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/lit/ - Literature

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7236244 No.7236244 [Reply] [Original]

What piece of literature would you say you lost your virginity to? The first one to make you look up from the page and stare blankly into space re-evaluating everything you know. The first one to show you that stories can be not just entertaining or stimulating, but profound. In poetry Barfield describes something similar as a felt change in consciousness, when ordinary consciousness is shed like an old garment and one sees in a new and strange light. "the momentary apprehension of the poetic by the rational, into which the former is forever transmuting itself--which it is itself for ever in process of becoming. . . . This is the very moonlight of our experience . . . "

>> No.7236249

>>7236244
The Holy Quraan.

>> No.7236258

>>7236244
When I read the Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel and for a brief moment saw the dialectical self-movement of Der Begriff

>> No.7236369
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7236369

Siddhartha

>> No.7236375

>>7236244
crime and punishment

>> No.7236382

Waiting for Godot, then there was War and Peace, Blood Meridian, To The Lighthouse, and Paradise Lost.

>> No.7237046

The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
I looked up from the pages and said to myself, "Wow, I think I'm really gay. Thanks Oscar Wilde."

>> No.7237067

gospel of luke

>> No.7237069

>>7237046
How dense do you have to be to only realize you're super gay when you get to Wilde

>> No.7237071

>>7236375
Fucking why

>> No.7237075

When I was in high school I pretty much only read Stephen King and YA stuff, but then one day I picked up The Road at a used book store because i thought it was postapocalyptic science fiction. Then immediately after that I read Blood Meridian and it just blew my fucking mind. I can distinctly recall sitting in the back of my English classroom reading the last page of the book and just staring into space for several minutes feeling like I'd been through some horrible war.

>> No.7237085

Dune is why I decided to become a god.

>> No.7237090

>>7236244
Prometheus Rising.

>> No.7237113

>>7236244
Moby Dick.
I read it when I was 12, and it blew my mind how many directions a piece of writing could go while remaining coherent. I'd basically read for entertainment before that, but Moby Dick got me interested in literature on a more adult level.

>>7237090
Prometheus Rising is good, but I think the process of leaving Christianity prompted me to investigate a lot of its main points, so it was more of a clear statement of things I knew less clearly.

>>7237071
He's probably a Christposter. Let it go.

>>7237067
I hope you get in touch with yourself some day and stop leaning on the gospel.

>> No.7237119

>>7236244
edgar allan poe's poetry

and for the exact feeling you describe, The Road by McCarthy. But Poe was the first piece of lit that fucking blew my pants off.

>> No.7237132
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7237132

>>7236244
Thus Spake Zarathustra. It's odd, because I didn't understand vast parts of it, but as I was reading it I just felt a rush, way too much like pic related, except it was thundering and storming all around.

The profound in lyricism/poetry was To The Lighthouse for me. But then I have a ''damn..'' moment with almost every book I read.

>> No.7237139

>>7237119
Also the road for me

I'm not proud (or ashamed) of this, but when I finished the road I curled up into a fetal position and sobbed

And that's when I realized I have daddy issues

>> No.7237140

>>7236244
IDK i've pretty much always been impressed.
But probably the metamorphosis when I was like 11

>> No.7237144

>>7237140
I wouldn't worry about that. My dad's about as loving and all-around perfect as you can hope for, but I want to cry every time he says he's proud of me, as if I'd never heard it before.

>> No.7237149

The Collector by John Fowles. It broke the mold to me, because of the way that the story is structured. Also the implications of the end.

It isn't the most impressive "cherry popper", but I loved the book, especially as a high schooler.
I still need to reread it.

>> No.7237158

The Giver and Snicket's work

As far as children's intro lit goes, they're the ultimate cherry popper.

They're one of the only books set in a dystopia, focus on abstract themes a kid wouldn't otherwise be thinking about, both have legitimate twists, and both proudly wear an ambiguous ending with room for meaningful interpretation.

Liking them are the guaranteed telltale signs a kid is going to grow up to love reading, all other children lit is shit tier and tells you nothing.

>> No.7237166

>>7237085
Fucking this.

Dune turned my entire worldview and philosophy upside down, inside out, bent and folded it an infinite number of ways, and re arranged it into a beautiful, sinister crystal.

