>be me
>english major
>live in a suite with three koreans
>all stem majors
>early afternoon
>reading a novel in the common room
>one of the koreans comes home
>does a double take
>smiles
>"you're reading a book???"
>smile guiltily
>"yeah, i guess"
>laughs heartily and shakes his head
>goes in his room and shuts the door
he's shaking his head out of pity because you don't have Korean Privilege
>>7732136
>reading a novel in the common room
That's pretty modest. When I decide I'm going to read, I go into my room mate's room, announce to him loudly that I am going to read as well as what I'm reading, then I sit and read at his desk and grunt at interesting passages.
>>7732136
Get outta that stem school, my man
>>7732136
Can't blame him, there isn't any good Asian literature, much less Korean
wat novl?
>>7732180
>no good asian literature
Kill yourself, my man
haha knew I'd find u here white-boy
He always come on this stupid forum!
Watch lot of dick girl porn, we found it yesterday lol
>>7732180
>being this pleb
>>7732180
Says somebody who hasn't read any legitimate Asian literatureI haven't read any Korean lit tho
>work shitty menial labour job in a warehouse
>breaktime and the cafeteria is empty
>decide I'll try to read for a while
>one by one others keep coming up
>one by one they all keep asking me what i'm reading
>feebly make jokes to deflect the conversation so i don't have to try and explain i'm reading dosteovsky's the gambler and what it's about (a gambler)
>fourth time someone asks "what ya reading?" i curtly reply "a book"
>give up and leave
>>7732234
Just keep doing it and eventually people realize you're that guy who reads on his break and they won't ask you anymore.
>>7732197
I'm Korean and our literature is in dire straits. People just don't read anymore, that is to say they don't read fiction
>the Japanese occupation was simultaneously the worst and the best thing that could've happened to Korean lit
>>7732136
Try being a Korean Eng lit major IN Korea.
In all seriousness though, my condolences for having to deal with our shitty people.
>>7732234
tfw nobody asks me what i'm reading
>>7732890
Don't you have Catholics? They always have great writers, even in Japan.
>>7732914
Why are you worried about flirting? Haven't you accepted your lack of looks yet?
>>7732893
Can you recommend anything from Korea?
>>7732147
kek
>>7732902
We do have Catholics, but they're a quiet bunch. Evangelicals bully them constantly.
we have the Americans to thank for psychotic Korean evangelicals building megachurches and performing faith healings.
>wanted based orthodox christendom
>got a bastardised version of degenerate American Protestantism, the worst and most virulent strain of Protestantism
>true Christianity will never set foot in Korea for at least a hundred years
It'll take generations to undo the damage, and that's if we even could undo it.
>>7732902
and to really answer your question, even if Camus or DFW was reborn in Korea as a writer no one would bother to read their work because the Korean people at large are, and I'm not exaggerating, aggressive real life manifestations of STEMlord memes.
They'll read Michael Sandel because they think it'll give them an edge at playing the stock market or something but if you asked the average Korean if they know Bloom, all you'd get would be a stupid blank expression.
>>7732976
read <A Lucky Day> by Hyun Jin Geon. entry level stuff but you'll get an idea of occupation era Korean lit
>>7733037
Some of America's contributions to world culture are truly hilarious.
>>7733037
You're implying post-war Korea wasn't a breeding ground for cultish behavior in the first place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwkdGr9JYmE
>>7733102
I've paid off all my student loans and my parents have liberal Western values, so no.
and if Hell is a constant state of general disdain and agitation at real life STEM memers then yes it is Hell.
>break time
>pull my paradise lost out
>this snake is very convincing, but Eve a dumb bitch desu, i'd have just asked for a new hoe.
>co-worker comes by
>hey anon, what's that your reading, a novel?
>it's paradise lost
>oh? Never heard of it. Is it new?
>no, it's old, like 1660.
>oh, like a classic book.
>yeah, it's like a really influential epic poem.
>epit?
>epic. It means like, really large in scope.
>oh, what's it about?
>it's the story of the war in heaven and the garden of Eden.
>oh sorry I'm not religious...
