Do people only read so they can act pretentious feel superior or is there an actual valid reason to read?
Do people post threads so they can pretentious and feel superior, or is there an actual valid reason to create pointless threads?
>>7579777
If the thread is pointless then by definition it there would be no valid reason to post.
>>7579777
And this is a serious question since in my experience when reading I haven't come soon anything that has any real value.
>>7579775
I'm sure you have probably encountered pretentious faggots but true patricians like us don't talk shop in front of poor losers like you with your gameboys and Net Flicks. It is more of a silent disgust. This is shortly followed by a sort pity, we want to pat you on the head like a small dog or child.
Now run along now little sport
>>7579817
This has always angered me. That right there is just arrogance for thinking that just because you can read more fluently than me you are superior to me. I had a friend like this who just made feel like shit and made me angry at myself and made me think I'm just an idiot when I can't really help it.
>>7579775
Some of them read for enjoyment. /lit/ mostly reads to be pretentious and has weak critical faculties.
>>7579825
That anon is actually part of the pretentious lot. You can tell by his diction that he's a shitty writer, if he's ever produced anything, and that he hasn't internalized any of the stylistic elements of "good" literature that he's read.
>>7579775
I read coz it makes me feel smarts ahuehue.
>>7579832
I don't have anything against people who do that but I just don't like when people go out and put other people down for not reading as much as them or being less intelligent.
>>7579825
That wasn't serious m8 but now I feel bad. Your friend falls into the pretentious faggot category. I know many a true patrician and they never never denigrate a pleb's taste or intelligence. in conversation they always make the pleb feel like he/she is speaking gospel even if it is cringeworthy retardation
>>7579778
If life is pointless then by definition there would be no valid reason to live.
>>7579848
meaning is not prescribed, but neither is it proscribed. grow the fuck up.
>>7579849
no one said a damn thing about meaning here pal I'm just trying to refute anon's logic by switching out some words to provoke some thought.
>>7579830
>calls someone else pretentious
>harshly dismisses a shitpost's diction
>>7579846
That's still kind of degenerating in itself but if the person never knew I guess it wouldn't be. I sort of enjoy reading but sometimes I just figure I could be doing something that gives me just as much, if not more, pleasure and with less effort and frustration.
>>7579855
Life -- and shitposting -- are pointless only insofar as it they have no prescribed meaning. There are any number of points to life. Or shitposting.
>>7579857
>shitpost has shitpost diction
>i'm supposed to take it seriously and not try to defend the anon being bullied by the shitpost
wow fuck you pal
>>7579861
bro if you don't like reading then why the fuck do you do it?
>>7579867
Thanks anon. It just seems that so called "educated" people like to talk down to people with their "superior" knowledge when a lot of the time that superior knowledge is just bull shit, or maybe I'm just too naive to see the truth. I'm not very good at reading you see.
My dad once said he preferred reading to other forms of entertainment because it's the only thing that can properly take his mind off all the shit going on in his life that he has to worry about. When watching a movie it's really easy for your mind to drift, and the movie will still keep going if it does. To read a book you have to give it your full attention.
So I think that's one reason. Another is that reading is enjoyable.
>>7579869
Because I fear people looking at me as a degenerate and I also have a believe that maybe if I keep doing it I will find something special in it.
>>7579775
I read because I like it, anon.
It's difficult to explain, and I can't say it happens with every writer, but sometimes, when I find a special connection to the material, it almost feels as if I'm experiencing what the writer was experiencing or, at least, understanding what the writer was trying to communicate to me, the reader, and to the rest of the world. Again, it's difficult to explain, but it almost feels as if the writer and I are both plugged into some sort of conduit through time and space located somewhere in the imagination, and I'm thinking their thoughts and feeling their emotions and understanding through my shared experiences.
Sometimes I actively seek introspection because I think it's important and I want to read about someone else's perspective. I want to reflect on what others have thought while forming my own ideas and opinions.
And sometimes, I just like to better understand the history of us and how the story of all of us has been passed down through time, generation to generation. Storytelling, as an art form.
Sometimes, I just like to read a good story.
It's okay if you haven't found a particular writer that gives you a consistent positive or introspective feeling or if you haven't felt challenged by literature yet or if you aren't really interested in storytelling. Keep searching. It's good that you're here. Believe it or not, you can learn a lot just by being somewhere. Even here. Eventually, you'll start to absorb things and your taste will start to take shape and you'll start seeing which direction you want to go.
The imagination is a magical thing, anon. You never know where it's going to take you, but sometimes, as with all magic, you've just got to believe.
>>7579874
Thanks for the kind response anon.
>>7579873
>XLIX. When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, If Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.
Don't worry about it, anon. If you're a bad reader, there is a lot of literature out there still to be enjoyed.
>>7579882
I'm not a very good reader, especially when it comes to visualization, but I try my best. I just feel like I'm missing out on something because of my lack of good reading skills.
