Thread replies: 9
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1
Does anyone here ever feel small-minded, unintelligent, and feeble when reading, or having read, a book?
I finished Portrait of the Artist last night and can't shake the feeling that my mind wasn't strong or good enough to have gotten much out of it.
The introspective passages were beautiful, but I typically had to re-read them several times to understand them.
I appreciated how well written it was but I don't feel like I have anything insightful to say about it. I did enjoy it despite it being difficult. Joyce's depiction of puberty was great, and Stephen's internal struggle between sin and lust was amazing.
I don't know. I can't make myself read people like Stephen King because I might as well watch TV instead. But at the same time, reading Joyce, Gass, Musil, et al is painfully humbling/depressing/etc.
How do you all handle these feelings?
>>
Don't worry, kid. That shall pass too.You are still young. You will soon come to realize that everything you don't understand is just pretentious drivel told by an idiot.
>>
It's egodeath. It is gradual. Accept weaknesses and try to fix them. The way you talked about the novel in your post already shows you got more out of it than a lot of people.
>>
It's >>9805176 again.
As >>9805188 said your post already shows you put more thought in it than most people.
If you hang out long enough with other people that share the same interests like you like here on 4chan you will sooner or later realize that and grow arrogant and complacent like us. Better leave this place while you are still pure.
I was like you but now I just spend most of my time calling other people plebs.
>>
>>9805176
This honestly. A lot of those great authors don't really have anything in mind when they're writing and people like OP think there's something to get but there isn't
>>
Yeah, sometimes it happens. First time I read Ulysses I simply could not get past the third chapter. Reread it a few years later and it went a lot easier.
Take things with calm and just keep reading.
>>
>>9805158
Great album, sucks that he's quit making music :(
>>
>>9805158
You might not have a coherent or intuitive understanding of what you could be getting from literature. Read The Art of Fiction by David Lodge. You'll thank me later.
>>
>>9805158
Channel it into your writing OP?
Thread posts: 9
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1