4430255

Adolfo Bioy Casares
Nikolai Ostrovsky
Aleksandr Zinovyev
Bo Yang
Cao Yu
Lao She

>> No.4430259

>>4430255
that's not hip, it's called tryhard

>> No.4430262

>>4430259
I actually like those authors

>> No.4430267

>>4430259
tryhard is the new hip

>> No.4430268

>>4430262
you're not hip then

>> No.4430280

>>4430268
I know, I feel terrible not being able to discuss Christian Chinese incest relation with anyone and if I do I would be a total loser for knowing such obscure work

>> No.4430303

>>4430280
not even chinese cuties know that

>> No.4430310

>>4430303
I know, he was purged
They all were

>> No.4430320

>>4430088
Don't we all?
>mfw Ivan and Dmitri are eerily similar to my 2 best friends

>> No.4430385

I'll slip in an author like Dostoyevsky just so I don't sound pretentious to the common folk. Obviously my taste is too patrish for most people, so if I actually want to engage someone in discussion about literature I have to throw down some entry level names so they can partake. Of course I had grown out of Dosty's tiresome morbidity by the time I was 16, but there are still adults out there who are excited by him.

>> No.4431611

d

>> No.4431649

>>4430150
A mutual interest in literature is a great way to build a rapport with a person you just met. I've impressed many girls with my relatively broad knowledge of literature. Of course it won't help if the girls you are trying to pull are sweaty club whores high on MDMA in a D'n'B rave at 5am, but personally the type of girl who would consider reading a mark against me are not the kind of girls I am interested in in the first place.

>> No.4431652

>>4431649
grapes

>> No.4431682

>>4430128
dosto was heavily censored during soviet russia rule. It's only quite recently that he's become mainstream in the former soviet union

>> No.4431693

>>4429493
That's why you include a Dostoevsky or Nabokov, so that more potential quarry are drawn to your profile through the search function. Then you can list some more impressive obscure names to separate you from the thousands of other cunts who listed Dostoevsky and Nabokov among their favourite authors.

>> No.4431710
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4431710

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrMY7KWUuOw

What the fuck is this fucking shit!!!!!!!!!!

>> No.4431723

>>4431649
Yea, i'm sure you boned them all too, right?

Just twice literature enabled me in scoring. Once was texting a girl 'you can regale me with history stories.'. She really liked that I used the word 'regale.'

The other time was, hey have a look at my new books (in my bedroom).

>> No.4431727

>>4431723
>She really liked that I used the word 'regale.'
i bet that's the reason why she was down to fuck

>> No.4431784

>>4429371
>writers that make you look both educated and hip?

Are you this ashamed of yourself? That you can't just list the things you enjoy?

>> No.4431791

>>4431784
i think it's a joke anon. are you autistic by any chance?

>> No.4431819

>>4431791
Yeah, untill you realise the ammount of people that actually list movies and books for the sake of having mentioned them. Have you ever spoken to a varied ammount of people? there are plenty of them out there.

>> No.4431824

>>4431819
sure anon, whatever keeps your autism at bay

>> No.4431832

Plenty great little read authors.
Thomas Bernhard might be my favorite.
Mentioning only one author since this thread is garbage.

>> No.4431859

>>4431727
It's the reason we met. Started online then went to texting, then banging. I got back to her place and she'd written 'regale' three times on a scrap piece of paper.

>> No.4431861

>>4431824
Heard of the words pretentious and ostentatious?
2/10, made me reply.

>> No.4431883

Suggested authors to name-drop: Hölderlin, Blok, Pasolini, Borges, Aristophanes, Cocteau, Zhuangzi, Michelangelo (his poems), Chalamov, Sade, Casanova, Tacitus, Verlaine, Sappho, Kawabata, Brecht, Garcia Lorca, Claudel, Lautréamont, De Quincey, Boccaccio, Wordsworth, Kundera, Pirandello, Coetzee, Zweig...

>> No.4431888

And also Pessoa, Laclos, Fritz Zorn and Houellebecq. And some female writers for the ladies (George Sand?).

>> No.4431889

>>4431710

MY HEAD, MY EARS, MY EYES.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING HURT WATCHING THIS?