>>7579892
Nah, you're fine. You'll get better. No one is just automatically a good reader. Well...maybe Bloom. But just like anything else, to get better at it, you've gotta keep doing it. So keep it up. Just get a little progressively harder each time. Challenge yourself, little by little. You don't go into a gym for the first time and put all the weights on the bench, do you? No, that'd be stupid. You have to build up those muscles first. Work hard? You'll get there. No sweat.
>>7579900
What kind of reading should I start with?
>>7579906
What was the last thing you read?
>>7579775
I'd like to think it's not black and white. Sure, reading gives you a cool image, but I don't think you'd stick around with reading if you didn't inherently enjoy reading
>>7579908
Boys in the Boat.
>>7579912
Interesting. I haven't read that one.
Why'd you decide to pick it up and read that one in the first place? Do you usually like narrative nonfiction? Did you read it because it was about sports? Did you like it? What did you like about it?
It's fine if you didn't like it. What didn't you like about it?
>>7579910
I agree it give you a cool image, or at least gives yourselves the illusion that you have a cool image (just like smoking), and I have no objection to anyone who wants to read just so they can think of themselves as an intellectual as long as they don't use that to belittle others.
>>7579919
I read it because my mom bought it for me, and I did enjoy it while at the same time getting frustrated. What I liked about it though was just the feeling I get when I follow a story in the context of a group of hard working young men in the 1930s.
>>7579879
Dude, you're not degenerate because you don't like reading. Literature is not inherently better than any other medium. I definitely encourage you to keep trying, but if you really hate it you shouldn't force yourself.
It sounds like you have some pretty shitty friends if they've made you this insecure about it.
>>7579929
Thanks, and I think that part of the insecurity is just because of the way I interpret emotionally what people say to me. I don't think any of them actually meant to cause any harm.
>>7579825
Anon, you're projecting your negative experiences from your friend onto others.
"Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself" - Adolf Hitler
If you "can't really help it", then accept it and be at peace. Accept that you aren't good at it, and start working on it by reading 10 or 20 pages per day. If you don't want to do that, then stop caring about it.
Also, someone (your friend) who must continuously validate their successes against others is insecure because of the fact they can't believe in themselves internally, which is the mark of a confident competent person. That, or your behaviour when they act out is providing them with positive reinforcement to keep doing it, so how you're responding is making them feel good.
>>7579935
Do you get frustrated reading school assignments also?
>>7579928
Hmm. Hard working young men in the 30's, huh? That's awfully specific.
If you want something considered a little more literary, you could give Steinbeck a try. He was all about the 30's, but you're likely to read him in school, eventually. You could try one of Hemingway's books, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and see if you like it. He's not as difficult as you might think. You'll read To Kill A Mockingbird in school, too, if you haven't already.
If you're not necessarily locked to men in the 30's, but still stories of hard working men from years gone by, you may like, The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe. It's more like a journalism style about America's first astronauts.
You may want to try someone like Studs Terkel. He's a journalist from Chicago who writes in that journalist style. He wrote a book called Hard Times, an oral history of the people who lived through the depression.
It's tough anon, I've been older than you for a while now so I'm a little out of touch with your age range. Just keep trying. Maybe start with something a little bit easier than I'd suggest. Ask your teachers. Ask the librarians what the other kids are reading. You'll eventually find a base and figure out what you'll start to like.
Reading is exploring other people's consciousness which fascinates me greatly. It's a way of connecting and finding something to perhaps identify with, and anchor myself in; without it i feel like lost at sea.
>>7579775
All of 4chan is like this.
/a/ is pretentious about their god awful taste in children's cartoons.
/v/ doesn't even like video games at this point
If you don't use Linux don't bother posting on /g/
You're on the asshole of the internet, l2shitpost and deal with it or go back to Reddit.
>>7579775
It's probably a part of it. Ultimately, I'd rather waste my time reading than playing a video game. At least I might learn something new that way.
4chan is proof that nerd logic is limited
>>7579775
no, the more I read the sadder I get that more people don't read as much as I do. I actually wish I were far more "pleb" than I am for what I've read, and among the elite classes of previous centuries this would probably be the case. But nowadays I'm by a longshot the most well read person I know. I'd much prefer being an average joe in this department, since it would mean that everyone could enjoy literature like I do, and literature would flourish like never before. Even at the cost of my feeling superior.
>>7580982
Why do you want everyone to read?
Why do you want literature to "flourish?"
>>7581010
> Why do you want everyone to read?
because I want pop culture and the brainlessness of mass consumerism to largely disappear. Even the most "basic" books of literature, if everyone read them at a reasonable level of understanding, would drive them to read more and ignore all the junk companies are trying to distract them with.
>>7581019
reading would, in that situation, be pop culture (see: popular culture). Books are merely another form of consumerism, albeit one spends time more than money but what is money if not a representation of time. You have too much faith in literature my friend.
>>7579825
But your OP is raging at intelligent people as though they were to blame for your stupidity.
>>7580293
>l2shitpost and deal with it
The irony here is you're cancerous for the same reason the redditors are; they think 4chan is for shitposting above all else.
>>7581019
>people weren't materialistic before the invention of television and computers
>physical books aren't a form of consumerism
>>7579775
Shill thread
