Do you find you have to make an active effort to hide your power

I keep reading to myself, with regular people I talk about other stuff

>>7672164
I once told someone that objectively there are better forms of literature, and referred to Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Yeats, and Marlowe as examples compared to John Greene, JK Rowling, Carol Ann Duffy, or Stephany Meyer. They never spoke to me again.

>>7672164
Some old lady came up to me when I was reading V. and asked if his name was pronounced "Pinecone".

I don't talk about books outside of /lit/.

Not really, I have varied interests and hobbies and I enjoy me some good genre fiction so it's not hard to find something to talk about.

>>7672174
This. I keep it all to myself, music, film, lit.
We tall about fußball.

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>implying I talk to people
>[the current year]
>not being completely detached from your emotions to the point of barely being human

>TFW come off as an elitist douche when I try to explain why Harry Potter should not be a literature major's favourite book.
>TFW communicate poorly and just sound autistic

>>7672181
I didn't know the /lit/ meme machine served that demographic.

>>7672174
This.

Sometimes people say that i sound smart because i've a "more than average" vocabulary, but that's all.
I've failed too hard the game of life for trying to have literary conversation outside the internet

>>7672164
Unrelated, but does anyone else find the image of "curling up" annoying? Why's it so bothersome to imagine someone grabbing this text and cozying up in a pile of blankets to have theirself a good cry?

I've made effort to inform people I know that saying things are "dumb" "stupid" and like "I didn't like it" are not criticisms but I can't fault people for not reading the same books I do.

>>7672164
One time I started spouting on about Zizek's First as Tragedy to my coworkers for a few minutes before I noticed they were only asking what I was reading to be polite and were entirely disinterested.
Felt like kind of a tool.

In my experience people are generally a lot more receptive to complex or intelligent topics than you guys give them credit for. This uncomfortable mixture of arrogance and anxiety is probably why your conversations go wrong.

>>7672164

I'm scared to death of finally meeting someone who reads postmodern literature, only to find that they are racist "redpilled" reactionaries who worship Harold Bloom, post on 4chan and will completely shun me for liking The Hobbit.

When ever someone ask me if I read books, I just reply with "only if it has pictures in it.". This makes them not want to ask me what my thoughts were about one of their pleb books.

>>7672317
I'm scared of meeting someone who's into postmodern literature only to find out they're a bluepilled cuck good goy who worships Zizek.

>>7672164

I came into college hoping that I'd be able to surround myself with like-minded people regarding literature, but people who read at all, yet alone people with decent taste, are somewhat few and far between.

I didn't think of myself as some sort of smug elitist before but I've just had to come to terms with being a patrician. It's been rough.

>>7672164

No because most of friends read good books, especially my close friends, and those who don't read I talk about different things with.

Or I'm just not a douhce about it. You can call stuff like John Green garbage without alienating people too. Same with music. I once told a group of people that I think Mumford and Sons blow. Besides my two friends who agreed, there rest were all like "how can you not like them??" I explained why I think they suck and no one was offended. How big of an ass act like to alienate people so easily?

No one ever talks to me about books, and I don't really bring it up ever, so no, not really.

>>7672190
this senpai knows it.

(I hate my life, srsly)

No one gives a shit about what I do, I just shift the converstation to them all the time. I'd rather listen than talk.

>>7672374
How does that usually turn out?

>>7672390
They don't notice and keep talking.

>>7672412
Not what I meant

>>7672374
>There they were, braked slowly in the cognitive noise of the converstation.

>>7672314
this. Just play it cool, play it straight.

It really isn't so hard to keep to yourself yet still talk to others in a decent and mature way. No normies around me read anyway so what's the point in worrying about it?

>>7672246
She legitimately thought that's how it was read. I'm not even making this up.

I'm friends with people who read, and yes I'm an English undergrad. Nevertheless, I enjoy talking to my classmates, college buddies, professors, and even grad students about what we read. My focus is creative writing, so my writer friends and I usually discuss technique and elements in writing rather than theme and content when talking about stories or books that we've read.

>>7672181
I could legit see it, t b h f a m.

I've only ever alienated myself. I have been subtly asked to stop attending 2 bookclubs (of mostly women) people get annoyed when I tell them I can't be bothered reading some Nora Roberts book. Do you guys have any idea how many women literally do nothing but work/school/Netflix? The women who do read usually like stuff like john green, and the perks of being a wallflower... Edgier girls like Chuck planinuik. I just can't be bothered and when I do I can't help but Bloom-them-the-fuck-out and tell them why their book was mediocre at best.

