Obviously adults who read YA books are the lowest of the low, but are teenagers allowed to read them? I have sisters aged 14 and 16, and for Christmas I was thinking about buying them 'The Alchemist' and 'Looking For Alaska' because they're both keen readers and it's exactly the sort of shit that they'll love to read.
However, I am worried that if I encourage them to read YA books now, I might inadvertently lead them into a lifetime of being plebs. So my second option is to buy them Ulysses and Infinite Jest.
What should I do /lit/?
>>7474723
Yes, if you have bad taste once, you will always have bad taste.
You're allowed to like pseud shit like Marx or Nietzsche as a teenager though.
Buy them something between your two extremes, idiot.
There is plenty of good fiction for teenagers.
What are they interested in?
It's pretty hard to into lit if you're a teen girl. Be careful what seeds you sow unless you want to reap lesbians, because this is how you grow lesbians, do you want a family of lesbians anon?
>>7474727
Don't want to get them into Marxism or anarchism 2bh, that'll only lead to them being absolutely insufferable as young adults.
>>7474730
Whatever other teenage girls are interested in I guess (i.e. nothing of any real value). We are a very bookish family though, so they've both read plenty of pop-lit before but I don't think they'd ever come across those two.
>>7474736
I definitely don't want that if I'm being honest.
Also, while I'm at it, I need an xmas gift idea for another sister, who is 20, studies English lit at uni, and is an ardent feminist.
How can I subtly encourage her to adopt a more reasonable line of thinking without giving her something obviously anti-feminist which she'll reject immediately?
>>7474752
>Don't want to get them into Marxism or anarchism 2bh, that'll only lead to them being absolutely insufferable as young adults.
I certainly didn't imply that you should encourage them in that direction. Just that being interested in it is forgivable as long as you're under 16.
Just to offer you an actual suggestions, here's one of my mother's childhood favorites. It's a pretty good Norwegian medieval romance which ultimately encouragescatholic piety and monasticism.
buy her catcher in the rye, all teenagers likes it desu
>>7474723
Yes: I never read YA. At 16, I was reading Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow.
For the 16 yr old: Brave New World, First They Killed My Father, Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass, Papillon, The Trial
For the 14 years old: The Wind in the Willows, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Heidi, The Brothers Karamazov, The Count of Monte Cristo
For the 20 yr old: The Idiot - Dostoyevsky
>>7474727
>You're allowed to like pseud shit like Marx or Nietzsche as a teenager though.
This in itself is a pseud statement by a teenager who has never read Marx or Nietzsche.
>>7474841
>I've never understood anything I've ever read, but it looks good on my shelf.
>>7474844
I turned 20 yesterday so I'm not a teen anymore. I've read enough about Marx and Nietzsche online to know how stupid they are
>>7474876
20-22 is like Pseudo: The Age
>>7474723
By them Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima
>>7474846
What? These are all fine choices for a young person to dip their toes into literature and reading as a hobby.
I don't know his background, but European children tend to read these growing up, I understand literacy in America has fallen over the years but I'm quite confused by your comment.
None of those books are on my shelf, I gifted them on years ago...
Get them some books that are Classics but interesting to plebs, get some Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare.
>>7474775
this sounds reasonable
>>7474723
You know what to do ^_^
http://poopsenders.com/
>>7474876
>I turned 20 yesterday so I'm not a teen anymore. I've read enough about Marx and Nietzsche online to know how stupid they are
>I've heard rumors about these people
>let me base my ignorant opinion on that
Spoken like a true fucking retard.
>>7474882
>I'm quite confused by your comment.
Oh, I believe you are quite confused by a lot of things being that you only pretend to know things.
Believe me. I understand. You're just a fucking retard.
buy one sister Gravity's Rainbow and the other Ulysses
they wont read them now but when you tragically kill yourself a few years down the road they will see the books as your last final failed attempt at communication and start to read them
the GR sister will be plunged into despair by the inanimacy of the modern world and the ever present danger of an unending war but will find some solace in drug use, the occult, and human connection. she may end up speaking to contacting you in the great beyond
conversely the Ulysses sister will see the great beauty of the interconnected world and will understand your death as sad, but also beautiful, and also necessary, and also heroic. she will become either a professor or businesswoman and live a mundane but fulfilled life
>>7474723
Fuck I just read The Alchemist at 22 and liked it
>>7474955
>pretend to know things
Literally only listed some books for young adults and teenagers that might challenge their ideas about western society.
