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/lit/ - Literature

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4572136 No.4572136 [Reply] [Original]

>"Okay we're going to introduce each other by talking about your favourite book"
>pick a classic
>"Wow how original. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. Can't you get your own taste?"
>pick something more obscure
>"You know we don't think you're better just because you like obscure things. Can't you get your own taste?"

how can i ever win

>> No.4572141

Just say Harry Potter and then boogie on out of there

>> No.4572151

This never happened.

>> No.4572158

>>4572136

Say Salinger and Card. You can't lose.

>> No.4572172

People actually say those things to you face-to-face? That just sounds like a 4chan thread.

>> No.4572192
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4572192

>>4572158
>be in class
>prof asks us to go around and list our favorite books
>smirk knowingly at the irony of so called "ice breakers" actually making everyone involved more uncomfortable and reticent
>people go around saying pleb shit like Slaughterhouse V
>prof nods at me
>what a phony
>this is my time
>raise Catcher in the Rye aloft
>cry out "THIS IS MY STATEMENT"
>pull gun out of my jacket
>pull trigger
>a click—forgot to load it
>mom's spaghetti

>> No.4572209

if someone ever asks for my "favorite" anything, i tell them that that's a silly way to get to know someone. it's easier to display yourself with a broad range of what you like than a singular "favorite". if you know someone well enough, and they know your general tastes and interests, then you can talk about specific books you'd call your "favorite".

>> No.4572210

>>4572136
Say your actual favorite and why.
Both of the responses you described were just attempts at defining yourself through the work of others. I mean, saying your actual favorite isn't much better but at least you aren't flipping through a catalog of aesthetics and picking the most situationally appropriate one to be your ideal piece of work. Maybe people criticize your choices because they can tell you're just trying to seem cool.

>> No.4572244

>>4572210

when i once said my actual favourite to someone, she just kinda made a face then walked away

if you want to know it's The Master and Margarita

>> No.4572249

My favorite books are

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Just Kids by Patti Smith

What am I?

>> No.4572251

>>4572192
TOP KEK

>> No.4572261

When I was 16 I said Ovid's Metamorphoses

all the English teachers wanted my dick even the men

>> No.4572262

>>4572249
A woman.

>> No.4572267

>>4572249
>female authors

You are female.

>> No.4572272

>>4572192
i loled

>> No.4572284

>>4572249
rad

lydia davis is rad

>> No.4572457

>>4572249
a filthy filthy whore

>> No.4572461

>>4572261
>all the English teachers wanted my dick even the men

You should probably have reported that to the proper authorities.

>> No.4572466

>>4572249
a woman or a man who owns many different colored pairs of chinos.

>> No.4572489

I said Pale Fire and the teacher did not know who Nabokov was. Oh, high school.

>> No.4572491

>>4572489
What did they say when you said he wrote Lolita?

>> No.4572492
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4572492

>English prof tells us each to say our favourite book
>talking to two chicks who think their favourite movie is "Batman" but don't know which one had the Joker in it
>not going to fedoratip myself out of banging them
>scramble for a book that isn't some pretentious ultra-obscure 1920s esoteric Marxo-Nietzscheansocialism wankfest that I talked about on /lit/ recently
>spurt out "Dune"
>yeah good job man, that'll get you laid, good choice
>girls: ???????
>prof wraps up
>"Well it seems that you all listed examples of what we call genre fiction, but in this class we're going to be reading some more challenging texts.."
>prof thinks I'm a pleb
>girls think I'm a weird rapist who reads star trek desert survival manuals
>how can i ever win

>> No.4572495

>>4572491
He knew about Lolita but not who had written it.

>> No.4572497

>>4572492
Just b yourself :-)

>> No.4572505

>>4572492
>what we call genre fiction
Who's "we"? Homosexuals? Pedophiles? People who hate reading?

>> No.4572510

>>4572492
lol'd

>> No.4572513

>>4572505
>Who's "we"? Homosexuals? Pedophiles? People who hate reading?

people who read books as a career, i.e. all of the above

>> No.4572516
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4572516

Had an english teacher in high school who was a single mom who basically hated male students. She told our class she never paid back her student loans and it wasn't a big deal. She also sucked the NSA's cock five years ago (and probably still does) and put the book Digital Fortress on a pedastal. She got super mad i didn't support the rodney king riots and wouldn't help me on my final while she went around answering everyone elses questions.

