/lit/ - Literature

>>14442925
I find shaking hands a more ingrained custom among French men, and among all people in formal settings. Kissing is more fashionable among very close friends and family in informal settings and across sex, I suppose. Nonetheless the French even put a great deal of stock in a verbal greeting--it is necessary to greet shopkeepers when entering their business, for example. Nonetheless, it shows that OP doesn't know anything about French society let alone in the 20s and 30s when not shaking hands with anti-Semites was a shocking gesture on several levels.

>>14389995
So which is it, you're indulging in your fair share of qts and are unable to gain anything from reading; or, can't get any qts and loathe your choice to indulge in reading? Please tell us, anon, that you both don't get qts and can't comprehend your readings. Limiting yourself to one or the other is bad enough, but... Please tell us, anon, that this post isn't another layer of delusion to distract you from your self-loathing. Please no, anon; anything but that.

>>14181451
It's no surprise. The ideal of the intellectual in the France of his era was the worldly, witty salon dilletant, men (and women) of taste and fashion. It's a foundation of the French character. The blithe breadth of knowledge and smug persistence in the safety of such an intellectual ideal--one that persists into the age of those post-modern intellectuals we hear so much about on this board. From first to last, all dabblers in and mosaicists of obscure knowledge, all tossed off effortlessly like a tossed cashmere scarf with the flourish of a wrist made limp by the weight of a Gauloises double. That is to say, they're shallow cosmopolitan faggots who love to wallow in it.

>>14088950
It's not just getting emotional, it's getting irrationally emotional in one single key (the key of bitter narcissism.)

If something bad has happened to you personally, and your solution is to retreat into some mythology of an evil demiurge (and that's your one and only solution) you might have a problem.

If nothing bad has happened to you personally, and you're lamenting the fate of others--many of whom experience trauma and live more open and meaningful lives than you seem to--and yet you still want to believe in some ancient manicheaism, then you're really not worth helping. It's a persistent theme in the replies, so must be refracting off you at all angles: you're just a coward.

>>12158323

that's not even close to answering my question, you moron. i couldn't care less about actually convincing you, or counteracting your mock-sherlock-holmes-poker-table-tell bullshit (simply, you're wrong); what i care about is what it would in theory take to convince you.

obviously you don't believe me, i don't care why you don't, i only care about what it would take, in your mind, to get you to believe me.

>>12051966

i go to harvard (>>12052490)

to be frank, this is pretty far off the mark, and i think it discloses a little too much about your own insecurity than it does any real analysis of the nature of elite education

of course there are people who are like you describe: spiritually desiccated, termite-like drones who get in on the most bleakly standardized merit or on legacy coattails of some nature; sports are a different matter entirely

but there are a lot of very interesting people pursuing some extraordinary ends as well--hard workers who compliment their discipline with natural, often humble intelligence.

the idea behind a place like harvard is to concentrate as many of the latter in a single location as possible. to this end, it is absolutely a networking activity--but networking for what? you can use it to go into business, law, etc--but its also there primarily for academia, which is how i use its network, and where it shines. to suggest that elite education has done a poor job of locating and centralizing real talent is an unbelievable denial of what it has achieved--you might claim, rightfully, that a lot slips through the cracks, but a lot doesn't, and there is something to be said about that.

i'm not sure how to respond to someone like you. you've already judged me, based simply on where i attend; i'd say that maybe it is the nature of your judgment that has precluded you from reaching the heights that you so obviously look longingly upon.

and to be honest with you, if you have the mind, if you're willing to put in the work, those heights, that elitism--well ,it really is all that, it's something great and uplifting, its something that, done well and in tandem with like-minded souls, actually can lead you toward something like the good life. you ARE missing out.

>>8870561

oh yeah of course it was mostly false--all borne from the same insecurities (mixed with the appropriate amount of boredome/malaise). i can't imagine i've read 15% of it--and i teach at the university level as a grad student, so it's literally my job to do so. i think the brother thing was just a proxy to avoid having to answer specific questions--can't really remember. impressed anyone is still here from years ago.

I love hearing you little commies whisper these sweet nothings to each other in such earnestness, its really endearing

Let me know how things go, I'll be watching telly

>>6945125
>out of sight, out of mind
You'd be surprised how applicable this is to most aspects in life

What poetry did big boy Freddy read/like?

>>6625283
most people who've posted (i hope) know that implicitly though - having a favourite anything just means that you haven't seen enough. its more a quick sketch of you as a person - doesnt have to be full def

>>6216797
It's a disease until it's accepted as normal by society. fwiw I experience gender dysphoria - its not something I asked ffor, or want, it just makes life more difficult - but it's something I've learned to live with and keep under wraps. its a real fucking nuisance though - it pops in your dreams and just out of the blblue sometimes. all you can do is try to ignore it