What's the point of reading old books if the settings and themes are so far removed from our modern world that there's really no way of connecting with them? We live in an age of the internet and social media, and nothing in, say, The Odyssey, relates to that, so what's the point of reading it if it has nothing to do with the most influential and relevant things in our lives?
>i can only relate to things and places
>what are humans
>what are emotions
>beep boop
>>7429682
By this logic, there's no point watching a film that isn't set in modern day or likewise playing a video game with any fantasy of science fiction elements.
>>7429682
this guy will tell you
What's the point in reading a book if you aren't the author?
>>7429682
Why we should read just things we can recognize and identificate ourselves? Isnt cool to read something totally new?
>>7429703
>>7429703
What's the point in writing a book if you're going to die anyway?
>>7429690
At least if you watch something like Star Wars or Game of Thrones, they're popular series and you can talk about it with your friends, so there's a purpose in getting into them.
I guess the only reason you guys are so obsessed with the Greeks is that you have your own little points of reference to talk about here on /lit/, like it's a secret code for your secret club, because you're too snobby to talk about normal books with real people.
You read old books to prepare you for the meme trilogy: pic related.
>>7429717
>pleb books for stupid people
Fixed it for you family.
>>7429682
mfw greeks said shit that is still contemporean themes and based/influenced + still influences alot of fucking important works
>>7429777
Where is your face?
>>7429682
It's still relevant.
>>7429682
Basically every question worth asking was asked and dealt with in the Greek renaissance. Ever since then we've just been having the same conversations.
The fact that you use an iphone and surf 4chan literally changes nothing.
>>7429717
>I guess the only reason you guys are so obsessed with the Greeks is that you have your own little points of reference to talk about here on /lit/, like it's a secret code for your secret club, because you're too snobby to talk about normal books with real people.
Or, I don't know, maybe because those "normal books" didn't inaugurate science, mathematics, and philosophy, and directly have a hand in shaping and determining the very categories of thought of the Western world for the last two and a half millennia. Maybe because those "normal books" are already slavish images of what the Greeks accomplished.
>>7429781
>I can't relate to anything without social media
>>7429863
this
It sounds like you're saying the only books you want to read are ones relating to internet culture.
and that's fucking stupid.
I mean damn, you're on a board dedicated to literature, sorry we're more cultured than reading whatever the most popular young adult novels are around.
>>7429682
You are literally retarded. Purpose of books isn't "relatability" in the most superficial way imaginable. Purpose of books is aesthetic (and beauty doesn't age, monologues in Greek tragedies can still send shivers down people's spines and Petrarca's love poetry still can make you cry) and/or insight into the human condition and emotions (and humans are still the same as they were several thousand years ago, when they began writing - the only thing that has changed are the surroundings, our minds and hearts haven't).
>>7429717
>At least if you watch something like Star Wars or Game of Thrones, they're popular series and you can talk about it with your friends, so there's a purpose in getting into them.
Stop
>>7429689
/thread
if you can't see that life was essentially the same back then, you're an autist. reality is and was the same everywhere.
the manly banter of the illiad survives today in the modern military. the poetry of horace is still being heard in every party animal today with a knack for the written word. every unrequited love of myth was as painful and haunting as anything you might read on facebook or /r9k/.
the fact that you think the people of the past were inscrutable aliens says more about your latent autism than it does about the greeks to be honest friend
>>7429682
I hope you're a troll. Otherwise, STEMposter pls go
This thread is dumb but it's the only one with a book chart and I want to post this book chart I just made somewhere.
what's the point of pointing out that theres no point?
how do I even?
>>7432398
I like stories where you have to find a key to get the sword to kill the dragon to get the scroll to defeat the wizard. Did Shakepeare write a book about that?
>>7432413
Yes, all the books he wrote are about that.
>>7429682
>so far removed from our modern world that there's really no way of connecting with them
>>7432398
Dunsany is absolutely great.
>>7429717
Are you a woman, by any chances?
>>7429717
Do... do you only do things because you get to talk about them? I mean I get finding joy in sharing your life experiences with others but like Jesus dude there might be something seriously wrong with you if you don't enjoy things on their own right. That's really weird and concerning
