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I dissect archived forums posts and pretend I'm professor of internets
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Apr 20, 2016 20:01
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Yessss,new page opened with stupidest shitpost
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Apr 20, 2016 20:01
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You've made stupider.
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Apr 20, 2016 20:09
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Mel Mudkiper posted:ok but why bother hunting down 400 year old books no one gave a poo poo about
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Apr 20, 2016 20:11
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Bandiet posted:Just ones you don't have an existing perception of. I'm gonna assume you haven't heard about every single old book worth reading. You have no idea of the depths of Mel
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Apr 20, 2016 20:25
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Bandiet posted:Just ones you don't have an existing perception of. I'm gonna assume you haven't heard about every single old book worth reading. Challenge accepted quote:Also hey, why bother keeping tabs on current books the majority of which no one will give a poo poo about? Because people will give a poo poo about some. For example, its hilarious to me that people are acting like Bolano is old hat and trite when I got Savage Detectives day 1 when he was an obscure Chilean guy. Its nice to be ground floor on something important rather than wait for someone to tell you its important. Also sometimes I find books that are very meaningful despite not receiving press. There is a reason I march down the goddamn street with a giant banner that says read David Vann, because I know no one follows him except me and he is really good. Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Apr 20, 2016 |
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Apr 20, 2016 20:29
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Sorry but your system sucks  , you're basically saying is ignorance is bliss. If you've never heard of, say, James Salter you can read him but if you know he is influential then you can't
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Apr 20, 2016 20:37
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Mel Mudkiper posted:For example, its hilarious to me that people are acting like Bolano is old hat and trite when I got Savage Detectives day 1 when he was an obscure Chilean guy. Its nice to be ground floor on something important rather than wait for someone to tell you its important. epic win!
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Apr 20, 2016 20:55
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Challenge accepted 'being on the ground floor of something important' is only nice in the sense of stroking your book ego; in the sense of uh engaging with serious art, it doesn't loving matter when you get there.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:02
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I think it's perfectly valid to want to make your own judgment and connections when reading something. I just don't think that goes hand in hand with sifting through a bunch of modern fiction, unless it really is nothing much more than "I want to know about a cool thing before you."
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Apr 20, 2016 21:03
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david crosby posted:'being on the ground floor of something important' is only nice in the sense of stroking your book ego What thread are you in
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Apr 20, 2016 21:06
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There's a TS Eliot quotation about how the poetry of our contemporaries has the quality of being by our contemporaries but I can't remember the exact wording, anyway imagine I quoted that 1950s fucker about the merits of modern lit.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:23
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The attitude that old books aren't worth your time because you've got commentary or w/e to sift through is something I won't get, because the modern books you're reading are probably part of that same tradition. I think it's safe to say the majority of art produced nowadays is kind of trying to mix and match from a variety of diachronic sources rather than sum up some contemporary scene or aesthetic, and your reading will only be enhanced by a diversity of interests. Basically reading old stuff is cool because it helps you understand new stuff or think about it in a different way. It's not essential or anything, but it's a nice thing to do.Mel Mudkiper posted:ok but why bother hunting down 400 year old books no one gave a poo poo about The reason books get forgotten about is completely arbitrary, mostly cruel and often ideological. Lit crit has never been a meritocracy, ever. If it was, the single best English narrative poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, wouldn't have been ignored for 500+ years
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Apr 20, 2016 21:38
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J_RBG posted:The attitude that old books aren't worth your time because you've got commentary or w/e to sift through is something I won't get No one said this so of course it doesn't make sense
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Apr 20, 2016 21:46
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Mel Mudkiper posted:actually it is the opposite! david crosby posted:if we study your posts in this thread, we find an inverse relationship between number of posts and quality of posts. boom. roasted and toasted. there's a William Gass essay about book prizes and basically he says that they tend to reward mediocrity because of the need to find a compromise candidate that all the judges agree on, it's a good read. blue squares posted:I really want to read The Dying Grass but it is an intimidating book. Long and difficult to understand. The Washington Post calls it the reading experience of a lifetime, but that may be because that's how long it takes to get through it Read Miss Macintosh, My Darling instead, because it's 'only' 1198 pages and is almost certainly a cooler book.
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Apr 21, 2016 01:17
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i can't figure out why i would care either way about this derail :\ actually i guess it's technically on topic but it's so pointless Thx for pointing out miss Macintosh though, hadn't heard of that one emdash fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Apr 21, 2016 |
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Apr 21, 2016 03:13
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TheQat posted:Thx for pointing out miss Macintosh though, hadn't heard of that one It's really good, there's a 400 page part that's just a guy fretting over his dead brother.
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Apr 21, 2016 04:02
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I like to read critical essays on books after I read the book itself and see how it matches up with my opinion, no idea why you would do it before then complain about how it influenced your textual reading or whatever.
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Apr 21, 2016 04:10
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The best books to read are random Dalkey or Archipelago ones written by Eastern Europeans and Latin Americans imo
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Apr 21, 2016 04:45
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The best books to read are written in languages invented by the author and never taught to anyone.