>he walks away quickly
>>7732943
I'm not worried, I'm just saying there is no reason to strike up a conversation by asking what I'm reading.
>>7733330
>I'm just saying there is no reason to strike up a conversation by asking what I'm reading.
Don't you fucking get that it's just a pretense to start a conversation?
No wonder there are so many bitter virgins on here.
>>7733353
That's exactly what I said, mate. People don't ask me what I'm reading because they don't want to start a conversation.
>>7733358
do you want a relationship?
>>7733588
>“Both Chinese and Japanese writers have already received the Nobel Prize,” its president, Kim Seong-kon, wrote in the Korea Herald, in 2012. “I believe it is about time that a Korean writer is given the prestigious prize as well.”
Eh, not with this attitude, my stemfag friend.
>>7733611
Korea is a highly meritorious country, the third modern one that makes east Asia not look like a third world shithole. They take education and information extremely seriously--it's all they have to fend off China, Russia, and Japan, really. Now, their national epic is redundant to China's Three Kingdoms, and their better-known philosophies are systematizations of Confucian and Buddhist documents, but I have no doubt there is Nobel-worthy literature sitting there, even if they take another 30-40 years for recognition. It's already known they can produce world class films, particularly good in a market where Hollywood has stagnated into remakes, sequels, and comic book adaptations. So why not literature as well? It's not like their other creative talents are limited to silly music videos and doing in-between animation for Japan... right?
>>7732136
>English student
>reading a book
>2016
Why read when you have Wikipedia
>tfw you want to read a contemporary book about the decline of korean culture now
>tfw there are no cultured koreans left to write it
whimper_not_a_bang.jpg
>>7733070
>I wonder what life would've been like if Christianity had a proper beginning in Korea.
Either Japan, Philippines, or Heavenly Kingdom era China.
I didnt end well regardless.
>>7733588
>“It’s a very sophisticated language, Korean. Personally, I believe there’s lots of good literature in Korea. It’s frustrating. I think the Nobel committee needs to learn Korean first. Then a Korean will win the prize.”
Pffhahahahaha. Yeah, sure.
>>7733645
That's not how it works. First you have to have the authors and then you have authors with a body of work.
>Korea is a highly meritorious country
You work for the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, don't you?
>read book infront of friends when we go to the beach
>girl asks what I'm reading
>was something set in the west - can't remember
>asks me to read it out to her while she sun bathes
>read in old cowboy accent for a few pages while she laughs before falling asleep
was nice
>>7732190
Fuckin lost
>>7733674
Doesnt the Nobel Lit team rely on a host of translators and analysis so that language isnt a standing concern?
>>7733588
What a depressing read. The country is taking a technocratic approach to push for a literature Nobel when the only possible choice is an 80 year old monk who's works are despised by the reading public, themselves being a tiny minority.
>>7732190
lmao
>>7733702
sort of. historically it seems the committee has definitely been biased towards languages where committee members are more involved in, whether out of personal interest or perhaps financial motivations (iirc one of the committee members was the primary translator of mo yan's works as an example)
>>7733674
The Korean language is actually pretty legit. If I had to base an advanced alphabetic system on any existing system, it'd be Hangeul, with added sounds.
I don't work for that institution, but I am a North Korean time traveler who comes from a re-unified Korea that has gained massive swathes of land from Manchuria and Russia.
>does a double take
this is fucking great, gotta love the gooks
>>7733656
Why eat when you have IVs
>tfw ugly
>tfw bearded and dress like a hobo/mature student
>always look people directly in the eyes
People are too afraid to even look at me, much less ask me what I'm reading. It's great desu. On the rare occasion that someone does engage me in conversation it's usually a thinly-veiled attempt to express surprise that someone as bydlo looking as me reads books in his free time.
>>7732136
STEMfags just don't get literature. See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sgz_5iIRdg
Ugh....
>>7734000
Stems can't into lotsa things. That's why they're number jockeys for patricians.
>>7733045
>if you asked the average Korean if they know Bloom, all you'd get would be a stupid blank expression.
