[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 96 KB, 241x228, 1390074820658.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397704 No.5397704[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

>be 15 year old freshman in high school 6 years ago
>was reading Catch-22 to attempt to get into literature
>first day of advanced English, we have to share what we're reading
>'u-um, I'm reading Catch 22. It's a satire of the second world war, also kind of a dark comedy. A-apparently it also captures the mindset of people involved in the military accurately'
>classmates are looking at me like I'm retarded or something
>teacher says 'oh... do you like war books?'
>awkwardly mumble 'no...' and the next person shares
>the rest of the year sucks

What were you like back in the day? When did you start to get into reading more than young adult stuff?

>> No.5397712

>reading Catch-22 as a 15 year old
How pretentious were you?

>> No.5397713

>>5397712
>not reading it as a 13 year old

>> No.5397716

>>5397713
I would think that a lot of it would go over a 13-15 year old's head

>> No.5397717

When my senior AP lit teacher assigned Jude the Obscure, Jane Eyre, and Inferno, among other actually good works.

>> No.5397720

>>5397712
It is that difficult a book ? I mean, you can read Moby Dick at 15, so why not Catch-22 ?

>> No.5397723

>German High School
>State requires us to read a few patrician works
>Old dude teacher says: "We'll read these later, first I want to get you into reading"
>Read:
>Lampe's Am Rande der Nacht
>Ransmayr's Die Letzte Welt
>Rosendorfer's Großes Solo für Anton
>Goethe's Faust I
>Undine
>Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts
>Oedipus
>Couple of short stories
>Poems: Prometheus, some Rilke

That dude was cool, even though he hated me for being a lazy, constantly stoned fuck. He had the weird propensity to interpret sex into everything:

>The sea caresses the coast line (in Taugenichts)
>yeah that's a metaphor for sex, can't you see
>Rats attack some swans (in Am Rande der Nacht)
>yeah that's a metaphor for rape - the rats with their naked tails are penises, the white swans are virginity
etc. pp.

It was good.

>> No.5397725

>>5397717
Was your teacher a boy or a girl?

>> No.5397726

>>5397712
Kolsti Nguyen was posting about DFW-style post-irony at like 13.

>> No.5397740

>>5397726

no one gives a fuck about your prepubescent ass just stop

>> No.5397754

>>5397704
>15
>first day of 9th grade
Did you fail a year?

>> No.5397762

>be in 8th grade english class, age 14 (a long time ago)
>had already reached the point where I could no longer write without thinking I was writing shitty stuff without meaning and depth, so I never wrote anything other than essays or reviews for fun
>had to write short story in class
>naturally take it super seriously and get anxious about creating something worthwhile
>end up writing this thing about a guy who wakes up late for work, and sees no one on his drive to work
>after getting to his office nobody is in the office at all, so he starts work
>but he starts to feel super anxious and nervous about nobody being around him, despite having never talked to anyone at his workplace to begin with (he wanted peace and quiet but now the lack of ambient noise was driving him insane, all that kind of shit)
>eventually has anxiety attack, story ends with a cheesy 'the next day...' epilogue where his boss and an employee are discussing what happened and it's revealed in a one liner at the end that the guy just went to work on Christmas
>super nervous about sharing it with the class
>do it anyway, turn it in
>get a B-, people in those peer edit things go 'it was okay, but it was way too confusing and weird'

Don't know why I still remember that. The one that the teacher liked the most seemed to be one about a kid finding out he was a magician and getting teleported to a fantasy land or something. I might be able to find my story if I look hard enough, I kept it despite being super embarrassed about it

>> No.5397765

>>5397723
He's right when it comes to Taugenichts

>> No.5397767

>>5397754
No, that's just how my district worked I guess. You could either be 14 or 15 at the start of 9th grade, with equal amounts of 14 and 15 year olds in each class. I got pretty good grades

>> No.5397769

I read "On the Genealogy of Morals" in eight grade, it took a while though.