>> No.4572531

>>4572516
And you ended up bitching about it on 4chan years later. Nice job, man.

>> No.4572552

>>4572136

Harold Bloom always looks like he's in the process of taking a particularly oily shit.

>> No.4572561

Always say Infinite Jest: AL-WAYS.

>> No.4572580

>>4572513
sounds like he should have chosen based Ender's Game

>>4572516
>She got super mad i didn't support the rodney king riots
Ice Cube got a pretty good song out of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efrM6DK8vbA

>> No.4572592

>>4572516

It isn't a big deal, though. As you'd know if you ever made it to college, which you didn't because you're the kind of dumb pleb who disapproves of single mothers and approves of police violence.

>> No.4572611

>>4572561
That's like being proud of being from a suburbia.

>> No.4572627

>>4572592
Not supporting riots doesn't mean he agrees with police violence, dummy.

>> No.4572643

>>4572592
they're called business majors lol

>> No.4572656
File: 1.41 MB, 1924x2628, friedrich-schiller.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4572656

Chose a piece by Schiller or your favorite playwright, as long as he is not Shakespeare.

>not too popular
>patrician
>not obscure
>widely regarded as good

>> No.4572672

>>4572627

Yes it does.

>> No.4573216

>>4572492
Should have said, the game by neil strauss.
Then, tipping your fedora would had gotten them wet since now they know you're an alpha male.

>> No.4573224

>>4572552

I keep Anxiety of Influence by my toilet. Nothing else makes me want to take a shit so badly.

>> No.4573262

>>4572592
>single mothers
But most of them are stupid cunts that ruin their kids for being too good to hold a family together, why should he support them?

>> No.4573266

>>4573262
>for being too good to hold a family together
*for believing they're too good to hold a family together

>> No.4573270

>>4572627
>not supporting explosions doesn't mean he agrees with smoking near a powderkeg
I don't even know where I was trying top go with this.

>> No.4574009

>>4572492
bitches love Kerouac

>> No.4574016

>>4572466
what the fuck is a chino?

>> No.4574018

>>4572492
>star trek desert survival manuals
lold

>> No.4574023

The trick is to say something pseudo-profound about _why_ you like that particular book immediately after you said the name.

Exhibit A, without the reason:

>what's your favorite book, anon? tihi
>120 days of Sodom
>ewwww weirdo

Exhibit B:
>what's your favorite book, anon? tihi
>120 days of Sodom, my dad gave it to me before he died. Even though we never really connected while he was alive, I feel like we share a bond through this book.
>o-em-geh anon you're so deep tihi

>> No.4574026

>>4574018

>Be in Sophomore math class
>Reading Poland by Michener
>It's a Sub, I don't pay attetion
>Has us do exercises
>Keep reading
>Sub walks next to my desk, turns, shakes his head at me
>Looks at the book
>"You're reading Michener?"
>"This kid has some excellent taste."
>Walks away

And, against all odds, a Sophomore pleb class Math sub raised my self esteem by being a bro.

>> No.4576547
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4576547

>>4572492
>pretentious ultra-obscure 1920s esoteric Marxo-Nietzscheansocialism wankfest


>w2c

>> No.4576602

>>4576547
Why is DFW in that? He criticized Postmodernism.

>> No.4576651
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4576651

>be CS class
>professor likes icebreakers
>says to say your name and your favourite book
>everyone starts to giggle
>90% of the class makes jokes about how they don't read
>everyone else says some sci fi or fantasy novel
>I say The Brothers Karamazov

>in CS class
>reading before the class begins
>professor comes in
>haha people still use those things? haha

Why is CS so full of uncultured plebeian neck beards?

>> No.4576653

>>4576651
Because the cultured are incapable of progress.

>> No.4576675

>>4576602
Why is Joyce in that

Why is Tao in that

Why is Kafka in that

>> No.4576683

>>4576675
kafka aint in that

>> No.4576697
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4576697

>>4576683
idk who this guy is

>> No.4576700
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4576700

>>4576683
or this guy (thought it was Kafka for a second)

>> No.4576709

>>4576697
>>4576700
pls respond

>> No.4576712

>>4576700
it's some random guy named herman william gaddis who showed up on a genealogy site, who i guess the creator got confused with william gaddis.

this is very amusing considering gaddis's themes.