>>7673062
this is why writing clubs > reading clubs

Judging by how well /lit/ has been hiding its powerlevel on /lit/ of late, I'd say you don't have to worry about that being the reason you're alienated.

>>7672323
Literally retarded.

>>7673062
You shoulda laid your cum on one of them, at least.

>>7672164
No. Because I talk to people who also read widely, so reading widely isn't seen as something to hide.

Hiding how well-read I am would only make me less employable.

>>7672188
I do something of the sort, but I have some very specific friends, one focused for each one of my hobbies. I have two friends that I can talk about vidya with, one friend that I can talk about literature, one I can talk about music and around four or five that I can talk about film with. There is also my best friend and also my gf which I can talk about any of those things to, but they just listen because I always ask about their tastes as well. With the rest of my friends and when in a group we mostly talk about shit and football (soccer for the muricans).

>>7672259
Yes, it means that the book serves only as an emotional dildo and will illicit the same reaction from anyone who reads it. The phrase is only used for books that don't require any intellectual effort to understand, and are instead supposed to be part of a comforting and relaxing experience.

>>7672259
i don't know but it annoys me, too. i always picture a woman in her early 20s with glasses, sitting at a diagonal on a couch with her legs folded beneath her. in one hand in a retardedly large cup of coffee with lots of sugar and milk/cream/creamer, and some shit tier ya romance in the other. she's got a blanket draped over her shoulders and an iphone on the seat in front of her. she's attractive and if given the chance i would not hesitate to give her the d but she's super annoying so i'd leave after we were done.

>>7673062
>Do you guys have any idea how many women literally do nothing but work/school/Netflix?
This is true of a great deal more men. There is a difference, though; which is that women who read authentically good literature are usually 'cool', as in, they're mostly to be found in circles you'll need to be up to date on fashion, music, politics, and memes to move in, not just on literature. That you've attended two bookclubs ever, and apparently on your lonesome, would give some indication of why you're not in these circles and can't find these women. Which was a bit vicious of me to say, but all I wanted was to help you contextualise yourself.

>>7672561
she was probably from /lit/ looking for a fellow memer
she went home and died in her sleep that night after realizing she spent her whole life without truly belonging anywhere

>>7672164
Whenever I see these "have a box of tissues handy" kind of comments my first thought is always related to jacking off.

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>>7673137
>tfw an 80 yr. old woman is spamming DFW and telling people to fuck off back to Plebbit.

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If 4chins is good for something, it's giving me an environment to talk about literature, vidya, and film in an actual discussion.

The /lit/ power level, quite a spook

>>7673137
>>7673150
She seemed legitimately curious so I doubt it. It was pretty funny but would've been a lot funnier if she really was a /lit/ memer.

>>7673136
I know it's more true for men, and I appreciate your honesty. Truthfully I'm lonely as fuck, but every interaction I have makes me care less for it. That's why I just browse /lit/ instead of attending actual bookclubs. And I never mention that I read to anyone, though I do sometimes read in public areas which draws attention to myself.

Also, those hip people you speak of are usually reading stuff like Demian or Catcher in the Rye... something with an edge like that anyway. They are great books, but do you think any of these people have even read the Iliad? Never mind all the meme books, these people can't be bothered to read the classics.

>>7673216
Meming and shitposting aside, there's no real place to talk about the kinds of books that /lit/ reads IRL.

Is the USA so backwards one has to hide they enjoy reading? Scary shit.

>>7672224
>not responding: "I went to the Yale University bookstore and bought and read a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I suffered a great deal in the process. The writing was dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."

>>7673230
nah, autists just like to feel opressed

if you dont hide your powerlevel then its much easier to find others with similar taste, so long as you dont have a chip on your shoulder

>>7672164

Occasionally to my sister, since she used to be a librarian and she saw the myriad of obscure books I would rent or try to find. She only reads Steven King, YA shit like your pic, and feminist garbage. I've tried to broaden her horizon, but like most normal people, she only likes mainstream trash and loves audiobooks.

I once talked to two of my friends about Bukowski when we we're at our favorite bar awhile back, I couldn't believe the feminist one was the one that was actually starting to like him.