>You're just a fucking retard
Nice meme dude you got me. Your parents don't understand you either right?
>>7474903
this tbqh
>>7474723
Alchemist is a pretty crap book 2bh, learn to into quality YA.
>>7474723
DUDE MONGOLS LMAO
>>7474723
Why not just get them an adult book-for-the-pleb-masses like Child 44?
>>7474723
>you are literally murdering them and raping their souls if you don't get them high brow shit
>/lit/ will really tell you this
Let them either find it on their own, or live in plebitude. There's nothing wrong with pop-lit if that's what they like. Literary fiction isn't written for everybody.
>>7474752
>Don't want to get them into Marxism or anarchism 2bh,
If you say they're readers, than surely they're smart enough to draw their own conclusions about those things and not become loud pseduo-intellectuals.
>>7474841
>Alice in wonderland for 16, brothers karamazov for 14.
Nigga what
>>7474723
Nigger, I read
>The World as Will and Representiation
>Bhagavad Gita
>Myth of Sispyhus
>Epictetus' Discourses
>Meditations by Aurelius
at 16.
once a pleb, always a pleb tbqh my family , get them some good shit.
>>7474880
As an 18 y/o this makes me feel like my beliefs are invalidated and wrong even though they aren't edge lord tier or heavily slanted. How can I develop a conscience to not waste the next 4 years of my ideological development on plebeian shit?
>>7475481
Become an eastern orthodox monk
>>7475496
brb dropping out of college and abandoning family
>>7475481
Everyone on here is like 21, don't worry about it
i was obsessed with being and nothingness by sartre when i was 16. am i fucking autistic?
>are they allowed to read them
Of course they are, there arent any rules for what literature one reads
YA books are there for teenagers to read, doesnt mean theyre pleb, just means they're... teenagers. Kids are pleb because they havent grown into their potential. That's not a bad thing though.
>>7475355
> At 16 I read pseudo patrician lit
> tbqh my family
Your philistinism is showing
Get the fuck out of /lit/
>>7474723
Also that 'The Alchemist' meme isn't even funny. Every one knows Paulo Coelho is a sub human level writer
>>7475734
nah
>being this defensive
>>7474761
how many sisters do you have jeez
>>7474723
Get them Jane Eyre. Easy to read, romantic, good plot, actually /lit/, would appeal to teenaged girls.
Boom problem solved.
Finnegans wake for the 16 year old. Mein kampf for the 14 year old.
What Bloom said about Harry Potter and Stephen King is pretty accurate 2bh. Anyone raised primarily on HP books is likely going to forego actual literary development in favor of easily digestible, empty books.
I read some of the HP books myself, but I soon got distracted by (of all things) a PS2, and when I finally got back into reading in high school, I started with Dosto and other older books I assumed were "good" because of their age, balanced with shit like BEE and Murakami. I moved on from the pop-pomo to the meme trilogy, and now I'm a disgusting 21yo pseud, but, hey!, at least I'm not a pop-fi pleb!
Have sex with the 14-year-old duh
>>7475612
28 in January.
Just get them something good. Something you would enjoy that is also relevant to them. Not some John Green trash.
What the fuck is YA anyway? The term, to me, suggests 18-22, or something. As in actual, legal adults who have only been adults for a short number of years. But all YA books are fucking children's lit with the occasional "damn" and "shit" and some light sexual content. Are people really content reading this stuff?
>>7476288
Reported ;^)
SHUT THE FUCK UP. No one wants you MEME flac. Give me a break how fucking try hard and stupid can you be? You are fucking pollution the atmosphere using extra electricity on someone's server to move your redundant bulky data, literally causing the end of the world. Are YOU fucking stupid? you think global warming is a joke? It's fucking December here and there's not even snow thanks to you cusks like you.
>>7474723
>is the act of reading age appropriate books and things you find interesting pleb?
>are 4 year olds who don't read moby dick and ulysses basically niggers and retards?
>>7474723
My 14 years old sister got into literature by reading Sorrows of Young Werther. I might work with her too.
