That doesn't... yeah, that doesn't actually make any sense. It's an amusing mental image to be sure, but that's complete nonsense nonetheless.Masterstuffing said:
"Prententious" literature- do you read it?
- Thread starter Shadowfaze
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I'm sorry, but your definition of pretentious writing is basically what a novel looks like.Del-Toro said:
My father enjoys reading books - mostly stuff like Stephen King, Dan Brown and such - basically horror, sci-fi and thrillers.
I, however, do not care much for books. I have read quite a few books, but I will never replace my computer for an actual book. I've also read up on many, many books (regardless of what kind of prose we're talking about) on Wikipedia and other sites.
The five books that I like very much and will never forget about:
- Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
- Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis
EDIT: I forgot to mention that my father actually reads at least two novels (yes, the books for big boys) per week. When he was younger he would actually read all day long. Literally.
Does The Iliad count as pretentious literature? Is so, then I guess I read pretentious literature. I quite enjoyed Treasure Island as well...
I agree with you. I think your father is a fool. "Pretentious" tends to be a word used by people who don't know very much to describe things they're not clever enough to understand. I've never personally read Lovecraft, but his work is definitely on the list of things I'd certainly like to read at some point.
Unless you were being smug and superior about your reading then it wasn't pretentious. Why does your father hate the idea of you being educated? One of my dads favorite sayings is "Educate yourself" and while I am tired of hearing it after all these years I still find what he is saying to be a reasonable request and goal. Just to fuck with your dad I would start reading the new yorker right in front of him.
Beyond Good and Evil you say, huh. I never got around to that--not yet. Still trying to figure out Thus Sprach Zarathustra; and I thought the Gay Science was hard.....Shadowfaze said:
Also, if you were "truly" "reading" Nietzsche, you wouldn't be giving a shit about labels like "pretentious," and "condescending," and "educated."
I actually bought a HP Lovecraft sorta collection book thing the other day, I was drawn to it due to its Mike Mignola cover art. I read Mountains of Madness and some other tales, but overall I really don't care for it. I understand his importance in the literary world and I like strange fantasy just as much as the next guy, but I couldn't get into his style, the characters felt very cold to me. I wouldn't consider it pretentious by any means.
Now Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is pretentious.
Now Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is pretentious.
Well I tried to, but I got really bored, and now if someone starts going on about how great and powerful a work like that is, I view them as pretentious and boring.
H.P. Lovecraft, however, is none of those things.
Also I'm trying to read all the books that Iron Maiden made songs about or named after.
H.P. Lovecraft, however, is none of those things.
Also I'm trying to read all the books that Iron Maiden made songs about or named after.
I was waiting for someone to say that. Not pretentious, just dull. The notion of a extra-dimensional indescribable horror does not terrify me; what's the point of fearing something that explicitly terrifying? It is so foreign to us, that the human mind cannot comprehend it so, naturally, we must fear it. Personally, fear comes from the human mind and the tiny flaws it sees in otherwise familiar surroundings. You've got to play on (and play with) human emotions and instincts.Falseprophet said:
OT: I like books with a little more too them than a good story, but I do admit my choices are occasionally a little "pretentious" (although the authors and novels I choose are not.) I will admit that I read Jean Paul Satre's Nausea out of a desire to read something "intelligent" in a case of pretentious prejudice (positive prejudice, but prejudice nonetheless). Nausea is literary coal. You read page after page about the tedious life of an un-likeable Frenchman as he gets through existence until you hit a diamond of philosophical awe (followed by more coal, few little diamonds.) I struggled with Nausea, because it is a philosopher telling a story to put his point across, not a story that makes the point for him.
I could read Brave New World daily if I had the time, was recently impressed by "Snow" by Orhan Pamuk. I like books which give me an idea of life that I cannot have an awareness of from my existence so far. The Art of War is not a worthy read, more an aloof, practical common sense look at sending large numbers of men to kill each-other. I am almost tempted to call those who read it for pleasure "pretentious" but we've had enough of that in this thread.
Really? Damn I must be a giant pretentious asshole for my love of Lovecraft. The only thing people have said to me about his books is that they were big (in reference to my copy of the Necronomicon commemorative edition, which was sadly destroyed by a banana exploding)
nope that stuff doesn't sound pretentious to me, now if you were saying you were reading Tolstoy then I might throw the P bomb out there, sounds like you just got yourself some decent reading material there, personally I'd throw those on my "classics" shelf.
So you prove their arrogance by asking them to describe the books they're reading.Jasper Jeffs said:
Kid, I'm thinkin that the reason people condescend to you has nothing to do with books.
"Yeah man, readers are such upper-class killjoys. Why can't they just smoke dope and play Halo while interjecting "innit" randomly into their sentences like the cool kids?"