>> No.5397771
File: 491 KB, 350x272, 1351846089540.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397771

>>5397704
>be 15 year old freshman in high school 6 years ago
> in high school 6 years ago
>6 years ago
For some reason, you listing how many years ago this event took place to show that you are now "an adult" makes me feel that you are underage b&

>> No.5397775

>>5397762
Oh god peer review destroyed me in Highchool

Most of my short stories were about people trekking across empty fields, or pulling infinitely long ropes out of the ocean

>> No.5397783
File: 332 KB, 1025x1206, parles vouz free pens.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397783

>teacher asks us to name our favorite book
>tell her mine is huckle berry finn
>fat black class mate calls me a racist
>teacher asks her what her favorite book is
>she replies that she's never read a book

>> No.5397788

>Teacher assigns short story assignment
>Write bullshit fantasy/final fantasy VIII crossover
>Can't remember any of it save for Shiva using some kind of ice spell or something
>Teacher makes me read it out in class, tells headmaster and he congratulates me on being an excellent author
>Eventually develop social skills and stop being such an autist,

Eventually.

>> No.5397793

>tfw looking back at all my old notebooks from when I was 12, just before I got into the permanent mindset that everything I write is shit

Jesus. I would take some pictures and just share it with you guys but that would be dumb. But there's some things in there that still make me cringe

>> No.5397796

>>5397793
do it fgt

>> No.5397798

>>5397793
do it. DO IT. we will laugh at you while commending you.

>> No.5397803

>>5397704
I used to sweat and blush all the time, even when people weren't looking at me. I'm still nervous around people, but not as violently

>> No.5397807

>Not english speaker
>books you're reading list for lit class
>teacher's like Oh, Anon, I assumed you'd know how to spell Shakespeare.
>stare at my writing
>maybe there's an extra a? extra e?
>why is the teacher being smug?
I think we read Agatha Christie that year, eventually that prof had a break down and cried in front of us, it was a forgettable experience all together.

>> No.5397808

>>5397723
Um he sounds right

>> No.5397812

>>5397712
that really isn't that out of the ordinary for an avid reader.

>> No.5397813

>>5397803
I remember that my health teacher in high school said that he used to have social anxiety as a teen, so he took basically made me, the awkward and anxious quiet kid, do tons of presentations, read aloud, all that shit.

It didn't fucking help, it probably made me feel even worse about myself. I still get a rush of adrenaline when someone calls my name

>> No.5397832
File: 13 KB, 165x165, 1371353567767.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397832

>>5397813
>walking by someone at college
>not sure if I should look them in the eye or smile
>just look away

>yesterday
>hanging out in the lounge
>someone gets the reference to my shirt
>"Thank...hahahah!"
>realize I didn't even finish thanks before laughing
>realize laughing didn't make sense
>assume she thinks I'm a retard

>> No.5397858
File: 36 KB, 135x113, 1380138573945.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397858

>>5397717
>Jude the Obscure
>actually good work

>> No.5397871

>>5397813
>extra attention
I hated that, whether it was a teacher hating me or wanting to help me be something they failed to be. I don't want everyone to hear my name most classes.

>> No.5397931
File: 300 KB, 720x960, IMG_1122.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397931

>>5397796
>>5397798
I'll translate it for you faggtrons

>The journey began simply. It began with average objects in a store, on shelves. Tom looked at the shelves, with interest, and examined an object, turning it over with his hands.

>"How much?" he asked the 400 year old man behind the counter. The man died on the spot after mumbling something about an incredible quest to kill an evil dark lord before the entire universe fell into oblivion .

>Tim shrugged, slapped a 20 on the counter, and ran out with the objects.

>The year was 4,000,000,000,000,002. Tim looked up at the starless sky, and briefly considered paying a visit to The black hole in the center of the planet, but then remembered the economy's state and began walking back to his car, parked at the edge of the planet. Giving a

I love how the main character's name fucking changes, not to mention that terrible economy thing that doesn't even make sense.

