1. Most of the people here haven't read most of the things they claim YOU should read. "You should read Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, Blood Meridian, Ficciones etc.." These books are widely considered to be the most difficult works of literature ever written; just one of them takes a very long time to read, understand, and appreciate. It's not a grocery list that you just check off because you want to look impressive to others.
2. Keep in mind that most of the advice being given to you and attitudes being put forward are done by teenagers and young adults, most of whom do it in this quasi-ironic way that you're not sure if they're being serious or ironic because it's hard to read irony & sarcasm in writing plus since it's anonymous you can't look at someones history and see if they're consistently ironic.
3. You'll find a lot of cleverness here, but very little wisdom. There's a lot of referencing and in-jokes. It's not a crime to not know an in-joke and it's not a crime to be a genuine person, as much as the teenagers on here think that it is.
4. If you're not enjoying a book (no matter how revered it is), don't continue reading it. John E. Williams (author of the exalted novel Stoner) said "My God, to read without joy is stupid." If you don't find joy in learning new things, and the prose and story doesn't bring you joy, just stop reading it. Life is too short to spend time impressing others.
5. A lot of the information propagated here (and on the internet in general) is surface level. Someone referencing an obscure author or text doesn't make their analysis and general thought on it engaging or worthwhile. Having a thread about some author or writer that almost no one has ever heard of and saying "Does Yea Forums like William Hazlitt?" and then spend an entire thread jerking off about how you know who he is despite knowing nothing about his life, work, or general thought beyond some google searches and a short skimming of their wikipedia article is pathetic.
6. Despite all of the flaws, don't treat the people or the board with contempt. Be kind, answer questions (even if the people asking them are probably being sarcastic), ask questions, and treat the board with a good natured detachment.
7. just read Finnegan Wake over and over again. it already contains every past and future book.
Owen Garcia
I’ve actually read 3/5 of the famously hard books you mentioned. They were fun, and I enjoyed them, though I’m sure I didn’t completely understand them I look forward to rereading them someday soon
Mason Baker
Which books, might I ask?
I'm glad that you enjoyed them.
Adrian James
Ficciones, I got most of it but I admit that the “Tlon” story I’m not sure I really got completely, I really liked “Pierre Menard,” “Three Versions of Judas,” and “The South”
Blood Meridian, I had lots of fun, I looked up words sometimes but usually just extrapolated from context
Gravity’s Rainbow, I probably understood this one the least except for I was able to latch on to a couple of the most prominent characters and follow their stories. Really loved it from about page 400 onward.
I have tried to read Ulysses and failed before page 100, I love Dubliners and Portrait tho
IJ for some reason I don’t have a lot of interest in, I like DFW later in his career (really liked Oblivion)
Eli Ward
Serious question: If you see all these problems with the board why do you come here?
Great post, I think this will save some of the young and impressionable who stumble here. True wisdom, should be a new copy pasta.
Great joke, truly hilarious and a perfect example of almost all the points listed here, especially 2 and 3. I do love the banter here.
Dylan Torres
I'd like to think many people here have read Ulysses, IJ, GR, Blood Meridian, and Ficciones. I've read them all except IJ, which I started but have not finished. Only Ulysses and GR are really "difficult" reads.
As for threads about people like Hazlitt, I always just assume that the people talking about him have read his essays. If you have a decent grasp of literary history, you should probably know that he was an essayist associated with the romantics, but I doubt anyone would seriously think less of you for not having read anything by him yet (I certainly haven't).
I agree that wisdom is more important than cleverness, and that kindness is a far better stance than contempt. This is one of the virtues of the endless process philosophy threads on this board—they have a certain non-judgemental collaborative spirit that most of Yea Forums lacks. But with that said, cleverness and vitriolic argument can be fun and productive too.
Of course one should read for joy, rather than to show off or meet someone else's standards. At the same time, I've often found that books I slogged through because I felt like I "should" read them ended up being very rewarding and full of joy. "Start with the Greeks" may be an obnoxious, unhelpful thing to say, but it's also pretty sound advice—if you want to get the most out of reading philosophy, for example, it really helps to have some historical perspective. Most of the advice on this board is like that: it may emerge from pure posturing, but it can still be helpful.
Nathaniel Rogers
how does one enjoy reading under the volcano before getting to th
Jayden White
What's "th"?
I can't tell you how one would enjoy Under The Volcano, I've never read it. If you enjoy it, then keep reading it.
