I'm a UK 25 year old dilettante stemtard. What are the most important books I should have read in order to not seem like an uncultured lower class person?
Sick to STEM since it actually requires intelligence and skill.
Philosophy and 'high brow' culture is literally just mindless signalling and memery.
You ever see the all white paintings by Robert Rauschenberg?
That's what high culture and philosophy is.
Pure BS.
>>8054325
Orwell, Dickens, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, the Brontes, Hardy.
>>8054325
The Illiad, The Odyssey.
>>8054350
>he doesn't understand Rauschenberg
Hoh boi, there's some Capeshit threads in /tv/ that would be more suited for you lad
>>8054325
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics
>>8054350
Sadly this is correct. Humanities and the novel might've been relevant once upon a time, when it actually mattered what the majority of people thought about society around them.
We're all trapped in the master plan now, and the worst part is that it's probably for the best. The fuck do any of us know about running these massively complex civilizations we're a part of?
But if you want to read for pleasure, try Confederacy of Dunces, Catch-22, Stoner, Flowers for Algernon, Of Mice and Men, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (and the rest of the "Karla trilogy"), Dune, Ender's Game.
Credulous idiots won't be impressed by your reading these titles, but who gives a fuck about them? Reading is good because it offers a more rarefied experience than screen arts. There's also some great offerings on the screen, but if you're an intelligent person, you gotta go wherever the fuck you can to find something that isn't mindless twaddle.
>>8054454
This guy has the right idea if you're purely about appearances. I'd add Don Quixote and some Greek literature (take your pick). Sneer at Hemingway and Steinbeck as naive and quaint. James Joyce will also give you massive cred.
>>8054325
Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Chaucer, Cervantes, Dante, Goethe, Melville, Flaubert, Sterne, James, Tolstoy, Joyce, Beckett, Faulkner, O'Brien, Mann, Kafka, Broch, Stein, Steinbeck, Hawkes, Gass, Gaddis, McElroy, Barth, Coover, Elkin, Theroux, Orlovitz, Rios, Federman, Roubaud, Perec, Queneau, Calvino, Nabokov, Pynchon, Porta, Dixon, Markson, Mathews, Wallace, Vollmann, Pava.
You cannot be cultured until you have read every book by all of these writers.
>>8054516
Can you recommend anything similar in mood to Stoner?
>>8054474
>thinks there's something to understand about throwing a bunch of shit onto a canvas and calling it art
>>8054529
Willa Cather, especially Death Comes for the Archbishop and My Antonia.
Butchers Crossing and The Land Breakers by NYRB are often paired with it as well.
OP here. Sadly I agree with >>8054516 and >>8054350 and I'm even the Munchhausen trilemma shit poster but I am unironically looking for an answer to my OP.
The below text is from a different topic I made where I share my view:
Guys, intellectually I'm all spooked out. I can't stand philosophy because of all the unfalsifiable garbage. Many fields like economics etc are just applied common sense and stamp collecting. I see novels as nothing but entertainment despite pretentious people claiming life / philosophical insights and tonnes of people will consider you a disgusting plebeian if you don't initially read shitloads of boring as fuck canon novels.
I think I am painfully adapting to the idea of the Internet age / information overload by abandoning any pretension that I can be an all rounder or even dilettante in everything. There are ten trillion books called "Introduction to [broad and important field]", even if you only have one of each field.
History is similar to novels. Shitloads of reading along with a shitload pretension thrown on top telling you that you truly cannot no nuthin unless you have an in depth understanding of the Greeks / Romans / Christianity / USA / WW1 / WW2 / financial systems / or shitloads of other topics I can't stand it. And then there's current events. I don't care about climate change, outer space, inequality, China, the EU (as long as it doesn't stir up too much shit), applied psychology, the education system, diversity (as long as people aren't treated badly), Russia, South America, refugees, nutrition, mental health, and more. Admitting just one of these would make me an iredeemable idiot, no doubt.
Has anyone else had similar thoughts? The spooks are powerful and must be removed but their removal leaves your mind in a promordial state that is more susceptible to spooks than before.
>>8054532
>calling it art
>art
Why are stemtards the most spook'd? It baffels me that one could be presented with the happenstance meaningless materialism of the sciences and still be so consumed by metaphysical convictions. If there's anything philosophy can do, it's curing it's provide therapy to the conditioning of history.
>>8054544
You arent a computer, and no man is an island.
You live in society, even as a NEET, and part of that society is the interaction of people and peoples.
I wont disagree that a liberal arts degree is retarded in today's job market, but to disavow the creation of art, beauty, and the study of humanism is to deny what you are. These "spooks" are what define you.
>>8054544
>I'm all spooked out.