Should I dump the rest? I'm already embarrassed, know that I'm doing it for you guys. Just remember that I was 12 or younger when I wrote this, k?

>> No.5397944

>>5397931
Eh, I don't know. Something particularly weird happens? So far reads like a string of non sequiturs and cliches, like most stuff teens write.

>> No.5397951

>>5397704
I don't get it, what was the problem?

>> No.5397954
File: 254 KB, 720x960, IMG_1146.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5397954

>>5397931
next page

>breathtaking view of the star nebula, the intergalactic wasteland desert with some of the downright worst apartment buildings you may have the misfortune to see.
>Tim hopped into the ship and plugged in the AI. "Hello." it said.
>"Take me to the star nebula." Suddenly, something burst out laughing. "Ahh!" Tim yelped, flinching.
>The AI continued to chuckle. "Wait, wait. You actually want to go there!? To Star Nebula!? That place is just... I mean..."
>"Just go." Tim groaned, flicking on warp speed. "I need to meet up with the captain of war, and he bought dobermans to guard the apartments, so-"
>A nozzle slid from the massive keyboard and sprayed quite real coffee out from it (scolding hot) to best simulate a real chat. "Damn 4-D" he mumbled, wiping coffee from his long, messy hair

This is one of the few stories that I have absolutely no recollection of. Not really sure what's going on, or what will go on

>>5397944
not sure. It's probably just going to stay really boring, but I'm at least enjoying going through my shitty old stuff

>> No.5397958

>>5397717
>inferno
Which one? If it's Dan Brown 4/10 troll

>> No.5397963

>>5397954
>>5397931
seems like you actually had a tiny bit of self awareness and a sense of humour.

>> No.5397968

>>5397954
better than first page, but still just meh teen-writing core

>> No.5397979

>>5397712
It's easily grasped by a 15 year old. Anyone who likes reading should at least know that story in passing by then. I don't understand what's pretentious about being up to snuff on your reading.

>> No.5397995

I tried reading Atlas Shrugged when I was 15. I got about halfway through.
I didn't try to read a "serious work of literature" outside of class again until I was in college.

>> No.5398004

>>5397995
2deep4u?

>> No.5398007

>>5397931
>>5397954
Read like something a young Douglas Adams would write.

>> No.5398015

>>5397954
>but Im at least enjoying going through my shitty old stuff
Oh, if you're doing it for yourself go on. It won't be worse than the ironic poetry appreciation thread.

>> No.5398021

>>5397793
>>5397931
>>5397954
people sure do change in a year, don't they

>> No.5398029

>>5398021
Ouch.

>> No.5398032

>>5397704
>reading Clifford The Big Red Dog in freshman year of high school in Freshman year of high school
>teacher asks if I "find it a challenging read"
>say "I like red stuff" as a response

Got into AP English and a girl asked me out right there.

>> No.5398033

>>5398004
>Everyone who has X philosophy is extremely intelligent and attractive and sure of themselves
>Everyone who has the opposite philosophy is a nervous idiot who constantly gets shit on
It's not hard to figure out what it's trying to say.

>> No.5398538

>>5397954
>>5397931
This is fucking great.

>> No.5398544

>>5397712
i did this

my favorite book was also the book thief though, so i dunno where that puts me

>> No.5398548
File: 35 KB, 449x575, ss (2014-06-29 at 11.47.10).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5398548

>>5397931
>The year was 4,000,000,000,000,002.
10/10

>> No.5398939

>>5397783
You probably are a racist though. You sound a bit like one.

>> No.5398943

>>5397995
Is Atlas Shrugged a 'serious work of literature'? I'd kind of assumed it was a blatantly propagandistic screed that was only well known because it was heavily promoted by the American right...

>> No.5398953

>>5397712
Lmao how does someone like this even find the literature board

>> No.5398959

>>5397712
I gave a presentation in school about Ulysses when I was 14.
>tfw I realize how pretentious I must have seemed to my teacher

>> No.5398967

>>5398939
I think it's hilarious that expecting niggers to act like people is racist.

