/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7789187]

In a recent interview he was asked, "And literature is written to be entertaining?" to which he replied emphatically, "Absolutely. My God, to read without joy is stupid."

[Anonymous No.7789197]

honestly if literally anyone else said that you wouldn't have made this thread. What's the big deal anyway? Why give so much attention to him

[Anonymous No.7789208]

he's right

[Anonymous No.7789215]

>>7789208
literature is meant to be a means of self-expression

whether or not the reader is entertained is up to them.

[Anonymous No.7789235]

>>7789187
I mean, aside from educating yourself, taking up a book without joy IS, from the vast majority of philosophical standpoints, stupid.

>>7789215
>literature is meant to be
Go fuck yourself.

[Anonymous No.7789245]

>>7789187

What is it with people today overrating shit like "joy" or "fun"?

[Anonymous No.7789255]

>>7789187
>In a recent interview he was asked, "And your literature is written to be entertaining?" to which he replied emphatically, "Absolutely. My God, to read it without joy is stupid."--->FIXED

[Anonymous No.7789501]

>>7789197
99% chance he didn't say this. ""My god" doesn't sound like a Green thing to say

[Anonymous No.7789506]

just stop making threads about the reddit author

[Anonymous No.7789551]

>>7789187
You all took the bait, my god, you all took the bait.

this is John Williams you fuckbags

[Anonymous No.7789556]

In a recent interview he was asked, "And philosophy is written to be entertaining?" to which he replied emphatically, "Absolutely. Mien Gott, to philosophize without joy is stupid."

[Anonymous No.7789567]

>>7789235
calm down you autist

just drop the meant to be, and the sentence retains the exact same meaning

[Anonymous No.7789574]

>>7789551
Well this is literally every thread w/ a quote and a JG face, i.e. it's not him saying it. People actually taking the bait must be new.

[Anonymous No.7790382]

>>7789556
Masterful.

[Anonymous No.7790397]

>Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.
what did he mean by this?

[Anonymous No.7790418]

>>7789556

[Anonymous No.7790424]

>>7789197
>if literally anyone else said that you wouldn't have made this thread
In your eagerness to be the enlightened one who corrects other people's reactive behaviour, you have overlooked the obvious and made yourself look foolish. It is you, then, who is the reactive and judgmental blunderer. It is a very ironical turn of events.

[Anonymous No.7790435]

>>7789187

Reminder that "fun" includes catharsis, and that you reread tragedies because you enjoy reading them. John Green is right, regardless of how low an opinion you might have of his novels.

[Anonymous No.7790436]

There's a difference between entertainment in the intellectual sense as a triumph over life, and a cheap commoditized version of it within life. Unfortunately the latter is more common type, and the type that idiots who ask that sort of question without making the necessary aforementioned distinction mean. Good writers know this and just humor the asker.

By the way, the person whom OP is quoting is John Edward WIlliams, better known as the author of Stoner.

[Anonymous No.7790443]

>>7790435
this

[Anonymous No.7790452]

>>7790435
>John Green
OP isn't quoting Green, he just makes these types of threads probably because he's angry at how much he is, rightfully, disliked around here. Probably angry that /lit/erari are elitist, even though elitism is a good thing.

[EpicKid No.7790480]

>>7789187
If you don't enjoy reading you are a sub human so it's a trick question to weed out the plebs.

[Anonymous No.7791015]

>>7789187
haha it's funny cause that's actually a John Williams quote

Can't wait for the next fresh-off-the-/b/oat lit memelord to delive a fresh gaggle of giggles with the latest and dankest Greenmeme

[Anonymous No.7791021]

>>7789245
That's the 21st century

People want sex and "fun", and are constantly obsessed with it, while ignoring knowledge.

[Anonymous No.7791058]

>>7789187
Shit thread. You're part of why /lit/ is shit. Die in a fire.

[Anonymous No.7791073]

>>7790418
please be real.

[Anonymous No.7791076]

>>7791073
that's totally real

[Anonymous No.7791088]

>>7790397
Is that Nabokov? Sounds like him.

[Anonymous No.7791249]

>>7789187
Dislike him. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up. A nonentity, means absolutely nothing to me. Awful.

[Anonymous No.7791250]

>>7790397
>>7791088
it's fucking james joyce lol

[Anonymous No.7791271]

>>7791021
these goddamn people... I swear... fucking people....

[Anonymous No.7791279]

>>7790418
I'm finally starting to understand why /lit/ likes this guy so much now

[Anonymous No.7791313]

>>7789187
Oh yeah, god forbid we're getting bored and start to think for ourselves just because there's nothing else to do.

[Anonymous No.7791437]

>>7789187
>>7789501
He didn't. It's a quote from John D. Williams.

[Anonymous No.7791445]

>>7790424
whoops, you got me, now what's the next step of your master plan?