If you'd ask the average German if they knew Bloom, all you'd get would be a stupid blank expression
>>7734035
>biology
>the softest of the STEMs
kek. too dumb to make it in engineering i take it?
>>7733045
>>7733037
I understand, but the sacramental and thoughtful nature of Catholicism alongside the Church should at least get people interested in reading theology and spiritual writings. And there's plenty of that.
One Endo from the 0.1% of Catholics in Japan is what I was trying to say. But than again, Japs do read and have a literary tradition from what I understand.
>>7734039
>7734039
Biology is pretty fucking neat. Not hard to see why someone would like to major in it. Stop with the memes.
>>7734000
But that video seems to be from a reader (kind of). The "STEM" bits of it aren't all that STEMMy.
My Korean roommate is a design student loves Dante's Inferno so I'm golden. He does get jealous when the bulk of my homework is reading dank lit though.
>>7734000
hahaha this video is the best thing ever
>>7734039
You know, perhaps there are people that major in something because they are interested to it, not because they want to win internet dickswinging tournaments against virgin STEMlords
>>7734079
that's ridiculous. i hope you die from embarrassment from having made such an absurd statement
>>7734039
More like not dumb enough yaknowumsayin
>>7733141
these fucking millennials are the doom of civilization
>>7734083
I hope you die of AIDS, niggerlover
>>7734109
pls dont say bad words on 4chan
>>7734109
don't you ever reply to me again you little shit
>>7734109
Um, mods?
>>7734190
Okay I won't
>>7732136
>be stem graduate
>live with a lit grad and a philosophy undergrad
>work at uni all day
>come home, small talk with them
>"i got a job at burger king today"
>he is reading moby dick
>phil undergrad is clubbing on monday evening
>shake my head and go skype my girlfriend
>>7734205
>he's clubbing on monday evening
>you work all day
who's the real idiot here?
This is the prime example of a cuck thread for cucked up Humanishits cuckbois. How dumb can one be to actually pay for a piece of paper that tells the world that you're a dumb guy who paid for a piece of paper that tells the wolrd that you've mastered a fucking hobby and paid big money for it? And for what? To work as an enlightened McDonald's clerk? Holy cow, it's delusions of grandeur mixed with plain stupidity, you jests!
Hah, I'm so glad I've dodged that shit and went straight into STEM and now I'm a fully fulfilled man with a great job and peer respect and US$ 120k in my paycheck.
I'll live a good life at you're expense.
>>7734212
you
>>7734234
yeah okay we believe you
say hello to your mom and pop for us
>>7734234
I'm 19 years old.
I am handsome, smart, athletic and virile.
I have a novel that is in it's final editing stage, and a creative writing professor at my college has read the first draft and thinks it's saleable.
I have a girlfriend who is confident, articulate, playful and spontaneous.
I have a small group of interesting friends from different social and academic backgrounds, and I also have many other acquaintances who see me as a reliable source of humour and good company.
Both my parents are alive and in good health.
I have no regrets.
I have already experienced three existential crises, the latter of which was described as having the depth and profundity of a man twice my age.
I am a passionate lover, a sharp thinker, and a trader of witty repartee.
I am not self-pitying, meek or needlessly humble.
I will live a good life at your expense.
>>7732147
heheheehehhe
>falling for stale pasta
>>7734252
are you retarded?
>>7732197
Korean lit is terrible, and not just because no one reads. As a foreigner with rudimentary knowledge of the language I've seriously considered seeing if I can write some short stories or something after my next trip gives me a chance to brush up a bit more.Probably going to start by translating some SF into Korean first though.
>>7732192
>pleb
How do you up-boat on this site? Or do I just screenshot it to upload it on r/4chan?
>>7734000
Actual /lit/ funny. Where did they find that pic of Bret Easton Ellis?
>>7734294
If Korean lit gained international recognition, what themes do you believe it would emphasize (as RU emphasized societal corruption, and JP is best known for despair and surreality)
>>7734247
>>7734247
You sound like you're intelligent, Nihilistic and have a wicked sense of humor
>>7734341
>JP is best know for despair and surreality
>kawabata
>mishima
>oe
>soseki
>tanizaki
>etc.