Herbert is the last and only true futurist

>> No.7237185

As a kid The Magician's Nephew.

In high school Brave New World.

In university the Upanishads.

>> No.7237187

Paradise Lost. I saw all my follies.

>> No.7237262

>What piece of literature would you say you lost your virginity to?
Moby-Dick. Lol. But really, when I read it in high school, it totally changed my perception of books and what they can really be. For poetry specifically, it was probably Ode on a Grecian Urn.

>> No.7237266

Humbert Humbert popped mine, and I didn't mind. It just opened my eyes to what literature could accomplish, what one can to with it and get from it. Aside from that Being and Nothingness shed all of my juvenile 'hiding spots'.

>> No.7237275

>>7236244

Love in the Time of Cholera.

>> No.7237285

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

>> No.7237307

>>7236244
I read Naked Lunch in high school and it was so starkly unique from anything that I had read before that I spent hours trying to figure out just what the fuck I read. That was also what inspired me to try writing as a hobby

>> No.7237314

blood meridian

i still have papercuts from fucking it so hard

>> No.7237318

>>7236244

The Master and Margarita

>> No.7237348
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7237348

Blood Meridian was the first book I read that wrung me out entirely and made me sit staring up at my ceiling just wondering about things I could not quite grasp.

>> No.7237354

The Bible.

>> No.7237357

the castle

>> No.7237361
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7237361

Hector and The Search for Happiness, it made me rethink my whole perception of the world.

>> No.7237367

The Brothers Karamazov

My favorite for a reason- it made me think more than any other piece of lit

>> No.7237368

The gist of Nietzsche's works through internet articles summarizing his works

Also The Ego and it's Own

>> No.7237401

I just recently started reading but 1984 is the book that got me interested in taking literature seriously. But on the basis that I had never identified so heavily with a character in a book before and a lot of what was detailed in the book I already believed or suspected about the world. So I suppose if the book has to challenge your views then none. Ironically I feel that one of the implications of 1984 is the danger of only listening to what you agree with.

>> No.7237422

Capital, and I actually lost my virginity shortly after I started getting it. I remember I even started bring up stuff from it with my bf in bed, but he just kept pretending to be interested. he really wasn't

>> No.7237429

>>7237422
>he really wasn't
lol, poor baby

>> No.7237783
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7237783

>> No.7238304

Ishmael

>> No.7238312

>>7236244
>The first one to make you look up from the page and stare blankly into space re-evaluating everything you know.
Were you assraped as a kid or something? That sounds like a terrible first time.

>> No.7238316

>>7236244
Atlas Shrugged if I'm going to be honest.

>> No.7238995

>>7237275
Amen.

The first work that really blew my mind with symbolism and taught me that analysis could be fun was Revolutionary Girl Utena; the first work that really got me was the Epic of Gilgamesh. I was doing research for a mythology project and I read it and 14-year old me was just taken aback by how raw it was; Gilgamesh's assholery is replaced by love of Enkidu is replaced by fear of death is replaced by passive-aggressive bitterness as he waits for death. There's something visceral there, and I felt it.

>> No.7239574

Aeneid

>> No.7239600

the sound and the fury

>> No.7239617

>>7236244
I was reading The Sickness Unto Death while losing my actual virginity if that counts

>> No.7239621

Moby Dick.

I wasn't much of a reader at all, but I was at the book store looking for a how-to book and happened to see Moby Dick on the shelf and thought why the hell not, I'm up for a challenge. At first I was really struggling but then the words just seemed to flow and I really enjoyed it. I immediately read it a second time and something just clicked and I've been an avid reader ever since.

>> No.7239623

>>7236244
Of Mice and Men

I hated doing it in school but one day I read it all without stopping and the barn scene with Crooks,Candy and Lenny was comfy. It was strange liking a book that I fucking hated.

>> No.7239627
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7239627

>>7237422

>> No.7239713

Catch 22. I couldn't get enough of it.

>> No.7239836

>>7239627
i'm not gay

>> No.7239847

>>7239836
girls aren't welcome either

>> No.7239861

>>7239836

you'll never pick a smart boyfriend out.