>> No.4431904

>>4431710
wow how can she be so genuinely excited? i don't even dream about even trying to fake such enthusiasm

>> No.4432226
File: 173 KB, 640x360, 1374847083545.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4432226

>>4431710
>you will never be this excited about books

>> No.4433959

>>4430385

Guys, I found an actual autist.

>> No.4433966

>>4431710
i like her because she seems like one of the few girls who would ever like me

>> No.4433973

>>4429371
>too mainstream
>writers that make you look both educated and hip
Even if you are trolling or being ironic, I still dislike you for this thread.

>> No.4434005

>>4429371
Renata Adler

>> No.4434042

Murakami is usually safe.

>> No.4434044

>>4434042
... No one takes Murakam more seriously than Dostoyevsk. You just don't get it, do you.

>> No.4434067

It's always good to throw a filmmaker in there as a wildcard. Make a habit of referring to Renoir, Dreyer, and or Pasolini as "novelists" themselves and be sure to include them in your list of favorite authors. Questions arise and interest mounts

>> No.4434250
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4434250

Flannery O'connor, Louise McNeil, Eudora Welty, Jane Smiley

Any of these will make you seem like you appreciate folksy, intelligent women without making you look like a tryhard friendzoner (unless you list more than two).

Beastmode women writers, include at least one: Joyce Carol Oates, Joan Didion.

On no account should you list Jane Austin. Most girls on OkStupid already have a gay best friend.

>> No.4434262

>>4434250
Margaret Atwood is a safe bet too.

>> No.4434606

This thread makes me sad for the future.

>> No.4434635

Be serious now.

>J. G. Ballard
>J. M. Coetzee
>Georges Bataille
>Viktor Pelevin (though I am not sure whether his translations to English are good and whether it is understood well enough outside the Post-Soviet world)
>Jorge Louis Borges
>Kōbō Abe

Some of these might be considered edgy by some (Bataile, Ballard), others are respected by all (Borges), but none are as mainstream as Dostoyevsky.

>> No.4434680

>>4429713
Excellent advice.

>> No.4434701

Chuck Palahniuk, I guess. I don't know how educated it makes me look but he certainly isn't a secret.

>> No.4434706

>>4429371
m80 your try-hard is showing. I wouldn't have Tue time of day for you if you starting speiling off a lengthy list of unheard of authors.

shit like that is soo transparrant. you gotta be more subtle with your cool

you can like dostoevsky. just be ready to get into an in depth conversation about his works and be able to hold your own. hell if you backed your interest in dosto up with a thick grounding of knowledge of post revolution Russia you'd look way cooler than some plebass Niga who can list unheard of authors

>> No.4434969

>>4434701
doesn't make you look educated, makes you look like a faggot.

>>4434635
he knows his shit (Borges, Bataille).

>> No.4434991

You have to throw in a couple of classics as to not look like you are excluding things based on popular opinion, which is just as plebby as only knowing popular works. If you mix them in with your special snowflake list it will only strengthen it, and it will look like the classics were very carefully picked.

>> No.4435043

>>4434706
I have not read Dostoevsky yet, nor do I know a lot about him, but he died a rough 20 years before the first and 30 years before the second, which is often known as the actual Russian revolution. Were his works influential after the revolution or something? Because I've never heard him mentioned in discussions on the results of the Russian revolition.

>> No.4435048

>>4435043
I think she just got a bit carried away

>> No.4435070

>Dostoyevsky
>DFW

>> No.4436128

>>4435043
sorry meant to say pre
anyway the point of my post was that liking classics doesn't make you a pleb. not knowing shit about the authors on your cool list makes you a pleb.

>> No.4436141

>>4436128
Being satisfied with/confident in yourself and therefore not concerning yourself with the opinion of any rabble is what you should strive for, anything else is pleb.
For if you're confident you realise that the things you like are part of being a perfectly fine human being, and it elliminates all shame and ridicule from them.
Any discussion on what you should or should not do to establish a hierarchy of any sort is a penis measuring contest where neither contestant is satisfied with what he's packing.

>> No.4436156

>>4433959
lmao