>> No.5399025

>>5397931
>>5397954

I don't know why you would be embarassed about this if you wrote it when you were 12, like other people said it shows a pretty good sense of humour.

>> No.5399073

>>5397793
>tfw can never forget all the cringe worthy shit that I did
>tfw get furious whenever I think of pre-highschool

>> No.5399087

I was actually really into postmodernism as a pretentious middleschooler (albeit in a vastly simplified form. 8th grade:
>had an autobiography assignment
>has to be a short description of your life plus some pictures
>mine ends up being written as a self-referential book review for my nonexistent biography
>"The Tale of Anon is a sordid biography about a boy born in ,,," etc etc
>on top of that, the ending recursively loops right back into the beginning
>PLUS its all written on a mobius strip

The writing itself was mediocre but I sure had style as a kid. I got an A for it at least.

>> No.5399180
File: 75 KB, 500x441, 1409728489402.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5399180

>>5397704
>tfw when I just did drugs and skipped classes until I was finished with "high school" and didn't read anything.
>Start with HST and moved onto Salinger, Stoker, Conan doyle, Dostoyevsky when I got bored with him.

>> No.5399243

>>5397931
>>5397954
You'd definitely been reading Hitchhiker's Guide. I vaguely remember writing similar stuff around that age.

>> No.5399462

>>5398959
I would like to see this face when

>> No.5399479

>>5397762
It doesn't sound half bad for a 14 year old.

I'd be worried if my children were written about a character this anxious, but it still seems pretty decent.

>> No.5399493

Tfw the last time i had to write a short story for class was in freshman year of HS and i wound up writing a kind of apocalypse now set in a fallout 3 style wasteland and the main character dies at the end
My teacher loved it
I've never even played a fallout game

>> No.5399508

I read Finnegan's Wake when I was two years old.
>Sit Kindergarten three years early because I'm a genius
>In class
>Teacher says "Now my little chicklets, it's quiet reading time, so go to the library and find a picture book and find a comfy place to sit!"
>I take Finnegan's Wake out of my bag
>Put on my reading glasses (There's nothing wrong with my eyesight, but even in my formative years I was aware of the value of simply looking intelligent)
>Kindergarten teacher comes over to me and says "oh my that's an awfully big book, what's it about?"
>"It's Finnegan's Wake, work of deceased Irish author, widely considered to be his magnum opus. But in my opinion he can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent."
>Everyone turns to me with wide eyes, stunned by my academic acumen
I had been fellated by every female in that room within an hour.

>> No.5400095
File: 297 KB, 720x960, IMG_1151.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5400095

>>5397954
IT FUCKING CONTINUES

>greasy hair. "You LIVE there?!" It tried to hold in a laugh and spit more coffee in his face. "You actually live there! HAHAHAHA-"
>He drew a pistol and shot a bullet through the screen. Its virtual face flickered out and the coffee stopped spraying.
>"Ahh,"he sighed, relaxing in his captain's chair stained with all kinds of smelly liquids and patched over until the patches needed patches. It had been a rental.
>His fingers flicked across the keyboard as he left the distant trading post resting on the gently turning asteroid.
>Part 1
>The ship eventually landed on a sand dune, actually made of stacked trash and animal carcasses. "Uhh" he shivered as he stepped on a squishy

>> No.5400107

>>5397931
>>5397954
>>5400095
god-tier, /lit/ should finish and edit this thing collectively and get it published

>> No.5400135

>>5397704
>classmates are looking at me like I'm retarded or something

No, they were looking at you like "This is the faggot that's going to remind the teacher to check the homework"

>> No.5400148

>>5400135
the funny thing is, the kids that normally did this were the really athletic, popular, and funny kids, who either did it ironically or were just legitimately honest people

Or that one guy with assburgers

>> No.5400156

>>5400095
Had you recently read the hitchhiker's guide?