Joshua Carter
You are, in all likelihood, one of these uneducated teenagers. I can tell by the fact that your only reference to literature was a quote by John Williams that is often memed on here. You write like a stuck-up queer who needs a good dicking. Yea Forums is a piece of shit, and has always been a piece of shit. I have had decent discussions on here, but you should know that if you spend your time posting on an online anime forum about literature, you are wasting your time. Yea Forums is beyond saving, which is not to say that it has ever been something valuable or edifying in the first place. Yea Forums is not a good place for discussions, and never has been. It is a place to make stupid subversive jokes about often worshipped authors. The value of Yea Forums, if it has any, is solely in how the bitterness and ironic detachment of its users allows for some of the funniest literary jokes I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
Jose Hall
>most of whom do it in this quasi-ironic way that you're not sure if they're being serious or ironic because it's hard to read irony & sarcasm in writing plus since it's anonymous you can't look at someones history and see if they're consistently ironic.
It's the tired old "are they being ironic or serious" meta-quandary. When are people like you going to unironically kill themselves?
Christopher Lewis
Nice blog. Unfortunately you seem to have made a mistake. This is not your blog. Please fuck off.
The point of lit is recommendations Recommendations spanning the globe The thrill of victory And the agony of defeat youtu.be/2yShQ1IVpYI
Matthew Thompson
>Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, Blood Meridian, Ficciones etc.." These books are widely considered to be the most difficult works of literature ever written they aren’t difficult—Finnegans Wake is professors just read the same books over and over, and they’re great books what is your point?
>4. What if I'm not enjoying a book because I'm deficient in some way or approaching it from the wrong perspective? If I can't appreciate Notes from the Underground, then I feel like I'm missing out on something. A piece of wisdom, some kind of life experience, or a set of expectations. Something. I'm not a self-centered brat who thinks my opinions are the most important, and I like to give charity to things.
Landon Gutierrez
>Yea Forums is not a good place for discussions not true. occasionally there are good discussions, and you're most likely going to find them here over any other public place on the internet.
Ian Peterson
These all accurately describe me so therefore they must also accurately describe everyone else here too.
Adam Murphy
The worst part is when you and another user start having a productive one on one in a post and someone with a similar writing style comes in and just calls that guy a fucking peasant idiot and it makes you look bad
Carson Taylor
I'm sure there's someplace more reliable than this. The only forums people on here know of are 1. Yea Forums 2. goodreads 3. reading based subreddits The internet is big enough that there are certainly better places for academic discussion, although I don't know where they are.
Bentley Sanders
>Blood Meridian, Ficciones >difficult are you Forrest Gump? because you're retarded
Blake Bell
sounds like you could use a re-examination of #6, bud
Lincoln Peterson
>Ficciones I read Ficciones when I was 16. I only see it being difficult if you're still learning spanish and reading it untranslated
Hunter Perez
People keep acting like humor is somehow a redeeming quality of the forum, but most of what counts as "humor" here is just bitterness and pointless disrespect, either thinly masked or totally naked. A lot of people here don't really want to talk about books. They just want a support group made up of disembodied words that they can accuse of being retarded faggots.
Gabriel Turner
On an anonymous forum, there is no "you"
Matthew Mitchell
There is, its just impossible to keep track of and it fucks up otherwise coherent conversations.
Christopher Roberts
Engaging in pseudointellectualism can be fun. Yea Forums is a good place to find recommendations and try out ideas. I don't think most people take the circle-jerking too seriously.
William Garcia
Honestly my only complaint about lit is the nonstop circlejerking about Jordan Peterson and the Greeks. Idk how you people can talk about that shit over and over every day.
Thomas Parker
Nothing to add at this time - but just wanted to pop in and say this is a good thread. I’ve been browsing Yea Forums less and less lately but this makes me wanna come back more often.
Jayden Williams
Why would you want someone to tell you what you should read? Get off the beaten path.
Zachary Gray
Your literary taste is as independent of outside influence as your ability to speak.
Caleb Cooper
>goodreads >reading based subreddits please, please off yourself
Adam Fisher
For knowing about them?
Jack Sullivan
How dare you use other websites >:(
Austin Powell
>based subreddits There haven't been any "based" subreddits since the big purge in 2015 and goodreads is unironically worse than amazon's review section.
Landon Rivera
I didn't mean "based" in the Yea Forums sense. I meant "reading based" as in "based in the discussion of reading." I didn't say I used the sites. I said Yea Forums knew about them. I was just saying there is a dearth of knowledge on Yea Forums of worthwhile forums for literary discussion.
