ITT: Books that a lot of people pretend are good, when they're actually shit objectively
Starting this thread with the obvious.
I feel sorry for you that you were too gay to like infinite jest.
>>7491304
1984 and any other fiction Orwell has written, I like his non-fiction stuff but he's a very shit version of Bulgakov.
>>7491304
Look I get it, the obsession with it goes to far. But to say it isn't a phenomenal work is just blatant bait.
>>7491401
>to say it isn't a phenomenal work is just blatant bait
This is what /lit/ actually believe.
>>7491401
>Infinite Jest
>phenomenal
HAHAHA
>>7491304
>actually shit objectively
>i'm unable to conceive of people who aren't me
0/10. no one that narcissistic could ever willingly be anonymous.
>I don't understand the book
>wahh let me cry on lit
The meme trilogy
Honestly, how did this book become so fucking popular?
See, if you guys actually read it you'd realize the praise isn't entirely hot air. Don't misinterpret trend whores pretending to like the book (without having read it) as the book actually being shit.
That aside the Dune series is highly overrated.
>>7491379
Isn't Zamyatin the Russian he's usually compared to?
>>7492647
Because it makes you feel smart while being easy to read.
>>7492667
FUCK YOU
>>7492670
rekt, kekt, pwnt, BTFO, etc. and yes this time i AM samefagging
Whenever I talk with close friends, students and professors I almost always come upon a divide.
One one side are those who feel intellectually inferior or very self-conscious about how they appear. They will unanimously accept post-structuralism and meta-modernism as 'important' and 'life-changing' paradigm's and debate endlessly how it is trickling down into the masses, and how we will see a shift from ideology and dogma into one of material rejection and independent free thinking, and they go on and on about a new renaissance in all of the arts and how technology is a bridge etc. I listen often just nodding and suspect they are trying to appear intelligent to me, but really have no clue what they are talking about. On a personal level, most of them are professionally mediocre at what they do, they went to fine schools and universities, have decent jobs and are the type to go wine tasting on the weekend, or discuss buying a summer home or lament fluctuations on the stock market and how it affects their portfolio and all of these sorts of things.
On the other side, are those I consider geniuses of which I have not met many, and my childhood friends who are now all working class blue collar and struggling under various financial and health pressures. This camp just tends to talk about the things they love and are passionate about. Again, I listen and nod as they talk about some open clause in structured field theory that was overlooked since the 1920s but recently rediscovered and now can be modeled and how they are awaiting proposal approval for cpu time on the university's supercomputing cluster and how this could be the next big thing that finally solves some conjecture I've never head about, then they hurry to a whiteboard and start scribbling down notation I vaguely remember from my post-grad days and I'm completely lost, but their earnest energy and vitality isn't lost on me. Or how friends I haven't seen in 6 months watch their little toddlers crawling around playing with plush dragon toys, people whose bookshelves consist of dvd series and rpg manuals and true crime, and who couldn't give two shits about any literature far too busy living their lives and paying bills, spending what little free time they have with hobbies that recapture a time of effortless freedom and excitement from their childhood, sharing these hobbies with their kids....
There is a chasm between these two groups. One is unhappy, dull, unanimated, I'm convinced if I held up a mirror they would stop mid-sentence, mesmerized by their own reflect, and mortified by it also. The other just seems naive, innocent, always busy, always moving but with some purpose. To them the world seems real, or at least they seem real.
So objectively to me, there are two kinds of people those who care deeply about something and will tell you straight away what it is, and those who care about themselves only, the difference being will never ever tell you this.
>>7491379
I loved 1984 so much, I bought animal farm and liked that too. Is Orwells other fiction even better? and I don't like "the invisible man" by H.G. Wells it just seemed silly, and the main character didn't seem too have a reason for anything except for being invisible....
>>7492690
Is what you are saying is no one can truly appreciate great work not just literature related but in any field. AS in only if a true genius(which there is not many) says this is amazing everyone will just follow with same outlook just trying to appear intelligent. and then there are other people who just don't give a fuck about the great work being done and just want to live there lives........ :9 makes me sad..... feel as though no one can appreciate anything .. ahh what is the meaning of life :s
>>7492704
Appreciation at some point has to come from creation. You're not just a computer hard drive storing information, you also need to give something back. A burning desire to create the thing you love. Many people set their hopes and dreams unrealistically high (could be western fallacy of you can be anything), problem is they climbed this rickety staircase to such a great height they're afraid to even consider looking back down let alone jump off.
In eastern cultures you put career above yourself and family above career. So you become honor bound to do things you might not otherwise do. Fulfillment in that sense is much deeper in terms of richness of life experience, you start from hate and move to love.
If you always start from love where else can you go? You begin that climb all over again, eventually blinded and incapable of turning back. How likely is it that you will write the next great novel? If it was as simple as just reading all the best ones wouldn't everyone that's well read be an amazing author, clearly there's something more to it. Talent, ability, creativity.
I think the guy who spends all his time writing and only reading himself is probably more likely to produce great work, than someone obsessed with idols and giants.
>>7492679
Haha fuck off lad
IJ is overrated yes, but it's not bad.
>>7492878
This. I know IJ doesn't really compete with the heavyweights of early 20th century literature, but among books written after 1990 it rates pretty damn highly. There are too many contrarians on lit for us to unanimously come to this obvious conclusion.
>>7492850
Do you agree that an idea is worth more than anything in this world.... Just having the thought before anyone else means you mean something. I guess you can appreciate as much as you want but you should give some of your thoughts back... This is why I don't like people who dismiss other ideas before they have even finished expressing their thoughts.. I guess goes the saying "If you are the smartest person in the room you, you are in the wrong room"
>>7492926
Most important things in this world are: ecology, environment, nuclear weapons, human rights
Pertaining to the individual: justice, courage, wisdom and self-control.
'Idea' is a nebulous concept, analogous to 'Object' in modern usage. It is a careful constructed myth to trick you into buying emotions.
An idea (as you might imagine it, not as it actually is, see above) would be:
>'Tape all children's thumbs together so that they learn from an early age they can only grab things with the aid of other children.'
That's completely useless. We already have a foundation of good ideas, that's how we got this far. It's a question of not letting tyranny, greed and base desires overrule them.
