ITT: Books that people read just to feel smart

[BurningPewter]

later, drug-era Philip K Dick (Scanner Darkly, Valis etc)

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

I'm illiterate. I only pretended to read Mein Kampf to make friends.

 

[Cool Username]

Pablo Neruda. It's just cheesy poetry.
Paulo Coelho. It's just cheesy self-help novels.
Paul Auster. American bestsellers. I don't need to say more.
It seems all the Pauls and Pablos are shitty writers.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Do you like reading about poverty, pedophiles, rapists and whores? You will love 100 years of solitude.
Isabel Allende. The same shit as Garcia Marquez but written by a wealthy woman who never had to wipe her own ass in her life.

 

[feedtheoctopus]

White fragility was funny to me because it was just such an obvious point to make. No shit people don't like it when you call them racist, for all of our many faults as a culture most Americans at least like to think of themselves as better than that even if they aren't. Like be real, when's the last time you heard somebody in real life go "I'm racist!" with sincerity? I grew up in one of the most conservative, racist honky ass, districts in the country. Whitey does not think of himself as racist. You call him that the conversation is over. You don't get people to listen to you by insulting them.

Oh sure, white Americans are incapable of having an honest discussion about race, that's true. That's because nobody likes admitting they suck.

I just summed up this problem in one paragraph, this motherfucker needed a whole book.

 

[Kosher Dill]

White fragility

No one reads that to appear smart though, they read it (or at least display it prominently) to appear virtuous.

Like be real, when's the last time you heard somebody in real life go "I'm racist!" with sincerity?

Well...

https://kiwifarms.st/forums/articles-news.79/

 

[Angry Canadian]

When I was in high school the book of choice was Dante's "Inferno", and you could always figure out who was a cryptoretard and/or edgelord when their myspace profile had "Inferno and Milton" but no mention of Purgatorio or Paradisio. Those people also tended to wear eye liner and cut themselves and write shitty poems.

 

[feedtheoctopus]

When I was in high school the book of choice was Dante's "Inferno", and you could always figure out who was a cryptoretard and/or edgelord when their myspace profile had "Inferno and Milton" but no mention of Purgatorio or Paradisio. Those people also tended to wear eye liner and cut themselves and write shitty poems.

Reading that right now, hilariously enough. It's funny because despite all the nightmare imagery it's actually this lovesick dweeb's fanfic where his teenage crush loves him so much she leads him to divine grace and along the way he gets to hang out with all of his favorite writers, all of whom call him an awesome poet. Then there's his political opponents being tortured for eternity...gee, wonder what the allegory there was?

 

[DerKryptid]

Wikipedia

 

[cummytummies]

What's invented the whole "books are for intellectuals and other media is for plebs" stigma anyways? Is it something new? I don't recall examples of people jerking themselves over reading above watching TV back in the 90's.

View attachment 1777232

Probably because back in the 90's reading books was just expected behavior.
These days a ton of people, you could argue even the majority of people, don't read at all. Many have even lost the ability to concentrate for long enough to read a book. It's not that surprising it would provoke a backlash that didn't exist or need to exist when nearly everybody was reading to some extent.

Tangential to the topic of the thread: I don't really care if people read books to feel smart. What I do find hilarious however are all the people utterly butt-blasted by others reading books. 1984 is a prime example. Upload some variant of a "Oh you think that's Orwellian? You're so smart." meme and watch it collect 30.000 updoots. People in the comment section attempting to make fun of others for "feeling smart". Ask them whether they've read 1984 and the answer is most always "well, no, but you see it's not really that good..."

While it's true that any single book, 1984 included, doesn't unlock some secret knowledge of the universe, the inferiority complex of people who can't even manage to read a single 250-page light novel never fails to amuse. I guess if you spend all your time scrolling memes you want some of the memes to reinforce the idea that you couldn't possibly have anything to gain from spending your time a little wiser.

 

[Radola Gajda]

Reading that right now, hilariously enough. It's funny because despite all the nightmare imagery it's actually this lovesick dweeb's fanfic where his teenage crush loves him so much she leads him to divine grace and along the way he gets to hang out with all of his favorite writers, all of whom call him an awesome poet. Then there's his political opponents being tortured for eternity...gee, wonder what the allegory there was?

Yeah all three books are one giantic fanfic .
He meets All his favorite biblical/historical characters . They suck his cock and tell him how awesome He Is. And people he dont like suffer for eternity in Hell.

He even meets his death GF at the end of Purgatio.

 

[LurkNoMore]

the answer is most always "well, no, but you see it's not really that good..."