>I accept the fact that I will never meet anyone who is interested in books like I am outside of the internet.

>>7672334
everyone's better than you at something. a lot of those people are better than you at politics, philosophy, art, music, history--all things which you can discuss if you are truly cultured. books are great but they are not the only facet of culture.

>>7673258
Books are the pathway to all of those things mention m8, unless you're talking about fiction.

>>7673230
It's not hard to hide your reading at all but noone is going to strike up a conversation with you and will have never heard of the book.

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>>7673258
Not to disagree with you but
>implying most people have expertise in those areas anyway

>>7673216
I have some interaction with them, and I'll say without reservation, yeah, they will have done. In fact, some of them will have read it out of translation. Of course it depends on where you are, what city you're in, etc., but for a lot of inner-city communities, there will be a group of a few hundred, ranging up to a few thousand, generally connected with whatever are the city's leading universities and perhaps with some alternative political organisations, anarchists and communists etc. (though most of the 'group' won't actually be members or adherents strictly), among whom it's a social imperative to be - along with being politically, musically, and fashionably informed - well-read, and among whom not being so could lead to faux pas and ostracisation. If you're among these groups and you read the Iliad out of translation, well, that's status, so a good number of people do it.

>>7673240
Calling it a "powerlevel" in the context of /lit/ stuff doesn't even make sense because unless you live in some shitty redneck town in the middle of nowhere or the ghetto no adult is going to criticize you for reading.

The phrase only makes sense when you're talking about weeb things because those are still pretty weird to the average person.

>>7673281
When you start talking about a book in where a torturer's apprentice gets kicked out for mercy killing his subject you will get some "huhs??"

Besides, its just general 4chan lingo everyone can readily understnad.

>>7673280
Do you live in Boston or near some New England ivy leauge schools?

>>7672164
People point out my vocabulary and I get more than a little philosophically eccentric when I am drunk, but I keep most of it to myself. There was a time when I need other people's validation so badly for who I was, but that time has passed.

>>7672174
>>7672258
>>7672361
>>7672374
>>7672560

>tfw

>>7673299
No. My interactions, chiefly, are with groups in Melbourne and Adelaide, though I know it's a similar phenomenon there.

>>7673354
I don't think places like that exist in Canada.

>>7672224

This happened to me too, in a creative writing class I was taking as an elective. The girl who liked Harry Potter had never heard of Raymond Carver and flat out refused to read two Hemingway stories we had to discuss in class.

>>7673527
Not in Toronto or Vancouver? I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

>>7672164
No, I have told all my friends I am voting for trump and fully support him in deportation of muslims from the US

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>>7673527
Canada here. Patrician girls are rare, but you can find them in Montreal, Deadmonton, and in the trendier parts of Vancouver. Talk to women around art galleries, theatres, universities, and restaurants you can't afford to eat at.

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I resent long books. I'll read them out of obligation, but not happily. I hate that authors feel entitled to take up that much of my time.

>>7672310

>First as Tragedy

Bretty good book though.

No.

If I have my book on hand, I don't say anything about it. If someone comes up and asks, "What are you reading?" I just make a joke that I carry it around to look clever, and that I've not read a page. People who actually know the author or the book ask me about the book/author in particular and I can nerd out.

Ironically, when reading V., both the people who knew Pynchon have mentioned its hard to get into and(When another go chimed in to ask what the book's about) one of them simply said 'It can't be summarised.'

But he's beaut and gets pussy so no one minded.

>>7672164
No, because no one reads books. They dont read only YA or that sort of shit, they simply dont read any books at all.

this may be due to the fact that I know no woman

>>7674430
Have you never been to university? Because yes, your professors do read.

>>7674444
>Have you never been to university?
no. Im a loser

>>7672164
Nobody I know reads, I don't think they own any books.

>>7672361
Ditto, people that bring that stuff up to casuals bug me. I had a friend that was vaguely into this stuff and that I enjoyed talking to sometimes.

Sometimes he would bring it up with normal people or even worse try to talk to me about it in front of people and even involve casuals. Other than a few professors, most people that like literature and whatnot are pretty bad spergs about it.

>>7673134
>in one hand in a retardedly large cup of coffee with lots of sugar and milk/cream/creamer, and some shit tier ya romance in the other.

Sounds like you've thought/fantasized about this scenario quite extensively.

>>7674371
It sounds like you're not worth the time.