>> No.5400165

>>5400156
Yeah

>> No.5400170

>>5397723
>rat's tails are dicks
>white swans are virginity
Swans are literally dick shaped.

>> No.5400184

>>5400148
I had one single "athletic alpha" kind classmate, very US style, and he ocassionally looked down on people when he felt smarter, many times over subjective topics where there was no "right" asnwer. I think it comes from a mixture of constant competition and being looked down themselves, so they have instant gratification when they feel the "won". Most people in my classes weren't such tools and knew that if you are nice with people they will be nice with you.

>> No.5400419

>>5397813
>tough love bullshit
I wish people got their heads out of their asses.

>> No.5401039

>reading young adult. ever.
It's like you faggots got dicks crammed in your mouth 24/7.
>be 7
>grandfather gives me Jack London's "Call of the Wild" first book I ever read.
>Find his copy of Siddartha, took like 2 hours finish.
>They had Steppenwolf at the school library.
>"What is a Nietzsche?"
>Buy Thus Spoke Zarathustra at used book store for $1.

>> No.5401057
File: 102 KB, 348x328, 55.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5401057

Your advanced English teacher had never heard of fucking Catch-22?

>> No.5401074

>>5397740
I care about prepubescent ass

>> No.5401104

>>5399087
Reminds of me a writing a assignment I had in middle school. We just had to write a short story about anything, so I covered the entire page, front-to-back, with the phrase, "The End."

The teacher failed me because she didn't understand my postmodern young soul and she made me write another story for homework to redeem my grade. So I wrote a 10 paged story about a failed writer or something like that and turned it in and she accused me of plagiarizing it.

Fucking bitch. I think she went on some charity trip to Africa or something recently. She's probably dying of Ebola now. Deserves it.

>> No.5401113

>>5397762
please expand. That could be an actually good story.

>> No.5401183

>>5401113
I actually just found it, it's a lot different than what I initially claimed.It actually isn't about the lack of ambient noise causing him trouble, rather just him noticing more of it, like I always did while writing stories back then.

http://pastebin.com/QYXvAA0x

>> No.5401200

>>5401183
Meh, it's alright. It seems pretty creative at least

>> No.5401208

>>5401057
It was lame af man

>> No.5401235
File: 992 KB, 500x356, n13d4S2.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5401235

A long time ago in 6 year I had a poem published by my English teacher at one of those young author conventions they held at the inter-district stadium

>mfw it was about suicide and killing myself after my uncle died
>mfw my writing was considered excellent
>mfw they thought i was just being poetic

thanks mr norris

>> No.5401240

>>5401104
Hal?

>> No.5401270

>>5401240
Nope.

>> No.5401315

>>5397712
I read Kafka, Faulkner, Hamsun, Delillo, Pynchon, and the like when I was 15.

I was very pretentious.

>> No.5401320

>>5397740
>no one gives a fuck about prepubescent ass
Do you know which Kyrgyzstani kabuki hypertext you're browsing?

>> No.5401322

How was your first day of freshman year OP?

It's a little tough at first, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it.

>> No.5401324

>>5401315
Kolsti?

>> No.5401331

>>5401322
You don't have to be mean

>> No.5401375

>>5400170
You must have a bizarrely shaped dick.

>> No.5401388

>>5401320
>Kyrgyzstani kabuki hypertext
10/10 masterful post

>> No.5401389

I read LotR when I was 11/12. My teachers were fucking shocked that I read and reread that 1300 page book every year. Personally I didnt feel like a genius. I think a 15 year old could read catch-22. A few things here n there would go over there but it wouldnt hamper em too much.

>> No.5401403

>>5401375
maybe you do and you don't know it

>> No.5401426

>be 15 years old
>apply to extended literature at high school
>nobody there likes books or anything art-related
>fall into depression
>fail the year
>have to be dragged through infinite loop of psychologists and counsellors due to awful student recovery system

your turn, /lit/

>> No.5401451
File: 9 KB, 251x201, imgres.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5401451

>>5397783
I love when people claim satire against slavery is racist.