Not to prove your point but I've both never read 1984 and I don't think its all that good. I listened to an audiobook version I found on youtube and quit after a while in because I just found it so boring.

I own both brave new world and Fahrenheit 451. Have read both several times and would rather recommend them then 1984.

1984 comes across as straight up Soviet Russia but in england. I'm not saying thats not impossible in modernity. However it seems like we are less and less in a world where someone simply takes liberty and more in a one where some of our fellow plebeians begs for them to take liberty. There are those arounds who will happily put on a collar simply to avoid having put with self-ownership.

 

[cummytummies]

Not to prove your point but I've both never read 1984 and I don't think its all that good. I listened to an audiobook version I found on youtube and quit after a while in because I just found it so boring.

I own both brave new world and Fahrenheit 451. Have read both several times and would rather recommend them then 1984.

1984 comes across as straight up Soviet Russia but in england. I'm not saying thats not impossible in modernity. However it seems like we are less and less in a world where someone simply takes liberty and more in a one where some of our fellow plebeians begs for them to take liberty. There are those arounds who will happily put on a collar simply to avoid having put with self-ownership.

Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are both good. I think people get too hung up on the details of 1984, it was a dystopian future as imagined in 1949 from what seemed likely at the time. Especially when it comes to the government vs. private enterprise aspect of it. It's not really about the minute details of the implementation of the oppressive future surveillance state.

 

[Goon]

"Candide" by Voltaire. Seemed like a good choice at the time. Should probably give it another go cause I can't remember a single fucking thing about it.

 

[Homo neanderthalensis]

Authors like:
Stephen Hawking
Brian Greene
Lawrence Krauss
Feynman
Nassim Taleb
Michio Kaku
Brian Cocks
Science African American Man aka deGrass Tyson
Bill Nye the Climate Science Guy
xkcd aka I once worked at NASA guy
Daniel Kahneman the think fast think slow guy
Yuval Noah Harari aka the Bald Israeli Gay Guy
Jared Diamond
Thomas Piketty
Malcolm Gladwell the mulatto writer who knows everything
Ayn Rand the soviet jewish witch

 

[N hollandicus]

Im not a huge reader and naturally im not in any reading groups and not too aware of this culture. In what way do people brag about seeming smart for reading a particular book? Any examples like screenshots of some fag bragging about being very intelligent because of reading a certain book?
All I know is that people try to appear well-read by having showing unopened untouched books in their bookshelf.

Lovecraft was "racist" in his personal life. That didn't make it's way in any of his books with the possible exception of one iirc. Unlike 90%+ of today's writers he was able to write something without his personal beliefs seeping into it.

If i understand correctly, books people mention in the thread are not books that are bad or books that people hate, but rather are books that are often used by people to show off their intelligence.

 

[Obie]

Any book on philosophy.

How anybody can read that crap is beyond me.

 

[Ritardo Pianissimo]

Tangential to the topic of the thread: I don't really care if people read books to feel smart. What I do find hilarious however are all the people utterly butt-blasted by others reading books. 1984 is a prime example. Upload some variant of a "Oh you think that's Orwellian? You're so smart." meme and watch it collect 30.000 updoots. People in the comment section attempting to make fun of others for "feeling smart". Ask them whether they've read 1984 and the answer is most always "well, no, but you see it's not really that good..."

While it's true that any single book, 1984 included, doesn't unlock some secret knowledge of the universe, the inferiority complex of people who can't even manage to read a single 250-page light novel never fails to amuse. I guess if you spend all your time scrolling memes you want some of the memes to reinforce the idea that you couldn't possibly have anything to gain from spending your time a little wiser.

It's like the old Bill Hicks bit about the waffle waitress. "Whatcha readin for?"

I dunno what "read to feel smart" even means, but if we're talking people pretending to have read stuff so they can appear smart: Gravity's Rainbow. I'm skeptical of anyone who says they've read it. Have tried more than once, because I like Pynchon's other stuff, but nope, fucking impossible.

 

[Cool Dog]

 

[feedtheoctopus]

Any book on philosophy.

How anybody can read that crap is beyond me.

Philosophers are pretty much all shit writers. You read it because it gives you something to think about, not so much because the book is "fun". If you think Derrida is "fun" you're probably fucking excruciating to talk to.

 

[Sped Xing]

Philosophers are pretty much all shit writers. You read it because it gives you something to think about, not so much because the book is "fun". If you think Derrida is "fun" you're probably fucking excruciating to talk to.

Disagree. Mark Twain and Leo Tolstoy wrote very interesting philosophical treatises.

Granted, neither of them was pompous enough to gallivant around calling themselves "philosopher."