[Anonymous No.7791843]

“Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But you, my friends, you found another way: a way to use the pain. To burn it as fuel, for light and warmth. You have learned to break the world that has tried to break you.”

[Anonymous No.7791862]

"Words build bridges into unexplored regions."

[Anonymous No.7791899]

>>7791862
What a cuck

[Anonymous No.7791941]

>It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.
what did she mean by this?

[W No.7791956]

>>7791862
That dude is a fucking idiot. Does he not understand biology or evolutionary psychology?

[Anonymous No.7791958]

>>7791956
Please elaborate my friend.

[Anonymous No.7792104]

>>7790435
He isn't talking about fun though, he specifically used the term joy. I don't think the author wants you to be joyful when reading a tragedy.

The entertainment of reading can be found in any book, but I think it's clear the argument is being framed as "a book must be fun, with jokes, and a happy ending." If you watch a tragedy where the main character continually fucks up until his life is ruined and he dies, it isn't a happy story, but you can still be happy because you learned a lesson from it and didn't suffer like the main character did.

[Anonymous No.7792107]

>>7791862
I got The Fault in Our Stars from a Reddit book exchange and I'm really surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. Generally I'm not a fan of adolescent fiction, I hated The Hunger Games, especially Katniss, but he really captures that exciting teen new crush feeling amazingly well. I'm kind of reveling in it. Glad to see that he's also a sex positive role model as well as a talented author.

[Anonymous No.7792113]

>>7789235
>taking up a book without joy IS, from the vast majority of philosophical standpoints, stupid
The problem is that he implied that it needs to be entertaining to be joyful. Joy≠entertainment.

[Anonymous No.7792146]

>>7791862
He probably posturing, but there's a good chance he truly hasn't ever given the importance of a female's sexual partner number much thought.

For all ya'll unaware, it's frowned upon in every culture and time period because greater number of sexual partners=greater chance of getting STD's or getting cucked.

[Anonymous No.7792187]

>>7792113
Autistic pedantics≠a valid point

[Anonymous No.7792213]

I agree with it to an extent. Information can and should be enjoyable, just not in the sense of the connotation attached to "entertaining."

[Anonymous No.7792321]

>>7791956
>evolutionary psychology
hahahaahahahaha

[Anonymous No.7792436]

>"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration."

What did he mean by this?

[Anonymous No.7792452]

>>7792436
He is trying to say fuck IKEA.

[Anonymous No.7792454]

>>7792436
This is the genius artistic virtue he used to craft masterworks like the one where the two teenagers in love both get cancer

[Anonymous No.7792457]

>>7792436
he's trying to say poets are faggots

[Anonymous No.7792469]

>>7792436

>Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

[Anonymous No.7792482]

>>7792321

it's like I never left le reddit XD

[Anonymous No.7792498]

>>7792482
lmao :DD

[Anonymous No.7792545]

Where were you when John Green won the nobel prize of literature and was finally recognized as one of the greatest writers the world has ever seen?

[Anonymous No.7792552]

>>7792545
>white male winning the nobel prize

lol unless he writes a book about the holocaust it ain't gonna happen buddy

[Anonymous No.7792566]

>>7792552
>Tell me more about it, anon.

[Anonymous No.7792597]

>>7789187
He is absolutely correct. How could he not be? To read for anything but entertainment isn't just stupid -- it's pretty much impossible.

[Anonymous No.7792616]

>>7792566
>jose.jpg

latino author is given an award, and this disproved my point how?

[Anonymous No.7792741]

>>7792616
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature

too many white males actually

[Anonymous No.7792777]

>>7791021
>implying it hasn't always been that way

[Anonymous No.7792802]

>It's another take-a-quote-from-an-author-/lit/-likes-and-misattribute-it-to-john-green-so-they-shit-on-it-after-which-the-OP-can-smugly-point-out-their-mistake-and-expound-on-how-misguided-it-is-to-hate-who-he-thinks-is-the-most-relevent-author-of-our-time-except-that-nearly-no-one-falls-for-it-because-john-green's-brand-of-youtube-kids-horseshit-is-so-awful-that-it's-intantly-recognizable-and-OP-is-probably-actualy-john-green-or-least-a-huge-fag thread

[Anonymous No.7792817]

>>7792802
I heard the Crash Course series on philosophy was actually okay. Is that true?

[Anonymous No.7792835]

>>7792817
it's a 'crash course' i.e. literally made to dumb it all down. ignore every thing.

[Anonymous No.7792839]

>>7792741
>too many white males

Go to hell.

[Anonymous No.7792846]

>>7792817
>Crash course
>Philosophy
Killing philosophy 101

[Anonymous No.7792852]

>>7792107
I felt sorry (you) didn't have any replies.

[Anonymous No.7792882]

>>7792107
I read it because I wanted to hate the guy, it's not complete garbage - however, it's not anything amazing. As a youth novelist he's pretty uninspiring.