>unfalsifiable garbage
First of all, falsification and the nedd of falsifying is a spook too. Perhaps the most permeating spook of our time. Some Hume and Popper should do you good.
>>8054355
This.
>>8054529
I'm actually not that well read. I never seek out books similar to a book that I've enjoyed, though. I'm afraid of spoiling the magic by being made aware of cliches and familiar elements and structure. I want it to remain a unique experience.
>>8054562
As I repeat many fucking times, if you want to wave your unfalsifiable dick about then be my guest. But stop saying that your dick is better than any other dick when the choice of measuring device / criteria would also be unfalsifiable. I don't make ten trillion Munchhausen trilemma topics to cry over the limits of reason, I do it to attack people who think that their ideas are better than others (usually expressed by appealing to authorities such as famous institutions or people)
The stemboys are killing me. Just a bunch of fedoratippers from reddit watching dawkins
>>8054544
What you are missing from reading about novels is that it gives you a bigger perspective on the world. Through reading you get to see different viewpoints on various subjects without having to leave your room. This makes you more adaptive to the ever-changing world and improves your intuitive "Theory of Mind" or whatever you want to call it. This helps you navigate social environments, influence people through superior vocabulary and generally make you a better learner. Of course you should not only read novels but since you imply novels are only for their entertainment value, I felt impelled to answer.
>>8054544
Truth is, you just gather knowledge just as much needed to get money. A lot of it. Then you can pay someone who knows his shit about anything.
>>8054544
Positivism is out of vogue, anon. Feynman tried bringing back, but the intellectual climate has evolved beyond it and even the worst offenders of scientism force themselves to understand and speak a philosophic language. As long as there are things out of reach of a microscope, speculative thought will be required. Good luck, forcing autism unto yourself amd those around you, when you could just read and save yourself the trouble.
>>8054590
>novels [...] helps you navigate social environments, influence people through superior vocabulary
You haven't been here long have you?
I'm probably the most well-read and profoundly cerebral individual on this board and I have not left my mother's house in six years.
>>8054590
You may say that but the idea of the NEET is particularly controversial on lit due to all of the time he has to do nothing but read. lit is repulsed by this extreme and I think this contradicts its view that reading is good
>>8054576
>As I repeat many fucking times, if you want to wave your unfalsifiable dick about then be my guest.
You have literally never mentioned once in this thread. Calm down.
>But stop saying that your dick is better than any other dick when the choice of measuring device / criteria would also be unfalsifiable.
This a strawman. No one itt has said anything of this nature.
>ilemma topics to cry over the limits of reason, I do it to attack people who think that their ideas are better than others (usually expressed by appealing to authorities such as famous institutions or people)
This has nothing to do with my reply.
You are spook'd, anon. You claim to renounce authority, yet you cling to and obviously long for it. Why does philosophy need to be falsify to not be "garbage"? Again, read Hume and Popper. They offer a contrasting opinion to whoever spook'd you into believing what you do.
>>8054599
That's your problem, it is not related to books.
>>8054604
I don't know where you get the idea that I was talking about NEET's, I am just saying it is helpful in the real world. The engineers I know, who read in their free time are many times more successful than the ones who do not read in my opinion.
t. Engineer.
>>8054590
lol reading fiction doesn't help you navigate social environments or make you a better learner or even helps you influence people by vocabulary, god if that's what you think influences people, you obviously haven't left your basement in a while.
>>8054325
Plato (especially Republic)
Iliad / Odyssey
The Bible (KJV)
Paradise Lost
Divine Comedy
Shakespeare (especially Hamlet)
That should be a good start.
>>8054616
Sigh. Just read more, it helps. Why I even bother posting meaningful replies here any more beats me.
>>8054616
Just because you're an autist, doesn't mean the rest of us are. Reasing is an effective way to develope more complex senses of empathy and communication.
>>8054325
People are always going to try and put you into a box and most of the time regardless of what you say they will try to make it fit a narrative of "anon doesn't know THIS thing that normal non stems might know" or similar. Most people today are so uninterested in discussion or w/e.
Beyond that just read. Find something small to look into and read around it. Find a puzzle.
Oh looks it's THIS thread again.
>>8054325
>UK
>25-year-old
>Dilettante
>Stemtard
Mate, are you me?
>>8054639
>thinks shutting yourself in fictional worlds is a way to develop empathy and communication
>calls others autists
kek
>>8054759
>UK
>23
> post grad stem
>well read in lit and philosophy
Feels good man
There is nothing more pleb than cheating your way into patricianhood. Put in the work, motherfucker.
>>8054886
>>shutting yourself
>putting words in another person's mouth to prove his point