When I was 16 what got me into reading were french novels ( Maupassant, Stendhal). If you want to introduce her to poetry try with Montale.
>>7476305
A 16 year old should be competent enough
Who would want to read shit?
>>7474723
If they were younger I'd say go ahead, and it might still be okay for the 14 year old
But 16 is around the time that will define whether she challenged herself reading, or just indulges. Don't help in indulging her, attempt to challenge her.
Maybe don't start with those though, I'm not saying they're particularly complicated, but their pretty long, especially infinite jest. Start with some stuff that'll challenge her but will only take a week to read or so.
Like that she won't quit half way and end up being scared of complicated books
>>7476376
Italo Calvino
For the 14 year old, get her something somewhat romantic, and easy reading. Something traditionally written, with linear story lines, but not dull like something from the Bronte sisters.
Try something that also has a fair amount of pop culture surrounding it. Something like Lolita. I guarentee if you have her Lolita, she'd read it, because a number of people see it as a "taboo" book.
For the 16 year old, try something sort of edgy and cool like Vonnegut. Vonnegut is always a good guess with younger people. He's easy to understand, writes fairly simply, but she'll detect that there's something in the book she's missing.
Cat's Cradle would be a good one. Faulkner would also be a good suggestion for a 16 y/o
OR get shitty pulp sci-fi.
>>7474723
People can be smart or idiots at any age. If someone can still read and believe in the depth of YA fiction, they aren't at an intellectual level high enough for anything greater. YA is just a marketing term, it's describing more mental age than the actual intended audience.
Get The Count of Monte Cristo for the 16 year old. It's still got a linear plot, it has commentary on society, very approachable.
Get the 14 year old something like His Dark Materials.
You wanna get them to read more after they read the first book.
Assuming the book is actually well written it's not pleb, but this is a tall order. The fact is that there are plenty of classics that are easy for 13-16 year olds to understand.
>>7476287
YA means teenager, basically 12-18.
>>7474761
Actual quality literature. Anna Karenina maybe.
>>7474723
Who /animorphes/ here?
GOAT YA series.
Of mice and men. Short. easy to read.
Are children pleb if they read fairytales? Are babies pleb if they listen to lullabies?
YA isn't necessarily all bad, some people have gotten so pretentious that they won't even consider anything with the tag and think they're above it though. Have some fun in a while, folks.
>>7476912
Both of those things are better than YA
While we're at it. WhaT kind of books should I introduce to my 16 yr old sis she has potential she's just lazy and somewhat apathetic
Also I don't want her going full white supremacist nor insane sjw feminazi
>>7474999
:^) kek anon was right
Why would you read garbage when you can read actual books that are for everyone? Nothing John Green writes will be remembered in 100 years.
>>7477132
Because life is too short to read boring shit like Moby Dick.
>>7476426
Sophie's World is an excellent suggestion. Seconding that OP. It got me into philosophy when I was 15.
>>7477162
It's rather that the Young Adult spectrum is so wide. There's some that can literally be read by 10 year olds like Harry Potter, but also some slightly more mature ones.
>>7474723
>Obviously adults who read YA books are the lowest of the low
Ok, so you've just eliminated the biggest market in publishing today. I see you'll do well as an author.
>>7477167
Popularity and greatness aren't always mutually inclusive.
>>7474723
The alchemist is gay.
You really need to get them interested in actual literature before they begin thinking that tripe like ASOIAF is good or, God forbid, Harry Potter is the bee's knees.
>>7474723
You should get them some Daphne du Maurier
>>7477139
But reading a riveting tale about a man's hatred towards an animal is time well spent. With trash you're just wasting the short time you have. It's the same reason I'll never understand manchildren playing with their video games. It's a childish waste of time.
>>7477367
>is time well spent
Says who? I can't think of a bigger waste of time. Maybe you enjoyed it, but most people don't, so it's pointless to force it on them. Time you enjoy is time spent well.
>>7477374
>but most people don't
Wut?
>>7474723
Don't do it.
>>7477374
>Only doing things you like, liking easy things
>Regression of culture and morality
>General ennuyeux as a generation grows up popping anti depressants and listening to bland synthetic souless music
>These people grow to run the world sadistically into the ground, drinking from a poisoned well
>The year is 2056, a robot penetrates your anus with the shit vacuum to empty your distended bowels, another robot forces its shaft down your throat and begins pumping in nutrition.