>"surreal"
retard who only reads murakami detected
>>7733141
I zozzled and then I felt an overwhelming sadness knowing that I am trying to be a writer in the most anti-intellectual generation yet
>>7734365
Yes, and Murakami is more discussed than any of them, what's your point faggot bitch?
>>7734396
harry potter is more discussed than moby dick too what's your point faggot?
>>7734407
that ur a troll
>>7734417
go back to r/books it's painfully obvious that's where you're from
>>7734422
ill go back when u do
>>7733037
>got a bastardised version of degenerate American Protestantism, the worst and most virulent strain of Protestantism
Brazilian here, I know that feel Koreanbro.
>>7732890
I've read a lot of korean manwa and it's always horrible, why is it so hard for you guys to tell a story?
>>7732234
>tfw can't read in public because anxiety kicks in, brain is on a knife's edge/I can feel every object around me looking at me/am in life or death mode
>>7733679
Hope it was Blood Meridian
>>7734469
i feel i have too much skin drying up and my nose is cluttered
>>7733045
Anything more recent you can recommend? Even pulpier stuff.
>>7733141
This is the future youBoomer radicalschose.
>>7733360
I'm in one.
>>7732190
Kek
>>7732234
Surely there's a quiet place, can't read in the box room or outside once when it's warm again?
>>7734341
Some of these might sound like I'm trolling, but I'm being dead serious.
>Cultural inferiority complex.
>Pop-culture vapidity that requires so much diligent effort to produce that it actually circles back around to being worthwhile, at least for the craftsman.
>Resentment at the inability to break away from ancient cultural patterns.
>The merits of lies over truth.
>>7733037
Yo I'm aProtestantChristian and the Korean megachurches are like someone read a leftist polemic against American Evangelical Protestantism and then decided to make it real.
Although the anti-Japanese/nationalistic aspects were amusing. One church I went to advertised that it was built on the ruins of an occupation-era Shinto temple.
>>7735392
Do Koreans ever read Nietzsche and realize how stuck in ressentiment they are? Or is the the fear you'd just become Chinese, Japanese, or American if you didn't have impotent rage to keep you going too strong?
At least some korean film makers are well known, e.g. sangsoo hong
>>7733664
japanese christianity is by far the most bamboozling denomination
>>7733070
>former atheist who became a Christian
Why is this so common in /lit/? Are you people getting meme'd IRL?
>>7734294
it's definitely stagnant. Shitty self help books disguised as "novels", shitty Murakami facsimiles, shitty historical fiction + occupation era fiction etc
>>7734341
just adding on what >>7735378 said
>bureaucratic incompetency
>aesthetics of human suffering
>escapism
>base desires
a lot of Korean lit is just rehashing unresolved seething anger and rage, shame etc
>>7734011
If you're really smart, you do the STEM legwork now and read later
To be the thing in that word you people love using so much
books suck
>>7734049
you have to understand the differences between Japan and Korea
>Post war Japan = enjoyed relative peace, quickly grew into an economic powerhouse
>Post war Korea = still barely recovering from the damages done by decades of Japanese occupation
>5 years later Korea goes through a horrific civil war
>out of the frying pan, into the fire
>people in absolute despair
>charismatic dictator lifts Korea into relative economic prosperity at the expense of democracy, human rights and liberal values
>cult of personality forms
>this dogmatic social current coincides with Protestant Christianity
>Catholicism never stood a chance
>people are conditioned to have zero patience for quiet reflective spirituality as a result of all of the above
>gf wants to read books
>feels inadequate and stupid next to me
>she picks up Nausea out of my book collection
>She couldn't get beyond the preface
>recommend Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke
>It's been 2 months and she refuses to tell me about her current progress
>>7736256
>has a gf
>complains
>>7736256
Sounds like you're an asshole to her. I'm a nice guy, I'd help her. Stupid fucking chad.But seriously, do you beat that slut or some shit? Your relationship sounds unhealthy. You likely lay it on too thick and carefully pick ten dollar words to belittle her.