>> No.7240293

>>7236244
Ode to Psyche by John Keats

>> No.7240296

anna karenina, definitely

>> No.7240368

>>7237158
I never finished A series of unfortunate events.

I stopped at The Slippery Slope.

I should probably reread and finish it.

>> No.7240381
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7240381

>> No.7240418

>>7237132
This tbh

>> No.7240488

Twilight

>> No.7240527

>>7237113
obvious b8

>>7237071
what is your beef?

>> No.7240539

>>7237113
And I tip my fedora to you good sir.

>> No.7240564

I used to read a lot when I was a kid, and sometimes it was stuff slightly more mature. I had read a bit of the Bible, but the one that really made me realise the power of the word, so to speak, was The Stranger when I was 16yo.

>>7237071
What do you mean with 'why'? Have you even read C&P?
The book is 1/3's filled with lengthy expositions on morality and human nature. Even if you disagree with his views, his religious pathetic tone, you are bound to 'discuss' (i.e., meditate) with its author.

>> No.7240569

>>7236244
The awakening: Catch-22
The distillation- The Opening of Underworld

>> No.7240586

kafka: give it up

>> No.7240595

Book of the New Sun did it for me. I'd been constantly reading pretty much my whole life but rarely branched out from science fiction. Book of the New Sun was the first time I just had to stop and marvel at the beauty of the words. It was when I realized that there was more to writing than story. Then later I read Lolita.
New Sun was like my first date with literature, Lolita was losing my virginity. The analogy is apt too, because honestly literature is the only thing that can trump sex for most important thing in my life. I always enjoyed that Huxley quote, an intellectual is someone whose found something more interesting than sex.

>> No.7240631

>>7236244
Had a taste of that when I read fahrenheit 451 as a freshman but I'm hoping to pop the proverbial cherry with Dante's Inferno this weekend once I wrap up this sci-fi short from the 50s.

>> No.7240657

The Bucket Rider by Franz Kafka

>> No.7241013

The Stranger, Albert Camus just speaks to me.

>> No.7241035

>>7236244
to the lighthouse made me depressed (or probably just brought about latent feelings of depression) because it made me realize everything was ephemeral

>> No.7241056

Ethan Frome

>> No.7241197
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7241197

>>7236244
Battle Royale
from the end:
"In other words, everyone ends up concluding, you can't trust anyone, right? Which would extinguish any hope of uniting and forming a coup d'etat against the government, hm?"

>> No.7241218

Probably 'the analysis of hte self, a systematic approach to narcissistic personality disorders, by Heinz Kohut

Hits 2 close to home, homies

>> No.7241233

>>7236244
>losing your virginity = life changing epiphany

Never change, normies

>> No.7241253

>>7236244
I read a lot of books when I was younger (7-12). Never classics, mostly young adult stuff combined with popular literature like Clive cussler, Ian Fleming, eye.
So I can't say for certain what was the first work to make me think that.
Two books stand out to me though.
"Lord of the deep," and, "The Highest Tide."
Both kind of had to do with growing up, responsibility, family, etc. At the time they hit me pretty hard.
On an alternate note.
The first book to freak me out was, "Dr. franklins island." Had some minor body horror in parts and being a 10 year old reading through the novel it scared the shit out of me. Couldn't put it down though.

Now as for books I've read as, "an adult." Basically since I picked up reading for myself at the end of my senior year, the book that has stuck with me the most is, "Shadow of the Wind."
I love the prose, mystery, setting, etc.
It's a pulpy historical fiction mystery story with hints of romance but with the most beautiful prose I've ever read (in my opinion).
And this is a translated work (from Spanish.)
I've actually recently come back to it and am attempting to read it in Spanish. My Spanish isn't great so I'm proceeding slowly but I'm enjoying it.

>> No.7241255
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7241255

Your mom's Diary OP

>> No.7241607

Probably 1984, I read it when I was 17, I had been reading since I was 9 mostly fantasy with the occasional exception. That was the first book that really made me think holy fuck!

>> No.7241635
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7241635

Behead All Satans

It's the book that promises to be gentle until you don't want it to be.

>> No.7241639

>>7241635
Did you publish this? I just noticed this book keeps popping up in threads randomly and it just seems like one lone shill.