>> No.5401491

>>5401057
Is Catch-22 literary canon? Im from germany, so the english teachers had never seemed to really care about books and instead each wanted to be the "cool teacher" and showed a bunch of movies to the class.
I remember writing an exam about something refrencing Catch-22. I thought it was a common english phrase, but someone asked the teacher what it ment and he said "I dont know, but its not important to understand the text".

Atleast we got to watch Deliverance, ZZ Top music videos and Full Metal Jacket

>> No.5401509

>>5401315
It seems strange to me. We had to read Kafka in sophomore highschool. Some of our friends had to read some Proust. It was considered normal. The student complained, but they would complain if they were asked to review Harry Potter.

On a side note, I was probably more prententious than you were.

>> No.5401552

>>5401509
Giving kafka to a 15 y/o sounds like a great way to make him think that there's nothing to that author, it would just pass over your head.
Or maybe I'm slower than you guys, I don't know.

>> No.5401563

>>5401552
>not having 139 IQ

>> No.5401567

>>5397704
So class, what's your favourite book?'
'Harry Potter'
'Harry Potter'
'Harry Potter'
'Th-the P-Pictur-... Harry Potter'

>> No.5401572

>>5401552
>Giving kafka to a 15 y/o sounds like a great way to make him think that there's nothing to that author, it would just pass over your head.

It's not nearly as arcane as /lit makes it out to be. People on this board tend to overstate the level of intelligence required to understand canonical books. We had to write a commentary on the Metamorphosis, and some of us made pretty good points (the teacher made an oral summary of the best ideas he read after grading our commentaries).

TL;DR: 15 years old are usually much smarter than the internet would make you suspect

>> No.5401579

>>5401572
From my experiences of other 15 year olds and having been a 15 year old myself, they're fucking idiots.

>> No.5401587

>>5401579
Fake it till you make it?

>> No.5401588
File: 468 KB, 1179x900, monkies.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5401588

>Be in Grade 8
>Short story "project"
>Didn't really know what to write so I wrote about this small village that gets invaded by "The Chinamen"
>All the people in the village are happy farming the fields
>"The Chinamen are coming! The chinamen are coming" One of the villagers cries out
>The Chinamen invade and force them all to wear stupid conical hats and instead of going to church they crawl on their hands and knees barking like dogs for 5 hours on sunday
>The villagers finally consult a wizard who comes down from the mountain
>The wizard yells "Now I will give all you DIABEETUS" and the Chinamen die
>Get taken to principle for it
>Parents come in and have to talk about what I wrote
>Parents don't really know what to say
>The student teacher thought it was hilarious

>> No.5401591

>>5401572
You can make a simple analysis of Kafka's work: It's about Gregor's alienation physically manifesting itself. It's about the changes we go through in life (Gregor and his sister).

But these kids aren't gonna be popping out unique arguments framing Kafka as political theology though.

>> No.5401592

>>5401579
They're prone to herd mentality, which tends to led to a lot of idiocy. But they are very resourceful when needed. A teenager than can't or won't half-ass his way out of an assignement will usually manage to handle it pretty cleverly.

What teenagers really lack is not intelligence but maturity. You don't need the latter to write wordy and somewhat interesting commentaries on Kafka.

>> No.5401593

>>5401579
not the guy you quoted, but I was pretty smart at 15

at 13 I was maybe kind of silly with some outstanding ideas and skills, but still silly, but at 15 it was all brilliance, depression and superiority

>> No.5401598

>>5397704
I used to bring Dune and Necronomicon into school.
Now I carry Aquinas or Aristotle for example, I'm even more pretenciouss.

>> No.5401612

I remember trying to read Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac in the cafeteria in high school and my friends making a ton of ball sack jokes about Balzac's name. I thought it was pretty funny too, to be honest.