>> No.4576719

>>4576712
and him >>4576697 ?

>> No.4576784

>>4572136
I bet you enjoy the films of Wes Anderson

>> No.4576820

I always say "The Old Man and the Sea"
because it's my favorite

>> No.4577557

>>4576547
lol why do I get the impression that every faggot who criticises 'postmodernism' on this board doesn't even read?

>> No.4577630

>>4574023
Theres something to this..

>what's your favorite book, anon? tihi
>I have this book with both of Rilkes long poems... Especially the Sonnets To Orpheus really got me through a rough patch after i stopped seeing my father.....

How did i do /lit/

>> No.4577655

>>4577630
>what's your favorite book, chad? tihi
>readin is for FAGS babe
>haha so true let's fuck

>> No.4577657

>>4572192
wow that was terrible

you suck at humor anon

i hope you die

>> No.4577662
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4577662

>>4577655
you people

>> No.4577697
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4577697

>>4577655

fukken chad

>> No.4577845

>>4572466
am i own like 6
not that poster though
i think i heard of just kids

heard of the others but never even considered reading them
wuthering heights tier shit

>> No.4577857

>>4576712
lol shit i thought that was shia

>> No.4577863

>>4576602
>>4576675
Because Reddit or whoever makes those images

>> No.4577876

>>4572210
>Both of the responses you described were just attempts at defining yourself through the work of others

so the correct answer is: my self-published book

>> No.4577914

You have to play with the germans, Rilke, Mann, maybe Hesse.

>> No.4578033
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4578033

>implying grills actually care what you read
>implying they don't just pretend they're impressed so some hunk will show them his dingus

Stop believing the Woody Allen myth

>> No.4578179

>>4574009

No, bitches love To Kill and a Mocking Bird and Harry Potter. Check bitches you know on facebook. If they read, they will have one or both of those listed.

>> No.4578190

What does Of Mice and Men say about me?

>> No.4578212

>>4572656
>not saying Aristophanes

>> No.4578217

>>4576651
Hey, I do CS and I read. I'm reading Atomised at the moment. Most people seem to equate France with culture so I think I'm doing pretty well.

>> No.4578243

>>4578190
ADHD

>> No.4578247

>Changes opinions to suit others' feedback of supposed opinion
>Makes a post complaining about how their selections are seen as trying to impress others

In my experience, people who spend their lives trying to manage the image others' have of them end up with no personal opinions and tastes. I can sort of notice it when I press them on why they like something. They get that deer in headlights look, followed by either changing the subject or word salad, depending on their social skills.

>> No.4578277

>>4572492
>not going to fedoratip myself out of banging them
>names a scifi book

What the hell? Just go with some high school-tier shit.

>> No.4578286

>>4578179
the most common favourites i've noticed amongst the bitches i have spoken to were plath, murakami and coelho.

>> No.4578290

>>4578190
You haven't read a book that you weren't assigned in secondary school.

>> No.4578292

>>4578286
Thats not a bad taste, considering how most do not read at all or just some Twilight garbage

>> No.4578331

>>4572136
Not giving a shit about what they think. Simple

>> No.4578353

>>4572136

You sound like a bitch, OP.

>> No.4578379

The ol' double bind. You can't win, so don't sweat it.

>> No.4578472

>>4578290
No. I am not good at self-direction.

>> No.4578791

>>4574023
>the Juliette Society
>the author's work has always moved and excited me, while leaving me emotionally drained.

>> No.4578879

>>4576651
Aren't most of the people on /lit/ CS or science majors?

>> No.4578902

pick their favourite book

>> No.4578915
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4578915

I guess you could say it's a real Catch 22

>> No.4578918

>>4578879
Yes.

>> No.4578920

>>4577876
The correct answer is: your actual favorite book. Don't be afraid of picking a classic because you want to be more obscure, is what he meant.

>> No.4578975

>>4572261
ovid english teachers top kek

>> No.4579009

>>4578915
>>4578791
lulz