>>13465155

Don't be embarrassed, just google Kerouac and read a bit about him. He was really fucking interesting

No, but that's the one I dislike the most.
>reddit-tier garbage
>attention span
>utter pseudery

>All these buzzwords because I don't like his Walmart tier writer
Who hurt you, brainlet incel?

>Walmart tier
>brainlet incel
>"you use lots of buzzwords jajaja"
Go read "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," "The Undefeated," "Hills Like White Elephants," "The Killers," and "A Way You'll Never Be." Those are all short stories. You don't even have to read his more famous ones like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "Indian Camp" or any of his novels. If you still think he's a bad writer after that then your taste is absolute trash and you should fuck off back to Ibsen.

Minus "Hills Like White Elephants", I've read everything else you mentioned.
Not out of joy, mind you, my girlfriend and I signed for a course of American Literature in our second year in college. We were given a choice of a major author to do an essay about at the end of the semester and because I was familiar with Fenimore Cooper, Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Emerson, Poe, Whitman and Fitzgerald, Hemingway was the one I never got into.

I had to shift my focus on his work and none of it satisfied me. He's objectively a Hors d'œuvre for pseudo-intellectual brainlets to get their kicks in and feel deep about it.

Every other American writer I mentioned above is leagues above him.

Maybe read some more books, get in touch with other genres, other authors, grow out of your HS phase because I'm sure you're above 18, so you have no business thinking Hemingway is anything but an overrated talentless hack. The Lou Reed of literature.

He's not even one of my favorite authors, it's just ridiculous to call his writing bad. The fact that you immediately went for The Old Man and the Sea--his most popular work but, as any Hemingway fan would agree, far from his best one--shows that you hate the people that appreciate him more than you hate him just because his writing didn't speak to you. You say Hemingway is high school level but call Fitzgerald a better writer? Pretty much everyone reads The Great Gatbsy in high school at some point or another.

I already said that "The Old Man and the Sea" is the one I dislike the most. It was the first one I read and it set the tone for the rest.

>You say Hemingway is high school level but call Fitzgerald a better writer? Pretty much everyone reads The Great Gatbsy in high school at some point or another.
That's kinda my point.

Maybe, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm being a cunt and unnecessarily caustic about Hemingway. Maybe indeed he doesn't speak to me.

I've read a total of 2021 books since I was a kid until now. That's an average of 6 books a month, give or take. If it wasn't for Kickboxing, Uni, eating and pissing, I wouldn't get out of bed at all and read all day because it's my favourite thing in existence. So much so I only deigned signing up at Uni so I could get some Academic insight on all of this and structure it better in my brain.
This to say, I think I have some grounds and a big enough sample to give a qualitative assessment of an author, perhaps more than most people here who pretend to read more than they actually do from what I've seen.
Don't like Hemingway.

Ok. Then I guess for now we can just agree to disagree. I am 18 years old, by the way, and debating on whether to study math/physics or literature/philosophy at the university level. As someone who seems to read more than I do and got a degree in lit, what would you recommend and how was your experience?

Yeah, it might be pathetic but I'm trying to get all the advice I can get here before I make my final decision. Don't judge.

Truly depends on your financial situation. If you're not too worried about money and you can give into your passions without stressing too much about the future (you'll manage, but not as well), the go with Literature / Philosophy.

If money is your concern, go for Math / Physics and do your literature hobby in the free time you have.

If you do go for Literature, your experience may vary considering your preconceptions about the program taught, your political views, your tastes and the professors you meet along the way who might help or hinder you.
To expand a bit on the most poignant example, politically, if you're left leaning, you'll love the courses. If you're the opposite, it'll drive you to madness and you'll consider dropping out twice a week at least.
This is especially unfortunate because a subject like literature should be taught without politicising it.

Don't go the Camus "just be happy bro" route. You don't need to be happy. But at the very least you deserve some level of comfort and fulfilment, academically and intellectually speaking.

>Yeah, it might be pathetic but I'm trying to get all the advice I can get here before I make my final decision. Don't judge.
I was doing the same when I was your age. Oddly enough it was a poster here telling me something similar that made me take the first step away from a STEM degree (thank fuck, I guess).

I'm not too worried about money since I know I can live frugally and that I'll be able to get by. I guess my main concern would be literature losing its efficacy in the next decade or two due to the stem circlejerk and thus my degree becoming completely worthless. What's your occupation, if you don't mind me asking?

It most likely will become worthless unless your aim is to become a professor at some Uni yourself or to write for a living.

Right now I do loose translations online, but most of my income come from these stocks I purchased (and keep purchasing annually). Much like you, I'm not given to excess in regards to spending.

Do you see yourself teaching at a Uni? Giving lectures? Becoming a writer yourself?

>the STEM circlejerk
Actually, English degrees are extremely employable because engineers can't fucking communicate a goddamn thing without insulting somebody or offending somebody or talking right over the general public's head.

I really, really want to write for a living. I definitely wouldn't mind translating either. I wanted to be a high school english teacher and then an english professor for a while, so I could definitely see that being an alternative route. Thanks so much for answering my questions.

Then you have no issues with your future, if employability is your doubt.

Wish you the best of luck. Last bit of advice I can give you is to not try to live anyone else's experiences, do whatever suits you. You're not living someone else's college time but your own. Don't be pressured into doing dumb shit and just enjoy daily the fact that you get to read and study what you truly like.

me desu