>> No.5401618

>>5401572
It's not that Kafka is too obtuse or that kids are stupid, it's just that certain parts of what makes him different as a writer (things like tone or his context) will be lost to a kid who will turn on the gamestation as soon as he puts down the book. There are certain things that go beyond intelligence or complexity and depend on personal experience.
They'll come out either thinking that he's the norm among a type of writer, or a lot of points will fly over their heads as it happens with some adults. And again, it could be with kafka or many other authors. I remember reading Borges at that age and re reading him again is a completely different experience.

>> No.5401653

>>5401592
15yo can vouch for the herd mentality. Sit with 12yo girls an the bus with other 15yo boys, we act like the girls all the way home.

>> No.5401660

>>5401618
http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-07-0059612.pdf

This is a good explanation of what happens to literary works in educational settings.

>> No.5401665

>7th grade
>write a shitton of poetry in separate sheets of paper but never show it to anybody
>am to scared to show them to anyone, I am kind of a shy guy
>lose one my sheets
>find out a week later it is published in the school journal accounted to a classmate
>that feeling sucked

>> No.5401706

>>5401665
>7th grade
ok
>write a shitton of poetry in separate sheets of paper but never show it to anybody
ok
>am to scared to show them to anyone, I am kind of a shy guy
np
>lose one my sheets
w-wait what, did you carry them in your bag or whatever it was?

>> No.5401710

>>5401618
>It's not that Kafka is too obtuse or that kids are stupid, it's just that certain parts of what makes him different as a writer (things like tone or his context) will be lost to a kid who will turn on the gamestation as soon as he puts down the book.

There's always a risk for something to be lost. But if you need to wait until you're mature enough to read a challenging book, chances are you will never reach that point (because in order to mature as a reader you need to read challenging books). "Misunderstanding" complex books is not a sin, it's part of the life of a reader. I don't see anything wrong with starting when you're a teenager.


>I remember reading Borges at that age and re reading him again is a completely different experience.

As Borges himself said, what matters is not to read, but to reread. Yet in order to reread you need to read first, so perhaps it's not bad to read a lot of things at young age.

I should add that it's funny you mention a gamestation, because when I was reading Metamorphosis, my sisters were playing Tetris, and I to me it seemed the music of Tetris perfectly expressed the essence of the story, the obsessive sad little sound echoing the mechanical, indifferent workings of a world impervious to compassion, but with a sad resignation in the background. I felt Samsa's fate was logical, as if the Metamorphosis was some sort of proof, and that in the end the story left us with that double fatality: that this world relentless moves along the rails of narrow interest, and that the fate of those grinded in the process, though irrelevant and inevitable, can only sadden the careful observer. To this day I can't hear someone playing Tetris without thinking about how Samsa never stood (and shouldn't have stood) a chance.

>> No.5401713

>7th grade
>reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas in class
>assignment: who is most honorable character
>Hate all characters, even the kids are dumbasses
>make headcanon about dad
>pretends to hate Jews to protect family from nazis
>wrte about him
>teacher thinks me a neonazi, starts noticing when i tell jew jokes
>decide t shut her up
>write awesome pandering report about jews and the holocaust
>email to her
>she never brings it up again

>> No.5401718

>>5401706
Yeah, I used to write a lot during classes.

>> No.5401720

>>5401718
I cant imagine myself being in mood for writing during classes, Im jealous.

>> No.5401727

>>5401665
holy cow
thats fucked

>> No.5401732

>>5401618
i mean, you can check the kafka thread right now and a shit ton of people shit on him for the most stupid reasons. you wouldn't have that if he weren't constantly regarded as a must read, and nothing is a must read.