>>7672314
I've had family and or friends read the back of Infinite Jest -which makes it seem like the most pretentious Uebermensch novel ever conceived- and just by explaining that it uses a ton of different plot lines it clears the pretentiousness away. I think most people can't talk intelligently to non-intelligent people about intelligent topics because they themselves are not intelligent. Intelligence is about being about to break things down and recognize patterns, the smarter you are the more you should be able to summarize and make something relate-able to someone else. Source: Explaining The Great Trasnformation by Polayni to people

>>7672164
Not really but that's because I'm often reading wherever I go - I take my book on the commute; while I'm waiting for the doctor; while I'm easing up; while I'm at uni; etc. If somebody asks what I'm reading I'll tell them what it is and what I think of it. I guess then it might be the closest to trying to hide my power level so I'll try to describe the book in an easily accessible manner, sort of with the intention to see if they'd be interested in it themselves.

It's always nice to chat about literature like that, I feel. Just a shame I can't do it often IRL because many people don't read really.

>>7673134
i wish to know this grill

>>7672288
This. I always see it as a non-criticism if somebody says something is "pretentious." My friends used to use this to criticise everything they didn't like/didn't understand/didn't appreciate. It disheartening because it doesn't articulate anything about why they didn't like the thing, all it says is that they're unwilling to give their full attention to it and says more about themselves than the thing they try to criticise.

>>7672317
Don't worry, anon, not everyone is from /pol/.

>>7672355
This. I never quite understood people on 4chan who completely drop the ball socially when they say why they don't like something, unless if they go out of their way actively to insult someone they see reading a John Green novel or something. Then no shit you're a NEET. No wonder.

>>7674616
Explain it to me, senpai.

>>7674616

This is so true. When I was a lot younger, I'd always overexplain my interests to people, flooding them with too much information trying to provide them enough context in the hopes they'd reach the same understanding of it I'd have. I learned after many long winded years that I was just boring people and alienating them from attempting to grasp what I was explaining. Brevity is the soul of wit.

>>7672428
I appreciated this.

>>7672164

I am not a self obsessed douche bag who blindly believes that what I read is what everyone else should read as well or they are inferior to me.

If someone tells me their favorite books is Harry Potter or the Philosophy of Pooh, I am just happy that they actually read a book and complement them for it.

>>7674125
There are some of them in Halifax as well

I accidentally named my daughter after that fucking book. Her great-grandmother on her dad's side was Hazel, her great^3 gma on my side was Grace, end result people think she's named after this book, which I've never read, because it's shit.

And then when I'm trying to explain she's not named after it, people think I'm saying I don't read.

>>7673292
I know there are certain books you can't really talk about or feel awkward about reading in public, like The Cannibal because it has a swastika on the cover, but that's a relatively tiny portion of books.

>>7674409
V. is hard to summarize on the spot though. Even if you vaguely describe the plot it's not going to make much sense to someone who hasn't read it.

>>7674906
What a shitty situation

>>7674906
That is hilariously tragic. Reminds me if this kid from highschool I knew. His name was Michael Bolton.

>>7674906
It's still a pleasant-sounding name. Props to you for giving her that. I really want to name my daughter Alice (I really want daughters desu).

>someone asks what I'm currently reading
>Mythology by Edith Hamilton
>feel incredibly pretentious just by honestly answering

Is this just all in my head?

>>7673327
I honestly almost never use "intelligent sounding" words because the reaction is ALWAYS something like "woah look at anon using big words over here"

>>7675546
Yes it's in your head. If you're reading Mythology then you probably haven't even read the greeks. How on earth can you feel pretentious reading an introductory text?

>>7675616
Because reading anything that isn't modern fiction is "weird"

>>7675630
that's still your hang up. you might share hang ups with people you hate, but they're the only people who are going to understand you.

>>7673280

>among whom not being so could lead to faux pas and ostracisation.

>There are groups of highly educated people who will ostracize you for not adhering to their particular spooks

The more you know.

>>7675911
dude I just dug this thread up in the catalog to check for replies to my post and when I clicked back to the catalog it was now the first at the top and I'm really stoned and hi

>>7674734

>If someone tells me their favorite books is Harry Potter or the Philosophy of Pooh, I am just happy that they actually read a book and complement them for it.

That sounds patronizing as fuck t b h f a m

>>7674098
>>7674125

Toronto and Vancouver are shitholes though.