I recently read The Magicians by Lev Grossman and as adolescent fiction it kicks the fucking shit out of anything JG has written.

[Anonymous No.7792888]

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world and DFTBA!"

[Anonymous No.7792933]

"Online harassment, especially gendered online harassment, is an epidemic. Women are being driven out; they're being driven offline. This isn't just in gaming. This is happening across the board online, especially with women who participate in or work in male-dominated industries."

[Anonymous No.7792974]

>>7792888
he's a pretty good looking guy desu

[Anonymous No.7792999]

"In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation."

Well, don't say that he doesn't have any good ideas, though.

[Anonymous No.7793220]

>>7792974
Don't be gay

[Anonymous No.7793223]

>>7792888
have you been playing civ 5?

[Anonymous No.7793255]

>"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

What was the absolute madman thinking?

[Anonymous No.7793584]

>>7792933
>they're being driven offline
What a fucking tragedy. I can't imagine being a poor soul who has to live in real life.

[Anonymous No.7793605]

>>7792999
>typical deconstructionist drivel you would expect from a stoned college kid
>worth anyone's time

[Anonymous No.7793730]

>"It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower is to bloom."

[Anonymous No.7793757]

"When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Nigger."

[Anonymous No.7793777]

I liked his description of depression of one of the characters in TFiOS, though.


>‘I wanted to just stop being conscious. I’m a whole different type. I wanted to stop feeling this way. If I could have just put myself in a really long coma I would have done that. Or given myself shock I would have done that. Instead.’

[Anonymous No.7793778]

>>7790418
>>7789556
>>7791279

Where should I start if I want to read Zizek?

Specifically written by Zizek

[Anonymous No.7793797]

>>7793777
That's a very unimpressive description of depression. Mark Z. Danielewsky did it better in House of Memes.

[Anonymous No.7793873]

>>7793797
Well, maybe, but it's just one sentence, it probably doesn't convey that well. Here's some more: >I don’t know what I could call it. It’s like I can’t get enough outside it to call it anything. It’s like horror more than sadness. It’s more like horror. It’s like something horrible is about to happen, the most horrible thing you can imagine — no, worse than you can imagine because there’s the feeling that there’s something you have to do right away to stop it but you don’t know what it is you have to do, and then it’s happening, too, the whole horrible time, it’s about to happen and also it’s happening, all at the same time.’

Also, oy vey, it's the arachno-green!

[Anonymous No.7794124]

hi leddit

[Anonymous No.7794134]

>>7793777
>>7793873
that's infinite jest you loser

[Anonymous No.7794147]

>"My book (Paper Towns), in a way, is asking who is speaking to these people. Is it the writer who traditionally thought he could influence the imagination of his contemporaries or is it the totalitarian leader, the military man, the terrorist, those who are twisted by power and who seem capable of imposing their vision on the world, reducing the earth to a place of danger and anger. Things have changed a lot in recent years. One doesn't step onto an airplane in the same spirit as one did ten years ago: it's all different and this change has insinuated itself into our consciousness with the same force with which it insinuated itself into the visions of Beckett or Kafka"

[Anonymous No.7794242]

>"By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise."

[Anonymous No.7794289]

>>7789187
>"to read without joy is stupid."

[Anonymous No.7794725]

He seems very quotable

[Anonymous No.7794795]

>he replied emphatically, "Absolutely. My God, to eat cheerios without a dozen dicks is stupid."
What did he by this?

[Anonymous No.7795057]

>>7794134
Oh, silly me, how could I confuse the two. Also, no one appreciated my PS work. Urging everyone to do so.

[Anonymous No.7795648]

>>7794725
Look at all those marvelous quotes. He is truly a genius.

[Anonymous No.7795948]

>>7792436
That poets don't know how to construct stories and instead use tons of fluff to write.

[Anonymous No.7796644]

>>7794795

[Anonymous No.7796967]

[Anonymous No.7796981]

>>7794795
He meant exactly what he said.

[Anonymous No.7797130]

why is he such a genius /lit/?

[Anonymous No.7797139]

>>7795057
oh fuck off

[Anonymous No.7797180]

I literally just watched TFIOS, and it was not good.

[Anonymous No.7797238]

>>7791941
Don't trust things that fuck us over.

[Anonymous No.7797348]

>>7791445
Crashing this thread

[Anonymous No.7797368]

Could you imagine being his wife? I think I'd kill mysel.f

[Anonymous No.7797464]

>>7797368
Nah, you'd just keep on cucking him

[Anonymous No.7797619]

>>7797464
He'd probably get off on it.

[Anonymous No.7797621]

>>7794282
People like this need to kill themselves.

[Anonymous No.7797627]

>>7797621
HelloReddit

[Anonymous No.7798095]

>>7793778
The Sublime Object of Ideology

[Anonymous No.7798681]

>>7797627
Hi

[Anonymous No.7798736]

Whenever I see his face, he reminds me of this story.