>> No.5401740

>>5401732
I think people taking bureaucracy as the actual thing that the trial is about is the main issue with kafka being criticized

oh /lit/, how can all of these ppl in Kafka thread take his work literally, how[/spoiler[

>> No.5401746

>>5401710
That's a really cute conection, man. No irony intended.
I just feel that there are shit ton of writers that you could be getting into at a young age and you'd apreciate. Starting with kafka and then reading american realism, for example, is skipping emotional steps that there's no reason to skip. A teenager will related way more to hemingway or kerouac, and if he keeps reading he will visit those authors, why not at an age when he will deal more or less okay with them?

>> No.5401757

>>5401732
This is 4chan. People will shit on any author for the sake of trolling, having a different opinion, casting their own personal taste as educated assessment of a writer's quality and sometimes even out of genune well-informed dislike.

It's not really a good measure of what teenagers think about Kafka. And you need to remember that about 80% students in an average HS literature class will dislike the material and be bored. So they will shit on whatever authors they were assigned, which, if we were to take their opinion as guidelines for designing course, would lead us to stop studying books altogether;

Let's add that none of this is really an argument against teaching Kafka every once in a while in HS, which is precisely what happened in the personal-life example I was using.

>> No.5401772

>>5401720
really? Not the guy you're responding to but in my Irish classes in my last 2 years of school the teacher pretty much understood I was fluent and always gave me a seat in the back of the class by myself where I'd just write and stare out the window

dem were the days man

>> No.5401780

>>5401746
>That's a really cute conection, man. No irony intended.

I expected "weird" or "autistic", but not "cute". That caught me off guard.
But seriously, it's incredible how Tetris as a sad music when you listen really to it. It's like your phone is singing "you're trapped in this 2-dimensional world forever and there aren't that many rules to play around with" to you.

>I just feel that there are shit ton of writers that you could be getting into at a young age and you'd apreciate.

Well, that's a fair point, but keep in mind that a small minority of student will learn from every challenge you give them, while the majority won't care wether the author is difficult or not.
Actually, that's a bit stereotypical, teenager who aren't into reading will like or dislike an author for a variety of sometimes surprising reasons ("that machiavelli sounds like a pretty crazy nigga, I dig that").

> A teenager will related way more to hemingway or kerouac, and if he keeps reading he will visit those authors, why not at an age when he will deal more or less okay with them?

Usually, by sophomore highschool you have had perhaps two dozen books assigned to you since middle school, perhaps more. That's plenty of room for Hemingway or Kerouac.

I should have mentioned that I studied in France, and the A-level in French are taken at the end of sophomore highschool. So for most of us it was pretty much the last year where we would get to study literature. If we hadn't got to Kafka at that point, we would never have gotten to him later.

>> No.5401781

>>5401757
Oh, no, wait, I'm not against any decent author being taught at school. I had to read Agata Christie in HS and a self help book, trust me, I rather have most of my mates shit on something I love than go through that again.
But I don't really think teens hate reading because reading is reading. They hate because teachers don't give a fuck and they can't motivate them to read a book if they aren't interested in being there. In my experience teens are incredibly interested in everything, but they already have the tv to tell them what they want and it's too easy, you have to put some effort when you have an actual oponent. But a lot of professors feel their students should into everything because they are students or some shit like that, as if they weren't having 8 daily hours of indoctrination. If you chose your materials and sell them correctly you can get kids to do pretty much anything.

>> No.5401783

>>5401772
damn, that's juicy

Wish I could get to try such condition sometime

>> No.5401789

>>5401783
>tfw translating Irish rebel songs by anonymous IRA men from the 17th century into English then trying to put them into heroic verse and ballad form for fun

god I miss school now

>> No.5401793

>>5401789
hnnnnng

>> No.5401802

Don't pretend like you're out of school yet.

>> No.5401838

>>5401802
I used to worry that people would notice that I was barely legal when I started browsing and now I'm ashamed they will now how old I am without having achieved anything.

>> No.5401854

>>5401838
Kolsti, Patrician and Tallis are/were all underage.

>> No.5401970

>>5401740
/lit/ has below zero reading comprehension, either they see a work at face value only or they read way too much into things with muh allegosymbolism.