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Apr 21, 2016 04:53
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Dalkey is an odd fish: I feel that along with books they're genuinely passionate there's a ton of stuff brought out that's little more than that country's vanity project, paid for by the respective state and simply published by Dalkey. From what I've seen, Open Letter, And Other Stories, Deep Vellum and others are more personal in their selections, and their books consistently have a lot of care put in them.
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Apr 21, 2016 07:52
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Nanomashoes posted:The best books to read are written in languages invented by the author and never taught to anyone. You are actually right, most literature written after Finnegans Wake is pointless. It's the pinnacle. Only poetry and interactive fiction (->videogames too lol nerds own) have really innovated since. And actually, I haven't been able to read anything after I watched Knight of Cups, written words feel so pointless. Post-Malick depression happens annually now and it's bad for me
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Apr 21, 2016 10:15
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I like reading old books and new books and not so old books and not so new books. come at me, bro
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Apr 21, 2016 10:54
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freak
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Apr 21, 2016 10:58
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I like dressing up as the characters of the books I read
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Apr 21, 2016 11:52
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blue squares posted:I like dressing up as the characters of the books I read you read books about insanely boring grad students???
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Apr 21, 2016 13:14
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I take offense to that. I would never go to grad school
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Apr 21, 2016 13:33
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maybe i am confusing you for the guy who posted tons of pictures of himself wearing oppressively dull clothing in waywt in an attempt to cultivate some sort of "serious student" image or something
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Apr 21, 2016 13:53
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blue squares is a functionally literate squaddie, and as such a protected species who shouldn't be trolled
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Apr 21, 2016 13:56
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corn in the fridge posted:maybe i am confusing you for the guy who posted tons of pictures of himself wearing oppressively dull clothing in waywt in an attempt to cultivate some sort of "serious student" image or something I've been though some dark phases in my life.
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Apr 21, 2016 14:01
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blue squares posted:I like dressing up as the characters of the books I read if you think about it, the d&d players' handbook is the pinnacle of literature, since it allows you to tell an infinite number of stories. definitely the most bang for your buck
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Apr 21, 2016 14:56
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Nanomashoes posted:I like to read critical essays on books after I read the book itself and see how it matches up with my opinion, no idea why you would do it before then complain about how it influenced your textual reading or whatever. I am not sure why people keep assuming being exposed to pre-existing critique means reading essays
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Apr 21, 2016 15:07
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If you're not reading them for school or whatever and the CIA isn't broadcasting essays through your molar fillings I don't see how they could possibly be much of an influence.
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Apr 21, 2016 16:07
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Butt Frosted Cake posted:If you're not reading them for school or whatever and the CIA isn't broadcasting essays through your molar fillings I don't see how they could possibly be much of an influence. Because of how culture works. You probably have some opinions about books you've never read because of information that's out there about them and gets repeated in other media
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Apr 21, 2016 16:12
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I take the opinions of random assholes on the internet or other forms of media with a grain of salt, especially for a book I've never read. This is not a significant influence. 'Culture works' so I can at least be arrogant enough to disregard the opinions of random plebs when I go to actually read the text. Not exactly the same kind of influence as reading Kierkegaard before the old testament would have.
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Apr 21, 2016 16:56
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oh drat I just realized I'm arguing with someone with an avatar of an anime holding a hitler book I'll just let Mel Mudkiper come in here and explain it better, like always I finished The Shipping News and it got a fair bit boring, not sure why it won a Pulitzer. blue squares fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Apr 21, 2016 |
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Apr 21, 2016 17:14
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Butt Frosted Cake posted:I take the opinions of random assholes on the internet or other forms of media with a grain of salt, especially for a book I've never read. This is not a significant influence. 'Culture works' so I can at least be arrogant enough to disregard the opinions of random plebs when I go to actually read the text. Not exactly the same kind of influence as reading Kierkegaard before the old testament would have. his point is more that unless you live in a lightless grotto beneath the misty mountains you will have some cultural conditioning as to what is good and what is bad, as well as some general critical influence like, i dont think you need to read many esays to be aware that Lear is seen as one of shakespeare's best and that, say, The Two Noble Kinsmen is not. similarly, any schlub with a B.A. should be generally aware of Oedipal critiques of Hamlet theres a general consensus as to whats good and what isnt. im willing to bet youve heard of Wordsworth but not Thomas Love Peacock, for example
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Apr 21, 2016 17:45
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blue squares posted:I finished The Shipping News and it got a fair bit boring, not sure why it won a Pulitzer. Because its prose is beautiful and flawless
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Apr 21, 2016 17:52
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Because its prose is beautiful and flawless Yeah, I did love the style and the imagery. A lot of very touching and perfectly described scenes. But the parts were better than the whole
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Apr 21, 2016 17:55
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End Of Worlds posted:his point is more that unless you live in a lightless grotto beneath the misty mountains I do.
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Apr 22, 2016 00:17
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