>>7736269
>Guy tells story about his gf wanting to read shit and procrastinating instead
>Anon immediately assumes domestic violence
wat
>>7736256
Sounds like a shitty relationship, to be honest. My girlfriend wasn't much of a reader when I met her, and as I got to know her, I've slowly recommended books I thought she'd enjoy based on her personal preferences. We now have a point of reference to Gregor in the Metamorphosis or any of the characters in Eleven Kinds of Loneliness for discussing deeper, more complicated situations and emotions. You should try actually connecting with the person you're with as it is enriching and enjoyable.
>>7736281
Because it seems impossible to consider procrastination. I was joking about physical abuse, but wouldn't surprise me at all if he whips her verbally, although it's likely unconscious in part. I think she's also into BDSM.
>>7736109
this is a tourist trap
it's like the big donuts in the desert that you have in america
>>7736218
Remember, this is most people on /lit/
>>7736288
>wild speculation about a relationship based on one tidbit
if only we could only achieve the idyllic perfection of your high school-tier relationship
>>7736256
Maybe the way to ease people into your hobby is to find out their interests and make suggestions based off of that, rather than harassing her to read Arthur C Clarke for some random reason. What vibes did she give that made you think something like that would get her into better literature
>>7736356
It's ok, he's just doing that to feel better about himself.
>>7736356
>trying to dispute him advocating communication and empathy in a romantic relationship
m8...
>>7736365
obviously those are good things to strive for but he interpreted "she doesn't read the books I recommend" as "they have a terrible relationship" and I couldn't abide by that
>>7736373
Everyone's taste is mostly subjective, just giving her something to read without pondering or communicating for just a few minutes destroys the purpose of him trying to get her into reading literature in the first place. Plus harassing her to the point where she doesn't even want to talk about it.
Anyone doing that to me with a hobby would dissuade me from ever wanting to go deeper or even pick up the hobby for myself.
>>7736389
STFU.
>>7736373
>interpreted "she doesn't read the books I recommend" as "they have a terrible relationship"
Nah he probably interpret the obvious psychological damage she sustained as a sign of a bad relationship. OP of that is clearly asociopath, or autistic.
>>7736172
I did all the university legwork between the ages of 13-17, having skipped a few grades. I'm 26 now and lurk on /lit/ because it's good-enough practice that I can mitigate sounding like an idiot in public, where it might have an effect on my livelihood. I still think that computer experts are still essential code monkeys in our society, and ought to branch out as early as possible if they don't want to become superannuated husks come 2030.
>>7736373
Any response on 4chan is based largely upon presumption since the site is anonymous and the posts are usually short. You presumed a fair deal yourself and ended up angry at a windmill. That poster's relationship does sound shitty, by the way, because he failed to nurture the nascent interest of his romantic partner in a hobby he enjoys himself. You should try and recognise where you anger is coming from and sort through your issues.
>>7736448
That guy doesn't seem angry. Your reply is still shitty. Please refrain from posting, thank you.
>>7736456
My intuition tells me someone who responds with an incorrect and misplaced feeling of aversion enough to lambaste something based on that presumption is surely experiencing a surge of emotion. It's the same intuition that tells me you have got problems of your own. It's difficult, I am sure, to come out of the closet and I'm sure it's frustrating you immensely, but don't worry: everyone already knows. I hope this posts helps and I intend to make many more like it if it doesn't.
>>7736456
Save it for your gf's face, and leave my little anon alone.
>>7733045
can you post the translation of "a lucky day"?
having trouble finding it
>>7736478
Joke's on you, I don't even have a gf.
>>7736485
There's a surprise.
:^)
>>7736218
This is embarrassing.
The worst part, though, is that I recognize myself in that.
>>7736373
I don't see anything wrong with that interpretation.
>>7734076
second that
>>7734000
>Patrick Battyman
>>7736244
I see. Its fucked up. But that's what protestantism does.
>>7736218
Bet that dude got pussy for weeks after that fb post.
>>7732234
it must be cool that people talk to you... no one ever talks to m3.