>You float suspended in FreeFlow (tm), an artificial amniotic fluid designed for maximum comfort and mobility. Before your eyes images are displayed, the world's most popular band D 587Hz is playing their hit single D
>The robots finish pumping and sucking, aimlessly you bite your thumb and giggle at the simple shapes and primary colours dancing in front of your vision in tune with the constant droning D completely satisfy your every whim and desire.
>>7477440
translation:
>I'm a masochist, why aren't others masochists like me?! fug, I'll show you all with this amazing strawman!
>>7477246
I wouldn't say so, no. It's mediocre prose. What is does really well is give a surprisingly thorough look at the history of western philosophy through an engaging narrative.
>>7477449
hedonist retard
>>7477563
so, you don't have an argument?
That's fine, please continue suffering and pretending like you want it.
>>7477572
That was not me friend. Who is suffering?
Embracing new ideas is important to grow as a person. You could read Twilight-esque novels until your 40s if they make you feel good by your logic that time was well spent. Surely you don't believe that?
And even more to the point, how would you ever know the things you like if you don't try as many things as possible?
Your entire position is so confused from all these different angles.
I mean on one side of the coin, we have thousands of years of human progress, innovation, arts, history, sciences, all waiting to be discovered by an inquiring mind. And on the other hand we have the neoliberalism of western materialism which states 'do what you love, love what you do!', because you (and everyone else) KNOWS exactly what it is they love right? It's not like companies spend the largest portion of their revenues on marketing their products and broadening consumer bases. That doesn't sound right, if everyone already knows what they like and what they want, why would you ever need to advertise a thing?
Could there be some hidden fallacy at play here. Perhaps if I know nothing, I don't know best? But I know everything because I am me. :^)
>>7477623
Why is it important to grow as a person?
>>7477623
>Embracing new ideas is important to grow as a person.
Growth is not necessarily desirable, nor are old ideas necessarily wrong.
>>7477623
>Embracing new ideas is important to grow as a person. You could read Twilight-esque novels until your 40s if they make you feel good by your logic that time was well spent. Surely you don't believe that?
As long as the person enjoys it, there's no point suffering to 'grow' because that 'growth' is meaningless if you feel like shit.
I'm more of a Epicurean hedonist, I'm not really into sex and drugs, I just think that the majority of one's life is spent worrying and fearing bullshit when you can just enjoy small pleasure and be at ease.
>>7477695
By new I mean undiscovered not novel.
>>7477685
A person needs to be balanced, it is a need like food or drink. Without the knowledge of a well read and broad education one is left to grasp at life through only the filter of unguided personal experience. And due to limits both on time and experience, there are looming dangers ahead: maldevelopment, atrophy, enslavement, a rise of petulant irrationality, the allure of the extreme.
There are we can agree mistakes and decisions best not made. If no, then without a starting point of reference, anchored in reason from a view of nature of man, one is left with only suicide as self-evident and final choice.
Why live when life was thrust upon you, rudely waking you from immaterial sleep, to return to dream is just, the only justice.
Why not learn from those who came before you?
>>7477696
If something makes you feel good you are simply exchanging your power of rationality for masturbatory grace. If you are in a perpetual state of cuming, doesn't the ebullient ejaculation start to leave a bitter, sour taste on your lips?
Are you a man or a slave to your vices? A beast feeding at the trough of appeased ignorance?
I ask these questions not because I expect an answer, for I fear not even if I could entreat you to consideration; would sudden threat of suffering the thought purge them from mind and leave you stricken dumb and deaf to further provocation. I ask them so that any third party to our spastic mastication might themselves answer:
>Isn't only doing the things I want to do all of the time the exact opposite of what I want to be doing?
>>7477687
Whoever first used the non-term "shitposting" should be lined up against a wall and shot. It's absolutely the worst thing to come of this shitty place. There are a lot of good things that can come of 4chan and being able to communicate any idea with anyone around the globe, but you absolute faggot retards decide you want to act retarded and quite literally waste your time.
You cunts and YA novels were made for each other.
>>7476269
Back to /b/.
