"Prententious" literature- do you read it?

[Taranaich]

Yesterday my father found me reading my HP Lovecraft compendium, and declared it "far too prententious" and for "well educated people" and reminded me that i am neither prententious or educated.

Your father seems to have issues if he thinks there's literature "for" educated/non-educated people, as well as considering Lovecraft to be pretentious.

Judging someone for what they're reading is, in itself, somewhat pretentious.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Read War And Peace in front of him.

Go on. It's actually brilliant.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I guess I do, I read things like "A Brave New World" and "1984" often, though I do prefer books about History.

 

[Lineoutt]

Yesterday my father found me reading my HP Lovecraft compendium, and declared it "far too prententious" and for "well educated people" and reminded me that i am neither prententious or educated. Then, he caught me reading Nietzsche's Beyond good and evil, and just laughed. Do you read this sort of thing? Do you consider people who do 'highbrow', or educated? personally i think my father is a fool, but i'd like some opinions on this particular style of literature. Yeah, i'm in a funny mood, hence the wordiness.

You're asking one of the most pretentious websites I've ever been to. What makes what you read pretentious is when you go up to someone and say "I read Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil and thought it very insightful and thought provoking" and BLAMO you are pretentious. Play what you read down. Don't take it out in public just so people can see you reading. If you think you're better, or smarter, or higher class because you read those books then fuck you, you pretentious asshole. But if you just read them simply because you like the content and would be willing to read it only in the privacy of your home and never tell anyone about it then congratulations, keep reading, ignore what your dad says.

OT: Also no, I dont read that stuff. It's boring to me. I like reading fantasy adventure/ humorous novels. I don't read often anyway.

 

[sageoftruth]

I'd say it all depends on why you read it. Even then, I wouldn't discourage you from continuing. I see nothing wrong with being highbrow in the first place (aside from making others look dumb by comparison).

 

[sageoftruth]

Okay, after a bit of reading other people's comments, I see what being highbrow really means. Indeed, I discourage putting on airs of any sort, so make sure you really do enjoy the book and aren't doing it for the sake of your image.