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Hello fellow forumgoers. I wish I were writing at all of you under better circumstances, but I am in an otherworldly funk. Please get cozy, grab a beer, snuggle with your cat. Do what makes you comfortable. This will take a minute to explain. I haven't posted on somethingawful very much in the last few years. A lot of you might say "that's healthy" or "you are busy being an adult," and you might be right, but this one hangnail keeps twitching my fingers into throbbing activity: this place is a blender on liquify, a grinder that threatens to eat your limbs, a swirling slurry of groundswolen words and thoughts. I love it. I love all of you, but there is something that has started to make me feel physically ill at even the thought of posting. Please bear with me. I have struggled with depression my whole life. I have learned (wrongheadedly) to direct those feelings outward, and I have ruined relationships with my bad decisions in that regard. From infesting a roommate's carpet with chiggers (deliberately) to flooding a shower with food dye, I have been a giant fucker to others in years past. I am just now starting to turn that hard and pitiless spite on myself, and this feeling that I have to participate on this forum vs. the feeling that it is only making things worse for me is just getting harder and harder to contend with, and there is one thing that sets the spinning top of my self-scrutiny in eerie and perverted motion, like the end of Inception but the top is covered with faces and every face yells "enjoyable human being" when it faces the camera. That thing — the thing that has me the most rowdy, hosed up, and rude — is The Book Barn. I would love to just post there and hang out and talk about books, but every time I stray into that peculiar corner of bookworld, my heart sinks into my beautiful thighs, I turn sluggish and dim, my blood feels like someone shot the milky guts of a Mary-Sue'd heroine into the corner of my eye. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it makes me feel like there are two people fighting in the uninviting cortical crevices where I try (unsuccessfully, dear readers) to sort myself the gently caress out. I want to post so much, but the voice comes back: "you can't post in The Book Barn, because it is total loving garbage." For example, as of 2 o'clock (Eastern US of A) today, there were 25 non-sticky threads on the first page of The Book Barn. Of those, 18 were for the sci-fi/fantasy genre, including two Wheel of Time threads, two young adult series threads (literally books for children), two titularly referencing or about Terry Pratchett, and the most active thread was the spoilery Game of Thrones book thread (which mostly just talks about the thread itself). There is a second Game of Thrones book thread too. I don't know why there need to be two. The Pynchon thread says "n00bs" in the OP. Doesn't this seem WRONG? Doesn't this seem SAD? Doesn't this make you want to STAB YOUR EYES OUT and bemoan the mother-loving world? My question to all of you, I guess, is have you ever encountered a cluster of people who read so much escapist garbage, has it ever made you drink alcohol to excess, has it ever made you wonder whether an online community can separate from "nerd culture" enough to absorb enriching and worthwhile literature at an adult reading level, and do you get as depressed as I do about this poo poo? I literally don't know how to deal with these feelings anymore, and I appreciate any advice you can offer. e; please consider this book art.  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 05:10 |
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| # ? Jun 18, 2013 21:17 |
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i like Watership Down... thats enriching and worthwhile literature, right?
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 05:29 |
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Yes, No, No, No.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 05:32 |
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There's some pretty good threads there on more advanced stuff, like the Japanese Literature, Ulysses thread or "What is a 21st century novel?" even if they're all tiny and infrequent. Just have mega-threads for Sci-Fi and Fantasy while locking ones for individual authors and encourage people to start up threads about more complicated stuff.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 05:33 |
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the heebie-gbs believed in the book barn, the orgastic forum that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will find a post about worthwhile books, stretch out our arms to the keyboard and submit a post..... So we type on, users against the posts, borne back ceaselessly into the ADWD and A GLISTENING HODOR threads.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 06:09 |
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Well what the hell did you expect of the internet? You should start talking to strangers about books or hang around bookstores or something. Be that creep, or get banned trying to 'fix' TBB.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 06:35 |
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I think this is just a problem you run into with any hobby if you get into it enough. I live in the pacific northwest, that means I have access to really good beer. Despite this, there are still plenty of people who like beer and tend to drink beer fairly exclusively as their alcoholic beverage of choice, but still just drink their same bland domestics. Same with music, there are so many good bands out there that it's a shame people just listen to whatever is popular at the moment. I think the important thing to consider is that you're probably that tasteless person who only enjoys the surface of hobby/media/whatever to someone else and that you really shouldn't judge people for not getting as deeply into your hobbies as you have. Just consider that those who like to read a lot of stories for escaping might have other interests that they enjoy on a deeper level. I might have a better taste in music and beer than someone who never bothered exploring the hobbies on their own, but I know for example that I enjoy cooking and cook a lot but still don't invest the time/effort to make anything complicated or fancy and instead just stick with straightforward things I don't have to think about when making. There's only so much I can invest mental energy into and for other things I might just enjoy the mindless shallow fun.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 06:43 |
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Dianetics is a good book. Have they discussed it in the Book Barn? Hubbard is a fantastic writer. It used to be you could get a free copy of it by stopping by a Scientology Church. Maybe you should try that. I hear they are helpful and do not believe in psychiatry (evil!) so they can cure your depression without it.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 10:02 |
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That's all well and good, but have you tried to join a real world book club? Even more depressing. The first book they wanted to read was some poo poo "written" by a kid who had "had an out of body experience and touched the mind of god." or some poo poo. The second book? 50 Shades of Gray. Yes! Where can I read bad S & M "erotica" and discuss it with other 30 something moms?!! SIGN ME THE gently caress UP. So don't talk to me about your petty depression on the state of The Book Barn.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 11:40 |
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| # ? Jun 18, 2013 21:17 |
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:50 Shades of Gray. Personally, I am waiting for Story of O to come up on the list. I'm a fan of the classics.
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| # ? Jul 12, 2012 12:05 |
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