>>7674898
Halifax is nice.

I'm just kind of curious if Canada has any communities that are known to be more intellectual... Like Boston and some other spots in New England.

Most Canadians are fairly anti-intellectual, our universities are known for shit like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvYyGTmcP80

And UofT is basically the best Canada has to offer.

>>7672164
The only other people I interact with (more than a sentence or two at a time) are other graduate students, professors and booksellers.

Seeing as the biggest things I have in common with them are /lit/-related, no, I never try to hide a "power level."

>>7675921

Hi. Poetry when you're stoned is pretty great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1raSUYAr0s0

>>7675941
I watched 10 seconds of that video, and,
>the assumption that men are better caregivers than women is part of patriarchy
So... I agree with that? What's so wrong and memey about this woman? Her hair? That's hella dumb.

>>7675975

>What's so wrong and memey about this woman? Her hair?

Her awesome debating skills.

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>>7675471

>tfw I would like daughters but I fear they end up becoming degenerate sluts despite their upbringing

>>7675982
It's the MRAs that are refusing to listen to her, though. They talk over her the entire video.

>>7675986
Raise them as boys.

>>7672164
One of my high school English teachers alienated me when she gave me something of hers to read and it was all sexual stuff, like wanting to feel a hard dick between her thighs.

I think she wanted me to fuck her but it looked like she was having an affair with one of the other teachers, and I didn't want to cuck him because he was a cool dude.

>>7676006

That's some weak bait man. You've gotta up your game if you wanna rustle these jimmies.

That said, one of the natural advantages of Big Red is that you can't talk over her. Her voice is like an industrial tool, it cannot be overpowered. It lacerates the soundscape with considerable force. Part of her awesome debating skills.

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>>7676021
>and I didn't want to cuck him because he was a cool dude.
Instead you cucked yourself by not fucking a teacher who was cheating on her husband. You could have double-cucked.

>>7674659
I wish to be her

>>7676036
True. Luckily, the self-cuck was canceled out by having cucked someone else before that.

>>7676036

>Congratulations, you cucked yourself.

>>7675975
>10 seconds is enough for me

Your like the tai Lopez of YouTube video watching

>>7676192

He's the one that either gulps or slurps on cock?

>>7676013
This.

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>PhD student with literally world-famous uberleftist Jewish thesis adviser
>read cultural marxism under him nonstop for 4 years
>agree with all of it
>makes me hate the masses and realize they are incapable of activity
>not just revolutionary activity, activity in general
>start leaping from certain ur-marxist culture critics to right wing equivalents with whom they had strange personal friendships
>suddenly reading denazified (and sometimes not denazified) high theorists of the Third Reich on the autumn of Western soul
>leap from that to even darker things bordering on occult
>tfw have to keep going in and pretending to be Jimmy Q. Labororganizer
>tfw pseudonymously published certain things that would be problematic if linked back to me

>>7676471
link me something that you've written anonymously, senpai

>>7672164
Last week our professor said learning theory will either ruin your childhood, or you will annoy and alienate others by foisting it on them. Occasionally I will run into someone outside of school who get's excited about my post-colonial analysis of Lord of the Rings. But that is pretty rare.

>>7674717
I was surprised at the single response. Be well lad.

>>7674906
Could be worse.

Ever have a son, don't call them Oliver unless if you want them to be eternally damned by every social confrontation ever, in which "OLIVER! OLIVER! NEVER BEFORE HAS A BOY ASKED FOR MORE!" by people who think they're clever, original and don't believe it when people make oliver twist jokes every fucking time jesus how about everybody get fucked.

>>7676013
Basically this, yeah. Girls raised as boys actually have personality.

>>7676615
Do be so pissy, Olly.
[Olly oxen free

>>7676637
I'm a britbong so I don't really know what Olly Oxen Free means but at least it's something different from the same Oliver twist line over and over.

>>7676471
link

>>7676642
You should visit burgerstan sometime, where you will be referred to refreshingly as Oliver Closoff.

>>7674665
It is especially funny with the people that will constantly talk about how snobbish someone is for their taste, while actively looking down on others for not liking what they consider good.
They never seem to see the irony of that.

>>7676021
That was me and my Chinese teacher exactly. I feel bad for saying no because I piked her but what are you supposed to say? It would've been awkward to say yes.