Well I am pretentious, but most of what I read these days would never be considered as such (the day Warhammer 40,000 novels are considered pretentious is the day we live in bizarro world).
"Prententious" literature- do you read it?
- Thread starter Shadowfaze
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Hey now, Araby wasn't that bad.Outright Villainy said:
OT: I'm an English major, so I've started reading a fair bit of pretentious work. The Canterbury Tales, Spenser's "Faerie Queene", Joyce's "The Dead" (Terrible) "Araby" (Great), and Alistair MacLeod's tales (I have to like it because he's my professor).
I hate people that think they're intelligent for reading books. I never read, which is apparently something people like to look down on in college. Although, it was quite fun to fuck around with people like that. Like, asking them about a specific book, and about 10 seconds in when they're speaking just going "yeah that's great.." and walking off.
Lovecraft is pretentious? The guy who made C'Thulu? Bullshit.
You know what I consider to be pretentious writing? It's when you describe everything to death with big, long words, and lots of them. Think of the verbose memes (link below) in literary form. It's not about the story, or characters or whatever, for me, being pretentious is either being a scene kid or a hipster, or literary technique that, while intended to make the author seem smarter, just maks them look like a larger and larger twat with every passing sentance.
[link]http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/verbose-memes[/link]
You know what I consider to be pretentious writing? It's when you describe everything to death with big, long words, and lots of them. Think of the verbose memes (link below) in literary form. It's not about the story, or characters or whatever, for me, being pretentious is either being a scene kid or a hipster, or literary technique that, while intended to make the author seem smarter, just maks them look like a larger and larger twat with every passing sentance.
[link]http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/verbose-memes[/link]
I think you meant to have the quotes around "literature" and not "pretentious" in the thread title......you're questioning its validity as "literature" you are not trying to be sarcastic when you call it pretentious.
I like to read 'pretentious' books (if you're using your dad's definition of pretentious, which probably consists of 'not containing any pictures in it'). Tried reading some of the classics, with mixed results. Some I loved some I hated. I feel like you've got to, you know? You HAVE to know what all the fuss is about.
With that in mind I even started reading the Bible once. Didn't make it past Genesis, but man the shit that's in there :| I recommend to try and read it at least once, see how far you get.
Also, a disclaimer: I don't want to start a flame war. It's not my intention to offend anyone.
With that in mind I even started reading the Bible once. Didn't make it past Genesis, but man the shit that's in there :| I recommend to try and read it at least once, see how far you get.
Also, a disclaimer: I don't want to start a flame war. It's not my intention to offend anyone.
I guess I would read that kind of stuff. High-brow literature, like Russian classics. But I read that stuff because I like it. Well, sometimes I read it because I've heard about some classics and want to check them out.
I've read stuff like that my while life, since my mom does, and we had a lot of classics and high-brow stuff at home.
Of course I read trashy literature as well, although I prefer something that challenges my intellect. And children's books, out of interest, since I want to know for example what kind of science books are offered to kids.
I've read stuff like that my while life, since my mom does, and we had a lot of classics and high-brow stuff at home.
Of course I read trashy literature as well, although I prefer something that challenges my intellect. And children's books, out of interest, since I want to know for example what kind of science books are offered to kids.
I read the Bible when I was 8. I read it the same way I read Norse mythology or Kalevala (Finnish national epic) I liked that kind of stuff(I liked the OT), and still do. Mythologies of hunter-gatherers are a bit of a hobby of mine. But yeah, people who say they believe the Bible should read it.Spacelord said:
I have read some books that could be considered pretensious. Sun Tzu's Art Of War and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses count amongst them, but then my friends know that I'm fairly well read.
Personally I wouldn't judge people on what they read. For example if I saw a old school punk reading HP Lovecraft, I'd probably think 'huh, thats odd.' but thats it. At the end of the day theres no such thing as a book thats too "highbrow", as long as you can understand it is all that matters.
Personally I wouldn't judge people on what they read. For example if I saw a old school punk reading HP Lovecraft, I'd probably think 'huh, thats odd.' but thats it. At the end of the day theres no such thing as a book thats too "highbrow", as long as you can understand it is all that matters.
Wait...H.P. Loveraft is pretentious? The guy who wrote Pulp Horror for magazines? What the hell? I mean yeah, it's very good stuff, but how the hell is it pretentious?
Nietzsche is SLIGHTLY different, because there's plenty of people willing to be pretentious over that particular existentialist. Lots of high schoolers who want to make there Christian parents angry. But that's the fault of the reader, not the book. If you read a book as a decent, curious human being, you will never be pretentious.
Also, apparently "Pretentious" is another word for, "Old". If he is a Christian, call the Bible a pretentious book. If he is pop culture savvy, agree and ask to borrow his copy of Twilight.
Nietzsche is SLIGHTLY different, because there's plenty of people willing to be pretentious over that particular existentialist. Lots of high schoolers who want to make there Christian parents angry. But that's the fault of the reader, not the book. If you read a book as a decent, curious human being, you will never be pretentious.
Also, apparently "Pretentious" is another word for, "Old". If he is a Christian, call the Bible a pretentious book. If he is pop culture savvy, agree and ask to borrow his copy of Twilight.
Everything regarding the word "pretentious" (and all the "I read X; is that pretentious?" questions) aside, is anyone else alarmed that the OP's dad is ragging on being educated, of all things?
EDIT: Ninja'd, thank God.
EDIT: Ninja'd, thank God.
Waitaminute. You hate people that think they're intelligent for reading books, so in retaliation you decided to be a person who thinks they're intelligent for not reading books? Brilliant. I think some sort of jackass arms race has started.Jasper Jeffs said:
What? I hate condescending pricks who sit on their high horse, thinking they're above me because they read in their spare time, so I play around with them. I don't think I'm intelligent for not reading books, I just fuck around with them for a laugh, the stick is too far up their ass anyway so it's not like I can prove to them I'm not a moron, nor do I want to, I don't care what they think, but I'm forced to interact with them via group assignments.Richard Hannay said:
As a joke, which is fun to show their arrogance, I ask them on a subject and when they laugh and start telling me, I walk away, because they love being condescending to people who they think are lesser than themselves.
They're all rich, posh cunts basically I can't be arsed with. I don't know if you've ever met any arrogant as fuck posh British people, so you might not get what I'm going on about.
I must congratulate for being able to War and Peace in one summer, I've been reading that since January.AjimboB said:
On topic I think if your enjoying what your reading it shouldn't matter whether others think its pretentious, after all reading is supposed to be enjoyed
My father is very anti-nerd in this respect, he thinks i should be kicking footballs and become one of the manufactured 'normal' people. He is very into shooting and hunting, so he always expected his son to do that too- he probably feels ashamed about having an intellectual son.AntiChrist said:
