/lit/ - Literature

well ain't that JUST some shit

>>9058245
I'm so glad I can shitpost with all of you guys here like this.
I love you all.
Except (((that guy))) who pretends to be a /pol/tard in every thread

>>9058254
please show me your loaded gunt

>>9058245
But Vonnegut tho

>>9058254
I think I'm falling in love with you.

>open a book
>some fuckface editor's 30 page introduction

>>9058245
>not reading the substantive academic introduction because you believe your intellect and knowledge allows for full absorption of material with no context.

lel. seeya guys at the next "what did he mean by this" thread.

>>9058245

>Introduction
>60 pages
>About the author
>180 pages
>Historical context
>120 pages

"Classics".

>some kind of article about a specific subject which you obviously would only read because you want to know more about that specific subject
>it starts with the writer talking exclusively about themselves for several paragraphs

>>9058254
Literally plebbit

>>9058366
>implying the introduction doesn't RUIN THE FUCKING BOOK EVERY GOD DAMN TIME
i read introductions after, if i like the book enough and want to know more about it.

>>9058245
>blank page
>title page
>10 page foreward
>another preface
>another title page
>index page
>prologue
>chapter 1
i just rip off the all the pages leading up to the first chapter when this happens.

>>9058366
this>>9058592
they should really be postfaces at the end of the book.

>>9058592
Fucking this. Every time I read an introduction it has major spoilers. If you're going to do this, at least make it an afterword. I've stopped reading intros for the most part because I'm paranoid they'll ruin the book.

>400 page introduction

>>9058245
>Intro by Editor
>preface to the 1st edition
>preface to 2nd edition
>preface to 3rd edition
>Note on translation.
>Authors introduction

>>9058607
>caring about spoilers when you read.

I mean, unless you're reading Dan Brown or something...

>>9058254
>he thinks the /pol/acks are just pretending
I fucking wish

>>9058245
>Foreword and Preface is 20 pages long
>each
>on an e-book

Don't read them. Waste of time

>>9058391
Victor Hugo?

>>9058245

>>9058245
> forward and preface are 50 pages
> critical essay follows the text taking up another 20 pages
> the large, exhausting tome i had to read to look smart is now significantly shorter
feels good, man.

>>9058245
>Forward and Preface is 20 pages OF SPOILERS

>>9059794
The very first time this happened, I immediately stopped reading forwards. I only read them after I've read anything else, if I even give a shit. Always read it at the end.

>>9059800
It's such a ivory tower academic bullshit move

>I have been up my own ass talking about this work and works like it for so long that I literally am unable to consider that people might not be familiar with it and want to read it as the author intended first-time readers to read it.

Fuck you, Professor Shitberg, fuck your useless Russian lit degree and fuck your totally useless body of academic horseshit theses.

>>9058607
A couple of my Wordsworth books have a small note before the Introduction. Something along the lines of "you should read this introduction after you read the book, because it has spoilers, and surprises found in books are basically the point". Good on you Wordsworth.

>>9059815
It totally is. Academics are almost entirely up their own asses. Look up on "academic mysteries" that were solved after 200 years because they finally fucking asked someone who works in the field and it turned out that they were still using the methods described and were easily replicable.

It's a kind of caste segregation. Academics don't care about non academics because they're "stupid".