"Prententious" literature- do you read it?

[Strixandstones]

Although I have several collections of Lovecraft, I haven't gotten very far with them, mostly because he bores me to tears.

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.

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.

 

[skitzo van]

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)

 

[The King of Rock and Roll]

If you count posts on the Escapists as literature, then yes, yes I do.

 

[superbatranger]

Wait, would Atlas Shrugged be considered pretentious?

Yes. In fact it would be considered very pretentious, at least in my mind. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it if you enjoy it.

If anything, it gives me a headache. The font is so damn small.

 

[Hashime]

Yes, if it is entertaining. I read Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and loved it.
As a side not my roommate is Conrad's great (or great great) nephew.

 

[CouchCommando]

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.

 

[mr_rubino]

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.

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.

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.

So you prove their arrogance by asking them to describe the books they're reading.

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?"

 

[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.